Oak Bay Rotary Bulletin

Program for August 12, 2014   –    Reporter David Sills

Photos by David Sills, Bill Sharlow and Jack Petrie

Exuberance at the Mike - Lori McLeod Presiding              

Lori presided over the meeting with cool aplomb. She called on David Westler to say grace, He was unaware of this duty but responded gracefully to her second request with a brief “Bless Us”.

Visitors

Jessica Van Der Veen introduced today’s visitors:

Rotarians – John Sansom (Harbourside), Bruce Willets (Laguna Beach) and Nancy Gilbert (West Shore).

Guests – Karen Sharlow and George & Sheila Newton, guests of Steve Sharlow: Maureen Madsen, guest of Neil Madsen: Lesley Ockermueller, guest of Rod Sim; Penny LeGate, guest of the club (speaker) and Betty Pitt, guest of Victoria Pitt.

Announcements

Joan Firkins provided an update on the Rotary Car Raffle which ended on Sunday August 10 with the draw at the Oak Bay car show. Preliminary results indicate a return of approximately $60,000 to be shared between the Victoria and Oak Bay Clubs.

Jim Force announced that there were only 12 Dragon Boat Lanterns, out of the 48 originally available, left for sale. All proceeds will go the B.C. Cancer Society. (Your reporter has since learned that all 12 have been snapped up.)

Rapid Fire Cooley

This guy is able to cram more group fines in a short space of time than most S-at-A’s. Late arrivals, non-sign-ins and early leavers were summarily dealt with. Poor David Westler was fined $1.00 a word for his brief grace and Joan Firkins was fined for her bowling action picture in the Oak Bay News.

 The entire assemblage was fined for its terrible rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ for Peter Johannknecht, John Edgell, Corey Burger and Don O’Coffey. Thankfully the assembly was not asked to sing congratulations to Dallas and Len Chapple who are celebrating their wedding anniversary.

Happy / Sad Dollars  -  Vicki (right) because her mother has shown up in town with a fine lobster and Peter Lawrie to announce the CRRG (Car Raffle Recovery Group). Bill Burns is visiting Kamloops for a family gathering then flies to Europe for a two month vacation. Heather Aked is just back from a tour of France. Finally Jack Petrie spoke a few words on the sad death of Robin Williams this week.

Fair play won out as David Westler held the winning ticket but did not draw the white marble.

The Eradication of Polio

Joan Firkins introduced our guest speaker Penny Legate, a friend with whom she shared several trips to African countries to participate in NID’s (National Immunization Days) on behalf of Rotary. To quote Joan – “Penny has been in the broadcast business for over 25 years" and you may remember her as a KIRO TV news anchor and co-host of Evening magazine. She has been on NID’s in Africa and India and has travelled to Ghana, Bolivia, Thailand and Vietnam on other humanitarian missions. She spoke most recently at the International Assembly in San Diego. Penny is an Honourary Rotarian and a Five time Paul Harris Fellow.

Only One Percent Left

To whom much is given, much is expected. This familiar phrase was uttered by Penny as she described
her dedication to the Rotary objective of the global eradication of Polio. The polio vaccine was developed in 1954 and Rotary began its support in 1985. Then Bill and Melinda Gates arrived on the scene. In two years their Foundation contributed 355 million dollars to the struggle. When asked why, Bill replied ‘Because Rotary will see it through’.

Through a series of slides we travelled with the immunization teams as they performed their difficult work. Small groups of local inhabitants are trained and sent out to the villages to immunize the children. The presentation showcased the efforts of four volunteers (who were referred to as the Four Polio Warriors) who have been through thick and thin to get the job done …. and they won’t quit until the job is done. It is a slow, sometimes dangerous, mission as the villages are scattered and the roads are primitive. India was a particularly difficult country to operate in because of poverty, sanitation, malnourishment and crowded conditions. There are 255,000,000 kids to vaccinate every year.

Sadly there have been adverse developments in the past few years - an outburst in the Middle East with reinfection spreading from the Syrian refugee camps and the expulsion of WHO organizers from The Horn of Africa. Nigeria also poses a problem by spreading the disease via religious trips to other countries.

Penny had plenty of statistics and charts to show the gradual reduction over the past 29 years. There were 350,000 cases per year when the program began and there are only 135 to date in 2014. She concluded with the humble words - We carry on because our promise in 1985 must be kept.

Vicki Pitt thanked our speaker with the comment that we heard all the bad news then the good news. It was good to hear that good things are still happening in this tired old world.  

Lesley Ockermueller

Don O'Coffey