beachrotary.org

What an interesting/great way to share a bit of her story with everyone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74Ud91a08Og

Dear Fellow Rotarians,

This is a historic day for Rotary. It is our great pleasure to inform you of a new partnership between Rotary International and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that will provide a much needed US$200 million in support of our top goal of a polio-free world.

The Gates Foundation has awarded The Rotary Foundation a challenge grant of $100 million, which Rotary will match, dollar for dollar, over three years. This is the largest single grant ever given to a volunteer service organization and represents a tremendous validation of the approach and success of our PolioPlus program.

This partnership comes at a critical juncture for the polio eradication initiative, which needs an infusion of funds to reach the eradication goal. For this reason, the initial $100 million will be distributed by The Rotary Foundation through grants to the World Health Organization and UNICEF in direct support of polio immunization activities in 2008.

Your participation in this effort is crucial to making it a success.  The Rotary International Board of Directors and the Trustees of The Rotary Foundation have unanimously agreed to accept this challenge grant to ensure the success of the PolioPlus program. We feel confident that this extraordinary commitment from the Gates Foundation and Rotary will serve as a catalyst for further donations from others to help us realize the dream of a polio-free world.

In 1985, we promised every child a world free from the threat of polio, and we are almost there. This funding agreement between Rotary and the Gates Foundation is a huge step forward, bringing us even closer to our goal.  Success is our only option.

Wilfrid J. Wilkinson                    Robert S. Scott

You never know what you’re going to encounter on a Rotary trip, but the mission must go on.

This is my first chance for e-mail since we left Mexico City on Thursday.  Flooding was terrible in Tabasco.  80 % of the state was underwater.  We have delivered about 70 boxes to families living under grass tin and visqueen on a dike with a sea of water on both sides.  Delivered the boxes by canoe like boats that they stand up to row.  They got about 4-5 boxes in a boat and did  manage to tip one over the first day.  No damage though because the 4 boxes floated and the local police that were in the boat hung on.  The people (mayan ethnic) are very poor and probably illiterate or poorly educated and have hardly anything.  Pigs, goats, dogs, cats, horse and cattle alll living with them on the dike about 4 miles long and 20 yard wide.  The people are being taken care of now but a looming challenge will be taking care of the livestock as all of the feed has been stripped to the dirt.  The Rotary here has really stepped up.  They have set up a yard furnishing people food, water and other goods.  We also use the yard for our staging and storage point.  John Mackie from Tallahassee and I are staying with a wonderful Rotary family that has treated us like one of their own.  People here are wonderful and I think that we are doing some good.

Shelly sent in this link to show how Rotary can change a young person’s life:

http://www.newsregister.com/news/results.cfm?story_no=227827

Follow the link above to see this great story

The Rotary District 5100 November 2007 Newsletter is now on the web. You can reach it by clicking on the following URL or by copying and pasting it into your internet browser:

http://www.rotary5100.org/clubrunner/enewsletter/November-07-Newsletter.pdf