The Program - Polio Eradication - Ross MacDonald

First meeting at the St. Catharines Golf & Country Club. The room is spacious, the buffet was excellent (anyone who serves artichoke hearts has my vote), and the PA system actually works.

After Grace by Mary Stack, we sang Oh Canada a cappella, and toasted the Queen.

Head Table: Alex Elliott (introducer), Ross MacDonald (speaker), President Earl, Sgt. at Arms, Jim Denham, newer member Kevin Vallier was missing,and Rick Merritt graciously introduced our guests.

Guests: Peter Mahoney, guest of Hugh, David Houghton (manager SCG&CC and member Rotary South)

Birthdays: Brian Stewart, John TeBrake, Rob Reid, Jacquie Herman

Announcements

Brian St. Hilaire and Ray Jeffrey

Brian St. Hilaire thanked everyone for their hard work and announced an auction total of $104,794. That puts us within $600 of last year, but it is a fantastic result considering we didn’t have the lucrative Seaway trip.

President Earl announced that the Board had granted a leave of absence to Karlene Petrucci

A basket circulated the room for a gratuity for the staff at the Holiday Inn who served us over the past years. President Earl gave John Nitsopoulus $410 for the Holiday Inn staff Christmas party

President Earl reminded us we are not meeting on December 26, and Sam Walters announced our Christmas party will be Thursday, December 19. He encouraged everyone to bring family members to that meeting and to be prepared for a head count next week.

Roger Segalin announced that there are some pictures of the auction on our web site, and he announced that a new version of our web site launches on Friday, December 6.

Happy Dollars

Jacquie Herman did Happy Dollars and donated $5 to congratulate the success of the auction.

Brian St. Hilaire announced the post-mortem of the auction will be Thursday, December 12 at 5pm at Alzheimer’s

Cam Hathaway thanked everyone who worked with him at the auction

Sangeeta Hollo has returned from a cruise and reported her parents are in India.

Rob Tiffen announced he has accepted the position of VP enrolment management at York University.

Rachel Delaney was pleased with our new venue, and congratulated Cam Hathaway on his super work at the auction.

Sam Walters thanked everyone for their help on the cash desk He was particularly pleased that some brought their family to help get through the crunch.

Juergen Knof reported on the success of the Fellowship Exchange to South Africa. He called Africa a country of many surprises.

Bill McKay announced he had an additional $100 for the auction.

Dave Edwards explained he and Maryann had missed their usual position at the auction because they had spent the weekend in Windsor watching their daughter successfully play basketball.

Chris Bangham happily announced our new web site. He encouraged everyone to check it out. He reported he has given up coffee, and switched to beer.

Gordon Armstong missed the auction because he was in Winnipeg. He is still looking for volunteers to work the kettle at the Pen Centre on December 14.

Roger Segalin is proud of the work his crew at Mediaglue did in transforming our web site, and paid the fine for the gratuitous plug.

Peter Papp was pleased with the outcome of his community forum, and thanked everyone for their support.

Norman Kreger was happy about a seniors meeting. He announced the Dunlop Senior Centre was interested in the Reading to Children program. Rob Reid/Harold Nash please note.

Alex Elliott was happy to get a picture of a green lizard from his daughter in Madagascar. He announced a district seminar on the Foundation in Fredonia. Didn’t catch the date and couldn’t see any mention of it on the annoying district site.

50/50: Chris Bangham drew the lucky number but not the right card. President Earl announced that unlucky numbers no longer get the consolation of their lunch money returned.

Program
Alex Elliott introduced Ross MacDonald

The polio virus has killed and maimed children for 5000 years. Rotary International has announced a priority to eradicate polio by 2005.

Ross MacDonald

Alex Elliot

Rotary’s commitment of $500 million and 10 million volunteers between 1988 and 2000 has reduced the number of cases of polio by 98%. Two billion children have received the polio vaccine.

But polio still circulates in 10 countries, primarily in Pakistan, Nigeria and India.

Ross outlined three big challenges – to stop global wars so we can get to the children in areas of conflict, maintaining the political will to get the job done, and ensuring the funds are there to buy the vaccine

Eradication of polio is Rotary’s #1 priority. We need to raise $80 million in cash and pledges by June 2003. Each club will set its own targets. There are matching dollars available to make the Rotary gift grow.

Ross said we have an extraordinary challenge, but Rotarians are extraordinary people. Terry MacDougall thanked Ross for bringing us up to speed.

Next Week: Canadian Urban Transit Association, Eric Gillespie, SC Transit. Come by bus.