Rotary Club of Sackville Bulletin October 20, 2016

 

Members of the Sackville and Port Elgin Rotary clubs gathered on the evening of Thursday 20 October 2016 at the Baie Verte Community Hall for a joint meeting to celebrate World Polio Day, and were welcomed by Assistant Governor Pam.   Special guests included District Polio Plus Chair Rick Rogers, PDG Wayne Wornes, and District Rotary Foundation chair Pat Perry.

 

 

After grace offered by Marilyn Prescott all present sat down to a wonderful meal of seafood chowder / chili with homemade biscuits served by members of the Port Elgin club. 

 

 

Above left: Rick Rogers who gave a presentation on Polio Plus;  above right:  President Josh (Sackville) and President Don (Port Elgin) in the chowder / chili line.

 

 

To cap the meal off dessert was a beautiful cake (produced by Pam) to help celebrate “World Polio Day” and with the PP slogan “End Polio Now.”   Above:  Rick, Josh and Don prepare to cut the cake.

 

 

PDG Wayne made two presentations.  One was a re-presentation of a District Governor’s Citation to Rick Rogers in recognition of his outstanding service to the Rotary Foundation and Polio Plus (this time his name was spelled correctly).

 

 

The second award brought a unique honour to our club and to our district. Margarite Harvey received the Rotarian Spouse/Partner Award “for demonstrating exemplary humanitarian service through Rotary.”  Signed by Ravi Ravindran, President of Rotary International, this is the only such award given this year in our zone (Alaska to Bermuda) and one of only 100 given throughout the entire Rotary world.

 

 

In documenting the award Pam recalled Margarite’s ongoing support for Rotary and all it stands for and especially her service in our Dominican Republic project where she paid all her own expenses, brought school supplies, clothing and toys, played with the kids, and visited schools and hospitals.

 

In recognition of World Polio Day (actually 24 October) Rick Rogers presented an update on this amazing undertaking as it inches closer and closer to the elimination of polio.  Despite the appearance of 4 new cases in a remote area of Nigeria (which had been polio free for 18 months) the number of cases continues to decline in the two other remaining countries Pakistan and Afghanistan.  Even after the last reported case vigilance will still be required as the virus can survive in water and in the ground. 

 

Financial support is still vital in this closing stage and donations by Canadian clubs are now matched on a 5 to 1 basis.  Rick has set a goal of $50,000 for our district 7810 and with 1200 members donating an average of $50 each we can reach this goal.   He went on to declare that the Port Elgin club has already reached this goal (the first club in the district to do so) and presented each member with a special pin.

 

 

The evening closed with photo-taking – of the Port Elgin club (above)  - and of all Rotarians present at the meeting (below).  On behalf of the Sackville club Josh thanked the Port Elgin club for hosting the evening, for the great meal and for a true time of Rotary fellowship.  Members of the Port Elgin club were invited to join us for our in-house auction in aid of the Rotary Foundation on 3 November.

 

 

The meeting closed with the Four-Way Test.