Polio Mapping Goes High Tech

Geotracking Ensures Fewer Children Are Left Behind

By 

When polio vaccinators fanned out across areas of the Republic of Congo last year to stop an outbreak, they carried a powerful new tool in their pockets: cellphones that tracked their progress as they went door to door. Equipped with a mobile app, the phones sent data back to a command center where staff could see on a digital map if homes were missed and redirect teams on the ground.

With support from the World Health Organization and other partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the country is helping pioneer the use of what is known as geospatial tracking to stop polio outbreaks. Instead of relying on hand-drawn maps that are prone to errors, response team leaders can see with pinpoint accuracy where vaccinators have been and which homes they didn’t get to. This happens in real time when a wireless connection is available. Such speed and precision are crucial to ensuring that a vaccine reaches each child and outbreaks are stopped.

“All you have to do is charge your phone and make sure you turn on the tracker when you are out on the streets. I just put it in my pocket and go from house to house,” says Sandrine Lina, one of the WHO-trained vaccinators.

Sandrine Lina (left) and other vaccinators hit the streets with cellphones that tracked their progress during an outbreak response campaign in the Republic of Congo.

Image credit: Marta Villa Monge/WHO Africa Office

She and others hit the streets in June 2023 with hundreds of the phones after an outbreak of variant poliovirus type 1. The WHO African region was certified free of wild poliovirus in 2020. But this other form of polio, known as vaccine-derived or variant poliovirus, remains a threat. These cases occur in rare instances when the live but weakened virus in oral vaccines circulates long enough through sewage in communities with low vaccination rates to mutate into a potentially dangerous form.

The key to stopping such outbreaks is a thorough vaccination campaign. Geospatial tracking is playing a crucial role, generating intelligent maps and models. “The platform provides an opportunity for us to identify settlements that have poor coverage, where we’ve not seen many tracks of vaccination teams, and we can download the information to guide processes,” says Kebba Touray, the lead of WHO’s Geographic Information Systems Centre for the African region.

An early generation of the technology was used in Nigeria beginning in 2012, helping lead to the region’s certification as free of wild poliovirus eight years later. “That’s what gave birth to this innovative idea of ensuring settlements are mapped,” Touray says. It’s also been used in Cameroon.

For the June vaccination campaign, led by the Republic of Congo’s Health Ministry, about 500 smartphones were distributed each morning to vaccinators. Like a fitness tracker, the mobile app counts steps and plots the coordinates on a map, along with essential details such as dates and times. Vaccinators also can use the phones to collect field data such as settlement names, household information, and reasons given by those refusing a vaccine.

That information feeds a database that operations center managers can supervise in real time. It’s displayed on an online dashboard through a heat map that shades areas in green and red hues. “Green indicates that vaccinators have passed in these areas, and red areas indicate that, Oh, these areas were planned, but no team passed through,” explains Derrick Demeveng, a data and geographic information systems analyst who worked with the vaccination response team.

By the numbers

  1. 500  -  Smartphones used to track outbreak response in the Republic of Congo

  2. 99.9%  -   Worldwide reduction in wild polio cases since 1988

  3. 2  -  Countries (Afghanistan and Pakistan) where wild polio remains endemic

At the end of the first day, the operations center team in the capital, Brazzaville, saw that a section of the city’s Poto-Poto district had not been covered. Vaccinators were sent there first thing in the morning to find any children who had been missed.

That ability to review data and make quick course corrections is critical. In the past, planners had to rely on maps drawn by vaccinators to prepare what are known as microplans. Inaccuracies were inevitable, and information often wasn’t verified until after the campaign had ended. “The microplan is the critical component in preparing for outbreak response campaigns. You have to know where all the settlements are,” Touray says.

Disease mapping in response to public health emergencies has a long history. In 1854, English physician John Snow pioneered one of the earliest uses of mapping in modern epidemiology during a cholera outbreak in London. In search of a pattern, Snow mapped cases and — because he believed contaminated water was to blame — the locations of water pumps, and he found a connection. He was able to identify a single pump as the likely primary source, and when it was closed the outbreak ended.

Today, with a lot of computing power behind it, geospatial analytics is used in everything from weather modeling and sales trend forecasting to national defense, disaster response, and agriculture. The WHO is using geospatial technology to counter public health threats across the globe, from saving people in India from snake bite deaths to COVID-19 vaccine delivery in over 90 countries to polio eradication.

Geospatial technology is important for reaching members of communities who are often overlooked, says Rufaro Samanga, an epidemiologist who works at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, another GPEI partner. “Immunizations would be better served, especially in low- to middle-income countries, where you’re already dealing with limited resources in some settings. Real-time data from these tracking systems allows us to identify parts of the population that are often missed,” Samanga says.

Like a fitness tracker, the mobile app counts steps and feeds coordinates to a map, viewed at a command center (below) where staff members can see if homes were missed.

Image credit: Marta Villa Monge/WHO Africa Office

The newest version of the technology, used in the Republic of Congo, has many improvements. “This one is lightweight, it’s easy to deploy,” Touray explains. “And you are able to collect field information, especially concerning settlements, and to ensure that whatever information you are able to collect during an outbreak response campaign, you go back and use it to update your microplan” for future campaigns.

Demeveng says the technology solves the challenge of on-field visibility and incorporates a system of accountability, with supervisors able to monitor, direct, and advise vaccinators in the field. When they return to the emergency operations center, an analysis of the day’s outing is carried out.

While the Republic of Congo project was deemed successful, it did brush up against a familiar challenge: the digital divide. Despite advancements in digital inclusion, 2.6 billion people around the world remain unconnected to the internet, a considerable share of them in Africa, according to one recent analysis.

And a lack of strong internet infrastructure often disrupted the real-time upload feature of the geospatial tracking app. But the technology and the data collection are filling in the picture of polio and other public health challenges.

Touray and his WHO African team plan to implement these tracking systems elsewhere on the continent, including for purposes beyond polio. With the introduction of new technologies, though, one thing hasn’t changed: All vaccinated children are still marked on a finger with ink they can proudly display.

This story originally appeared in the March 2024 issue of Rotary magazine.

With your help, we can end polio for good.

Polio Mapping Goes High Tech 2024-03-06 09:00:00Z 0

Peace FellowTransforms Academic Theory Into Practical Application

By 

Gethen is in the midst of an ice age. It’s a bitterly cold planet where even the warmest summer day is frigid. This is where Florence Maher spent her childhood. Figuratively speaking, of course. Gethen exists only in the tales of Ursula K. Le Guin, predominantly in her 1969 novel, The Left Hand of Darkness, one of many speculative works of fiction that Maher grew up reading.

“A lot of science fiction looks at social issues, but in a different context,” Maher says. “It allows you to ask big questions about how the world would be different if things had evolved in a different way. I’m very interested in those sorts of structural issues and how they look in practice.”

As an adult, Maher continues to ask those big questions as she looks for ways to maximize her knowledge and skills by pairing them with global institutions. Today, this Rotary Peace Fellow works as a social scientist for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, gathering data and forming policy recommendations to achieve more diversity in the nuclear energy sector on a global scale.

“The identity of being a peace fellow tells the world that you are aligning yourself with certain values,” says Florence Maher.

Image credit: Thomas Cytrynowicz

Growing up, rural Oregon (on planet Earth) was home base for Maher, but her father’s work took the family all over the Pacific Northwest, including Alaska. However, one move took them to Berlin for two years soon after the reunification of Germany in the 1990s. “That was the moment I realized there’s a bigger world out there,” she says. “That experience started me down an international career path.”

Maher spent two years at Earlham College in Indiana (where the undergraduate student population totaled about 1,100) before taking time off to backpack around India and work as an au pair in Germany. “By the time I had finished scratching that itch, I realized I was not going back to Indiana,” she says. “I wanted to do something different.”

Although she was interested in the world, she didn’t know a lot about her own country. She wanted to put herself in situations where she could grow, she said, and she completed her last two years of studies at Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington, D.C., to learn more about diversity in the United States. Being a white student at Howard, she tried to be respectful of the history and traditions in that welcoming environment, to learn without being the “center of attention,” she says. “As a white person, this is not my space. I’m here to shut up and listen.”

Maher graduated from Howard in 2009 and, following a lengthy, intimidating, and competitive hiring process, eventually landed a job as a foreign service officer with the U.S. Department of State. “At the time, it was definitely my dream job to live around the world and represent our government overseas,” she says.

Maher was assigned to consular duties in Mexico, where she conducted visa interviews. The work drained Maher emotionally as, contrary to her own impulses, she often had to deny people entry into the United States under the law. “You may feel different personally, but you’re not there to give your personal opinion about how the world works,” she says. “You’re there to interpret U.S. immigration law.”

In 2018, Florence Maher addresses an audience that includes her classmates at International Christian University in Tokyo. A year later, she takes a break during an applied field experience in France.
Courtesy of Florence Maher


Maher was then sent to Italy as an economic officer and vice consul before relocating to Washington, D.C., in 2018. That’s when she realized that this may have been the dream job of her 20s, but not of her life. She applied for and received a Rotary Peace Fellowship at International Christian University in Tokyo. “I needed time to explore and find myself,” she says. “I wanted two years to take classes, have professional experiences, and perform field research. ICU has a very strong emphasis on doing a research-based thesis, and I was able to do field interviews and really develop my research skills to complement my practitioner skills.”

Florence Maher

  • Bachelor’s in economics and political science, Howard University, 2009
  • Rotary Peace Fellowship, International Christian University, 2018-20
  • Board member, Rotary Peace Fellow Alumni Association, 2023–25

Specifically, Maher examined an attempt to develop a national action plan on business and human rights in Mexico. The endeavor, conducted between 2015 and 2018 by representatives from the government, business, and civil society, was ultimately unsuccessful in building a coalition. Nonetheless, in her 50,000-word thesis, Maher researched how Mexico’s attempt to create the plan offered a framework through which long-standing structural grievances might be better understood and more equitable social structures erected in their place.

Maher graduated from ICU with her master’s in peace studies in 2020. Now, at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, she believes she has found that sweet spot where academic theory can find practical application — and where her individual aspirations, paired with her well-honed skills, can have their greatest impact. “In June,” she says, “our member countries passed an international policy instrument to improve representation of women in our nuclear sectors. There’s a well-established body of research showing that diverse teams perform better in innovation and performance,” which could offer significant benefits to combating climate change. More women in the nuclear sector, Maher adds, could also help garner trust in and support for nuclear technology, closing the gap between how it’s perceived and its real potential.

Some of the research supporting these conclusions was provided by Maher. “I don’t know if I would have been successful with the data collection if I hadn’t been a peace fellow,” she says. “Having done a robust, research-based thesis, I had the confidence to gather the data and write the report.”

Last year, Maher was elected to the board of the Rotary Peace Fellow Alumni Association. “The identity of being a peace fellow has been very powerful,” she says. “It tells the world that you are aligning yourself with certain values — of trying to work on structural change, of trying to make the world a better place.”

This story originally appeared in the February 2024 issue of Rotary magazine.

Rotary Peace Centers have trained more than 1,700 fellows who now work in over 140 countries.

    LEARN MORE  

Peace FellowTransforms Academic Theory Into Practical Application 2024-02-21 09:00:00Z 0

Port Moresby Says NO to Family Violence

From Rotary Down Under 

Since 2018, the Rotary Club of Port Moresby (RCPM) has been running a campaign titled #SayNO2familyviolence, a campaign aimed at reducing incidents of family violence and developing Port Moresby and Central Province into a thriving, safe and healthy place to live and work.

At a practical level, the #SayNO2familyviolence campaign means equipping the community with skills to understand and meet the challenges of violence, and to encourage victims and perpetrators to seek help, with a longer-term goal of transforming attitudes and behaviours toward offending, condoning, tolerating, and ignoring family violence.

The PNG #SayNO2familyviolence campaign was modelled on the Rotary Club of Maryborough’s campaign in Victoria.

PICTURED: The official opening of Kwikila Office and Transit Centre, which includes dedicated offices and interview rooms, kitchen, bedrooms and bathrooms.

RCPM formed a partnership with the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary Family Sexual Violence Unit (RPNGC FSVU) and The Papua New Guinea – Australian Policing Partnership (PNG – APP otherwise known as the AFP), who identified the lack of office space for victims to meet with police to make reports of FSV as an urgent priority.

RCPM’s first project was to deliver a dedicated office space at Downtown (Port Moresby) Police Station, providing victims a safe and private space to meet with the FSVU officers. This project included funding the purchase of a 40-foot shipping container and having it refurbished into an office. RCPM also constructed a hauswin (pergola). The total cost of this project completed in 2018 was K150,000.

RCPM has since provided a further four independent RPNGC FSVU offices in Port Moresby and Central Province, including a purpose-built office and transit centre at Kwikila, which is about two hours outside Port Moresby.

The Kwikila Office and Transit Centre project commenced in 2020, however, work stalled due to the pandemic. The centre was officially opened in late 2022. RCPM contributed K100,000 towards the total cost for the project, which was K250,000. The remaining funds were provided by the Papua New Guinea Australia Policing Partnership, Parkinson Pacific Foundation, Ela Motors, and the Rotary Club of Blackwood, SA.

RCPM also secured playground equipment through Rotary Overseas Relocated Playgrounds (RORP), with equipment installed at the FSVU offices, to occupy waiting children.

RCPM’s campaign has also included educational awareness through schools, villages and settlements in Port Moresby and Central Province, and is currently taking steps to ensure it remains a viable project. This may include further consultation with the Rotary Club of Maryborough, with RCPM members keen for them to visit PNG and see the project firsthand.

Port Moresby Says NO to Family Violence 2024-01-31 09:00:00Z 0

Rotary Partnership with the United Nations Puts the Focus on Waterways

By 

To find out how to start protecting local waterways, write to cafw@rotary.org.

A new collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme empowers Rotary members to clean up, protect, and monitor their local waterways. The strategic partnership aligns with both the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and Rotary’s environment area of focus.

The partnership “brings together Rotary’s community-based solutions and UNEP’s technical expertise,” RI President-elect Stephanie Urchick said when announcing the partnership on 10 January. She spoke at Rotary’s International Assembly, the organization’s gathering of incoming district governors.

At the center of the partnership is a program enabling Rotary and Rotaract clubs to make commitments to the health of their own nearby waterways. Called Community Action for Fresh Water, the program will encourage clubs to organize river cleanup days, raise awareness in their communities about the importance of healthy waterways, conduct basic water quality tests, and report their findings.

These locally based activities are crucial to protecting the environment on a global scale, says Rafael Peralta, regional director and representative for the UNEP’s office for North America.

“The protection, management, and restoration of freshwater ecosystems is fundamental to combating the triple planetary crises: the crisis of climate change, the crisis of biodiversity loss, and the crisis of pollution and waste,” Peralta said at the announcement ceremony. “As populations develop and economies expand, so too does the demand for fresh water. This puts freshwater ecosystems under increasing pressure.”

This partnership builds on a pilot program, Adopt a River for Sustainable Development, begun in 2020 by UNEP and Rotary District 9212 (Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Sudan). In addition, Rotary and Rotaract clubs around the world have often worked independently to clean up freshwater ecosystems.

“Healthy watersheds help biodiversity, forests, wetlands, and lakes. They help agriculture, help the economy, recharge the aquifers, and provide water to millions of people around the world,” said Salvador Rico, a member of The Rotary Foundation Cadre of Technical Advisers. “A contaminated river and a damaged watershed make the area prone to fires, cause droughts, cause diseases, affect the economy of nearby communities, and contribute to climate change.”

The Rotary Foundation is funding program costs over the course of three years, with the potential for continued support. Clubs can use district funds or apply for global grants to pay for their activities. 

To participate, Rotary and Rotaract clubs can identify a local body of water (river, lake, wetland, or natural reservoir) and commit to protecting and restoring it. They can then engage with the local community and other relevant groups to identify any major threats to the body of water and ultimately develop a plan of action in coordination with nongovernmental organizations, private enterprises, or government agencies.

Related stories

Lesson learned: Make sure government stays involved

Learn more about Rotary’s commitment to the environment

Rotary Partnership with the United Nations Puts the Focus on Waterways 2024-01-24 09:00:00Z 0

A Preventable Killer

Why so many people are still dying of cervical cancer, and what Rotary is doing about it

Women diagnosed with cervical cancer are almost twice as likely to die than those diagnosed with breast cancer. Yet cervical cancer is a disease that is preventable and treatable. What’s going on?

About 90 percent of the women killed by cervical cancer — more than 340,000 in 2020 — live in low- and middle-income countries, where access to prevention, screening, and treatment is severely limited. And reproductive care remains a taboo topic, even when it means people are dying as a result.

  • 116

    Global grants awarded to fund cervical cancer projects since 2014

  • 91%

    Share of cervical cancer deaths in low- and middle-income countries, where access to prevention, screening, and treatment is severely limited

  • 604,127

    Number of people diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2020

The Rotary Foundation has awarded more than $10.3 million in global grant funding for cervical cancer projects since 2014, and other Rotary projects, such as an initiative in Alabama, have tackled this issue outside of global grant funding. In addition, $2 million was awarded to United to End Cervical Cancer in Egypt as part of the third annual Programs of Scale competition. The Foundation awards these grants to evidence-based programs that align with at least one of Rotary’s causes and are ready for expansion to create larger-scale change.

The four-year program in and around Cairo will vaccinate more than 30,000 girls ages 9 to 15 to prevent infection with the human papillomavirus, which causes the disease. It will provide cancer screenings for 10,000 women — allowing for early detection and treatment — and launch a public awareness campaign to reach 4 million people, helping address cultural misconceptions that may deter people from seeking care.

For Cervical Cancer Awareness Month in January, we examined the state of the disease around the world, and what Rotary members are doing about it.

Your Foundation money at work

Countries and geographical areas where global grants have funded cervical cancer projects in the past 10 years.

How HPV infection can lead to cervical cancer

Cervical cancer is primarily caused by the human papillomavirus, a group of more than 200 related viruses, some of which are sexually transmitted. Nearly all sexually active people will be infected with HPV at some point in their lives; most of these infections are harmless, but some high-risk HPV viruses can progress to cancer. HPV vaccinations before a young person becomes sexually active can prevent infection, and therefore cervical cancer. The cancer develops slowly, with five to 20 years between the first cellular changes to the actual development of cancer. Screening for abnormal cells and treatment when necessary can stop the disease from progressing and save lives.

  1. Normal cervical cells -- Vaccination opportunity: 11–12 years old

  2. HPV Infection (Most infections do not turn into precancers) -- Screening opportunity 21–65 years old

  3. Precancers (May still go back to normal)

  4. Cervical Cancer

This story originally appeared in the January 2024 issue of Rotary magazine.

A Preventable Killer 2024-01-24 09:00:00Z 0

Hope in Grief

With suicides rising in the U.S., Rotary members who’ve lost loved ones are determined to prevent more deaths. Their first step — talking.

By Photography by 

The six Mardi Gras-style beaded necklaces that Lori Crider is wearing tell you something about her struggles and her hopes, if you learn the strands’ color code.

Purple honors a friend or relative who died by suicide. Crider wears four, including one for her nephew, Jesse Cedillo.

“I’ve lost three relatives, unfortunately,” she says at a fall 2022 suicide prevention walk that starts at a former MLB stadium outside Dallas with rain clouds framing the roller coasters nearby at Six Flags Over Texas. “I had an aunt in the ’90s, then my cousin in West Virginia after Jesse. I wear a purple for each of them and for a friend who took his life in 2005.”

Blue is for suicide prevention, an issue that has become a calling for Crider and fellow members of a Rotary club created in 2021 to take action on that cause, as well as for many people at the walk whose friends or family members died by suicide.

Crider’s nephew, whom she describes as a soft-spoken young man who dreamed of becoming a police officer, died at 20 years old in 2015 using a gun he got from a relative’s house next to his home in rural Alabama. Family members say they always had guns available for protection and for shooting sports through 4-H.

Lori Crider took up the cause of suicide prevention to cope with her grief after the death of her nephew. “I hope I can help someone else from losing their Jesse,” she says.

Nearly 50,000 people die by suicide each year in the U.S., and over half of them use a gun. The total number of annual suicide deaths is equivalent to filling the seats of the one-time MLB stadium where the Dallas-area walk took place. In 2022, preliminary figures indicate that the rate of suicide in the U.S. was the highest in the five decades since the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began recording that data. The negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic may have contributed to the increase, according to a CDC report. Globally, more than 700,000 people die by suicide each year, according to the World Health Organization.

While there is no simple solution to preventing suicide, a proven precaution is limiting access to items or places that people in crisis could use to harm themselves. “Putting time and space between a person and a lethal method of suicide can save lives,” says Marian Betz, an emergency room doctor and University of Colorado professor who researches suicide and firearm death prevention.

This is the idea behind blister packages for medicines and barriers added to bridges. With firearms, having access to a gun triples the risk of suicide, in part because guns are so much more deadly than other ways people try to die, Betz notes in a video message that she recorded as part of her work with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Nearly 90 percent of firearm suicide attempts in the U.S. result in death, while only 2 percent of intentional drug overdoses do. And some studies indicate that many people who try to end their lives act rashly with little planning.

Guns rob many people of a second chance to live, Betz says. “When we’re talking about suicide prevention and firearm suicide prevention, we’re not talking about gun confiscation. We’re talking about ways to lock it up more securely during a time of risk,” she says.

After her nephew’s death, Crider, a Rotary member since 2010, threw herself into helping others and worked with Shirley Weddle, also a loss survivor and mental health advocate, to establish the Rotary E-Club of Suicide Prevention and Brain Health. Its members encourage others to talk and think about how every person can contribute to reducing suicides in the U.S. and around the world by making mental wellness a routine part of day-to-day life. Club members regularly participate in events that promote awareness, eliminate stigma, and support survivors, including the Out of the Darkness Walks like the one outside Dallas, which the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention organizes.

The focus of the e-club, which started with about 50 members — most new to Rotary — is an example of how Rotary is at the forefront of encouraging people to tend to their own mental health and check on the feelings of those they encounter — openly and warmly. No stigma. Rotary President Gordon McInally is encouraging members worldwide to up their mental health efforts because of his personal commitment to the issue after his brother died by suicide.

Though programs to address suicide can vary from culture to culture, Rotary clubs around the world are supporting the work of mental health providers in their areas and taking other actions. The Rotaract clubs of Sahel Metn in Lebanon and Amsterdam Nachtwacht International raised money to support the only suicide hotline in Lebanon. Rotarians in Nepal led a session for teachers on suicide prevention and mental health management in schools, including ways to reduce stigma and discrimination.

A club outside Manila in the Philippines organized free counseling for seniors. And clubs in the U.S. have held education sessions about suicide prevention and ideas to reduce access to potentially dangerous items and locations when people are at greater risk of self-harm.

Shirley Weddle, a loss survivor and mental health advocate, helped found the Rotary E-Club of Suicide Prevention and Brain Health to promote awareness, eliminate stigma, and support survivors.

 

What should you do if you suspect someone is contemplating suicide?

The National Institute of Mental Health offers five action steps for helping someone in emotional pain:

  1. Ask them directly, “Are you thinking about suicide?”
  2. Keep them safe by reducing their access to potentially lethal items or places.
  3. Be there. Listen to their feelings and acknowledge what they are saying.
  4. Help them connect to a suicide crisis line or to someone they trust.
  5. Stay connected, follow up, and keep in touch after a crisis.

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the U.S. by calling or texting 988 or going to 988lifeline.org. If you are outside the U.S., visit findahelpline.com to get connected with a service in your country.

When e-club members collaborate with organizations and talk to Rotary clubs or community groups about ways to prevent suicide and improve mental health, their presentations cover topics including risk factors, warning signs, intervention, and ways to separate lethal objects and people thinking about suicide.

Betz advises doctors to educate their patients who are around guns about their options when they or someone they’re close to is at risk of harming themselves. Public health experts suggest that people store guns unloaded and away from the ammunition with a cable lock or in a safe. Or move them out of the home when someone is in crisis; some gun stores and law enforcement agencies will store them temporarily. And other people choose not to own one when there is a suicide risk, Betz notes.

Crider echoes the idea that the safer the environment is made for a suicidal person by temporarily reducing access to lethal items, the better the person’s chances are of coming through a crisis period. “We give them time for the intense suicidal impulse to diminish and time for someone to intervene with mental health support,” she says in a presentation called Talk Saves Lives that she gives to Rotary clubs. She and Weddle, the e-club’s charter president, along with member Terri Hartman, became presenters of the talk developed by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, starting with clubs in their district with a goal to spread awareness and wellness ideas across the world. The three connected in a grief support group and now lead support groups for survivors of suicide loss.

A hopeful takeaway from the presentations, fundraising events, and awareness campaigns is that mental wellness advocates and public health experts have some ideas to try to help. They want everyone to hear them — whether a person thinks about dying themselves, knows someone who struggles with suicidal thoughts, or just wants to do their part to make the world more supportive of people who need help for depression, traumatic stress, loneliness, substance use, and other strains in life.

To start, mental health experts want people to throw out any hesitation they feel about talking with a friend, parent, sibling, or child who they suspect might be thinking about dying or harming themselves. The National Alliance on Mental Illness notes that many studies show that discussing the issue doesn’t increase the chance of suicide.

And experts emphasize you don’t need to have all the answers. Often people in distress aren’t looking for concrete advice, and just making small talk and showing empathy can save lives, according to the International Association for Suicide Prevention. The group advises to watch for warning signs, including hopelessness, rage, and reckless activity, and to be knowledgeable about available resources.

Crider suggests that people in the U.S. make the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline a contact in their phones. “You might need it for yourself or for somebody else,” she urges. “Reaching out is not a sign of weakness; it’s a strength.” And counselors and doctors recommend that people with suicidal or self-harm thoughts create written safety plans that spell out in detail what they’ll do, whom they’ll contact, and even what they’ll tell themselves when those thoughts start or when they feel out of control. One step in those plans is to secure or get rid of any items that the person could use to harm themselves.

The value of connection cannot be overstated. “Let them know they are not alone” is one piece of advice Crider shares. “Our family decided our thing was to talk about it, because nobody saw it coming,” she says.

At the walk outside Dallas, a steady stream of people moves out into the rainy morning, a long, snaking line on the sidewalk knotted with groups of friends and relatives, some holding large photo montages of loved ones who died or wearing matching tribute T-shirts: “Team Jake” and “#ForJames” and “#TeamJulian,” honoring an 11-year-old. Many of their stories echo a recurrent theme: the presence of a gun turning a passing impulse into a permanent loss.

Crider hopes the march will open the gates for families to speak about suicide and how to stop it — families like Kathy and Tony Thompson, who attended the walk. They lost their 18-year-old son, Luke, to suicide in 2018. Kathy Thompson could barely speak at her son’s memorial. But now she and her husband talk about it to others, one-on-one, and have seen results.

Several months after Luke’s death, Tony Thompson felt compelled to share his family’s story with a coworker, who talked to his own family about it. “His daughter went to school the next day and told a counselor, ‘I haven’t been sleeping the past two days. I have this plan ...’ There was a huge intervention,” Thompson recalls.

“Her mother called me and said, ‘I think you guys saved my daughter’s life,’” Kathy Thompson says. They learned that the daughter had been planning to take her life and hadn’t shared her feelings with her parents because she didn’t want to worry them. The Thompsons became close with the couple, who told them that hearing their story had enabled their daughter to open up. “Later, she was crying at her high school graduation party, saying, ‘I wouldn’t have been here,’” Tony Thompson says.

After Kathy and Tony Thompson experienced a loss, he shared their story with someone whose daughter was struggling.

 

Other walkers wearing beaded necklaces in red for the loss of a spouse or partner, gold for a parent, greet each other and take literature and snacks from information tables at the stadium. The e-club is one of the sponsors of this walk, which is aimed at educating the public and allowing those with a connection to the cause to come together. The event raises money to support research, advocacy, and education.

Crider also has a necklace in teal in support of someone who attempted suicide. She took up the cause of suicide prevention as a way to cope with the grief she felt after her nephew’s death and try to prevent further deaths. “I hope I can help someone else from losing their Jesse,” she says.

In the stadium, Weddle sets up a table for the e-club with bowls of awareness wristbands and red-and-white mints, plus handouts describing the services and training offered by club members and mental health organizations they represent. She wears white beads in remembrance of a child. She lost her only child, Matthew, to suicide when he was a 22-year-old student at the University of Texas at Dallas. The e-club has recently sponsored suicide prevention awareness walks at the college.

To Weddle, an important aspect of the walks is to publicly demonstrate that suicide is not a taboo topic. “You not only can talk about suicide, you must,” she says. People’s perceptions begin to change and stigma decreases when they approach mental health as physical health and understand how sleep, diet, exercise, and stress affect the body’s chemistry and people’s actions and reactions, including thoughts of suicide, Weddle says.

The e-club’s display is among a variety of tables from groups at the walk. One table is for Soldiers’ Angels, an organization that provides support and resources to military service members, veterans, and their families.

About 17 U.S. military veterans die by suicide every day, a rate nearly 60 percent higher than that of other U.S. adults, even after adjusting for age and sex differences. Risk factors for veterans include physical and mental conditions stemming from their service, difficulties transitioning to civilian life, and access to firearms at home.

At a table promoting gun storage ideas from the Be Smart advocacy group, volunteer Donna Schmidt says the organization uses the word “smart” as an acronym to remind people about five steps they can take: secure all guns in your home and vehicles, model responsible behavior, ask if there are unsecured firearms at other homes, recognize the role of guns in suicide, and tell others about these tips. Its volunteers have spoken at Rotary club meetings around the country. Schmidt says their message is: “If you have one, then please be safe.” Free cable locks are available at the event.

The walk is brief, a little over a mile, but long enough to raise $227,532. Its nonmonetary value is obvious to the participants: gather, walk, talk, hug, cry.

Those who tend to the needs of people at risk or who live with the aftermath of a suicide also learn to look out for their own health and mental well-being. E-club members share self-care ideas at their meetings. For Crider, part of her self-care is to always keep moving. She looks up at the sky and counts even the rain on the Out of the Darkness Walk as a blessing.

“It’s such a big issue, it really needs more attention,” she says. “We need to talk about these things, to bring knowledge to more people. We’ve got to bring it out of the darkness and talk about where people can get help.”

Neil Steinberg is a news columnist on staff at the Chicago Sun-Times. His book, Every Goddamn Day: A Highly Selective, Definitely Opinionated, and Alternatingly Humorous and Heartbreaking Historical Tour of Chicago, was published in 2022 by the University of Chicago Press.

This story originally appeared in the November 2023 issue of Rotary magazine

Connect with the Rotary E-Club of Suicide Prevention and Brain Health at suicidepreventionbrainhealthrotary.org.

Hope in Grief 2023-12-05 09:00:00Z 0

Inside the mind of a writer living with Alzheimer’s

By 

I was out for my evening run, but as so often happens lately, I was not alone. The monsters, all in my mind, were gaining on me, ready to pounce. I had to sprint, a full-out panic dash, to avoid capture at sundown, that moment when Alzheimer’s bears down.

It had begun as a hazy spring afternoon gave way to dusk on the waterfront in pastoral Brewster on Cape Cod: a numbing fog that slowly crept in, first in misty sprays that tingle, then in thick blankets that penetrate the mind and disorient the senses. It had the smell of a chill wind from a raging North Atlantic storm, the kind of nor’easter that takes the breath away.

Faster and faster, beneath the thick canopy of oaks and red maples, the demons were chasing, their screeching howls emerging from the dense, choking groundcover of honeysuckle and myrtle. My heart was pounding, the sweat pouring. Alone, I was enveloped in fear and full paranoia — and the fire in my brain was scorching.

At full gait, I dashed past Brewster’s community garden with its impenetrable stalks of corn, past a forest of moss-covered locust trees bent in grim, twisted forms, past the ancient cemetery of sea captains, dead now for two centuries and more. A blazing red sun dipped into Cape Cod Bay to be doused like a candle. The demons kept coming on, but, with every ounce of my will, I beat them home. No doubt they will return with a vengeance.

As they have. Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia play tricks on the mind. My life, once a long-distance run, is now a race for survival. So I press on against the odds.

My family tree is a guidepost in this struggle. Alzheimer’s took my maternal grandfather, my mother, and my paternal uncle, and before my father’s death, he too was diagnosed with dementia. The disease has now come for me. I’m a member of a club I never wanted to join.

There are more than 6 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s, and an estimated 55 million people with dementia worldwide, numbers expected to increase exponentially in years to come with the growing population of older people. Changes in the brain — the buildup of amyloid plaques and tau tangles that destroy neurons and lead to Alzheimer’s — can start in one’s 40s without noticeable symptoms. And this is a journey that can take 20 to 25 years to run its serpentine course.

I was diagnosed several years ago with early-onset Alzheimer’s after numerous sports concussions and a traumatic head injury — a severe bike accident without a helmet — that doctors said unleashed a monster in the making. I also carry the strongest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s, the gene variant ApoE4, which appears to be on both sides of my family. Today, 60 percent of my short-term memory can be gone in seconds. I often don’t recognize people I’ve known most of my life. I deal with rage, loss of place, loss of self, loss of smell. I sometimes see things that aren’t there. I misplace things regularly and seek to withdraw from social activities more and more. Not long ago, preparing to brush my teeth, my brain told me to reach for my razor rather than my toothbrush.

My heart said, “No … bad dog!”

And at times, privately, I cry the tears of a little boy because at 73, I feel the end looms.On the plus side, I’ve been blessed with a good IQ and what dementia experts call cognitive or synaptic reserve. In essence, that’s the brain’s ability to improvise and find alternate ways, other synapses, when the lights start to dim, says Rudy Tanzi, the Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital Alzheimer’s expert on the accumulation of beta-amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and inflammation of the brain.

But, despite years of exercising body and brain, the reserve is draining. Doctors suggest that my writing, the essence of my physical self, will likely be the last to go. I hope they are correct. A career journalist, I diligently write everything down on my laptop — my portable brain — so I don’t forget when, where, and why I’m supposed to be. I also regularly email and text myself as a backup to remember. It’s hard to maneuver through Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia without strategies.

At times, I feel like an ailing centipede: lots of legs, but they’re slowly falling off. In addition to Alzheimer’s, I’ve been diagnosed with prostate cancer and deep depression and anxiety. And two years ago, at New England Baptist Hospital in Boston, I underwent 10 hours of spine reconstruction surgery as doctors cut through bone, muscle, and nerves and inserted steel rods, plates, and screws, all to prevent me from becoming paralyzed.

I’m sustained by faith, hope, and Irish humor. My late mother, Virginia, the hero of my life — I’m one of her 10 children — taught me through her heroic battle with Alzheimer’s how to survive while experts race for a cure. A pity party, she insisted, is just a party of one.

My mother also taught me, in her own words, to fix on Service Above Self, the Rotary maxim, which drives me today. I was the family caregiver on Cape Cod for both my parents, and thus know all sides of this disease. (Last year in the U.S., unpaid caregivers — physically and emotionally at risk from the stress of looking after loved ones — provided people with dementia an estimated 18 billion hours of care valued at $339.5 billion.) I was at my parents’ bedside when they passed away, first my dad, then, four months later, my mom. I saw the torch then passed to me.

Fortunately, I have my own incredible support system — and I take full advantage of the resources available at key Alzheimer’s websites, which are critical for all of us who are fighting dementia. Accurate information is the coin of life. I’ve already mentioned Tanzi, who, in addition to his academic duties, is the chair of the research group at the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund. And then there’s Lisa Genova, who has a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard and is the author of five best-selling novels, including Still Alice, which, when made into a movie, won Julianne Moore a best actress Academy Award for her performance as an accomplished professor with early-onset Alzheimer’s.

“Your brain is amazing,” writes Genova in the introduction to her nonfiction book, Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting. “Every day, it performs miracles — it sees, hears, tastes, smells, and senses touch. It also feels pain, pleasure, temperature, stress, and a wide range of emotions. … Memory allows you to have a sense of who you are and who you’ve been. If you’ve witnessed someone stripped bare of his or her personal history by Alzheimer’s disease, you know firsthand how essential memory is to the experience of being human.”

And, as Genova acknowledges, “while memory is king, it’s also a bit of a dunce.” That is why there is a distinct difference between forgetting where you put your car keys and not knowing what the keys are for — between forgetting where you parked your car and not knowing you have a car. I know that difference full well.

One day, several years ago when I was still driving, I took our trash to the landfill (a polite word for the town dump). After discarding the trash, I was confused about how to get home. I thought in the moment that I could call my wife, Mary Catherine, or one of my kids for a ride. I slowly worked myself into a panic. My bright yellow four-door Jeep was directly in front of me, but in the moment, my brain wouldn’t tell me that it was my car. I was rescued by the timely arrival of a friend who discerned my anxiety and pointed me toward my yellow Jeep.

The demons kept coming on, but, with every ounce of my will, I beat them home. No doubt they will return with a vengeance.

Thankfully, there is optimism on the horizon with ongoing research to slow the pace of this disease in people with mild cognitive impairment and early stages of Alzheimer’s. There is also promise in key clinical trials and in brain health. In July, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of Leqembi, created by the pharmaceutical company Biogen and Eisai; the approval marks the first time the FDA has sanctioned a drug shown to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s in early stages. The drug works to help clear the amyloid plaque buildups in the brain that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease and the destruction of neurons.

The approval is “a ray of hope for millions of patients who are doing everything they can to enhance and extend their lives and reduce their families’ burdens,” said George Vradenburg, the chair and co-founder of UsAgainstAlzheimer’s. “People with early-stage disease now have a weapon to fight Alzheimer’s. Finally we have a drug that can slow the encroachment of Alzheimer’s into our families’ lives and livelihoods.” (Vradenburg is another one of my trusted, go-to resources; for information about brain health and Alzheimer’s resources, check out his organization’s Brain Guide.)

In addition to early diagnosis and clinical tests, brain health is key to holding Alzheimer’s symptoms at bay. Tanzi has developed a useful acronym: SHIELD. Get plenty of sleep, at least seven hours a night. Learn how to handle stress, which can lead to the creation of more harmful amyloid plaques. Interact with friends; socialization is the key to fighting the urge to withdraw. Make time for daily exercise, which promotes the creation of new brain cells — and to create new synapses between brain cells, learn new things. Finally, eat a healthy plant-based diet rich in vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, and seeds.

From the start, in his groundbreaking research, Tanzi focused on amyloid plaques and tau tangles, the prime markers for Alzheimer’s. He draws the analogy of a raging fire in the brain (though for some of us, that experience is more than mere analogy). “We need to put out the fire,” he says, “then save as many trees (neurons) as possible.”

Which is why, Tanzi insists, early detection is key. “This is the elephant in the room,” he says. “Alzheimer’s is not generally diagnosed until the equivalent of congestive heart failure and needed bypass.” This is wrong, he says, noting that by then the “fire” in the brain is out of control.

Over the years, I’ve lost several friends to the all-consuming conflagration that is Alzheimer’s. It pains me and motivates me. Time is fleeting, and we need to find ways to generate more funding for care and a cure.

Meanwhile, I’ve tried to come to terms with my own race for survival. No surprise, I suppose, that, given my background, I’ve found solace in the words of two great American writers. It was the poet Robert Frost who wrote: “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on.”

Ernest Hemingway put an exclamation point on this: “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”

Be strong in the broken places.

A journalist, editor, and publisher, Greg O’Brien is the author of On Pluto: Inside the Mind of Alzheimer’s, and he and his family are the subject of the 2021 documentary Have You Heard About Greg?

This story originally appeared in the November 2023 issue of Rotary magazine.

Rotary’s Alzheimer’s/Dementia action group supports and promotes Alzheimer’s and dementia-related projects of all sizes.

Inside the mind of a writer living with Alzheimer’s GO'B 2023-11-29 09:00:00Z 0

A Solar Energy Divide

Rotary and Habitat bring rooftop solar to low-income homeowners

By 

The Habitat for Humanity home that Amber Cox moved into in 2020 not only provided a new, comfortable living situation for her and her son — it also helped keep the family's energy bills low.

That's because their duplex in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley came with a perk: rooftop solar panels, installed shortly after she moved in. The technology produces enough energy to greatly reduce her electric bill and create wiggle room in her budget. "It pretty much covers what would be my electric bill about three quarters of the year," Cox says.

Even in the wintertime, when the heat is running and sunlight is less abundant, she saves about $40 a month. This, in turn, makes it easier for her to spend on activities for her 9-year-old son, like registration fees for the swim team or a weekend trip to the zoo. Among residents of affordable housing, she's one of the fortunate few with solar power.

While the cost of solar panels has plummeted, the technology has not reached everyone equally. Low-income families, which stand to benefit the most from the savings, are among those with the least access to renewable energy. Barriers include high upfront costs, difficulty accessing loans, and disqualification for tax credits.

Workers install solar panels on the roof of a Habitat for Humanity home in Hillsborough, North Carolina.

Courtesy of Southern Energy Management

By the numbers

  1. $25,000+

    Potential savings over the life of a solar system

  2. 3,000

    Tree plantings needed to equal the benefits of one solar rooftop

  3. $110,000

    Median household income of solar adopters in the U.S.

Environmental justice advocates in the U.S. have pointed to the disparity as an example of how people of color, who often endure more pollution in their neighborhoods, higher rates of asthma, and some of the greatest impacts of climate change, are also shut off from climate solutions. The civil rights group NAACP is among those pressing for greater access to solar power in communities with large percentages of Black or Hispanic residents.

Through their service partnership, Rotary International and Habitat for Humanity International are trying to shrink that solar equity gap, an effort that can have a lasting impact on families and communities. Habitat is a global nonprofit that improves living conditions in more than 70 countries, including by removing hurdles to affordable, adequate housing for families.

"There's such a thing as energy poverty," explains Liz Henke, of the Rotary Club of East Chapel Hill, North Carolina. "The energy bill is such a high percentage of disposable income for low-income people. If you can help decrease that power bill, you can help interrupt that cycle of poverty. It means families can afford shoes, buy better quality food, and all that goes back into the economy."

Since 2020, Henke's club has helped the local Habitat affiliate raise more than $330,000 for solar panels. She recruited a student intern who helped solicit the donation of 100 solar panels from Strata Clean Energy in Durham, North Carolina.

As a member of the Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group's Renewable Energy Task Force, Henke also helped produce a guidebook, with support from Habitat and Rotary, to advise other clubs in the U.S. how to make solar a reality for low-income homeowners in their locations. The ESRAG guide educates readers on the basics: Rooftop solar uses photovoltaic panels to convert sun rays to electricity, cutting the expense of drawing power from a utility. And power companies pay homeowners for energy that isn't used and is fed back into the grid, which can further offset monthly electric bills. The installation of a 5.4-kilowatt solar system can save a homeowner $50 to $150 a month in electricity costs. The guidebook also covers practical topics including tax credits and rebates, grants, fundraising, and donations of equipment, labor, and expertise.

Homes built by Habitat for Humanity with rooftop solar panels in Orange County, North Carolina.

Toby Savage

Because of the high upfront investment, Habitat affiliates have had to navigate a patchwork of funding sources, which tend to shift and fluctuate over time, says Beth Wade, director of land acquisition and project development for Habitat of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The partnership with Rotary could help, she says. "This [partnership] has the potential to stabilize funding because it may provide a new group and a new pool that we can go to when there aren't state funds," Wade says. "We live right in liberal Massachusetts, progressive Massachusetts. And even here, the funding ebbs and flows."

Already, there are Rotary/Habitat solar projects being pursued in places including upstate New York, Delaware, Minnesota, Virginia, Massachusetts, Georgia, North Carolina, Ontario, and Côte d'Ivoire, Henke says.

"It used to be, if you're going to put solar on a house, you really needed to be a tree-hugger, you needed to be willing to actually pay a premium for energy that was zero carbon," says John E.P. Morrison, executive director of NC Clean Future, an initiative that promotes clean energy, air, and water and land preservation in North Carolina. Today, once the system is in place, maintenance costs are minimal and the electricity is almost free — as long as you can pay for the system upfront, he adds.

The full cost of residential rooftop solar, including installation, dropped 64 percent between 2010 and 2022, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, part of the Department of Energy. But many tax breaks helping bring down costs favor higher earners. Homeowners with lower incomes often don't pay enough in taxes to benefit from the rebates.

But a law approved last year allows non-taxpaying entities to get the same 30 percent rebate on solar installations as taxpayers, Henke says, so organizations like Habitat can direct the savings to the homeowners. It's a way to begin to bring equity to solar energy.

"We're significantly reducing the energy burden of these families. We're contributing to the generational wealth of these families," says Jeff Heie, director of GiveSolar, a nonprofit organization that helps other nonprofits and homeowners with lower incomes gain access to solar energy. Homeowners can save an estimated $25,000 over the life of a solar system, he says.

Heie and others hope that putting solar on Habitat homes could have a ripple effect on the homebuilding industry, with more developers equipping homes with the technology. The Habitat project shows that if it can be done for low-income homeowners, anyone can do it, he says.

Volunteers lift a solar panel during installation at a Habitat home in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Courtesy of GiveSolar

To reap the full benefits of solar power, it's best to plan for an installation when the home is built. Homes need to be oriented for direct sunlight, and in the Northern Hemisphere the roof plane should face southward for maximum exposure. Building the homes with the proper electrical infrastructure is also helpful. "Most houses don't have electrical wires running up to the roof," Morrison says. "It's much easier to put that wiring in when the house is being built, as opposed to try to retrofit it later."

An expansion of rooftop solar is also an important path to meeting climate goals. The impact of one 5.4-kilowatt rooftop solar system is the equivalent of planting 3,000 trees or not driving about 300,000 miles, according to the ESRAG guidebook. "Rotary members, for the environment, like to plant trees. If we plant 50 trees on a Saturday morning, we've worked really hard," Henke says. "If you put up solar panels, that's the equivalent of planting thousands of trees that do not need to be tended, watered, or mulched."

Amber Cox is encouraged that more people are getting access to solar energy. "Once upon a time, the only people that could afford solar maybe didn't have the same amount of need that we do," Cox says. "We've come so far with solar. It does make for a hopeful future."

This story originally appeared in the September 2023 issue of Rotary magazine.

  The Solar for Habitat Guidebook can show your club how to make rooftop solar available to new Habitat homeowners.  

A Solar Energy Divide 2023-09-27 08:00:00Z 0
Rotary Health Fair 2023-09-21 08:00:00Z 0
October is Breast Health Awareness Month 2023-09-21 08:00:00Z 0
End of Life Decision Making 2023-09-21 08:00:00Z 0

Changing Health Care in Sub-Saharan Africa

By 

Hear Gregory Rockson speak at the 2023 Rotary International Convention in Melbourne.

Growing up in Ghana, Gregory Rockson always figured he’d become a doctor. At least, that’s what his parents expected.  

“There’s this African thing,” he says, “where every family wants at least one of their children to be a medical doctor.” 

The youngest of five, he believed that medicine was his calling. But in college, he embarked on a global and academic adventure, supported in part by a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, that revealed a different path — one where he would make a bigger impact than a single doctor ever could. 

His college adventure began in perhaps the most unlikely of places for an 18-year-old from West Africa: Fulton, Missouri, population 12,000. 

His sister had encouraged him to attend college abroad and offered to pay for it. At the time, Rockson was going through a Winston Churchill phase, and the British prime minister had given a famous speech about the Iron Curtain in Fulton on the campus of Westminster College, where there’s now a museum in his honor. “There was all this history and excitement about history in one place,” says Rockson. He enrolled in 2009, expecting to go the pre-med route. 

As part of the core curriculum, he took an early U.S. history course and loved it. “I was the best student in the class, which was very weird for a Ghanaian,” he says with a laugh. It changed everything. With the encouragement of his professors and his adviser, Carolyn Perry, Rockson realized he did not want to become a doctor, which would mean spending another decade in school. Instead, he switched his major to political science and pursued every opportunity he could find: He served as a legislative intern for the New York State Assembly, participated in a Public Policy and International Affairs fellowship at Princeton University, completed an internship at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C., and interned at a think tank in San Francisco.

Gregory Rockson co-founded mPharma to improve the medicine supply chain in Africa.

Photograph by Andrew Esiebo

Between those programs, he came across another opportunity, the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship. He applied through the Rotary Club of Fulton and was soon bound for Denmark, where he would attend the University of Copenhagen, hosted by the Rotary Club of Copenhagen International. There, he organized an initiative called Six Days of Peace in reference to the Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors in 1967. The initiative, which included a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian diplomats, garnered so much attention that Rockson was selected to join the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community and invited to speak at the organization’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. He didn’t know it at the time, but he was laying the groundwork for his career.   

When Rockson graduated from Westminster in 2012, his mind was on fire. The U.S. — and the San Francisco Bay Area, where he’d spent time working — was in the middle of a tech revolution, and he was eager to use his newfound skills and network to solve problems, starting with health care challenges in Ghana.  

Growing up, Rockson suffered from a number of medical conditions and spent a lot of time in the hospital. His mother, a teacher and the family’s main breadwinner, borrowed money from friends to afford his medicine. As Rockson grew older, he learned that cost wasn’t the only challenge. The drug supply chain was broken. Pharmacies often couldn’t keep critical medicines in stock, and there was no pricing transparency or infrastructure connecting patients, hospitals, and pharmacies. A doctor could prescribe a medication to a patient, and the patient would visit multiple area pharmacies in hopes that the medicine was in stock and not too expensive; at one pharmacy a drug could cost twice as much as at another, because there was no pricing regulation.

At 22, he co-founded mPharma to improve the drug supply chain by working with a network of pharmacies to negotiate better prices from pharmaceutical companies and make drugs available where and when patients need them. “If consumers have access to information, that allows them to decide not to be a customer of a particular business,” he says. “Businesses feel that, and it forces them to change.”  

To help fund the business and gather advice, Rockson reached out to contacts he’d met at the World Economic Forum. They immediately saw the potential. In time, some major pharmaceutical companies did as well, along with other investors. Today, through mPharma, more than 1,000 hospitals and pharmacies in nine African countries have helped more than 2 million people save on medications. “Without the Rotary scholarship that took me to Copenhagen, none of this would have happened,” says Rockson.  

Gregory Rockson

  • PPIA Junior Summer Institute Fellow, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, 2011 
  • Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, University of Copenhagen, 2011-12 
  • Bachelor’s in political science, Westminster College, 2012

It was just the start. Through his work with mPharma, Rockson saw that people were using pharmacists for basic health needs. “The pharmacist is actually the most accessible health care worker in the community,” he says. His next idea: What if people could see a doctor or nurse within their neighborhood pharmacy, similar to clinics at CVS or Walgreens? His team launched a franchising model in 2018 called QualityRX, which invests in renovations so that pharmacies can provide complimentary health care via a nurse and virtual doctors, and patients simply pay for prescriptions. “Today, we’ve become the largest operator of community pharmacies in sub-Saharan Africa,” he says, “and we deliver medical care to over 250,000 patients each month.”   

Rockson is as modest as they come, even as his work is heralded internationally, with honors and awards from Bloomberg, the Skoll Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and most recently, Rotary with its Alumni Global Service Award. “My life journey has always been about people who’ve taken bets on me, who have seen things in me I didn’t even know about myself,” he says. “Even when I didn’t think I was worthy of their support, they still gave me that support because they saw something in me I didn’t see.” 

Now, he works to find that spark in others. “We have well over 1,200 employees in the company, and it has always been my joy taking the young, new employees and giving them opportunities to grow,” he says. “Because that has been the story of my life.” 

But perhaps his greatest joy is the impact that he’s had on the health of friends, family, and hundreds of thousands of people in Africa. He says his aging parents are two of his most important patients. “We have two programs for chronic disease management, and my mom and dad were among the first patients enrolled,” he says. “I always tell people, I am the No. 1 user of my own services.” 

He may not be a doctor. But he has no regrets.

This story originally appeared in the May 2023 issue of Rotary magazine.

Changing Health Care in Sub-Saharan Africa 2023-05-30 08:00:00Z 0

One Coin at a Time

How the CART Fund is fueling Alzheimer’s research

By 

Nancy Rogers seemed too young to have Alzheimer's disease. But in 1999, her husband, Norm, knew something was wrong. First, she misplaced a couple of pocketbooks. Then, she started getting lost on the 11-mile commute from her office to her home in Raleigh, North Carolina.

"I would get a call from a highway patrolman 60 miles away in Greensboro saying that your wife is here at 7-Eleven, and she's lost," remembers Rogers.

As the years passed, he had to explain to his grandchildren why Grandma didn't know them. "It's horrible," he says. "It's the longest goodbye you'll ever have in your life."

Nancy died in 2010 at age 61. Rogers was in the depths of grief when a fellow Rotarian asked for a favor. He was the district chair of an effort called Coins for Alzheimer's Research Trust, or CART Fund, which raises money from Rotary members to support Alzheimer's research grants. He had to quickly leave town to care for an ill family member and asked if Rogers could step in and take over his duties.

"I jumped in the car, went to 51 Rotary clubs in three months, and drove 1,200 miles, and that was my introduction to CART," says Rogers. At the clubs, he encouraged members to empty their pockets into a little blue bucket. Each coin donated would go on to fund early-stage research on Alzheimer's. "I did it to honor Nancy."

From left: Norm Rogers, Rotary Club of District 7730 Passport, North Carolina; Carol Burdette, Rotary Club of Anderson, South Carolina; Rod Funderburk, Rotary Club of Lake Murray-Irmo, South Carolina; Tiffany Ervin, Rotary Club of Hendersonville-Four Seasons, North Carolina; and Bill Shillito, Rotary Club of Catawba Valley (Conover), North Carolina

Photography by Sean Rayford

Twelve years later, Rogers is a regional director for CART. When he travels to talk to Rotary clubs in North and South Carolina, he always asks the same question: "How many of you have been touched by Alzheimer's?" Invariably, at least 50 percent of the room raises a hand. That's because there's no cure or effective and accessible treatment. And there's much work to be done.

Some of that hard work has been made possible by CART, which started with an idea that came to longtime South Carolina Rotarian Roger Ackerman in the middle of the night back in 1995.

Ackerman was a go-getter, a problem solver, an ideas man. An active Rotary member since the 1960s, he relished the way Rotarians tackled different community challenges. But he puzzled over how Rotary members, or anyone, could help solve Alzheimer's, which had also touched his family.

Over nearly two decades, he and his wife, Deane, had watched their "Mother Love" — Deane's mom and Ackerman's mother-in-law, Rae Wodis — slowly lose herself to the disease. In the last four years of her life, she lost the ability to communicate. She couldn't remember who her family was.

"I cannot give you an adjective to describe the heartbreak to a family to see someone you love absolutely in a living-death status," Ackerman recounted during a Rotary presentation in 2013. "Can you imagine not being able to tell someone that you're hungry? That you need to go to the bathroom? That your throat hurts? Things that we do every day and take for granted. No one should have to do that."

During the time that his mother-in-law was suffering, he couldn't find research that gave him hope for an end to the disease, or even a way to treat it. That meant that other families were bound for the same tragic road he'd gone down, and that pained him.

That's when the early-morning inspiration hit. Ackerman had been fast asleep in his bed in Sumter, South Carolina. The day before, he'd had lunch with a friend, who had told him that $8 billion to $9 billion in coins changed hands every day in America. He jolted out of bed, realizing that pocket change could be the key to a cure.

Ackerman waited for the sun to rise and then called the president and president-elect of his Rotary club. He explained his vision. He wanted the effort to be straightforward: Place a little blue bucket on a table and ask Rotarians to toss in their pocket change at each meeting. It would be called the Coins for Alzheimer's Research Trust Fund, or the CART Fund, and all money would go to research grants.

The club's board of directors took it to a vote and unanimously agreed to start a trial program in late 1995. In seven months, the initiative raised $4,200.

To Ackerman, that was proof his concept could work — that people were willing to empty their pockets, and that pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters could add up to some serious cash. If other clubs joined the effort, the sky was the limit. To rally support, Ackerman traveled to different clubs — first in the area, and then around South Carolina, and eventually to clubs in North Carolina, Georgia, and beyond — to talk about a disease that today affects 1 of 9 older Americans. He urged clubs to add a little blue bucket to meetings and drop their coins in. He believed in the CART Fund so strongly himself, it didn't take long to get buy-in.

Ackerman died in 2018, but his legacy lives on. "He had the ability to persuade you to hitch your wagon to his horse," remembers Rod Funderburk, board president of the CART Fund and a member of the Rotary Club of Lake Murray-Irmo, South Carolina. "I mean, it was a crazy idea. But Roger had the ability to persuade people."

In 1999, that loose change added up to $100,000, and the CART Fund, with guidance from the American Federation for Aging Research, made its first grant to a team at Emory University led by neurologist Allan Levey. He was researching whether biological markers in a person's blood could be an early indicator of Alzheimer's disease.

That grant was life-changing for him and his lab. "It came at a really important time early in our career and our trajectory, and was sufficient to influence the course of research for us for the next several decades," recalls Levey, who today is the director of both the Goizueta Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and the Goizueta Institute @Emory Brain Health.

Although Levey and his team weren't successful in developing a blood test, he says that the project opened a new era of research for them — and led to millions of dollars in grants that would follow. Today, they lead national programs for understanding the causes of Alzheimer's disease, its biological markers, and possible treatment targets.

Norm Rogers, Rotary Club of District 7730 Passport, North Carolina.

But it wasn't just the funding that shaped Levey's life and his career. He became close friends with Ackerman and other Rotary members involved with the CART Fund. He admired what they were doing and saw that he could fill an important role in the organization. "Roger always put me in the role of helping me translate science into lay understanding for him and the rest of the CART board," Levey says.

That role was formalized in 2006, when Levey became part of CART's scientific advisory board. He helps select several annual grant recipients and translates their work into plain language that makes sense to Rotarians without a science or medical background. The selected scientists vary by interest and background, but they tend to have one thing in common: They're pursuing ideas that wouldn't receive traditional funding, usually because they don't yet have the data to support the idea at hand.

"The CART approach is to invest in young, promising scientists and research that is higher risk but could have a higher impact if that research could be sustained," says Levey. "So it's really to help get the seed funding for the initial experiments that will then grow and gather support to really take off."

Over about two decades, Ackerman attended more than 200 Rotary functions as a guest speaker, telling the story of his mother-in-law and the CART Fund, and how Rotarians could help unlock new understandings about the disease.

When he talks to Rotary clubs, Norm Rogers asks: “How many of you have been touched by Alzheimer’s?” Invariably, at least 50 percent of the room raises a hand.

"He's the reason that CART is successful. It's a brilliant concept. And it's so easy to explain," says Bill Shillito, chairman of the Alzheimer's/Dementia Rotary Action Group, who served as CART Fund's executive director from 2009 until retiring in May 2022. "But it would have died without Roger's passion. He was courageous and tenacious."

Alzheimer's, a progressive neurological disorder and the most common type of dementia, mostly affects people older than 65, though it can develop in those who are younger. The disease, which causes memory loss, disorientation, personality changes, and other symptoms, has grown more prevalent in recent decades. Between 1990 and 2019, global incidences of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias increased by nearly 150 percent, according to a study published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. The older adult population in the U.S. is expected to grow, and by the year 2050, the Alzheimer's Association predicts that the number of Americans 65 and older with Alzheimer's may reach more than 12 million — nearly double what it is today.

Ackerman found purpose in CART, and now others do too, like Funderburk, the CART Fund board president. In the mid-1980s, when Funderburk was an engineering supervisor, a remarkable engineer named Joseph Bearden joined his team. "He was brilliant," Funderburk says. "We built chemical plants all over the world." When Bearden retired, Funderburk stayed in touch. At age 70, the engineer was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and Funderburk watched with sadness as his essence seemed to fade. "The last 3½ years of his life, he knew nobody. He was in a shell by himself," says Funderburk. "He'd been the most organized engineer I've ever met. But Alzheimer's took over." When Bearden died, Funderburk was at a loss. "I looked around and asked: How do you solve this thing?" he says. That led him to the CART Fund.

Tiffany Ervin, the fund's executive director and a member of the Rotary Club of Hendersonville-Four Seasons, North Carolina, says that most of the people involved have a personal connection to the disease. Her mom started showing signs of Alzheimer's in 2010, at age 70. Watching her lose her memory was agonizing. In particular, Ervin recalls a Mother's Day visit. "She said, 'Why are you wanting to spend the day with me today? Wouldn't you rather be with your mom or your family?'" she recalls. "It was like a knife to my gut." Shortly after her mom died in 2018, Erwin was invited to become vice president of public image for the CART Fund. She says that it gave her purpose and a platform to share her mom's story. Today Ervin says, "Everywhere I go, someone has an Alzheimer's story, unfortunately. Our goal is for people to no longer have an Alzheimer's story."

Over the last two-plus decades, pocket change — and donations made at cartfund.org, which accepts funds in an increasingly cashless society — has accumulated more than anyone had dared to dream. Today, 41 Rotary districts contribute, and, as of last year, the donations had amounted to $11.2 million dollars, funding 64 grants. Over that time, 100 percent of every dollar donated has gone to research, just as Ackerman insisted. Those grant recipients have gone on to receive many millions more in traditional funding, from sources such as the National Institutes of Health. "We have a huge percentage of success," says Funderburk, "if you count success as a researcher that proves their hypothesis and gets additional money." Reflecting on past grant recipients, Levey says that many of those early-career scientists have gone on to become prominent figures, even referring to them as "giants in the field."

CART-funded research has been wide-ranging and experimental; some of the researchers have called their own studies "provocative," "high-risk," and "highly controversial." In 2022, CART awarded grants to three research teams for a total of $850,000. Those researchers are studying ways to transport protective antibodies into the brain; whether medications for other illnesses, such as malaria, might potentially slow Alzheimer's; and the role ancient viruses may play in diseases such as Alzheimer's.

Tiffany Ervin, Rotary Club of Hendersonville-Four Seasons, North Carolina.

 

Beyond the impact of the research, the CART Fund has paved the way for relationships and experiences that Rotarians and researchers relish. Grant recipients are asked to travel at their own expense to the annual CART Fund board meeting in May in South Carolina for the announcement of the winners. There they have dinner with CART Fund board members and present their research to Rotarians.

Norm Rogers says he has learned an extraordinary amount about the disease through these meetings. He channels the grief over his wife's death into educating others and encouraging them to empty their pockets into that little blue bucket. "We go back and keep it at a third grade level and explain it to our clubs," he says. "And it's proven that when we tell them what we're working on, they say, 'Oh Lord, we need to give you more!'"

The scientists, too, take away more than funding. All of the 2022 grant recipients say that they are energized by the dedication of the Rotary members. "They have an incredible passion," says grant recipient Peter Tessier, the Albert M. Mattocks Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan. "After spending time with them, I went back and was completely humbled and honored and appreciative and impressed. I've not really met a group like that. They're really unique."

And Jerold Chun, a 2022 grant recipient who is a professor and senior vice president of neuroscience drug discovery with the Sanford Burnham Prebys biomedical research institute in La Jolla, California, was similarly moved and grateful to be a part of CART. "They gave their blood, sweat, tears, and money to allow us to take a crack at this," he says.

“Everywhere I go, someone has an Alzheimer’s story, unfortunately. Our goal is for people to no longer have an Alzheimer’s story.”

Chun believes that this kind of grassroots motivation is key to helping scientists pursue new ideas and gain a deeper understanding of the brain. "There's so much that we as scientists don't know," he says. "Every effort to better define how our brains work is an effort worth pursuing and supporting."

That notion, in fact, was what was on Levey's mind in the fall of 2022 when he read about promising results in a late-stage trial for a new drug, developed by companies Biogen and Eisai, that seems to modestly slow cognitive decline in people with early-stage Alzheimer's. "It's the first drug that really seems to have consistent benefits in slowing down the course of Alzheimer's disease," he says. "That's a huge breakthrough to have the first treatment that looks like it's on our doorstep."

Of course, his mind went to CART Fund research. While the drug didn't come from the initiative, he says that it rests on the shoulders of thousands of researchers and decades of work, and those little blue buckets have been a part of that. You could say that Alzheimer's research has been building like pocket change. It started small and fragmented, but with dedication, determination, and vision, it has flourished.

This story originally appeared in the May 2023 issue of Rotary magazine.

The Alzheimer’s/Dementia action group is addressing the challenge of the rising

number of people affected by brain disorders.

  LEARN MORE  

One Coin at a Time 2023-05-03 08:00:00Z 0

Rotary Responds to Earthquake that has Devastated Areas of Turkey and Syria

Turkey and Syria were struck by a devastating earthquake on 6 February that has killed tens of thousands of people, destroyed thousands of homes and other structures, and left people across the region without shelter in bitterly cold winter weather. While still providing aid to those impacted by the first earthquake, another 6.4 magnitude earthquake occured in the same area on 20 February, bringing even more devastation. 

The Rotary world responded to this catastrophe immediately. RI President Jennifer Jones activated our disaster response efforts, communicated with the affected districts, and encouraged governors in those regions to apply for disaster response grants and share information about their relief efforts so that Rotary can amplify the calls for support.

The Rotary Foundation Trustees decided that all donations made, from now until 31 March, to the Turkey/Syria Disaster Response Fund will be used to aid earthquake relief projects. In addition, the Trustees made available more than $125,000 to Rotary districts affected by the earthquake through Disaster Response Grants.

Rotary's project partner ShelterBox also has an emergency response team assessing the needs in the region and how it can respond. That team is communicating with Rotary district leaders. Rotary's service partner Habitat for Humanity International is also working on its response. Many Rotary members are asking how they can help. Here's how to have the greatest impact:

  • Give to Turkey/Syria Disaster Response Fund. Donations help clubs and districts provide aid and support rebuilding efforts where the need is greatest. The funds are distributed to affected communities through disaster response grants. The Disaster Response Fund can accept cash contributions and District Designated Funds (DDF).
  • Support local initiatives. As we learn about local response efforts that are being led by clubs and districts, Rotary raises awareness about how to support them. People can then support these projects by working directly with Rotary members in the region. If you want us to publicize information about local response efforts, write to relief@rotary.org.

9-Feb-2023

Rotary Responds to Earthquake that has Devastated Areas of Turkey and Syria 2023-02-22 09:00:00Z 0
Map of the Earthquakes in Turkey 2023-02-08 09:00:00Z 0

7 Reasons to Go to the Rotary International Convention in Melbourne

By 

Register and pay in full by 15 December before the rate increases.

  REGISTER NOW  

Here are seven reasons you’ll want to attend the 2023 Rotary International Convention in Melbourne.

  1.  

    You’ll (re)connect with the Rotary family.

    The last Rotary International Convention, in Houston, was proof there’s nothing like connecting face to face. But for many Rotary members in the Asia-Pacific region, where COVID-19 restrictions complicated travel plans, Melbourne will be their first in-person convention in four years. With five districts (representing more than 250 Rotary and Rotaract clubs) across the state of Victoria hosting the event, it’s sure to be a big reunion.

     

  2.  

    You’ll explore the world — all in one place.

    The convention is the best way to appreciate Rotary’s global scale and reach, says Rebecca Fry, founding chair of RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) Oceania and charter president of the Rotary Club of Social Impact Network, New South Wales. “The House of Friendship is a true festival of Rotary, showcasing our organization’s fellowships, action groups, and community projects from around the world.”

     

  3.  

    You’ll discover cities within a city.

    The coastal metropolis is known as the Australian capital of culture, food, sports, architecture, and theater. It’s also a shopping mecca.

    Mary Barry, chair of the Host Organization Committee, proudly notes Melbourne’s regular recognition as one of the world’s most livable cities. It is a family friendly place where visitors will feel instantly welcomed and at ease. “The city looks after its tourists with excellent public transport to unique attractions,” says Roslyn Teirney, an assistant Rotary public image coordinator for Zone 8 and a member of the Rotary Club of North Hobart, Tasmania.

     

  4.  

    You’ll be inspired.

    Rotary conventions are all about an exchange of ideas. And each year’s gathering brings you big name speakers to inspire, connect, and spur solutions to the world’s toughest challenges. Just look at the list of some past speakers: Bill Gates, Justin Trudeau, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Princess Anne of the United Kingdom. “While still early to announce 2023 program highlights, be assured only outstanding international speakers will take part,” says HOC Chair Barry.

     

  5.  

    You’ll get your kangaroo fix.

    Experience quintessential Australia with a visit to the Melbourne Zoo for a close-up and safe encounter with some of the world’s most unusual, cute, and dangerous species — kangaroos, koalas, snakes, spiders, crocodiles, wombats, and platypuses. Just 13 miles northeast of Melbourne’s central business district, the Gresswell Forest nature reserve provides spectacular sightings of eastern gray kangaroos, says Jennifer Scott, a past district governor and member of the Rotary Club of Central Blue Mountains.

    Need more cuteness? Head to Phillip Island, 75 miles southeast of Melbourne, and check out the largest colony of little penguins in the world.

     

  6.  

    You’ll feel energized.

    Looking for a place to hang out with all your new Rotary friends once the day is over? Melbourne has endless options. Laura Telford, chair of the Rotaract Australia multidistrict information organization and member of the Rotaract Club of Canberra, describes Melbourne as another of the famous cities that “never sleep.”

    “Visitors will enjoy jumping on one of more than 475 trams that cover 250 kilometers [155 miles] of track to take you to every corner of this exciting city.”

     

  7.  

    You’ll want to see more of Australia.

    While the distance can be a challenge in traveling to Melbourne, visitors may fly in to Sydney, Brisbane, Darwin, or Perth to make the most of a unique travel opportunity by seeing other parts of Australia. “The Great Barrier Reef, Uluru and the Red Centre, our tropical north, and the rugged coast of Western Australia all present memorable sightseeing experiences,” Scott says.

     

The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre and the Polly Woodside ship-turned-museum.

 

For more ideas, visit melbournecb.com.au/welcome-to-melbourne.

This story originally appeared in the December 2022 issue of Rotary magazine.

7 Reasons to Go to the Rotary International Convention in Melbourne 2022-12-07 09:00:00Z 0
Thanks from Homer Chamber of Commerce 2022-12-07 09:00:00Z 0

A Timely Triage

A Multiyear Medical Mission in Moldova Adapts to a Pandemic — and a War

By 

In December 1999, Stephen Mackler was on a medical mission to Bucharest, the capital of Romania. As he completed his work there, a colleague pulled him aside.

“Steve,” he said, “I need you to go with me to Moldova.”

“Great,” replied Mackler. “Where is Moldova?”

Moldova, of course, is the Eastern European country and former Soviet republic situated between Romania and Ukraine. Mackler’s visit there would lead to a series of Rotary Foundation global grants and significant improvements to Moldova’s outmoded nursing program — and this endeavor would continue despite the global pandemic and the outbreak of war.

In Moldova, nursing students from the National Medical College in Chișinău demonstrate different types of medical technology.

Courtesy of Lauren Sterenberg

But first, back to 1999. While in Moldova, Mackler visited several hospitals, and he returned to his home in the U.S. distressed at what he’d seen, especially the number of people suffering from illness related to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Fortunately, Mackler, a periodontist and adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina’s school of dentistry, was also a member of Rotary. He had joined the Rotary Club of Guilford (Greensboro) in 1995 after an earlier medical mission — this one to the jungles of Brazil — where he’d seen Rotary in action. So he knew exactly where to turn.

Mackler reached out to a fellow Rotarian who told him about a recently formed partnership between Moldova and the state of North Carolina. The partnership was the outgrowth of a program, originally military in nature, promoted by the U.S. Department of Defense to encourage cooperation among U.S. states and the former Soviet republics. Mackler met with Elaine Marshall, North Carolina’s secretary of state (Marshall continues to hold that office today and remains a champion of the Moldova-N.C. partnership), and in 2000 he traveled to Moldova to provide dental care. “We’ve been coming back year after year,” he says, “and we’ve been doing the things [Moldova’s health care leaders] wanted us to do. So we were building a lot of trust, which is the first thing that we had to do.”

As the years passed, Mackler recruited other dental professionals, as well as some of his students, to accompany him on those trips, which were supported in part by contributions from his Rotary club. Often those recruitments took place at his North Carolina practice, and in 2006, a nurse landed in his dental chair. Before long she too became a member of Mackler’s traveling team and began enlisting other nurses who might help modernize another aspect of Moldova’s medical system.

A nursing student from the medical college addresses a student project fair.

Courtesy of Lauren Sterenberg

“Moldova had nursing colleges that young women and some men attended right out of high school,” explains Mackler. “But they were more like nurse assistants, doing things like changing bedpans.” What’s more, Moldova lacked the regulatory standards applied to nurses in most developed countries.

Mackler and his volunteer team of medical professionals set out to rectify that. Once again, he got help from his Guilford (Greensboro) club, as well as from District 7690 (North Carolina), which provided district grant funding. Working with the Nursing Association of the Republic of Moldova, the team sought to develop a core curriculum in professional nursing for the Nicolae Testemițanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Moldova’s capital, Chișinău. The Rotary Foundation provided the project its first global grant in 2015, with the Rotary Club of Chișinău Cosmopolitan serving as the host club and the Guilford (Greensboro) club as the international partner; in the three global grants that followed, the Rotary Club of Chișinău Centru served as host.

As the project expanded and evolved, Mackler concentrated on fundraising and assembling the right personnel. Eventually he ceded the lead role on medical matters to a 15-member vocational training team known today as the North Carolina-Moldova Nursing Collaborative. As Mackler recalls: “I told my wife, ‘You know, I’m not used to working with nurses.’ She said, ‘Steve, keep your mouth shut, and they’ll take charge, which is what nurses do.’ And that’s exactly what they have done.”

The training team includes medical professionals and educators from several schools in North Carolina. Among them are three key players with ties to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro: team leader Deborah Lekan, a recently retired assistant professor of nursing; Audrey Snyder, a professor and the associate dean for experiential learning and innovation; and Nancy Hoffart, the recently retired Forsyth Medical Center distinguished professor who is the project director on the collaborative’s latest global grant. “In describing these women, I use the words ‘committed’ and ‘dynamic,’” says Mackler. “They’re doing this on their free time, and it’s unbelievable the amount of time that they’re spending on this.”

“Thanks to the partnership, we were able to have higher studies for the training of nurses at the university level and obtaining licensed nurses,” says Elena Stempovskaia, the president of the Moldova nursing association. “Nurses can also continue their studies toward masters and doctoral degrees. All these activities contributed to the development of the nursing profession and the improvement of the quality of care provided by nurses.”

By the numbers

  1. $343,000

    Total amount of money provided by Rotary Foundation global grants to the North Carolina-Moldova Nursing Collaborative

  2. 1,117

    Number of people in Moldova trained by the collaborative as of October 2022

  3. 10

    Number of webinars prepared by the collaborative to address trauma-informed care and other medical issues that arose with the influx of refugees to Moldova from Ukraine

 

Two years ago, after reevaluating its strategies and goals, the nursing collaborative began laying the groundwork for what would become its fourth and largest global grant: a $197,400 bequest made possible in part by $150,000 in gifts to The Rotary Foundation presented by Guilford (Greensboro) club member Eugene Parker, and his wife, Margaret.

At the same time, the collaborative planned to continue the exchange of visits between the two countries that, beginning in 2014, had provided delegations of nurses and other medical professionals the opportunity to teach and learn together in person. The last exchange occurred three years ago when the North Carolina team traveled to Moldova, followed by a visit in which Moldovan doctors saw U.S. nurses at work. After that session, the doctors “were bubbling,” says Hoffart. “They began to see that having better-educated nurses with more autonomy and a broader scope of practice could help them as physicians and improve the services they were offering patients. So that was a really cool visit.”

It was also the last visit, as COVID-19 halted the in-person exchanges. The educational outreach, however, continued. In North Carolina, nursing collaborative members produced digital slide presentations and webinars that provided their Eastern European counterparts with information about dealing with the pandemic — and, when translated into Romanian (Moldova’s official language) and Russian, the slides and videos could be distributed to a wider audience than the personal exchanges had allowed.

“The webinars organized during the pandemic gave us the best lessons on how to [respond to COVID],” says Stempovskaia. “We had six webinars at the national level, in which up to 600 nurses participated each time. But since the webinars were recorded, we transmitted them to every medical institution in the country, where every nurse had the opportunity to participate.”

Nursing faculty demonstrate nursing simulation tools used at the National Medical College in Chișinău.

Courtesy of Lauren Sterenberg

The webinar approach also proved effective when war broke out in Ukraine and refugees began flooding into Moldova. “We were able to turn on a dime and redirect our [efforts] to something that met the immediate need for education,” says Hoffart.

“The war in Ukraine led to a large number of complicated situations that nurses in Moldova had not encountered before,” says Stempovskaia. “Together with our colleagues from North Carolina, we picked the important topics and organized 10 webinars that were also recorded and placed on YouTube, web pages, and Facebook,” further extending their reach.

“The global grants had had a great impact, especially during the pandemic and now during the war in Ukraine,” adds Irina Rusanovschi, a member of the Rotary Club of Chișinău Centru. “The war also affects us because the Ukrainians are our neighbors, and we are trying to support them in this difficult time. We have many refugee centers, and any help is welcome.”

“We want to give sincere thanks to all our partners in North Carolina,” says Stempovskaia. “They have big and kind hearts and have done so many beautiful things for our republic, for our people, and for our nurses.”

In June, with help from the Rotary-sponsored nursing collaborative, the State University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Chișinău graduated its first class of students who earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing; the graduates dispersed to hospitals across the country to share their expertise. Meanwhile, members of the nursing collaborative are looking forward to resuming the exchanges between the two countries. At the end of a recent webinar, having concluded her 45-minute lecture, Lekan — who joined the Guilford (Greensboro) club in 2017 — smiles and addresses her virtual audience. “I wish you good health and much success in your work,” she says. “I look forward to a visit to Moldova in the future, and I hope that our paths will cross.” Undoubtedly.

This story originally appeared in the December 2022 issue of Rotary magazine.

Disease prevention and treatment is one of Rotary’s seven areas of focus.

  LEARN MORE    

A Timely Triage 2022-12-07 09:00:00Z 0

Home From War, a Hard-Won Struggle to Find Peace

An Iraq veteran works through his trauma — and adopts a mission to help others

By 

Zach Skiles thought he was fine.

He completed his time in the Marines at 22 in 2004 after serving in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. His unit was shelled so many times he'd lost count. He was mourning friends lost in combat. But he was home, ready for what was next. "I was just happy to be alive," he says.

Still, the tendrils of war followed him. Skiles, soft-spoken with kind green eyes, found himself waking up to his own screams at night. He had spells where he'd wind up in a public place, like a Walmart, with no idea how he got there. "I didn't realize that I was in a bit of shock," he says. "And I continued to just disassociate every day."

Illustration by Sean McCabe

For those first few years, he bounced between San Francisco and Los Angeles, worked different jobs, and took college classes. He even acted in local theater, channeling his anger into rage-filled characters. But when that anger and frustration started to consume him, he numbed himself with booze and weed. He fell hard for conspiracy theories about the 9/11 terrorist attacks and found himself using phrases like "New World Order" and "the Illuminati." He got fired in 2008 when his employer learned he'd been organizing conspiracy-oriented demonstrations in the community. "Then I slowly spiraled and ended up homeless," he says. "My family didn't really know what to do." After crashing on a friend's couch, he started sleeping on park benches in the Bay Area.

People closest to him told him he needed help. But to Skiles, they were the ones in the wrong. He'd kept in touch with fellow Marines and said everyone else in his unit was going through similar things. They were all dealing with their troubles in their own way. He would too.

In December 2009, Skiles went to a Veterans Affairs facility in Palo Alto for health services. Now that he was homeless, it was clear he wasn't doing fine. A social worker told him the Pathway Home could offer him support and a bed immediately.

A private facility founded in 2007, the Pathway Home leased space on the Veterans Home of California-Yountville campus, a sprawling, serene spread of Mission-style buildings, dotted with redwoods. The Veterans Home is the largest in the country, and more than 600 veterans live in the community. In contrast, the Pathway Home worked with about 40 residents at a time, providing individual and group counseling, educational classes, help accessing VA benefits, job referrals, and more. Most residents would stay four to six months, but some remained as long as a year.

Pathway Home's overarching goal was to help veterans reintegrate into civilian life. The vets tried to learn to move beyond or manage the demons of war. Brown University's Costs of War Project estimated in 2021 that more than 30,000 people who served in the military after the 2001 terrorist attacks have died by suicide. That's more than four times the number who died in military operations over that same period.

The Veterans Home of California-Yountville, where Pathway Home was located.

Eric Risberg/AP/Shutterstock

In the early days of the Pathway Home, its founder and executive director, Fred Gusman, a social worker and mental health specialist who worked with traumatized veterans for more than two decades, spoke to the Rotary Club of Napa, California. He told members about the startling suicide statistics and described how some veterans in crisis wait months before finding a bed in a treatment facility. The speech shook Napa Rotarian Gary Rose. A problem-solver by nature, he began thinking about ways to help and remembered a defunct charity bike ride called Cycle for Sight, which once benefited a camp for blind and partially sighted people. What if Rotary were to help bring back the event to also benefit veterans?

With the help of other area nonprofits and Rotary clubs, including Pacifica, San Rafael, and Brentwood, Cycle for Sight/Rotary Ride for Veterans was launched in 2008. It drew cyclists from across the Bay Area for picturesque 15-, 25-, and 50-mile rides, ending with food, music, and wine. The event raised more than $2 million by 2019 for the Pathway Home, drawing more than 2,000 riders a year before COVID-19 forced it to go virtual. "The love the veterans got from the community was crazy," says Rose.

The Rotary Club of Napa launched the Cycle for Sight/Rotary Ride for Veterans in 2008 to raise money for Pathway Home.

Courtesy of Dorothy Salmon

After learning about the Pathway Home through the VA, Skiles agreed to check in, but not until after the year-end holidays. By choice, he spent Christmas alone, sleeping outside on a bench.

He arrived at the home in January 2010, still in full denial. Looking around the treatment facility, he quickly decided that all the veterans there were crazy, except for him. "I don't deserve to be here," he told himself.

But slowly, over those first few weeks, he noticed how much he had in common with the others. Many of them, too, experienced bouts of rage, confusion, and terror. He attended classes and therapy sessions, participated in yoga and meditation groups. He started building trust and friendships, reflecting on his life and the steps that got him to that point.

When Skiles joined the military in 2000, at 18, he was a smart and sensitive kid with an easy smile and a quick laugh. But he was lost. He'd dropped out of high school and was living in a friend's attic while working at a video rental store. He knew he needed to get it together, but he wasn't sure how. That's when a tall man in a sharp, blue Marine uniform walked into the store. "He was such a good-looking dude," recalls Skiles of the recruiter. "I was like, 'Oh, man. Yeah. Tell me what you got.'"

Zach Skiles enlisted in the U.S. Marines in 2000 when he was 18 years old.

Courtesy of Zach Skiles

Skiles took away from their conversation concepts like outdoors, discipline, respect, education, direction, positive male role models. Skiles was 5-foot-7 and 110 pounds. He'd never held a gun. He enlisted in the Marines.

He never found the job easy. Initially, he was sent to a unit in Okinawa, Japan, that was being investigated because so many of its service members had died by suicide, he recalls. The environment felt toxic from the get-go. "The philosophy was that hate and discontent needed to bleed through the ranks to breed efficiency, and people would stay tough," he says.

But Skiles, an optimist through and through, told himself he would be OK. When his unit deployed to Camp Commando, Kuwait, in January 2003, his understanding was that the situation was just a "show of force." But on 19 March, the war began and the first Iraqi missile to hit the gate of Skiles' camp blew him off his feet. From then on, seemingly every half hour for weeks, his unit came under attack.

As a driver, he delivered fuel to camps, provided convoys security, and helped build infrastructure in Iraq. Along the way, he'd hear Scud missiles approach. "Six to 12 would fire off at once," he says. "They'll eventually end up either on top of you or in front of you or behind you."

Late at night, as he tried to sleep, the barracks filled with traumatized screams.

How your Rotary club can support veterans

After working with veterans for more than 10 years, the Rotary Club of Napa created a downloadable guidebook called Serving Those Who Have Served: Helping Rotarians Better Serve Veterans.

"The goal of this guidebook is to provide a road map for any Rotarian who has thought, 'I'd like to help veterans, but I don't know how,'" says Dorothy Salmon, a club member and past club president, who spearheaded the guide and produced it with the help of author Suzanne Gordon. "It's intended as a gift from one Rotary club in Napa to thousands of Rotary clubs across the country."

The Rotarians' involvement with the Pathway Home went beyond their fundraising ride. Napa club members took the veterans hiking, fishing, and bowling. They helped them write résumés, and introduced them to prospective employers.

When the Pathway Home needed supplies such as blankets, the Rotarians helped out. Napa Rotarian Kent Gardella contacted quilt business, and it made personalized quilts for each veteran, paid for with money raised by Rotary members. One Mother's Day, Gardella, who owns a jewelry store, invited Pathway Home residents to choose an item from his store to give their mom or wife as a gift.

Gardella, a Vietnam veteran, tears up when he reflects on all the times he spent with the veterans. "We didn't baby them," he says. "They're really amazing young people, and that we get to spend time with them, that's a privilege."

Things were starting to come together for Skiles. After a few months at the Pathway Home, he felt a sense of acceptance. "At your lowest, having people who still want to genuinely connect is really special," he says.

In his free time, Skiles devoured books suggested by one of his therapists on the psychological toll of combat. During group sessions, some clinic leaders recognized he had a gift for therapy. His Rotary friends agreed. "We convinced him, 'Hey, you're really a smart kid,'" Dorothy Salmon of the Napa club recalls. "You need to go back to school."

And that's what he did. The boy who had once dropped out of high school got his bachelor's in psychology, and his doctorate in clinical psychology at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California. Along the way, he worked in positions that validated that he was doing the right thing, for him and for others, serving as a peer counselor and developing programs to help other veterans. He continued meditating and practiced mindfulness to calm his anxiety.

He wasn't perfect, but he was better and, he thought, probably as good as he was going to get.

On 9 March 2018, tragedy struck again — this time at the Pathway Home.

Afghanistan War veteran Albert Wong rented a car and drove to the facility, where he'd lived until a couple of weeks earlier when he was discharged for not complying with regulations. That day, he interrupted a going-away party for two staff members. He was carrying a 12-gauge shotgun and a .308-caliber semi-automatic rifle.

After the tragedy at the Pathway Home, Napa club members continued to raise money for veterans and created a guidebook outlining ways Rotary clubs can help.

Josh Edelson / Associated Press

After ordering the veteran residents out, he held three staff members hostage: Executive Director Christine Loeber and psychologists Jennifer Gray Golick and Jennifer Gonzales Shushereba, who was pregnant. When a Napa County sheriff's deputy arrived, shots were exchanged. Wong killed the three women, then killed himself.

After the shooting, the Pathway Home, which had treated nearly 460 veterans since its founding, shut down. But Salmon, who served as the home's president from 2013 to 2018, was determined not to let the shooting be the end of the story. "I said to the Rotary club and to the Pathway Home board, are we going to let this be our legacy, after years of incredible success?" says Salmon. "This cannot be the story." To this day, the Rotary Club of Napa raises money for a program that works with veterans at the Martinez VA Medical Center's outpatient clinic.

 

 
Home From War, a Hard-Won Struggle to Find Peace 2022-11-02 08:00:00Z 0

Lessons in Fatherhood

From Erdenet, Mongolia, to Evanston, Illinois, support for dads can be life-changing

By 

Three years ago, Davaanyam Gongorjav, a young father living in Erdenet, Mongolia, found himself in dire straits. His wife had recently died of cancer. He had no job and no child care for his daughters, who were 4 and 7 years old. More fundamentally, he was facing a crisis of confidence as a father.

Davaanyam, it turns out, was not alone. There were dozens of single fathers in Erdenet facing similar challenges in a culture where the notion of a father raising children without a partner was alien, and where community support for those fathers was virtually nonexistent.

Word of these fathers had passed from a professor at the International University of Ulaanbaatar to Jennifer Scott, an Australian Rotarian working in law and mediation. Before long, Scott and a group of colleagues had conducted a community needs assessment and organized a workshop for nearly two dozen single fathers, supported by a global grant from The Rotary Foundation.

"These were men in tragic circumstances, who had lost wives in childbirth or to cancer," says Scott, a member of the Rotary Club of Central Blue Mountains, who traveled to Mongolia as part of a vocational training team. "They loved their children and wanted to raise them. But they were living in a society where the mother-in-law viewed child rearing as her role and would try to remove them."

Fathers play an important role in their children’s lives but often lack support.

Image credit: Andrew Esiebo

The recent history of Mongolia only compounded their plight. Under Soviet influence, Mongolian men were tasked with herding and farming, Scott notes, while young women were educated. A subsequent mining boom claimed much of the country's agricultural land, leaving many men without any education or sense of identity. "These men felt, therefore, terribly disempowered," she says.

The workshop, by all accounts, yielded astonishing results. But Scott and the other facilitators first had to learn a crucial lesson. "On the first day of the fathers' training, I invited many female social workers to observe," recalls Enkhtuya Sukhbaatar, a member of the Rotary Club of Ulaanbaatar who helped organize the project. "We wanted to learn from the Australian professionals how to work with these fathers. We didn't realize that fathers in trouble need male trainers."

Only after all the women were asked to leave the room were the fathers willing to discuss the hardships they faced. "That made all the difference," Scott recalls. "The men were finally able to open up about the complexity of parenting, the risk of losing their children while mourning the loss of a wife, and the fact that there was nothing there to support them in the system."

For men such as Davaanyam, the workshop was life-changing. "I feel very lucky to be part of this project," the 31-year-old says. "I cannot imagine how I would have managed my life as a father without it."

Not only did Davaanyam gain confidence in his role as a father but he became a member of a local fathers association. Another dad hired him as a security guard at a vocational school. He's also been able to secure child care and counseling from local agencies.

“The men were finally able to open up about the complexity of parenting ... and the fact that there was nothing there to support them in the system.”

“It was one of those perfect Rotary projects where you go somewhere and are able to truly enable people,” reports Ian Scott, Jennifer’s husband and also a Central Blue Mountains club member, who helped handle administration for the workshop. “Jennifer and her colleagues provided professional and academic support. But it was the locals who really picked it up and ran with it.” The result isn’t just personal empowerment, but systemic change, in the form of greater social and legal support for single fathers in Mongolia.

By the numbers --- Among American dads:

  1. 63%

    say they spend too little time with their children

  2. 39%

    say they are doing a “very good job” raising their children

  3. 57%

    say parenting is “extremely important” to their identity

    Source: Pew Research Center

For Jennifer Scott, the project underscored that while the importance of mothers is universally recognized and supported, the role of fathers is too often overlooked and underserved.

That's a sentiment that Brian Anderson, half a world away in the United States, will second. About a decade ago, when his first daughter was born, Anderson saw his wife quickly join a slew of support groups for mothers, both in person and online. But when he began looking for fathers groups, he found virtually nothing.

Anderson, a social worker and interfaith counselor in Evanston, Illinois, took it upon himself to launch Fathering Together, which began as "a bunch of dads meeting at a bar every month to talk." He soon joined forces with a friend who had formed a Facebook group called Dads with Daughters.

That group has grown into one of the largest fathers networks in the world, with more than 125,000 members. "So many dads were asking questions of the group," Anderson recalls, "and they all really boiled down to this: I want to be a better dad than my dad, but I don't know how and don't know where to look."

Anderson had hit upon the same vacuum of support that Davaanyam struggled with in Mongolia. The question that nagged at Anderson was: why? Why was it so difficult for fathers like him to find community?

After talking to hundreds of fathers informally, Anderson concluded that there are three factors: "First, most of us are still raised in a culture that tells dads you need to be a breadwinner and not much else," he observes. "Second, we're given no support when it comes to translating our professional skills into our lives as fathers. And maybe most important, we're socialized in a way that makes us uncomfortable with emotion."

As membership in the Facebook group exploded, he launched Fathering Together as a nonprofit. "We want to provide support to dads, but also hold them accountable to who they need to be for their families," he says.

That accountability holds true for Anderson himself. He recalls a time a year and a half ago when he was tucking his 7-year-old daughter, Clara, into bed. She wouldn't let him kiss her good night. When he asked what was wrong, she replied, "You know, you run this group for dads, but you're not being a good dad to me."

Children with involved fathers are twice as likely to go to college and 80 percent less likely to spend time in jail, according to research compiled by the University of Texas at Austin.

Image credit: Monika Lozinska.

At the time, Anderson had a full-time job as a program manager while also working nights and weekends on Fathering Together. The truth of his daughter's comment pierced him. Holding back tears, he told his daughter she was right. He acknowledged he was putting all his creative energy into his project, rather than into his family. And he pledged to change that.

A couple of weeks later, a major source of funding came through, allowing Anderson to leave his job and devote himself to Fathering Together full time.

Through the nonprofit, he has run workshops to empower fathers to tell their stories and to understand the values they seek to pass down to their children.

"I encounter so many dads who are dealing with the trauma of disconnection from their own fathers and who are saying, 'I need to be the one who changes that,'" he says. "The question is: How do we let go of the old trappings and live a more connected dad life?"

To that end, Anderson is working on a book called Fathering Together.

The goal for today's fathers, he says, remains the same, whether you're in Evanston or Erdenet. "It's not to be perfect, because we all mess things up," he says. "It's to be present for our children — to honor the gift of being a dad."

This story originally appeared in the September 2022 issue of Rotary magazine.

This Project was Supported by a Global Grant from The Rotary Foundation.

Lessons in Fatherhood 2022-09-08 08:00:00Z 0

Partnering for Peace

 
This is a Rotary International Announcement - FYI
Dear Homer Rotarians,

As our club is active in service projects and activities, we were sent a personal invitation to participate in this year’s Rotary-Peace Corps Week, 19-23 September. This week is an opportunity for members of both organizations to collaborate, share their resources, and co-create projects that will have an even greater impact. It is hosted by Partnering for Peace, a group of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who are also Rotary members and are passionate about the impact we can all make together through the official Rotary-Peace Corps partnership.

The week’s theme is Peacebuilding on the Ground and starts on Monday, 19 September with a panel webinar including:
  • Chief Financial Officer of Open Doors Asheville, Keevon Baten, who is a Founding Rotaractor Club President, and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer;
  • President Emeritus of the National Peace Corps Association and Former President of the Alliance for Peacebuilding, Charles Dambach, who was nominated for the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize and received the 2017 Institute for Economics and Peace Leadership and Service for Peace Award;
  • Past Rotary International Director Peter Kyle who has been an active peace builder and former chair of the Rotary Peace Center Committee; and,
  • U.S. Representative for Frontline Defenders, Ana Patel, who is a Rotary Peace Fellow, Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, and a Rotary Representative to UN Women.
The week’s other events include:
  • Tuesday, 20 September - What does “Peacekeeping on the Ground” mean to you? (Social Media Discussion on Partnering for Peace’s Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn)
  • Wednesday, 21 September – Breaking Down the Design of a Rotary-Peace Corps Partnership Project with Peace Corps, Namibia Director of Programming and Training, Jane O'Sullivan (Webinar, 11 am EDT)
  • Thursday, 22 September – Rotary-Peace Corps Partnership Question & Answer “Drop In” Session with Rotary International, Partnerships Manager, Carrie Golden, and Peace Corps Office of Strategic Partnerships & Intergovernmental Affairs, Acting Director, Ted Adams (Zoom Meeting, 10 am EDT)
  • Friday, 23 September – Information Sessions: From Rotary to Peace Corps: Continuing Your Legacy of Service (Webinar, 2 pm EDT)
  • Friday, 23 September - Deepen Your Impact: Get Started on Your Journey to Become a Rotary Peace Fellow (Webinar, 3 pm EDT)
  • Friday, 23 September – Virtual Cultural Happy Hour (Zoom Meeting, 4 pm EDT)
You can register for events here.

How else can your Rotary community participate in this week-long grassroots initiative? Although opportunities vary by country and geographic region, consider the ideas below.
  • Invite a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) to speak about their service at your club meeting. Find a speaker here.
  • Participate in a joint service project or social event with members of the Peace Corps community by connecting with your local RPCV group.
  • Promote the Rotary-Peace Corps partnership by sharing successful partnership projects with the Partnership Manager (contact information below), district newsletters or local media.
  • Attend the Rotary-Peace Corps Week events. Register for them here.
For more information, email events@partneringforpeace.org or visit https://www.partneringforpeace.org/cpages/rotary-peacecorps-week2022. 

We encourage you to consider participating in this week of events and to extend this invitation to your club members.

Best wishes,

Carrie Golden
Partnership Manager
Programs and Services | Service and Engagement
Rotary.service@service.org

On behalf of Partnering for Peace, an affiliate group in support of the Rotary-Peace Corps partnership
Partnering for Peace
7970 South Vincennes Way
Centennial CO 80112
United States
https://www.partneringforpeace.org/cpages/home1
info@partneringforpeace.org
 
In Rotary Service,
Kim Zook
Club President 2022-23
Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay
907-435-7309
 
Partnering for Peace 2022-09-07 08:00:00Z 0

World Autism Awareness Day: Support, Not Stigma

Clubs seek to increase awareness and understanding of the autism spectrum

By 

When schools in Kenya reopened in January 2021 after a nine-month closure due to COVID-19, Sylvia Mochabo was looking forward to her 11-year-old son, Andy, returning to the classroom. Their schedule, like those of millions of families around the world, had been disrupted by the pandemic, and for Andy, who was diagnosed with autism at age 3 and who struggles with adapting to changes in his routine, the closures and lockdowns were particularly challenging. But his first day back at school didn’t go as planned.

“His school refused to take him back until he was wearing a mask, which Andy isn’t able to do because autism makes him sensitive to physical sensations. Without speech therapy, he began drooling more. He found the mask unbearable,” says Mochabo, a member of the Rotary Club of Muthaiga. Because he wasn’t in school, Andy also lost access to discounts on occupational therapy sessions, which are crucial to his development. Now, Mochabo has to pay the full price for home-based support.

“I’ve had to reduce the number of sessions from thrice weekly to once; without the discount I can’t afford to do all three sessions, even though I know Andy needs them,” she says. “It’s heartbreaking.”

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) consist of a range of developmental disabilities that can make communication and social interaction difficult and can also cause behavioral challenges. People with autism may think, act, learn, and communicate in ways that are different from most other people. According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 160 children globally has an autism spectrum disorder.

In recent years, the reported prevalence of the disorder has been trending higher, and this is consistent across data sources from countries as diverse as Germany, Iran, and Japan, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is unclear how much of this increase is due to changes in clinical definitions of ASD or to better efforts to diagnose the condition. However, the CDC doesn’t rule out an absolute increase in the number of people with ASD, and researchers are looking into why this might be the case.

A global grant- supported project of the Rotary Club of Chicagoland Korean-Northbrook, Illinois, helps young people on the autism spectrum to become more comfortable in a social setting

 

For Rotary member Corina Yatco-Guerrero, her child’s diagnosis came as a shock, even though she and her husband are medical practitioners — she’s a neuro-ophthalmologist and he’s a neurologist. It took them a while to accept their son’s diagnosis and find ways to support him with speech therapy, occupational therapy, and a special needs education.

“For me, the most important thing that parents and families should know is that autism is not a life sentence, that children with autism have a right to life and proper special education that will make them better equipped to face the challenges that they will face,” says Yatco-Guerrero, a member of the Rotary Club of Sta. Ana (Davao), Philippines.

“Parents must learn to accept and not dwell in their state of denial, and to love their children and give them the best in life,” she says. “A child with autism is lovable, and they deserve our love, too.”

Families of children with autism often have to grapple with the lack of social understanding about the condition, even in cosmopolitan cities. Many families experience social stigma, and in some countries the condition is frequently attributed to witchcraft or something that the parents did wrong.

Early interventions, starting before age 5, have been shown to yield the best results for children with autism. “Children need to be assessed at young ages to determine gaps in development and allow for early intervention,” says Pooja Panesar, director and co-founder of the Kaizora Centre for Neurodevelopmental Therapies, a Nairobi institution that uses a step-by-step approach to teach children crucial skills such as communication and toilet training, while reducing behaviors of concern.

“Through this process, we have had great success, from children receiving early intervention who transition into mainstream education to adults who are now living independently and maintaining permanent employment,” Panesar says.

By the numbers

  1. 40%

    Portion of people with autism who are nonverbal

  2. 2 in 3

    Children ages 6-15 with autism who have been bullied

  3. $268 billion

    Cost of caring for Americans with autism in 2015

    Source: Autism Speaks

There are several management styles for the condition, and one size does not fit all. Some children might need a lot of help in daily living, while others might be quite independent. “If a child is nonverbal, then having a speech therapist would help. If a child has sensory integration problems, an occupational therapist can help,” says Yatco-Guerrero.

Mochabo, a single mother of three, has found support and encouragement from her Rotary club, and with the help of fellow members, she has started to do more to spread awareness and advocate on behalf of children with special needs. Every year, in partnership with other clubs in Kenya, the Rotary clubs of Machakos, Nairobi, and Thika host the Sunshine Rally, a day of fun, games, and entertainment for children with disabilities.

“I attended a Sunshine Rally and realized that I wasn’t alone in this journey, and being a Rotarian gave me the desire to do more and to be of service to other families like mine,” says Mochabo.

Inspired by the rally, Mochabo founded an organization called Andy Speaks for Special Needs Persons, named for her son, to advocate on behalf of people with special needs and for an end to the stigma they face. “We can support each other all year round,” she says.

Yatco-Guerrero is also involved in creating awareness of autism, in her case through a nationwide organization called Autism Society of the Philippines (ASP). This group advocates for acceptance and integration of people with special needs into society.

“Our Rotary District 3860 has been actively advocating for awareness and acceptance,” Yatco-Guerrero says, “by joining ASP’s annual Angels Walk, a one-day march of persons with autism and their families and teachers. It draws thousands of people by the year, thus earning a spot in the news, which in turn helps disseminate autism awareness throughout the country.”

Other clubs around the world also have organized projects related to autism. The Rotaract Club of Çekirge, Turkey, put together a series of monthly art workshops for autistic artists working with mosaic and painting, and they plan to organize an exhibition of the artworks to raise awareness about autism. In Malaysia, a global grant funded a series of workshops, hosted by more than a dozen clubs, that provided early-intervention training for teachers and primary caregivers of children with autism. The Interact Club of Rio Claro-Cidade Azul, Brazil, with support from its sponsor Rotary club and District 4590, created the Inclusion Symphony, a music therapy room for children with autism, to provide a differentiated therapeutic space and to stimulate and expand the interaction and communication capacity of people with autism. And the Rotary Club of Chicagoland Korean-Northbrook, Illinois, organized a global grant-supported vocational training program for youth on the spectrum.

For Yatco-Guerrero, ultimately the home is ground zero for any kind of autism intervention. “Having a special-needs child means the whole family must get involved to make things work and make life bearable for all,” she says. “It is a labor of love because it is not easy, and it will test your patience to the fullest. But it is your own child who needs your help, and help you will definitely give. It involves a lot of sacrifice, a lot of patience and understanding.” 

Christine Mungai is a writer and journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya. Her work has been published in the Africa Report, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Al Jazeera English. Mungai is the curator for Baraza Media Lab in Nairobi, a co-creation space for public-interest storytelling.

World Autism Awareness Day is 2 April.

Help support autism-related projects through The Rotary Foundation. Make your gift at rotary.org/donate.


Related content

mytaxi donates proceeds from rides to Rotary

North Carolina nonprofit provides services for those with autism

Children with disabilities learn artisan craft at Italian balsamic vinegar center rescued by Rotary

World Autism Awareness Day: Support, Not Stigma 2022-05-18 08:00:00Z 0

COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – May 18, 2022

Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary
 
Reporting data for May 11-17, 2022
 
WEEKLY UPDATE - DHSS updates all COVID-19 dashboards weekly on Wednesdays. For the latest on COVID-19 in Alaska, read the DHSS weekly update and DHSS data summaries: dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/id/Pages/COVID-19/clinicalupdate.aspx
Notes:
  • Layering protective measures, including vaccination, masking, ventilation, handwashing, physical distancing, testing, and timely treatment help reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
  • The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) encourages Alaskans to talk with a health care provider or call 907-646-3322 about getting the COVID-19 vaccine and getting boosted when eligible.
  • Medications that fight COVID-19 are widely available, and most Alaskans are eligible. If you get COVID, don't wait till you get worse: call a health care provider as soon as possible about treatment options. Learn more at covidrx.alaska.gov.
VACCINATIONS These rates cover all Alaskan residents including those reported by the Department of Defense and Veterans Administration (DoD/VA).
72.1% of Alaskans age 5 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.
65% of Alaskans 5 and older have been fully vaccinated. The higher the vaccination rate, the more protected community members are from COVID-19. See below for percentages of all fully vaccinated Alaskans ages 5 and older by region.
  • Juneau Region: 80.6%
  • Y-K Delta Region: 78%
  • Other Southeast Region - Northern: 75.2%
  • Anchorage Region: 71.6%
  • Southwest Region: 70.1%
  • Other Southeast Region - Southern: 68.4%
  • Fairbanks North Star Borough: 67%
  • Northwest Region: 63%
  • Other Interior Region: 60.3%
  • Kenai Peninsula Region: 50.4%
  • Matanuska-Susitna Region: 43.2%
CASES – DHSS today announced 1,954 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska.
1,675 were residents of: Aleutians East Borough (1), Anchor Point (3), Anchorage (575), Bethel (13), Bethel Census Area (26), Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula (5), Chevak (2), Chugach Census Area (1), Chugiak (6), Copper River Census Area (2), Cordova (5), Delta Junction (2), Denali Borough (6), Dillingham (3), Dillingham Census Area (2), Eagle River (56), Ester (2), Fairbanks (213), Fairbanks North Star Borough (16), Fritz Creek (1), Girdwood (2), Greater Palmer Area (36), Greater Wasilla Area (100), Haines (9), Healy (4), Homer (42), Hooper Bay (1), Houston/Big Lake Area (4), Juneau (246), Kenai (28), Kenai Peninsula Borough-North (6), Kenai Peninsula Borough-South (3), Ketchikan (74), Ketchikan Gateway Borough (2), Kodiak (24), Kotzebue (12), Kusilvak Census Area (6), Matanuska-Susitna Borough (6), Metlakatla (5), Nikiski (1), Nome (3), Nome Census Area (2), North Pole (37), North Slope Borough (3), Northwest Arctic Borough (10), Petersburg (3), Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area (2), Seward (4), Sitka (54), Skagway (24), Soldotna (12), Southeast Fairbanks Census Area (1), Sterling (3), Sutton-Alpine (1), Tok (1), Utqiaġvik (9), Valdez (4), Willow (1), Wrangell (8), Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon (24), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (19).
279 nonresident cases were identified in:
  • Anchorage: 26 with purpose under investigation
  • At sea: 23 with purpose tourism
  • Delta Junction: 2 with purpose mining
  • Denali Borough: 9 with purpose under investigation
  • Fairbanks: 12 with purpose under investigation
  • Homer: 6 with purpose under investigation
  • Juneau: 9 with purpose tourism, 92 with purpose under investigation
  • Kenai: 1 with purpose under investigation
  • Ketchikan: 3 with purpose tourism, 9 with purpose under investigation
  • Kodiak: 1 with purpose under investigation
  • Northwest Arctic Borough: 2 with purpose mining
  • Palmer: 1 with purpose under investigation
  • Petersburg: 1 with purpose under investigation
  • Prudhoe Bay: 11 with purpose North Slope oil
  • Seward: 1 with purpose under investigation
  • Sitka: 9 with purpose under investigation
  • Skagway Borough: 13 with purpose tourism, 14 with purpose under investigation
  • Soldotna: 1 with purpose under investigation
  • Unalaska: 1 with purpose under investigation
  • Valdez: 1 with purpose under investigation
  • Wasilla: 1 with purpose under investigation
  • Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon: 3 with purpose under investigation
  • Location under investigation: 27 with purpose under investigation
18 resident cases were subtracted and 14 nonresident case were added to the state's overall totals due to data verification procedures, bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 249,522 and the total number of nonresident cases to 8,517.
 
HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 3,762 resident hospitalizations and 1,252 resident deaths.
8 new Alaska resident hospitalizations and 17 Alaska resident deaths were reported. 1 nonresident death was also reported. Please see this webpage for more information on the process used to report COVID-19 deaths: dhss.alaska.gov/dph/epi/id/pages/covid-19/deathcounts.aspx.
The Alaska residents who died were:
  • A female resident of Anchorage age 80+
  • A female resident of Anchorage age 80+
  • A female resident of Anchorage in her 70s
  • A female resident of Anchorage in her 60s
  • A female resident of Anchorage in her 60s
  • A male resident of Copper River Census Area in his 70s
  • A female resident of Dillingham age 80+
  • A male resident of Homer in his 50s
  • A male resident of Ketchikan in his 70s
  • A male resident of Ketchikan in his 40s
  • A male resident of Matanuska-Susitna Borough age 80+
  • A female resident of North Slope Borough in her 50s
  • A male resident of Northwest Arctic Borough age 80+
  • A female resident of Palmer in her 40s
  • A female resident of Petersburg age 80+
  • A female resident of Utqiaġvik in her 60s
  • A male resident of Wasilla in his 70s
Our thoughts are with their family and loved ones.
There are currently 44 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized. 1 of these patients is on a ventilator. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 3.4%.
 
TESTING – Updates to testing data can now be found on a tab of the cases dashboard: experience.arcgis.com/experience/af2efc8bffbf4cdc83c2d1a134354074. DHSS is no longer reporting percent positivity or the cumulative number of tests on our dashboard. This is in part because of the increased use in at-home rapid antigen testing, where results are not reported to the State. 
 
COMMUNITY CASE RATES – We encourage the public and community leaders to continue to be aware of case rates in their area. On the dashboard, the Community Case Rates Map presents the total number of new reported resident cases per 100,000 persons in the past 7 days for each borough/census area. 
A tab monitoring CDC COVID-19 Community Levels also considers COVID-19 impacts on hospital admissions and hospital beds. CDC looks at the combination of three metrics — new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 population in the past 7 days, the percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, and total new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in the past 7 days — to determine the COVID-19 Community Level. Learn more here.
The current statewide Community Case Rate — based on the reported number of cases per 100,000 people over the past 7 days — is 229.8. For boroughs and census areas: 6 areas are at >400 cases, 7 areas are at 200-399 cases, 9 areas are at 100-199 cases, 4 areas are at 50-99 cases and 2 areas are at 0-49 cases per 100,000.
Find case rates for individual boroughs and census areas by clicking on the Community Case Rates Map tab on the cases dashboard at experience.arcgis.com/experience/af2efc8bffbf4cdc83c2d1a134354074/.
 
Notes: Reports are received electronically, by phone and by fax. Cases are verified, redundancies are eliminated and then cases are entered into the data system that feeds into Alaska’s Coronavirus Response Hub. When there is a high number of reports being received, this may cause delays in getting reports entered and counted. Personnel continue to focus on the effort to process and count reports and minimize the delay from receipt to posting on the hub.
There is a lag between cases being reported on the DHSS data dashboard and what local communities report. Each case is an individual person even if they are tested multiple times. Total tests are a not a count of unique individuals tested and includes both positive and negative results. The current number of hospitalized patients represents more real-time data compared to the cumulative total hospitalizations. Current hospitalizations are reported for all facilities, not just general acute care and critical access facilities. Total number of hospital beds available fluctuate daily as the number of available hospital staff changes. Community Case Rates are provided to show trends and patterns over time, as there can be substantial day-to-day variation in reporting of cases to DHSS. Community Case Rates show how widespread the virus is in a community and are a good tool to determine weekly trends for specific geographic areas. All data reported in real-time, on a daily basis, should be considered preliminary and subject to change. To view more data visit data.coronavirus.alaska.gov.
COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – May 18, 2022 2022-05-18 08:00:00Z 0

Recent Covid -19 Info

7-day case counts on Southern Kenai Peninsula

Community05/0405/0505/0605/0705/0805/0905/10
Anchor Point11  12 
Fritz Creek    1  
Homer1332147
Other South1  111 

Data from Alaska Department of Health and Social Services: Table 2b Geographic Distribution of Cases by Report Date. Updates typically occur by 1pm on Wednesdays.

*PLEASE NOTE: There is currently a lag in State of Alaska reports of positive results tested at South Peninsula Hospital. Use chart at right for weekly SPH data.

Alaska case count website Kenai Peninsula case map website *
School Operation Levels Dashboard*

SPH Week At a Glance

Week ending May 3Prior Week
ED Visits for Covid1904
New Hospitalizations01
Test Samples Collected372418
Positives Resulted2433
Positivity Rate*6%8%
Outpatient Monoclonal Antibody Infusions32
Recent Covid -19 Info 2022-05-11 08:00:00Z 0

Rotary Ukraine: "A Big Thank You to All Our Rotary Members Who Have Helped Us In Ukraine"

Ukraine Rotariets magazine editor Mykola Stebljanko, discusses how Rotary clubs in the country are helping and how he is adapting to the increasingly dire situation.

The war in Ukraine has displaced millions of people, creating a devastating humanitarian crisis along the country's borders. In response, The Rotary Foundation set up an official channel for donors worldwide to support relief efforts. At press time, more than $3.5 million has been contributed to the fund.

While the situation is evolving quickly, this interview with Rotariets magazine editor Mykola Stebljanko, conducted in late March, offers a telling picture of the troubling events in Ukraine as well as Rotary's tremendous relief efforts there. Stebljanko discusses how Rotary clubs in the country are helping and how he is adapting to the increasingly dire situation.

What's your situation there now?

I'm living in Odesa. It's the third most populous city in Ukraine, an important port city on the Black Sea coast, in the southwest. Currently, there's no military presence here, but we live under the constant threat of bombs and missiles. Often, air raid sirens will wake us up in the middle of the night. We have to get up and hide in a safe place. In my apartment, the safest place is the bathroom. We huddle together and spend the rest of the night there. Occasionally, we experienced a few rocket attacks, but most of the time, it's a safe place.

As of now, most of the military actions center around Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, and Kharkiv. More than a dozen smaller cities are also under attack. The city of Mariupol in the southeast of Ukraine is under siege. More than 2,500 civilians have died in Mariupol and close to 400,000 people are trapped, and the Russian army has stopped anyone from escaping. Many are without electricity, water, and heat.

What is happening with Rotary clubs in Ukraine?

There are 62 Rotary clubs in Ukraine. At the moment, only the Rotary Club of Kherson has temporarily suspended meetings, because the city is under the control of the Russian military. I recently spoke with the Rotarians there. None of them are able to escape and they are trapped inside the city. They no longer meet or do any projects for fear of personal safety. Our district governor sent a letter of support to all Rotarians in Kherson.

Other Rotary clubs continue to operate and are trying their best to conduct Rotary services. We have created a special coordination committee. Each club has a representative on the committee, and we meet online twice a day to discuss issues that are facing our clubs.

What kind of relief projects are Ukrainian clubs doing?

Our Rotary services fall into the following three areas:

  • The first involves providing help to our hospitals, where a large number of wounded civilians are being treated. The hospitals are in dire need of medical supplies. Our district has set up special accounts and has received about US$100,000 from Rotary clubs and districts around the world. We have already purchased and distributed medicine and equipment. We have also received two Rotary Foundation disaster response grants.
  • Second, we are working to coordinate humanitarian aid. Rotary clubs and districts are sending aid via trucks, ships, and air carriers. We are rebuilding Rotary's humanitarian hubs along Ukraine's borders with Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania. They have received all the supply items and sent them across the border to our cities. Then, we have different hubs inside Ukraine near the border regions, where Rotarians distribute this humanitarian help to the cities that are in dire need of it. Most of the items are clothes, food, and medicine.
  • Third, we are trying to help Rotarians' family members who want to leave the country. We have received many requests from Rotarians in Europe and America who would like to host our family members and relatives.

Why don't you leave Ukraine?

I'm already a refugee. I lived in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, for 40 years. But in 2015, I had to leave my native city because of the Russian annexation of Crimea. So, my wife, Olga, and I moved to Odesa. We felt our move to Ukraine would keep us safe. When people asked us why we do not want to leave Odesa and go outside Ukraine, I always answer: We were forced to leave our motherland once in 2015. We don't want to leave our country again. We are Ukrainians and we would like to stay in Ukraine.

What's your message to the Rotary clubs around the world?

On behalf of Rotarians in Ukraine, I would like to say a big thank you to all our Rotary members who have helped us in Ukraine. It means a lot to us during this difficult time in our country's history. At the same time, I would like to appeal to Rotary people to lobby their governments and push for peace. We are grateful to our friends around the world who are helping us.

  1. In early March, missiles hit a residential district in the city of Zhytomyr, killing three people.
  2. Mykola Stebljanko in the pre-war years.
  3. Tatyana, 22, says goodbye to her boyfriend Oleksander, 23, at a barracks in Lviv. Oleksander has received his conscription notice.

 

• This story originally appeared in the May 2022 issue of Rotary magazine.

Rotary Ukraine: "A Big Thank You to All Our Rotary Members Who Have Helped Us In Ukraine" 2022-05-11 08:00:00Z 0

A Little Bit of Salt

A surgeon in Spain finds a way to treat patients in Nigeria

by 

Even as a child growing up in Owerri, Nigeria, Dr. Nnamdi Elenwoke had a penchant for surgery. “I remember my mom would buy a chicken for us to eat, and she would ask me to prepare it for cooking,” he says. “I would cut into the bird very carefully, trying to understand its insides. My mom got mad at me for wasting time, but gradually she realized that I was doing this for a reason.” As a teenager, Elenwoke was taken to a nearby hospital to visit a family friend. He promptly wandered away from his mother to see patients on a nearby ward, feeling an instinctual desire to heal them.

With his family’s support, Elenwoke, 39, attended medical school and now works as a neurosurgeon in Barcelona, Spain. He still goes back to Nigeria to perform surgeries when he can, but his desire to help patients and doctors in his homeland prompted Elenwoke in 2016 to help launch Docotal Health, which uses an international community of doctors to remotely help patients in underserved parts of the world.

Sometimes, this consists of Elenwoke dispensing medical advice directly to a patient via email or video chats. Just as often, Docotal offers support to health professionals on the ground. “Our community of doctors has different specialties,” he explains. “We have a cardiologist who can help if there is heart pain, a radiologist who can read X-rays and scans. Our core group consists of 11 doctors, but each of us has our own network we can reach out to.”

Elenwoke’s devotion to service dates back to his teenage years in Nigeria, where he joined Interact, following in the footsteps of his brother-in-law, a longtime Rotarian. Rotary and Docotal recently collaborated on a campaign to provide personal protective equipment for health workers in Nigeria, and future projects are in the works.

“To be successful,” Elenwoke says, “you have to surround yourself with a team that helps you succeed. You also need ‘a little bit of salt,’ which means a little bit of luck. For me, finding Rotary, having them as part of my team, has been that little bit of salt.”

A Little Bit of Salt 2022-05-11 08:00:00Z 0

Is It Bias or Is It Bigotry?

by 

"Everyone is on board with the idea that people are biased. But it’s always the other group!"


Executive Director of the Adversarial Collaboration Project at the University of Pennsylvania

Most of us associate the word "bias" with bad things like racism, sexism, and homophobia. 

To social scientists, however, those things go beyond bias; they're bigotry. Social scientists define bias as a preference, and without it, well, imagine how long it'd take you to place an order in a restaurant. 

Psychologist Matt Grawitch, director of strategic research at Saint Louis University's School for Professional Studies, says our brains evolved to make decisions quickly, based on small amounts of information. And in prehistoric times, experts believe that the more someone seemed like us, the less dangerous we assumed them to be, whether or not this was true. 

But many of our prehistoric tendencies aren't necessarily good for us today. Studies have shown that the most diverse companies are more likely to outperform their competitors. And you may have a bias toward burgers and against vegetables, but that doesn't mean you should only eat burgers or hate vegetables. 

Part of being a modern, evolved human or organization might mean avoiding some of the things we're biased toward and seeking out alternatives.

While we are often bad at spotting our own biases, we can learn to distinguish bias from bigotry and keep it from negatively affecting our decisions. 

Here are some tips for keeping bias from becoming a detriment. 

The cost of bias

Employer bias drives employee disengagement, which costs U.S. companies an estimated $550 billion per year.

20 percent vs. 7 percent. Employees at large companies who perceive that their companies are unfairly biased are nearly three times as likely to be disengaged at work. 

31 percent vs. 10 percent. People who perceive unfair employer bias are more than three times as likely to say that they’re planning to leave their current jobs within the year.

 34 percent vs. 13 percent. Those who perceive unfair bias are 2.6 times more likely to say that they’ve withheld ideas and solutions over the previous six months. 

Sources: Gallup, Coqual

Recognize that it’s hard. We are largely unaware of our own biases, even when they are brought to our attention, says Cory Clark, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. Clark often asks a classroom of students to rate themselves relative to the others in the room on friendliness, attractiveness, sense of humor, and other factors, and it invariably turns out that they all consider themselves above average. "Almost everyone is a six or above," Clark says. Then she shows them the results and points out that it’s impossible for 100 percent to be in the top half on each trait. Having revealed their bias, she asks them to rate themselves again. The vast majority still rate themselves as better than average. "Everyone is on board with the idea that people are biased," says Clark. "But it’s always the other group!"

Beware of group-think. Psychologist Matt Grawitch says the risk of bigotry grows when our circle is made up of people who look, think, and sound too much alike. "When everyone has the same bias," he says, "you’ve created an echo chamber."

Ask yourself: Is it true — or safe? Clark says that earlier in our history, our biases tied us to our clan, our tribe, or what psychologists call our "ingroup." And disagreeing with your ingroup could get you cast out — or worse. Today, that bias toward our ingroup creates the potential for us to distort the information we process and to feel frustrated when others don’t see things as we do.

Consider whether the bias is good for you, or for the group. Bias may have favored evolution, but not necessarily the individual. Squirrels are biased, says Clark, "to think everything is a predator." So while fear of predators may promote the survival of the species, it might make an individual squirrel disadvantage itself by staying away from a human who's trying to help it.

Set policies. "We can't rely on our self-awareness," says Gail Tolstoi-Miller, founder of a staffing-strategy firm. One way to combat unconscious bias is to follow processes developed by a diverse group. "Diversity isn’t just identity," she says. "Decision-makers must have diverse thinking." This is especially true for hiring decisions. A diverse group of interviewers can help put unconscious bias to the side. 

Encourage robust discussion. "Organizations need to cultivate a culture that encourages and even celebrates constructive debate," says Michael Diaz, founder of Delco Business Solutions, in Folsom, Pennsylvania. "If an organization’s culture empowers team members to question each other's assumptions, regardless of where they fall on the organization chart, the negative impact of bias will be minimized."

Learn more about uncovering unconscious bias in the diversity, equity, and inclusion courses in the Rotary Learning Center. Find them at my.rotary.org/learning-reference.


This story originally appeared in the May 2022 issue of Rotary magazine.

Is It Bias or Is It Bigotry? 2022-05-11 08:00:00Z 0

White Rhinos and Black Mambas

Can an all-female anti-poaching unit stop wildlife crime in an African game preserve — without guns?

by Photography by 

Judy Malatjie, Naledi Malungane, and Tsakane Nxumalo on patrol.

Dressed in a baggy green camouflage uniform and black work boots, long ponytail swinging against her back, Tsakane Nxumalo, 26, and her partner Naledi Malungane, 21, stride alongside an elephant-proof electric fence that is 7 feet high and nearly 100 miles long. The potent, honey-like odor of purple-pod cluster-leaf trees hangs heavy in the humid summer air, while overhead a yellow-billed hornbill swoops to perch on the skeleton of a dead leadwood tree. Nxumalo and Malungane are members of the Black Mambas Anti-Poaching Unit. Named after a snake that is native to the region and long, fast, and highly venomous, the Mambas strive to protect the animals of the Balule Nature Reserve within Greater Kruger National Park, a South African wilderness that is about the size of Israel.

Nxumalo and Malungane, who both grew up near the unit's headquarters but only got to know each other since they became Mambas, are checking, as they do every day of their 21-day shift, for breaches in the fence. Mostly this entails collecting rocks to shore up the places where animals such as warthogs and leopards have tried to burrow their way under, but periodically they come across a spot where humans have cut the fence to hunt animals for bushmeat or, worse, poach rhinos for their horns.

In 2013, when the first Mambas began patrolling the reserve, they quickly discovered that rhino poaching was only part of the problem. The park was also losing hundreds of animals of all species to snares every year. "It was embarrassing," recalls Craig Spencer, 48, as he sits by a bushveld braai (barbecue) and talks over the calls of a nearby hyena. A maverick South African conservationist, he was head warden of Balule, a private animal preserve. "I should have known what was happening under my nose. It took the Mambas to show me what was going on."

White rhinos have been hunted almost to extinction in Africa. Of the continent's 18,000 remaining white rhinos, nearly 90 percent are in South Africa, the species' last best hope. Kruger is home to by far the biggest white rhino population, as well as about 300 of the world's 5,600 remaining black rhinos.

The rhinoceros horn is prized in some countries, used as a traditional medicine and a status symbol. According to the Wildlife Justice Commission, a horn fetches an average of $4,000 per pound in Africa, and as much as $8,000 per pound in Asia; given that a set of white rhino horns typically weighs 11 pounds, it's worth between $44,000 and $88,000. South Africa's per capita income is about $5,000 per year and its pre-COVID-19 unemployment rate was about 29 percent. Therefore, a rhino, sadly, is a tempting target. In 2017, poachers killed more than 500 rhinos in Greater Kruger National Park, including 17 in Balule.

"Poachers make me angry," Nxumalo says, because they are killing the animals that all South Africans should be preserving for future generations. While Nxumalo is fully aware that some people poach only out of a desperation to feed their families, her commitment to the cause is unwavering. She points out that it would be devastating for both tourism and conservation to lose a member of what's called the "Big Five," an old hunting term that refers to the five most sought-after animals in Africa: lions, leopards, elephants, buffalo, and rhinos. Rhinos, along with elephants, are keystone megaherbivores that shape the landscape in ways that benefit other species. And the big animals in any ecosystem are usually the canaries in the coal mine, to abuse the phrase. "If we can't prevent keystone species from going extinct," says Tom Tochterman, "other species are also doomed."

Since 2009, when he had an "aha!" moment during his first photo safari in South Africa, Tochterman, 60, has been a passionate supporter of this nature reserve. A retired real estate developer and a member of the Rotary Club of Chelan, Washington, he has since founded a nonprofit called Rhino Mercy, which strives to fight rhino poaching, and developed a luxury photo-safari program that helps to fund conservation work. He also earned a PhD by researching the influence of cognitive dissonance on the consumption of natural resources and ecosystem degradation.

In addition, Tochterman was a founding member of the Rotary Action Group for Endangered Species (RAGES), which has the goal of improving the lives of people by improving the habitats and lives of endangered animals of all types. He welcomes the recent addition of protecting the environment to Rotary International's areas of focus. "We firmly believe that healthy landscapes contribute to healthy communities," he says, adding that "the Mambas have shown that the reverse is also true."

In 2010, Tochterman was at a bush camp, sitting around a campfire with Spencer, the former game warden who is now his close friend and partner, drinking rum-and-cokes and talking long into the night, when they lit a spark that would grow to become the Mambas. "Across Africa, the default response to poaching has been to bring in more men with more guns," Tochterman says. "And it hasn't worked anywhere." It dawned on them that the only way to change the narrative was to shape the minds of the next generation, and that the best way to reach the children was through their mothers.

Tochterman and Spencer eventually learned about a government program to employ women as environmental monitors in conventional agriculture; they thought they could maybe stretch the job description to include "game ranger," but senior management at South African National Parks questioned the concept of unarmed women operating in areas where lions, leopards, rhinos, elephants, and buffalo roam free. Tochterman was told on more than one occasion that this was a "stupid, dumb idea" that "could only have come from America."

When the two men were finally given a chance to put their theory into action, the candidates shortlisted by bureaucrats in the government program were told what the job would entail — and they all quit. So Spencer and Tochterman got permission from the local chiefs to go into communities near the park and look for the right kind of people. The Black Mambas name was chosen by the first group, says Tochterman, symbolizing "how seriously they took their opportunity to enter an industry that had previously been off-limits to women. They wanted to make a statement that they were not window dressing."

Word quickly spread, and within months the Mambas were receiving unsolicited applications from local women almost every day. Since the beginning, the day-to-day operations of the Mambas have been managed by Spencer's nonprofit, Transfrontier Africa. Tochterman was key in building and financing the Mambas' operations hub as well as the separate compound where the women stay during their shifts. He had also spent six years in the military police, so he was able to provide training in skills such as handcuffing a person. Tochterman's Rhino Mercy nonprofit acts as the Mambas' international fundraising arm, and it has brought them financial security. The government recently stopped funding the women's basic salaries (around $450 per month), which was a small fraction of the total cost of the program. Tochterman says that all told, employing one Mamba costs upwards of $50,000 per year.

Naledi Malungane trains on an obstacle course.

 

Nkateko Mzimba, who was part of the Mambas' second cohort in 2014, remembers many men in her hometown teasing her about the job and belittling her chances of survival in what they deemed to be a man's world. Their predictions very nearly came true when, during her first few months with the Mambas, she and two colleagues were repeatedly charged by a pride of lions and had to be rescued from a tree by a passing vehicle. "I tried to quit," she remembers. "But after counseling I decided to stay and prove the doubters wrong." Looking back, Mzimba, now a sergeant who will soon qualify as a professional field guide, realizes that the whole situation could have been avoided if she had better read the lions' behavior.

Mzimba now ensures that every patrol includes a veteran Mamba and that armed response is always on standby. (The Mambas' every move is tracked from a central operations room.) In their first year, it was not uncommon for the Mambas to find 70 snares in a day. They also came across several "bushmeat kitchens," large operations for butchering and drying meat, within the reserve itself.

One full-moon night in 2015, a patrol of Mambas responded to the sound of gunfire and startled a group of poachers who had just killed a rhino. After briefly giving chase in their vehicle, the Mambas returned to the scene to find two rhinos dead and a third one wounded. Despite the best efforts of emergency veterinarians, the third, too, succumbed. The only small mercy of this grisly episode was that the poachers didn't get their prize.

Knowing that the Mambas have played a part in reducing poaching feels "really amazing," says Nxumalo, more so because it's a job that she says she grew up thinking was "supposed to be done by men." To this day, many in the conservation industry in South Africa still feel that women have no place in the anti-poaching arena and that conducting unarmed patrols in Big Five areas is foolhardy. "I don't think men would want to work unarmed in a Big Five area," says Nxumalo with a laugh. "A man would come up with so many reasons why he needs a gun. But for us it's more about reading the animals' behavior. We understand that it's not really about guns."

A section of the Oliphants River in the Black Mambas’ patrol area.

 

Through their community connections, the Mambas are also helping to change the cops-and-robbers narrative that has plagued the conservation movement in South Africa since its inception. While nature conservation is often depicted as noble protectors of the environment doing battle with evil poachers and exploiters, this ignores more complex social, political, and economic realities. Shortly after the land that would become the Kruger National Park was set aside and protected in 1898, some 3,000 people belonging to the Tsonga ethnic group were forcibly removed from the land. Fences were erected, national borders that had previously been recognized only on maps were enforced, and people were fined or imprisoned for "trespassing" on the land they had always lived on and hunting the animals they had always eaten. During apartheid, the fences became more impenetrable and the sentences harsher.

This history is vital to understanding how rangers and poachers can come from the same communities — or families. And it's why many of the people who have lived their entire lives on the fringes of one of the world's most iconic national parks know almost nothing about it.

Nxumalo had been to Kruger a few times, but had no real affinity with the bush. After passing a panel interview and a fitness test with flying colors, she and eight other recruits, including Malungane, began their basic training. Training was hard, she says, involving exercises such as "running the whole day in the sun with only a small bottle of water." Now she looks back on that time with appreciation: "Training gave me that go-ahead, that I can be more and do more."

After racking up thousands of kilometers of foot patrols in Big Five areas, Nxumalo loves the bush and remains devoted to the cause. She's not alone — all of the women from her cohort are still Mambas. And they're proud to pass on what they've learned. "We won't only teach our own kids; we will tell other girls that they can do anything," Nxumalo says. "We are telling every lady out there that you can do more, you can be more." While they never go home in their uniforms (a poacher could steal one from a clothesline and use it to infiltrate the park), Nxumalo makes no attempt to hide what she does. "You have to be proud of what you do," she explains. "This inspires others to walk tall. I've always known I could do a lot. But the Mambas really brought it out of me."

Tsakane Nxumalo scans the horizon at sunset.

 

The Mambas' salary is considered quite good for the area, so in addition to using her income to support her mother and her sister, Nxumalo has been paying her own university fees. She recently completed the first year of a teaching degree online. Mzimba uses her income to fund and run a food pantry for hungry neighbors — which further aids in reducing poaching.

A typical day for the Mambas involves rising at dawn for a fence patrol or snare sweep (both on foot) and conducting nightly observations from a blind or vehicle. Gunshots, torchlight, and the smell of tobacco smoke are all telltale signs of poacher activity, but these days Nxumalo says the Mambas are more likely to be interrupted by a leopard or a herd of elephants. "They are so peaceful at night," she says. "Sometimes they block the way, but we never rush them."

Weekly tasks for the Mambas include searching the compounds where reserve staff and contractors live, conducting roadblocks, and speaking to tourists and local communities about the importance of wildlife conservation. "If nothing happens on a patrol, that is a big success," Nxumalo says. "If I don't find any snares, that is a bonus because it means that no one has come in to plant a new snare and no one has cut the fence since I last checked it. It's a huge relief."

Nkateko Mzimba distributes food.

 

 

 
White Rhinos and Black Mambas 2022-05-05 08:00:00Z 0

World Immunization Week: Vaccines Keep Communities Healthy

 

Our progress in the fight against polio shows why vaccination is important

Increasing awareness about the power of vaccines and closing immunization gaps could protect millions of people worldwide from vaccine-preventable diseases, including polio, according to the World Health Organization. World Immunization Week, 24-30 April, is an opportunity to focus on that work, and the robust polio eradication infrastructure built by Rotary and our partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) provides a model for it.

The GPEI estimates that polio vaccines have saved an estimated 20 million children around the world from paralysis. When Rotary helped launch the GPEI in 1988, the disease paralyzed more than 1,000 people worldwide every day, most of them young children. Since then, Rotary and its partners have reduced the number of polio cases by 99%, and in 2021 there were just six cases of polio caused by the wild poliovirus. Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only two countries where the wild poliovirus remains endemic.

The progress against polio is the result of the efforts of countless volunteers and health workers who immunize children in hard-to-reach communities and establish real-time global surveillance and outbreak response mechanisms. The polio eradication infrastructure has been used to fight other infectious diseases and undertake crucial health interventions, including supporting COVID-19 prevention and vaccination efforts.

With our decades of experience in bringing polio to the brink of eradication, Rotary has been able to highlight the power and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. Since the pandemic began in 2020, Rotary members have helped health authorities communicate lifesaving information about COVID-19, dispel misinformation, and support fair and equal access to vaccines.

Download Rotary's World Immunization Week toolkit for graphics and information.

Every Vaccine Counts Video

 

World Immunization Week: Vaccines Keep Communities Healthy 2022-04-27 08:00:00Z 0
Peace Tree Donated to Homer Public Library 2022-04-27 08:00:00Z 0
Rotary Rural Alaska Reading Program  Books Delivered to Voznesenka School 2022-03-30 08:00:00Z 0

Rotary’s Network Enables Rapid Humanitarian Relief for Ukrainian Refugees

By 

The crisis in Ukraine is having devastating consequences on civilians as families flee their homes. According to the United Nations, more than 3 million people, most of them women and children, have sought refuge in neighboring countries and across Europe, while about 1 million more people have been displaced within Ukraine.

Rotary and Rotaract clubs in Europe and around the world have taken swift action and are working with members nearby to provide food, water, medical equipment, and shelter for refugees.

The Rotary Foundation created a funding channel for relief efforts in Ukraine.

  Donate now  

Rotaract Europe

The European Rotaract Information Centre, a multidistrict information organization that serves Rotaractors all over Europe, created a United for Peace site that compiles information for refugees and volunteers.

  • The site offers information about free rail, bus, and air transportation available to refugees and lists details about what’s needed and how to help at specific national borders.
  • It also has fundraising details for hospitals in the western Ukraine city of Lviv, as well as for clubs that are helping in various places and for other organizations in the region.
  • The site lets Rotaractors coordinate shelter for refugees stranded at the border. Volunteer hosts can sign up through an online form and specify how many people they can house and for how long. Begun as an initiative to help fellow Rotary members leaving Ukraine, it’s now being used by Rotaract and Rotary members all over Europe to offer help.
  • A tool on the site links a demand for goods with available supplies. It was created within 48 hours after a team of 60 members from 10 countries met by videoconference about how to meet the most urgent needs.

Ukraine

Ukraine has 62 Rotary clubs and six satellite clubs with about 1,100 members, and 24 Rotaract clubs with more than 300 members.

  • District 2232 (Ukraine and Belarus) formed a committee to help people affected by the crisis. It has launched an appeal to Rotary members worldwide for funds to provide basic necessities.
  • The city of Lviv has had an influx of people displaced from other cities around Ukraine. The Rotary Club of Lviv International, working with local authorities and major hospitals, created an online spreadsheet of relief items that can be accessed by people who want to help. Members arrange for the donated items to be delivered to hospitals and coordinate storage with local warehouses.

Poland

Poland has taken in more than a million refugees, and Rotary clubs all over the country created a central account for contributions.

  • The Rotary Club of Olsztyn is collecting and managing donations for more than 150 Ukrainians who are staying at Ostróda Camp, a conference and recreation center. Most of the occupants are unaccompanied children whose parents stayed in Ukraine. Four cars full of supplies including food, clothes, toiletries, and toys were donated hours after the center began accepting refugees.
  • Members of the Rotary Club of Zamosc worked with a member of the Rotary Club of Wolsztyn, who owns a medical supply distribution company, to coordinate a partnership with other organizations to collect supplies and equipment.
  • The Rotary Club of Gdansk Centrum is providing accommodations for four refugee families, and members who own businesses are offering them work.

Other countries that border Ukraine

  • The Rotary Club of Kisvárda, Hungary, is coordinating contributions and mobilizing members to donate necessities and deliver the items to where they’re needed.
  • Rotary members in Romania and Moldova have created a central fund for contributions and set up WhatsApp groups that organize food donations and coordinate shelter for refugees.
  • In Slovakia and the Czech Republic, clubs have partnered with a railway and cargo company to offer transportation to nearly 2,300 refugees.

Kim Widlicki and Claudia Brunner contributed to this article.

Follow updates on how Rotary members are providing humanitarian relief on TwitterFacebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Check back for updates on Rotary.org and My Rotary.

  The Rotary Foundation has created a channel for direct humanitarian support in the Ukraine region.  

Rotary’s Network Enables Rapid Humanitarian Relief for Ukrainian Refugees 2022-03-21 08:00:00Z 0

Free Developmental, Vision & Hearing Screenings for Preschoolers

district-news - 21-0210-Child-Find-Screenings

Would you like more information about your child’s development?
CHILD FIND Can Help!

The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District (KPBSD) provides free screening for children 3 through 5 years old (not yet in kindergarten)

Areas screened include: speech and language, learning and understanding, coordination and movement, social-emotional skills, self-helping skills (feeding, dressing, and toileting), vision or hearing.

Children already identified with disabilities should also be screened if not receiving special education services through the district.

Screenings in your area

Central Kenai Peninsula
Kenai and Soldotna Area

Friday, February 25, 2022: 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. by appointment only. Frontier Community Services Infant Learning Program and KPBSD Child Find, 43335 K-Beach Rd. Suite 36, Soldotna. Call 907.714.6660 to schedule an appointment or learn more.

Eastern Kenai Peninsula
Seward Area

Call Casie Warner at 907.491.0544 to schedule an appointment

Southern Kenai Peninsula
Homer Area

Call Kelli at 907.260.5148 to schedule an appointment

To make an appointment or for more information call the KPBSD Child Find office at 907.260.5148 or email ChildFind@kpbsd.k12.ak.us

Additional locations on the Kenai Peninsula will be added throughout the year

Developmental Checks

By Age 3

  • Count to 3
  • Speak to most adults and be understood
  • Build a tower of at least 8 blocks
  • Walk up and down stairs
  • Run without falling very often
  • Follow simple directions
  • Repeat simple sounds or rhymes
  • Match colors and shapes
  • Put on some clothes without help
  • Point to 6 parts of the body (hair, nose, eyes, feet, hands, mouth)
  • Name several objects (chair, box, ball, etc…)
  • Imitate drawing a circle (even if it is not quite round)

By Age 4

  • Count to 5
  • Speaks in sentences of about 5 words
  • Asks “how” and “why” questions
  • Cuts with scissors
  • Stands on one foot without falling
  • Catch and throw a ball
  • Holds crayons with fingers, not fist
  • Answers simple question like: “What do you do when you are hungry?”
  • Recognize and name 3-4 colors
  • Enjoys playing with other children
  • Dresses self completely (with help on pullover shirts and sweaters)

By Age 5

  • Count 5 objects
  • Explain what objects are used for
  • Understand the concept of “yesterday”, “today”, and “tomorrow”
  • Climb a ladder to a slide
  • Cuts with scissors on a straight line
  • Copy a picture of a circle and a square
  • Understand words like “on”, “under”, and “behind”
  • Match colors and shapes
  • Go to the bathroom without help
Free Developmental, Vision & Hearing Screenings for Preschoolers 2022-03-21 08:00:00Z 0

Natural Hazards: A Look at Ecological Threats and Ways to Address Them

A new report from the Institute for Economics and Peace highlights grave ecological threats around the world — and suggests ways advocates can nurture a more benign environmental future.

by 

At first glance, the Jaguar cacao fruit resembles a glowing green orb wrapped in earthen brown roots. But the fruit’s value lies within: a multitude of edible seeds that, when roasted and ground into powder, give chocolate a nuttier flavor profile.

The fruit grows in a few ecosystems in Central and South America, such as the foothills of southeastern Colombia. There, in the Amazon River basin, Rotary Peace Fellow Lorena Rodriguez has played a pivotal role in seeding this rare crop and quite a few others. During her fellowship, Rodriguez spent time in rural Colombia conducting field research on food sovereignty, which prioritizes the needs of the people who grow and otherwise produce food over the demands of the markets and corporations that distribute it. In 2019, she joined forces with friends and launched La Realidad, an NGO that helps communities in the Putumayo region of Colombia grow their own fruit and vegetable crops using regenerative agriculture practices — such as crop rotation, composting, and cover cropping — that help create a more nutrient-rich soil and reduce excess carbon in the atmosphere.

“Putumayo has been highly affected by the armed conflict in Colombia, by narco traffic, and by the structural violence that arises from the gap between urban and rural societies,” Rodriguez says. “A lot of the elders there were leaving, and their kids cannot sustain their lives doing agriculture the way their parents did, using pesticides and heavy chemicals to produce bigger yields of corn or sugarcane for the global market. It’s not sustainable economically or environmentally.”

In recent years, Putumayo has also felt the scourge of deforestation inflicted by loggers and cattle ranchers. That’s the fractious backdrop against which La Realidad partners with Putumayo residents to grow sustaining crops that are endemic to the Amazon belt — cultivating a food source that can ultimately bolster the security of rural communities. Ecological degradation, including the burning or uprooting of forests, can undermine a community’s resiliency, especially when it comes to food security. In the worst cases, it can sow the seeds of conflict and fuel a relentless cycle of collapse and violence.

The relationship between ecological shocks and conflict isn’t speculation. It’s the latest finding from the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), a partner of Rotary International. Founded in 2007 by Australian software entrepreneur and philanthropist Steve Killelea, the IEP uses data from global and national indices to explain why some regions of the world are enjoying peace and prosperity while others are mired in or on the brink of conflict. This data often pertains to issues such as resource availability and economic power. But the IEP’s second Ecological Threat Report, released in October, zooms in on the symbiotic relationship between conflicts and ecological calamities such as droughts, record-breaking storms, and temperature changes.

According to Michael Collins, the IEP’s executive director in the Americas, the Ecological Threat Report can function as something of a blueprint not only for recognizing ecological vulnerability at both local and regional levels but also for improving societal resilience in vulnerable countries and, hopefully, averting conflict. “Climate change can certainly act as an aggravator of issues such as food insecurity and water stress,” says Collins. “But some ecological threats are going to happen independently. They’re the next step of what any country could be ‘attacked’ with.”

Regional composition of ecological threat scores, 2021.   Source: IEP’s Ecological Threat Report 2021

So how does the report score the severity of the ecological threat facing 178 independent countries and territories? It focuses on five things that can endanger the ecological stability of a society: food risk, water risk, rapid population growth, temperature anomalies, and natural disasters. The report also uses the IEP’s Positive Peace Index, which identifies the attitudes, institutions, and structures that ultimately create peaceful societies. Conversely, the absence of societal bedrock — such as an equitable distribution of goods, a well-functioning government, or a healthy business sector — can leave nations primed for conflict, to the point where all it takes is one final shock to ignite relentless violence. The report shows that ecological shocks can be that incendiary spark.

“Indicated throughout this report is the deep, deep cyclical relationship that exists between ecological degradation and levels of conflict around the world,” says Collins. He also notes that once violence has begun, it can actually worsen the ecological problems, like food or water shortages, that predated the conflict. “Eleven of the countries with the report’s worst scores are now in conflict,” says Collins. Most of these countries are located in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and the report highlights one particularly profound driver of their conflicts — food insecurity.

Since 2014, global food insecurity, which had been lessening for decades, has risen an alarming 44 percent, a situation further aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Its steady resurgence didn’t occur in isolation; it was sometimes fueled by natural events, such as insufficient rainfall, or in many cases by sectarian conflicts. In South Sudan, these forces merged and have exacted a terrible toll. By 2018 — half a decade after civil war erupted between the South Sudanese government and insurgents — an estimated 190,000 people had been killed through direct warfare, and an additional 193,000 are believed to have died as a result of disruptions to the country’s fragile food production and health systems. Their food systems were already vulnerable to droughts and flooding, and they still haven’t recovered. As recently as 2020, about 85 percent of South Sudan’s population was struggling to find sufficient food on a daily basis.

Without intervention, global food insecurity is expected to get much worse over the next three decades. The Ecological Threat Report projects that by 2050, the number of people who are experiencing undernourishment — not getting enough food to sustain day-to-day physiological health — could rise by a staggering 45 percent. The broad global demand for food could also grow by more than 50 percent within this time frame. As ecological events like rising temperatures, earthquakes, or hurricanes exacerbate resource scarcity in vulnerable countries, the risk of conflict and societal collapse becomes more severe, and more liable to spill beyond borders.

This can already be seen today in the rate of forced displacements and migration occurring around the world. The report’s researchers found that in 2020, 82.4 million people were displaced — the highest number of global displacements on record, 1 in 94 people. It’s a tremendous shift from 2000, when 1 in 161 people worldwide had been displaced. But like the recent rebound of food insecurity, this surge also didn’t happen overnight. Forced displacements have been rising over the past nine years, as hot spot regions, identified by the report, reckon with worsening ecological deterioration, resource deficits, warfare, and, in several cases, significant population growth.

In the face of such massively worrying trends, how can one begin to promote peace and sustainability at a local level, let alone a regional one? Collins is quick to spotlight two of the Ecological Threat Report’s most salient policy recommendations for humanitarian agencies and organizations: thinking about ecological risk as a systemic problem, and empowering communities in ecologically vulnerable nations to become more resilient. This can be done through collaborative grassroots projects that focus on intersectional issues such as agriculture, economic prosperity, and human security.

Collins comes from a family of construction professionals, and before joining the IEP, he applied his family trade to humanitarian projects in developing nations, including Indonesia and Haiti, often in the wake of natural disasters. “Initially, a lot of this revolved around training programs for people who are seeking to enter or already in the construction sector,” he says. “Due to a number of social and institutional issues, construction quality is extremely low in a number of developing countries.” In Padang Alai, a town on the outskirts of West Sumatra’s capital city of Padang, Collins addressed this problem by working with community members to create a brickmaking cooperative, owned and managed by its members.

Rodriguez would adopt a similar approach in 2020 when building La Realidad. As she and her friends converted the setup of their Putumayo cacao orchard into an organic production, neighbors would drop by and ask why the group was doing all the “hard work” of regenerative growing techniques. Why not just spray the cacao trees with pesticides that would work faster than organic alternatives? “These questions created a conversation about why it was important for Putumayo residents to prioritize their homeland and not the global market,” Rodriguez recalls.

Global undernourishment, 2005-20   Source: IEP’s Ecological Threat Report 2021

The farmland on which La Realidad hosts several regenerative agriculture projects — including a food forest (a diverse, multi-layered blend of edible plants and trees) — was acquired through this community outreach. “The owner was selling her land,” Rodriguez recalls. “She met us and said, ‘I really want to leave the land to someone who appreciates this ecosystem. I don’t want to just give it to another person who will put cows here.’”

Whether the product at the heart of a community resiliency project is organic fruits and vegetables or stronger building materials, the best results come when the project is conceived and launched in close partnership with residents who will manage the work long term. The way Collins sees it, members of Rotary are uniquely well-positioned to step up and invest their knowledge and labor into these collaborations. “One of the amazing things about Rotary is the ability of every club and every district to contribute,” he says. “Because Rotary is made up of community members, you have this grassroots network of individuals throughout the world who can develop a variety of different projects that are very well-tailored to the community in question — because a lot of Rotarians are actually from those communities.”

Recently, Rotary has taken two big steps to catalyze more projects that address the intersection of ecological degradation and conflict. In 2020, it added a new area of focus — protecting the environment. (More than $18 million in global grant funding from The Rotary Foundation had already been allocated to ecological projects in the five preceding years.) Also in 2020, working with the IEP, Rotary launched the Positive Peace Activator Program. The program already has trained 90 peace activators, who are also Rotary Peace Fellows (such as Rodriguez) or members of Rotary, and those activators have since taught more than 50,000 people in North America, South America, and Europe about the tenets of the Positive Peace Index — the same framework that underlies the Ecological Threat Report. “Rotary’s key strengths lie in our ability to convene and mobilize communities both locally and globally,” says Rebecca Crall, Rotary’s area of focus manager for peacebuilding and conflict prevention. “Merging with the empirical research and analysis of the IEP is a potent force for creating good in the world.”

For a literal taste of that good in the United States, look to the vacant lots of Atlanta, where urban farmers are growing fruits and vegetables that find their way into refrigerators and pantries across the city. Atlanta’s recent urban farming boom is partially the result of the city’s AgLanta initiative. Its goal is to put fresh produce within half a mile of 85 percent of Atlanta’s population by the end of this year by offering residents the education and resources they need to get involved with urban farming.

Resettlement and naturalization of refugees, 2000-20  Source: IEP’s Ecological Threat Report 2021

As the number of urban farmers swelled, it became clear that AgLanta needed a framework for settling disputes between growers. The city turned to Kate Keator, a Rotary Positive Peace Activator specializing in conflict resolution. Through her conversations with urban farmers and AgLanta leaders, Keator identified two things that could help keep the peace: virtual gatherings in which growers could connect and foster a foundational culture of dispute resolution, and access to an informal mediator when necessary.

Atlanta might seem a world apart from the regions spotlighted in the Ecological Threat Report, where ecological degradation and conflict are more severe. But peacemaking and community empowerment can be applied, at scale, anywhere that conflict arises.

In an era of climatological changes that will reshape the way billions live, there can be an enduring glint of hope in this potential for collaboration. “One of the things that I learned through community development is that people are people,” Collins says. “The same solutions don’t work for everybody, but there are synergies. There are many, many ways.”

• This story originally appeared in the February 2022 issue of Rotary magazine.

Rotary International partners with the Institute for Economics and Peace and other organizations.

Natural Hazards: A Look at Ecological Threats and Ways to Address Them 2022-03-02 09:00:00Z 0
West Homer Battle of the Books Thanks Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club 2022-02-09 09:00:00Z 0
The 2022 Cranium Cup is Here!! 2022-01-26 09:00:00Z 0

South Peninsula Hospital  Covid-19 Information 1/26/2022

7-day case counts on Southern Kenai Peninsula

Community01/1901/2001/2101/2201/2301/2401/25
Anchor Point  8  8  2  2 612  5
Fritz Creek  1   1     2
Homer19463825212628
Other South13  7  1  110  3

Data from Alaska Department of Health and Social Services: Table 2b Geographic Distribution of Cases by Report Date. Updates typically occur by 1pm, Mon-Wed-Fri.

*PLEASE NOTE: Positivity rate is not always “Positives Resulted”/“Test Samples Collected" due to the occasional lag in processing times.

Alaska case count website Kenai Peninsula case map website *
School Operation Levels Dashboard*

SPH Week At a Glance

Week ending Jan. 25Prior Week
ED Visits for Covid19     12     15
New Hospitalizations       2       1
Test Samples Collected1,1401,236
Positives Resulted   215   238
Positivity Rate*  19%  19%
Outpatient Monoclonal Antibody Infusions           15    4
 

Visitation

Visitation Level – Moderate Restriction

January 8, 2022 Press Release Long Term Care

These precautions are to help safeguard the health of our staff, patients and visitors during this time, and will change based on the level of community spread of COVID-19.

SPH Entrance Guidelines 1-10-2022
South Peninsula Hospital  Covid-19 Information 1/26/2022 2022-01-26 09:00:00Z 0

Jennifer Jones Imagines Rotary Fulfilling Big Dreams

 

RI President-Elect Announces 2022-23 Presidential Theme

by 

Rotary International President-elect Jennifer Jones wants members to imagine the possibilities in the change they can make to transform the world.

Jones, a member of the Rotary Club of Windsor-Roseland, Ontario, Canada, revealed the 2022-23 presidential theme, Imagine Rotary, as she urged people to dream big and harness their connections and the power of Rotary to turn those dreams into reality.

“Imagine, a world that deserves our best,” Jones told incoming district governors on 20 January, “where we get up each day knowing that we can make a difference.”

Jones, who will make history on 1 July by becoming Rotary’s first female president, gave a live online address to precede Rotary’s annual training event for district governors from around the world, the International Assembly. The assembly was rescheduled because of the COVID-19 pandemic and will now be held virtually 7-14 February.

Jones told the incoming governors about a chance she took when a member asked for assistance in getting a young peace activist out of Afghanistan during the U.S. troop withdrawal last year. At first unsure how she could help, she relied on “that certain Rotary magic” and contacted a former Rotary Peace Fellow she had met a few years earlier. Less than 24 hours later, the activist was on an evacuation list, and soon she was on her way to Europe.

Engaging members through meaningful responsibility

To better engage members, Rotary needs to “adapt and retool,” Jones said, using her hometown as an example. Windsor was once the automotive hub of Canada. But after plant closings left thousands without work, the city needed to retool, in the same way an auto plant would, preparing for new parts or a new model. Now, Jones said, Windsor is a leader in agribusiness and medical and aerospace technology.

For Rotary, “finding the right ‘part’ to engage each member should be our core function,” Jones said. “It comes down to the comfort and care of our members.”

Engaging members is crucial to retaining members, she said, adding that we need to ask members what they want to get from Rotary and give them meaningful responsibilities.

“It is our offer of hands-on service, personal growth, leadership development, and lifelong friendships that creates purpose and passion,” Jones said.

Imagine, a world that deserves our best where we get up each day knowing that we can make a difference.

Embracing change also means embracing new club models, Jones said, as she asked the incoming governors to form at least two new innovative or cause-based clubs during their term. “Let’s make sure we engage our members so they love their clubs and their Rotary experience,” she added.

Jones also announced the appointment of a Rotaract member as a Rotary public image coordinator and said that she has included Rotaractors on several committees and will assign some Rotaractors as president’s representatives.

“We have been entrusted with leadership in our great organization,” Jones said. “Now it is up to us to be brave and intentional in our actions, and let others help us lead.”

Jones noted that Rotary has little time left to achieve the RI Board of Directors’ goal of having women make up 30% of Rotary’s members by 2023. Rotary has achieved this in more than 110 countries, she said, but it has a long way to go. She pointed out that Rotaract has already achieved 50% female members.

To raise Rotary’s profile, Jones plans to hold a global impact tour that will include talking with leaders about working together to address the world’s most pressing challenges. “Rotary opens these doors and we need to harness our connections, to deepen these relationships and create new partnerships,” Jones said. “And the best part is, this can happen at every level of leadership.”

Jones closed her address by saying that although we all have dreams, acting on them is a choice we make. When an organization like Rotary dreams about big things like ending polio and creating peace, she said, it becomes our responsibility to make them happen. “You don’t imagine yesterday,” Jones said, “you imagine tomorrow.”

Jennifer Jones Imagines Rotary Fulfilling Big Dreams  2022-01-26 09:00:00Z 0

COVID-19 Alaska Weekly Case Update: January 9 – January 15, 2022

Alaska DHSS signup page

COVID-19 Alaska Weekly Case Update: January 9 – January 15, 2022

Alaska DHSS sent this bulletin at 01/21/2022 11:32 AM AKST
COVID and Flu Weekly Report

Alaska Department of Health and Social Service Weekly COVID-19 and Influenza Update
January 9 – January 15, 2022

Key Findings

  • COVID-19 cases are rising very rapidly across most of Alaska, the great majority of which are likely due to the Omicron variant.
  • Appreciable levels of influenza transmission began occurring in mid-December and have continued since then.
  • Other respiratory viruses are circulating in addition to SARS-CoV-2 and influenza virus.

COVID-19

COVID-19 Case Trends

  • High levels of COVID-19 transmission are occurring throughout much of Alaska and the pandemic is on a rapid upward trajectory in Alaska. Hospitalizations are increasing as well.
  • 15,145 cases were reported in Alaskans the week of January 9–January 15. This is a 97.4% increase from the number of cases reported the week before. This increase in cases is the largest week-over-week increase recorded in Alaska in terms of the absolute number of cases and is also among the largest in terms of the proportional increase.  
  • The number of reported COVID-19 cases last week was substantially higher in all 5 of the most populous boroughs compared to the previous week.
  • The intensity of COVID-19 transmission varies between communities outside the largest boroughs, but many boroughs and census areas have seen recent and large increases in COVID-19 cases, and some have reached levels of weekly case counts not previously seen in the pandemic.
  • Community transmission of the Omicron variant has been confirmed in multiple regions across Alaska. Laboratory evidence indicates that the Omicron variant has become the dominant SARS-CoV-2 variant in Alaska and is driving the sharp acceleration of the pandemic in Alaska. Visit Alaska’s SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Dashboard to learn more.  
  • To learn more about COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths due to COVID-19 in Alaska, visit the Cases Dashboard or the monthly report. The cases dashboard includes demographic information on cases and the monthly report includes demographic information on hospitalizations and deaths.

     

      COVID-19 Alaska Weekly Case Update: January 9 – January 15, 2022 2022-01-26 09:00:00Z 0

      Letter From Rotary International President Concerning Covid Vaccination

      From: "RI President Shekhar Mehta & TRF Chair John Germ" <RI.comms@msgfocus.rotary.org>
      Subject: Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation’s Position Statement on COVID-19 Vaccination
      Date: December 16, 2021 at 04:31:35 AKST
       
      Reply-To: "RI President Shekhar Mehta & TRF Chair John Germ" <RI.comms@rotary.org>
       
      Rotary.org
       
      Dear District Governors and Club Presidents,

      We see the decision to vaccinate as a civic and humanitarian imperative. Rotary is not a political or religious organization, it is a service organization and this is the lens through which we are advising you of our position.
      1. Global vaccination is the path to ending the pandemic and the emergence of new variants. Rotary endorses and strongly encourages vaccination for all individuals including our members who are currently able to be vaccinated against COVID-19. In areas where COVID-19 is surging, communities are facing extreme challenges, health systems are overwhelmed, and contentious rhetoric is dividing us. It is critical that the virus be contained so that the world may begin to heal. To that end, the purpose of this statement is to reinforce Rotary’s position.
      2. Misinformation has become an “infodemic” that hinders the fight against COVID-19. In line with our Four-Way Test, Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation are committed to providing our members with science-based information.
      3. Rotary International staff at One Rotary Center were required to be vaccinated by 10 October 2021, as a criterion for employment after that date. RI’s employee vaccination rate stands at over 99 percent.
      4. Globally, Rotary is actively engaged in assuring equity in vaccine access to all people. Our efforts have included advocacy with the G-20, and a proof-of-concept program with GAVI/COVAX to leverage our frontline experience with polio eradication to facilitate vaccine delivery in several low- and middle-income countries where Rotarians are active. While we know many clubs are already deeply involved in COVID-19 prevention, we are working on additional strategies to multiply our collective efforts. GAVI/COVAX is a partnership including WHO and UNICEF focused on global access and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines.
      5. Those children for whom vaccines are not currently available are at significant risk. Until vaccines are available for all children, the vaccination of adults is the best way to protect children who cannot be vaccinated. Pediatric admissions for COVID-19 are rising precipitously in areas of low vaccination.
      6. Rotary salutes health care workers everywhere as they continue to provide lifesaving services. Local recognition of these heroes by each of our clubs can help to encourage them to continue their important work. Rotary abhors any harassment and attacks on healthcare workers.
      7. Rotary and Rotaract clubs are encouraged to
        • set good examples by being exemplary role models; 
        • redouble their efforts to support COVID-19 treatment, prevention, and vaccination efforts.
      8. Vaccines have proven to be one of the greatest advances of modern medicine. The World Health Organization estimates that vaccines save between 2 to 3 million children’s lives each year, and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative estimates the polio vaccine has saved more than 19 million children from paralysis. Vaccines are safe, effective and are responsible for eliminating or controlling many other vaccine-preventable diseases such as smallpox, measles, rubella, and Ebola. And now, there is the opportunity to end the COVID-19 pandemic through vaccines.
      9. The eradication of polio remains a goal of the highest order for Rotary. We can apply the lessons we have learned in fighting polio to the efforts in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
      Regards,

      Shekhar Mehta                                                   John Germ
      President, Rotary International                                     Chair, The Rotary Foundation

      CC: RI Board of Directors & Directors-elect, TRF Board of Trustees and incoming Trustees, District Governors-elect, Club Presidents-elect, Regional Leaders, COVID-19 Task Force, International PolioPlus Committee, Communications Committee
       
      Letter From Rotary International President Concerning Covid Vaccination 2021-12-16 09:00:00Z 0

      South Peninsula Hospital -- Covid Vaccine Information -- December 15, 2021

       
       
       
       
       

      To help prevent the spread of Covid-19 to others, PLEASE wear cloth face coverings or procedure masks, get vaccinated if you can, stay away from others when sick, and get tested if you have been exposed or have symptoms.


      7-day case counts on Southern Kenai Peninsula

      Community12/0812/0912/1012/1112/1212/1312/14
      Anchor Point33    2
      Fritz Creek       
      Homer3283316
      Other South 1     
       

      Data from Alaska Department of Health and Social Services: Table 2b Geographic Distribution of Cases by Report Date. Except for weekends and holidays, data is typically updated by noon.

      Covid-19 Vaccines

      Vaccines for Adolescents and Children 5-11 years old

      The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with unanimous support from the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP),  recommends that children 5 to 11 years old be vaccinated against COVID-19 with the Pfizer-BioNTech pediatric vaccine, made available by FDA Emergency Use Authorization. (Read more about Emergency Use Authorizations here.)

      Appointments are available for children ages 5-11 years old on Wednesdays and Saturdays at the Vaccine and Test Clinic at 4201 Bartlett Street. These appointments are for the first of a pediatric two dose series of Pfizer-BioNtech. A parent or guardian must be present at the appointment and sign the consent forms. The child should not come if they are experiencing any sudden or unexplained COVID-like symptoms, or if they have recently been exposed to someone with COVID-19. An appointment for the second dose of this two dose series will be made during the time of the first visit. Scroll down to make an appointment

      Booster eligibility expanded!

      Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna and Janssen COVID-19 vaccine booster shots are available under FDA emergency use authorization and CDC recommended for:

      • Anyone who is six months or more after their initial series of the Pfizer or Moderna series
      • Anyone who is at least two months after their Janssen vaccine

      Eligible individuals may choose which vaccine they receive as a booster dose. Some may have a preference for the vaccine type they originally received, while others may prefer to get a different booster.

      Where can I get my vaccine booster?

      • Set an appointment with your primary care provider
      • Set an appointment at the SPH Test and Vaccine Site (see below)

      COVID Clinic at 4201 Bartlett Street

      Pfizer and Moderna vaccines – available 7 days a week

      Janssen vaccines – available Sundays and Tuesdays

      Pediatric/adolescent Pfizer vaccine – available Wednesdays and Saturdays

      Walk-ins welcome from 9am-5pm daily, or click below to make an appointment

         Appointments for 12 years and older    

         Appointments for 5-11 years old   
      (scroll down to Children’s Vaccine)

      Third dose for immunocompromised individuals can be done by provider referral (sent a day in advance of your vaccine visit) or by completing the attestation of conditions.

      Vaccines are now offered during your appointments at Homer Medical Center and the SPH Family Care Clinic. Inquire at time of your appointment. Click here for a complete list of vaccine providers on the southern kenai peninsula.

      Pfizer vaccine is now authorized for individuals 5 years of age and older.

      Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older.

      Learn more about vaccine safety in minors in letter to parents from Dr. Anne Zink, Chief Medical Officer, State of Alaska

      South Peninsula Hospital -- Covid Vaccine Information -- December 15, 2021 2021-12-15 09:00:00Z 0

      Women and Polio

      Why it’s important to consider gender at all levels of eradication work

      by 

      How do issues surrounding gender create barriers to polio eradication? 

      Our ultimate objective is to reach every last child with a polio vaccine. The role of the mother and father in reaching those children is very important, and we must understand the dynamics between them in order to achieve our goal. For example, a mother may want to have her child vaccinated, but that would require her to spend a day walking to a health center or market — and she might not be able to do that unless she gets permission from her husband. Or if her child falls ill and experiences paralysis in the arm or leg, the mother might have to seek permission from her husband to take the child to the health center. There could be a delay of several days that would affect our ability to take stool samples and determine whether that child has polio or not.

      Do more boys than girls receive vaccines?

      On a global level, there is very little discrepancy between reaching boys and girls. You also see a more or less equal distribution of cases of polio between boys and girls. But the global statistics can mask disparities at the local level. We know that we have communities that are not being reached; we need to understand why we’re not reaching them. Gender plays a huge role in both supply of and demand for immunization. Who is providing the immunization — a man or a woman? Who is the decision-maker — mom or dad? And how do the immunizer and the decision-maker work together?

      What are the key points in the gender strategy you helped develop for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI)?

      The polio program has typically engaged women as frontline health workers because in some cultures, mothers are more likely to open the door to a female vaccinator. But women should not just be part of the delivery of the program. They should also be part of its design; they should be supervisors and team leads, and hold positions at the district level to make sure we are meeting the needs of communities. We also need to understand why we have trouble retaining female vaccinators. We want them to keep working with us.

      We must look at our data in a way that allows us to understand the program better and to see where there may be gaps. Collecting and analyzing sex-disaggregated data will help us to understand if gender-related barriers are preventing us from reaching zero-dose children — children who have not received any vaccines — and to refine the way we plan campaigns in those countries.

      The GPEI’s new strategy places a huge focus on community engagement. We’re looking at the supply and demand sides in communities. How do we create a demand that ensures that parents want to take their children to be immunized? We need to make sure that the offered immunization services are acceptable to parents.

      Besides gender, are there strategies that focus on other types of diversity?

      We’re also looking at engaging people with disabilities. And gender also covers economic status: A lot of gender disparities are much more pronounced at different economic levels as well as in different ethnic and age groups. For example, the decision-making power of women in developing countries who are not educated is more limited, which will impact their ability to make health care decisions for the family. All of those things interact.

      In the last mile of eradication, we need to leave no stone unturned to understand which children we are missing and why. Looking at gender is one more way to make sure that we’re reaching all children. Fathers have just as much of a role to play as mothers. How do we overcome barriers, so that men are engaged in the decision-making process and so that they allow their children to be immunized?

      Rotary is so well-positioned to be a lead on gender. It isn’t a women’s issue — it’s everybody’s issue.

      This story originally appeared in the December 2021 issue of Rotary magazine.

      Gender roles and norms are powerful determinants to health outcomes and the fight to end polio.

      LEARN MORE

      Women and Polio 2021-12-08 09:00:00Z 0

      How It Works: Weather Related School Delays or Closures

      snowflakeKPBSD School Weather Related Delays and Closures

      Announcing a school closure or two-hour delay start in a timely manner for our students, families, and staff is important to KPBSD administration. Timing of the decision is crucial so we can notify transportation before busses begin their routes, employees head to work, and students and families prepare for a school day, potentially waiting at bus-stops. The decision to close school for the day or institute a two-hour delay start is the responsibility of the Superintendent of Schools.

      KPBSD is committed to school safety, and educating every student. An involved process takes place early in the morning before the decision is made to close, or delay the start of school by two-hours. Additionally, if a school make-up day is necessary, several factors contribute to determine the date for one or more make-up days of school.

      If school remains open, and you as a parent or guardian do not believe it is safe for your child to travel to school based on conditions in your area, please use your best judgment to decide what is safest for your family. Please notify the school if your child will not attend; absences will be excused.

      How things work
      Determine and communicate school closure or two hour delay start

       

      Is school open? Communication to Publicmicrophone

      KPBSD district office communications will post two-hour school delays or closures, and subsequent updates, usually starting by 5:30 AM. If nothing is announced, assume schools are open on a normal schedule.

      How-to calculate a two-hour delay start timepause time

      • Add two hours to normal school start time
      • Add two hours to normal bus pick-up time. Thus, students are picked-up two hours later than their normal scheduled bus pick-up time
      • KPBSD employees may arrive two hours later than normal work-day morning schedule
      • Schools will dismiss at the normal time unless announced otherwise

      Is school closed or delayed? Decision Making Process

      The Director of Planning and Operations and the Assistant Superintendent gathers information, beginning as soon as accurate information is available. Most of the time this begins very early in the morning. If a significant storm is expected, a decision might be made the night ahead of time, but this rarely happens. Consultation and assessment may include:

      • District transportation staff
      • Apple Bus Company
      • Alaska State Department of Transportation (DOT)
      • Alaska State Troopers (AST)
      • Central Emergency Services (CES)
      • Kenai Peninsula Borough Office of Emergency Management (OEM)
      • Homer Electric Association (HEA) and utility providers
      • Weather services
      • Onsite school district employees

      The Assistant Superintendent contacts the Superintendent to give an update about specific conditions and offer a recommendation for a two-hour delay start* or school closure. (Delay starts are always two hours.)

      The Superintendent of Schools makes a final decision to delay start by two hours, or close schools.

      • School principals are contacted with the decision and supporting information*
      • Principal contacts school staff
      • School may implement automated call system, social media post, or other type of contact message to parents if applicable

      *KPBSD may be briefed with information that helps to determine that a two-hour delay start will result in school being in session for the day. At other times, the two-hour delay allows time to assess the evolving conditions, before making the decision to close school for the day. If the roads are impassable due to inclement weather, a two-hour delay will give road crews additional time for sanding and plowing. Updates are posted as soon as decisions are made.

       

      Make-up Instruction Dayscalendar

      If school is closed for the day, by state law, a make-up day must be scheduled. KPBSD does not build additional days into the annual calendar for potential inclement weather or school closures that may or may not occur.

      A make-up day is generally scheduled on a vacation day, or after the official school calendar ends in May. One day is built into the calendar—typically the third Friday in the last quarter—and is often used as the first option for a make-up day.

      Factors to consider when a make-up day is scheduled for one or more schools in KPBSD:

      • Coordinated bus transportation
      • Student nutrition services breakfast and lunch programs
      • Staffing

      A few school facts in Alaskaschool

      State law mandates a school term of 180 days with up to ten of these days used for teacher in-service.

      Per state law, all students must attend school for the minimum of 170 student contact days.

      KPBSD teaching contract is 188 days (also includes orientation days and 7 mandated holidays.) Teacher in-service days are part of Professional Development and required by contract. Flexible work days are most often utilized at the front end of the school year (August) in preparation for the school year.

      Closing school for the day or instituting a two-hour delay start is a complex decision, with several factors involved. Every effort is made to keep school in session.

      If school remains open, and you as a parent or guardian do not believe it is safe for your child to travel to school based on conditions in your area, please use your best judgment to determine what is safest for your child and family. Please notify the school if your child will not attend; absences will be excused.

      ###

      How It Works: Weather Related School Delays or Closures 2021-12-08 09:00:00Z 0

      TWO-HOUR Delay Start on 12/9 in Homer/Ninilchik Area

       

      ►TWO-HOUR Delay Start ALERT

      KPBSD schools in the Anchor Point, Homer area*, and Ninilchik will open with a TWO-HOUR DELAY START on Thursday, December 9, 2021, in response to weather and road conditions.

      If weather and road conditions warrant a full closure for any schools, that announcement will be made about 7:00 AM. If you don’t hear anything, the two-hour delay start remains in effect. All Pre-K sessions—both morning and afternoon—at these schools are cancelled during a two-hour delay start.

      A two hour delay means that morning buses run two hours later than normal, school begins two hours later than normal, and Pre-K sessions are cancelled. The school day ends at the normal time.

      *TWO-HOUR Delay Start for these Southern Kenai Peninsula schools

      • Chapman School
      • Connections Homeschool
      • Fireweed Academy
      • Homer Flex School
      • Homer High School
      • Homer Middle School
      • Kachemak Selo School
      • McNeil Canyon Elementary School
      • Nikolaevsk School
      • Ninilchik School
      • Paul Banks Elementary School
      • Razdolna School
      • Voznesenka School
      • West Homer Elementary School

      Nanwalek, Port Graham, and Susan B. English schools will open on a normal schedule.

      Be safe. Parents and guardians, if school is open and you decide to keep your child at home based on weather and road conditions near you, absences or late arrivals will be excused.

      TWO-HOUR Delay Start on 12/9 in Homer/Ninilchik Area 2021-12-08 09:00:00Z 0

      District Governor Nominee Designate 2024-25 Selected!

      image
      Brenda Shelden District Governor Nominee Designate 2024-25
       
      Dear Alaska Rotary Club Presidents and Rotary members:  
       
      On behalf of District Governor Cheryl Metiva, this e-mail is notification that on Monday October 11, 2021, the 2021-22 District 5010 Governor Nominating Committee selected Brenda Shelden to serve as District Governor for D5010 in 2024-2025. The requisite challenge period has passed with no Clubs challenging the selection.
       
      A past President and member in good standing of the Palmer Rotary Club, Brenda holds a Doctor of Physical Therapy. Her current Rotary roles include D5010 Assistant Governor (2018-2022), D5010 RYLA Chair, Excess Reserves Committee Member, D5010 PETS Trainer, and Mat-Su Valley Interact Club Advisor (2020-2022) in addition to many other roles in past years.
       
      Brenda and her husband, Troy, moved to Alaska in 2000, and in January will celebrate their 29th anniversary. Their daughter, Mason, is a junior in college and son, Ryan, is a senior in the Mat-Su Valley. The family loves Alaska and makes time to fish, camp, hike and travel. Brenda says “We are dedicated to serving others and collectively have hundreds of hours of community service."
       
      Please join me in congratulating Brenda as our new District Governor Nominee Designate. We look forward to a strong future of the District under Brenda's leadership.
       
      I would like to thank the other members of the nominating Committee, PDG Brad Gamble (Susitna), PDG Joe Kashi (Soldotna), PDG Maynard Gross (Homer-Kachemak Bay), Jamie Letterman (Juneau 58 (Degree) Innovators)), Jo Kuchle (Fairbanks), Jack Timm (Susitna), and DG Cheryl Metiva (Ex Officio).
       
      Sincerely Yours in Rotary Service,
       
      Diane
      N. Diane Fejes
      D5010 Governor Nominating Committee Chair for 2021-22
      District Governor Nominee Designate 2024-25 Selected! 2021-11-06 08:00:00Z 0

      Ride for Rotary

       
       
      Metronic
       

      Dear Rotarian,Greetings from RID 3181!We are conducting an International motorcycle ride/four wheel drive event called Ride for Rotary.The last 4 editions of Ride for Rotary was a great success to which 90 participants from 15 different countries attended and had a wonderful experience. We have contributed close to $100,000 to TRF from last 4 editionsThis year we are planning to make it bigger and better by adding a luxury bus as well. Our aim is to promote International fellowship, exchange of Rotary views & the funds raised by this event will go to The Rotary Foundation.Event will be from 15th to 30th January 2022.A 12 days event commencing from Mangalore (India) that can either be a motorcycle ride, a four wheel drive or travel in the bus.The ride will cover 4 Rotary Districts, many Rotary Clubs and the route map will be starting from Mangalore - Kundapura - Dandeli - Goa - Hampi - Shimoga - Hassan - Kushalnagar - Mysore 

      Below are the Event Highlights

      • Motorcycle participants will be provided with riding jackets, gloves, knee guards along with motorcycles & fuel.  
      • Participants will have to carry their own helmets, as size varies and may not be comfortable with the ones provided here.
      • Mahindra Scorpio or equivalent to it will be provided for four wheel participants along with fuel. 2 participants will have to share the drive.
      • A luxury bus with A/C Coach will be provided for participants who opt for Bus travelling along with Motorcycles & Car convoy.
      • 3 Star plus Hotels / Resorts with well sanitized rooms will be provided as accommodations along the route.
      • Food will be provided in clean, sanitized places with a combination of both continental & local food delicacies .
      • The route is very well planned to cover various landscapes like world famous  Beaches, Hill stations,  World heritage Sites, Temples, Churches, Reserve  Forests etc .
      • Folk music, dance and other cultural activities will be arranged to showcase Indian culture & heritage during the evening meets.
      • Various Rotary clubs & service projects will be involved & showcased to exchange Rotary views & vision.
      • A Qualified Medical Assistant will be part of the crew with 24×7 medical assistance available throughout the event.
      • Certified Mechanics will be part of the crew for any automobile breakdowns.
      • All Covid norms will be strictly followed throughout the event.
      • All Crew & Committee is Vaccinated
      • In case of event cancellation, complete fee will be refunded deducting the applied tax.

      Participation Fee includes: For Motorcycle: Food, Stay, Riding gears, Motorcycle with fuel | For 4 wheel Drive: Food, Stay, Vehicle with fuel | For Luxury Bus: Food, Stay, Bus travel

      We have already 13 Participants regsitered from UK, France, Poland & US.We request you to register for this event and make the event a great success.Please visit our website FAQ Section: www.rideforrotary.com for more details

      Regards,

      Team Ride for Rotary 5www.rideforrotary.com

       
       
      © RideforRotary. ALL Rights Reserved.
      Ride for Rotary 2021-10-30 08:00:00Z 0

      Peace Corps Volunteers and Rotary Members Find Meaningful Connections

      by 

      In December 2017, on his first night as a Peace Corps volunteer in the ancient North Macedonian city of Štip, Cal Mann was welcomed with a raucous party at a rustic cabin far outside of town. There was an abundance of food and drinks, and a boom box blared local music. As the party raged well past midnight, Mann watched, beer in hand. “I’m like, I can’t do this for two years, that’s for sure,” he recalls.

      So you can understand his trepidation the next day when he found out a barbecue was in the works. Being a good sport and new to the city, he opted to go — a pivotal decision, it turns out. At the barbecue he struck up a conversation with a man named Zoran Kolev, who spoke English. As talk came around to Mann’s work as a Peace Corps volunteer, Kolev mentioned that there was a new service club in the city: the Rotary Club of Štip.

      Rotary Club of Štip members review Rotary-donated English-language children’s storybooks with representatives from the Goce Delčev-Štip primary school. 

      Photo courtesy of Cal Mann.

      “He told me they had just started the club a few months before,” Mann says. “They didn’t really know what Rotary was, but someone had told them it was a good thing to do.” This was great news to Mann, who had been a Rotary member since 2004 (and who currently belongs to the Rotary E-Club of Silicon Valley).

      “I was thrilled to have met someone involved in Rotary so I could tap into my experience there. And they were happy to have someone who knew what Rotary was.”

      Mann’s primary assignment with the Peace Corps was to work with a legal clinic for Roma residents, but volunteers are encouraged to take on a side project. Rotary became his. “I had just linked up with a club of people with big networks in the community, and most spoke English,” Mann says. “I may be dumb, but I’m not stupid. I figured that’s a pretty good opportunity. I better jump on it.”

      Mann connected the club with a youth group and worked on small projects such as litter cleanups. When two Peace Corps volunteers in Štip who were teaching English needed more books, Mann talked to the club about finding a local distributor and also reached out to his friends at the Rotary Club of La Jolla, California, where he’d been a member previously, to connect them with the Štip club so that they could work together on the project.

      Mann’s supervisor at the Peace Corps took notice. By the end of 2019, Peace Corps Northern Macedonia had placed four Peace Corps volunteers with Rotary clubs in the country. “The clubs loved it because they got volunteers who were really knowledgeable in the area of community development and who had a lot of ideas, energy, time, and skills,” Mann says. “The volunteers loved it because Rotary clubs immediately gave them a good connection to their community and a natural circle of friends.”

      It was a match made in heaven. Rotary and the Peace Corps seemed meant for one another — as subsequent developments would demonstrate.

      It was an impromptu speech by John F. Kennedy, just weeks before the 1960 presidential election, that catapulted the idea of a volunteer corps of Americans into public consciousness. Speaking from the steps of the student union at the University of Michigan, he challenged students, who had been waiting until well after midnight for his arrival, to contribute part of their life to service. The idea took hold, and hundreds of students signed petitions pledging to volunteer. In March 1961, President Kennedy signed an executive order creating the Peace Corps. “‘Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country’ was very real for me,” says Ted Bendelow, a member of the Rotary Club of Mead, Colorado, who joined the Peace Corps six months after Kennedy’s assassination and served in Liberia from 1964 to 1966.

      In the 60 years since its creation, more than 240,000 Americans have served in the Peace Corps. Chances are there might be a returned Peace Corps volunteer (known as an RPCV) in your club or district. “They pop up in Rotary more than you might think,” says Charlie Hunt, a member of the Rotary Club of Denver Lodo, who served in Vanuatu from 2006 to 2008. Hunt recalls attending a Rotary club meeting while traveling to another part of the United States and hearing an opinionated academic speaking about Iran. “A Rotarian took her to task,” Hunt says. “He said he had spent two years in Iran. He had been a Peace Corps volunteer.”

      1. Charlie Hunt (center) and his wife, Nancy Cole, greet his host father, Pastor Kaltang Kai, as they end their Peace Corps service in Vanuatu.

        Photo courtesy of Charlie Hunt.

      2. Hunt attending a chiefs’ meeting; he was given the name “Masilae” when he arrived on the island of Émaé. “‘Silae’ means ‘man who helps’ and ‘Ma’ means ‘chief,’ so technically I am a chief on the island,” he explains.

        Photo courtesy of Charlie Hunt.

      3. Ted Bendelow with his friend Flumo, whom he met while serving in the Peace Corps in Liberia.

                           Photo courtesy of Ted Bendelow.

      The relationship between Rotary International and the Peace Corps, made official with a 2014 partnership agreement, has its foundation in the organizations’ shared values. The mission of the Peace Corps — “to promote world peace and friendship” — is one Rotary has embraced for more than 100 years. And the Peace Corps’ chief areas of focus — agriculture, community economic development, education, environment, health, and youth in development — have much in common with Rotary’s.

      The Peace Corps has three goals: providing training for men and women in interested host countries; helping people in those countries to better understand Americans; and helping Americans to better understand other peoples. Service, therefore, is meant to continue once volunteers return home. “The third goal is not necessarily just about telling stories about your Peace Corps experience,” Hunt says. “It’s about being active in your community and how you can best take the things you’ve done in the Peace Corps and apply them when you come back.”

      Steve Werner, a member of the Rotary Club of Denver Southeast and a Peace Corps volunteer in Korea from 1976 to 1978, recalls a meeting in the early 1990s with JFK’s brother-in-law Sargent Shriver, who had served as the first director of the Peace Corps. Then the board chair for the National Peace Corps Association, Werner stopped by Shriver’s office to have him sign some fundraising letters, a task he thought would take only 15 minutes. But Shriver was in the mood to talk. “He told me that the vision was that once a Peace Corps volunteer, we would always be a Peace Corps volunteer,” Werner says. “We would continue to serve after we got home to be examples to our fellow Americans. It was a big part of my motivation for becoming a Rotarian.”

      1. 241,000

        Number of people who have served in the Peace Corps over the past 60 years

      2. 3

        Percent of volunteers over age 50

      3. 27

        Average volunteer age

      Werner served another tour as a Peace Corps volunteer in the country of Georgia in 2016, this time with Peace Corps Response. While similar in approach to the two-year traditional program, Peace Corps Response assignments are shorter (generally 9-12 months) and involve higher impact projects geared to volunteers with more technical expertise in a particular program area.

      Elsewhere in 2016, Andy Lenec was listening to NPR with his son when he heard an interview with the oldest active Peace Corps volunteer at the time: 87-year-old Alice Carter, who had just finished her first year in Morocco. “I’d been a Rotarian for over 25 years and service is second nature to me,” Lenec says. “I looked at my son, and he said, ‘Go for it, Dad.’ The next thing I know, I’m filling out the Peace Corps application form online.”

      Lenec was assigned to Truskavets, a small city in western Ukraine near the Polish border where a Rotary club had applied for a Peace Corps volunteer in partnership with the city government and library. The club was small but committed. “Because of economic struggles, Rotary in Ukraine can cost as much as one month’s salary for annual dues,” Lenec says. “Many just cannot afford it. So a club of what used to be 20 was down to maybe 4.”

      Shannon Carter on an overnight train ride during a field trip with the young people of Zolotonosha, Ukraine, where she served as a Peace Corps youth development volunteer.

      Photo courtesy of Shannon Carter.

      Once in Truskavets, Lenec decided that he wanted his side project for the Peace Corps to involve young people. He proposed an international youth conference to the Rotarians, and they jumped at the idea, as did the city’s mayor. As Lenec traveled to other Rotary clubs to encourage them to support the conference, a Rotarian asked if the conference could be turned into a Rotary Youth Leadership Awards event, which was defunct in the country. Lenec had been involved in RYLA for years and had seen the impact it makes on youth. Now he had a new goal: “We were going to revive RYLA in Ukraine,” he says.

      Unfortunately, Lenec became ill while planning the event and had to return to Colorado, where he is now a member of the Rotary Club of Denver Lodo. But another Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine, Shannon Carter, stepped in and worked with Rotarians to keep the momentum going. During the summer of 2019, the RYLA took place; 17 young people from Ukraine, Japan, and Armenia participated. “It cemented faith in the program,” Carter says. Carter then helped organize a virtual RYLA in 2020 with more than 700 registered participants.

      Unlike Lenec with his decades of Rotary experience, Carter had none. But she soon discovered how valuable the Rotary network would be, both with RYLA and her future projects. Following up on work Lenec had done to raise awareness of the RYLA project with clubs in North America, Carter was introduced to Gordon Crann, a member of the Rotary Club of Hamilton After Five, Ontario. Crann, who has an extensive global network as past chair of both the Rotary Action Group for Peace and the Rotary Action Group for Community and Economic Development, offered to help Carter promote RYLA. Then he went one step further: He suggested she also apply for a Rotary Peace Fellowship.

      Some of the young people who Carter worked with decided to go out into the community and give hugs to people. “They saw it on social media and wanted to do it,” she says.

      Photo courtesy of Shannon Carter.

      “I was very impressed by Shannon and her organizational ability,” Crann says. “She was the key person in bringing everything together, and this was an interna-tional effort. Peace Corps volunteers have shown they have a commitment to Service Above Self by taking time off [for public service], when they could be making a lot more money in jobs in the United States.”

      Carter applied, and today she is a Rotary Peace Fellow at the University of Bradford, England, and a member of the Rotaract Club of Lviv International, Ukraine. “I went into RYLA anticipating personal growth, but I didn’t foresee the international network I would gain that would provide future opportunities like the Rotary Peace Fellowship,” Carter says. “My experience as a Peace Corps volunteer cemented my confidence in myself and made me realize we are fully able to do what we want in life.”

      One of the driving forces behind the Rotary-Peace Corps partnership at the international level is a group of returned Peace Corps volunteers from Colorado who named themselves the “Tiger Team,” after a dog owned by one of its members. The group began meeting in November 2009 at the instigation of Sue Fox, a past president of the Rotary Club of Denver and a returned Peace Corps volunteer who served in Liberia from 1968 to 1970. Fox recognized the potential for the two groups; as she told a local business magazine at the time, “RPCVs and Rotarians are kindred spirits, seeking the same goals embodied in Rotary’s motto, Service Above Self.”

      Students register for the regional English-language spelling bee in Štip. Nationwide, more than 3,000 students participate in this highly competitive contest, which is facilitated by volunteers from the Peace Corps and Rotary.

      Photo courtesy of Cal Mann.

      The Tiger Team expanded to include other Rotarians as well as returned Peace Corps volunteers who were not affiliated with Rotary. Their group, which became the organization Partnering for Peace, proposed to Rotary International and the Peace Corps administration that a formal alliance be established between the two organizations. That step was taken in May 2014, and the partnership was recently renewed for another three years.

       

       
      Peace Corps Volunteers and Rotary Members Find Meaningful Connections 2021-10-13 08:00:00Z 0

      South Peninsula Hospital -- Covid-19 Response - 10/12/2021 -

      The transmission rate of Covid-19 on the southern Kenai Peninsula is at an all-time high. If you are sick, please get tested and call your healthcare provider. Treatment is available! Do not delay!  To help prevent the spread to others, PLEASE wear cloth face coverings or procedure masks, get vaccinated if you can, stay away from others when sick, and get tested if you have been exposed or have symptoms.


      7-day case counts on Southern Kenai Peninsula

      Community10/0610/0710/0810/0910/1010/1110/12
      Anchor Point5311 22
      Fritz Creek11     
      Homer84689615
      Other South 122 12

      Data from Alaska Department of Health and Social Services: Table 2b Geographic Distribution of Cases by Report Date. Except for weekends and holidays, data is typically updated by noon.

      Covid-19 Vaccines

      Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Booster Authorized Please talk to your healthcare provider about whether getting a Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 booster shot is appropriate for you. Learn more at covidvax.alaska.gov. Who can get a Covid-19 vaccine booster? Anyone who is at least six months after their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine series, and falls into one of these categories:

      • people 65 years and older;
      • residents aged 18 years and older in long-term care settings;
      • people aged 50 to 64 with certain underlying medical conditions ;
      • people 18 to 49 who are at high risk for severe COVID-19 due to certain underlying medical conditions may receive it based on their individual benefits and risks; and
      • people aged 18-64 years who are at increased risk for COVID-19 exposure and transmission because of occupational or institutional setting may receive it, based on their individual benefits and risks. This includes first responders (healthcare workers, firefighters, police, congregate care staff); education staff (teachers, support staff, daycare workers); workers in food and agriculture, manufacturing, corrections, U.S. Postal Service, public transit and grocery store workers.

      Where can I get my vaccine booster?

      • Attend the mass Pfizer booster vaccination event on Friday, October 15 at Homer High School. 
      • Make Appointment Here
        NOTE – If you received your second dose on or before April 17, you qualify.
      • Set an appointment with your primary care provider.
      • At the SPH Test and Vaccine site (see below).

      Pfizer booster doses are only recommended for certain individuals who have received two doses of Pfizer vaccine. Those who got the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines are not authorized for booster at this time.

      COVID Clinic at 4201 Bartlett Street

      Pfizer vaccines – available 7 days a week.

      Moderna & Janssen vaccines – available only on Tuesdays and Fridays

      Walk-ins welcome from 9am-5pm daily, or click below to make an appointment

      Third dose for immunocompromised individuals can be done by provider referral (sent a day in advance of your vaccine visit) or by completing the attestation of conditions.

        Moderna & Janssen     Pfizer  

      Vaccines are now offered during your appointments at Homer Medical Center and the SPH Family Care Clinic. Inquire at time of your appointment. Click here for a complete list of vaccine providers on the southern kenai peninsula. Pfizer vaccine is now authorized for individuals 12 years of age and older. Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older. Learn more about vaccine safety in minors in letter to parents from Dr. Anne Zink, Chief Medical Officer, State of Alaska

      Who is eligible? Anyone 12 and older.

      Vaccine Information: Information about COVID-19 vaccines:

      • mRNA vaccines
      • Pfizer-BioNTech–authorized under FDA Emergency Use Authorization for individuals 12 – 15 years of age;
      • COMIRNATY (Pfizer-Biontech) – Fully approved by FDA for 16 years of age and older
      • Moderna – authorized under FDA Emergency Use Authorization for 18 years and up
      • Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) – authorized under FDA Emergency Use Authorization for 18 years and up.
      South Peninsula Hospital -- Covid-19 Response - 10/12/2021 - 2021-10-13 08:00:00Z 0

      Kenai Peninsula Groundwater Survey

                                                      

      Informed Consent to Participate in Research

      Information to Consider Before Taking Part in this Research Study

      Title: Groundwater Vulnerability in Coupled Human-Natural Systems. 

      Study # 002870

      Overview:  You are being asked to take part in a research study. The information in this document should help you to decide if you would like to participate. The sections in this Overview provide the basic information about the study. More detailed information is provided in the remainder of the document.

      Study Staff:  This study is being led by Edgar J. Guerron Orejuela who is a PhD candidate at the University of South Florida in the School of Geosciences. This person is called the Principal Investigator. He is being guided in this research by Dr. Mark Rains, Dr. Kai Rains, and Dr. Shawn Landry. Other approved research staff may act on behalf of the Principal Investigator.

      Study Details:  This study is being conducted in the Kenai Peninsula Lowlands. The purpose of the study is to document what residents of the Kenai Peninsula Lowlands value about living in this geographic area, assess their knowledge and understanding of groundwater systems in their region, and record their perceptions of groundwater vulnerability due to anthropogenic impacts in the Kenai Peninsula Lowlands. To obtain this information, research staff will conduct a 13-question survey targeted to all members of each of the following stakeholder groups:  Resources managers, environmental NGOs, landowners, and industry representatives of the Kenai Peninsula lowlands.

      Participants You are being asked to take part in this study because you identify yourself as a member of at least one of the stakeholder groups mentioned above. We are interested in learning about the perceived value of groundwater for members of these stakeholder groups in the Kenai Peninsula Lowlands.

      Voluntary Participation:  Your participation is voluntary. You do not have to participate and may stop your participation at any time. There will be no penalties or loss of benefits or opportunities if you do not participate or decide to stop once you start. Your decision to participate or not to participate will not affect your job status, employment record, employee evaluations, or advancement opportunities.

      Benefits, Compensation, and Risk:  We do not know if you will receive any benefit from your participation. There is no cost to participate. You will not be compensated for your participation. This research is considered minimal risk.  Minimal risk means that study risks are the same as the risks you face in daily life. 

      Confidentiality:  Even if we publish the findings from this study, we will keep your study information private and confidential. Anyone with the authority to look at your records must keep them confidential.


      Why are you being asked to take part?

      Given the low-regulatory landscape in the Kenai lowlands, it is imperative that members of the stakeholder groups collaborate to share and exchange their knowledge and priorities, as well as make common information accessible to all stakeholders to facilitate fruitful conversations and allow for better and more-informed local decision-making.   

      Study Procedures

      If you take part in this study, you will be asked to answer a survey that contains 13 questions. The survey will be conducted online using Qualtrics software and is expected to take the participants between 20-30 minutes to complete the survey. Data collected in this survey is anonymous.

      Alternatives / Voluntary Participation / Withdrawal

      You do not have to participate in this research study.

      You should only take part in this study if you want to volunteer. You should not feel that there is any pressure to take part in the study. You are free to participate in this research or withdraw at any time.  There will be no penalty or loss of benefits you are entitled to receive if you stop taking part in this study. Decision to participate or not to participate will not affect your job status.  

      Benefits and Risks

      We are unsure if you will receive any benefits by taking part in this research study. This research is considered to be minimal risk.
      Compensation

      You will receive no payment or other compensation for taking part in this study.

      Privacy and Confidentiality

      We will do our best to keep your records private and confidential. We cannot guarantee absolute confidentiality. Your personal information may be disclosed if required by law. Certain people may need to see your study records. The only people who will be allowed to see these records are:

      ·       The research team, including the Principal Investigator, study coordinator, and all other research staff.

      ·       Certain government and university people who need to know more about the study. For example, individuals who provide oversight on this study may need to look at your records. This is done to make sure that we are doing the study in the right way. They also need to make sure that we are protecting your rights and your safety. 

      ·       Any agency of the federal, state, or local government that regulates this research. This includes the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Office for Human Research Protection (OHRP).

      ·       The USF Institutional Review Board (IRB) and its related staff who have oversight responsibilities for this study, and staff in USF Research Integrity and Compliance

      Your information or samples collected as part of the research, even if identifiers are removed, will NOT be used or distributed for future research studies.

      It is possible, although unlikely, that unauthorized individuals could gain access to your responses because you are responding online. Confidentiality will be maintained to the degree permitted by the technology used. No guarantees can be made regarding the interception of data sent via the Internet.  However, your participation in this online survey involves risks similar to a person’s everyday use of the Internet. If you complete and submit an anonymous survey and later request your data be withdrawn, this may or may not be possible as the researcher may be unable to extract anonymous data from the database.

      Contact Information

      If you have any questions, concerns or complaints about this study, call Edgar J. Guerron Orejuela at 941-713-2606. If you have questions about your rights, complaints, or issues as a person taking part in this study, call the USF IRB at (813) 974-5638 or contact the IRB by email at RSCH-IRB@usf.edu.

       

      We may publish what we learn from this study. If we do, we will not let anyone know your name. We will not publish anything else that would let people know who you are. You can print a copy of this consent form for your records. 

      I freely give my consent to take part in this study. I understand that by proceeding with this survey, I am agreeing to take part in research, and I am 18 years of age or older.

      https://usf.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5gsNX6qhyo2EiEK

      ---

      Edgar Guerron Orejuela (he/him)

      Ph.D. Candidate

      University of South Florida, School of Geosciences

      Margaret A. Davidson Fellow

       

      Kenai Peninsula Groundwater Survey 2021-10-13 08:00:00Z 0

      The Best Chance to Eradicate Polio is Now

      by Illustration by 

      “There’s something about the whole idea of eradicating polio that grabs the imagination,” says Aidan O’Leary. “Most people talk about making steps toward achievements, and it’s almost always into the never-never. Eradication is a zero-sum game; anything short of zero is failure. You keep getting closer and closer, but ultimately the only number that actually matters is zero.”

      Although O’Leary, the polio eradication director for the World Health Organization, is speaking from his home in Galway, against the verdant backdrop of western Ireland, his focus is on war-torn Afghanistan and the parched and dusty plains of Pakistan — the last two places on the planet where wild polio still thrives.

      Even during a pandemic, even as grim realities confront him, O’Leary conveys a sense of optimism about the possibility of finally eradicating polio. “Particularly in the days of COVID-19, there is something that really resonates about snuffing out a highly communicable infectious disease,” he says. “As COVID has taken off, it has also led a lot of people to better understand why now is the time to finish this job with polio.”

      Yet O’Leary’s optimism is shaded with a sense of urgency and pragmatism. “There is absolutely no case for complacency here,” he says. “What is really important is that we double down on reaching the persistently missed children who are a top priority for our program.”

      O’Leary, who began his tenure as WHO’s polio chief in January, came into the job knowing the terrain well. He formerly led UNICEF’s polio eradication efforts in Pakistan and was the head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, organizing the UN’s emergency response during crises.

      O’Leary says he understands the difference Rotary can make — both in a community and in the global fight against polio. In Galway, a local tradition involves kicking the limestone wall at the end of a 2-mile stroll on the Salthill Promenade along Galway Bay (the reason for doing so has been lost in the mists of time). In 2012, O’Leary explains, the Rotary Club of Galway-Salthill installed on that wall a box that bears the slogan “Small Change, Big Impact” and encourages walkers to leave a small donation, with all money collected going to local charities and institutions.

      In July, weeks before the dramatic turn of events in Afghanistan, O’Leary joined Rotary magazine senior staff writer Diana Schoberg and Dave King, editor of Rotary magazine for Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland, on a Zoom call to discuss the new strategy of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) and the new polio vaccine, and how they will be used to eradicate polio — once and for all.

      What is the latest update on wild poliovirus?

      The numbers are extremely encouraging. We’ve gone over a very bumpy road during the last two years. We had a fivefold increase in cases between 2018 and 2019, when we saw 176 cases, and we had 140 cases in 2020. But we’ve recorded just two cases this year [as of 27 July] — one each in Afghanistan and Pakistan. [Both cases were in January.]

      The particularly encouraging part right now is that the program has a very elaborate network of environmental testing sites for sewage — almost 100 sites in Afghanistan and Pakistan that cover all of the major population centers. In 2020, almost 60 percent of the monthly test samples came back positive for poliovirus. This year to date, that percentage is probably around 15 per-cent. We have been unable to detect any wild poliovirus in Afghanistan since 23 February, and we’ve seen just five isolates in Pakistan since 12 April.

      Why do you think that is? Given that some polio immunization campaigns had to be suspended last year, you’d think the numbers would have gone in the other direction. Is it because so many elements of society were shut down due to the pandemic?

      While conditions in 2020 were certainly adverse both for surveillance and for the campaign operations, there are two areas that are helping us this year. One is reduced mobility — both within Afghanistan and Pakistan, and across the borders. When you look particularly at the experience in India, with the explosion of COVID cases in the first and second quarters of 2021 — and what were some very shocking images of funeral pyres — I believe that the drop in mobility has had an impact. There has also been a change in social norms, very simple things like social distancing and hand washing. Maybe that has made some impact, as well. But those are short-term changes.

      With the conflict in Afghanistan, we don’t believe that the benefits we’re seeing from reduced mobility will continue indefinitely. We need to continue to prepare for the possibility of large-scale displacements across borders. We need to grab the opportunity that we have.

      Now we’re coming into the high season for polio transmission, so we’ll continue to wait and see. There’s certainly no complacency from our program.

      "The single most important relationship that the program has is between a frontline vaccinator and the caregiver who answers the knock at the door."

      Vaccines are on everyone’s mind because of COVID. Has that affected acceptance of the polio vaccine?

      For me, the more fundamental issues in Afghanistan and Pakistan center around household and community confidence and trust. If you get the basics of that right, you are 80 to 90 percent there. The challenge has always been reaching the other 10 to 20 percent.

      The key issue is broader — the marginalization of communities. That’s not something that can be addressed just at the household and community level. It requires a systemic engagement to try to make sure that we properly understand the community’s actual needs and then that we connect those dots in a more reliable way.

      The single most important relationship that the program has is between a frontline vaccinator and the caregiver who answers the knock at the door. That caregiver is usually the mother, and what’s really important for our success is that the frontline vaccinator is a local woman who is well-trained and motivated to do what she’s doing. If that relationship of confidence and trust is developed, then you’re able to vaccinate all of the children inside the house.

      Because of the suspension of house-to-house vaccination campaigns in 2018 in areas of Afghanistan controlled by the Taliban, more than 3 million children routinely miss vaccinations. Do you think that polio eradication is possible while the security situation in Afghanistan is so unpredictable?

      We continue to speak with all parties. Our priority is the protection of children, and that requires engaging with all stakeholders. We have an agreement with the Taliban to conduct mosque-to-mosque campaigns, which we hope we’ll be able to initiate in the coming months. In some cases, we’ll be reaching children for the first time in several years. We’d like to build on those opportunities toward resuming house-to-house vaccination campaigns.

      We don’t have an all-or-nothing situation. Let’s seize the opportunity to reach 40 to 50 percent coverage before we start talking about 100 percent. Will the campaigns in July and August be perfect? No. They’re taking place against the backdrop of a growing full-scale conflict, so we have to make sure that we find appropriate ways of making that work.

      There will be risks. Eight frontline workers were killed in eastern Afghanistan earlier this year in various targeted killings. In these contested areas, the de facto authorities on the ground shift. We need to make sure that we navigate these areas as sensitively as we possibly can.

      We are also working on financing essential immunization coverage [universal access to all relevant vaccines], particularly in the provinces of the southern region of Afghanistan. We recognize that it’s not just a polio gap. There’s a much broader gap.

      The other point that I would highlight is the importance of the surveillance system. Although we have not been able to reach all children with vaccinations, our surveillance system is continuing to pick up all the acute flaccid paralysis cases. There is a basic system in place that allows us to properly understand what’s going on. We want to build incrementally and in a sustainable way to make sure that we have access in all of these areas for the purposes of our immunization programs.

      What about in Pakistan, where 81 percent of the cases are among the Pashto-speaking population, who make up 15 percent of the overall population. Why are the cases so concentrated within that group, and what is the program planning to do to address it?

      It’s often presented as a vaccine acceptance issue, but I think it’s much broader than that. Because of economic migration, among other reasons, you have this massive influx of Pashto-speaking people from across Afghanistan and Pakistan into Karachi. You’re seeing this huge explosion of settlements — formal, informal, and everything in between. These settlements tend to be highly underserved. There can be issues between the state and provincial administrations and these minority communities. There’s a wider issue around community acceptance, confidence, and trust.

      The polio eradication program is one of the few programs that reaches these communities, but their needs go way beyond polio vaccines, including clean water and sanitation, nutrition, basic health services, and education. So when you are trying to access these informal settlements, you have this big residue of issues that polio essentially becomes the proxy for.

      These issues are not strictly within the control of our program, but we recognize that to build the acceptance and trust of these communities, we’re going to have to make a much more sustained effort than we perhaps may have been doing in the past. The idea on our side is to move from patchy and ad hoc initiatives to something much more comprehensive and systemic.

      In places like Karachi, Pakistan, Aidan O’Leary says, the most successful “frontline vaccinator is a local woman who is well-trained and motivated.” Khaula Jamil/Courtesy of Rotary International
       
      The new strategy talks about “zero-dose children.” What does that term mean?

      Zero-dose refers to any child who has never had a vaccine. We want to make sure that they not only get the oral polio vaccines but also as many other essential immunizations as is feasible. It’s not just a question of a fixed, static target of high-risk children in core reservoirs — those areas with persistent wild poliovirus transmission. There is a rolling target that we have to stay on top of. We’re in a race against time with newborns. There are between 7 and 8 million babies born every year in Pakistan. So we need to make sure that within the first months of those babies’ lives, we’re reaching as large a proportion of them as we possibly can.

      What’s your best guesstimate of your target?

      Every time we do a national immunization campaign in Pakistan, which are house-to-house campaigns, we target more than 40 million children under age 5. When we go to Afghanistan, that number is between 9 million and 10 million. It continues to be very humbling to see what frontline workers are doing during a pandemic.

      We’re dealing with two issues here, aren’t we — wild poliovirus and the circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus. What is the difference between the two?

      The wild poliovirus is essentially as its name describes. It’s the original of the species. It has evolved over centuries and millennia, and it has continued to evolve.

      The oral polio vaccine contains a live but weakened virus, which can circulate among under-immunized or unimmunized populations for a long period of time, usually for years. And eventually, it can revert to a form that causes paralysis. That is circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus [cVDPV].

      Viruses require an immunity gap. They need susceptible children. Anywhere there are zero-dose children, you’re going to find these diseases taking off. When we map where these children are, we keep coming back to the same locations again and again. That’s why we really have to double down and make sure that these zero-dose children are our very top priority to get covered by vaccination.

      The new eradication strategy includes improving surveillance and integrating polio vaccines into health programs. Khaula Jamil/Courtesy of Rotary International

       

      Globally, how widespread is cVDPV?

      There have been 1,800 cases since 2016. Between 2018 and 2019, there was a tripling of cases, and then there was a further tripling between 2019 and 2020. The total number of cVDPV cases in 2020 was 1,103. So far in 2021 [as of 27 July], there have been 179 cases. We’ve seen real progress as immunization campaigns have resumed. The number of countries with cases has decreased from 27 last year to just over a dozen.

      These cases happen where children miss vaccinations. When children are fully vaccinated, cVDPV is not a problem. These cases are highly concentrated, with Afghanistan and Pakistan making up 40 percent of cases in 2020. If you look at the situation in Afghanistan, which was the country with the greatest number of cVDPV cases last year, more than 90 percent of those were concentrated in the areas that were inaccessible due to the Taliban banning house-to-house polio campaigns.

      So again, the challenge for us is to protect through vaccination. You create a risk by not building up the immunity levels as high as they could or should be. As a program, we are trying to get back to a stage where we’re going after the root cause of the problem — which means making sure that we are fully vaccinating all of these zero-dose children.

       

       
      The Best Chance to Eradicate Polio is Now 2021-10-06 08:00:00Z 0

      How to Talk to Someone Who is Vaccine Hesitant

      Tips to have that talk

      by 

      As COVID-19 vaccinations are administered around the globe, you’ve probably seen your social media feeds fill up with joyful vaccine selfies and excited appointment updates. Chances are, you also have someone in your life who’s skeptical. Most of us do — and that has public health officials concerned.

      Vaccine hesitancy is often fuel for heated public debate, but conversations about vaccines don’t have to be contentious. In fact, being willing to have them is one of the most impactful ways we can influence global health. As with many emotionally-charged topics, knowing how to start the conversation can be the hardest part. These tips may help you open up a dialogue and get your loved ones thinking differently about being vaccinated.

      Find shared values. We all want similar things — healthy families, thriving communities, and a sense of control over our health. Demonizing vaccine-hesitant individuals only creates further division and exacerbates an “us vs. them” mentality. Try explaining why you choose vaccinations. Is it to protect the most vulnerable members of your community? To shield your children from preventable disease? Relatable motivations like these can help forge a human connection and get to the emotional heart of the issue.

      Seek to understand. Just as there are many reasons to be vaccinated, there are many reasons a person might feel dubious. A prevalent one is misinformation, which is more contagious than ever in our digital age. Others are more complicated and riddled with an ugly history. Marginalized communities have spent centuries being mistreated by the medical establishment. Expecting these communities to immediately trust the same institution to have their best interest at heart is unfair and dismissive of historic trauma.

      Know your “C’s.” The World Health Organization (WHO) has outlined three “C’s” that contribute to vaccinate hesitancy: complacency, convenience, and confidence. We could also add a fourth: culture. Rates of vaccine hesitancy, as well as contributing factors, vary widely based on a person’s location, background, and community. Being cognizant of these differences can prevent us from making incorrect assumptions. If someone is skipping recommended vaccines due to religious beliefs, opening a conversation with safety statistics may not be helpful or relevant to them.

      Lead with facts. Mythbusting can be tempting, but did you know that repeating misinformation can actually give it more weight? Instead of focusing on why that meme or blog post is incorrect, stick to simple statements of fact. For example: “large-scale scientific studies find no link between the HPV vaccine and auto-immune symptoms.”

      Be the voice of the majority. Social norms are an incredibly powerful force, but the key is to keep it positive. If you try to convince someone that not enough people are receiving vaccines, they may feel that their hesitancy has been validated by others. A more effective approach is to focus on how many people are choosing to vaccinate and why. Remind them that large-scale inoculation is a group effort and we want them on the team.

      Identify the problem and the solution. If you’ve ever stood at the edge of a diving board, unable to move, you know that fear can be paralyzing. Fear of severe illness can have similar effects. When we talk about vaccine-preventable disease, simply scaring someone is likely to backfire. Instead, it’s important to acknowledge two facts simultaneously: these diseases are serious and being vaccinated is a simple and effective countermeasure. Help put power back into their hands by identifying an action they can take — being vaccinated!

      Vaccines bring us closer to a world where everyone thrives, but it’s a team effort. By having conversations, you can bring your friends and family along on our global health journey.

      Learn more about Rotary’s response to COVID-19.

      How to Talk to Someone Who is Vaccine Hesitant 2021-09-22 08:00:00Z 0

      SPH Covid-19 Vaccine Response 9/22/2021

      The transmission rate of Covid-19 on the southern Kenai Peninsula is at an all-time high. If you are sick, please get tested and call your healthcare provider. Treatment is available! Do not delay!  To help prevent the spread to others, PLEASE wear cloth face coverings or procedure masks, get vaccinated if you can, stay away from others when sick, and get tested if you have been exposed or have symptoms.


      7-day case counts on Southern Kenai Peninsula

      Community09/15 09/16 09/17 09/18 09/19 09/20 09/21
      Anchor Point  5   9 4  3 2  2
      Fritz Creek       
      Homer  6 31 7 6 9 3 12
      Other South    5 1 1 1 1 

      Data from Alaska Department of Health and Social Services: Table 2b Geographic Distribution of Cases by Report Date. Except for weekends and holidays, data is typically updated by noon.

      Covid-19 Vaccines

      COVID Clinic at 4201 Bartlett Street

      Pfizer vaccines – available 7 days a week.

      Moderna & Janssen vaccines – available only on Tuesdays and Fridays

      Walk-ins welcome from 9am-5pm daily, or click below to make an appointment

      Third dose for immunocompromised individuals can be done by provider referral (sent a day in advance of your vaccine visit) or by completing the attestation of conditions.

        Moderna & Janssen         Pfizer   

      Vaccines are now offered during your appointments at Homer Medical Center and the SPH Family Care Clinic. Inquire at time of your appointment. Click here for a complete list of vaccine providers on the Southern Kenai Peninsula.

      Pfizer vaccine is now authorized for individuals 12 years of age and older. Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older. Learn more about vaccine safety in minors in letter to parents from Dr. Anne Zink, Chief Medical Officer, State of Alaska

      Who is eligible? Anyone 12 and older.

      Vaccine Information:
      Information about COVID-19 vaccines:

      • mRNA vaccines
      • Pfizer-Biontech–authorized under FDA Emergency Use Authorization for individuals 12 – 15 years of age;
      • COMIRNATY (Pfizer-Biontech) – Fully approved by FDA for 16 years of age and older
      • Moderna – authorized under FDA Emergency Use Authorization for 18 years and up
      • Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) – authorized under FDA Emergency Use Authorization for 18 years and up.
      SPH Covid-19 Vaccine Response 9/22/2021 2021-09-22 08:00:00Z 0

      Covid-19 Vaccines-South Peninsula Hospital  July 27, 2021

      July 27 Update

      COVID Clinic at 4201 Bartlett Street

      Pfizer and Janssen vaccines – available 7 days a week.

      Moderna vaccines – available only on Fridays

      Walk-ins welcome from 9am-5pm daily, or click below to make an appointment

       Moderna    Pfizer & Janssen*
      NOTE: as of July 26 we are temporarily out of Janssen vaccines

      Back-to-School Reminder – It takes five weeks to be considered fully vaccinated with Pfizer vaccine. Parental consent is required for minors. Learn more about vaccine safety in minors in letter to parents from Dr. Anne Zink, Chief Medical Officer, State of Alaska

      Get $40 in Homer bucks with every vaccine (while supplies last).  Already received a vaccine? Alaskan residents who have already received a Covid-19 vaccine can put their name into a drawing for $100 and $250 gift cards to local businesses. Winners will be drawn every other Thursday, and your name will stay in the pot throughout the month of September for up to five chances to win! Stop by the Covid Clinic at 4201 Bartlett Street to enter your name in the drawing.

      Vaccines are now offered during your appointments at Homer Medical Center and the SPH Family Care Clinic. Inquire at time of your appointment. Click here for a complete list of vaccine providers on the Southern Kenai Peninsula.

      Pfizer vaccine is now authorized for individuals 12 years of age and older. Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older Who is eligible? Anyone 12 and older. Vaccine Information: Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:

      Covid-19 Vaccines-South Peninsula Hospital  July 27, 2021 2021-08-06 08:00:00Z 0
      Announcements Keriann Baker 2021-07-29 08:00:00Z 0

      Passing of Will Files

      It is with great sadness that we mourn the loss of our longtime member, Will Files on July 27, 2021. Will was a devoted husband and father. Will was a constant champion for our community and raised thousands of dollars for youth programs such as the SPARC. Will was a 2017 Recipient of Rotary's Service Above Self Award. Our thoughts are with Martha Ellen and the family during this difficult time. 
       
      Passing of Will Files Keriann Baker 2021-07-27 08:00:00Z 0

      THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS
       

      The Lambda Variant: What You Should Know And Why Experts Say Not To Panic
       
      July 22, 2021 3:09 PM ET
      Laurel Wamsley at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C., November 7, 2018. (photo by Allison Shelley)
       
      A medical assistant administers a coronavirus test last week in Los Angeles. COVID-19 cases are on the rise as the highly transmissible delta variant has become the dominant coronavirus strain in the United States.
      Mario Tama/Getty Images
       
      While the delta variant of the coronavirus has quickly become the dominant strain in the United States, it's not the only variant circulating in the population.
       
      The lambda variant, first identified in Peru, is also making headlines as it has started to be identified in several states. Houston Methodist Hospital reported its first case of the variant this week. Scientists at the Medical University of South Carolina recently announced they had found the variant in a virus sample taken in April.
       
      According to a database for scientists tracking coronavirus variants, fewer than 700 cases of the lambda variant have been sequenced in the U.S. so far out of more than 34 million coronavirus cases reported to date. But the U.S. has sequenced only a tiny fraction of its cases, so that number does not reflect the actual number of lambda cases in the country
      .
      Fewer than 1% of U.S. cases in the last four weeks have been identified as the lambda variant, according to GISAID, a repository for genome data.
       
      So do we need to add lambda to our list of big worries in the U.S.? Not yet, according to public health officials and experts.
      The delta variant, which is more than two times as transmissible as the original strain of the coronavirus, now accounts for 83% of new coronavirus cases in the United States. Delta continues to be the central concern for public health officials.
       
      What we know about the lambda variant
      The lambda variant was first identified in Peru in August 2020, according to the World Health Organization. Cases with the variant have now been identified in 28 countries, according to GISAID — though many of those have identified only a handful of lambda cases.
       
      Dr. Stuart Ray is a professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he specializes in infectious diseases. Ray opened one of the first COVID-19 wards at Johns Hopkins in March 2020, and he has also overseen Johns Hopkins' COVID-19 sequencing efforts.
       
      He tells NPR that lambda is "sort of a cousin of the alpha variant" — one of the earliest identified variants of concern.
       
      Lambda spread until it became a dominant sequence in people with COVID-19 in Peru. The WHO noted last month an elevated presence of lambda in other South American countries, including Argentina, Chile and Ecuador. And now we know it's present in the United States.
       
      The lambda variant carries a number of mutations with suspected implications, such as potential increased transmissibility or possible increased resistance to neutralizing antibodies, the WHO says. But it says the full extent of those mutations' impact isn't yet well understood and will need further study.
       
      While there hasn't been clear head-to-head data, the evidence so far does not suggest the lambda variant has any great advantage over the delta variant, Ray says.
      "Delta is clearly dominating right now. And so I think our focus can remain on delta as a hallmark of a highly infectious variant. And there's some evidence that it might cause greater severity per infection, although that's still a developing story," he says.
       
      A doctor checks a lung X-ray while visiting a patient with COVID-19 in Comas, in the northern outskirts of Lima, Peru.
      Ernesto Benavides/AFP via Getty Images
       
      The COVID-19 vaccines work well against variants
      There isn't yet full data on vaccine effectiveness against the lambda variant. But so far, studies have found that the vaccines available in the U.S. provide protection against the major strains of the virus, including the highly transmissible delta variant.
       
      "We know that vaccination almost uniformly protects people," Ray says.
       
      The vast majority of hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. now are among unvaccinated people.
       
      Studies have found that the vaccines are less effective at generating neutralizing antibodies against the variants of concern than against the original strain of the virus. But T cells also play a significant role in the body's immune response, and T cell response isn't measured in neutralizing-antibody clinical tests — meaning that the vaccines could be more effective against the variants than is suggested by tests of antibody response alone.
       
      WHO says lambda is a variant of interest. CDC does not
      The WHO now assigns Greek letters to strains of the coronavirus that are classified as variants of concern or variants of interest. A variant of concern is one that has characteristics such as being significantly more transmissible or more virulent.
       
      The alphabetical order of the variants' Greek-letter names indicates the order in which they were identified as potentially important — they are not in any particular alphabetical order of severity.
       
      The alpha, beta, gamma and delta variants are all considered variants of concern by the WHO.
       
      The WHO classified lambda last month as a global "variant of interest" — a step below variant of concern. That means it exhibits genetic changes suspected of affecting its transmissibility and disease severity and has been identified as causing significant community transmission or multiple COVID-19 clusters.
       
      The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention keeps its own list of variants of concern and interest within the United States. Notably, lambda is not on the CDC's list as being a variant of interest, concern or high consequence.
       
      Ray says tracking variants is important so that we don't get blindsided by one's sudden arrival.
       
      "We have to be vigilant for these new variants and track them. Genomic epidemiology remains an important activity for us to understand this epidemic," Ray says. "But I think right now lambda is a variant of interest, and we'll see whether it becomes a variant of concern."
       
      The things we need to do to counter new strains are the same things that we already know to do to against the coronavirus — and the stakes are high because delta is so transmissible.
       
      That means vaccination is more important than ever, Ray says: "As the variants become more infectious, then the proportion of vaccinated people required to control the epidemic increases."
      THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS  2021-07-22 08:00:00Z 0

       COVID Update: Anchorage Hospitals Fill With Patients as Local Positivity Rate Jumps to 18%

      By   JUL 20, 2021 KBBI
       
      CREDIT CDC
       
      COVID-19 case numbers are surging upward in the state causing the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services to put Alaska back in High Alert status. KBBI's Kathleen Gustafson has the story.
       
      KBBI's Kathleen Gustafson and Derotha Ferraro, spokesperson for South Peninsula Hospital - COVID Update, broadcast on KBBI on Tuesday, July 20, 2021.

      Alaska Department of Health and Social Services data show over 500 new cases of COVID-19 in the state over the last four days.

      Providence Medical Center and Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage currently have no room in their Intensive Care Units due to a combination of the surge in positive cases and a shortage of healthcare workers. 

       The Kenai Peninsula Borough data is showing 7 out of 11 ICU beds full as of Monday.
       South Peninsula Hospital Spokesperson Derotha Ferraro said, high patient volume in Anchorage is a concern here in Homer.

      "Three patients over the last three and a half days have been delayed in their transfer to a higher level of care to an Anchorage hospital. But, all three of those patients have been transferred," Ferraro said.

      SPH testing data is currently showing an 18%, positivity rate along with an increase in COVID tests performed. At the end of last week, the SPH Test and Vaccine Clinic collected between 50 and 60 swabs.

      "And, yesterday we did 83 total tests and today we've already exceeded that by two o'clock. I did the math over the last six days which is when volume really started picking up - 70 positives out of 389 swabs," said Ferraro.

       As of this week, South Peninsula Hospital is prohibiting visitors to the hospital and long term care facility.

       State data show 52% percent of Alaskans have received the COVID-19 vaccine. Vaccine is available seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and COVID-19 tests are available seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the COVID Test and Vaccine Clinic at 4201 Bartlett Street. Local health care providers and Safeway pharmacy are also administering the vaccine.


      For information about COVID-19 vaccine and testing, go to South Peninsula Hospital's website, or if you want to speak to the hospital's 24 hour, on duty COVID Nurse, call 235-0235.

       COVID Update: Anchorage Hospitals Fill With Patients as Local Positivity Rate Jumps to 18% Kathleen Gustafson 2021-07-22 08:00:00Z 0

      COVID-19 Cases Rise at an Accelerating Rate.

      Testing Isn't Just for the Unvaccinated.
       
      By KATHLEEN GUSTAFSON  KBBI
       
      CREDIT CDC
       
      COVID-19 positivity rates continue to climb and demand for tests at South Peninsula Hospital's Vaccine and Test Site has more than tripled in the last 7 days. KBBI's Kathleen  Gustafson has this update.
       
      From July 13-19,  531 test swabs administered through South Peninsula Hospital  resulted in 91 positive cases identified or a 17% positivity rate. 

      That's up from about a 3% positivity rate this time last month.

      On Tuesday the 20th,  158 total swabs yielded 14 positive cases of COVID-19.

      SPH has hospitalized four patients so far in July for COVID, and four monoclonal antibody infusions have been administered to COVID patients this month.

      The infusions are currently done in the hospital's emergency room but SPH is preparing to administer infusions outside of the hospital through home health nurses.  

      Due to high COVID transmission rates, visitation is closed at South Peninsula Hospital and long term care. Exceptions include end of life, pediatrics, surgery and obstetrics patients.

      Universal masking is still required at the hospital, regardless of vaccination status.

      SPH spokesperson Derotha Ferraro said anyone with COVID symptoms, travel plans, pre-hospital procedures, or  possible exposure to the virus should come in for a test.

      If you have visitors in your home or work with people who travel from out of state, they might not be aware that testing is readily available.

      "Testing is free and it's fast and it's for anybody, pretty much, for any reason. Because we have so many summer residents, so many visitors as well as the  14,000 of us that live here."

      Ferraro said there is some vaccine breakthrough in positive cases, so even people who are vaccinated, should get tested if they show any symptoms of illness. State data show that fully vaccinated people do not show symptoms as severe as unvaccinated people. 
       
      "A fully vaccinated person might have a runny nose or might have a headache and think - it's no big deal, I'm vaccinated. Still pay attention to your symptoms. This is not just a message for the unvaccinated," Ferraro said.

       49 vaccines were administered in the last week at the COVID Vaccine and Test Site at 4201 Bartlett Street, bringing the total to: 7,969.   Statewide, 52% of Alaskans are fully vaccinated. 


       Vaccines are offered daily, 9am-5pm.
       Testing is offered daily, 9am-6pm.

       
       Vaccines are also available from your family's  health care provider and from your local pharmacy.

       For more information, go to the hospital website, sphosp.org.

       If you have questions about testing, vaccines or if you want to speak to the 24-hour COVID nurse on duty for any reason, call the South Peninsula Hospital COVID Careline at (907) 235-0235.     
       
      COVID-19 Cases Rise at an Accelerating Rate. Kathleen Gustafson 2021-07-22 08:00:00Z 0

      Announcements 

       From the Desk of President Bernie
       
      We are off to a great Rotary year. I appreciate each of you and your dedication to our community. I want to commend prior President Lori Evans for her hard work this past year. Lori's leadership was instrumental for our club during a difficult year and her approach and dedication made this difficult job look easy. A big thank you you to Craig Forrest for his years of service as the editor of the newsletters. Craig's energy and dedication to our club is infectious and I appreciate his service. 
       
      Committee Chairs have been appointed. If you are interested in serving on a committee please contact the chair listed below.  

      Committee Chairs

      Membership: Bernie Griffard (Acting)
      Community Service: Lori Evans
      Vocational/Scholarships: Cinda Martin
      Health Fair: Van Hawkins
      Youth Services: Beth Trowbridge
      International: Vince Greear
      Foundation: Vivian Finlay
      Sunshine: Sherrie Hartley, Susie Quinn, Lorna Olson, Denice Clyne
      Public Image: Dennis Weidler

      Enjoy your week. See you Thursday.

      With gratitude,

      Bernie

      Bernie Griffard

      2021-22 President

      Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay

      ANNOUNCEMENTS

      Summer has arrived. The great potato contest is underway. Don't forget to feed, water and fertilize those spuds. We will also kick off our Peony Sales on Saturdays in July. 
       
      This Week's Speaker -- Rick Abboud, City Planner, City of Homer 

      Next Week's Speaker -- Doug Waclawski, Principal, Homer High School 

      Speakers and Invocators are needed - contact me with your recommendations 

       
      Announcements  2021-07-14 08:00:00Z 0

      South Peninsula Hospital -- Covid-19 Vaccine Updates -- May 10, 2021

      South Peninsula Hospital is working closely with the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services and other state and local agencies in our response to the outbreak of COVID-19.


      To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, you are encouraged to maintain a physical distance from others of at least 6 feet, practice frequent hand washing, clean regularly used surfaces, wear cloth face coverings while in public, stay home when sick, and get tested if you have been exposed or have symptoms.

      Covid-19 Vaccines

      May 10 Update

      Make an Appointment 

      For an appointment for Pfizer or Janssen vaccination at the Covid Vaccine and Test Clinic on Bartlett street.

      NEW! Walk-ins welcome daily 12pm-5pm at 4201 Bartlett Street, lower level.

      Vaccines are now offered during your appointments at Homer Medical Center and the SPH Family Care Clinic. Inquire at time of your appointment.

      Getting your second dose? Call 235-0235 for questions or if you need to cancel or reschedule.

      NEW!!! Pfizer vaccine is now authorized for individuals 12 years of age and older. Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older
      Who is eligible? Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible.
      Vaccine Information: Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:

      South Peninsula Hospital -- Covid-19 Vaccine Updates -- May 10, 2021 2021-05-13 08:00:00Z 0

      A Challenge to Clean the World's Rivers
       

      In 2009, Salvador Rico stood in the waters of the Russian River in Northern California with other members of the Rotary Club of South Ukiah. They were there for a river cleanup, during which they removed toilets, refrigerators, car parts, and garbage. That event led to an ambitious initiative called Cleaning the Rivers of the World.

      After participating in the Russian River cleanup, Rico’s thoughts turned to the Ameca River, which flows past his father’s farm in western Mexico. That was where, he believed, his oldest sister contracted the poliovirus that killed her in the 1960s. 

      The Rotary clubs of Ameca, Mexico, and of Rohnert Park-Cotati and South Ukiah, California, clean up the Ameca River. “I always hoped that someday I could go home and do something to turn all the sewage into pristine waters,” says Salvador Rico, the Rotary member who organized the clean up.

       

      “My older siblings would play in the river,” he says, “and that particular river carried sewage from the city of Tala.”

      Rico also thought of another river, the Lerma, which runs near his old elementary school. His teachers would let children play in a pristine tributary that flowed from a canyon but not in the main channel of the Lerma, which carried trash and toxic waste from Guadalajara. 

      So when Rico’s district governor, Helaine Campbell, asked clubs to carry out a signature water-related project in 2013-14, Rico proposed a cleanup of the Ameca River.

      With the help of Vicente Paredes of the Rotary Club of San Pedro de Tlaquepaque, Mexico, who connected people and worked on logistics, the Rotary clubs of Ameca, Mexico, and of Rohnert Park-Cotati and South Ukiah, California, carried out the first Ameca River cleanup day in April 2014. They have since organized more cleanups of the river. 

      That project eventually expanded to become Cleaning the Rivers of the World, which has challenged Rotary clubs across the globe to clean up a river. The initiative has been adopted by the Water & Sanitation Rotarian Action Group as part of the Annual World Water Day Challenge, as well as by the Environmental Sustainability Rotarian Action Group. Rotarians have organized cleanup projects in Colombia, India, Nigeria, Peru, Turkey, and Venezuela, as well as in other parts of Mexico and the United States.  

      In 2018, Rico joined his fellow Rotarians in a project on the Lerma River. “As a kid, I always hoped that someday I could go home and do something to turn all the sewage into pristine waters,” he says. “Now I can say, with a clear conscience, that I did everything I could to leave a better world for our kids.” 

      Frank Bures

      • Read more stories from The Rotarian

      A Challenge to Clean the World's Rivers  2021-05-13 08:00:00Z 0
      Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Authorized and Recommended for Use in Children Ages 12-15  SOA 2021-05-12 08:00:00Z 0

      Save the Date -- May 13, 2021 for -- Rotary District 5010's Awards and Remembrance Evening
       

      Dear District 5010 Rotarians:
       
      Each year, District 5010 honors significant achievement and efforts by our District Rotarians over our Rotary year and remembers those who have passed.
       
      That is typically done at a District Conference, but as you all know, this year's District in-person Conference has been cancelled in line with Rotary International guidance due to Covid.  
       
      Instead, we'll honor many clubs and individuals in a May 13, 2021 Zoom meeting starting at 7pm.  The link is below.  
       
      As promised at PETS, District 5010 is recognizing exceptional achievement and effort by awarding Paul Harris Fellowships for outstanding service!  Combining my remaining PH points, those available to our District Foundation Committee and a generous points contribution by Foundation Committee co-chair PDG Ted Trueblood, we'll be awarding 12, yes 12, Paul Harris Fellowships on May 13, along with many other awards and thanks.
       
      Despite the difficulties arising from Covid, our District Rotarians have risen to that challenge and have accomplished a great deal, and we want to publicly recognize their achievements and thank them.  
       
      In addition, six District Rotarians have passed so far this Rotary year, including PDG Bob Brodie, and we will remember them.
       
      No long-winded speeches this year, just thanks and recognition to the many deserving Rotarians and a few non-Rotarians.
       
      So, join us on May 13 at 7pm by linking to this Zoom:
       
      Joe Kashi
      (short-timer District Governor 2020-2021)
       
      Rotary District 5010 is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
       
      Topic: District Conference  and Awards

      Time: May 13, 2021 07:00 PM Alaska
       
      Join Zoom Meeting
       
      Meeting ID: 406 926 9120
      One tap mobile
      +12532158782,,4069269120# US (Tacoma)
      +13462487799,,4069269120# US (Houston)
      Dial by your location
              +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
              +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
      Save the Date -- May 13, 2021 for -- Rotary District 5010's Awards and Remembrance Evening  Joe K 2021-05-12 08:00:00Z 0

      Scale Model

      By building on a proven concept — such as efforts to stamp out malaria in Zambia — Rotary’s new multimillion-dollar Programs of Scale grants help make good better
       
      by DIANA SCHOBERG and VANESSA GLAVINSKAS | illustrations by GWEN KERAVAL
      scale model
      Opens in modal lightbox

      AS PART OF THE POLIO ERADICATION campaign, Rotary and its partners have trained millions of health care workers and volunteers and vaccinated nearly 3 billion children. Polio cases have dropped 99.9 percent since Rotary took up the cause in 1985, and the number of countries with endemic wild polio has dropped to two: Afghanistan and Pakistan.

      "What you’ve done with polio is remarkable," says Larry Cooley, a well-known international development consultant. "But it shouldn’t be a study of one."

      Rotary is stepping up to that challenge through Programs of Scale, a new Foundation program awarding grants to Rotary clubs or districts with evidence-based interventions that are ready to scale. The first such grant, announced in February, will provide $2 million to Partners for a Malaria-Free Zambia, a member-led program focused on fighting malaria. Co-funders World Vision U.S. and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are also involved in malaria mitigation efforts and will each contribute $2 million to the program. This $6 million program will train and equip 2,500 community health workers in Zambia to support the government’s work to eradicate malaria in that country. If all goes well, Rotary members hope to expand the effort to elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.

      The concept of Programs of Scale dates back to 2013, when global grants, introduced through The Rotary Foundation’s updated grant model, expanded the scope and size of Rotary projects with the aim of increasing their impact. After a 2016 evaluation of the grant model, the Foundation Trustees requested that a new grant type be developed that would fund "scalable" grant projects in the areas of focus — meaning projects that were planned in a way that allowed them to be expanded, built upon, and further developed. "Something between large global grants and PolioPlus was needed," says Francis "Tusu" Tusubira, a member of The Rotary Foundation Cadre of Technical Advisers and a past member of Rotary’s Strategic Planning Committee.

      The Programs of Scale grants are the result: a way to fund large-scale, high-impact projects that can attract partners while tapping into Rotary members’ capacity and enthusiasm. "While global grants and district grants have been very successful, we want to give opportunities for projects with even more impact," says Foundation Trustee Sangkoo Yun, who was on the Programs of Scale selection committee. "We want to better quantify that impact and share what we learn with all Rotarians engaged in international service."

      So what, in this context, does "scale" mean?

      "It’s a simple question with a complicated answer," says Cooley, who is an expert on the topic. One way to think about it, he says, is that you are looking for a solution that matches the scale of the problem. If you define the problem in local terms, then the scale of the solution is local. If you define it as international, as with polio, then the scale of the solution is international.

      "Problems have denominators," he says. "If somebody said, we helped distribute blankets to 10,000 villagers, I’d say, congratulations, but how many villagers needed blankets? If the answer is that it was 10,000 out of 15,000, I’d say, holy mackerel, that’s great. If it’s 10,000 out of 10 million, I’d say that’s still great, but that’s not the right strategy."

      Clubs can think about scale whenever they’re developing a project, not only when they are aiming to apply for a Programs of Scale grant. Cooley suggests that rather than focusing on projects, Rotarians focus on problems. "Take on a problem and [don’t] let go until it’s solved, or materially improved, whether at the community or national level," he says.

      When thinking about scaling up, Tusubira notes, you can take a successful project and add new aspects to it to deepen the impact. Or you can expand the project to reach more people, as is the case in Zambia, where Rotarians are building on successful global grants and other programs that funded training for community health workers in other parts of the country. The challenge, he says, is figuring out which are the unique environmental factors that are responsible for the success of a project in order to be sure you are scaling up the right things.

      By 1 March 2020 — the application deadline for the first Programs of Scale grant — the Foundation had received more than 70 proposals representing programs across Rotary’s areas of focus to be implemented around the world. After a rigorous review process, those were narrowed down to a select group, and the clubs involved were invited to submit full applications. A team of Cadre members and staff experts conducted virtual site visits and evaluated the proposals based on readiness to scale up the project, readiness to learn and share results, and how well the clubs involved would work with local communities and partner organizations. Three finalists were recommended.

      "I was bowled over by the quality and strength of the applications, and by the expertise and experience of Rotarians on the ground and the connections they have," says selection committee member Judith Diment. "What I really liked about [the malaria project in Zambia] was the partnerships and the collaboration they had established," adds Diment, who is also the dean of the Rotary Representative Network and a longtime polio advocacy adviser. "It had many parallels with the polio program."

      Rotary’s success in the polio eradication program provides valuable lessons for clubs — not only those interested in applying for a Programs of Scale grant, but those planning any project.

      One lesson, as Diment notes, is about the power of partnerships. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is one of the most ambitious public-private health partnerships in history. "Collaborating with partners gives you a much bigger opportunity for large-scale change," she says.

      A second lesson is the need for large-scale programs to grow out of Rotarians’ interests. Before polio was adopted by Rotary on a global scale, individual clubs were already tackling the disease through Rotary-funded projects, including a 1979 project to administer oral polio vaccine in the Philippines. Programs of Scale, Tusubira notes, will give Rotary members the chance to come up with ideas they can demonstrate will have a sustainable impact and bring partners to the table.

      scale model
      Opens in modal lightbox

      Another lesson is about deploying Rotary’s power of networks. Rotarians around the world have used their connections — local, national, and international — to draw attention to and garner support for polio eradication.

      Cooley, the development consultant, says he’s fascinated by Rotary’s potential to scale up projects. "These are the most prominently placed people in a community, all of whom are trying to do something good," he says. "Look at Rotary as an asset. There are lots of problems Rotary could make a big difference on."

      The new Programs of Scale grants will give Rotarians a way to do it.

      Frequently asked questions

      What is a program of scale?

      The Rotary Foundation has introduced a competitive $2 million grant to provide Rotary members with resources to implement large-scale, high-impact programs in Rotary’s areas of focus while fostering policy development and sustainable programs. The grant will invest in promising, locally led interventions that have already demonstrated success. Throughout the life of the grant (three to five years), Rotary members must work with an implementing partner and be prepared to document the program’s success.

      Why is the Foundation now awarding a $2 million grant?

      To increase our impact. Through this grant, the Foundation will support high-quality, member-led programs that have proven outcomes. Lessons learned will be shared with clubs and districts everywhere to further strengthen our service projects.

      What are the attributes of a strong implementing partner?

      Implementing partners must have expertise, experience, and program management systems, and must be an active participant in carrying out program activities. Implementing partners may be international or local NGOs, government entities, private sector organizations, or other Rotary entities, such as Rotary Community Corps or Rotary Action Groups. A program may have more than one implementing partner.

      Why is an implementing partner required?

      Ideally, implementing partners will add value to the program by complementing the strengths of the Rotary members involved. Having a strong relationship with an adept and experienced implementing partner is critical. Also, in the first round of the Programs of Scale process, the Foundation encouraged co-funding from philanthropic, private, and other sources. Co-funding can help increase the number of beneficiaries as well as demonstrate the partner’s strong commitment to the program’s success. Though co-funding is now required, it does not have to come from the implementing partner.

      What is Rotary’s role in a program of scale?

      Rotary members have a unique role as trusted community members and neighbors, as well as leaders who are globally connected and who are committed to positive change. Whether Rotarians assume technical, programmatic, or advocacy leadership roles, applicants should demonstrate why Rotary members’ active engagement is essential to the program’s success.

      What type of project has the best chance of being awarded a Programs of Scale grant?

      The successful proposal will outline a longer-term project that:

      • Is evidence-based and can already demonstrate success.
      • Is locally relevant to the intended beneficiaries.
      • Is ready to grow because it has the right stakeholders and systems in place.
      • Monitors, evaluates, and shares data.
      • Employs the unique strengths of Rotary.

      Who reviews the applications?

      All completed concepts and applications go through a rigorous review by members of The Rotary Foundation Cadre of Technical Advisers, Rotary staff, and other experts. More than 25 Rotary members and staff contributed to the review and selection process for the first Programs of Scale award.

      Scale Model 2021-05-06 08:00:00Z 0

      District 5010 Annual Business Meeting

      The April 27 final draft of our District's strategic plan for the next three years for discussion at the May 6 meeting is in an email to all members from District Governor Joe Kashi sent Tuesday May 4.
       
      The DG Team has focused upon providing clubs with a short, clear consensus document that outlines the strategic  direction and approach of our District through the 2023-2024 Rotary year and provides broad guidance, consistency and goals over the next several years.  We hope that it will be practical and useful for you and your clubs in your Rotary efforts.
       
      Please review the attached final draft and send us your thoughts, positive or negative.  We learn from both. 
       
      Please attend the May 6 annual business  meeting and tell your thoughts about the direction that Rotary should take in Alaska.
       
      Our District's annual "business" meeting will occur on May 6, 2021 at 7pm via the Zoom link below.
       
       
      Here's the final agenda:
       
      1.   Financial Statements:  Discussion of the already- approved financial statements.  
       
      2.   Recognition of incoming DG-Elect Michael Ferris and incoming DGN Michael Pollen.
       
      3.   Discussion of DG Cheryl Metiva's annual theme of “Serve to Change Lives”.
       
      4.   Cheryl’s District Conference will held at the Talkeetna Lodge May 13 – 15, 2022 and Mike’s will be held in Kodiak May 4 – 7 2023.
       
      5.   Membership discussion regarding our Strategic Plan, copy attached of the current final draft.
       
      Rotary District 5010 is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
       
      Topic: District Annual Business Meeting

      Time: May 6, 2021 07:00 PM Alaska
       
      Join Zoom Meeting
       
      Meeting ID: 406 926 9120

      One tap mobile
      +12532158782,,4069269120# US (Tacoma)
      +13462487799,,4069269120# US (Houston)
      Dial by your location
              +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)

       
      Thanks and best regards
       
      Joe Kashi
      DG 2020-2021
       
       
      District 5010 Annual Business Meeting 2021-05-05 08:00:00Z 0

      South Peninsula Hospital - Covid-19 Vaccine Update -- April 29, 2021,

      South Peninsula Hospital is working closely with the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services and other state and local agencies in our response to the outbreak of COVID-19.


      To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, you are encouraged to maintain a physical distance from others of at least 6 feet, practice frequent hand washing, clean regularly used surfaces, wear cloth face coverings while in public, stay home when sick, and get tested if you have been exposed or have symptoms.

      Covid-19 Vaccines

      April 29 Update

      Walk-in Vaccine Clinic!

      10am-2pm Friday, May 7

      Homer Spit Boat House Pavilion, Near Ramp 2

      Both Pfizer and Janssen offered

      Make an Appointment 

      For an appointment for Pfizer or Janssen vaccination at the Covid Vaccine and Test Clinic on Bartlett street.

      NEW! Walk-ins welcome daily 12pm-5pm at 4201 Bartlett Street, lower level.

      Vaccines are now offered during your appointments at Homer Medical Center and the SPH Family Care Clinic. Inquire at time of your appointment.

      Getting your second dose? Call 235-0235 for questions or if you need to cancel or reschedule.

      Note: Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older.


      Who is eligible? Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible.
      Vaccine Information: Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:

      South Peninsula Hospital - Covid-19 Vaccine Update -- April 29, 2021, 2021-05-05 08:00:00Z 0
      Some Recent Pictures of Our Park Projects From Dave Brann 2021-05-05 08:00:00Z 0

      CDC Recommends Use of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine Resume

       

      Updated Apr. 25, 2021

      Updates as of April 25, 2021

      What you need to know:
      • CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommend use of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen (J&J/Janssen) COVID-19 Vaccine resume in the United States, after a temporary pause.
      • Reports of adverse events following the use of J&J/Janssen vaccine suggest an increased risk of a rare adverse event called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS). Nearly all reports of this serious condition, which involves blood clots with low platelets, have been in adult women younger than 50 years old.
      • A review of all available data at this time shows that the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine’s known and potential benefits outweigh its known and potential risks.
      • However, women younger than 50 years old especially should be aware of the rare but increased risk of this adverse event and that there are other COVID-19 vaccine options available for which this risk has not been seen.
      • CDC and FDA will continue to monitor the safety of all COVID-19 vaccines.
      • Seek medical care right away if you develop any of the symptoms below after receiving the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine.
      • If you have any questions or concerns, call your doctor, nurse, or clinic.
      Seek medical care right away if you develop one or more of these symptoms.
      • There is a plausible causal relationship between J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine and a rare and serious adverse event—blood clots with low platelets (thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, or TTS). However, after reviewing all available safety data, CDC and FDA recommend use of this vaccine resume in the United States given that the known and potential benefits outweigh the known and potential risks.
      • This adverse event is rare, occurring at a rate of about 7 per 1 million vaccinated women between 18 and 49 years old. For women 50 years and older and men of all ages, this adverse event is even more rare.
      • For three weeks after receiving the vaccine, you should be on the lookout for possible symptoms of a blood clot with low platelets. These include:
        • Severe or persistent headaches or blurred vision
        • Shortness of breath
        • Chest pain
        • Leg swelling
        • Persistent abdominal pain
        • Easy bruising or tiny blood spots under the skin beyond the injection site

      Seek medical care right away if you develop one or more of these symptoms.

      CDC Recommends Use of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine Resume 2021-04-29 08:00:00Z 0

      Alaska Department of Health & Social Services Weekly Case Update April 18-24, 2021
       

      Alaska Department of Health & Social Services Weekly Case Update
      April 18-24, 2021

      Decreasing

      Statewide transmission
      Rt 0.98

      HIGH

      Statewide alert status
      21.8

      Adequate

      Hospital capacity

      Moderate

      Test positivity
      2.79%

      49.2%
      Alaskan 16 years and older vaccinated

      Red- quickly increasing, Rt>1.2

      Orange- increasing, Rt 1-1.2

      Yellow-decreasing, Rt<1

      Red- 14-day average case rate per 100,000 people >10

      Orange- 5-10

      Yellow- <5

      Red- <3 weeks until beyond capacity

      Orange- 3-6 weeks

      Yellow- >6 weeks

      Red->5%

      Orange- 2-5%

      Yellow- <2%

      At least one shot Estimated AK population 16 and older of 569,699 from census.gov (American Community Survey 2019)

      Brief Status Report

      • The statewide transmission rate and daily case rates decreased slightly from last week. Case rates more than doubled in Fairbanks but decreased in Anchorage, Matanuska-Susitna, and Juneau regions. 
      • Alaska is currently the twelfth most vaccinated state per capita for adults 18+. 49% of the State/IHS vaccine allocation so far has been administered.

      Case Trends and Predictions

      • 1,090 cases were reported in Alaskans last week. This was a 3.5% decrease from the week before. Case rates more than doubled in Fairbanks but decreased in Anchorage, the Matanuska-Susitna region, Juneau, the Northern Southeast, and Southwest regions.
      • Case rates increased in the Interior region, Northwest, Southern Southeast, and YK Delta regions compared with last week.
      • The estimated statewide daily growth rate as of April 25, 2021 is -0.42% and new cases are expected to halve every 164.2 days based on current modeling.

      Regional Case Trends

      Behavioral Health Region

      Case rates Mar 14– Mar 20

      Case rates Mar 21– Mar 27

      Case rates Mar 28– Apr 3

      Case rates Apr 4– Apr 10

      Case rates Apr 11– Apr 17

      Case rates Apr 18– Apr 24

      Anchorage Municipality

      16.6

      22.0

      25.7

      22.8

      21.0

      17.2

      Fairbanks North Star Borough

      11.7

      13.7

      16.2

      17.0

      18.3

      37.1

      Interior Region except Fairbanks

      47.1

      40.9

      30.0

      16.6

      17.1

      20.7

      Juneau City and Borough

      4.3

      3.8

      5.4

      8.1

      9.4

      7.4

      Kenai Peninsula Borough

      6.2

      6.7

      11.8

      15.5

      20.1

      19.3

      Matanuska-Susitna Region

      36.7

      40.9

      49.2

      46.9

      48.2

      40.6

      Northern Southeast Region

      6.0

      6.3

      7.4

      8.1

      11.6

      9.5

      Northwest Region

      5.3

      4.5

      3.2

      3.7

      4.5

      7.4

      Southern Southeast Region

      4.0

      4.7

      5.4

      6.1

      5.8

      11.9

      Southwest Region

      5.3

      5.6

      5.1

      10.1

      9.3

      5.1

      Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Region

      34.1

      26.4

      25.9

      20.1

      11.6

      12.4

      Statewide

      17.3

      20.1

      23.5

      22.3

      22.0

      21.8

      Vaccines Status Update


      Reported vaccinations as of April 25, 2021.

       

         

        Alaska Department of Health & Social Services Weekly Case Update April 18-24, 2021  2021-04-28 08:00:00Z 0

        South Peninsula Hospital - Covid-19 Vaccine Update April 28, 2021

        South Peninsula Hospital is working closely with the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services and other state and local agencies in our response to the outbreak of COVID-19.


        To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, you are encouraged to maintain a physical distance from others of at least 6 feet, practice frequent hand washing, clean regularly used surfaces, wear cloth face coverings while in public, stay home when sick, and get tested if you have been exposed or have symptoms.

        Covid-19 Vaccines

        April 28 Update

        Walk-in Vaccine Clinic!

        10am-2pm Friday, May 7

        Homer Spit Boat House Pavilion, Near Ramp 2

        Both Pfizer and Janssen offered

         Make an Appointment For an individual appointment for Pfizer vaccination at the Covid Vaccine and Test Clinic on Bartlett street.

        NEW! Walk-ins welcome daily 12pm-5pm at 4201 Bartlett Street, lower level.

        Vaccines are now offered during your appointments at Homer Medical Center and the SPH Family Care Clinic. Inquire at time of your appointment.

        Getting your second dose? Call 235-0235 for questions or if you need to cancel or reschedule.

        Note: Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older.


        Who is eligible? Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible.


        Vaccine Information: Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:

        South Peninsula Hospital - Covid-19 Vaccine Update April 28, 2021 2021-04-28 08:00:00Z 0

        South Peninsula Hospital Covid-19 Updates -- April 19, 2021 Updates

        South Peninsula Hospital is working closely with the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services and other state and local agencies in our response to the outbreak of COVID-19.


        To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, you are encouraged to maintain a physical distance from others of at least 6 feet, practice frequent hand washing, clean regularly used surfaces, wear cloth face coverings while in public, stay home when sick, and get tested if you have been exposed or have symptoms.

        Covid-19 Vaccines

        April 19 Update

        Watch here for upcoming dates and times for special vaccine events.

          Make an Appointment   

        For an individual appointment for Pfizer vaccination at the Covid Vaccine and Test Clinic on Bartlett Street.

        NEW! Walk-ins welcome daily 12pm-5pm at 4201 Bartlett Street, lower level.

        Note: Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older.


        Who is eligible? Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible.
        Vaccine Information: Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:

        Getting your second dose?

        • If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
        • If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.

         Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time. Check back here for regular updates. See the map of vaccine locations statewide

        South Peninsula Hospital Covid-19 Updates -- April 19, 2021 Updates 2021-04-21 08:00:00Z 0

        11 Eco-Friendly Service Projects Around the World
         

        Through the years, Rotary has carried out thousands of projects to protect the environment. In just the last five years, we’ve allocated $18 million to projects that help our planet. Members have even more opportunities to focus on issues that are important to them, now that the environment is one of the causes we focus on.

        Here are ways Rotary members are already supporting the environment.

          Recycling  

        Brazil

        In Campo Mourão, Brazil, only 5 percent of garbage is recycled, and workers at the local recycling facility lacked the equipment needed to increase productivity. Without a conveyor belt, they had to sort recyclable materials at tables and move them by hand, requiring extra time and effort. And their outdated press was slow and created bales of recyclables that were smaller than standard for the regional market.

        Working with a local environmental program that coordinates the recycling cooperative, the Rotary clubs of Campo Mourão and Little Rock, Arkansas, developed a project to increase workers’ capacity to separate and process recyclable materials, providing both economic and environmental benefits. The project funded equipment to improve worker safety and efficiency and provided environmental and financial training. Workers sorted an additional 2.63 tons of recyclables per month after the grant project was implemented, and their income increased nearly 25 percent per month.

        • This story originally appeared in the March 2021 issue of Rotary magazine.

        People and the planet are inextricably linked. You must care for both.


        Member of Club of Central Blue Mountains, Australia and former adviser to the Australian Minister for the Environment

        Switzerland

        Every year, more than eight million tons of plastic waste, also known as plastic soup, end up in the oceans. Sea birds die from ingesting phone parts, turtles believe plastic bags to be jellyfish, and fish mistake pieces of plastic for plankton. Microplastic enters the human food chain via these fish.

        Swiss Rotary members created an association, “Mare Nostrum – End Plastic Soup,” to organize efforts around reducing the amount of plastic waste in the world’s waterways. Several times a year, volunteers remove plastics from rivers and lakes. The group has also developed a campaign to teach businesses how to dispose of plastic waste properly.

        “The protection of rivers, lakes, and seas is a major global undertaking, as water is an elementary part of life,” says Marie-Josée Staff-Theis, member of Rotary Club of Arlesheima and co-president of the association.

        This story originally appeared in Rotary Suisse.

          Solar Lights  

        Kenya

        In the remote villages of Ndandini and Kyaithani in eastern Kenya, families live on less than $1 per day, and their homes are not connected to any electrical grid. Most cannot afford kerosene or paraffin to light their homes, which means students cannot see to do their homework in the evenings. The Rotary clubs of Sunshine Coast-Sechelt, British Columbia, and Machakos, Kenya, learned about the problem while working in the area on other projects. In 2014, the Rotarians embarked on a project bring environmentally friendly solar power into homes and schools.

        About 1,500 students attending local schools were each provided a solar light under a rent-to-own program; students pay $1 per month, less than the cost of paraffin, for eight months, after which they own the light. The proceeds are used to provide another student with a solar light the following year. Project partner Kenya Connect, noting that the time students spend reading has tripled with the introduction of the solar lights, described the program as “a game changer in our efforts to improve the quality of education for rural schools.”

        The project also included the construction of computer labs at two schools and a solar system to provide enough power for the entire setup. More than 200 teachers received training on digital learning and ways to better make use of computers in their teaching.

        This story originally appeared in the March 2021 issue of Rotary magazine.

          Water Diversion  

        India

        Residents of two communities near Aurangabad, India, get their water from wells that are recharged annually by monsoon rains. But within a few months after the rains end, the wells run dry, and community members either must go further afield to fetch water or must buy it, which many cannot afford.

        The Rotary clubs of Aurangabad East and Chatswood Roseville, Australia, collaborated on an eco-friendly solution using a simple, traditional technology: check dams. These small dams are constructed across gullies to control the rate of stormwater flow. They decrease erosion and increase the amount of water that percolates into the ground. More than 200,000 check dams have been built across India for this purpose; a check dam constructed in India in the second century is one of the world’s oldest water diversion structures still in use.

        In Aurangabad, the monsoon rains flow via a channel across a government-owned sports training center toward the sewage-contaminated Kham River. Rotary members funded the construction of two concrete check dams on the campus. The increased percolation of the monsoon rains into the ground is expected to lengthen the period each year during which the area’s 20,000 residents can obtain water from their wells. The dams have an anticipated life span of 75 years and require little maintenance.

        This story originally appeared in the March 2021 issue of Rotary magazine.

        Philippines

        In 2020, seven Rotary clubs in the Philippines hosted a webinar, Logging for Good, to discuss the threat of illegal logging, and how it can erode an important natural protection against cyclones and tropical storms.

        Conrad Vargas, Executive Director of Save Sierra Madre Network Alliance, Inc., spoke about the importance of the Sierra Madre Mountain Range and the threat from illegal logging. He also spoke about the needs of the indigenous people, quarrying, and the hazards that have been caused by dams in the area.

        This story originally appeared in the February issue of Rotary Philippines magazine.

          Water Conservation  

        Our vision is to start a forest that will be able to be enjoyed by our grandchildren’s grandchildren.

        Israel

        The Rotary clubs of Haifa, Israel, and Coral Springs-Parkland, Florida, are using an environmental education program to unite students of different cultures and beliefs around a topic of mutual importance in the desert region: water conservation. Students from 60 schools participated in the second phase of the project.

        Schools selected research topics of interest related to water conservation or technology, such as desalination, rainwater harvesting, or water leaks. The teachers and students were supported in their science projects through equipment and connections with experts such as engineers, biologists, or physicists. More than 150 teachers received training in 26 training events.

        Most schools in Israel are separated by culture or religion, whether Jewish, Muslim, Christian, or Druze. Through the cross-cultural component of the global grant project, students visited one another’s schools to see the research projects and came together for joint field trips to visit industry facilities or to hear related speakers, giving an opportunity for interaction that they didn’t have otherwise.

        This story originally appeared in the March 2021 issue of Rotary magazine.

          Sustainable Farming  

        Mexico

        The Indigenous Tarahumara people live on the remote slopes and canyons of Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains, growing ancient varieties of corn and beans for sustenance. But the seeds for these plants, handed down through generations, were wiped out by a prolonged drought. In the wake of the resulting widespread hunger, many young people and women with children left their homes to beg on city streets.

        The Rotary clubs of Chihuahua Campestre, Mexico, and St. Augustine Sunrise, Florida, worked with a nongovernmental organization called Barefoot Seeds to facilitate community discussions with Tarahumara leaders to come up with solutions. Community leaders said they wanted seed banks and improved water storage to support continued subsistence farming.

        As an environmentalist and proud Rotarian, having Rotary’s attention directed to the environment fits exactly within my interests.


        Member of Club of Ramallah, Palestine and co-founder of the Palestine Green Building Council

        The project established seed banks, demonstration farms, and plots to grow additional seeds using sustainable farming methods; reintroduced goats to improve soil fertility; installed rainwater harvesting equipment; and provided training. The project also provided solar-powered chest freezers to further extend the shelf life of stored seeds. At least 500 Tarahumara farmers received seeds, goats, or improved water access the first year.

        This story originally appeared in the March 2021 issue of Rotary magazine.

        India

        In response to the devastation of hurricanes Gaja and Thane and the Nivar cyclone, Rotary members in the agricultural region of Tamil Nadu, India, planted over one million square feet of saplings in 100 days. The tree planting projects follow the style established by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, in which trees can grow 10 times faster.

        Volunteers dug a hole three feet deep, mixed in manure and soil around a sapling, and then built fencing to protect the young tree. Water is provided through irrigation channels from nearby wells.

        “The clubs left no stone unturned in approaching landowners, institutions, campuses, and organizations in fulfilling their mission,” says club member R Balaji Babu.

        This story originally appeared on rotarynewsonline.org.

        The protection of rivers, lakes, and seas is a major global undertaking, as water is an elementary part of life.

        Australia

        The Rotary clubs of Plimmerton and Porirua, New Zealand, have planted 5,000 species of wetlands trees and plants and plan to plant an additional 5,000 in 2021 to protect a wetland near Plimmerton in hopes of creating a forest of peace and remembrance. It is part of a New Zealand wide

         

        <  Continued >

        11 Eco-Friendly Service Projects Around the World  2021-04-21 08:00:00Z 0

        Homer Steps Up Challenge

        Our Rotary Club has a team in the Homer Steps Up Challenge. 
         
        Our team name is:  Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay
         
        Please join the challenge!  We may win a prize! 
        Register at homerstepsup.com.  Or go to the Homer Chamber of Commerce sign up event on April 24, 11am - 2pm and they can help you. 
        Be sure to join OUR team!
         
        This is the description from the Steps Up Challenge website:
         
        This is a team event. Small teams are 5 – 24 members, large teams are 25+ and each team is competing for a Homer Steps Up! trophy in their "size division". 
         
        And:
         
        As part of your free registration you will receive a participant keychain:


        You can pick up a keychain at the upcoming in-person sign-up event outside of the Homer Chamber of Commerce on Saturday, April 24th from 11am-2pm, or you can contact us at wellness@sphosp.org and we will be organizing a few pick-up locations before the challenge starts.

        Use your keychain to identify yourself as a Homer Steps Up! 2021 participant at a local business displaying the Homer Steps Up! 2021 sign.
         
        Vivian
        Homer Steps Up Challenge 2021-04-21 08:00:00Z 0

        Former Soccer Star Leaves It All on the Field to Improve Education in Tanzania
         

        Here’s how joining a Rotary club helped enhance Ashley Holmer’s work

        Ashley Holmer is a member of the Rotary Club of Lewis River (Battle Ground), Washington

        Photo by Fritz Liedtke

        Looking for a meaningful year-abroad experience, Ashley Holmer decided to teach in Tanzania. The former college soccer star coached and taught English in a Maasai community in 2005.

        But Holmer soon became more deeply involved in education in Tanzania. She co-founded the Indigenous Education Foundation of Tanzania (IEFT), which established a school in the village of Orkeeswa in 2008. In 2011, the leaders of Mungere village asked Holmer to help build its first community high school. That was the beginning of the Red Sweater Project, named for the color of the school uniforms. Since then, the Mungere School — and education — has been a central part of Holmer’s life.

        The Red Sweater Project focuses on three main areas: quality education, gender equality, and responsible innovation. In Tanzania, many children — especially girls — leave school around age 12, in part because of costs for uniforms, school supplies, meals, and transportation. To keep students in the classroom, the project makes education affordable by reducing those ancillary costs.

        In 2013, Holmer, who still spends about half her time in Tanzania, was invited to a meeting of the Lewis River Rotary club. She was struck by the way her values meshed with those of Rotary but was unable to join at the time because of attendance requirements. In January 2017, with those requirements having become more flexible, she became a member.

        The club has embraced Holmer’s work and sponsors scholarships for six students each year to attend the Mungere School. “We have students whose parents are illiterate,” Holmer says. “One of my students just finished her teacher training. It’s coming full circle.

        — NIKKI KALLIO

        Did you know there are Rotary clubs all over the world?

        Find your local Rotary club, and learn more about joining.

        • This story originally appeared in the March 2021 issue of Rotary magazine.


        Former Soccer Star Leaves It All on the Field to Improve Education in Tanzania  N Kallio 2021-04-14 08:00:00Z 0

        Alaska Department of Health & Social Services Weekly Case Update
        March 28-April 3, 2021

        Alaska Department of Health & Social Services Weekly Case Update
        March 28-April 3, 2021

        Increasing

        Statewide transmission
        Rt 1.03

        HIGH

        Statewide alert status
        23.5

        Adequate

        Hospital capacity

        Moderate

        Test positivity
        3.0%

        45.23%
        Alaskan 16 years and older vaccinated

        Red- quickly increasing, Rt>1.2

        Orange- increasing, Rt 1-1.2

        Yellow-decreasing, Rt<1

        Red- 14-day average case rate per 100,000 people >10

        Orange- 5-10

        Yellow- <5

        Red- <3 weeks until beyond capacity

        Orange- 3-6 weeks

        Yellow- >6 weeks

        Red->5%

        Orange- 2-5%

        Yellow- <2%

        At least one shot Estimated AK population 16 and older of 569,699 from census.gov (American Community Survey 2019)

        Brief Status Report

        • Virus transmission increased for the second consecutive week with higher case rates and test positivity. Anchorage, Fairbanks, and the Matanuska-Susitna regions saw a sustained rise in case rates, while Juneau, Kenai Peninsula, Northern Southeast, and Southern Southeast regions had higher rates than last week.
        • Anyone 16 years or older who lives or works in Alaska is eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Alaska was the first state to offer vaccines to everyone over a certain age without prerequisites.
        • More vaccinations lead to fewer COVID-19 infections, illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths. Vaccinations are the key to ending this pandemic.
        • Alaska is currently the fourth most vaccinated state per capita. 48.25% of the State/IHS vaccine allocation so far has been administered.
        • DHSS encourages all Alaskans who are currently eligible for COVID-19 vaccination to make appointments as soon as possible by visiting covidvax.alaska.gov or by calling 1-907-646-3322. The call line is staffed Monday-Friday from 9AM-6:30PM and 9AM-4:30PM on weekends. The call line can also be used to answer general questions about vaccine safety and to request appointments to receive a specific type of vaccine. Alaskans receiving health services through a Tribal Health Organization or the Department of Defense should contact those organizations directly to determine their eligibility.
        • One new case of a COVID variant of concern was detected in Alaska during the past week.

        What Alaskans Can Do

        • Every Alaskan who chooses to get vaccinated, wear a mask, stay 6 feet from others, and avoid indoor gatherings helps protect themselves and the health of all Alaskans. These are our best tools to decrease the chance of a new variant entering Alaska and spreading.
        • Fully vaccinated people can visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or socially distancing. They can also visit with unvaccinated people from a single household who are at low risk for severe COVID-19 without wearing masks or socially distancing. Vaccinated people can also refrain from quarantine and testing following a known exposure to someone with COVID-19 so long as the vaccinated person is asymptomatic. We expect that CDC guidelines for people who have been vaccinated will continue to be updated as new evidence becomes available
        • To stop COVID-19, including new strains of virus, from coming into Alaska and spreading, testing within 72 hours before returning to Alaska or on arrival and then strict social distancing until the test result is available is recommended. A second test 5-14 days after arrival is also recommended if the traveler is not fully vaccinated. As of Jan 26, 2021, the CDC requires international travelers to show proof of a negative test from within the last 72 hours on arrival back in the US.
        • CDC guidelines recommend regular asymptomatic testing for critical infrastructure workers and other groups at higher risk for COVID-19.
        • Alaskans should get tested immediately at the first sign of any symptoms. Tests work best when obtained promptly after symptoms start. Testing early helps people know if they are positive quickly and helps prompt them to take immediate precautions to minimize the risk of transmitting the virus to others.
        • Most Alaskans get COVID-19 from a friend, family member, or coworker. Many Alaskans who are diagnosed with COVID-19 report that they went to social gatherings, community events, church services, and other social venues while they were contagious but before they knew they had the virus.

        Case Trends and Predictions

        • 1,160 cases were reported in Alaskans last week. This was a 6.2% decrease from the week before, however it is the second straight week of rising rates in the Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Matanuska-Susitna Regions.
        • 14-day average daily case rates were similar or higher in most regions of Alaska compared with last week. The Anchorage case rate increased from 22.0 last week to 25.7 this week. This is the highest case rate since mid-January. Fairbanks North Star Borough increased from 13.7 to 16.2 this week. Case rates in Matanuska-Susitna Region continued to rise to 49.2, the highest level this region has seen in 2021.
        • The Northwest Region decreased to from 4.5 to 3.2. The Interior Region except Fairbanks decreased from 40.9 to 30.0.
        • Case rates increased in Kenai Peninsula Borough, from 6.7 to 11.8, Northern Southeast Region from 6.3 to 7.4, Southern Southeast Region from 4.7 to 5.4, and Juneau City from 3.8 to 5.4. Case rates slightly decreased in Northwest Region from 4.5 to 3.2.
        • The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Region daily case rate decreased for a second week to from 26.4 to 25.9.
        • The estimated statewide daily growth rate as of April 5, 2021 is 0.9% and new cases are expected to double every 77.2 days based on current modeling.

        < Continued >

          Alaska Department of Health & Social Services Weekly Case UpdateMarch 28-April 3, 2021 2021-04-14 08:00:00Z 0

          Administration of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine Paused for National Safety Review
           

          DHSS Press Release

          FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

          Media contacts: Clinton Bennett, DHSS, 907-269-4996, clinton.bennett@alaska.gov
          Public inquiries: State COVID-19 Vaccine Helpline, 907-646-3322

          Administration of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine paused for national safety review; mRNA vaccine administration will continue in Alaska and nationally

          April 13, 2021 ANCHORAGE – Out of an abundance of caution, vaccine providers in Alaska have been asked to pause all use of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccine (Janssen) immediately, in accordance with a joint announcement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration this morning.

          All upcoming appointments with the J&J vaccine are being canceled in Alaska. This is because CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is reviewing six cases of a rare and severe type of blood clot in women aged 18-48 years after vaccination with the J&J vaccine. Symptoms in these patients began 6-13 days following vaccination.

          ACIP will meet tomorrow, April 14, to review the relevant data. Meanwhile, administration of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines will continue both in Alaska and nationally. The Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines are considered extremely safe and effective.

          Anyone who was scheduled to receive the J&J vaccine in Alaska this week should be aware that their appointment will be canceled or postponed. If you need help rescheduling your appointment to instead receive one of the mRNA vaccines (Pfizer or Moderna), please call the Alaska Vaccine Helpline at 1-907-646-3322 or toll-free 1-833-4-VAXLINE (1-833-482-9546).

          “We take every vaccine adverse event seriously. This pause is an important part of the process that ensures the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines,” said Dr. Joe McLaughlin, Alaska’s state epidemiologist. “This is how our safety checks work. DHSS is notifying vaccine providers via email and phone calls this morning and is also providing information to all health care providers. Alaskans should also know this appears to be a very rare event, with six cases out of 6.8 million doses of J&J vaccine administered to date.”

          As of April 12, there have been 11,178 Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses administered in Alaska out of 35,500 doses allocated in the state. This vaccine has been delivered to a number of sites in Alaska, including pharmacies, outpatient clinics, federally qualified health centers and local public health authorities.

          The six U.S. cases were flagged in the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS), a component of national post-licensure vaccine safety monitoring. None of these six cases occurred in Alaska. Anyone who has received the vaccine who develops severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain, or shortness of breath within three weeks after vaccination should contact their health care provider or seek medical care.

          Health care providers are asked to report adverse events to VAERS.

          # # #

          Administration of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine Paused for National Safety Review  2021-04-14 08:00:00Z 0

          South Peninsula Hospital - Covid-19 Vaccine Update - April 13, 2021 

          South Peninsula Hospital is working closely with the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services and other state and local agencies in our response to the outbreak of COVID-19.


          To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, you are encouraged to maintain a physical distance from others of at least 6 feet, practice frequent hand washing, clean regularly used surfaces, wear cloth face coverings while in public, stay home when sick, and get tested if you have been exposed or have symptoms.

          Covid-19 Vaccines

          April 13 Update

          WALK-IN COVID-19 VACCINATIONS
          PFIZER VACCINE
          Saturday, April 17th at Homer High School 9:00am-11:00am, no appointment necessary. Second doses will be scheduled for around 21 days after first doses
           
          For an individual appointment for Pfizer vaccination at the Covid Vaccine and Test Clinic on Bartlett street. Several dates available.

          Note: Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older. Who is eligible? Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible. Vaccine Information: Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:

          Getting your second dose?

          • If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
          • If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
          • Saturday April 17 is the second dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose on Saturday, March 27.

           Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time. Check back here for regular updates. See the map of vaccine locations statewide

          South Peninsula Hospital - Covid-19 Vaccine Update - April 13, 2021  2021-04-13 08:00:00Z 0

          Whoever Saves a Life, Saves the World..

          The Israel-based charity ‘Save A Child’s Heart’ reaches across conventional political boundaries for the welfare of children. Watford Rotarian, David Silverston, a trustee of Save A Child’s Heart UK, describes the amazing work which is taking place.

          By David Silverston
          Published Date: April 7, 2021
           

          Among the many causes which Rotary supports, none illustrates three of our missions better than the charity ‘Save A Child’s Heart’. The health of children, the training of doctors and working towards making the world a more peaceful place, are all fulfilled by this work.

          It is a little-known fact that one child in 100 is born with some form of heart disease. The generic name is Congenital Heart Disease (CHD).

          In developing countries, due to a complete lack of paediatric cardiologists and facilities, children born with CHD are likely to live very short, painful and debilitating lives, rarely making it past their teens.

          Save A Child’s Heart – SACH for short – has a mission to tackle CHD in children from developing countries.

          It does so by bringing the children to hospital in Israel for surgery, and sending medical missions to these countries to train doctors.

          Based at the Edith Wolfson Medical Center in Tel Aviv, SACH has treated children from 62 countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe and South America.

          SACH has also trained over 120 medical professionals in Israel, sent out more than 100 medical missions, where they work with doctors with no cardiology training, and been afforded special consultative status by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

          Rotary first got involved with SACH very early on through Walter Felman from Mill Hill Rotary in North London.

          A Rotarian for more than 40 years, Walter became involved with SACH when it was founded in 1995 by Dr Amram Cohen. In 1999, he involved Rotary by sourcing a grant for medical equipment.
          Since then, through Global Grants, Rotary has donated a number of items of medical equipment to the hospital, which can be easily identified by the acknowledgement plaques on them.

          "It is a little-known fact that one child in 100 is born with some form of heart disease.”

          Items such as a heart lung machine, revitalisation kits, electronic ventilators, dialysis machines, monitors, plus funding of surgeries have all been donated by UK clubs like Mill Hill, Edgware and Stanmore, Wembley and Willesden and Watford, plus clubs from France, Romania and Israel.

          SACH achievements are significant, having carried out more than 5,700 surgeries on children from 62 countries, half of them on children from Gaza and the Palestinian territories, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

          Stepping aside from the political complexities of seriously ill children being treated in Israel, this completed the third element of the charity’s mission, Mending Hearts – Building Bridges.

          If you were to visit the Edith Wolfson Medical Center, you would find an Israeli child in a bed next to a child from Gaza, or the West Bank, from Syria, Iraq, Kenya, Ethiopia or Tanzania.

          Members of the children’s families are there. With interpreters available, they talk to each other, bridges are built, friendships made and the barriers come down.

          "SACH achievements are significant, having carried out more than 5,700 surgeries on children from 62 countries, half of them on children from Gaza and the Palestinian territories, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.”

          After all, they all have the same thing in common; the health of their children.

          Patients are not charged for their treatment and the team of 80 surgeons and clinicians volunteer their time.

          But, there are other costs to cover, such as patients’ transport to Israel, plus pre- and post-operative care, medical missions, medical equipment and training. These costs are met by fund-raising around the world from organisations such as Rotary.

          The training of doctors rates as highly as the actual surgeries carried out on children. By training a doctor so they can return to their country to carry out surgeries, means they become less reliant on charity. In turn, they will train other doctors in paediatric cardiology.

          It’s the old saying: ‘give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime’.

          The medical missions to developing countries help resolve a number of issues. SACH can send a fully-equipped operating theatre, plus surgeons, to a country where they can operate on children who would be considered too ill to travel.

          "Patients are not charged for their treatment and the team of 80 surgeons and clinicians volunteer their time.”

          This allows surgeons to carry out many more surgeries in a short period of time, while also training doctors in situ and thus reducing costs.

          The medical missions also allow the clinicians to check up on children who they have previously operated on, as well as examining children with CHD to put them on a list for future surgeries.

          Any readers with students at university looking to do voluntary work during their gap year?

          The children’s house where the children stay prior and post-surgery is always looking for volunteers. It is an amazing experience which will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

          This year, SACH is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Both Watford and Hemel Hempstead Rotary Clubs are planning to work together to buy medical equipment for the new International Paediatric Cardiac Center.

          Eventually the center will enable SACH to double the surgeries carried out and double the number of overseas doctors trained.


          Contact David Silverston
          davidsilverston@btinternet.com
          or visit: saveachildsheart.com

           
          Whoever Saves a Life, Saves the World.. 2021-04-08 08:00:00Z 0
          2021 Rotary Scholarship Applications Due April 15, 2021 2021-04-08 08:00:00Z 0

          Champions of Health

          Rotary honored six members as People of Action: Champions of Health on World Health Day 7 April, in recognition of their work to improve the foundation of good health at home and across the globe. The work of these members proved especially important and challenging due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

          They will also be recognized at the 2021 Virtual Convention for their outstanding contribution to health.

          Rohantha Athukorala

          Rohantha Athukorala

          Rotary Club of Colombo Reconnections, Sri Lanka

          In April while Sri Lanka was on lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rohantha used his time in isolation to rally other members across Sri Lanka and create Stop the Spread, a comprehensive effort to reduce new infections through behavior changes. The program brought the country's top athletes together with some 15,000 Rotarians, Rotactors, and Interactors to create awareness of health protocols and behavior change that can slow the spread of the disease. They also created a certification program for businesses that met new health and safety protocols addressing the spread of the virus. More than 300 businesses have been certified including schools, supermarkets, hotels, and tea and apparel industries. Read more about the project.


          PoA Julie

          Julie Dockrill

          Rotary Club of Timaru, New Zealand

          In 2013, Dockrill and other midwives introduced a Maternal and Infant Health Education program in Mongolia that has been adopted by the Ministry of Health. They created a "train the trainer" curriculum and made numerous trips to the country to help educate healthcare workers, university students, and expectant mothers about safety practices and protocols of childbirth. Since the program was launched in Mongolia, the mortality rate among pregnant mother and newborns has decreased by 60%.


          James Ham

          James Ham

          Rotary Club of Honolulu Sunset, Hawaii, USA

          The Homeless Outreach & Medical Education (H.O.M.E.) Project has provided free medical services through weekly clinics in nine sites across Oahu, Hawaii. Ham, an emergency physician in Honolulu and an assistant clinical professor at the University of Hawaii's school of medicine, began volunteering with the project four years ago. Ham's Rotary club purchased and stocks a mobile clinic that expands the project's reach. To address the COVID-19 pandemic, Ham organized 12 Rotary clubs to provide hot meals and masks and hygiene kits to a quarantine camp for homeless people, as well as PPE to the volunteers who offer frontline care.


          Mohan Kumar

          Mohan Kumar

          Rotary Club of Bangalore Prime, India

          Since 2007, Kumar's Reach the Unreached organization, has led efforts to provide prosthetic hands to more than 20,000 people in mostly economically-challenged communities of Africa and South Asia. He credits volunteers with leading him to the people who most needed help: among them, a mother who can now hold her baby, a barber able to resume his profession, and a boy who lost both hands in an electrocution accident. According to Kumar, accidents often lead to amputation among the more than two-thirds of India's 1.3 billion inhabitants who live in low-income rural areas.


          Isabel Scarinci

          Isabel Scarinci

          Rotary Club of Birmingham, Alabama, USA

          Scarinci, a polio survivor, has been a strong advocate for polio eradication. She is now leading efforts to eliminate another disease: cervical cancer. Funded by a Rotary Foundation global grant, the Rotary clubs of Birmingham and Colombo (Sri Lanka) have joined with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health and the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, where Scarinci is a behavioral scientist, to vaccinate girls in Sri Lanka against the human papillomavirus and to screen women for the disease at ages 35 and 45.

          Scarinci contracted polio as an infant in Brazil in 1963. She recovered, and together with her mother, has become a strong advocate for polio vaccination.


          Yilma_bultcha

          Teguest Yilma

          Rotary Club of Addis Ababa Entoto, Ethiopia

          On World Polio Day last October, Yilma, chair of Ethiopia's PolioPlus committee, collaborated with the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization to conduct a high-level panel discussion that addressed the problems COVID-19 created for ongoing polio eradication efforts. The media attention that event received helped people understand the importance of continuing National Immunization Days and spurred the government to continue providing polio and measles immunizations throughout the pandemic.


          7-Apr-2021
          Champions of Health Rotary Magazine 2021-04-07 08:00:00Z 0

          Reminder - Save the Date: Rotary Forum April 8 - Excellent Presentation About Preventing Military Veteran Suicide
           

          Dear Alaska Rotarians:
           
          Join us on April 8 at 6:30pm to hear retired USMC Gunnery Sergeant Jeff Shilanski discuss his personal experiences and innovative approach to helping veterans cope with post-deployment stresses and trauma.  Jeff spent 20 years in deployments I've heard Jeff's presentation and it is powerful, compelling, and innovative.   Suicide prevention will be a District priority.  I hope to see you on April 8.   The Zoom link is below.   You may invite others known to you if you wish.
           
          Thanks and best regards
           
          Joe Kashi
          DG 2020-2021
           
           
          Rotary District 5010 is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
           
          Topic: Suicide prevention, a frank conversation with Jeff Shilanski, Gy Sergeant, USMC, retired

          Time: Apr 8, 2021 06:30 PM Alaska
           
          Join Zoom Meeting
           
          Meeting ID: 406 926 9120
          One tap mobile
          +12532158782,,4069269120# US (Tacoma)
          +13462487799,,4069269120# US (Houston)
          Dial by your location
                  +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
                  +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)

           
           
          Reminder - Save the Date: Rotary Forum April 8 - Excellent Presentation About Preventing Military Veteran Suicide  2021-04-07 08:00:00Z 0

          South Peninsula Hospital - Covid-19 - Vaccine Updates April 6, 2021

          South Peninsula Hospital is working closely with the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services and other state and local agencies in our response to the outbreak of COVID-19.


          To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, you are encouraged to maintain a physical distance from others of at least 6 feet, practice frequent hand washing, clean regularly used surfaces, wear cloth face coverings while in public, stay home when sick, and get tested if you have been exposed or have symptoms.

          Covid-19 Vaccines

          April 6 Update

          Check back here Friday at noon for appointments for Janssen vaccine to be administered on April 17 at Homer High School.
           
          For an individual appointment for Pfizer vaccination at the Covid Vaccine and Test Clinic on Bartlett street. Several dates available.

          Note: Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older. Who is eligible? Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible. Vaccine Information: Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:

          Getting your second dose?

          • If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
          • If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
          • Saturday April 10 is the second dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose on Friday March 12.
          • Saturday April 17 is the second dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose on Saturday, March 27.

           Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time. Check back here for regular updates.

           See the map of vaccine locations statewide

           
          South Peninsula Hospital - Covid-19 - Vaccine Updates April 6, 2021 2021-04-07 08:00:00Z 0

          KPBSD SmartStart Plan Update

          *****FOR OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES ONLY*****Update  4/7/2021:

          Masks will be optional for students for outdoor recess. Masks will also be optional for outdoor classroom activities like PE, walking field trips, etc., if 6ft physical distancing can be maintained.

          Staff, volunteers, and visitors are required to wear masks at all times. Handwashing and 6ft physical distancing should continue to be taught and emphasized in all grades.

          Note: If a school is experiencing in-school transmission or high levels of COVID-19 community transmission, this option may be temporarily suspended, and masks will be required at all times.

          Sports, MOA’s and facility usage agreements require individual mitigation plans approved through the KPBSD Planning and Operations Department (find the update: KPBSD SmartStart plan pages 8-9)

            KPBSD COVID web hub: covid19.kpbsd.org  

           
           
          KPBSD SmartStart Plan Update 2021-04-07 08:00:00Z 0

          Announcements -  May 13, 2021

           From the Desk of President Lori
           

          The race that is summer in Alaska has started. I hope you have your running shoes on, your to-do list in hand and are ready to hit all those projects and fun things that compete for our attention this time of year. In the midst of the busy season, I hope all of you take time to enjoy all the reasons you live in Alaska.

          Still needed on May 15: At least two more Rotary volunteers to help with traffic/pedestrian flow at the annual Safe and Healthy Kids Fair from noon-2 p.m. this Saturday at Homer High School. These are outdoor positions, rain or shine. There are plenty of COVID-safe protocols in place for event, including it’s all outdoors; there will be mandatory masking; it’s shorter than in past years; there will be COVID screening at the entrance; and there will be generous space between booths. Many thanks to Vivian and Clyde for volunteering!

          Rotarians will serve as friendly traffic directors for pedestrian flow, helping show participants the best way to get to where they need to be.

          If you could let me know at Thursday’s meeting if you are available, it would be appreciated. As all of you know, among the great things about volunteering at these events is that not only do we help our community partners, but we also get to visit with each other and our neighbors who attend. I’m grateful the service and social aspects of Rotary are so tightly woven together it’s impossible to separate them.

          Homer Steps Up Challenge: As of the morning of May 11, our team in the Homer Steps Up Challenge had logged 1,346,192 steps, with Sue Clardy leading our team of 12 with 97,070 steps. Way to go, Sue, and Team Rotary!

          A reminder: Each year, Rotary District 5010 honors significant achievement and efforts by District Rotarians during the past year and remembers those who have passed. This will happen during a Zoom meeting that starts at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 13. (Spoiler alert: One of our members will be honored.)

          Topic: District Conference and Awards

          Time: May 13, 2021 07:00 PM Alaska

          Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4069269120

           

          Enjoy your week. See you Thursday.

          With gratitude,

          Lori

          Lori Evans

          2020-21 President

          Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay

           
          This Week's Speaker -- Representative Sarah Vance, Legislative Update

          Invocation -- Mike Miller

          Speakers and Invocators are needed from May through June!  Including next week!

          ANNOUNCEMENTS

           

           
          Regular Meeting Thursday Noon May 13, 2021 Using Zoom or in Person
           
          First, there's still a need for at least two more volunteers to help with traffic/pedestrian flow at the annual Safe and Healthy Kids Fair from noon-2 p.m. Saturday, May 15, at Homer High School. These are outdoor positions, rain or shine. There are plenty of COVID-safe protocols in place for event, including it’s all outdoors; there will be mandatory masking; it’s shorter than in past years; there will be COVID screening at the entrance; and there will be generous space between booths. Please let me know if you can help. Vivian and Clyde, thank you for volunteering!
           
          Second, we hope you can join us either in person at the Best Western Bidarka or via Zoom to hear Rep. Sarah Vance give us a legislative update at this week's regular meeting of the Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay. Chef Mike always prepares some extra food, so if you haven't RSVP'd to let me know you'll attend in person, please feel free to join us anyway.
           
          Topic: Legislative update
          Time: May 13, 2021 11:45 AM Alaska
          Join Zoom Meeting
           
           
          Meeting ID: 841 6965 9551
          One tap mobile
          +13462487799,,84169659551# US (Houston)
          +16699006833,,84169659551# US (San Jose)
          Dial by your location
                  +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
                  +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
                  +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
                  +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
                  +1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
                  +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
          Meeting ID: 841 6965 9551
          Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdztqZVnjR
           
          Thank you all for your involvement in Rotary and in your community. Hope to see you all on Thursday.
           
          Hope to see you Thursday in person or via Zoom.
           
          Lori
           
          Lori Evans
          2020-21 President
          Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay
           
          =Continued=
           
           
          Announcements -  May 13, 2021 2021-03-31 08:00:00Z 0

          Rotary's Helping Our Alaskan Communities - Some Recent Highlights

          Dear District 5010 Rotarians:
           
          I want to spread the word about how District 5010 Rotarians are substantively delivering upon our promise to help Alaska's communities, despite the impediment of Covid this year.  Rotary in Alaska is truly Service Above Self.
           
          In this Email, I'd like to highlight a few of District 5010's substantive District-wide projects around the state, service about which virtually every Rotarian in our District has helped in some manner and about which we can all be justly be proud.  There are so many such projects across our District that I know I've missed many.  Email me with your Club's activities so that I can share them with all of our Rotarians! 
           
          This Email discusses some of our current in-state projects.  In a later message, I'll detail some innovative international projects being done by our District Rotarians.
           
          Food Security- Covid 19 has been a severe blow to many Alaskans, putting a higher proportion of Alaskans at risk for hunger, even in a relatively rich state like Alaska. Over the past year, PDG Andre` Layral, in concert with Anchorage Downtown Rotarian Diane Kaplan of the Rasmuson Foundation,  has raised more than $75,000 to help local food banks feed Alaskans.
           
          The Kenai Rotary club under President Scott Seitz organized a peanut butter challenge where clubs around Alaska and a few out-of-state Rotary clubs pitched in to provide pallet loads of highly nutritious, low cost peanut butter to local food banks.
           
          Many other clubs such as Anchorage East, Anchorage Downtown, Anchorage South and Soldotna have long-standing food security projects, including mobile pantries, support for the Children’s Lunchbox program, anonymously-donated Fred Meyer cards, and other food security related projects throughout Alaska. 
           
          Similarly, Fairbanks, Kenai and some other Rotary clubs have announced clothing drives to help economically distressed Alaskans over the winter .
           
          Rotary Cares For Kids is a now-classic district-wide project started by PDG Harry Kieling to assist children who are often left bewildered and clinging a black garbage bag of hastily-gathered clothes and personal care items when OCS is forced to remove them from their home due to abuse or danger. Many clubs currently participate in support Rotary cares for kids and it has been very active this year.  New clubs have signed on to actively participate in the coming year.  
           
          Grassroots Community and Economy Building:  The District and several Rotary clubs are now bringing no-cost rural community and economic development expertise to smaller areas in our state that have been negatively impacted by the slowing of Alaska's economy over the past five years.   Very recent State of Alaska employment statistics show that Alaska has lost 7% of its employment compared to just before Covid and those earlier low employment levels reflected already-diminished employment over the prior four years of recession. 
           
          Supported by a small District Excess Reserves grant, District 5010 is working with the USDA-supported Western Rural Development Consortium headed by our eClub Rotarian Professor Don Albrecht.  The Consortium has developed an award-winning process that helps local communities take charge of their own community and economic destinies, identify and better-use under-utilized local economic resources to build stronger communities and local economies, and  to access the Consortium's extensive rural community and grassroots economic development expertise.  This is particularly pertinent in more rural Alaska communities.
           
          District 5010 has already started that grassroots community-based process in Nenana, Minto, and Haines.  In Kodiak, a very strong Rotary-based working group has formed, involving both Kodiak Rotary Clubs, Kodiak's Chamber of Commerce ( headed by Kodiak Rotarian and Chamber Director Aimee Williams) and Anchorage Rotarians like our past Foundation Chair Woody Angst.   
           
          Through the good offices of another Anchorage Rotarian, we've also been in contact with the Alaskan Native Village Corporation Association about making a presentation about Rotary District 5010 and this District-wide project to the ANVCA conference late this summer and further extending this project to the most heavily impacted rural parts of Alaska.  If you would like to know more, check out our District's YouTube channel at:
           
           
           
          Emergency Safe Water for Alaskans, and beyond:  
           
          Safe water is one of Rotary's traditional areas of focus and such problems are not confined to far-away developing world countries.  Every year in Alaska, emergencies and natural disasters affect community water supplies across our state. 
           
          So far this winter, six villages have lost their water systems due to fire or other disasters.  Of course, the same can occur in our urban areas struck by natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunami, and severe storms.  Some of these Alaska water system losses, such as the recent Tuluksak water facility loss, repeatedly made national news in publications like the New York Times and the Washington Post.  Buying bottled water and flying that water into stricken areas is cost-prohibitive and not sustainable in any event.
           
          DGN-D Mike Pollen and a Delta-area water engineer have a better idea, devising a very cost-effective, highly portable emergency water system that can be promptly taken as needed within Alaska by readily-available helicopters or small cargo planes.  The systems are suitable for Arctic conditions and fit on an 8 foot square aluminum pallet, while producing several thousand gallons of safe water every day.   Two or three such emergency systems that can run for the duration of a disaster would cost less than the amount of money that was recently spent flying a limited amount of bottled water into Tuluksak.    
           
          This is a technology demonstration project - the same design can be reproduced by the State of Alaska, FEMA or Rotary International's WASRAG safe water group and can provide a  highly portable, flexible and cost-effective approach to providing safe water after disasters in many parts of the world.  
           
          District 5010 needs help devising and implementing a hybrid multi-source fundraising effort to fund this safe water project, raising funds from both traditional Rotary sources as well as more recent avenues such as GoFundMe.  Please Email DG Joe Kashi at kashi@alaska.net if you're interesting in helping.
           
           
          New and Interesting on District 5010's Website and YouTube Channel:
           
          1.    A conversation about effective club leadership:    Effective, motivating  leadership depends primarily upon your interpersonal skills.
           
          Join  Past District Governor Harry Kieling,  Bernie Griffard,  and 2020-2021 District Governor Joe Kashi for a conversation between them about how anyone become a more effective Rotary Club leader by developing the  interpersonal skills that help your members feel positively upon their involvement with Rotary,  reach consensus, feel energized,  and WANT to work with you.  Like any organization, Rotary clubs thrive when the club’s leaders develop their leadership skills.  PDG Harry Kieling and  Homer-Kachemak Bay Club Past-President Bernie Griffard have taught those skills for decades to new leaders.   https://youtu.be/1Dd4pCuYd8A 
           
          2.   A frank conversation about PTSD, alcohol abuse, and preventing suicide:  Retired US Marine Jeff Shilanski (ironically, no known relation to our own Floyd Shilanski) came to the brink as a result of 20 years deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan during the global war on terror.  That inevitably takes a total on every person.  Jeff’s lively and intense presentation to the District 5010 eClub looks squarely at that toll and how it nearly cost him his life.  He now helps similarly affected veterans in an innovative manner.  https://youtu.be/Yh14tiXjTgs 
           
          3.   In the next several days, we hope to post Anchorage Downtown Rotary Club's recent program by the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce about why improving Diversity, Equity, and Inclusiveness is good both for the community and for business.
           
          Thank you and best regards to all District 5010 Rotarians
           
          Joe Kashi
          District 5010 Governor 2020-2021
           
          Rotary's Helping Our Alaskan Communities - Some Recent Highlights 2021-03-31 08:00:00Z 0

          The Quest to End Parkinson's Disease

          A long time ago, (actually a year and three weeks after I was born), President Franklin Delano Roosevelt founded the March of Dimes, on January 9, 1938, with the goal of ending infantile paralysis -- Polio.
           
          Thousands of people mailed cards and letters, each containing a dime, to the White House.
           The theme "March of Dimes" was inspired by screen and radio star Eddie Cantor. Cantor's appeal collected more than $85,000 in what the press called "a silver tide which actually swamped the White House."
           
          "During the past few days bags of mail have been coming, literally by the truckload, to the White House," Roosevelt said during his birthday celebration broadcast on January 30, 1938. "Yesterday between forty and fifty thousand letters came to the mailroom of the White House. Today an even greater number — how many I cannot tell you — for we can only estimate the actual count by counting the mail bags. In all the envelopes are dimes and quarters and even dollar bills — gifts from grown-ups and children — mostly from children who want to help other children get well. … It is glorious to have one's birthday associated with a work like this."
           
          FDR's personal secretary Missy LeHand with 30,000 letters containing ten-cent contributions to the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis that arrived at the White House the morning of January 28, 1938.     Courtesy of Wikipedia.
           
          A "March of Dimes" funded polio research. And we all know the huge contribution that Rotarians made to the effort to End Polio.   Pink ribbons have raised millions for breast cancer.  An Ice Bucket Challenge did the same for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.  We need similar efforts that will translate into tangible progress to end Parkinson's Disease.
           
          Unlike COVID-19 there is no downward trend in the curve of deaths from Parkinson's.  But there are real things that turn the tide.  And we need to start at the top.  And that is the President.   We want to flood  the Whitehouse with Red Letters containing a dime, and these words:

          DEAR MR. PRESIDENT
          IN 1938 FDR AND MILLIONS OF
          AMERICANS LED A MARCH OF DIMES TO
           
          END POLIO.
           
          TODAY PARKINSON'S IS THE WORLD'S
          FASTEST GROWING BRAIN DISEASE,
          AFFECTING 1.2 MILLION AMERICANS.
           
          WE GIVE A DIME ABOUT
          PARKINSON'S AND TOGETHER
          WE CAN END IT.
           
          My Rotary friends, if you are willing to mail a Red Letter to the White House I will get the pre-addressed letter into your hands.  All you have to do is sign it, and perhaps add a personal note, and mail it.
           
          If you can do that, just reply to this email...  "I give a dime".
           
          I thank you,
          Maynard Gross   
           
           
          If you want to know more, or if you want to do more, I suggest starting at this web site:
           
           
          The Quest to End Parkinson's Disease M Gross 2021-03-31 08:00:00Z 0

          South Peninsula Hospital - Covid-19 - Vaccine Updates for March 31, 2013

          March 31 Update

          Johnson & Johnson Vaccines Coming Soon!

          Check here on Thursday, April 1 at noon for

          50 appointments for Johnson and Johnson single dose COVID-19 vaccinations, to be administered on Saturday, April 10 at Homer High School mass vaccination clinic.

           Make an Appointment 

          For an individual appointment for Pfizer vaccination at the Covid Vaccine and Test Clinic on Bartlett street. Several dates available.

          Note: Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older.

          Who is eligible? Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible.

          Vaccine Information:

          Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:

          Getting your second dose?

          • If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
          • If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
          • Saturday April 10 is the second dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose on Friday March 12.
          • Saturday April 17 is the second dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose on Saturday, March 27.

           Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

          Check back here for regular updates.

          See the map of vaccine locations statewide

           
          South Peninsula Hospital - Covid-19 - Vaccine Updates for March 31, 2013 2021-03-31 08:00:00Z 0
          Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) 2021-03-24 08:00:00Z 0

          Sri Lanka Rotary Uses Ingenuity, Invention to Protect Communities Against COVID-19
           

          Rotarians, Rotaractors, and Interactors worked together in a nationwide project that promoted behavior change and initiated safety standards for businesses

          by 

          Rohantha Athukorala felt helpless. It was April 2020 when Sri Lanka was on lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, and he wanted to do something immediately to help the country slow the spread of virus.

          “The lockdown was so sudden and absolute. It was hard not being in control of what you can and can’t do,” says Athukorala, a member of the Rotary Club of Colombo Reconnections, Sri Lanka. “Especially for us Rotarians who pride ourselves on helping our communities in desperate times.”

          But sheltering in place had its advantages, he says, providing the time and opportunity to connect with fellow members online. Their discussions sparked ideas about what they could do to help people understand how to stay safe from the coronavirus.

          Promoting safety though social media

          Athukorala started by contacting club and district leaders, talking with government officials, and listening to business leaders. In late April, he launched Stop the Spread, a comprehensive effort to reduce new infections through behavior changes.

          Our Interactors have been fantastic and made a real difference in getting crucial information out to the public.


          Rotary Club of Colombo Reconnections

          He asked the more than 5,000 Sri Lankan Interactors to lead the campaign and be community advocates for specific behaviors such as wearing masks, washing hands, and social distancing. Interactors used their social media networks to blast daily messages about staying safe from the virus, and posted relevant communications from the Ministry of Health.

          To complement the Interactors’ communication, Athukorala worked with the country’s Ministry of Sports and the National Olympic Committee to get top athletes to become ambassadors for Stop the Spread. More than 280 athletes — including stars in cricket and rugby, as well as Olympians — participated in videos and graphics that were posted on social media.

          Stop the Spread also promoted safety protocols through a certification process for businesses. Athukorala and fellow Rotary members created the certification with the Sri Lanka Standards Institution that enabled companies that are compliant with certain safety guidelines to be certified as a COVID-19-controlled environment. Protocols such as mandatory mask wearing, temperature checks, and social distancing had to be in place in order to receive the certification. Nearly 300 businesses, educational institutions, supermarkets, and other retailers have passed the program’s rigorous audits and received certification, allowing customers and students feel safe while supporting these businesses.

          When the lockdown order was lifted in early May, Interactors fanned out across their communities to visit businesses, homes, and public transport to give people educational materials and safety guidance. They became leaders in helping schools implement COVID-19 safety protocols, which allowed schools to open in early July.

          “Our Interactors have been fantastic and made a real difference in getting crucial information out to the public,” Athukorala says, who was chair of the Sri Lanka Tourism Bureau and served as the chief business development officer for Sri Lanka at the United Nations.  

          Interact clubs bring together young people ages 12-18 to connect with leaders in your community and around the world. Rotary and Rotaract club sponsor mentor and guide Interactors as they carry out projects and develop leadership skills.

          Learn more

          Tools and technology

          To encourage hand washing, local Rotary clubs worked with S-lon, a plastic water pipe company, and PickMe, a transportation organization, to build nearly 2,000 mobile hand washing units that attach to three-wheel bikes. Riders are encouraged to wash their hands before and after using the bikes. The aim is to promote hand washing hygiene in public spaces and increase hand washing rates, which is one of the best protections against COVID-19 infection.

          The Rotaract Club of Kelaniya created a mobile app, Track the Spread, that allows Sri Lankans to log symptoms and register positive tests. The app is integrated with local hospitals and health centers so medical professionals can identify hotspots and communicate with people about their symptoms. It also allows people to purchase goods online from grocery stores, pharmacies, retail shops, and even pay utilities with the app, while allowing people to stay home and thus contain the spread. “This is helping commerce continue,” Athukorala says.

          The government of Sri Lanka is now testing the app for widespread adoption across its health departments.

          The next phase

          As vaccinations are increasing in the country, more than 800,000 doses have been administered so far, Rotary clubs have also worked with local health officials to support vaccine sites including logging data. 

          Clubs worked with the World Health Organization and Ministry of Health to develop a booklet for parliament representatives and religious and community leaders to facilitate a successful vaccination program. The printable booklet has information on different vaccines, safe practices, and key messages that leaders can use to better inform people about the COVID-19 vaccines.

          More than 88,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed as of mid-March, with over 530 deaths.

          “We have done a great job at keeping COVID-19 at bay, but our next focus is making sure Sri Lanka can adequately provide vaccinations to its people,” Athukorala says.

           

          22-Mar-2021

           
          Sri Lanka Rotary Uses Ingenuity, Invention to Protect Communities Against COVID-19  2021-03-24 08:00:00Z 0

          Vaccine:  A Sign of Hope for Schools

          Three vaccine clinics in the KPBSD, 320+ shots, first dose 2-26-21, and second dose 3-19-21

          “Many staff have asked, ‘When will we be able to be vaccinated?’ It was complete sweetness when I could answer, ‘now.’ It gives light at the end of the tunnel that has taken a year to get through. Covid-19 is so much more than physical illness; it is mental and emotional as well. As a school nurse, the mental and emotional aspect that I have seen and experienced has come from not only students, but their parents and guardians, and from our staff. Working the clinic on Friday was amazing! Each person who came in showed excitement, relief, joy and of course, a few with anxiety, as they took what they feel is the first step to normalcy. A KPBSD teacher and his wife told me, ‘We truly felt that the experience was well-run, instilled confidence, and dripped of professionalism both from the staff and toward the patients.’”

          –Dixie St John, RN, Kenai Middle School Nurse

              Pegge Erkeneff, KPBSD Director of Communications, Community, and Government Relations reflects:    

          “This afternoon, Friday, February 26, 2021, across the Kenai Peninsula, about 320 school staff received their first vaccine, which will be followed up in three weeks by dose two, on March 19, 2021. Two weeks after that, they will be considered fully vaccinated. Three clinics were happening simultaneously in Seward, Soldotna, Homer. After school hours. At the central peninsula clinic, at old Soldotna Prep school, some thoughts from me:

          ♥️ Friday afternoon, sleet turns to snow, school nurses, city of Soldotna staff, office of emergency management friends, the local pharmacist, volunteers, all coordinated, and now welcome people who’ve been showing up for a year to keep teaching our next generation, and schools operating. People who choose to receive their first vaccine dose arrive

          ♥️ to the right of me the parking lot is full on busy with arrivals and departures

          ♥️ inside: kindness, trepidation, relief, reflection

          ♥️ one year ago I could never have imagined this scenario. For me, for many years, this parking lot has been a place of school visits, and stories. Or daily fire briefings at incident command in summer months

          ♥️ I received Pfizer vaccine dose one ten days ago, so today I showed up to be a witness and storyteller, and celebrate a community of effort

          ♥️ I stood here, slung my big camera over my right shoulder (first time in nearly 10 months), unzipped my pocket to iPhone catch this snowy sign 

          … 

          and walked into a place of hope.”

          Central Kenai Peninsula vaccination clinic, old Soldotna Prep School, February 26, 2021

          KPBSD Nursing Supervisor, Iris Nurse, RN, BSN, explains:

          “Because natural immunity cannot be proven past 90 days except in cases of severe disease, herd immunity will only be achievable when enough people get vaccinated. As with pandemics in the past like small pox and polio, vaccination is a key tool in stopping this Covid19 pandemic. The challenge now is getting people vaccinated quickly, before the virus can produce any more new variants that might be resistant.

          Thirty-five of our employees signed up for the vaccination clinic in Seward on Friday. Everyone over age 50 was able to get into a previous clinic.

          In Homer, we had about 87 people register for the February 26, 2021, clinic. Several of our school nurses will be staffing that clinic. I sincerely thank South Peninsula Hospital for their excellent effort to vaccinate people, and offer clinics.

          Homer High School students and alumni support Homer’s Unified Command at the COVID19 mass vaccination event Friday, February 26, 2021, at Homer High School

          In the central peninsula, ten nurses and three other staff will help at the Soldotna Prep clinic. And nurse friends are joining in like Nurse Tami from Public Health, and Nurse Tracy who retired from Soldotna High School, and Nurse Jane from the Allergy clinic. We will have nine vaccinating stations, and City of Soldotna volunteers are assisting in the observation room (everyone needs to stay for a minimum of 15 minutes after their vaccination) helping people to schedule their follow-up appointment in three weeks. On Thursday, we had 197 people signed up for our central peninsula vaccine clinic. Some staff who had signed up were able to receive the vaccination early after 42 doses needed to put in arms by 10:20 in the morning earlier this week. In addition, I have heard nearly 100 staff have had earlier opportunities to be vaccinated.

          With the new variants popping in, it will probably take a higher number of people to be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity. And, the longer the virus can spread freely, the more opportunity for mutations that turn into new variants. Vaccination, masks, physical distancing, hygiene, contact tracing. That is what is going to end the pandemic. I feel like our school district is significantly contributing to the effort so from the bottom of my little nursing heart, I thank everyone so much for their willingness and support.”

          February 26, 2021 vaccine clinic

          The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District is committed to make it as easy as possible for everyone who wants to receive the vaccine to get it. The KPBSD does not require the vaccine, and is not tracking who has received it, or who has not, unless someone replied to an email last fall indicating that they wanted to receive the vaccine when it became available. The clinics are designed to be offered during times that work well with the schedules for staff and students.

           
           
          Vaccine:  A Sign of Hope for Schools Pegge Erkeneff 2021-03-24 08:00:00Z 0

          South Peninsula Hospital - Covid-19 Vaccine Updates for March 23, 2021

          March 23 Update

            Make an Appointment  

          For a Pfizer vaccine to be administered at the Saturday, March 27 mass vaccination clinic at the Homer High School.

          Appointments are full at the Covid Vaccine and Test Site on Bartlett Street.

          Check back regularly as appointments are added based on availability.

          Note: Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older.

          Who is eligible? Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible.

          Vaccine Information:

          Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:

          Getting your second dose?

          • If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
          • 2nd dose clinics are by appointment only. No walk-ins.
          • If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
          • Friday, March 19th is a second-dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose at Community Christian Church on Friday, February 26th.

           Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

          Check back here for regular updates.

          See the map of vaccine locations statewide

           
          South Peninsula Hospital - Covid-19 Vaccine Updates for March 23, 2021 2021-03-24 08:00:00Z 0

          Vaccine Safety

          Expected side effects after COVID-19 vaccination

          On the arm where you got the shot

          • Pain
          • Swelling

          Throughout the rest of your body

          • Fever
          • Chills
          • Tiredness
          • Headache

          COVID-19 vaccines commonly cause pain and swelling in the arm where you got the shot and can cause fever, chills, tiredness, and headache. These are short-term side effects that may occur in the week after you receive your shot. 

          Although these symptoms go away on their own, you can talk to your doctor about taking over-the-counter medicine like ibuprofen or acetaminophen after you receive your vaccine. Do not take extra medicines before the shot because it is not known if this could make the vaccine less effective at protecting you. It is okay to take your usual daily medications. 

          Some people have the same or worse side effects with the second shot, but these side effects also go away on their own. If you do not have side effects, it does not mean that the vaccine is not working. Some people have no side effects at all, and the vaccine is still effective.

          To reduce the pain and discomfort where you got the shot

          • Apply a clean, cool, wet washcloth over the area.
          • Use of exercise your arm.

          To reduce the discomfort from fever

          • Drink plenty of fluids.
          • Dress lightly.

          If you have pain or discomfort, talk to your doctor about taking an over-the-counter medicine, such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen.

          The CDC’s website has more information about what to expect after vaccination and what to do if you experience additional side effects.

          V-safe             

          V-safe is CDC’s smartphone-based, after-vaccination health checker for people who receive COVID-19 vaccines. V-safe uses text messaging and web surveys from CDC to check in with vaccine recipients following COVID-19 vaccination. V-safe provides second vaccine dose reminders if needed, and telephone follow up to anyone who reports medically significant adverse events.

          Note: V-safe cannot schedule vaccine appointments, including second doses of COVID-19 vaccines. If you need to schedule, reschedule, or cancel a COVID-19 vaccination appointment, contact the location that set up your appointment or a vaccine provider in your area.

          V-safe is CDC’s active monitoring system for COVID-19 vaccine safety. It is available for every vaccine recipient and encourages people to check in regularly. V-safe works alongside existing robust systems designed to monitor vaccine safety, including VAERS, which alerts the CDC of adverse events. Milder side effects are also helpful to learn about, so when you participate with v-safe you’re supporting vaccine safety with the additional information you provide to the CDC.

          We encourage everyone to sign up online for v-safe at the time of vaccination:
          V-safe: after vaccine health checker

          Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS)

          The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, is one way the CDC monitors vaccine safety. Anyone may submit a report to VAERS about a medical event after vaccination, even if they aren’t sure if it is related to vaccination. Vaccine providers are required to report all severe or unexpected events after vaccination, regardless of whether they think the event could have been related.

          All deaths occurring after vaccination must be reported, even if they were expected or due to other causes. The information in each report is not checked before it is posted for public viewing on the VAERS site, although identifying details are removed. CDC has a team of clinical specialists that investigate each safety event reported to VAERS; deaths are investigated within 24 hours. 

          Investigation of vaccine safety reports takes place on a federal level. This means that while CDC’s team investigates VAERS reports, in particular any reports of serious or unexpected events, the State of Alaska does not have access to this information and does not conduct a separate investigation. Vaccine safety events are not reportable to the State of Alaska and instead are reported to federal systems only. For questions about specific VAERS reports, please contact CDC.

          The CDC follows cases of anaphylaxis reported to VAERS or another reporting system, including v-safe, VAERS, CISA, Vaccine Safety Datalink, ongoing clinical trial data in partnership with the FDA, and the National Healthcare Safety Network. There are several published reports regarding CDC findings around cases of anaphylaxis occurring after COVID-19 vaccines:

          Of note, both of these studies highlighted that there was no geographic predominance among anaphylaxis cases, meaning that there is no reason to think that people in a certain state or area are at higher risk.

          An overall assessment by the CDC vaccine safety team found that cases of anaphylaxis were rare.

          The CDC and the FDA also look at events occurring in people over the course of their lives among both groups that have received a vaccine and groups that have not. Fortunately, no serious medical problems have been found to be more common in people who have had the vaccine. So far, the groups getting COVID-19 vaccines have had fewer overall medical events than similar groups of people who haven't had the vaccine, and this analysis does exclude medical problems caused by unvaccinated people getting COVID-19. If serious safety issues are found, these are made public and vaccination could be paused. No serious safety issues have been found with the COVID-19 vaccines. 

          Further resources   

          Strengths and Limitations of VAERS Data

          When evaluating VAERS data, it is important to understand the strengths and limitations. VAERS data contain both coincidental events and those truly caused by vaccines.

          Strengths     

          • VAERS collects national data from all U.S. states and territories.
          • VAERS accepts reports from anyone.
          • The VAERS form collects information about the vaccine, the person vaccinated, and the adverse event.
          • Data are publicly available.
          • VAERS can be used as an early warning system to identify rare adverse events.
          • It is possible to follow-up with patients to obtain health records, when necessary.

          Limitations   

          • It is generally not possible to find out from VAERS data if a vaccine caused the adverse event.
          • Reports submitted to VAERS often lack details and sometimes contain errors.
          • Serious adverse events are more likely to be reported than mild side effects.
          • Rate of reports may increase in response to media attention and increased public awareness.
          • It is not possible to use VAERS data to calculate how often an adverse event occurs in a population.
          Vaccine Safety 2021-03-17 08:00:00Z 0

          South Peninsula Hospital - Covid-19 Updates for March 16, 2021

          Covid-19 Vaccines

          March 16 Update

          Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) Vaccine appointments on Friday, March 19 are FULL

          Make an Appointment

          For individual appointments at the SPH Covid Vaccine and Test Center on Bartlett Street. March 18th.

          Please check back daily for updates!

          Coming Soon!  350 appointments for Pfizer vaccines later this month (the only approved vaccine for 16-17 year olds).

          Who is eligible? Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible.

          Note: Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older.

          Vaccine Information:

          Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:

          Getting your second dose?

          • If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
          • 2nd dose clinics are by appointment only. No walk-ins.
          • If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
          • Friday, March 19th is a second-dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose at Community Christian Church on Friday, February 26th.

           Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

          Check back here for regular updates.

          See the map of vaccine locations statewide

          South Peninsula Hospital - Covid-19 Updates for March 16, 2021 2021-03-16 08:00:00Z 0

          When You’ve Been Fully Vaccinated

          How to Protect Yourself and Others

          Updated Mar. 9, 2021

          COVID-19 vaccines are effective at protecting you from getting sick. Based on what we know about COVID-19 vaccines, people who have been fully vaccinated can start to do some things that they had stopped doing because of the pandemic.

          We’re still learning how vaccines will affect the spread of COVID-19. After you’ve been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, you should keep taking precautions in public places like wearing a mask, staying 6 feet apart from others, and avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spaces until we know more.

          Have You Been Fully Vaccinated?

          People are considered fully vaccinated:

          • 2 weeks after their second dose in a 2-dose series, like the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or
          • 2 weeks after a single-dose vaccine, like Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine

          If it has been less than 2 weeks since your shot, or if you still need to get your second dose, you are NOT fully protected. Keep taking all prevention steps until you are fully vaccinated.

          illustration of people receiving vaccination

          What’s Changed

          If you’ve been fully vaccinated:

          • You can gather indoors with fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask.
          • You can gather indoors with unvaccinated people from one other household (for example, visiting with relatives who all live together) without masks, unless any of those people or anyone they live with has an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19.
          • If you’ve been around someone who has COVID-19, you do not need to stay away from others or get tested unless you have symptoms.
            • However, if you live in a group setting (like a correctional or detention facility or group home) and are around someone who has COVID-19, you should still stay away from others for 14 days and get tested, even if you don’t have symptoms.
          illustration of people eating insideillustration of person visiting family

           

          What Hasn’t Changed

          For now, if you’ve been fully vaccinated:

          • You should still take steps to protect yourself and others in many situations, like wearing a mask, staying at least 6 feet apart from others, and avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spaces. Take these precautions whenever you are:
          • You should still avoid medium or large-sized gatherings.
          • You should still delay domestic and international travel. If you do travel, you’ll still need to follow CDC requirements and recommendations.
          • You should still watch out for symptoms of COVID-19, especially if you’ve been around someone who is sick. If you have symptoms of COVID-19, you should get tested and stay home and away from others.
          • You will still need to follow guidance at your workplace.
          illustration of people enjoying a party inside

           

          What We Know and What We’re Still Learning

          • We know that COVID-19 vaccines are effective at preventing COVID-19 disease, especially severe illness and death.
            • We’re still learning how effective the vaccines are against variants of the virus that causes COVID-19. Early data show the vaccines may work against some variants but could be less effective against others.
          • We know that other prevention steps help stop the spread of COVID-19, and that these steps are still important, even as vaccines are being distributed.
            • We’re still learning how well COVID-19 vaccines keep people from spreading the disease.
            • Early data show that the vaccines may help keep people from spreading COVID-19, but we are learning more as more people get vaccinated.
          • We’re still learning how long COVID-19 vaccines can protect people.
          • As we know more, CDC will continue to update our recommendations for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people.

          Until we know more about those questions, everyone — even people who’ve had their vaccines — should continue taking basic prevention steps when recommended.

          illustrations of prevention steps after vaccination

           

          Want to learn more about these recommendations? Read our expanded Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated Peopleand corresponding Science Brief, and recommendations for healthcare providers.

           

          When You’ve Been Fully Vaccinated 2021-03-16 08:00:00Z 0

          Dunleavy Announces COVID-19 Vaccine Available to All Alaskans

          March 9, 2021 (Juneau, AK) – Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy today announced effective immediately the COVID-19 vaccine is available for all individuals who live or work in Alaska and are age 16 and older, making Alaska the first state in the nation to remove eligibility requirements.

          “This historic step is yet another nationwide first for Alaska, but it should come as no surprise. Since day one, your response to the pandemic has been hands-down the best in the nation,” said Governor Mike Dunleavy. “I couldn’t be prouder of Alaska’s response. From being the first state to offer widespread testing, to maintaining one of the lowest mortality rates in the country, to rolling out vaccinations to every willing Alaskan, we got here by working together.”

          “It is a great day for Alaskans wanting to receive the COVID-19 vaccine,” said Adam Crum, Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. “I want to thank Governor Dunleavy for this opportunity and if Alaskans had any questions about vaccine eligibility and criteria, I hope today’s announcement clears it up for you, simply put, you are eligible to get the vaccine.”

          The Pfizer vaccine is available to individuals who are 16 and older, while the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and the Moderna vaccine are available to individuals who are 18 and older. All three authorized vaccines have shown to be very effective at preventing severe illness, hospitalization, and death caused by COVID-19.

          Regions including Kodiak Island, the Petersburg Borough, and the Kusilvak Census Area are nearing or exceeding 90% vaccination rates among seniors. In the Nome Census Area, over 60% of residents age 16 and over have received at least one shot, and roughly 291,000 doses have been administered statewide.

          “A healthy community means a healthy economy. With widespread vaccinations available to all Alaskans who live or work here, we will no doubt see our economy grow and our businesses thrive,” said Governor Dunleavy.

          Visit covidvax.alaska.gov or call 1-907-646-3322 for more information and to sign up for a COVID-19 vaccination.

          Dunleavy Announces COVID-19 Vaccine Available to All Alaskans 2021-03-10 09:00:00Z 0

          New Rotary Foundation Grant Supports Scaling Proven Malaria Program in Zambia
           

          by Illustrations by 

          The Rotary Foundation is giving a significant boost to the fight against malaria in Zambia with a new $2 million Programs of Scale grant that will scale an already successful program model. Partners for a Malaria-Free Zambia is a Rotarian-led effort that will use a community health worker model proven to effectively respond to cases of malaria and prevent transmission. The program aims to help reduce malaria cases over time by 90% in 10 target districts in two of the country’s provinces.

          Malaria, a preventable disease caused by a parasite spread through the bites of infected mosquitoes, continues to be one of Zambia’s leading causes of illness and death, especially infant and maternal deaths.

          The grant will allow Partners for a Malaria-Free Zambia to strengthen the country’s health system by working with Zambian health officials at all levels and training 380 health facility staff members, as well as training and equipping more than 2,500 new community health workers. This will increase access to malaria diagnosis and treatment for the more than 1.3 million people in heavily affected areas in the Central and Muchinga provinces and greatly contribute to the national effort to eliminate the deadly disease.

          Rotary club-led Partners for a Malaria-Free Zambia program will help reduce malaria cases by 90% in 10 target districts in two of the country’s provinces.

           

          Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Federal Way, Washington, USA, the program brings together local Rotary members and partner organizations who share a goal to combat malaria in Zambia. In addition, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and World Vision USA will co-fund the program with $2 million each, bringing total funding to $6 million. 

          “This project complements and builds upon the leadership of the government of Zambia in working to eliminate malaria from the country,” says Philip Welkhoff, director of the Malaria Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “We are thrilled to expand on our longstanding partnerships with Rotary and World Vision to advance progress in hard-to-reach communities and to realize the goal of ending malaria for good.”

          To diagnose and treat community members, health workers will be supplied with rapid diagnostic test kits, anti-malaria medicine, lancets for finger pricks, and educational materials. They’ll also receive bicycles and mobile phones, allowing them to reach communities and regularly report cases and share malaria data within the national health system. Making sure local and national information is integrated and providing ongoing support for the community health worker network are essential to the program’s goal of strengthening provincial health services for long-term success fighting malaria.

          By empowering these volunteers, who are selected by their fellow community members, the project connects people in areas with limited access to health care with trusted members of their community, says Bill Feldt, a member of the Federal Way club.

          This proven health care delivery model is effective and financially sustainable and will bring lasting protection by reducing and eliminating this disease at the local level.

          "This proven health care delivery model is effective and financially sustainable and will bring lasting protection by reducing and eliminating this disease at the local level,” says Feldt, who has been involved in Rotary’s efforts to control malaria in sub-Saharan Africa for more than 10 years. 

          John Hasse, World Vision’s national director in Zambia, says it’s leveraging the strength of local community health workers that’s most appealing about the program. 

          “We’ve learned from our experience the importance of bringing healthcare closer to those who need it,” says Hasse. 

          Hasse adds, “Such an effective, proven and local strategy is exactly what is needed to reduce the dreaded disease of malaria and move us closer to malaria elimination in Zambia.”  

          With COVID-19 still a health threat around the world, the program’s leaders are prepared to ensure a safe environment for health workers and community members. Training of community health workers will follow COVID-19 protocols, including social distancing. Training class sizes will be limited according to guidelines from the World Health Organization and Zambian government. Personal protective equipment will also be provided. And when a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available in Zambia, community health workers will be well-positioned to mobilize communities to receive the vaccine.

          Scaling proven methods

          Partners for a Malaria-Free Zambia is the first recipient of the Foundation’s Programs of Scale grant. Programs of Scale will award $2 million annually to expand a well-developed service program that is led by a Rotary club or district and has demonstrated success in effecting change. The funding enables evidence-based programs that align with one of Rotary’s areas of focus to scale over three to five years to help larger populations of people and foster policy development to increase sustainability. Programs of Scale will expand Rotary members’ ability to implement large-scale, high-quality programs with experienced partners — and share their program knowledge and results with other Rotary clubs.

          “Rotary’s Programs of Scale is encouraging our members to think big and to work with other organizations to find comprehensive solutions to large-scale issues,” Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair K.R. Ravindran says. “The power of Rotary is greatly magnified when we partner with like-minded organizations.”

          Read more about Programs of Scale and descriptions of this year’s finalists.

          Fighting malaria has long been a priority for the Federal Way club. For more than 10 years, club members have been building relationships and working with international partners, including Zambian Rotary clubs, Malaria Partners Zambia, Malaria Partners International, PATH’s MACEPA project (Malaria Control and Elimination Partnership in Africa), the Ministry of Health’s National Malaria Elimination Centre, provincial health leaders, World Vision, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other nongovernmental organizations. 

          Since 2011, the Federal Way club has worked with its partners and several Rotary clubs to distribute tens of thousands of mosquito bed nets, drug treatments, and testing kits across Zambia’s Copperbelt province. In recent years, clubs in the U.S. and Zambia used Rotary Foundation global grants to train and deploy more than 1,500 community health workers in target Copperbelt districts, after seeing this model help reduce malaria cases in Zambia’s Southern province.

          Building on this evidence and their experience and commitment, Federal Way members saw Programs of Scale as an opportunity to work with The Rotary Foundation to make an even greater impact in Zambia. Using the latest research in malaria and combining the strengths and resources of each partner organization, they developed Partners for a Malaria-Free Zambia to bring lifesaving care to more communities.

          Martha Lungu, a member of the Rotary Club of Ndola, Zambia, and executive director for Malaria Partners Zambia, says volunteer community health workers are paid small stipends and work long hours. The driving force behind their dedication is knowing that they are making a difference. 

          “They are well-respected in their community,” Lungu says. “It’s prestigious to be trained. If you ask them why they really stay on, they talk about the people they’re helping, the mothers and children. They are looked up to by their community.” 

          She thanks her fellow Rotary members for their commitment to the program and role in facilitating trainings and building relationships with rural health centers and government leaders. 

          “Every day I witness firsthand the effects of malaria,” says Lungu. “This program demonstrates that Rotary members are true partners in our communities and focused on supporting community health workers to help loosen the grip malaria has on the Zambian people.” 

          New Rotary Foundation Grant Supports Scaling Proven Malaria Program in Zambia  2021-03-10 09:00:00Z 0

          South Peninsula Hospital -- Covid-19 Vaccine  March  9, 2021 Update

          Covid-19 Vaccines

          March 9 Update

          Moderna first-dose appointments are currently available.

          Make an Appointment  -- For the mass vaccine event on March 12

          500+ appointments at a mass vaccination clinic on Friday, March 12 at Homer High School

          Individuals booking here must be available on Saturday, April 10 for second dose.

           

          Individual appointments at the covid vaccine and testing site on Bartlett street are currently full.

          Please check back regularly for updates as additional dates may be added.

           

          Appointments full? Click here to add your contact information to be on our waitlist to be notified for day-of cancellations.

          Check here Monday, March 15 for 40+ appointments for Janssen (Johnson and Johnson) vaccine.

          Who is eligible? Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible.

          Note: Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older.

          Vaccine Information:

          Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:

          Getting your second dose?

          • If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
          • 2nd dose clinics are by appointment only. No walk-ins.
          • If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
          • Friday, March 12th is a first and second-dose clinic at Homer High School, second dose for those who got their first dose on February 12th or 13th at Community Christian Church.
          • Friday, March 19th is a second-dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose at Community Christian Church on Friday, February 26th.

           Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

          Check back here for regular updates.

          See the map of vaccine locations statewide

          South Peninsula Hospital -- Covid-19 Vaccine  March  9, 2021 Update 2021-03-09 09:00:00Z 0

          Spring Break Travel

          Spring break is here! If your family or student travels outside the state, the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District recommends travelers get a COVID-19 test within 72 hours of returning to Alaska, and practice social distancing until you receive the results. Free testing is also available at the airport upon arrival. Have fun – and stay safe!

          Learn more about the State of Alaska’s guidance for travelers at www.AlaskaSafeTravels.com or at the KPBSD COVID-19 hub.

          Spring Break Travel 2021-03-09 09:00:00Z 0

          South Peninsula Hospital - Covid -19 Vaccine Updates for September 3, 2021

          Covid-19 Vaccines

          March 3 Update

          700+ Moderna first-dose appointments are currently available.

          Make an Appointment   For the mass vaccine event on March 12

          500+ appointments at a mass vaccination clinic on Friday, March 12 at Homer High School

          Make an Appointment  For individual appointments at the COVID center

          200+ appointments at the SPH Covid Vaccine and Test Center on Bartlett Street March 9th, 10th, 11th, 16th and 17th. Additional dates will be added as needed.

          We are expecting additional vaccine supplies soon. Check back regularly for updates as additional dates may be added.

          Who is eligible?     Read the full March 3 press release on Phase 1c here.

          NEWLY ELIGIBLE GROUP (Phase 1c) includes

          • Anyone age 55-64 years, and
          • Anyone 18 and older who is:
            1. An essential worker as defined by CISA, or
            2. Considered “high risk” or “might be high risk” by their provider or the CDC, or
            3. Living in a multigenerational household, or
            4. Living in an “unserved community

          Other eligible groups (Phase 1a and Phase 1b) include:

          • People 65 years of age and above (seniors)
          • Anyone assisting a senior (age 65+) in getting vaccinated
          • People who provide daily support for a medically fragile person
          • Healthcare workers, EMS, and Fire Service
          • Pre K–Grade 12 education and childcare staff
          • People living or working in congregate settings
          • Pandemic response staff

          Limitations may apply. Visit the State vaccine info page for details.

          Vaccine Information:

          Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:

          Getting your second dose?

          • If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
          • 2nd dose clinics are by appointment only. No walk-ins.
          • If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
          • Friday, March 5th second-dose clinic at Homer High School is for those who got their first dose on February 5th or 6th at Community Christian Church
          • Friday, March 12th is a first and second-dose clinic at Homer High School, second dose for those who got their first dose on February 12th or 13th at Community Christian Church.
          • Friday, March 19th is a second-dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose at Community Christian Church on Friday, February 26th.

           Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

          Check back here for regular updates.

          See the map of vaccine locations statewide

          South Peninsula Hospital - Covid -19 Vaccine Updates for September 3, 2021 2021-03-03 09:00:00Z 0

          Peacebuilding Can Be a Matter of Networks
           

          Randall Butler is the chair of the peacebuilding committee of a club with more than a century of dedication to fostering peace

          by 

          Randall Butler, Rotary Club of Boulder, Colorado, USA

          Photography by Matt Nager

          “I’ve been in conflict resolution my whole career,” says Randy Butler, the founder and CEO of the Institute for Sustainable Peace. A former trial lawyer, Butler abandoned the courtroom to focus on using mediation to resolve disputes and training others in the use of mediation. “I’d found my passion,” he says.

          In 2018, he led a workshop to “build the skills necessary to overcome the polarization we are experiencing in the United States.” When Butler reached out to the peacebuilding committee at the Rotary Club of Boulder, he met Gary Kahn, who asked him: “Why are you not a member of Rotary?”

          Attending a meeting of the Boulder club, he says, “it was amazing to look at all these people around the room — the district attorney; medical professionals and successful businesspeople; college professors — and realize that here was a club that had brought all these individuals together and that they make a real difference in what they’re doing.” 

          It was Butler’s Rotary epiphany. “I suddenly saw this network forming all over the world: people who knew how to get things done and knew people they could get things done with.”

          Today he’s the chair of the peacebuilding committee of the 101-year-old club, which has dedicated its second century to fostering peace. “We remind our club members that all of our projects that help to build Positive Peace involve collaborations at the community level, even across traditional divides,” he says, noting that they look forward to using the vast Rotary network to build even more “bridges of understanding.”

          Interested in making a difference in your community? That’s what Rotary clubs do. Learn more about the many ways to get involved or find a club near you.

          • This story originally appeared in the February 2021 issue of Rotary magazine.


          Related content

          Promoting Peace: Rotary’s peacebuilding history around the world

          Learn more about Rotary’s focus on peace

          Peacebuilding Can Be a Matter of Networks  2021-03-03 09:00:00Z 0

          Alaska Vaccine Eligibility 

          Vaccine Eligibility

          Updated February 24, 2021

          On this page:

          Follow the links below to see limitations that may apply. Alaskans currently eligible to receive the COVID vaccine include:

          Note: Vaccine managed by the Alaska Tribal Health System, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the U.S. Department of Defense may have different eligibility criteria.

          Who is eligible now?

          Alaska uses a phased approach to make the vaccine available. Vaccine supply is very limited at first, and it will gradually be available to more Alaskans over time.

          • People 65 years and above
            People who assist someone 65 years of age or older in getting a vaccination are eligible to be vaccinated at the same time. Both the senior and the person providing assistance will need to schedule an appointment at the same location and time. The person assisting does not need to meet other eligibility requirements to receive the vaccine.
          • People 50 years and above who have any of the following high-risk medical conditions known to be risk factors for severe COVID-19 associated illness:

          Who is eligible soon?

          Not yet open (Phase 1b Tier 3). Timeline to be determined.

          • People 55 years and above
          • People 40 years and above who have a high-risk medical condition
          • People 16-49 who are frontline essential workers with a high-risk medical condition
          • People 16 years and above who live in a multigenerational household with 3 or more generations, or “skipped” generations (e.g., a grandchild living with an elder).
          • People 16 and above who live in communities where at least 45% homes have not been served either via pipe, septic tank and well, or covered haul system.

          Not yet open (Phase 1c). Timeline to be determined.

          Who will be eligible later?

          Learn more

          We’re working to provide additional information, as it becomes available. Vaccine supply is very limited at first, and it will gradually be available to more Alaskans over time. Alaska uses a phased approach to make the vaccine available. The State of Alaska COVID-19 Vaccination Plan: Allocation Guidelines (PDF) explain the process.

          Provide input

          More information about the meeting, and how to provide comment, is available at the Alaska Vaccine Allocation Advisory Committee webpage.

          Alaska Vaccine Eligibility  2021-03-02 09:00:00Z 0

          South Peninsula Hospital - Covid-19 Vaccine Updates - March 2, 2021

          Covid-19 Vaccines

          March 2 Update

          700+ Moderna first-dose appointments are currently available.  

          Make an Appointment For the mass vaccine event on March 12

          500+ appointments at a mass vaccination clinic on Friday, March 12 at Homer High School

          Make an Appointment for individual appointments at the COVID center

          200+ appointments at the SPH Covid Vaccine and Test Center on Bartlett Street March 9th, 10th and 11th. Additional dates will be added as needed.

          We are expecting additional vaccine supplies soon. Check back regularly for updates as additional dates may be added.

          Who is eligible?

          • Newly added:
            • People who stay home to provide healthcare for a medically fragile person. Eligible individuals provide daily support related to an individual’s activities of daily living (i.e., bathing, dressing, eating) and instrumental activities of daily living (i.e., shopping, laundry, light housework).
            • People who assist someone 65 years of age or older in getting a vaccination. Both the senior and the person providing assistance will need to schedule an appointment at the same location and time. The person assisting does not need to meet other eligibility requirements to receive the vaccine.
          • Phase 1b, Tier 2 – This group includes:
          • Persons aged 65 years and older (Phase 1b)
          • All of Phase 1a*

          Vaccine Information:
          Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:

          Getting your second dose?

          • If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
          • 2nd dose clinics are by appointment only. No walk-ins.
          • If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
          • Friday, March 5th second-dose clinic at Homer High School is for those who got their first dose on February 5th or 6th at Community Christian Church
          • Friday, March 12th is a first and second-dose clinic at Homer High School, second dose for those who got their first dose on February 12th or 13th at Community Christian Church.
          • Friday, March 19th is a second-dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose at Community Christian Church on Friday, February 26th.

           Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

          Check back here for regular updates.

          See the map of vaccine locations statewide

          South Peninsula Hospital - Covid-19 Vaccine Updates - March 2, 2021 2021-03-02 09:00:00Z 0

          Plan "Covid Safe" Events

          DHSS Insights Blog: COVID-19

          Official Insights from the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services

          Sign up for insights into DHSS's COVID-19 response

          Subscribe to DHSS Insights for behind-the-scenes news about Alaska’s COVID-19 response and other efforts to protect the health and well-being of Alaskans. Stay strong, be safe, and protect yourself and others by following the current Health Advisories. Together we can stay on top of COVID!


          Event organizers join weekly public meetings to share creative ways for hosting safer gatherings during the pandemic

          FEBRUARY 26, 2021 — Organizers are taking creative approaches to continue holding events in ways that prevent spreading COVID-19 during the pandemic. They turned previous in-person events into virtual celebrations. They’ve taken one large event and split it into smaller events to reduce crowd size. They’ve taken something that typically happens indoors and moved it outside. During the past year, organizers have worked with the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) to share ideas with other event planners and communities of faith to help people continue gathering in safer ways.

          The new Plan Safer Events project makes sharing ideas easier. The project is a partnership between DHSS and Denali Daniels and Associates. It gives organizers resources that help decide if or how to host events. The project’s staff can connect event organizers with advisors who offer tailored guidance and assistance to plan events in ways that prevent the spread of COVID-19 during the pandemic.

          In January, the Plan Safer Events project staff organized a special meeting over Zoom featuring speakers from the City of Seward’s Sports and Recreation team and the Alaska Botanical Garden.

          Alaska Botanical Garden splits large summer event into smaller picnics

          A scenic view of the Alaska Botanical Gardens

          Mike Monterusso, the Botanical Garden’s executive director, described the COVID-19 safety protocols used during events in the garden. Monterussa recalled asking himself a question: “What is your mitigation plan for these scenarios?” During the Jan. 4 meeting, Monterusso said physical distancing still needs to happen at outdoor events to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

          “When you get a certain number of people in a spot, it doesn’t matter if you are indoors or outdoors. You’re still easily within six feet of each other,” Monterusso said. He later emphasized organizers have to figure out a way to manage events to ensure that at least six feet of physical distancing is possible at events.

          Monterusso decided he needed to shrink the size of popular events after examining the large number of people who typically attend. Smaller numbers of attendees would be needed to follow social distancing guidelines. Despite the garden being an outdoor venue, it still included places where visitors could get in close proximity of one another.

          The garden’s staff looked for ways to spread out the number of visitors across different times and days. Staff also started limiting the number of tickets sold on a given day.

          Monterusso came up with a new approach to the garden’s annual summer gala. Last summer, he decided to hold multiple weekly picnics instead. This required more staff to manage traffic flow and ensure that social distancing was practiced by all visitors. Even so, Monterusso decided he preferred this change and said he will likely continue holding weekly picnics instead of the summer gala in the future.

          Seward event organizers convert indoor event to outdoor celebration

          A fun night at the Carpool Movie Night

          Jenny Rutledge and Jose Vacabustamante with Seward’s Sports and Recreation team shared their experiences planning and hosting events during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, the two ran a facility that included a gym, workout room, sauna and racquetball court. The facility closed in March 2020 due to the pandemic. Since its closure, Rutledge and Vacabustamante have held one event: The Halloween Spooktacular. This Halloween event is usually an indoor carnival with about 200 participants. In 2020, they held a much smaller event outdoors to make it safer. Staff posted signs encouraging social distancing, and attendees wore masks. Staff made sure family groups were six feet apart when lining up at booths, and volunteers from the local fire department helped with traffic flow to minimize close contact with others.

          The team in Seward also discussed their plan to host another carpool movie night that requires all attendees to pre-register and park six feet apart. Rutledge described the success of the Dec. 12, 2020, carpool movie night in an Alaska Recreation Parks Association article.

          “It was nice to see the community out and about enjoying themselves, and we can’t wait to continue this event, if Alaskan weather will allow it,” she said in the article.

          Rutledge and Vacabustamante highlighted the importance of thinking creatively during the pandemic and overcoming the challenges that arise when needing to do things differently. Looking for solutions was necessary so Rutledge and Vacabustamante could offer the community safer events and ways to continue connecting with others and having fun.

          Find more resources for planning gathering and events, and for communities of faith

          Plan Safer Events logo

          Monterusso, Rutledge and Vacabustamante shared their ideas during a regular Monday Zoom meeting organized by DHSS, the Plan Safer Events project, and the University of Alaska Anchorage’s (UAA) Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) team. This partnership runs these live ECHO sessions through Zoom. The Events and Faith ECHOs are recorded for later viewing and listening. During 2021, DHSS will work with UAA’s ECHO team to virtually connect event organizers and communities of faith with a panel of professionals to discuss several strategies to safely gather during the pandemic.

          To hear recommendations from other event organizers and state representatives, please register for the Events and Faith ECHOs below:

          Please find additional resources at the following links:


          More tips from DHSS Insights


          Stay informed about COVID-19

          Plan "Covid Safe" Events 2021-03-02 09:00:00Z 0

          How We Got There: WHO African Region is Certified Free of Wild Poliovirus
           

          In a challenging time, Rotary members and partners have shown drive in overcoming challenges

          by Image credit: 

          It was May 1997, and Sam Okudzeto, then a member of the African Regional PolioPlus Committee from Ghana, was flying to Sierra Leone for what he anticipated would be a routine annual meeting about polio eradication in Africa. But when his plane touched down and he looked out the window, he saw that soldiers, guns drawn, had flooded the tarmac.

          As Okudzeto made his way to passport control, he asked an airport official what was going on. “Listen carefully,” he was told. “You can hear the guns.” There had been a coup that morning.

          “All we heard was boom, boom, boom,” Okudzeto recalls. “Then I realized that the aircraft that had brought us had gone.”

          With no taxis running, Okudzeto and the other meeting participants who had been on the plane walked to a nearby hotel. “We all went to our rooms and put our luggage down and then went to the restaurant,” he recalls. “I asked for the biggest and juiciest sole fish I had ever had in my life, because it might be my last supper.” (Luckily it wasn’t, and four days later, Okudzeto and the others caught a helicopter out of the country.)

          “There is an enemy in life — and it’s fear,” he says now. “For those who are not afraid, it’s amazing what you can do. It’s fantastic to see the result now: Africa is [wild] polio-free.”

          Rotary members around the world have contributed nearly $890 million toward eradicating polio in the African region. Learn more about Rotary’s work to eradicate polio, and consider donating at endpolio.org.

          In August 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) certified the African region free of wild poliovirus, the culmination of a decades-long effort involving millions of Rotary members, health workers, government officials, traditional and religious leaders, and parents. Since 1996, a year when wild polio paralyzed an estimated 75,000 children across Africa, health workers have given more than 9 billion doses of the oral polio vaccine, preventing 1.8 million wild polio cases.

          “Everybody chipped in,” says Gaston Kaba, longtime chair of the Niger PolioPlus Committee (he retired from the position in June 2019). “Volunteers, town criers, many other people were involved. Nobody knows about them. They worked quietly to get the job done.”

          Last recorded Cases of endemic wild polio in countries in the WHO African region 1980s: Cabo Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Kenya Botswana, Mauritius, Comoros, Seychelles, South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini 1990s: Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Mauritania, Mali, Algeria, Togo, Gabon, Cameroun, Equatorial Guinea, Uganda, Eritrea, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Madagascar 2000s: Burkina Faso, Côte D’Ivore, Ghana, Benin, Niger, Chad, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Angola 2010s: Nigeria

           

          The 47 countries that make up WHO’s African region are home to nearly 1,400 Rotary clubs and 32,000 members, many of whom have dedicated time and resources to the effort. Rotary members around the world have contributed nearly $890 million toward eradicating polio in the region, advocated for support from their governments, mobilized communities around National Immunization Days, and held events for World Polio Day to raise public awareness.

          The legacy of those efforts is a health care infrastructure that is playing an important role in the COVID-19 pandemic and is poised to respond to future public health emergencies. The laboratory and surveillance networks developed to track the poliovirus are being used to monitor other diseases. Polio workers bolster an array of routine immunizations, deliver deworming medicines and oral rehydration salts, and provide other health services. And they continue to vaccinate children against polio, because until the virus is eradicated from the earth, it remains a threat everywhere. “Being declared free of polio is an amazing success,” says Teguest Yilma, Ethiopia PolioPlus Committee chair. “I am happy — but I’m still not relaxed.”

          In a time of extraordinary challenges, we can celebrate the eradication of wild polio in the African region. Here are just a few of the stories of the drive and determination Rotary members and our partners have shown in overcoming challenges and setbacks.


            THE CHALLENGES  

          Conflict
          Rumors
          Hard-to-reach children
          Political will
          The next phase

          The challenge: Conflict                

          Boko Haram was against immunizations in the first place, so many health facilities were destroyed. Immunization was not even something you could think about.

          In February 2005, as civil war raged through Côte d’Ivoire, Marie-Irène Richmond-Ahoua entered the heart of rebel-held territory. Then the national PolioPlus committee chair, Richmond-Ahoua joined representatives from Rotary’s partners on a United Nations (UN) flight to Bouaké, where the rebels were based. “We met with rebel chiefs to beg them to make immunization days safe,” she recalls, asking for their cooperation in providing soldiers to protect the vaccinators. “They did it. For five days, it was easy to reach children.”

          Over the years, security was one of the biggest challenges to the polio eradication effort in Africa. Rotary and its partners worked to negotiate truces and military protection to make sure that health workers could reach every child in conflict areas. In 1994 and 1996, the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army and the Sudanese government agreed to honor “corridors of peace” where vaccinators could travel safely, and two years later, a PolioPlus grant supported the airlifting of vaccines into villages that hadn’t seen a government health worker in 15 years. In 1985 in Uganda, the government and the National Resistance Army agreed to permit UNICEF flights into rebel-held territory after the civil war cut off a third of the population from government serv-ices. And in late 1999, then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan negotiated a nationwide truce in Sierra Leone so that National Immunization Days could be held.

          But at times, bloodshed still derailed polio eradication efforts. Nigeria thought it had seen its last case of wild polio in July 2014. But then the militant group Boko Haram kept vaccinators out of its strongholds in Borno state in northeastern Nigeria for several years. “Boko Haram was against immunizations in the first place, so many health facilities were destroyed. Immunization was not even something you could think about,” says Tunji Funsho, who has served as Nigeria PolioPlus Committee chair since 2013. Polio was festering, undiagnosed, in the areas of Borno where children hadn’t received their vaccines, and in 2016 the country recorded four cases.

          Rotary and its partners worked to negotiate truces and military protection for health workers in conflict areas.

          Credit: Tony Karumba/AFP via Getty Images

          But the Nigerian government — as well as Rotary, its partners, and health workers and volunteers — never gave up. The Nigerian Army became a key participant in vaccination efforts. At first, it would secure an area, and vaccinators would spend two days or less quickly immunizing children before leaving, a strategy called “hit and run.” Later, armed local militia members would escort vaccinators to unsafe areas. Today, army medical corps members carry the vaccine to settlements that remain unsafe for civilians to enter and vaccinate children themselves. “The military knows how to take care of themselves,” Funsho says.

          Funsho recalls visiting the home of the child who had the last case of wild polio in Nigeria, another innocent victim of the insurgency. “The potential for a three-year-old girl in Borno state to achieve the best that is possible for her life is already very low — educationally, socially, in all aspects of human endeavor,” he says. “Add polio paralysis to that, and what is the hope for that child? It is heart-rending.”

          The challenge: Rumors               

          In Nigeria, another significant obstacle was the persistent rumors about the safety of the oral polio vaccine that spread in the northern part of the country in the early 2000s, Funsho says. Skeptical political and religious leaders told parents to refuse vaccinations, combining rhetoric of the anti-vaccine movement with conspiracy theories about a Western plot to sterilize Muslims. “This rumor was not homegrown. It came from abroad and found local weapons to energize it,” Funsho says. “It led to vaccination becoming a political thing rather than a means to protect our children against paralysis.”

          The situation deteriorated. Several states in northern Nigeria canceled all immunization activities until officials could show proof that the vaccine was safe, and the country went 14 months without a National Immunization Day. The Nigerian government, strongly committed to polio eradication, set up a committee that included key Muslim leaders to verify the vaccine’s safety. They toured vaccine manufacturing sites and produced a report that satisfied all except political and religious leaders in Kano state, the epicenter of the rumors. Officials there sent their own committee of health experts and religious scholars to Indonesia, where they reconfirmed the safety of a vaccine manufactured in a Muslim country.

          Rotary members in Nigeria advocated with government leaders and educated the public to dispel persistent myths about vaccine safety.

          Credit: Diego Ibarra Sánchez

          Meanwhile, Rotary members continued to engage in advocacy and in educating the public. Ado Bayero, the late emir of Kano, was a supporter of the Rotary Club of Kano, and Funsho was his personal physician. One of the country’s most influential Muslim leaders, the emir “was a great friend of Rotary,” Funsho says. “He knew Rotary would not bring anything harmful.” The emir demonstrated his faith in the oral polio vaccine by personally immunizing his grandchildren in his palace. “We used that to a lot of our advantage in the media.”

          In neighboring Niger, a country whose population is 99 percent Muslim, then-President Mamadou Tandja pushed back against the persistent rumors in a key speech that launched a 2004 immunization campaign. He gave the speech in Hausa, a language widely spoken in Niger as well as Nigeria, which made his message about the importance of vaccination all the more effective. “Tandja was very strong on the message he delivered,” says Kaba, the former Niger PolioPlus Committee chair. “He referred to the Quran. You don’t joke with the Quran.” A month later, Rotary presented Tandja with a Polio Eradication Champion Award.

          Polio cases in Africa had been trending down until the early 2000s. But the rumors and missed immunizations led to the exportation of the virus from Nigeria to almost 20 countries. “As soon as we overcame that, the graph just went gradually down and down until we got to zero,” Funsho says.

          The challenge: Hard-to-reach children            

          Nearly 800,000 refugees live in Ethiopia, most of them from Eritrea, Somalia, and South Sudan. “Our borders are very porous. A lot of people come in and out from neighboring countries,” Yilma says. So the government coordinates cross-border vaccination campaigns with surrounding nations to ensure that the virus isn’t brought in over the border.

          To eradicate wild polio in Africa, health workers had to vaccinate hard-to-reach children such as those at this camp for internally displaced people in northern Nigeria.

          Credit: Andrew Esiebo

          The country has some of the most rugged terrain in Africa — from mountainous highlands to vast desert plains that sit hundreds of feet below sea level. There are some places where health workers have to walk hours to reach a single family, and others that are so densely populated that ensuring that every child is vaccinated can be difficult. “Ethiopia didn’t face a situation like in Nigeria where people outright refused to be vaccinated,” Yilma says. “The problems in Ethiopia are that it’s a large population that is mobile and that the topography of Ethiopia makes them very difficult to reach.”

          Throughout the African region, millions of health workers have traveled by foot, boat, bicycle, and bus during the decades-long eradication campaign.

          Throughout the African region, millions of health workers have traveled by foot, boat, bicycle, and bus during the decades-long eradication campaign. Grants from The Rotary Foundation have supported them along the way. In 2000, Africa’s first synchronized multicountry

          How We Got There: WHO African Region is Certified Free of Wild Poliovirus  2021-02-24 09:00:00Z 0
          Vaccine Providers Prepare for March COVID-19 Shipments; Further Eligibility Clarifications Announced to Include More Alaskans  2021-02-24 09:00:00Z 0

          South Peninsula Hospital Covid-19 Updates for February 23, 2021

          Covid-19 Vaccines

          February 23 Update

          The February 26 mass vaccination clinic is full.

          Click here to add your contact information to be on the wait list for day-of cancellations for this event only.

          Over 700 appointments for Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine will become available on Monday, March 1 at 12pm noon for the following dates and locations:

          • 500+ appointments at a mass vaccination clinic on Friday, March 12 at Homer High School
          • 200+ appointments at the SPH Covid Vaccine and Test Center on Bartlett Street March 9th, 10th,11th, 16th and 17th.

          Appointments can be made online here, or by calling the City Vaccine Call Line at 435-3188. Both will go live at 12pm Monday, March 1st.

          Who is eligible?

          • New Eligibility Group!
            Phase 1b, Tier 2
            – This group includes:
            • People 50 years and above with a high-risk medical condition*
            • People 50 years and above who must work within 6 feet of others as an essential worker*
            • Pre K–12 and child care education staff*
            • People living or working in congregate settings*
            • Persons aged 65 years and older (Phase 1b)
            • All of Phase 1a*
              Please note: The State of Alaska DHSS has clarified “health care setting” for vaccine eligibility as follows:
              Workers in health care settings can include someone who stays home to care for an elderly family member. Eligible individuals provide daily support related to an individual’s activities of daily living (i.e., bathing, dressing, eating) as well as instrumental activities of daily living (i.e., shopping, laundry, light housework). These may be paid, unpaid, or contracted positions. This may also include teachers or other school staff that provide health care activities for students including tube feedings, suctioning, and other hands-on healthcare.
          • If you already got your first dose at the Feb 5 / 6 event, you already have your 2nd dose appointment for March 5. If you have questions about your appointment on March 5, click here or call 235-0235.
          • Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

          Check back here for regular updates.

          See the map of vaccine locations statewide

          South Peninsula Hospital Covid-19 Updates for February 23, 2021 2021-02-24 09:00:00Z 0

          Your Gift From Start to Finish

          The Rotary Foundation is the best steward for your money. Here’s why.

          In 2016, The Rotary Foundation received the highest possible score from Charity Navigator – 100 of 100 points – for its strong financial health and commitment to accountability and transparency.

          It was the ninth straight year the Foundation earned a four-star rating from the independent evaluator of charities across the U.S., a distinction only 1 percent of charities have attained.

          The Association of Fundraising Professionals likewise named the Foundation the World’s Outstanding Foundation for 2016, an award previously given to other familiar names such as Kellogg and MacArthur.

          These organizations agree: When you donate to The Rotary Foundation, you’re investing wisely. We followed your money from start to finish to discover how the Foundation ensures that your gift makes an impact for years to come.

          Directing your donation

          There’s a reason Rotarians donate to The Rotary Foundation: It’s a simple way to achieve your philanthropic goals – whether it’s supporting clean water, the eradication of polio, or a particular global grant. 

          Any gift can be donated to a specific fund – End Polio Now, an individual global grant, or one of Rotary’s areas of focus.

          Illustrations by Gwen Kereval

          “Even the smallest of gifts can be donated to a specific fund – a global grant, polio, or an area of focus within the World Fund,” says April Jensen, a member of the Rotary Club of Evanston, Illinois, USA, who works in fund development for the Foundation. You can also leave your gift unrestricted so that the Foundation has the flexibility to use the money where it is needed most.  

          Do you ever wish you could set up a scholarship or your own family’s foundation but don’t want the headache of administering it? Let The Rotary Foundation handle it. When you make a gift over $25,000, you will receive personalized reports detailing the projects you are supporting. You can make your gift in the way that suits your financial situation best – such as cash, stocks, or bequests.

          Investing your money

          In 2015-16, 91 percent of the money the Foundation spent went to programs and grants, with only 9 percent of expenses going toward administration. How does the Foundation make sure that the bulk of your donation supports the sustainable programs you want it to?  

          “To ensure that the funds for the project are there when needed,” says past Rotary International President Ron D. Burton, chair of the Foundation’s Investment Committee, “all contributions to the Foundation’s Annual Fund are invested for three years.”

          After three years, the investment earnings on your gift go toward the operating expenses of the Foundation.

           

          The Investment Committee includes three Foundation trustees and six Rotarians who are professionals in the field, who make sure that your money is invested responsibly during this period. 

          When the three years is up, the investment earnings on your gift go toward the operating expenses of the Foundation. 

          “I don’t know of any other organization like ours that has a system like this,” Jensen says. “It’s brilliant.” 

          Your principal is split 50/50, with half going to your District Designated Fund and half going into the World Fund, a pool that the Trustees of The Rotary Foundation use to match grants where they are most needed.

          Awarding grants

          When the Foundation awards a grant to fund a project, how does it ensure that your money will have lasting impact? 

          “Sustainability begins with the community assessment,” explains Philip J. Silvers, a past RI director and chair of the Foundation’s Cadre of Technical Advisers. 

          Six elements of sustainability must be addressed in the design of a global grant project: 

          • Start with the community
          • Encourage local ownership
          • Provide training
          • Buy local
          • Find local funding
          • Measure your success

          Learn about 20 noteworthy grants

          Read tips for strong projects

          Before Rotarians design projects, they talk to people in the community – fathers, mothers, children, elders, political leaders – to understand the broader context behind what the community needs. 

          “Then whatever project emerges, the community can see their fingerprints on it,” he says. “It’s not buy-in you want. We all know about buyer’s remorse. What we really want is community ownership right from the beginning.” 

          Six elements of sustainability must be addressed in the design of a global grant project: start with the community, encourage local ownership, provide training, buy local, find local funding, and measure your success. 

          These ensure that the project provides long-term solutions that the community itself can support after the grant ends. 

          Project sponsors don’t have to figure out all this on their own. The Rotary Foundation provides staff to help with your project design – grant officers are knowledgeable about regional and cultural issues, and area of focus managers have significant field experience in their specialties. 

          By connecting clubs with local and regional experts for guidance on developing sustainable, large-scale global grants early in the planning process, Rotary is committed to funding projects with lasting impact in communities. 

          Your district’s international service chair, a Rotarian appointed by your district governor, can help you connect with a network of local Rotarian experts – such as members of Rotarian Action Groups, Rotaractors, and peace fellows and other alumni – who have volunteered to help with projects and global grant planning.

          Ensuring strong grant projects

          The Rotary Foundation has a network of Rotarian volunteers available to provide expertise and advice, called the Cadre of Technical Advisers. With a database of 700 experts in Rotary’s six areas of focus as well as other specialties – mediators, diplomats, obstetricians, engineers, bankers, and agronomists, for example – there is sure to be someone who can help if an obstacle comes up.

          Cadre members play an important role in ensuring that donors’ funds make a long-term impact. On behalf of The Rotary Foundation, cadre members do a technical review of the feasibility of larger grants before they are awarded and perform site visits to evaluate how the grants are being carried out. “Rotarians want to know if something is not working out or if they can do something better,” says Francis “Tusu” Tusubira, a member of the cadre from the Rotary Club of Kampala-North, Uganda. “The cadre is there to give as much support as possible.” Cadre members also perform random financial audits to help the Foundation ensure that grant funding is being used as approved. 

           “The cadre provides accountability and quality assurance in general, and protects our investors – the people who donate – and also the beneficiaries,” Silvers says. “In doing that, we also protect the Rotary brand. We make a commitment to our beneficiaries; we want to make sure this is high quality. Our name – and more than our name, our commitment – is at stake.”

          Monitoring success and sustainability

          Monitoring and evaluation of grants are built in through the project design. “From the community assessment, we learn what kind of lasting change we can create together,” Silvers says. “How can we measure that? How do we know that change will continue? How can we show our donors and our beneficiaries that we really made a difference?”  

          Anyone who knows Rotarians sees how we give of our time and resources. They know their money is in good hands.

          Rotary Family Health Days have been recognized as a Rotary Foundation noteworthy global grant project. They are held in several countries in Africa where both incidence of HIV/AIDS and the stigma surrounding being tested for the virus were great. 

          Built into the project was a follow-up step in which Rotaractors and Rotary Community Corps members called patients who had received health care through the project. Explains Silvers: “They’d ask, ‘What brought you to Rotary Family Health Days this year?’ It might have been that they needed a tooth pulled. ‘Anything else?’ From that sequence of questions, 71 percent of respondents said they got checked for HIV. That’s a huge cultural turnaround.” 

          Project sponsors write a final report when their grant closes. This includes initial measures of impact. Because Rotarians design sustainability into a project at the very beginning, its benefits are ongoing. 

          Just as the Foundation asks project sponsors to monitor the impact of their grants, the organization also performs a triennial evaluation of its grant model. Foundation Trustees are using the feedback from the most recent evaluation, conducted in 2015-16, to adjust the grant process in ways such as improving how clubs and districts find partners, evaluating requirements for the community needs assessment, and helping project sponsors scale up their efforts with support from the cadre and other partners.  

          For everything the Foundation does to ensure that gifts make a lasting impact, the greatest check and balance of all may be Rotarians themselves, says Eric Kimani, regional Rotary Foundation coordinator for Zone 20A and a member of the Rotary Club of Nairobi-Muthaiga North, Kenya. “When you have good Rotarians, it is your best measure of stewardship,” he says. “Anyone who knows Rotarians sees how we give of our time and resources. They know their money is in good hands.” 

          • Read more stories from The Rotarian 

          Your Gift From Start to Finish 2021-02-17 09:00:00Z 0

          Rotary Foundation Receives Highest Rating From Charity Navigator for 13th Consecutive Year
           

          By 

          For the 13th consecutive year, The Rotary Foundation has received the highest rating — four stars — from Charity Navigator, an independent evaluator of charities in the U.S.

          The Foundation earned the recognition for adhering to sector best practices and executing its mission in a financially efficient way, demonstrating both strong financial health and commitment to accountability and transparency. Only one percent of the organizations Charity Navigator evaluates have received 13 consecutive 4-star evaluations.

          "Your achievement and 4-star rating will enhance your organization’s fundraising and public relations efforts,” says Michael Thatcher, president and chief executive officer of Charity Navigator. "This exceptional designation sets the Foundation apart from its peers and demonstrates to the public its trustworthiness."

          The rating reflects Charity Navigator's assessment of how the Foundation uses donations, sustains its programs and services, and practices good governance and openness.

          16-Dec-2020    

           LEARN MORE  

          Rotary Foundation Receives Highest Rating From Charity Navigator for 13th Consecutive Year  2021-02-17 09:00:00Z 0

          The Rotary Foundation

          The Rotary Foundation transforms your gifts into service projects that change lives both close to home and around the world.

          Since it was founded more than 100 years ago, the Foundation has spent more than $4 billion on life-changing, sustainable projects.

          With your help, we can make lives better in your community and around the world.

          Our mission

          The mission of The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty.

          What impact can one donation have?

          • For as little as 60 cents, a child can be protected from polio.
          • $50 can provide clean water to help fight waterborne illness.
          • $500 can launch an antibullying campaign and create a safe environment for children.

          Financial structure

          The Rotary Foundation is organized as a public charity operated exclusively for charitable purposes and governed by a Board of Trustees. The operations of Rotary International, a member organization, are overseen by its Board of Directors.

          The headquarters of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation are in Evanston, Illinois, USA. We have associate foundations in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

          Read highlights from the past year in our annual report

          Learn about Rotary's investments

          Your generous contributions to The Rotary Foundation are essential to securing and growing Rotary programs throughout the world.

          Learn more about donor recognition

          Learn more about Rotary grants

            DONATE NOW  

          The Rotary Foundation 2021-02-17 09:00:00Z 0

          South Peninsula Hospital Vaccines--February 17 Update

          Covid-19 Vaccines

          February 17 Update

          Appointments available soon!

          Check here Friday morning, Feb. 19 at 10am for a limited number of appointments for a small Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine clinic taking place on Friday, February 26th.  For those not connected online, there is an informational recording at 435-3188, and that phone line will be answered starting at 10am Friday for assistance with appointments. A wait list of 100 names will be taken for this event once appointments fill.

          A large-scale mass vaccination clinic will take place in early March. Check here on Monday, March 1st at 12pm noon to make your appointment for that event.

          Who is eligible?

          • New Eligibility Group!
            Phase 1b, Tier 2
            – This group includes:
            • People 50 years and above with a high-risk medical condition*
            • People 50 years and above working as a frontline essential worker*
            • Pre K–12 and child care education staff*
            • People living or working in congregate settings*
            • Persons aged 65 years and older (Phase 1b)
            • All of Phase 1a*
              Please note: The State of Alaska DHSS has clarified “health care setting” for vaccine eligibility as follows:
              Workers in health care settings can include someone who stays home to care for an elderly family member. Eligible individuals provide daily support related to an individual’s activities of daily living (i.e., bathing, dressing, eating) as well as instrumental activities of daily living (i.e., shopping, laundry, light housework). These may be paid, unpaid, or contracted positions. This may also include teachers or other school staff that provide health care activities for students including tube feedings, suctioning, and other hands-on healthcare.
          • If you already got your first dose at the Feb 5 / 6 event, you already have your 2nd dose appointment for March 5. If you have questions about your appointment on March 5, click here or call 235-0235.
          • Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

          Check back here for regular updates.

          See the map of vaccine locations statewide

          South Peninsula Hospital Vaccines--February 17 Update 2021-02-17 09:00:00Z 0

          Alaska Covid-19 Vaccine Eligibility - Updated 2/10/2021

          Vaccine Eligibility

          Updated February 10, 2021

          Alaskans currently eligible to receive the COVID vaccine include:

          • People 65 years and above
          • Most health care workers*

          Starting February 11, additional people will be eligible to book an appointment:

          *Limitations apply. See footnotes for details.

          Vaccine managed by the Alaska Tribal Health System, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the U.S. Department of Defense may have different eligibility criteria. Vaccine doses will be distributed throughout Alaska in a series of phases. Over time, everyone who wants to be vaccinated will be able to get vaccinated.

          On this page:

          Who is eligible now?

          Phase 1a Tiers 1-3 - OPEN

          Phase 1b Tier 1 - OPEN

          • People 65 years and above

          Phase 1b Tier 2 – OPEN (as of Feb. 11, 2021)

          • People 50 years and above who have any of the following high-risk medical conditions:
            • cancer
            • chronic kidney disease
            • chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
            • Down Syndrome
            • heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies
            • immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from solid organ transplant
            • obesity or severe obesity (body mass index [BMI] greater than 30 kg/m2) (see calculator)
            • sickle cell disease
            • smoking
            • type 1 or type 2 diabetes mellitus
            • pregnancy
          • Frontline essential workers 50 years and above who must work within 6 feet of others
          • Education staff, limited to:
            • Childcare workers and support staff (e.g. custodial, food service, transportation);
            • Pre K–12 grade educators and support staff (e.g. custodial, food service, transportation);
            • Indigenous language and culture bearers
          • People living or working in congregate settings not covered in Phase 1a, limited to:
            • Acute psychiatric facilities;
            • Correctional settings;
            • Group homes for individuals with disabilities or mental and behavioral health conditions;
            • Homeless and domestic violence shelters;
            • Substance misuse and treatment residential facilities; and
            • Transitional living homes
          • Pandemic response staff who may come into contact with the SARS-CoV-2 virus during outbreak response activities.

          Who is eligible soon?

          Phase 1b Tier 3: Not yet open. Timeline to be determined.

          Phase 1c: Not yet open. Timeline to be determined.

          Who will be eligible later?

          Learn more

          We’re working to provide additional information, as it becomes available. Vaccine supply is very limited at first, and it will gradually be available to more Alaskans over time. Alaska uses a phased approach to make the vaccine available. The State of Alaska COVID-19 Vaccination Plan: Allocation Guidelines (PDF) explain the process.

          Provide input

          More information about the meeting, and how to provide comment, is available at the Alaska Vaccine Allocation Advisory Committee webpage.

          Eligibility Footnotes

          Phase 1b criteria

          Updated Feb 10, 2021 replacing previous definitions

          1. High risk medical conditions are limited to the following based on risk-factors for severe COVID-19–associated illness:

          • cancer
          • chronic kidney disease
          • chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
          • Down Syndrome
          • heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies
          • immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from solid organ transplant
          • obesity or severe obesity (body mass index [BMI] greater than 30 kg/m2) (see calculator)
          • sickle cell disease
          • smoking
          • type 1 or type 2 diabetes mellitus
          • pregnancy

          2. Frontline essential workers are defined as people who are working in sectors essential to the functioning of society and are at substantially higher risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 because their work-related duties must be performed on-site and involve being in close proximity (<6 feet) to the public or to coworkers. For further criteria, see the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) advisory list (PDF). Including, but not limited to:

          • Law enforcement, public safety, and other first responders
          • Education (including people not covered in Phase 1b Tier 2)
          • Food and Agriculture (Food manufacturers, distributors, restaurant workers, seafood workers, grocery store workers)
          • Energy (electricity, petroleum, Natural Gas, utility and power workers)
          • Water and Wastewater
          • Transportation and Logistics (Public transit workers, aviation workers, taxi drivers, port workers, bus drivers, U.S. Postal Service workers and mail carriers, warehouse operators)
          • Public Works and Infrastructure Support Service
          • Critical Manufacturing
          • Communications and Information Technology
          • Other Community-or Government-Based Operations and Essential Functions
          • Critical Manufacturing
          • Hazardous Materials
          • Financial Services
          • Chemical
          • Defense Industrial Base
          • Commercial Facilities
          • Residential/Shelter Facilities, Housing And Real Estate, and Related Services
          • Hygiene Products and Services

          3. Working in congregate settings includes people working in the judicial system whose job responsibilities require them to interact with individuals residing in congregate settings.

          Phase 1a criteria

          1. Long Term Care facilities included Skilled Nursing Facilities, Assisted Living Homes, and Dept of Corrections infirmaries providing care that is similar to an assisted living facility.

          ^ Back to Who is Eligible Now

          2. Particularly those performing the highest risk procedures or who spend extended periods of time bedside and whose absence from work would compromise the ability of the hospital to continue functioning. Personnel in this category include, but are not limited to:

          • ICU and COVID unit nurses, LPNs, CNAs and patient care technicians

          • ICU and COVID unit physicians

          • Inpatient physicians caring for COVID patients, including hospitalists

          • Respiratory therapists

          • Emergency department personnel

          • Personnel working in operating and other procedural rooms in which aerosol generating procedures are conducted.

          • Other hospital staff working in COVID units such as PT/OT/ST therapists, phlebotomists, etc.

          • Environmental services personnel

          • Facility security personnel

          3. Particularly those personnel whose absence from work would compromise the ability of these critical medical services to continue. This Tier 

          < Continued >

          Alaska Covid-19 Vaccine Eligibility - Updated 2/10/2021 2021-02-10 09:00:00Z 0

          SPH Covid-19 Vaccines -- February 10, 2021 Updates

          February 10 Update
           

          Looking for a Covid-19 vaccine? Although SPH has none available at this time, we hope to learn from the State soon what our next allocation will be, and the expected date of arrival. We are obligated to offer the vaccines to anyone in the eligible groups (see below), and cannot prioritize within that for the large-scale vaccine events. As vaccines become more available we do plan to offer them by appointment on a regular basis, in addition to the mass events, but have no idea at this time when that might be. Our goal is to vaccinate the most number of people in the quickest and safest amount of time.

          The wait list for the Feb. 12 and 13 clinic is full. There are no additional call lists at this time for Covid-19 vaccines from South Peninsula Hospital. Please check back to this page regularly for updates as we receive them. And for those not connected online, there is an informational recording at 435-3188 that will be updated as more information becomes available.

          • New Eligibility Group!
            Phase 1b, Tier 2 – This group includes:
            • People 50 years and above with a high-risk medical condition*
            • People 50 years and above working as a frontline essential worker*
            • Pre K–12 and child care education staff*
            • People living or working in congregate settings*
            • Persons aged 65 years and older (Phase 1b)
            • All of Phase 1a*
              Please note: The State of Alaska DHSS has clarified “health care setting” for vaccine eligibility as follows:
              Workers in health care settings can include someone who stays home to care for an elderly family member. Eligible individuals provide daily support related to an individual’s activities of daily living (i.e., bathing, dressing, eating) as well as instrumental activities of daily living (i.e., shopping, laundry, light housework). These may be paid, unpaid, or contracted positions. This may also include teachers or other school staff that provide health care activities for students including tube feedings, suctioning, and other hands-on healthcare.
          • If you already got your first dose at the January 15/16 event, you already have your 2nd dose appointment for Feb 12/13. If you have questions about your appointment on Feb. 12 or 13, click here or call 235-0235.
          • Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

          Check back here for regular updates.

          See the map of vaccine locations statewide

          SPH Covid-19 Vaccines -- February 10, 2021 Updates 2021-02-10 09:00:00Z 0

          SPH Covid-19 Vaccines  ---   February 9, 2021 Update

           

          February 9 Update
          Openings Available! Make an Appointment

          • Some appointments will be available for the vaccine clinic this Friday and Saturday, Feb. 12 and 13. Though designed mostly as an event to administer the second dose to those who already got vaccinated on January 15 and 16, we will also be offering first dose appointments to those in the eligible groups.
          • As of February 8, eligible groups include:
            Persons aged 65 years and older (Phase 1b)
            All of Phase 1a*
          •  
          • Please note: the State of Alaska DHSS has clarified “health care setting” for vaccine eligibility as follows:
            Workers in health care settings can include someone who stays home to care for an elderly family member. Eligible individuals provide daily support related to an individual’s activities of daily living (i.e., bathing, dressing, eating) as well as instrumental activities of daily living (i.e., shopping, laundry, light housework). These may be paid, unpaid, or contracted positions. This may also include teachers or other school staff that provide health care activities for students including tube feedings, suctioning, and other hands-on healthcare.
          • If you already got your first dose at the January 15/16 event, this event is NOT for you. You already have your 2nd dose appointment for Feb 12/13. If you have questions about your appointment on Feb. 12 or 13, click here.
          • Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

          Check back here for regular updates.

          See the map of vaccine locations statewide

          SPH Covid-19 Vaccines  ---   February 9, 2021 Update 2021-02-09 09:00:00Z 0

          The Future of Environmentalism Includes a Focus on Humanity’s Well-Being
           

          We don’t need to trade a healthy environment for a thriving economy.

          by 

          To some people, the term “environmentalist” seems to be a dirty word. In their minds, it denotes starry-eyed zealots who chain themselves to trees.

          Or perhaps they envision out-of-touch elites who care more about spotted owls and humpback whales than people, self-centered activists who want to tell others how to live their lives, run their towns, and operate their businesses.

          But that’s a wildly out-of-date assumption. Today, environmentalism has evolved into a much more helpful and engaging field. It’s a diverse community that looks to improve the lives of everyday people, as well as safeguard the natural world and our collective future. In addition, over the past couple of decades, rather than merely harping on the environmental problems facing the world, environmentalists have shifted more of their attention toward practical solutions. And they have done that by keeping the focus on people and their collective well-being.

          Caring about the environment goes toward our ultimate mission, and we should give it the importance it deserves. As a humanitarian organization, we’re obligated to talk about it.


          Why Climate Change Is Rotary’s Business,” April 2019

          While it’s important to recognize the challenges facing the environment — and there are many — it is even more important to shine a light on the potential solutions to those challenges, especially those solutions that can benefit society by creating jobs, improving health, and making people more prosperous and resilient. That’s where the future of environmentalism lies. For example, addressing climate change will spur deep investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy, improved transportation systems, smarter buildings, better materials, a healthier food system, and more sustainable forms of agriculture. All of these have the potential to create new jobs, foster new economic opportunities, and generate huge savings and new sources of income.

          In the future, as we address our environmental challenges, we can build smarter, more efficient ways of doing everything. We can build more efficient homes that save energy and money for everyone. We can design smarter and more efficient vehicles that emit no pollution; save fuel and money; and are safer, cheaper to run, and more fun to drive. We can reduce food waste, promote healthier diets, and help farmers become more sustainable and more profitable, even as we help to repair our broken food system and curtail its negative impact on the environment.

          The idea that we need to trade a healthy environment for a thriving economy is simply wrong. In the future, we can improve the environment and the economy through bold new thinking, innovation, and collaboration. It’s essential that we do that. As Gaylord Nelson, the former senator and governor of Wisconsin who founded Earth Day in 1970, famously said, “The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment.”

          Nelson was absolutely right. At the most fundamental level, our economic systems are built on the environment. Clean water, breathable air, a stable climate, abundant resources, places free from toxins: These are all requirements for a healthy economy. A world where water and air are polluted, or where storms, fires, and heat waves are frequent, or where basic natural resources — water, food, fiber, and fuel — are running out, is a world headed to economic ruin.

          Rotary has a new area of focus: protecting the environment. Learn more about our commitment to keeping our planet and its resources safe.

           

          Illustrations by Greg Mably

          Improving the environment is crucial not only to the well-being of the planet but to the health of the billions of people who inhabit it — another shift, over the past few decades, in the focus of environmentalists. Let’s step away from our focus on solutions for a moment and look at some examples of the tremendous challenges we face as we move into the 2020s. Look at the impact of the recent fires in California and Australia on the health of tens of millions of people, forcing entire families to take shelter inside for weeks as a precaution against dangerous air pollution levels. Or consider the devastating toll that toxic drinking water can take on all the residents of a single town, as we saw — and continue to see — in Flint, Michigan. And look at the effect of severe and prolonged heat waves on our most vulnerable neighbors, particularly the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.

          A degraded environment doesn’t just degrade our health; it also undercuts our security. In a world where extreme weather events and natural disasters are more common and more lethal, growing environmental pressures, including those resulting from climate change, may force large numbers of people into extreme poverty or send them fleeing from their homes into other countries as environmental refugees. Such shocks could overwhelm entire nations and cause severe instability in numerous parts of the world.

          In short, without a healthy environment, and without a long-term commitment to maintaining that healthy environment, we cannot have a healthy and thriving society. But let’s take a positive approach to this: If we are smart about it, addressing the most critical environmental issues facing us today is an opportunity for us to reinvigorate our economy and our communities. As Rotarians embark on a bold program of new environmental initiatives, it is crucial to keep this in mind. Solving environmental problems is a welcome chance to fix some of our out-of-date and broken systems and replace them with ones that are safer and fairer. In the process, we can create a world that is healthier and more prosperous for us and our children. Can there be any better future than that?

          Jonathan Foley is the executive director of Project Drawdown, a leading resource for climate solutions. A climate and environmental scientist, educator, writer, and speaker, he was the 2014 recipient of the prestigious Heinz Award for the Environment.


          Read more perspectives about where Rotary may be headed — and what to expect when we get there.

          MORE STORIES

          • This story originally appeared in the January 2021 issue of Rotary magazine.

          The Future of Environmentalism Includes a Focus on Humanity’s Well-Being  2021-02-09 09:00:00Z 0

          The Golden Age of Water is Over

          The water systems humans have created and rely on will look inadequate in the face of climate change

          by 

          I was in Charleston, South Carolina, to talk about water, and a university faculty member there explained how dramatically life has changed in the past few years in that beautiful waterfront city.

          As recently as the early 2000s, she said, Charleston had experienced a few flooding events a year — eight or 10. Not even one a month.

          But in the past few years, Charleston has annually had 40 to 50 intrusive flood events. The flooding is so common and so disruptive, the woman explained, that she and her husband had to plan their lives around it. Their kids went to day care in one part of the city; they worked in another part. When the low-lying streets and intersections filled with seawater — as happens on average three times a month now — they were cut off from their children.

          Half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from waterborne diseases. More than a billion people don’t have access to clean drinking water. That’s very disturbing in the 21st century.


          Philanthropy Matchmakers,” July 2019

          “We have to watch the weather, we have to watch the tides, we have to talk to the people at the day care,” she said. “Because we could easily end up at the end of the day with no way to get the kids.” There have been occasions when they didn’t take the children to day care, because flooding was predicted during the day.

          You don’t have to imagine the future of water: It’s here. It’s happening right now, all around us.

          That’s the most obvious lesson from the flooding in Charleston, a single problem in a single U.S. city: The flooding is not devastating, but it is sudden, it’s new, it’s relentless, it’s hugely disruptive, and it’s not going away. When it comes to water, we aren’t ready for what’s happening to us right now. So we certainly aren’t ready for the future.

          In the past decade, we have made dramatic progress in water. In the 10 years between 2005 and 2015 (the most recent year for which there is U.S. data), the typical American went from using 100 gallons of water per day at home to using 83 gallons. If we were still consuming water at the rate we did in 2005, we would be using 5 billion more gallons of water a day than we are.

          We’ve also made dramatic progress across the past 50 years. The United States today uses less water every day, for all purposes, than it did in 1965. We have tripled the size of the U.S. economy in that half-century without using a single new gallon of water. Which is to say, every gallon of water we use today does three times the work it did in 1965.

          Learn more about Rotary’s efforts to provide clean water, and how you can get involved.

           

          llustrations by Greg Mably

          Farmers today use a little less water than farmers did in 1965 — but they irrigate 45 percent more land and raise twice as much food.

          That’s all good news. If climate change weren’t transforming everything about who gets water, and how much, it would be great news — the foundation of a new water ethic. As it is, the progress we’ve made in the United States and around the world will cushion the impact of climate change. But that impact is likely to be so dramatic, we may not notice.

          We don’t often connect the dots when we talk about the impact of climate change, but it is almost all about water. Rain that doesn’t fall anymore where we expect it. Rain that falls in fewer events — fewer rainy days and fewer storms — but with much more intensity and volume. Snow that now falls as rain, stealing from a kind of “water savings account” that whole regions rely on, where winter snows pile up in mountain ranges, then melt gradually through the spring and summer to provide a steady flow of water.

          Every day we’re seeing the dawn of a kind of brutal intensity to the climate, and to the weather, that feels all new. Fueled by one record-dry summer after another, megafires rage across the American West. Nourished by unusually warm ocean temperatures, slow-moving hurricanes in the Atlantic and supertyphoons in the Pacific explode with power and intensity just before coming ashore, where they release torrential, flooding rains.

          We’re used to separating out our experience of water, especially in the developed world. There’s the water we use every day at home, in offices and factories, on farms. And then there’s the water out in the environment — the water that either comes, sometimes in destructive torrents, or doesn’t come, for months that add up to drought.

          Water woes

          Should current trends persist without mitigation:

          1. By 2030, annual global water requirements will exceed current sustainable water supplies by 40 percent.
          2. By 2040, nearly 600 million children will live in areas of extremely high water stress.
          3. By 2050, the number of people at risk from floods will increase to 1.6 billion from 1.2 billion.

          SOURCE: National Intelligence Council; UNICEF; World Meteorological Association

          Climate change is going to erase that convenient distinction. The human water systems we’ve created, and that we all rely on, are going to look brittle and inadequate in the face of what’s coming.

          The most important principle for adapting to the new world of water is this: Water does not respond to wishful thinking. Water problems don’t get better on their own. Just the opposite: The longer you wait to tackle a water problem of any kind, from a leak in the ceiling of your living room to a sea-level rise in your city, the harder, and the more expensive, that problem is to solve.

          That’s not just true directly. Well-managed water undergirds the entire economy. But we don’t appreciate that very often. A city that floods once a week, a city that has to ration drinking water, a city that has to brace for destruction with every hurricane season or every fire season: Those are not places with stable, appealing economic futures.

          We need to adapt to a new world. And we need to appreciate two more key ideas when it comes to water. First, we know how to solve every water problem that exists in the world — in engineering terms. We don’t need a Manhattan Project or a moon shot to tackle water. But the hardest part of most water problems is the people part. It’s getting people to see the water situation in a clear-eyed way — with realism, not optimism. And then getting people to change their behavior.

          The second thing to appreciate is that all water problems are local — and that’s where they must be solved. The United States is a perfect example of a rich, smart country with a wild array of water problems. Not only is there no active national strategy for tackling them; in most cases there isn’t even national guidance.

          But that can be liberating for cities, for regions, for states. The smartest communities — in the United States and around the world — aren’t waiting to tackle water and climate change. They aren’t waiting for the alarm from Washington, or the guidance, or even the financing.

          Especially in the developed world, we’ve had a century-long, highly engineered golden age of water, in which we left the management of it to the experts, and most of us never had to give water a thought. It was invisible in our daily life. We need to see the new age of water turbulence with realism, with urgency, and with a sense that water is something all of us are going to have to grapple with.

          The golden age is over. Water isn’t going to be invisible anymore. The future of water is now.

          Charles Fishman is a frequent contributor to Rotary. His most recent book is One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon. He is also the author of the bestselling The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water.


          Read more perspectives about where Rotary may be headed — and what to expect when we get there.

          MORE STORIES

          • This story originally appeared in the January 2021 issue of Rotary magazine.

          The Golden Age of Water is Over 2021-02-09 09:00:00Z 0

          Mask Up in KPBSD Schools

          2-1-21:

          The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District will continue to require face coverings for staff, students, guests, and at athletic events, in all COVID-19 risk levels (low, medium, high, extreme) until further notice.

          Working together we can and will keep schools open and safe.

          Visit the KPBSD Covid-19 Hub to navigate to the data dashboard, Smart Start Plan, sports and activities, and additional links to state and KPBSD information about COVID-19 operations and mitigation plans.

          Mask Up in KPBSD Schools 2021-02-09 09:00:00Z 0

          Good Nutrition and Health Care Before a Child's Second Birthday Are Vital to Their Future

          Rotary clubs partner with the Maya Health Alliance to help 140 Guatemalan mothers and children avoid malnutrition

          by 

          Most new parents mark their baby’s progress in a series of milestones: first smile, first word, first steps. But pediatricians are focused on a milestone that might be less familiar: the first 1,000 days.

          The phrase is shorthand for the period between conception and a child’s second birthday, a critical time frame when nutrition, or lack thereof, can have lifelong consequences. Research in child development has shown that when mothers and infants are poorly nourished during this stage, the adverse impact on children’s physical and mental development can have ripple effects throughout their lives. And much of that damage can never be undone, even with later interventions.

          One of Rotary’s areas of focus is saving mothers and children.

          Learn more

          In his essay for Rotary magazine, Hunger hits home: The pandemic reminds us that food insecurity isn’t just ‘over there,’ Roger Thurow writes more about hunger in a world affected by coronavirus.

          In 2010, with the support of the governments of the United States and Ireland, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other organizations, a nonprofit called 1,000 Days was founded with the goal of making child nutrition and health a funding and policy priority around the world. Roger Thurow, a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal, also examined this concept in his 2016 book, The First Thousand Days. A senior fellow on global food and agriculture at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Thurow says stunting is a complex problem that requires multipronged solutions. Even when food is plentiful, he says, poor sanitation or a lack of clean water can cause diarrhea or other illnesses that prevent a child from retaining nutrients.

          In one mountainous, rural area of Guatemala, where staple crops (primarily corn) don’t provide sufficient nutrients, hunger and malnutrition are common. Around 1 million Guatemalan children under age five experience stunted development in their brains and bodies. Children are considered stunted when their height for their age is more than two standard deviations below the World Health Organization’s Child Growth Standards median, but the problem goes beyond simply being small for their age. “They are slower to walk, talk, and read,” says Anne Kraemer Diaz, the executive director of Wuqu’ Kawoq, also known as the Maya Health Alliance. “Stunting impacts their lifelong learning possibilities. It makes them prone to type 2 diabetes and to hypertension. They are looking at a lifetime of poverty and major impediments.”

          Children who get the right nutrition in the first 1,000 days:

          • Are more likely to be born at a healthy birth weight
          • Have a lower risk of many conditions and diseases, including obesity and type 2 diabetes
          • Go on to be better learners with fewer behavior problems in kindergarten
          • Enjoy improved health and economic security as adults

          Source: thousanddays.org

          In addition to persistent poverty, the effects include higher health care costs and weaker economies, according to Diaz. In 2010, the Maya Health Alliance started working specifically to help mothers and children avoid malnutrition.

          The alliance sends health workers to the homes of more than 750 families — to interview them, measure and weigh their babies, and provide food, such as eggs and beans, deworming medication, education about healthy ways of living, and micronutrient packets.

          “The impact of malnutrition on brain development is crucial in those first two years of a child’s life. That’s when massive brain development occurs,” says Joanne Rosener, a member of the Rotary Club of Rochester Risers in Minnesota, which is working with the Maya Health Alliance on an ambitious, long-term global grant project to improve nutrition for 140 Guatemalan families. More than a dozen Rotary clubs are involved.

          The Maya Health Alliance and Rotary have helped Guatemalan families enjoy the benefits of raised-bed gardens, which can provide better drainage and a longer growing season, and require less weeding and maintenance, than a regular garden.

          Courtesy of Maya Health Alliance

          Steps toward improving nutrition can be as simple as encouraging people to plant gardens. The clubs have provided funding for raised-bed gardens that supply families with a range of healthful foods that they otherwise do not have access to.

          Diaz describes the region as a food desert: “Even though there is food all around them, it is all one crop.” That crop is corn, which is a staple of the traditional diet but which alone does not provide enough of the nutrients a child needs to thrive.

          The Maya Health Alliance works with the families to choose what they will plant and to help them build the gardens and learn to grow the crops. Health workers also teach them about sustainable practices such as seed saving and intercropping, a practice that involves growing different crops in close proximity to each other to produce a greater yield.

          The Rotary clubs have covered the cost of materials and supplies for the gardens, the purchase and maintenance of a truck and a laptop computer, and the services of an agronomist and community health workers.

          The gardens, which are located at the families’ homes, are designed to flourish with as little labor and expense as possible. “They are raised gardens, so they need less water and they aren’t so prone to weeds,” says Rosener, whose club connected with the alliance via a dietitian in Rochester who had learned about the problem of stunting while visiting Guatemala.

          Diaz reports that their efforts are having a positive impact. The percentage of households that were likely to be food insecure fell from 51 percent of the baseline over the past year to 30 percent at a six-month follow-up, then rose slightly to 31 percent at the 12-month follow-up. “At six months after the gardens were initiated, families had more diverse diets and more frequent meals,” she says.

          The 10 building blocks for nutrition during the first 1,000 days

          • A nutritious diet for mothers during pregnancy
          • Exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months
          • The right foods introduced to babies at the right times
          • Paid time off for working parents to care for their newborns
          • Consistent access to enough nutritious food for families of young children
          • Good care for all mothers during pregnancy
          • Nurturing, responsive care and feeding of babies and toddlers
          • A healthy and nutritious diet for babies and toddlers
          • The right knowledge and skills for parents and caregivers to properly nourish young children
          • Societal investments in the well-being of every baby and toddler

          Source: thousanddays.org

          One of the participants in the program is Maria (not her real name), a mother of three young children, including an infant. She and her husband, a bricklayer, live with 14 members of their extended family. While Chuti Estancia, the small village in southern Guatemala where Maria lives, has many farmers, Diaz says most of the food grown there is for export, and farmers aren’t skilled in growing a variety of produce.

          Speaking through an interpreter, Maria says the family’s new garden has helped her children in many ways. “They develop much better in height and weight,” she says. “They get sick less now, and I believe that’s because they are consuming more vegetables and healthier foods.”

          The program also has helped the family save money on food. “We learn to produce and to harvest, and we consume everything,” Maria says. “We save money by not buying vegetables, and we are able to eat organically, as we do not use any chemicals.”

          Rosener says the Rotary clubs involved are committed to supporting the Maya Health Alliance for the long haul, and she is pleased that the gardens have produced positive results. “We know the kids aren’t slipping,” she says. “We know they’re making progress. But reversing the effects of malnutrition doesn’t happen overnight.”

          The problem of stunting is not limited to Guatemala. According to the Global Nutrition Report released in 2018, the countries with the most children who are stunted are India with 46.6 million, Nigeria with 13.9 million, and Pakistan with 10.7 million.

          Roger Thurow applauds the Rotarians’ approach to addressing the problem of stunting in Guatemala. Gardens for the residents will help now and will continue to help into the future. By looking at long-term, sustainable solutions, he says, Rotarians will be “supporting a community, not just giving handouts.”

          Learn about the work of the Rotary Action Group for Reproductive, Maternal, and Child Health, and get involved, at rifpd.org.

          • This story originally appeared in the November 2020 issue of Rotary magazine.

          Good Nutrition and Health Care Before a Child's Second Birthday Are Vital to Their Future 2021-02-03 09:00:00Z 0

          The Sad Truth About Altruism Is That There Aren’t Enough Altruists
           

          The people who fill the truly essential roles in society are often in short supply

          By Illustrations by 

          From time to time, societies run low on the things — and the people — they really need. We wake up one day and realize that there are too few doctors. Or far, far, far too few nurses. Or it suddenly dawns on us that there aren’t enough teachers, engineers, or plumbers to go around. There are certainly never enough guys who work well with sheetrock.

          Other professionals we have in spades. There are always more than enough landscapers, baristas, actors, masseurs, personal trainers, hairdressers, IT guys, and chefs. Nor are we ever in any real danger of running out of hedge fund managers, ballerinas, real estate agents, claims adjusters, standup comics, bartenders, aspiring singer-songwriters, or car salesmen. But the people who fill the truly essential roles in society are often in short supply.

          Something like this may already be happening with Good Samaritans. From time to time, societies run desperately low on the kinds of devoted, implacable altruists who are always ready to pitch in and make the world a better place.

          Did you know there are Rotary clubs all over the world? Find your local Rotary club, and learn more about joining.

          Institutional altruism is rarely a problem. Plenty of churches, foundations, and government agencies are working night and day to help better society. These people do good for a living. But institutional philanthropy alone can’t handle a problem as large as the one created by the current pandemic. Societies always and everywhere rely on large numbers of those people sometimes derisively referred to as “do-gooders” to keep things running smoothly. And right now there aren’t enough do-gooders to go around. It doesn’t help that a lot of do-gooders are stuck indoors because of the pandemic.

          The vexing problem of Good Samaritan Shortfall was driven home to me last February while I was visiting Washington, D.C. Strolling down M Street, I was approached by a young man in a red vest who was raising money for a worthy cause. I told him that I already contributed to the organization he represented, thanks to my wife, who regularly, reflexively, almost automatically sends checks to a large number of indisputably saintly enterprises. In other words, to use a reliable old phrase, I gave at the office. Well, she did.

          The young man smiled amiably. He was not pushy. He was not judgmental. He did not try to embarrass me with that sneering “Have a nice day” that virtuous para-professionals so often employ when people start to drift away without opening their wallets. He thanked me for my generosity, or, to be perfectly accurate, for my wife’s generosity. He said that regular contributions by people like us were the very lifeblood of the organization. But in this case, he added, he was out raising money for a specific initiative.

          I now tried to explain that asking me to give more to a cause I already supported seemed like philanthropic double dipping. It was like asking someone who was already writing checks to save endangered hippos to write a second check to save endangered rhinos. It was like asking someone who was already demonstrably a “good” person (or who at least had some sort of conjugal affiliation with one) to become an even better person. My question — a pretty obvious one, I thought — was: Why couldn’t somebody else carry the ball for a change?

          The young man patiently listened, then waved away my protests. “We ask people who’ve already given to give again because we know that those people are generous,” he said. “Doesn’t it make more sense to target people who already think like us than to go after strangers?”

          The deceptively cunning logic of his argument floored me. My feeling had always been that if we — as a family — had already given to the Fresh Air Fund and the Sierra Club, then we didn’t have to give to the Red Cross or the Salvation Army. In my mind, I had conflated all the organizations that were trying to make the world a better place into one monolith of merit. My wife, Francesca, didn’t look at things that way. In her view, just because you had already given to this didn’t mean you couldn’t give to that. The way she sees it, there is no ceiling for good works.

          I disagreed. I even wisecracked that we should adopt a simple ethical cap-and-trade policy, stipulating that if we helped clean up the rivers, we didn’t have to help clean up the lakes. At least not both of us. She was having none of it. Who ever said that you were allowed to take a vacation from virtue? Bad people didn’t take sabbaticals from wrongdoing, so why should good people take a break from doing good? If you were altruistic, you were required to be uninterruptedly altruistic. In the parlance of her native England, if you were in for a penny, you were in for a pound.

          There isn’t enough altruism to go around

          This got me to thinking about the Good Samaritans I knew personally. At some point I realized that the high-profile do-gooders in my community almost never limited their good-doing to a single activity. If you saw them volunteering at the library book sale on Saturday, you would probably also see them at the Girl Scout bake sale on Sunday. If they were out brandishing petitions to save a historic building, you would probably also see them fighting to save a historic mural. At first I thought that people like this practiced virtue on such a large scale mainly because it made them feel better about themselves — which it indisputably does. But over the years I have come to realize that these neighbors do not necessarily engage in so many virtuous activities merely because they are good, caring people. It’s because they know that there aren’t enough good, caring people to go around.

          It is often said that in the world of altruism, it’s the thought that counts. Incorrect. If you’re going to do the right thing, you have to do it the right way.

          Baseball teams rely on a pipeline of minor league talent that eventually gets called up to the majors. I think that those who perform altruistic activities at the major league level could benefit from this kind of system. I’ve noticed that my wife, who runs a senior citizens center on a pro bono basis, ceaselessly cultivates civic-minded individuals who are roughly a generation younger than us. It’s not enough to be good. It really helps to also be young.

          All of which suggests a rebuttal to the seemingly impregnable argument made by the young man in the red vest that I encountered on the streets of Washington. If you want to make the world a better place, you cannot keep raising money from the same people over and over, as he suggested, no matter how generous they are. Society cannot depend exclusively upon the pathologically altruistic or the congenitally compassionate to keep things going. There simply aren’t enough of them. Virtuous people need help. Virtuous people need to recruit new talent. All the time. This, in fact, is why Rotary clubs exist.

          Good Samaritan versus the Intermittently Good Samaritan

          At this point, it’s worth discussing the difference between the Good Samaritan and the Merely Adequate Samaritan. Like most people, I am not an inherently good person; goodness is learned behavior. Left to my own devices, I might eventually have morphed into a halfway decent human being. But I don’t think I would ever have gotten much further than that. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever flower into a paragon of virtue. The closest I could come to that was being married to a paragon of virtue. This is the opposite of guilt by association. It is guiltlessness by association.

          When we first married, my wife and I developed a division-of-labor approach to civic-mindedness. She would handle all the volunteer work involving the schools, the community, the senior citizens, the underprivileged, the ozone layer, and the manatees, and I would buy the opera tickets. While she wrote checks to the Red Cross, Children’s AidGreenpeace, and Doctors Without Borders, I would buy tickets to the New York Philharmonic or the Tokyo String Quartet. I also purchased memberships to all the local museums. Thus, the good works practiced in our household were split right down the middle. She devoted herself to keeping society afloat; I devoted myself to keeping civilization afloat. Her job was a lot more time-consuming.

          Since the coronavirus epidemic hit, as I have watched growing numbers of people who have never done anything civic-minded in their lives pitching in and helping, I have thought more and more about the essence of philanthropy. When all the good works are done by just a few people, which is almost always the case in small towns like the one where I live, it hurts the community, because people who do not regularly do good works either forget how to do them or never learn how in the first place. There’s an art to cleaning up polluted lakes or litter-strewn playgrounds. There’s an art to sitting patiently with people and helping them learn English as a second language. For that matter, there’s an art to going out into the street and asking complete strangers to fork over their money.

          This is where the Good Samaritan and the Intermittently Good Samaritan part company. For a few years, my college-age son would help us deliver turkeys and groceries to needy members of our community at Christmastime. This was immensely satisfying work, because he could see how his efforts were brightening people’s lives, however fleetingly. Occasionally, other college students or retirees would offer to help. These individuals were fiercely well-meaning.

          Virtuous people need help. Virtuous people need to recruit new talent. All the time. This, in fact, is why Rotary Clubs exist.

          But when the chips are down and it’s time to drop off the Christmas baskets, well-meaningness isn’t enough. It is often said that in the world of altruism, it’s the thought that counts. Incorrect. If you’re going to do the right thing, you have to do it the right way. This is often impossible, because those who are only periodically virtuous are usually clueless. They give chickens to people who asked for turkeys and turkeys to people who asked for hams. They put too many Oreos in one bag and none in the other. At the end of those food runs, we invariably had to make a second trip to the supermarket because we always came up a couple of turkeys short. This was no way to run a railroad, much less a charity.

          This gets to the crux of the matter: Good Samaritans are basically amateurs — but they shouldn’t be rank amateurs. Those who are going to get serious about altruism need to develop skills, to know where their talents are useful and where they are not. Virtue, like mastering the hammered dulcimer, requires practice. This is one of the few good things about the pandemic: It has given an awful lot of people who have never lifted a finger to help their fellow man a golden opportunity to learn the ropes, to go from bumbling amateurs to effective doers of good. People in my town who had never been especially altruistic now give big tips to those who work in the service industry, or they drop off food for those who cannot leave their homes, or they help clean up the garbage strewn along the riverfront. I never knew they had it in them.

          In search of the next generation of do-gooders

          But what of those who stubbornly refuse to lend a hand? I personally am not in favor of coercing people into doing good works, the way some progressive companies strong-arm their employees into doing community service in their free time. But I am not opposed to embarrassing people into doing good works. When I was growing up on the mean streets of Philadelphia — and yes, those streets were mean, and remain mean to this day — my parents were devout Catholics. They were also poor. The wolf was not always at the door, but it was usually somewhere in the vicinity. Yet no matter how bad things got, my parents always put something in the church collection basket on Sunday morning. They did not tithe, but they tried.

          They did so by using envelopes sent by the church listing their name, address, and the amount donated each Sunday. Every month the church would publish a list of parishioner contributions. It was embarrassing when your name appeared next to a paltry $5. But it was better than not appearing at all.

          I think society needs to try something like this. For years, I have watched the same do-gooders get older and older, waiting for the cavalry to arrive. And as they wait, the same people work at the polling stations, the same people visit the sick, and the same people staff the PTA. The simple as that. That’s why we might need public bulletin boards listing all the good works done only relief column these people are ever going to see is if every one of us voluntarily joins the cavalry. It’s as by local volunteers, with vast, blank spaces next to the names of those who have done nothing. Confrontational? Yes. Judgmental? Yes. But as the old saying goes: If you can’t beat ’em, browbeat ’em.

          My daughter once dated a very smart young man whose specialty was economics. An implacable defender of the “rational actor” theory, he insisted that every human activity had some economic underpinning, that people who engaged in altruistic activities were secretly deriving some economic reward from doing so. This theory never made sense to me.

          But now it does. Well, sort of. Helping your fellow man makes you feel better about yourself. It really does. And this helps cut down on expenses. In a society where all those Pilates classes, all those continuing education courses, all those self-help books and videos and boot camps are basically expensive, time-consuming, invariably unsuccessful ways to make you feel better about yourself, altruism is the obvious solution to your problem. No matter what the economists say, you can’t put a price on happiness. There aren’t any numbers that go that high.

          • This story originally appeared in the December 2020 issue of Rotary magazine.

          • Joe Queenan is a frequent contributor to Rotary magazine. Since March, he has written four one-act plays (all of which will be performed on Zoom), a screenplay, and a rock opera.

          The Sad Truth About Altruism Is That There Aren’t Enough Altruists  2021-02-03 09:00:00Z 0

          Alaska Covid-19 CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021

           

          Alaska COVID-19 Case Count

          CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021

          DHSS today announced 226 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 178 were residents in:  Anchorage (45), Wasilla (32), Palmer (24), Fairbanks (14), Eagle River (6), Bethel Census Area (5), Dillingham Census Area (5), Juneau (5), Tok (4), Ketchikan (3), Kodiak (3), North Pole (3), Sitka (3), Southeast Fairbanks Census Area (3), Valdez-Cordova Census Area - Copper River (3), Nome Census Area (2), Seward (2), Unalaska (2), and one each in Aleutians East Borough, Anchor Point, Bethel, Big Lake, Douglas, Homer, Houston, Kusilvak Census Area, Nikiski, Petersburg, Soldotna, Utqiaġvik, Valdez, and Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area. 

          Forty-eight new nonresident cases were identified yesterday in:

          • Anchorage: 21 in seafood industry and two with purposes under investigation
          • Aleutians East Borough: 15 in seafood industry
          • Unalaska:  four in seafood industry and one with purpose under investigation
          • Kodiak:  one with purpose under investigation
          • North Slope Borough:  one with purpose under investigation
          • Location under investigation:  three with purposes under investigation

          Three resident cases were added and three nonresident case were subtracted from the dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 52,956 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,864.

          ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 20.68 cases per 100,000. Most regions of Alaska are in high alert status with widespread community transmission. Two regions are at intermediate alert status with moderate transmission and one regions is at low alert with minimal transmission.

          High (>10 cases/100,000)

          • YK-Delta Region: 111.85 cases per 100,000
          • Southwest Region: 24.47 cases per 100,000
          • Matanuska-Susitna Region: 23.22 cases per 100,000
          • Other Interior Region: 20.72 cases per 100,000
          • Anchorage Municipality: 18.53  cases per 100,000
          • Fairbanks North Star Borough: 16.09 cases per 100,000
          • Northwest Region: 15.1 cases per 100,000
          • Juneau City and Borough: 14.96 cases per 100,000

          Intermediate (>4.8-10 cases/100,000)

          • Kenai Peninsula Borough: 7.1 cases per 100,000
          • Other Southeast Region - Southern: 5.38 cases per 100,000

          Low (0-4.8 cases/100,000)

          • Other Southeast Region - Northern: 4.89 cases per 100,000

          CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,182 hospitalizations and 277 deaths.  One hospitalization was subtracted from the dashboard due to data verification and no deaths were reported yesterday. 

          There are currently 40 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and two additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 42 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Ten of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 4.3%.

          CASES: SEX & AGES– Of the 178 Alaska residents, 96 are male and 82 are female. 15 are under the age of 10; 28 are aged 10-19; 31 are aged 20-29; 29 are aged 30-39; 31 are aged 40-49; 24 are aged 50-59; 10 are aged 60-69; eight is aged 70-79 and two are aged 80 or older.

          TESTING – A total of 1,520,206 tests have been conducted, with 29,972 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 2.37%.

          VACCINATIONS – Reported to date, there have been 98,265 dose #1 and 31,675 dose #2 COVID-19 vaccinations given for a total of 129,941 doses administered in Alaska. For more information, visit the Vaccine Monitoring Dashboard.

          TAKE ACTION – Vaccines are being distributed throughout Alaska but we all still need to maintain our COVID-19 protective measures to keep ourselves and others safe and healthy: coronavirus.dhss.alaska.gov

          Notes: Reports are received electronically, by phone and by fax. Cases are verified, redundancies are eliminated and then cases are entered into the data system that feeds into Alaska’s Coronavirus Response Hub. When there is a high number of reports being received, this may cause delays in getting reports entered and counted. Personnel continue to focus on the effort to process and count reports and minimize the delay from receipt to posting on the hub. 

          This report reflects data from 12 a.m. until 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 2. There is a lag between cases being reported on the DHSS data dashboard and what local communities report. Each case is an individual person even if they are tested multiple times. Total tests are a not a count of unique individuals tested and includes both positive and negative results. The current number of hospitalized patients represents more real-time data compared to the cumulative total hospitalizations. Current hospitalizations are reported for all facilities, not just general acute care and critical access facilities, as is the default on the dashboard. Total number of hospital beds available fluctuate daily as the number of available hospital staff changes. All data reported in real-time, on a daily basis, should be considered preliminary and subject to change. To view more data visit data.coronavirus.alaska.gov; weekly and daily case summaries are archived at dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/id/Pages/COVID-19/communications.aspx#updates.

          Alaska Covid-19 CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021 2021-02-03 09:00:00Z 0

          Covid-19 Vaccines -- February 3 Update
           

          February 3 Update
          Appointments are still available. Make an Appointment

          • SPH expects 500 Moderna Covid-19 vaccines the first week of February.
          • A mass vaccination clinic will be held Friday and Saturday, Feb 5 and 6 at the Community Christian Church, under direction of Homer Unified Command.
          • This event is by appointment only – no walk-ins
          • If a person does not have access to internet or needs assistance in booking, call 235-0235 to make an appointment.
          • If a person was on the wait list for the January 15 and 16 clinic, they still need to make an appointment for this clinic. No names were forwarded to the February event.
          • There are no wait lists at this time.
          • If you already got your first dose at the January 15/16 event, this event is NOT for you. You already have your 2nd dose appointment for Feb 12/13. If you have questions about your appointment on Feb. 12 or 13, click here.
          • Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.
          • We are obligated to offer the vaccines to anyone in the eligible groups which includes:
            Persons aged 65 years and older (Phase 1b)
            All of Phase 1a

          Check back here for regular updates.

          See the map of vaccine locations statewide

          Covid-19 Vaccines -- February 3 Update  2021-02-03 09:00:00Z 0

          PreK-12 Grades Can Attend School Onsite, Every Day

          News Release                                                                                                                                                                
          All KPBSD 7-12 grade students can attend school onsite five days a week beginning Monday, February 1, 2021


          Soldotna, January 28, 2021—All 42 KPBSD schools will be open every day to the onsite at-school learning option for all grades, including 7-12 grade students, beginning Monday, February 1, 2021. The 100% Remote Learning choice is still available if a family chooses this option.

          All PreK-12 grade students who want to attend school onsite every day are now able to do so! Working together, we can keep schools open when operating in Red, or High COVID-19 risk. So far, safety mitigation plans are working, so keep up the good effort during time at school, riding the bus, participating in sports, and with outside activities!

          Enhanced Safety plans                                  

          • Shift in 2021: Instead of broad regional decisions to extinguish the onsite learning option, the KPBSD district level team will work with individual schools when a positive COVID-19 case occurs in a school requiring student or staff quarantine, or results in staffing shortages. Thus, you may experience only a classroom or specific school shift to the 100% Remote Learning option
          • To keep onsite learning happening and schools open, it is key that everyone follow the plans for health and safety. Thank you for sticking to the KPBSD Symptom Free School protocol
          • Bus transportation is provided on a normal schedule, everyone must wear a face covering, and seating plans will be put in place
          • Staff and all ages of students wear a mask at all times
          • Mitigation plans at school sites must be faithfully and fully implemented
          • Pods or cohorts will be in consistent groups
          • 6’ physical distancing needs to occur whenever possible. Physical distance will keep staff and students healthy in school, minimize in-school exposure or transmission, and reduce the number of people who need to quarantine when a positive COVID-19 case occurs

          Links                

          PreK-12 Grades Can Attend School Onsite, Every Day 2021-02-03 09:00:00Z 0

          KPBSD Onsite Learning Option for Grades 7-12

          All Seward area 7-12 grade students can return to onsite-at-school learning on January 25, 2021

          Soldotna, January 22, 2021—Good news: the community spread of COVID-19 is continuing to flatten on the Kenai Peninsula, and as more students return to onsite at school learning, if everyone follows the school mitigation plans, schools will stay open for the rest of the school year. Grades 7-12 have been attending on split schedules due to COVID-19 risk levels, and very soon all KPBSD students will have the option to attend school onsite five days a week. If you have questions or issues to solve, kindly call your school and talk to your principal, teacher, or school secretary.

          Monday, January 25, 2021, Moose Pass and Seward schools will open for all 7-12th grade students to attend in-person, at school, every day

          Monday, February 1, 2021, is the earliest possible date for:
          Central Peninsula
           (Kasilof, Kenai, Nikiski, Soldotna, and Sterling area schools)
          Southern Peninsula (Homer area, Nikolaevsk, and Ninilchik schools)

           

          On or before January 28, 2021, KPBSD will provide an update with an official announcement about when central and southern peninsula schools will open onsite learning for all grades.

          Enhanced Safety plans

          • Shift in 2021: Instead of broad regional decisions to extinguish the onsite learning option, the KPBSD district level team will work with individual schools when a positive COVID-19 case occurs in a school requiring student or staff quarantine, or results in staffing shortages. Thus, you may experience only a classroom or specific school shift to the 100% Remote Learning option
          • To keep onsite learning happening and schools open, it is key that everyone follow the plans for health and safety. Thank you for sticking to the KPBSD Symptom Free School protocol
          • Bus transportation is provided on a normal schedule, everyone must wear a face covering, and seating plans will be put in place
          • Staff and all ages of students wear a mask at all times
          • Mitigation plans at school sites must be faithfully and fully implemented
          • Pods or cohorts will be in consistent groups
          • 6’ physical distancing needs to occur whenever possible. Physical distance will keep staff and students healthy in school, minimize in-school exposure or transmission, and reduce the number of people who need to quarantine when a positive COVID-19 case occurs

          How will I know when grades 7-12 will be open every day to onsite learning at my school?

          Parents, students, and families will receive a message from the district through School Messenger, and schools will also contact their families when this change takes effect. An announcement will be posted on KPBSD.org, the KPBSD mobile app, and on social media. The KPBSD team continues to monitor COVID-19 spread, health care capacity, and ability to staff and operate schools safely. Thank you for your good effort to open schools safely, and keep schools open! Monitor your school risk level on the COVID-19 dashboard.

          Links

          KPBSD Onsite Learning Option for Grades 7-12 2021-01-28 09:00:00Z 0

          SPH Covid-19 Updates -- January 27, 2021

          Covid-19 Vaccines

          January 27 Update

          • SPH expects 500 Moderna Covid-19 vaccines the first week of February.
          • A mass vaccination clinic will be held Friday and Saturday, Feb 5 and 6 at the Community Christian Church, under direction of Homer Unified Command.
          • This event is by appointment only – no walk-ins
          • Appointments can be made online at www.sphosp.org starting Tuesday, Feb. 2 at 10am
          • If a person does not have access to internet or needs assistance in booking, call the City of Homer vaccine help line at 435-3188. It will open at 10am Tuesday Feb 2.
          • If a person was on the wait list for the January 15 and 16 clinic, they still need to make an appointment for this clinic. No names were forwarded to the February event.
          • There are no wait lists at this time.
          • Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.
          • We are obligated to offer the vaccines to anyone in the eligible groups which includes:
            Persons aged 65 years and older (Phase 1b)
            All of Phase 1a

          Check back here for regular updates.

          See the map of vaccine locations statewide

          Looking for information on your second dose appointment on February 12 and 13?

          SPH Covid-19 Updates -- January 27, 2021 2021-01-28 09:00:00Z 0

          Hunger Hits Home: The Pandemic Reminds Us That Food Insecurity Isn’t Just ‘Over There’

          Hunger and malnutrition unleashed by COVID-19 could carry the impact of the pandemic far into the future

          by Illustrations by 

           

          Late 2019, just before the coronavirus began its relentless march around the world, I joined a group of fourth graders in their crowded classroom in an Ethiopian village. Their teacher posed an adventurous question to the students: What would you like to be one day?

          “I would like to be a nurse and help people.”

          “A doctor!”

          “A teacher or a businessman.”

          They were answers you might hear in any fourth grade classroom, anywhere in the world. But this was no ordinary group of elementary school pupils, so I asked a follow-up question: How old are you?

          The answers: 18, 18, and 21.

          At the time of my visit, I saw this classroom — with half of its students aged 18 and older — as an indictment of humanity’s past neglect of nutrition and agricultural development, which had allowed hunger to persist in our world. Many of these students were young children in 2003 when, in the first great hunger crisis of the 21st century, 14 million Ethiopians, many of them children, faced starvation. For the children who survived, this severe early malnutrition often resulted in stunted bodies and brains.

          In this classroom, I saw how stunting can become a life sentence of underachievement. It is highly unlikely that any of the students I met — teenagers and young adults just now learning simple math and struggling to read — will fulfill their ambitions of professional careers and their desires to help others. Lost potential is the consequence of a stunted generation: What might these young people have accomplished for themselves, their families, their community, their country — for all of us — had they not been malnourished as children?

          Several weeks after my visit, the coronavirus pandemic shifted my perspective of what I had seen in this classroom. These students aren’t simply showing us the effects of past malnutrition. They are giving us a glimpse into our post-pandemic future, a view of how the hunger and malnutrition unleashed by COVID-19 could carry the impact of the pandemic far into the future.

          The Food Plant Solutions Rotary Action Group is working on sustainable ways to end hunger and malnutrition. Find out more and get involved at foodplantsolutions.org.

          These students are giving us a glimpse into our post-pandemic future, a view of how the hunger and malnutrition unleashed by COVID-19 could carry the impact of the pandemic far into the future.

          The pandemic has changed how we see hunger today, both around the world and in the United States. The global health crisis became an economic calamity followed by a nutrition catastrophe. As businesses shut down, job losses mounted, supply chains shattered, and schools that had provided vital meal programs closed, access to food and nutrition was radically interrupted, and in many cases severely limited, for billions of people. The World Food Programme — the United Nations agency in charge of emergency food distribution as well as school meal programs in numerous countries — warned that an additional 270 million people were facing grave hunger, with children most at risk. Nutritionists predicted that stunting, which already affects nearly one of every four children in the world, would surely rise. Researchers, writing in the medical journal The Lancet, estimated that more than 6 million children would suffer wasting (severe underweight) and that as many as 10,000 children could die from malnutrition every month in the coming year.

          The pandemic has made hunger and malnutrition more immediate, more urgent, more threatening. And that is not only happening in lower- and middle-income countries. It has also had a profound impact in one of the richest, most bountiful countries in the world, exposing a national oxymoron: hungry Americans.

          Hunger has become more personal for many Americans than at any time since the Great Depression. As the pandemic paralyzed the economy and jobs and incomes vanished, we have seen massive demand at food banks and pop-up relief pantries — perhaps we have even been there ourselves or recognized our relatives, friends, neighbors, or co-workers in those crowds. We have seen highways come to a standstill with epic traffic jams at drive-through bread lines. We’ve seen the mad scramble to replace the subsidized breakfast and lunch programs once provided by now-closed schools. We’ve experienced the frantic dash to grab whatever food remains on the shelves of the grocery stores. At the same time, we’ve seen farmers plowing under crops and dumping milk and euthanizing livestock because their regular customers — the restaurants, schools, and businesses — have stopped buying.

          We’ve seen all this and we are shocked. But we shouldn’t be.

          Americans hold tight to the belief that ours is a land of everlasting bounty, with amber waves of grain stretching majestically across the fruited plain, from sea to shining sea. We sing of how “God shed his grace on thee” — on America. We believe ourselves to be the world’s breadbasket, with the richest soils, the best farmers, the most advanced technologies that allow us to feed the planet’s hungry, wherever they may be. We could imagine that a global health crisis would turn into a hunger crisis “over there” somewhere, in Africa or India perhaps. But in America? No way.

          It is the lie we tell ourselves, blinding us to the 40 million fellow citizens who, even before the pandemic, struggled to come up with their next meal. But now we see. The pandemic has forced us to look. The truth is that while we may indeed feed the world, we don’t feed all our own citizens. It’s not that we can’t. It’s that we won’t. We allow hunger to abide.

          The truth is that there have always been lines at food pantries, where the shelves are always in desperate need of replenishing; that the ceaseless wave across the fruited plain is one of schoolchildren heading to cafeterias for free meals; that the one thing that does stretch from sea to shining sea is a network of 60,000-plus food pantries and soup kitchens that outnumber McDonald’s restaurants by more than 4-to-1.

          1. 17 million

            Additional Americans facing food insecurity in 2020 because of the pandemic

          2. 43 percent

            Share of national food waste created by U.S. households

          3. $218 billion

            Amount spent annually in the U.S. on food that is never eaten

          4. 6 billion

            Projected number of meals U.S. food banks will provide by the end of 2020

          We see the Golden Arches everywhere, but do we see the food pantries? They are there, tucked away in community halls and church basements; many of them are served and supported by Rotarians. They are places of relief and salvation. But all too often they are also places of stigma and shame. Who are the people who need them, and what did they do wrong? To look closely would mean examining painful truths and asking, What did we do wrong?

          How does this obscene oxymoron persist? How do we, in a wealthy country, a democracy that has been the envy of the world, tolerate it? Economists have advanced a theory that there can be no famine in a democracy; surely voters would oust any sitting government amid mass starvation. But America proves that you can have hunger — if not outright starvation — in a democracy. Before the pandemic, even with 40 million food-insecure citizens, hunger rarely rated a mention in any political campaign.

          U.S. Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, who is co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus, tells anyone who will listen that hunger is a political condition. But its consequences aren’t acute enough to prod lawmakers to take any kind of lasting, unified action to end it. There is rhetoric aplenty, and there are grand intentions. Most every politician can manage to summon a flash of righteous indignation against hunger — who could be for hunger? — but when it comes to spending political capital and actual money to eliminate hunger, there is eternal stinginess. When the purse strings do open, it is usually with a grudging motion and even a sneer: “Are they really hungry in this country?”

          Over the years, U.S. legislators have enacted programs to provide nutritional aid: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, commonly known as food stamps; the Women, Infants, and Children program, or WIC; school breakfast and lunch programs. But these initiatives are perpetually underfunded, underpromoted, and under attack. As the pandemic hit, 18 million American households relied on SNAP benefits (which, although meant to last a month, rarely stretch to two weeks). Government analysts acknowledge that millions more people are probably qualified to receive the benefits but are intimidated by the process of applying, or recoil with a sense of shame at the notion of receiving aid, or simply don’t know it’s available. And so hunger abides.

          Rhetoric, like charity, is fleeting. We generously give our cans of vegetables, jars of peanut butter, boxes of pasta, and cash donations during food drives, particularly in times of natural disasters. But without decisive action to match those donations, without commitment to eliminate the problems that cause the need, the structures of inequality remain in place and, away from the spotlight cast by the emergency, the suffering continues. We have become comfortable with hunger in our midst, and, in a mockery of our displays of sympathy, Americans are the most profligate food wasters in the world: We throw away one-third of all food prepared for consumption.

          We don’t even call it hunger. We use a euphemism: “food insecurity,” defined as a lack of consistent access to enough food and proper nutrients for an active, healthy life. According to the government’s measurements, about 11 percent of U.S. households were food insecure before the COVID-19 outbreak; by late April — within one month of the start of lockdowns and stay-at-home orders — the rate had doubled to 22.7 percent. Once the pandemic’s impact began spreading across the country, more than 17 percent of households with children under age 12 reported that their children weren’t getting enough food (compared with about 3 percent of families reporting such hardship in 2018). Feeding America, a network of 200 food banks, calculates that it is now serving 50 million people, up from 40 million pre-pandemic. That’s 10 million more people who likely never imagined they would be reaching out for benefits in a food line. What did they do wrong? A global health crisis closed their office, their factory, their school.

          Will they — will we, as a nation — look at our hunger problem differently now? Will we summon the sense of shared purpose needed to conquer COVID-19, the passion required to confront racism, the energy demanded to eliminate hunger in our most bountiful land?

          We have become comfortable with hunger in our midst, and, in a mockery of our displays of sympathy, Americans throw away one-third of all food prepared for consumption.

          Is this a moment of reckoning for our American oxymoron, now that “over there” is happening here?

          I had seen, once before, the tragic, perplexing phenomenon of food surpluses destroyed or spoiled because of broken supply chains and disrupted markets, even as demand for food assistance skyrocketed — in Ethiopia 2003.

          I was a foreign correspondent with the Wall Street Journal then, covering development and humanitarian stories. A catastrophic progression of agricultural miscalculations, international water disputes, local market breakdowns, and drought had triggered widespread famine after two years of bumper harvests. Up on the Boricha plateau, south of the capital of Addis Ababa, I parted the flaps of an emergency feeding tent and stepped inside to a scene of utter horror.

          Dozens of children were starving to death. Speechless, I moved through the tent until I came to Tesfaye Ketema, who was sitting on the floor, holding his son Hagirso. Tesfaye, all skin and bones himself, told me he had carried his boy for hours to the tent, hoping to save his life. Just a year before, he had carried his surplus crops to this very field, which was then a bustling market. When I met them, Hagirso was five years old and weighed 27 pounds. The doctors were telling Tesfaye they didn’t know if his son would survive, so severe was the malnutrition shock.

          “A teacher or a businessman”: That was the ambition voiced in December by Hagirso, now 21 years old, sitting in the front row of that crowded fourth grade classroom. He had survived. But he clearly hadn’t thrived over the past 16 years: He was physically and cognitively stunted, still struggling to learn to do simple math, to read, and to write.

          At home, on a small plot of land, Hagirso helps his father and his mother, Fikre, raise their crops of maize, potatoes, and kale, and tend to the family’s cow and calf. He pitches in on community tree-planting and rain-harvesting efforts. And he is a role model for his younger siblings, who scamper after him when he walks to school. The youngest, a four-year-old brother, is named Enough — a plea to God, Tesfaye explained, that he be their last child and their last worry about malnutrition and stunting.

          Enough. Will we make it our plea as well, as we look ahead into our post-pandemic future? Will we decide that we have had enough, that our new normal, however it develops, will be one without hunger?

          • This story originally appeared in the November 2020 issue of Rotary magazine.

          • Roger Thurow is a senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He has been writing about hunger and malnutrition for two decades, first as a foreign correspondent with the Wall Street Journal and now as author of three books. Parts of this story are adapted from his Chicago Council work, including an interactive feature on Hagirso and his fourth grade class

          Hunger Hits Home: The Pandemic Reminds Us That Food Insecurity Isn’t Just ‘Over There’ 2021-01-20 09:00:00Z 0

          How to Organize a Successful Food Drive
           

          Follow these steps to organize a food drive on your own, or with a local food bank

          by 

          Master gardener Alex Portelli was having lunch at an elementary school in Marion, North Carolina, where he volunteers, when two students, brothers, sat next to him in the cafeteria. “One brother pulled out his lunch and started eating,” recalls Portelli, president of the Rotary Club of Marion. “I asked the other brother where his lunch was, and he said, ‘It’s not my turn to eat today.’ I thought, ‘Oh, no. Not during my lifetime.’ That’s the type of personal story that gets us involved.” Portelli is now the chair of his county’s local food advisory council, and he’s active in the Rotary Zones 33-34 Hunger Challenge.

          Rotary members in many places hold collection drives to help people, particularly families with children, get the food they need. As the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect jobs and school food programs, that need is growing. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the COVID-19 pandemic could add as many as 132 million people to the total number of undernourished in the world this year.

          Want to organize a food drive in your community? Here are some ideas and tips to help ensure success.

          Step 1

          Choose a group to support

          If you’re not sure whom to help, contact your local food bank or pantry for suggestions. “In some cases, towns are too small to have a local food bank, but Rotary can connect them with a larger food bank,” says Billi Black, a Zone 33 assistant regional public image coordinator. Then work with the group to address its needs.

          Step 2

          Make a logistics plan

          Form a committee to determine when, where, and how you’ll hold your drive. Get your members’ input and tap into their connections and expertise.

          Step 3

          Set a goal

          And make it measurable: pounds of food collected, number of meals supplied, or dollar amount raised. Look for matching opportunities from other organizations that could double or triple your impact.

          Step 4

          Promote your event

          The members of the Rotary Club of Prescott-Frontier, Arizona, considered their May food drive a success when they collected an estimated 3,000 pounds of food. But they stepped up their marketing when they held another drive in June. After the club contacted local media outlets and lined up news articles, social media posts, and radio interviews, it collected 38,000 pounds of food. “It was unbelievably successful,” says member Mike Payson.

          Step 5

          Track your success

          Consider naming a “food champion” in your club or district whose responsibility is to help set goals and to promote and track their progress, and to make sure members record their volunteer hours and contributions in Rotary Club Central.

          Step 6

          Thank your donors

          Even if you can’t thank each contributor individually, show your gratitude by posting photos from your event on your website and on social media.

          130%

          increase in food insecurity in households with children under 18 from 2018 to April 2020

          37.2

          million people in the U.S. who experienced low or very low food security in 2018

          Work with a local food bank

          Staffers at your local food bank have the experience and expertise to ensure that your food drive is a success. They know who needs what in your community and have conducted many food drives, so they know what works and what doesn’t. They can also:

          • Help with logistics, including publicity, choosing a location, and scheduling. “We just show up with the money, food, and manpower,” says Johnny Moore, an assistant regional public image coordinator for Zone 33.
          • Make better use of your funds. Because of their buying power, your dollar goes further.
          • Coordinate the distribution of food where it’s needed most.

          Virtual food drives

          If you’re looking for alternatives to an in-person food drive during a pandemic, organize a virtual one instead. Set up a page on your club’s or local food bank’s website to collect financial donations, track your group’s progress, and share updates with your supporters.

          What to donate

          Here are some items that food banks want:

          • Peanut butter
          • Canned soup or stew
          • Canned fruit
          • Canned vegetables
          • Canned fish
          • Canned beans
          • Pasta (most prefer whole grain)
          • Rice (most prefer brown rice)

          What not to donate

          You may have a freezer full of banana bread, but your food bank doesn’t want it. Here’s what else it won’t take:

          • Items needing refrigeration
          • Expired food
          • Leftovers
          • Baked goods

          Source: Feeding America

          This story originally appeared in the December 2020 issue of Rotary magazine.

          How to Organize a Successful Food Drive  2021-01-20 09:00:00Z 0

          KPBSD Grade 7-12 Onsite Learning Update

          How soon will 7-12 grade students return to onsite at-school learning every day?

          Good news: the community spread of COVID-19 is continuing to flatten on the Kenai Peninsula, so it appears schools may soon open onsite every day for Grades 7-12. Thank you to everyone for your patience—if you have questions or issues to solve, call your school and talk to your principal, teacher, or school secretary.

          When is the earliest possible date Grades 7-12 could resume attending onsite five days a week?

          Monday, January 25, 2021, is the earliest possible date for:
          Eastern Peninsula (Moose Pass and Seward schools)
          Southern Peninsula (Homer area, Nikolaevsk, and Ninilchik schools)

          Monday, February 1, 2021, is the earliest possible date for:
          Central Peninsula (Kasilof, Kenai, Nikiski, Soldotna, and Sterling area schools) 

          On or before January 22, 2021, KPBSD will provide an update with an official announcement.

          How will I know when grades 7-12 will be open every day to onsite learning at my school?

          Parents, students, and families will receive a message from the district through School Messenger, and schools will also contact their families when this change takes effect. An announcement will be posted on KPBSD.org, the KPBSD mobile app, and on social media. The KPBSD team continues to monitor COVID-19 spread, health care capacity, and ability to staff and operate schools safely. Thank you for your good effort to open schools safely, and keep schools open! Monitor your school risk level on the COVID-19 dashboard.

          Links

          ###

          January 15, 2021 Update

          KPBSD Grade 7-12 Onsite Learning Update 2021-01-20 09:00:00Z 0

          SPH Covid Vaccine Update for January 18, 2021

          Covid-19 Vaccines

          January 18 Update – Thank you to the team of more than 100 community members who worked to host the first Covid-19 vaccine clinic on the Southern Kenai Peninsula this past weekend. Sponsored by South Peninsula Hospital, City of Homer and AK Public Health, we administered 715 doses at the two day event. Special thanks to local EMS and Fire Departments, City Parks & Rec and Public Works staff, hospital and clinic staff, Rotary and School District staff and volunteers, generous donations and numerous contributions for making this event happen.

          Information for those receiving their second dose of Moderna Covid-19 vaccine on February 12 and 13. CLICK HERE

          Looking for a vaccine?  If you did not get a vaccine in this round, please visit this page regularly for updates on the next shipment. We have no idea when to expect it for certain, but are anticipating an early February rollout.  For those not connected online, there is an informational recording at 435-3188 that will be updated as more information becomes available.

          Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

          Who is currently eligible for vaccines in Alaska?

          See the map of vaccine locations statewide

          SPH Covid Vaccine Update for January 18, 2021 2021-01-20 09:00:00Z 0

          Telemedicine is Expanding the Reach of Health Care

          For patients who lack options, a virtual visit can mean the difference between going with or without care

          by 

          “Right now, I can see all my patients through my mobile phone,” says Prakash Paudyal, a pulmonologist and member of the Rotary Club of Jawalakhel, Nepal. Paudyal uses a Kubi device to turn a tablet into a “mini-robot” for remote monitoring of his COVID-19 patients who are in isolation at Nepal National Hospital. Paudyal learned about the Kubi and other telehealth practices during a vocational training team trip to the San Francisco area last year. “I do one round with all my [protective] gear on, and then I see all my patients through this mini-robot,” he says, thankful that the Kubi helps protect him from exposure to the virus.

          The doctor on call In rural Nepal, it can take a day’s walk to reach a medical provider. That limited access to doctors inspired Prakash Paudyal, a pulmonologist in Kathmandu, to offer teleconsultations so he could assist more patients. “You can have a hospital in a rural area, but who is going to treat the patient?” he wonders, citing the lack of critical care doctors and other specialists in those remote regions. With support from his club — the Rotary Club of Jawalakhel — Paudyal started a hotline that offers free medical advice for people seeking basic care. It has proven invaluable during the pandemic, which has taxed Nepal’s health system. “At the COVID-19 hospitals, the ICUs are almost full,” Paudyal says. He also helped found the newly chartered Rotary Club of Kathmandu Health Professionals; his wife, Kavita, who works for Nepal’s Ministry of Finance, is its first president.

          Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa

          The use of telehealth has surged worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the United States, a study by McKinsey found that 46 percent of consumers are now using telehealth, up from 11 percent in 2019. Broadly defined, telehealth includes everything from virtual visits with a doctor to remote monitoring of a patient’s vitals to mobile health technologies.

          The rapid increase in examining and treating patients remotely because of stay-at-home orders has not only helped in the fight against the coronavirus; it has also prompted a conversation about what the future will look like. What are the benefits of telehealth, and what controls for safety and privacy should be in place? One clear benefit is making health care more accessible to more people. For patients who lack transportation options or who live in remote areas, a virtual visit can mean the difference between being able to consult a doctor and going without care.

          Telemedicine, typically defined as a virtual exam with a physician, requires access to the internet, which about 40 percent of the global population still lacks. But with the proliferation of smartphones, that’s becoming less of a barrier. Barbara Kiernan, a member of the Rotary Club of Catalina (Tucson), Arizona, has been working on a global grant project to bridge the distance between doctors and underserved patients in Sonora, Mexico, by supplying the equipment and technology needed for telemedicine, including solar power and internet access. They found that once community health care providers received the equipment and training, they were able to work with doctors located in bigger villages, allowing them to treat patients remotely. “Before, [rural villagers] really only got medical care during a crisis,” Kiernan says. With telemedicine available, “it’s shifted to preventive care.”

          Fighting disease is one of Rotary’s causes. Learn more about it here.

          James Gude, a California physician who founded a telemedicine practice called OffSite Care, says that when a doctor conducts a video consultation with the assistance of an on-site nurse and with access to a patient’s records and diagnostic test results, it can be nearly as effective as seeing a patient in person. “With a nurse there to help me examine you, I can order and look at everything I need,” he says. There are also sophisticated “robots” that allow a doctor to see a patient via videoconference and even send instrument readings, allowing the doctor to listen to a patient’s heart through a stethoscope, for example. (A Canadian TV show once followed Gude around as he conducted virtual rounds via a robot he controlled remotely.)

          From his workstation, James Gude can review data and offer medical advice to health care professionals around the world.

           

          Gude started OffSite Care in 2007 to help rural U.S. hospitals improve their quality of care by providing virtual access to specialists, who are often concentrated in bigger urban hospitals. He expanded his vision of dismantling the geographical barriers to quality care when he teamed up with members of the Rotary Club of Sebastopol Sunrise, California, to create Global OffSite Care — a nonprofit that provides educational and consultative services to hospitals around the world.

          “We started by contacting Rotary clubs where Dr. Gude thought there might be an opportunity [to improve a hospital],” says Mikel Cook, a member of the Sebastopol Sunrise club. “The mission of Global OffSite Care is to promote Rotary club-sponsored telemedicine projects. We bring together Dr. Gude’s medical expertise with financing, stewardship, and advocacy among Rotarians.” Cook says Rotary clubs have sponsored the equipment needed to get a hospital started conducting telemedicine, which includes a tablet and a Kubi device that transforms the tablet into a web-controlled mini-robot that can pan and tilt, allowing the user to look around the room. Local doctors are trained on the equipment and can then participate in weekly online “Global Grand Rounds” with Gude’s team to continue their education. They can also consult with experts on difficult cases.

          The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) uses another aspect of telehealth: mobile health, or health care supported by mobile electronic devices, to make progress toward a polio-free world. Mobile phones have been used to track the number of polio vaccine doses children have received, and geographic information systems have helped health workers create detailed maps of their immunization activities.

          Examples of telehealth

          Live video
          A two-way audiovisual link between a patient and a care provider

          Store and forward
          Transmission of health records to a health practitioner, usually a specialist

          Remote patient monitoring
          Continuous monitoring of a patient’s condition from a distance, in real time or not in real time

          Mobile health (mHealth)
          Health care and public health information provided through mobile devices

          When the World Health Organization’s African region was certified free of wild poliovirus in August, Christopher Elias, president of the global development division at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said technology was a contributing factor. One example is how surveillance improved when community health workers were trained to use a mobile app called Avadar (Auto-Visual AFP Detection and Reporting) to report possible polio cases through their phones. Sharing this information electronically allows for quick intervention, preventing outbreaks.

          Patricia Merryweather-Arges, a member of the Rotary Club of Naperville, Illinois, predicts that telehealth will continue to expand. “There are lessons we can learn from this,” says Merryweather-Arges, who runs an organization called Project Patient Care and recently secured a Rotary Foundation global grant to distribute more than 200 tablets to residents of Chicago-area nursing homes. The tablets will allow physicians to assess patients via telemedicine, and families to visit with their loved ones via videoconferencing.

          Telemedicine is direct health care services to a patient, often over video.

          Telehealth is broader and covers education, public health, and provider-to-provider interactions as well as telemedicine.

          “There will have to be some quality assessment, and feedback from patients,” she says. “But the benefits are that telemedicine saves the patient time and lessens their exposure to others, so patients are more likely to make appointments.”

          A survey of patients in Asia, Europe, and the United States by the consulting firm Accenture seems to back up her prediction: 60 percent of patients said they wanted to use technology more for communicating with health care providers and managing their conditions.

          Gude thinks this presents an opportunity to increase the capacity of underresourced hospitals around the world: “I want Rotary clubs to know that wherever they are, if they want to help a local hospital, if they have $5,000 or if we can raise it from elsewhere, it’s done. We are at a point in the curve where we can go straight up.”

          • This story originally appeared in the December 2020 issue of Rotary magazine.


          Related content

          Telemedicine stretches to corners of Nigeria

          3D printers to the rescue

          Italian club uses expertise to aid in coronavirus fight

          Telemedicine is Expanding the Reach of Health Care 2021-01-12 09:00:00Z 0

          Why Rotarians Should Engage With Program Alumni

          When clubs cultivate relationships with Rotary alumni, both sides benefit

          by llustration by 

          Rotary’s alumni relations team is always ready to help you connect with alumni and answer your questions about engaging them in your club or district projects. Write to alumni@rotary.org.

          It’s always a pleasant surprise for Rotarians to meet someone who notices their Rotary pin and then to learn that the person was once a Rotary Youth Exchange student or Rotary Scholar. These conversations with Rotary alumni are great reminders of how many lives Rotary has had a positive effect on.

          Rotary alumni can also have a positive effect on the organization, and many are looking for ways to reengage with Rotary. Chris Offer, a past governor of District 5040 in British Columbia, has seen firsthand what Rotary Peace Centers alumni can bring to the table. He and his wife, Penny, also a past governor of District 5040, were so impressed with the peace centers program that they established an endowment fund to support it; Offer now serves on the Rotary Peace Centers Committee. And peace fellows are only one part of the community of Rotary program alumni. One of them could make a fantastic speaker at your next meeting, bring valuable expertise to your club project, or be a great addition to your membership.

          1. Why engage with program alumni?

          There’s a great opportunity for Rotary clubs to hear firsthand from alumni — whether it’s Rotary Peace Fellows, Youth Exchange students, Rotaractors, or Rotary Scholars — about their challenges and successes. They’ve been there, they’ve done that, they’ve worked in the field. They can relate their experiences personally, not in an abstract way. Some alumni have incredible stories about how the experience changed their lives.

          “Some alumni have incredible stories about how the Rotary experience changed their lives.”

          2. What is the best resource for contacting peace centers alumni for speaking engagements?

          The Rotary Peace Fellowship Alumni Association launched an online database last year. The database is voluntary in terms of who wants to be listed on it, so privacy restrictions aren’t an issue. And remember, peace fellows can be consultants as well as presenters. They aren’t just potential speakers to a club or at a conference. The database has a brief description of what kind of consulting they can do and where their expertise lies. If you’re doing a water project, you may need an engineer. If you’re dealing with a peace initiative, you should have someone who can help you avoid faux pas that can arise from cultural differences. Peace fellows bring all sorts of skills and can be a valuable resource.

          3. What is the procedure for contacting alumni to speak at meetings or events?

          There are no do’s and don’ts. Getting hold of most alumni can be more challenging than contacting peace fellows, because we still don’t have those types of databases readily available for other alumni. If you want a recommendation for a good alumni speaker, the district alumni chair would be a smart place to start, or any of our youth program chairs. If you’re interested in hearing about a vocational training team, you could contact a district grants chair. There are district chairs related to various alumni activities who can help connect you. Keep an eye on who is speaking at other clubs by following them on Facebook and Twitter and be sure to check the social media of the alumni groups. That may give you a lead on a potential speaker.

          4. Many clubs have shifted to virtual meetings. How has that changed our engagement with alumni?

          Alumni are everywhere around the globe, and with Zoom you can have a speaker from anywhere in the world. People are more available, and alumni are very willing in most cases. Our club had a peace fellow speak to us from London. You could have your Rotary Youth Exchange student talking to you live from a foreign country instead of sending a letter. Whenever the “new normal” finally arrives, one of the legacies for Rotary clubs will be having remote speakers.

          • This story originally appeared in the January 2021 issue of Rotary magazine.


          Related content

          4 Questions about Rotary Alumni Associations

          Rotex fills the gap after Rotary Youth Exchange

          A hurricane force in every phase of Rotary life

          Why Rotarians Should Engage With Program Alumni 2021-01-12 09:00:00Z 0

          Option for More Students to Attend School Onsite in January 2021
           

          News Release

          Board of Education approves bringing more students back to onsite learning in high COVID-19 Risk

          Soldotna, December 9, 2020—The option to attend school onsite, at-school during high COVID-19 risk levels for students in Pre-K through 6th grade, and middle and high school ages is expanding in 2021, after the Board of Education approved the SmartStart Plan updates at their December school board meeting. The 100% Remote Learning option will continue to be available.

          These changes begin no later than Tuesday, January 19, 2021 (Monday is a school holiday).

          Estimates indicate the peak of COVID-19 transmission in the KPB is expected to happen in early to mid-January. Based on this information and the timeline needed to retrofit school HVAC systems*, the January 19 date was selected.

          12-9-20 important clarification: Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Special Education Intensive Needs students currently attend school onsite during High Risk, and will continue to do so up until winter break starts, and when school resumes January 4, 2021. The change is for Grades 1-12 in January.

          Change is coming by January 19, 2021
          Attending school onsite-at-school during High COVID-19 Risk levels (Red):

          Pre-K through Grade 6: every day, Monday through Friday *this includes 6th grade at all KPBSD schools

          Grades 7-12: attend two times a week onsite, with a split schedule

          • School teams may identify additional at-risk or vulnerable students throughout the semester to attend additional time onsite
          • Schools will communicate their plans with students and families. Your patience is appreciated as these schedules are created and shared

          Previously identified vulnerable students may continue to attend five days a week

          Enhanced Safety Plans

          To keep schools safe and the COVID-19 transmission level low in school, these actions must be followed with fidelity at all times:

          • Staff and all ages of students wear a mask at all times
          • Mitigation plans at school sites must be faithfully and fully implemented
          • Pods or cohorts will be in consistent groups
          • 6’ physical distancing needs to occur whenever possible. Physical distance will keep staff and students healthy in school, minimize in-school exposure or transmission, and reduce the number of people who need to quarantine when a positive COVID-19 case occurs
          • *Most school facilities are receiving upgrades to their HVAC air handling systems. KPBSD is currently installing O2 Prime in schools that have large central air handling units (that share air with other rooms in the building). Some areas and older schools do not have central air handling units supplying air to different rooms, and these facilities are being addressed differently as KPBSD continues to implement options for O2 Prime in unit ventilators and small furnaces
          • Enhanced sanitation with electrostatic sanitizer: spraying Electrolytically Generated Hypochlorous Acid (HOCL) is currently occurring at all schools. Custodians can sanitize a classroom in about three minutes and complete approximately three classrooms per tank of HOCL. KPBSD is producing its own HOCL at the district warehouse

          Winter break for most KPBSD schools is December 21, 2020 – January 1, 2021, with school starting again January 4, 2021. The updates to operations in High COVID-19 risk will not likely begin until Tuesday, January 19, 2021.

          “This is a big step in the right direction with continuing movement towards the goal of getting all kids back at school onsite, full-time. These are trying and uncertain times but together we will get through this pandemic. I am hopeful that with a vaccination on the way, continued adherence to our mitigation plans, and a conscious effort on the part of our community to practice safe pandemic behaviors, we will get this virus under control. I appreciate our Board of Education, district leadership, and the KPBSD staff for their commitment to educate our children while at the same time navigating their own personal response to the pandemic.”

          –Superintendent John O’Brien
          Option for More Students to Attend School Onsite in January 2021  2021-01-12 09:00:00Z 0

          SPH Covid-19 Vaccine Information

          Covid-19 Vaccines

          Preparing for your covid-19 vaccine appointment? Important details to prepare you for your visit. Click here for details.

          January 11 Update


          Clinic Full – South Peninsula Hospital is expecting a shipment of 600 doses of Moderna Covid-19 vaccine from the State of Alaska for a vaccine clinic on January 15 and 16. Sorry, there are no longer appointments available for this clinic, and the stand-by list is full. No walk-ins are permitted at this event.

          If you didn’t get an appointment in this round, please be assured another shipment of vaccines will be coming from the State in the coming weeks. When we learn the quantity and date of arrival, we will post information here and plan another community vaccine clinic.

          Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.

          Who is currently eligible for vaccines in Alaska?

          See the map of vaccine locations statewide

           

          COVID-19 Vaccine Appointment Information

          Thank you for making your COVID-19 vaccination appointment for Phase 1a (all tiers) and Phase 1b Tier 1 (seniors age 65 or older) eligible Alaskans.

          Please read ALL of the following information carefully – it contains important details about your appointment. You will receive one confirmation email (immediately) with all of this information, and one appointment reminder (1 day before your appointment with all of this information.

          Your appointment location is: Christian Community Church, 3838 Bartlett Street in Homer.

          Please wear a mask or cloth face covering and maintain a 6 foot distance from others waiting for their appointments with you. Your vaccine will be administered in an open setting, with limited privacy available. Please wear a shirt with short or loose fitting sleeves for easy vaccine administration, and plan for at least a 30-minute visit to complete consent forms, administer dose and for observation. Observation is for 15 minutes after vaccination, or 30 minutes with a known history of severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis).

          Please note your appointment date and time. You will receive an appointment reminder the day before your appointment but it is your responsibility to adhere to your appointment date and time. Both emails contain the link for rescheduling or canceling your appointment, in addition to your appointment date & time and other important details.

          By booking this appointment to receive a COVID-19 vaccination, you agree :
          – That you will make yourself available on February 12th or 13th to receive your 2nd dose (we will assist you in scheduling your 2nd dose appointment during your 1st dose appointment on January 15th or 16th).
          – You have not travelled outside of Alaska within 5 days of your appointment.
          – You have not had close contact (shared living space or been within 6 feet for 15 or more minutes) with a COVID-19 case in the 10 days leading up to your appointment.
          – You do not have a history of severe vaccine reactions, or allergies to any ingredient in this vaccine (ingredients listed here)

          Things to be aware of:
          The CDC has strongly recommended that the COVID-19 vaccine not be given if you have also received any other vaccinations within 14 days.

          Side effects of the vaccine are flu-like symptoms, which often appear from two to five days post vaccine. These are expected and are signs of immune system response. If you have any symptoms of COVID-19 post vaccine, it is recommended to get tested immediately.

          Please do not come in for your vaccination appointment if:
          You are experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms.
          Symptoms may include: fever (measured or subjective), cough, shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing, decreased appetite, chills, diminished sense of taste or smell, diarrhea, fatigue, headache, muscle/joint aches, nausea, rash, rigors, runny nose, sore throat, or sputum production.

          CANCELING OR RESCHEDULING: Please do not book multiple appointments. If you need to reschedule or cancel, click the “Details & Changes” link at the bottom of your notification email or reminder email, then click the “No password?” Get a new one! link and enter the email you used to make your appointment. This will generate your password and email it to you immediately. You can even do this now and save your password for future use or wait and do this only if you need to view, change, or cancel your appointment.

          The Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) information sheet for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine can be viewed here and will be made available at time of vaccination. All vaccine information is posted at the State DHSS vaccine information page here.

          SPH Covid-19 Vaccine Information 2021-01-12 09:00:00Z 0

          65 and Older May Sign Up for Covid-19 Shots

           
          Information for people in the South Peninsula Hospital Area
           

          Thank you for signing up to receive information regarding COVID-19 vaccines in Homer.

          We are planning a free community vaccine event for individuals 65 years of age and older on Friday and Saturday, January 15 and 16. Appointments are required, but are not yet available. You will need to make an appointment once it becomes available.

          The state has informed us we can expect around 600 doses for this event, which makes for a limited number of appointments. Appointments should be available online starting at 12 p.m. noon on Monday, January 11, on a first-come, first-served basis. The link to make your appointment can be found at www.sphosp.org. Event details will be provided at the time of setting your appointment.

          Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time. Watch for additional opportunities to receive the COVID-19 vaccine as our community continues to receive additional allocation of vaccines in the near future. 

          Watch www.sphosp.org for updates.

          Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work through this together. 

          Derotha Ferraro
          Public Information Officer
          South Peninsula Hospital
          (907) 235-0397

          This email address is not monitored; please do not reply. 
          65 and Older May Sign Up for Covid-19 Shots 2021-01-11 09:00:00Z 0

          Alaskans 65 and Older Can Sign Up for Covid-19 Vaccinations Starting January 6, 2021

          Alaska DHSS sent this bulletin at 01/04/2021 11:31 AM AKST
          FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
           
          Contact: Clinton Bennett, DHSS, 907-269-4996, clinton.bennett@alaska.gov
           
          Alaskans 65 and older can receive vaccinations starting Monday, Jan. 11. Scheduling for those appointments begins Wednesday, Jan. 6
           
          January 4, 2021 ANCHORAGE – In an effort to continue to quickly vaccinate Alaskans, the Alaska COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force is opening up appointment scheduling and vaccination clinics for Phase 1b, Tier 1 –  Alaskans 65 years of age and older – on Wednesday, Jan. 6, at noon, with appointments starting Monday, Jan. 11.
           
          Initially, those in Phase 1b, Tier 1 (Alaskans 65 years of age and older) were set to begin vaccinations in late January. However, after assessing how much vaccine remains to be administered, the Vaccine Task Force has adjusted the timeline forward.
           
          “All clinics who have received COVID-19 vaccine should continue to vaccinate the remaining health care workers from Phase 1a who wish to be vaccinated, but we are also excited to open up appointments for Alaskans who are 65 years of age or older,” said Alaska’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink.
           
          NEW TIMELINE – Phase 1b, Tier 1 (Alaskans 65+)
          • Begin scheduling vaccinations at noon on Wednesday, Jan. 6 – Alaskans 65 years of age or older can schedule appointments starting noon on Jan. 6 by visiting covidvax.alaska.gov. Vaccinations for older Alaskans (age 65+) will now begin Jan. 11.
          •  
          • Choose an appointment for Monday, Jan. 11 or later – Alaskans 65 years of age and older can begin getting vaccinated starting Monday, Jan. 11. When scheduling an appointment, please choose a date on Jan. 11 or later.
          Some Alaskans in future phases may have already made appointments.  If you are in Phase 1B, Tier 1, you do not need to cancel your appointment. If you are not in health care or 65 or older as defined by Phase 1A or Phase 1B, Tier 1, please cancel your appointment so Alaskans in the earlier tiers can make appointments. New appointments will be added regularly as more vaccine providers sign up and more vaccine is available. Additional information about the COVID-19 vaccine and Alaska’s distribution plans may be found at Covidvax.Alaska.gov.
           
          # # #
           
          • DHSS Press Release: Alaskans 65 and older can receive vaccinations starting Jan. 11. Scheduling for those appointments begins Jan. 6
          Alaskans 65 and Older Can Sign Up for Covid-19 Vaccinations Starting January 6, 2021 2021-01-06 09:00:00Z 0

          2nd Annual Homer Project Homeless Connect -- Updated

          The 2nd Annual Homer Project Homeless Connect event will be happening Wednesday, January27th, 2021 from 10 am - 2 pm at the Homer United Methodist Church AND SVT in Anchor Point.  Homer Kachemak Bay Rotary will be providing hygiene kits to distribute at the event.  If you wish to donate items for the hygiene kits such as:
           
                     Shampoo/conditioner
                     Soap
                     Deodorant
                     Tooth brush/paste
                     Paper masks
                     Hand sanitizer
                     Hand lotion
           
          I have provided a box at the Best Western Bidarka hotel inside the office area to the right in the breakfast room. Please drop off items at your convenience until noon, January 22nd.

            Many thanks for your help!
           
          Cinda Martin
          399-4574
           
          "You can't buy happiness but you can buy fabric and that's pretty much the same thing."
          2nd Annual Homer Project Homeless Connect -- Updated 2021-01-05 09:00:00Z 0

          KPBSD Onsite-At-School Option Expands on January 11
           

          On January 11, 2021, KPBSD expands the onsite-at-school learning option during High COVID-19 Risk

          Soldotna, January 5, 2021—KPBSD Pre-K through 6th grades can attend school onsite, every school day beginning Monday, January 11, 2021, during High COVID-19 Risk. Grades 7-12 will attend onsite two days a week, with a split A/B schedule—schools will be in contact with families to announce the plan they design. When COVID-19 risk levels drop into medium risk*, Grades 7-12 will switch to onsite learning five days a week. The 100% Remote Learning option will continue to be available.
           

          Attending school onsite-at-school during high-risk (red) beginning January 11, 2021

          • Pre-K through Grade 6: every day, Monday through Friday. This includes 6th grade at all KPBSD schools
          • Grades 7-12: attend two times a week onsite, with a split schedule
          • School teams may identify additional at-risk or vulnerable students throughout the semester to attend additional time onsite
          • Schools will communicate their plans with students and families. Your patience is appreciated as these schedules are created and shared
          • Previously identified vulnerable students may continue to attend five days a week

          These changes begin Monday, January 11, 2021, a week earlier than initially thought. Thank you to everyone for actions to reduce community COVID-19 transmission.

          Important:

          • Shift in 2021: Instead of broad regional decisions to extinguish the onsite learning option, the KPBSD district level team will work with individual schools when a positive COVID-19 case occurs in a school requiring student or staff quarantine, or results in staffing shortages. Thus, you may experience only a classroom or specific school shift to the 100% Remote Learning option
          • To keep onsite learning happening and schools open, it is key that everyone follow the plans for health and safety. Thank you for sticking to the KPBSD Symptom Free School protocol
          • Bus transportation is provided on a normal schedule, everyone must wear a face covering, and seating plans will be put in place
          • Monday, January 18, 2021, is a school holiday for most schools, and the January early release date is cancelled

          *How will I know when my school switches to Medium COVID-19 Risk operations (Yellow)?

          The KPBSD team continues to monitor COVID-19 spread, health care capacity, and ability to staff and operate schools safely. You will receive an alert when a region will shift to medium risk operations—when this happens, all grades (PreK-12) have the option to attend school onsite, every day. Parents and families will receive a message from the district through School Messenger, and schools will also contact their families when this change would be in effect. Monitor your school risk level on the COVID-19 dashboard.

          Sports?

          Middle and high school sport seasons will open with high-risk mitigation plans and ASAA protocols in place. Fidelity to these measures will ideally allow an entire season to be played without interruption or cancellation.

          Enhanced Safety plans

          To keep schools safe and the COVID-19 transmission level low in school, these actions must be followed with fidelity at all times:

          • Staff and all ages of students wear a mask at all times
          • Mitigation plans at school sites must be faithfully and fully implemented
          • Pods or cohorts will be in consistent groups
          • 6’ physical distancing needs to occur whenever possible. Physical distance will keep staff and students healthy in school, minimize in-school exposure or transmission, and reduce the number of people who need to quarantine when a positive COVID-19 case occurs
          • Most school facilities are receiving upgrades to their HVAC air handling systems. KPBSD is installing O2 Prime in schools that have large central air handling units (that share air with other rooms in the building). Some areas and older schools do not have central air handling units supplying air to different rooms, and these facilities are being addressed differently as KPBSD continues to implement options for O2 Prime in unit ventilators and small furnaces
          • Enhanced sanitation with electrostatic sanitizer: spraying Electrolytically Generated Hypochlorous Acid (HOCL) is currently occurring at all schools
          • Staff and students: make sure to follow the KPBSD Symptom Free Schools protocol

          Links

          KPBSD Onsite-At-School Option Expands on January 11  2021-01-05 09:00:00Z 0

          Gift of Life International Note

           
          This is the thank you note our club received today...
          I'll forward additional information about the grant separately.
          Our Club donated $500, 2 years ago, and our District matched that, as well as donations from other D5010 Clubs.
           
          Vivian
           
           
          On behalf of Gift of Life International, we wish to thank you for your partnership in healing the hearts of 62 little Egyptian children through Rotary Global Grant GG1982610. 
           
          This project is now completed and the children will celebrate the Holidays with their families with a healthy heart for the first time ever!
           
          Thank you for Touching Lives….Theirs and Ours!
           
          Wishing you all a happy, healthy and blessed Holiday Season!
           
          Brenda Small
          Assistant to CEO
          Gift of Life International
          (905) 808-5258 ***NEW***
          www.giftoflifeinternational.org
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
           
          This is the original grant information for the Egyptian children's heart surgeries.
          You'll note we actually paid $525 to include the 5% fee that TRF requires.
           
          Vivian
           
           
           
           
          Dear Presidents and Treasurers (and those acting in behalf of);
           
           
          I am pleased to forward you the approval of the Global Grant application to heal little hearts in Egypt that we all have contributed funds to. Please see the forwarded email message below. The request is to send the funding you committed to, to the Rotary Foundation now. I did not realize that an additional 5% would be added for administrative costs. I know it may be a struggle for some clubs to come up with the amount offered in the first place. If so, I personally will be happy to cover the cost of the added 5% since I was the one to ask all of you of your interest. Let me know right away and I will get a check for the cost difference to your club immediately.
           
           
          Please let me know when your payment has been submitted. You can send me an email and I will let Brenda @ GOL know, or, you can email her directly (brenda.giftoflife@gmail.com), and then just cc me. Either way if fine.
           
           
          Also, I want you all to be the first to know that I have begun communications with the Host Club in Egypt for our clubs and district to do a Rotary Friendship Exchange in Egypt. We may possibly have the opportunity to meet some of the children having heart surgery, their families, provide small gifts, meet medical staff, etc., and see many great places in Egypt. I have just begun the talks with them, so we will see what happens. Very tentatively we will be looking at a date from October 2019 to ? I will keep you informed of the progress.
           
           
          Thank you all for your support and getting the funds sent off as soon as possible. If you have questions please call or email.
           
           
          Take care,
           
          Mary Kowalczyk
           
          First City Rotary
           
          907-617-7760
           
           

          From: "brenda giftoflife" <brenda.giftoflife@gmail.com>
          To: "Mary Kowalczyk" <cliffdwelling@kpunet.net>
          Cc: "Rob Raylman" <robraylman.goli@gmail.com>
          Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2019 2:35:27 PM
          Subject: Egypt GG1982610 has been approved and is now ready for funding
           
           
          Dear Mary,
           
          Good news!
           
          We have just been notified that Egypt GG1982610 has been approved by the Rotary Foundation and we will now be able to provide care to another 62 Egyptian children. 
           
          May I please ask that you submit your commitments directly to The Rotary Foundation for this grant? This is a requirement for Egypt. We are not able to send funds directly to the GG bank account. 
           
          As a result, each contributor will be required to add the 5% admin fee charged by The Rotary Foundation for processing. 
           
          Please ask each club to complete the attached Rotary Contribution Form and include payment as follows: 
          RC Ketchikan The First City $2,625 (including the 5%)
          RC Ketchikan $525 (including the 5%)
          RC Sitka $525 (including the 5%)
          RC Homer Kachemak $525 (including the 5%)
           
          Please be sure to add the GG number to the notes area on each check to be sure it is correctly assigned to the Egypt grant. 
           
          You will be eligible for Paul Harris Fellow points with this contribution and can either request the awards now or at a later date. 
           
          Please let us know when your payment has been submitted so that we may follow up with TRF. 
           
          Thank you in advance, 
           
           
          Brenda Small
          Assistant to CEO
          Gift of Life International
          (818) 625-7402
          www.giftoflifeinternational.org
          Gift of Life International Note 2021-01-05 09:00:00Z 0

          A Plea For Assistance

          Dear Rotarians,
           
          The attached letter was received a few weeks ago, and I have since sent them the $600. that we had budgeted for them, however, I know the needs this year are far more than normal, and I felt a need to share with you their full appeal.  I know that we as a club can make a difference.,
           
          Thank you.
          Milli Martin
          Chair
          Community Service Committee
           
          A Plea For Assistance 2020-11-18 09:00:00Z 0

          Governor Addresses Alaskans on Escalating Spread of COVID-19

          Full transcript is below.

          My fellow Alaskans,

          I’m speaking to you today because Alaska is facing an escalating crisis that I need your help to solve. Like the rest of the nation, Alaska’s COVID-19 status is now in the red.

          That means COVID-19 is rapidly spreading through our communities. Our healthcare workers, first responders, and service members are being infected at unprecedented rates.

          A trauma nurse needs to care for accident victims. Paramedics and police officers must be able to report to work to protect Alaskans. If too many are infected, they cannot perform these critical duties.

          As a result of this surge in cases, I am taking the following actions:

          • On Monday, my new 30-day disaster declaration takes effect.
          • I’m also directing all State employees to work from home whenever feasible.
          • Masks and distancing are mandatory at State work sites for employees and visitors alike.

          I must stress that the next three weeks are critical. Starting today, through the end of November, I am going to ask all Alaskans to sacrifice a little more by changing your daily routines:

          • If you own a business that can operate remotely, send your employees home.
          • I’m urging municipalities to take similar action and protect your workforce and communities.
          • If your organization can meet remotely, do so. If you can order food and supplies online and pick up at the curb, do so.

          If we are going to keep our hospitals running and businesses open, all Alaskans must return to the same mindset that worked so well this spring.

          • We know from experience that distance is the primary tool that works in the battle against this virus.
          • Stay six feet apart from all non-household members.
          • If you cannot do that, if you cannot stay six feet apart, I’m asking everyone to wear a mask in any and every setting

          We are entering the holiday season. It’s perfectly understandable to want to spend time with family and friends indoors. This year, I’m asking that you consider celebrating differently.

          My job as governor is not to tell you how to live your life. My job is to ensure the security and safety of Alaska. I can’t do that without your help.

          I’m asking you to reach deep for the next three weeks. If we can buy time for our critical workers, if we can keep our systems operational, we can avoid being forced to take further action.

          But if we cannot reduce the spread of this virus, we reduce our future options for how to proceed. No matter what you believe about the virus, the facts are the facts. Hospitalizations and sick healthcare workers are reaching untenable levels. We must act together now while we still have choices.

          We have sacrificed so much in order to fight this virus. Alaskans have done so well and I am proud to be your governor. With the advent of inoculations on the horizon, the end to this fight is in sight.

          For the next three weeks, I am asking you as the governor of Alaska, that we do everything possible to reduce these cases and bend this trend downward.

          I have great faith in the people of Alaska. We got the upper hand on this virus before, and we can do it again.

          I want to thank you for doubling down on your efforts to get Alaska to where it needs to be.

          So with that, God bless you, and God bless the great State of Alaska.

          Governor Addresses Alaskans on Escalating Spread of COVID-19 2020-11-17 09:00:00Z 0

          Talking Points for Parents About COVID-19 Alerts

          Ideas to help our kids understand and cope with recent media messages


          • Alaska Governor Michael J. Dunleavey sent out an Emergency Alert on November 12, 2020, that students may have received on their cell phones or that they heard other people receive
          • In his YouTube Video, Governor Dunleavy asked Alaskans to change their behavior, and said, “The next three weeks are critical. … I’m speaking to you today, because Alaska is facing an escalating crisis that I need your help to solve. … Like the rest of the nation, Alaska’s COVID-19 status is now in the red.” (Source, Alaska.gov website)

          Parent Talking Points:

          Help kids identify their questions

          • What is an emergency alert?
            • We have a National Emergency Alert System that allows alerts to be sent through TV stations, radio and cell phones to alert the public of an emergency. We use them for many different reasons including weather advisories, Tsunami warnings, and missing people are among them (Source)
            • Our Governor used this system this week to let the Alaskan people know that the rate of the spread of COVID is rapidly increasing and give instructions on how we can help slow the spread
          • Why is the virus spreading so fast?
            • It is a very, very contagious disease.
            • People are still building the habits of mask wearing and limiting their activities and contacts.

          Help kids identify what they know

          • They have their family to watch out for them
          • School will continue even if remote
          • School Staff care about them and want to connect with them
          • Scientists are continuing to research the disease and are working on a vaccine (or medicine) to protect us
          • They have control over their behavior
          • They can connect using phones and technology with their friends

          Help kids connect with what they are in control of

          • Washing their hands
          • Wearing a mask
          • Keeping 6 feet away from others
          • Limiting the number of people they come in contact with

          Help kids recognize the supports they have

          • Family and friends
          • Teachers and school staff
          • Their knowledge of how to help protect themselves

          Helpful Links

          Talking Points for Parents About COVID-19 Alerts 2020-11-17 09:00:00Z 0

          High COVID-19 Cases Cause 34 Schools to Shift to 100% Remote Learning for All Students Through Thanksgiving Break
           

          Friday, November 13, 2020, marked another significant leap of positive COVID-19 cases on the Kenai Peninsula, so beginning Monday, November 16, 2020, learning at 34 of the 42 KPBSD schools will be 100% Remote for all students. This means that Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Intensive Needs students will not attend school onsite, and education delivery for students enrolled at schools operating in High COVID-19 Risk areas will be delivered remotely via digital platforms or with paper packets.

          In an effort to do our part during this acceleration phase of COVID-19 on the Kenai Peninsula, KPBSD must act prudently and proactively. Governor Dunleavy made a plea to Alaskans on Thursday: “I’m going to ask Alaskans to sacrifice a little more by changing their daily routines. If you own a business that can operate remotely, send your employees home. I’m urging municipalities to take similar action and protect your workforce and communities.”

          The KPBSD continues to build the plan to bring more students back onsite during high COVID-19 risk, and it is true that school buildings may be one of the safest places to be. However, the extreme phase of exponential spread that is happening now must first be slowed, and begin to trend down before onsite learning can resume. You can track the data yourself on the KPBSD COVID-19 data dashboard—today the state reported an all-time high of 90 positive cases on the Kenai Peninsula. Please do your part—we are all still learning new habits. You know how hard this is, and we are all concerned for everyone’s safety and well-being. It will take effort from each of us in our daily habits and choices to shift this dangerous trajectory.

          However, the extreme phase of exponential spread that is happening now must first be slowed, and begin to trend down before onsite learning can resume.

          What to know

          • Schools will continue to be in contact with their families. If you or a friend are struggling or need assistance, do not wait. Call your school secretary, a teacher, the principal, school nurse, or counselor, if you have questions about materials, packets, mental well-being, or other questions
          • Get-It and Go Meals are free for all students during 100% Remote Learning, and can be picked up daily at school between 12:00–1:00. Make sure to place your order by noon on Friday for the following week daily pickup: Signup online for FREE lunch and breakfast meals
          • Need some supports for mental wellness? This is a recycle of a free resource for you: Sources of Strength Family Toolkit

          Links

          Do you know? “Most Alaskans get COVID-19 from a friend, family member or coworker. Alaskans should avoid indoor gatherings with non-household members, avoid crowds, wear masks when around non-household members and stay six feet from anyone not in their household.” –DHSS, November 13, 2020

          100% Remote Learning through Thanksgiving break for all students
          Central Peninsula Schools 
          Central Kenai Peninsula includes Kasilof to Sterling, extending through Kenai, Nikiski, Soldotna, and DHSS “other north” communities. Cooper Landing is not included in the 17 Central Peninsula schools:

          • Aurora Borealis Charter School
          • Kaleidoscope Charter School
          • K-Beach Elementary School
          • Kenai Alternative School
          • Kenai Central High School
          • Kenai Middle School
          • Mountain View Elementary School
          • Nikiski Middle-High School
          • Nikiski North Star Elementary School
          • Redoubt Elementary School
          • River City Academy
          • Skyview Middle School
          • Soldotna Elementary School
          • Soldotna High School
          • Soldotna Montessori Charter School
          • Sterling Elementary School
          • Other North: Tustumena Elementary School


          Eastern Kenai Peninsula Schools

          • Moose Pass School
          • Seward High School
          • Seward Middle School
          • William H. Seward Elementary

          Southern Kenai Peninsula Schools

          • Chapman School
          • Fireweed Academy
          • Homer Flex School
          • Homer High School
          • Homer Middle School
          • Kachemak Selo School
          • McNeil Canyon Elementary School
          • Nikolaevsk School
          • Ninilchik School
          • Paul Banks Elementary School
          • Razdolna School
          • Voznesenka School
          • West Homer Elementary School


          Small schools are open to onsite learning in low risk
          Six small KPBSD schools in Cooper Landing, Hope, Nanwalek, Port Graham, Seldovia, and Tebughna will also continue to operate in low COVID-19 risk, and offer both 100% Remote and onsite-at-school learning options. A shift to 100% Remote Learning could happen at any time if there is positive COVID-19 in these communities.

          High COVID-19 Cases Cause 34 Schools to Shift to 100% Remote Learning for All Students Through Thanksgiving Break  KPBSD 2020-11-17 09:00:00Z 0

          Celebrating Thanksgiving

          Updated Nov. 10, 2020
           
          Traditional Thanksgiving gatherings with family and friends are fun but can increase the chances of getting or spreading COVID-19 or the flu. Follow these tips to make your Thanksgiving holiday safer.
           
          The safest way to celebrate Thanksgiving this year is to celebrate with people in your household. If you do plan to spend Thanksgiving with people outside your household, take steps to make your celebration safer.
           
          Everyone Can Make Thanksgiving Safer
           
          • Wear a mask with two or more layers to stop the spread of COVID-19.
          • Wear the mask over your nose and mouth and secure it under your chin.
          • Make sure the mask fits snugly against the sides of your face.
          Stay at least 6 feet away from others who do not live with you
          Wash your hands
          • Wash hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
          • Keep hand sanitizer with you and use it when you are unable to wash your hands.
          • Use hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.
          Attending a Gathering
          Make your celebration safer. In addition to following the steps that everyone can take to make Thanksgiving safer, take these additional steps while attending a Thanksgiving gathering.
          • Bring your own food, drinks, plates, cups, and utensils.
          • Wear a mask, and safely store your mask while eating and drinking.
          • Avoid going in and out of the areas where food is being prepared or handled, such as in the kitchen.
          • Use single-use options, like salad dressing and condiment packets, and disposable items like food containers, plates, and utensils.
          Hosting a Thanksgiving Gathering
           
          If having guests to your home, be sure that people follow the steps that everyone can take to make Thanksgiving safer. Other steps you can take include:
          • Have a small outdoor meal with family and friends who live in your community.
          • Limit the number of guests.
          • Have conversations with guests ahead of time to set expectations for celebrating together.
          • Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces and items between use.
          • If celebrating indoors, make sure to open windows.
          • Limit the number of people in food preparation areas.
          • Have guests bring their own food and drink.
          • If sharing food, have one person serve food and use single-use options, like plastic utensils.
          Thanksgiving Travel
           
          Travel increases your chance of getting and spreading COVID-19. Staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others.
           
           
          • Check travel restrictions before you go.
          • Get your flu shot before you travel.
          • Always wear a mask in public settings and on public transportation.
          • Stay at least 6 feet apart from anyone who is not in your household.
          • Wash your hands often or use hand sanitizer.
          • Avoid touching your mask, eyes, nose, and mouth.
          • Bring extra supplies, such as masks and hand sanitizer.
          Consider Other Thanksgiving Activities
           
          Host a virtual Thanksgiving meal with friends and family who don’t live with you
          • Schedule a time to share a meal together virtually.
          • Have people share recipes and show their turkey, dressing, or other dishes they prepared.
          Watch television and play games with people in your household
          • Watch Thanksgiving Day parades, sports, and movies at home.
          • Find a fun game to play.
          Shopping
          • Shop online sales the day after Thanksgiving and days leading up to the winter holidays.
          • Use contactless services for purchased items, like curbside pick-up.
          • Shop in open air markets staying 6 feet away from others.
          Other Activities
          • Safely prepare traditional dishes and deliver them to family and neighbors in a way that does not involve contact with others (for example, leave them on the porch).
          • Participate in a gratitude activity, like writing down things you are grateful for and sharing with your friends and family.
           
          Courtesy of US CDC and AKDHSS
          Celebrating Thanksgiving US CDC 2020-11-11 09:00:00Z 0

          Disease Detectives: In a Public Health Crisis, Contact Tracers Are On the Case
           

          Contact tracing has been a cornerstone of public health for much of the past century, even before the novel coronavirus.
          by Diana Schoberg 
                                           
          In 20 July 2014, a Liberian-American man collapsed in an airport in Lagos, Nigeria, a city of more than 10 million people. Three days later, he was diagnosed with Ebola, the country’s first case. The arrival of the Ebola virus in one of the world’s largest cities was a scenario that, as one U.S. official noted at the time, generated worries of an “apocalyptic urban outbreak.” 
           
          But what could have been a ghastly epidemic was averted; only 19 additional people in Nigeria contracted the disease, and seven died. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the country free of Ebola on 20 October, three months after that first case was diagnosed.
           
          To achieve that, the work of the Rotary-supported polio eradication program — the strong partnerships that had been built between the Nigerian government and other organizations, as well as the infrastructure that had been put in place — proved to be key. The Nigerian health ministry swiftly declared Ebola an emergency and created a command center, modeled after those used by the polio program, to coordinate its response. A team of 40 doctors trained in epidemiology who assisted in the country’s polio eradication campaign were reassigned to tackle Ebola. Technical experts from the polio program trained health workers on contact tracing, case management, and more.  
           
          From that first patient, called the “index case,” health workers generated a list of nearly 900 contacts, diligently tracked down by a team of 150 contact tracers who conducted 18,500 face-to-face visits to check for symptoms of Ebola. Only one contact was lost to follow-up. Shoe-leather public health detective work had stopped the outbreak.
          The history of contact tracing
          Contact tracing has been in the news lately because of the important role it can play in slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus, but it has been a cornerstone of public health for much of the past century. In 1937, then-U.S. Surgeon General Thomas Parran wrote a book about syphilis control (melodramatically titled Shadow on the Land), in which he described contact tracing in detail. The practice has been a valuable tool ever since — for combating the spread of sexually transmitted infections as well as vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles and tuberculosis. Smallpox was defeated not by vaccinating entire populations, but by finding and vaccinating anyone who had been in contact with people who had the disease. Contact tracing has also played a part in the progress we’ve made against polio.
           
          The fight to end polio isn’t over.
          To learn more about Rotary’s work, visit EndPolio.org.
           
          How contact tracing works:
           
          The details vary by disease, but the goal remains the same: to stop the spread. 
           
          Step 1 
          A positive case is identified 
          Depending on the disease, a person who tests positive may isolate, receive treatment, or both. 
           
          Step 2 
          Close contacts are identified  
          Contact tracers interview the person who tested positive to find out where they’ve been and who they’ve come in contact with.  
           
          Step 3 
          Contacts are interviewed 
          Contact tracers get in touch with the person’s close contacts to inform them that they may have been exposed and to check for symptoms, provide guidance, and offer referrals to social service agencies. 
           
          Step 4 
          Contacts are monitored 
          Contact tracers follow up with each contact to monitor for symptoms. If a person remains without symptoms throughout the monitoring period, the case is closed. If the person tests positive, the process begins again at step 1.
           
           
          Regardless of the disease in question, contact tracing is based on the same premise: quickly identifying and monitoring people who have been in contact with an infected person in order to diagnose and treat them if they develop the disease — and to prevent it from spreading further, whether through vaccination or isolation. (The word “quarantine” dates back to the Middle Ages, when sailors had to remain aboard docked ships for a 40-day period — in Latin, a quarentena — to prevent the spread of bubonic plague.) Contact tracing allows health workers to find people who have been in contact with a carrier, to determine whether they are also infected, to offer support and treatment, and to build a list of that person’s contacts in case the tracing chain needs to expand.
           
          What varies from disease to disease is who is considered a contact. Investigators look at the characteristics of the disease and how it spreads to determine who is at greatest risk of infection. Ebola, for example, is contracted through exposure to bodily fluids, so contact tracers monitored people who had had direct physical contact with an infected person — who shared meals with them, cared for them, did their laundry, or prepared their body for burial. With COVID-19, a respiratory disease, U.S. health authorities have defined a close contact as someone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes.
           
          Some diseases, such as influenza, spread so rapidly that it’s difficult to keep up, says William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious disease at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “It’s one of the difficulties we’re having with COVID-19 today.”
           
          Another challenge in tracing the coronavirus, one that it shares with polio, is that many infected people are asymptomatic. “That very characteristic of polio baffled public health people for ages,” Schaffner says. “Before it was discovered to be an intestinal virus, they couldn’t figure out how it was spread. Some cases didn’t have any contact with each other.”
           
          In the United States, health departments generally maintain a small staff of contact tracers; those teams are being expanded to trace the spread of COVID-19. San Francisco, for example, had only 10 people regularly working on contact tracing. The city reassigned other public employees whose workloads had lightened because of the pandemic to act as contact tracers — staff in “the city attorney’s office, assessor’s office, and, my favorite, all the city librarians,” says George Rutherford, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California at San Francisco and principal investigator on California’s contact tracing training program. Rutherford and his team were asked to train 10,000 civil servants online throughout the state. During a 20-minute interview with Rotary, he received 60 emails about it. “You can get an idea of the volume I’m dealing with,” he remarked.
           
          Who makes an ideal contact tracer?
           
          In New Zealand, Denise Garcia, a member of the Rotary Club of Tawa, was one of 190 contact tracers employed by the country’s Ministry of Health in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a health professional, she was sought out to do the work. “They wanted people who could interview people and give advice,” she says. And her regular job as a midwife was deemed essential — “you can’t weigh a baby online,” she says — so she did both.
           
          Like Garcia, the ideal contact tracer has strong interpersonal skills. One of the biggest challenges of the job, which is part detective and part social worker, is gaining people’s confidence. “They have to convincingly communicate trust,” Schaffner says. “Confidentiality is very important.” It can be especially challenging because of the social stigma of some illnesses and the mistrust in government by some groups of people. “People are wary of government intrusion, particularly at a time of turbulence — which there always is when there is a disease outbreak,” he says. “You have to come with a smile and a helping hand. But you have to get in the door.”
           
          Glossary: Community spread
          Contact tracers can trace the spread of a disease from an infected person. When someone gets a disease without any known contact with an infected person, it’s called community spread.
           
          Glossary: Index case
          The first documented case of a disease in a population is the index case. The index case brings the presence of the disease to the attention of health authorities.
           
          When Garcia would arrive at the health ministry offices after her midwifery work in the morning, she would receive a list of people to call. “Trying to contact people was the hardest thing,” she says. “It’s an unknown number; a lot of people wouldn’t answer.” And the contact tracers themselves never knew where they were calling — it could be a person on the other side of the world who had been on a flight with someone who had tested positive for the virus.
           
          Once in touch with a person, Garcia says, she would inform them that they had been in contact with someone who had tested positive for COVID-19. She would ask them if they were well. She would confirm the contact date and talk about the need to isolate for two weeks, and ask whether the person needed to be tested or had already been tested. She would try to work out who else they had been in contact with and pass that information on to the health ministry. And she would refer them to social service agencies if they faced problems with access to food, medication, or money during their isolation period. “It was a privilege to ring people and talk to them and make sure they’re OK,” Garcia says. “You felt quite good knowing people were doing all right or that you could help them.”
           
          Continued
          Disease Detectives: In a Public Health Crisis, Contact Tracers Are On the Case  2020-11-05 09:00:00Z 0

          Rotary Foundation Fundraiser, Saturday November 7 (6:00 pm)

          The annual Foundation Fundraiser coordinated by 5 clubs (Eagle River, Wasilla Noon, Wasilla Sunrise, Palmer & Susitna) will be held this Saturday, November 7th.  For the first time, we are offering silent auction online bidding utilizing the new District 5010 EventGroove platform.  The live auction will be via Zoom.  Please see links below.
          image
           
          SATURDAY AT 6 PM AKST – 10 PM AKST
          ANNUAL FOUNDATION MOVIE NIGHT
           
          The Foundation Event this year will be a combination of a silent auction (online only) and a live event at 6:00pm at the Valley Cinema Saturday, November 7th.
          Tickets are $50, $80 (2) and $20 for students. A soda and popcorn will be included with your ticket to the live auction event (also on Zoom) along with a movie showing at the end.
          If you are only going to be participating in the event online, you will receive 100 Paul Harris points provided by the club for your participation.
           
           
          Please see the attached the link to our Silent Auction which is ***ACTIVE NOW*** and will run through 11/7/2020 at 7:30pm.
          Please be aware that you will need to create an account in order to bid.
          Each individual will need to provide a separate email and password for their profile.
          The auction will automatically close at 7:30pm on the evening of the event and winning bidders will be notified by email.
          Please also be sure to answer which Rotary club you are affiliated with when prompted.
           
          SILENT AUCTION LINK:
           
           
          LIVE AUCTION ZOOM:
           
          ZOOM Link
           
          Happy Bidding to All!
           
           
          Rotary Foundation Fundraiser, Saturday November 7 (6:00 pm) 2020-11-04 09:00:00Z 0

          100% Remote Learning is Extended for 34 KPBSD Schools Through at Least Friday, November 13, 2020
           

          100% Remote Learning is extended for 34 KPBSD schools through at least Friday, November 13, 2020

          Soldotna, November 4, 2020—KPBSD operates schools with plans defined in the KPBSD SmartStart 2020 Plan, that was built with approval from the Board of Education, and review and feedback from DEED and DHSS. On Monday, the Board of Education gave district administration a green light to continue working on plans to safely bring students back into schools during High COVID-19 Risk operational levels.

          Assistant Superintendent Holland has worked with principals and staff to move in this direction for several weeks when we realized community spread could continue to keep some areas in high risk. A staff survey is being conducted, and parents and older students can expect a survey within the next week so school district leadership can hear from everyone. The hope and plan is to safely bring an onsite at-school learning option to many more students at some point in December if areas are continuing to operate in High Risk.

          “Working out the logistics and mitigation plans will take some time but this is our highest priority and we are working expediently. New plans will go to DHSS and DEED for feedback, and the school board for approval and adoption. We fully understand the hardship that moving to remote learning has caused on students, families, and staff. The emotional and mental health toll is real and has been significant. We know many of our students need to be learning onsite at school. We are redoubling our efforts to address mental health concerns for both students and our dedicated staff, especially during this transition period until Smart Start plan changes can be vetted and approved by the Board of Education.”

          -Superintendent John O’Brien

          When the KPBSD Medical Advisory Team and school district leadership met, on Wednesday, the continued high trend of positive COVID-19 case counts, the 7-Day trends, and contact tracing information from public health, drove the decision that a week extension of 100% Remote Learning is merited for staff and student safety, and to be in alignment with the current Smart Start plan.

          • One week extension: Schools in the Eastern Kenai Peninsula and Southern Kenai Peninsula will continue with 100% Remote Learning through at least Friday, November 13, 2020
          • Initial two week extension still in place: Central Kenai Peninsula schools will continue with 100% Remote Learning through at least Friday, November 13, 2020
          • KPBSD small schools continue in low risk, with onsite-at-school learning option
          • KPBSD Connections Homeschool is open

          What to know

          • Schools will continue to be in contact with their families. If you or a friend are struggling or need assistance, do not wait. Call your school secretary, a teacher, the principal, school nurse, or counselor, if you have questions about materials, packets, mental well-being, or other questions
          • Get-It and Go Meals are free for all students during 100% Remote Learning, and can be picked up daily at school between 12:00–1:00. Make sure to place your order by noon on Friday for the following week daily pickup: Signup online for FREE lunch and breakfast meals
          • Need some inspiration? This is a recycle of a free resource for you: Sources of Strength Family Toolkit
          • Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Special Education Intensive Needs students may still attend school onsite-at-school during 100% Remote Learning, based on the 2020 SmartStart Plan. Schools are in contact with these families directly

          Central Peninsula Schools operating in High Risk (Red) Status through at least Friday, November 13, 2020

          Central Kenai Peninsula includes Kasilof to Sterling, extending through Kenai, Nikiski, Soldotna, and DHSS “other north” communities. Cooper Landing is not included in the 17 Central Peninsula schools:

          • Aurora Borealis Charter School
          • Kaleidoscope Charter School
          • K-Beach Elementary School
          • Kenai Alternative School
          • Kenai Central High School
          • Kenai Middle School
          • Mountain View Elementary School
          • Nikiski Middle-High School
          • Nikiski North Star Elementary School
          • Redoubt Elementary School
          • River City Academy
          • Skyview Middle School
          • Soldotna Elementary School
          • Soldotna High School
          • Soldotna Montessori Charter School
          • Sterling Elementary School
          • Other North: Tustumena Elementary School

          Eastern Kenai Peninsula Schools operating in High Risk (Red) Status through Friday, November 13, 2020

          • Moose Pass School
          • Seward High School
          • Seward Middle School
          • William H. Seward Elementary

          Southern Kenai Peninsula Schools operating in High Risk (Red) Status through Friday, November 13, 2020

          • Chapman School
          • Fireweed Academy
          • Homer Flex School
          • Homer High School
          • Homer Middle School
          • Kachemak Selo School
          • McNeil Canyon Elementary School
          • Nikolaevsk School
          • Ninilchik School
          • Paul Banks Elementary School
          • Razdolna School
          • Voznesenka School
          • West Homer Elementary School

          Small schools

          Susan B. English in Seldovia will resume onsite at-school learning on Monday, November 9, 2020.
          Five other small KPBSD schools in, Cooper Landing, Hope, Nanwalek, Port Graham, and Tebughna will also continue to operate in low COVID-19 risk, and offer both 100% Remote and onsite-at-school learning options.

          *Decision Basis about operations in risk levels

          To determine if schools should operate in 100% Remote Learning, or offer options for 100% Remote Learning and onsite at-school learning, district leadership and the KPBSD Medical Advisory Team:

          • Analyze the 14-Day positive COVID-19 case counts
          • Analyze the 7-Day positivity trend
          • Consult with public health contact tracing knowledge, and local medical providers
          • Review the KPBSD COVID-19 Positive Case in a School Decision Matrix
          • Based on this analysis and scientific data, the medical advisory team (which now includes a mental health professional) closely watch positive cases, types of community spread, and offer informed insights about safely operating schools during a pandemic.
          100% Remote Learning is Extended for 34 KPBSD Schools Through at Least Friday, November 13, 2020  2020-11-04 09:00:00Z 0

          Meet Rotary President-Elect Jennifer Jones

          Rotarian Friends,
           
          The Susitna Rotary club is excited to invite you to join us for special guest speaker, Jennifer Jones, Rotary International President 2022-2023 via Zoom on Wednesday, November 18, 6:00 pm.  Please see information & Zoom link below.

          image
          Join Zoom Meeting
          Meeting ID: 541 560 5940
          Passcode: Susitna

          One tap mobile
          +12532158782,,5415605940#,,,,,,0#,,7324313# US (Tacoma)
          +13462487799,,5415605940#,,,,,,0#,,7324313# US (Houston)
          Dial by your location
          +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
          +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
          +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

          Meeting ID: 541 560 5940
          Passcode: 7324313
           
          We look forward to sharing our meeting with you!
           
          Dan Phillips, President, Susitna Rotary Club
          Meet Rotary President-Elect Jennifer Jones 2020-11-04 09:00:00Z 0

          District 5010 DG-Nominee-Designate Mike Pollen

          Dear District 5010 Rotarians:
           
          I am pleased to announce that Mike Pollen of the Rotary Club of Fairbanks is our new District Governor Nominee-Designate.  Mike will join our excellent  District leadership team that includes myself, District Governor-Elect Cheryl Metiva, District Governor Nominee Mike Ferris, and Lt. Governor Rosie Roppel.  I have every expectation that you will find Mike Pollen to be an outstanding District Governor in 2023-2024.
           
          Our District has many exceptional Rotarians, far more than those persons considered by this year's Nominating Committee.  There were many excellent candidates this year and it was a difficult choice for the Nominating Committee.  Any of this year's candidates were strongly encouraged to apply in the future.   
           
          Please join me in welcoming our new District Governor Nominee-Designate, the 2023-2024 District 5010 Governor, Mike Pollen.
           
          Mike's biography and and photo follow.
           
          Thank you and best regards
           
          Joe Kashi
          District Governor 2020-2021
           
           
           
          MICHAEL R. POLLEN BIOGRAPHY
          Mike joined the Rotary Club of Fairbanks in 1999 and served as Club President in FY2015. He was a member of the D5010 Group Study Exchange Committee for over 10 years, served as its Chair for 3 of those years, and led a GSE Team to Taiwan in 2008. He completed the District Leadership Academy in 2014 and was the Northern Region Assistant Governor from 2016 to 2019. He is a past member of the D5010 Strategic Planning Committee and currently chairs the District Excess Reserves Committee. Mike served as a PNW PETS Training Leader in 2018 and 2019 and is currently a member of the D5010 Visioning Committee.
           
          image
           
          Mike and his wife, PDG Peggy, are both TRF Major Donors, Paul Harris Society Members, and Bequestors. They are also charter members of the Water and Sanitation Rotary Action Group (WASRAG) and continue to work on several Rotary Foundation Global Grant projects building water and sanitation facilities for schools in Belize. Mike has presented on water and sanitation issues at WASRAG meetings internationally, at D5010 RYLA Conferences, D5010 Conferences, and at Rotary Zone Institutes as an invited speaker.
           
          In 1970, Mike and Peggy met at UAF where he was studying biology and chemistry. They live in Fairbanks with their two son’s families and four granddaughters and will celebrate 50 years of marriage in March 2021. The Pollens founded and operated an environmental, water, and wastewater testing and consulting firm throughout Alaska for nearly 30 years and continue to manage a consulting and operator training business today.
           
          Throughout his career Mike has been very active in professional associations in the water and wastewater field. He is a past member of the Board of Directors of the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and the Water Environment Federation (WEF) which respectively serve the water and wastewater industries globally. From 1992 to 1996 Mike went through the executive chairs of WEF, serving as President in 1994 and 1995. During his tenure as a WEF officer he presented over 100 keynote speeches to WEF member associations and other affiliated organizations in 10 countries. In 1996 he served as a consultant to the United Nations during the development of a set of water quality issue statements that were signed by 32 Western Hemisphere Presidents including US President Bill Clinton in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
           
          Mike has received numerous awards for service and professional contributions to the water and wastewater industry from AWWA and WEF. In October, Mike received an award as a WEF Fellow for his many years of service to the industry. He currently is a board member of the Fairbanks North Star Borough Air Pollution Control Commission and of the Alaska Governor’s Water Wastewater Advisory Board. In 2014, Mike and Peggy were honored by the Midnight Sun Boy Scout Council as Fairbanks Distinguished Citizens of the Year.
          District 5010 DG-Nominee-Designate Mike Pollen 2020-11-04 09:00:00Z 0

          New ‘Connect To Care Jobs’ Website Connects Alaska Job Seekers and Long-Term Service and Support Agencies

          FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

          Contact: Clinton Bennett, DHSS, 907-269-4996, clinton.bennett@alaska.gov

          New ‘Connect To Care Jobs’ website connects Alaska job seekers and long-term service and support agencies
          Reducing health and service workforce shortages and improving care for Alaskans

          Oct. 28, 2020 ANCHORAGE — The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) has launched its participation in a new web-based platform to help address workforce shortages at long-term service and support agencies in Alaska and put qualified health and service professionals to work providing high-quality care to recipients. ConnectToCareJobs.com is a private-public partnership between DHSS’ Senior and Disabilities Services Division (SDS) and ADvancing States, a nonprofit organization focused on improving long-term services and supports for older adults, people with disabilities, and their caregivers.

          “Service providers – especially assisted living homes, skilled nursing facilities, and personal care agencies – typically have had a hard time filling positions and the pandemic has only compounded that problem,” said SDS Director John Lee. “We’re excited to have this resource available now to make it easier for employers and job seekers to connect with each other. It’s a win-win situation for everyone and we appreciate ADvancing States’ role in setting up the system, supporting DHSS and providing it at no cost to the State of Alaska, job seekers or employers.”

          The website matches job seekers who create a profile identifying their professional skills, experience and availability with licensed health care facilities and personal care services agencies that have listed open positions. Employers can recruit for a wide variety of medical, allied health and support staff positions.

          The Senior and Disabilities Services Division took the lead on developing the project for Alaska after learning about the national initiative through their long-time collaboration with ADvancing States. Colorado, Michigan and Oregon have already begun using the system to address similar problems in filling high demand health care jobs in their states.

          More information - The website offer videos and a quick guide for both job seekers and employers.

          • Job seekers – Visit ConnectToCareJobs.com, click the “Jobseeker Registration” button and follow the process to register and fill out your information. If a match is made, the employer will contact you to arrange the next steps.
          • Employers – Visit ConnectToCareJobs.com, click the “Employer Registration” button and follow the process to create an account and fill out information about your open positions. Then check for job matches for your location and review the available candidates. The site is currently open to licensed health facilities and personal care service agencies, and DHSS is exploring opening the site up to more health care employers in Alaska.

          # # #

           

          New ‘Connect To Care Jobs’ Website Connects Alaska Job Seekers and Long-Term Service and Support Agencies 2020-10-28 08:00:00Z 0

          Major Achievement Focus of Rotary's World Polio Day Event

          by 

          Rotary’s 2020 World Polio Day Online Global Update program on 24 October hails this year’s historic achievement in polio eradication: Africa being declared free of the wild poliovirus.

          Paralympic medalist and TV presenter Ade Adepitan, who co-hosts this year’s program, says that the eradication of polio in Africa was personal for him. “Since I was born in Nigeria, this achievement is close to my heart,” says Adepitan, a polio survivor who contracted the disease as a child. “I’ve been waiting for this day since I was young.”

          He notes that, just a decade ago, three-quarters of all of the world’s polio cases caused by the wild virus were contracted in Africa. Now, more than a billion Africans are safe from the disease. “But we’re not done,” Adepitan cautions. “We’re in pursuit of an even greater triumph — a world without polio. And I can’t wait.”

          Rotary Foundation Trustee Geeta Manek, who co-hosts the program with Adepitan, says that World Polio Day is an opportunity for Rotary members to be motivated to “continue this fight.”

          She adds, “Rotarians around the world are working tirelessly to support the global effort to end polio.”

          Polio eradication is truly a collective effort ... This accomplishment belongs to all of us.


          Chair of Rotary’s Nigeria PolioPlus Committee

          A collective effort

          Dr. Tunji Funsho, chair of Rotary’s Nigeria PolioPlus Committee and a member of the Rotary Club of Lekki Phase 1, Lagos State, Nigeria, tells online viewers that the milestone couldn’t have been reached without the efforts of Rotary members and leaders in Africa and around the world.

          Funsho, who was recently named one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020, says countless Rotarians helped by holding events to raise awareness and to raise funds or by working with governments to secure funding and other support for polio eradication.

          “Polio eradication is truly a collective effort ... This accomplishment belongs to all of us,” says Funsho.

          Rotary and its members have contributed nearly $890 million toward polio eradication efforts in the African region. The funds have allowed Rotary to award PolioPlus grants to fund polio surveillance, transportation, awareness campaigns, and National Immunization Days.

          This year’s World Polio Day Online Global Update is streamed on Facebook in several languages and in a number of time zones around the world. The program, which is sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, features Jeffrey Kluger, editor at large for TIME magazine; Mark Wright, TV news host and member of the Rotary Club of Seattle, Washington, USA; and Angélique Kidjo, a Grammy Award-winning singer who performs her song “M’Baamba.”

          The challenges of 2020

          It’s impossible to talk about 2020 without mentioning the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than a million people and devastated economies around the world.

          In the program, a panel of global health experts from Rotary’s partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) discusses how the infrastructure that Rotary and the GPEI have built to eradicate polio has helped communities tackle needs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, too.

          “The infrastructure we built through polio in terms of how to engage communities, how to work with communities, how to rapidly teach communities to actually deliver health interventions, do disease surveillance, et cetera, has been an extremely important part of the effort to tackle so many other diseases,” says Dr. Bruce Aylward, senior adviser to the director general at the WHO.

          Panelists also include Dr. Christopher Elias, president of the Global Development Division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Henrietta H. Fore, executive director of UNICEF; and Rebecca Martin, director of the Center for Global Health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

          Elias says that when there are global health emergencies, such as outbreaks of other contagious diseases, Rotarians always help. “They take whatever they’ve learned from doing successful polio campaigns that have reached all the children in the village, and they apply that to reaching them with yellow fever or measles vaccine.”

          The program discusses several pandemic response tactics that rely on polio eradication infrastructure: Polio surveillance teams in Ethiopia are reporting COVID-19 cases, and emergency operation centers in Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan that are usually used to fight polio are now also being used as coordination centers for COVID-19 response.

          The online program also includes a video of brave volunteer health workers immunizing children in the restive state of Borno, Nigeria, and profiles a community mobilizer in Afghanistan who works tirelessly to ensure that children are protected from polio.

          Kluger speaks with several people, including three Rotary members, about their childhood experiences as “Polio Pioneers” — they were among more than a million children who took part in a huge trial of Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine in the 1950s.

          Rotary Foundation Trustee Geeta Manek, left, co-hosts the World Polio Day Global Online Update. Rotarian Marie-Irene Richmond Aouha, right, past PolioPlus chair of Cote d’Ivoire, presents at the event.

           

          The future of the fight against polio

          Rotary’s challenge now is to eradicate the wild poliovirus in the two countries where the disease has never been stopped: Afghanistan and Pakistan. Routine immunizations must also be strengthened in Africa to keep the virus from returning there.

          To eradicate polio, multiple high-quality immunization campaigns must be carried out each year in polio-affected and high-risk countries. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s necessary to maintain populations’ immunity against polio while also protecting health workers from the coronavirus and making sure they don’t transmit it.

          Rotary has contributed more than $2.1 billion to polio eradication since it launched the PolioPlus program in 1985, and it’s committed to raising $50 million each year for polio eradication activities. Because of a 2-to-1 matching agreement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, that means that, each year, $150 million goes toward fulfilling Rotary’s promise to the children of the world: No child will ever again suffer the devastating effects of polio.

          Consider making a donation to Rotary’s PolioPlus Fund in honor of World Polio Day.

          DONATE

          LEARN MORE

          Major Achievement Focus of Rotary's World Polio Day Event 2020-10-28 08:00:00Z 0

          Remote Learning Extends for 35 KPBSD Schools

          Soldotna, October 28, 2020—KPBSD operates schools with plans defined in the KPBSD SmartStart 2020 Plan, that was built with review and feedback from DEED and DHSS, and approval from the Board of Education. The time we are living in is hard, requires sacrifice, and teamwork. We know there will be an end to the pandemic. As the positive COVID-19 case trend rises, it is important for you to know that the KPBSD Instructional Team is exploring new solutions to safely bring more students back into schools during High Risk (Red) operations, and working with Instructional Support to evaluate logistics and mitigation options.

          On Wednesday, the KPBSD Medical Advisory Team and school district leadership met, and determined that with the continued high trend of positive COVID-19 case counts, the 7-Day trends, and contact tracing information from public health, a further extension of 100% Remote Learning is merited for staff and student safety. Everyone acknowledged how difficult the pandemic is, and the stress on families, students, staff, and communities.

          One week extension: Schools in the Eastern Kenai Peninsula, Southern Kenai Peninsula, and Susan B. English in Seldovia, will continue with 100% Remote Learning through at least Friday, November 6, 2020

          Two week extension: Central Kenai Peninsula schools will continue with 100% Remote Learning through at least Friday, November 13, 2020

          Most small KPBSD schools continue in low risk, with onsite-at-school learning option

          KPBSD Connections Homeschool is open

          Central Peninsula Schools operating in High Risk (Red) Status through Friday, November 13, 2020
          Central Kenai Peninsula includes Kasilof to Sterling, extending through Kenai, Nikiski, Soldotna, and DHSS “other north” communities. Cooper Landing is not included in the 17 Central Peninsula schools:

          • Aurora Borealis Charter School
          • Kaleidoscope Charter School
          • K-Beach Elementary School
          • Kenai Alternative School
          • Kenai Central High School
          • Kenai Middle School
          • Mountain View Elementary School
          • Nikiski Middle-High School
          • Nikiski North Star Elementary School
          • Redoubt Elementary School
          • River City Academy
          • Skyview Middle School
          • Soldotna Elementary School
          • Soldotna High School
          • Soldotna Montessori Charter School
          • Sterling Elementary School
          • Other North: Tustumena Elementary School

          Eastern Kenai Peninsula Schools operating in High Risk (Red) Status through Friday, November 6, 2020

          • Moose Pass School
          • Seward High School
          • Seward Middle School
          • William H. Seward Elementary

          Southern Kenai Peninsula Schools operating in High Risk (Red) Status through Friday, November 6, 2020

          • Chapman School
          • Fireweed Academy
          • Homer Flex School
          • Homer High School
          • Homer Middle School
          • Kachemak Selo School
          • McNeil Canyon Elementary School
          • Nikolaevsk School
          • Ninilchik School
          • Paul Banks Elementary School
          • Razdolna School
          • Voznesenka School
          • West Homer Elementary School

          Small schools

          Susan B. English in Seldovia will extend 100% Remote Learning through Friday, November 6, 2020
          Five smaller KPBSD schools continue to operate in low COVID-19 risk, and offer both 100% Remote and onsite-at-school learning options. However, Cooper Landing, Hope, Nanwalek, Port Graham, and Tebughna could pivot to 100% Remote Learning when there are local positive COVID-19 case(s)

          What to know

          • The KPBSD Instructional Team is analyzing solutions to safely bring more students back into schools during operations in High Risk
          • Schools will continue to be in contact with their families to give further instructions. Call your school if you have questions about materials, packets, or other issues
          • Get-It and Go Meals are free for all students during 100% Remote Learning, and can be picked up daily at school between 12:00–1:00. Reminder, no meals at schools that have parent-teacher conferences on October 29-30, 2020
          • Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Special Education Intensive Needs students may still attend school onsite-at-school during 100% Remote Learning, based on the 2020 SmartStart Plan. Schools are in contact with these families directly
          • ASAA Protocols for sports and activities are in effect during High Risk operations

          *Decision Basis about operations in risk levels

          To determine if schools should operate in 100% Remote Learning, or offer options for 100% Remote Learning and onsite at-school learning, district leadership and the KPBSD Medical Advisory Team:

          • Analyze the 14-Day positive COVID-19 case counts
          • Analyze the 7-Day positivity trend
          • Consult with public health contact tracing knowledge, and local medical providers
          • Review the KPBSD COVID-19 Positive Case in a School Decision Matrix
          • Based on this analysis and scientific data, the medical advisory team (which now includes a mental health professional) closely watch positive cases, types of community spread, and offer informed insights about safely operating schools during a pandemic.

          Helpful Links

          KPBSD Smart Start 2020 Plan webpage

          KPBSD COVID-19 Hub or covid19.kpbsd.org

          KPBSD COVID-19 risk level dashboard

          Remote Learning Extends for 35 KPBSD Schools 2020-10-28 08:00:00Z 0

          100% Remote Learning Extends for 30 KPBSD Schools in Central and Southern Kenai Peninsula
           

           

           
          Soldotna, October 22, 2020—The opponent named COVID-19 is making headway in Kenai Peninsula communities. As positive cases continue to rise, operating 30 of the 42 KPBSD schools in 100% Remote Learning needs to be extended an additional week. So, schools in both the Central and Southern Kenai Peninsula will continue with 100% Remote Learning through at least October 30, 2020*. A decision about safely returning to the onsite-at-school option for Eastern Kenai Peninsula schools in Moose Pass and the Seward area will be made Friday, October 23, 2020. Seven smaller KPBSD schools continue to operate in low COVID-19 risk and offer both 100% Remote and onsite-at-school learning options. The KPBSD Connections Homeschool is open.

          School district leadership and the KPBSD Medical Advisory Team determined that with the continued high positive COVID-19 case counts, the 7-Day trends, and contact tracing information from public health and DHSS, an extension of 100% Remote Learning is merited.

          *NOTE: Thursday, October 29, and Friday, October 30, 2020, are parent-teacher conferences for most KPBSD schools (except Kachemak-Selo, Nikolaevsk, Razdolna, and Voznesenka schools), with no school for students or Get-It-And-Go Meals. Schools will directly communicate their plan for conferences to families.

          What to know during 100% Remote Learning in COVID-19 High Risk

          • Schools will continue to be in contact with their families to give further instructions, call your school if you have questions about materials, packets, or other issues
          • Get-It and Go Meals are free for all students during 100% Remote Learning, and can be picked up daily at school between 12:00–1:00. Note: No meals are available on October 29-30, 2020, during parent teacher conference days
          • Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Special Education Intensive Needs students may still attend school onsite-at-school during 100% Remote Learning, based on the 2020 SmartStart Plan. Schools are in contact with these families directly
          • ASAA Protocols for sports and activities are in effect during High Risk operations

          Seventeen Central Peninsula Schools operating in High Risk (Red) Status
          Central Kenai Peninsula includes Kasilof to Sterling, extending through Kenai, Nikiski, Soldotna, and DHSS “other north” communities. Cooper Landing is not included in the 17 Central Peninsula schools:

          • Aurora Borealis Charter School
          • Kaleidoscope Charter School
          • K-Beach Elementary School
          • Kenai Alternative School
          • Kenai Central High School
          • Kenai Middle School
          • Mountain View Elementary School
          • Nikiski Middle-High School
          • Nikiski North Star Elementary School
          • Redoubt Elementary School
          • River City Academy
          • Skyview Middle School
          • Soldotna Elementary School
          • Soldotna High School
          • Soldotna Montessori Charter School
          • Sterling Elementary School
          • Other North: Tustumena Elementary School

          Thirteen Southern Kenai Peninsula Schools operating in High Risk (Red) Status
          KPBSD schools in Nanwalek, Port Graham, and Susan B. English in Seldovia are considered individually, and remain open to onsite at-school learning at this time.

          • Chapman School
          • Fireweed Academy
          • Homer Flex School
          • Homer High School
          • Homer Middle School
          • Kachemak Selo School
          • McNeil Canyon Elementary School
          • Nikolaevsk School
          • Ninilchik School
          • Paul Banks Elementary School
          • Razdolna School
          • Voznesenka School
          • West Homer Elementary School

          Additional KPBSD school Updates

          • Eastern Kenai Peninsula schools (Seward area) decision will be made Friday, 10-23-20, about return to onsite-at-school learning option as soon as 10-26-20
          • Remote KPBSD schools continue in low risk, with onsite-at-school learning option

          What you can do

          We urge Alaskans to exercise caution and take the following steps to help prevent the spread of COVID-19:

          • Do the 3 W’s: Wear a mask, watch your distance and wash your hands

          • Avoid the 3 C’s: Crowded places, close contact settings and confined or enclosed spaces. Keep contacts limited and social circles small. Avoid indoor gatherings

          • Don’t ride in cars with people who are not in your household bubble

          • Limit your errands and outings

          • Watch out for COVID-19 symptoms. Get tested even if you have just one symptom or mild symptoms

          • Don’t be around others if you are not feeling well. Stay home and isolate immediately

          • If you test positive, let close contacts know so they can protect others

          • Quarantine quickly if you are exposed to COVID-19, for a full 14 days

          *Decision Basis about operations in risk levels
          To determine if schools should operate in 100% Remote Learning, or offer options for 100% Remote Learning and onsite at-school learning, district leadership and the KPBSD Medical Advisory Team:

          Based on this analysis and scientific data, the medical advisory team (which now includes a mental health professional) closely watch positive cases, types of community spread, and offer informed insights about safely operating schools during a pandemic.

          100% Remote Learning Extends for 30 KPBSD Schools in Central and Southern Kenai Peninsula  2020-10-28 08:00:00Z 0
          Alaska COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force Submits Draft Vaccination Plan to CDC  2020-10-21 08:00:00Z 0

          100% Remote Learning Extended for Schools in Eastern Kenai Peninsula
           

          October 14, 2020

          Four schools in the Eastern Kenai Peninsula will continue to operate in 100% Remote Learning, during High COVID-19 Risk (Red) status

          Today the school district leadership and KPBSD Medical Advisory Team met to discuss continued high positive COVID-19 case counts, the 7-Day trends, information from public health and DHSS stating Alaska is experiencing accelerated spread today, and determined an extension of 100% Remote Learning is merited.

          Moose Pass, Seward Elementary, Middle, and High School will continue with 100% Remote Learning for one more week, through Friday, October 23, 2020. An evaluation of risk status will be made next week, and an announcement about a return to onsite-at-school learning on October 26, 2020, will be made October 22, 2020, to aid in planning purposes for families and staff.

          “The decision to continue to operate KPBSD schools in High COVID-19 risk, with 100% Remote Learning, is not only to address concerns for the safety and wellbeing of our staff and students, but as a school district we play an important role to help our communities mitigate positive COVID-19 spread. By shifting to 100% Remote Learning during periods of high community spread, we lessen the number of large groups of people in one location. Even with our mitigation plans, we have seen an exponential growth of positive cases in our schools this past week. My hope is that we can slow the spread, and reopen schools as soon as Monday, October 26, 2020. We will all know more in the next week as the state catches up with a backlog of positive test results. I sincerely apologize for the strain and mental health concerns that this action puts on families, students, staff, and businesses in an already stressful pandemic.”

          Superintendent John O’Brien

          What to know during 100% Remote Learning in COVID-19 High Risk

          • Schools will contact their families to give further instructions, call your school if you have questions about materials, packets, or other issues
          • Get-It and Go Meals are free for all students during 100% Remote Learning, and can be picked up daily between 12:00–12:30. Make sure to order by noon on Friday for the following week. Note: No meals are available on Friday, October 16, 2020—it’s an inservice day for staff, no school for students
          • Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Special Education Intensive Needs students may still attend school onsite-at-school during 100% Remote Learning, based on the 2020 SmartStart Plan. Schools contacted these families directly
          100% Remote Learning Extended for Schools in Eastern Kenai Peninsula  2020-10-21 08:00:00Z 0

          100% Remote Learning Extended for 17 KPBSD Central Kenai Peninsula Schools
           

          Central Kenai Peninsula Schools Update:
          100% Remote Learning extended for 17 KPBSD schools in the central peninsula due to continued rising positive cases of COVID-19

          Today school district leadership and the KPBSD Medical Advisory Team determined that with the continued high positive COVID-19 case counts, the 7-Day trends, contact tracing information from public health and DHSS, an extension of 100% Remote Learning is merited.

          The 100% Remote Learning in the central peninsula is extended an additional week, through Wednesday, October 28, 2020. A further determination of a possible additional extension will be made at that time.

          NOTE: Thursday, October 29, and Friday, October 30, 2020, are parent-teacher conferences, with no school for students or Get-It-And-Go Meals. Schools will be directly communicating their plan for conferences to families.

          What to know during 100% Remote Learning in COVID-19 High Risk

          • Schools will continue to be in contact with their families to give further instructions, call your school if you have questions about materials, packets, or other issues
          • Get-It and Go Meals are free for all students during 100% Remote Learning, and can be picked up daily at school between 12:00–1:00. Note: No meals are available on October 29-30, 2020, during parent teacher conference days
          • Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Special Education Intensive Needs students may still attend school onsite-at-school during 100% Remote Learning, based on the 2020 SmartStart Plan. Schools are in contact with these families directly
          • ASAA Protocols are in effect during High Risk operations

          Central Peninsula Schools operating in High Risk (Red) Status

          Central Kenai Peninsula includes Kasilof to Sterling, extending through Kenai, Nikiski, Soldotna, and DHSS “other north” communities. Cooper Landing is not included in the 17 Central Peninsula schools:

          • Aurora Borealis Charter School
          • Kaleidoscope Charter School
          • K-Beach Elementary School
          • Kenai Alternative School
          • Kenai Central High School
          • Kenai Middle School
          • Mountain View Elementary School
          • Nikiski Middle-High School
          • Nikiski North Star Elementary School
          • Redoubt Elementary School
          • River City Academy
          • Skyview Middle School
          • Soldotna Elementary School
          • Soldotna High School
          • Soldotna Montessori Charter School
          • Sterling Elementary School
          • Other North: Tustumena Elementary School
          100% Remote Learning Extended for 17 KPBSD Central Kenai Peninsula Schools  2020-10-21 08:00:00Z 0

          100% Remote Learning Extended for 13 KPBSD Southern Kenai Peninsula Schools
           

          Southern Kenai Peninsula Schools Update:
          100% Remote Learning extended for 13 KPBSD schools in the southern peninsula due to continued rising positive cases of COVID-19

          Today school district leadership and the KPBSD Medical Advisory Team determined that with the continued high positive COVID-19 case counts, the 7-Day trends, contact tracing information from public health and DHSS, an extension of 100% Remote Learning is merited.

          The 100% Remote Learning in the southern peninsula (Homer area) is extended an additional week, through Wednesday, October 28, 2020. A further determination of a possible additional extension will be made at that time.

          NOTE: Thursday, October 29, and Friday, October 30, 2020, are parent-teacher conferences, with no school for students or Get-It-And-Go Meals. Schools will be directly communicating their plan for conferences to families.

          What to know during 100% Remote Learning in COVID-19 High Risk

          • Schools will continue to be in contact with their families to give further instructions, call your school if you have questions about materials, packets, or other issues
          • Get-It and Go Meals are free for all students during 100% Remote Learning, and can be picked up daily at school between 12:00–1:00. Note: No meals are available on October 29-30, 2020, during parent teacher conference days
          • Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Special Education Intensive Needs students may still attend school onsite-at-school during 100% Remote Learning, based on the 2020 SmartStart Plan. Schools are in contact with these families directly
          • ASAA Protocols are in effect during High Risk operations

          Thirteen Southern Kenai Peninsula Schools operating in High Risk (Red) Status
          KPBSD schools in Nanwalek, Port Graham, and Susan B. English in Seldovia are considered individually, and remain open to onsite at-school learning at this time.

          • Chapman School
          • Fireweed Academy
          • Homer Flex School
          • Homer High School
          • Homer Middle School
          • Kachemak Selo School
          • McNeil Canyon Elementary School
          • Nikolaevsk School
          • Ninilchik School
          • Paul Banks Elementary School
          • Razdolna School
          • Voznesenka School
          • West Homer Elementary School
          100% Remote Learning Extended for 13 KPBSD Southern Kenai Peninsula Schools  2020-10-21 08:00:00Z 0

          Southern Kenai Peninsula KPBSD Schools Go to 100% Remote

          Beginning Tuesday, October 20, 2020, KPBSD schools in the Southern Kenai Peninsula will shift to 100% Remote Learning, and operate in High COVID-19 Risk (Red)

          The school district leadership and KPBSD Medical Advisory Team reviewed the high positive case count COVID-19 cases in the Southern Kenai Peninsula today, the rising 7-Day trend, information from public health and DHSS, and determined the data merits immediate action for an additional 13 KPBSD schools. Therefore, Southern Kenai Peninsula schools will shift to 100% Remote Learning immediately, beginning Tuesday, October 20, 2020.

          The 100% Remote Learning in the Southern Kenai Peninsula will be for a minimum of this week. We know that Alaska is experiencing an accelerated phase of COVID-19 spread. Several positive cases are reported each week that are connected with KPBSD schools, and contact tracing takes place for every positive staff or student COVID-19 case, to help further exposure from occurring.

          *Decision Basis about operations in risk levels

          To determine if schools should operate in 100% Remote Learning, or offer options for 100% Remote Learning and onsite at-school learning, district leadership and the KPBSD Medical Advisory Team:

          Based on this analysis and scientific data, the medical advisory team watches positive cases closely, types of community spread, and offers informed insights about safely operating schools during a pandemic.

          What to know during 100% Remote Learning in COVID-19 High Risk

          • Schools will contact their families to give further instructions, call your school if you have questions about materials, packets, or other issues
          • Get-It and Go Meals are free for all students during 100% Remote Learning, and can be picked up daily at school between 12:00–1:00
          • Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Special Education Intensive Needs students may still attend school onsite-at-school during 100% Remote Learning, based on the 2020 SmartStart Plan. Schools will contact these families directly

          Thirteen Southern Kenai Peninsula Schools operating in High Risk (Red) Status
          KPBSD schools in Nanwalek, Port Graham, and Susan B. English in Seldovia are considered individually, and remain open to onsite at-school learning at this time.

          • Chapman School
          • Fireweed Academy
          • Homer Flex School
          • Homer High School
          • Homer Middle School
          • Kachemak Selo School
          • McNeil Canyon Elementary School
          • Nikolaevsk School
          • Ninilchik School
          • Paul Banks Elementary School
          • Razdolna School
          • Voznesenka School
          • West Homer Elementary School

          “The decision to operate Southern Kenai Peninsula schools in High COVID-19 risk, with 100% Remote Learning, is not only to address concerns for the safety and wellbeing of our staff and students, but as a school district we play an important role to help our communities mitigate positive COVID-19 spread. By shifting to 100% Remote Learning during periods of high community spread, we lessen the number of large groups of people in one location. Even with our mitigation plans, we have seen an exponential growth of positive cases in our schools this past week. My hope is that we can slow the spread, and reopen schools as soon as is safely possible. I sincerely apologize for the strain this puts on families, students, staff, and businesses in an already stressful pandemic.”

          -Superintendent John O’Brien

          What you can do

          We urge Alaskans to exercise caution and take the following steps to help prevent the spread of COVID-19:

          • Do the 3 W’s: Wear a mask, watch your distance and wash your hands

          • Avoid the 3 C’s: Crowded places, close contact settings and confined or enclosed spaces. Keep contacts limited and social circles small. Avoid indoor gatherings

          • Don’t ride in cars with people who are not in your household bubble

          • Limit your errands and outings

          • Watch out for COVID-19 symptoms. Get tested even if you have just one symptom or mild symptoms

          • Don’t be around others if you are not feeling well. Stay home and isolate immediately

          • If you test positive, let close contacts know so they can protect others

          • Quarantine quickly if you are exposed to COVID-19, for a full 14 days

          Helpful Links

          KPBSD COVID-19 Hub or covid19.kpbsd.org

          KPBSD COVID-19 risk level dashboard

          Southern Kenai Peninsula KPBSD Schools Go to 100% Remote 2020-10-21 08:00:00Z 0

          A Hurricane Force in Every Phase of Rotary Life
           

          This Bahamian Rotarian has been a whirlwind of energy since he began volunteering in high school.

          by Photo by 

          Growing up in Nassau, Bahamas, Roosevelt Rolle Jr. remembers how his parents extended a hand to neighbors who needed food or to friends who were without a place to stay. In high school, Rolle joined Interact, and after college, the Rotaract Club of Freeport. “My love for Rotary grew another notch,” he says, “because we had so much fun and we did a lot of volunteer work in the community.”

          Roosevelt Rolle Jr., Rotary Club of Grand Bahama, Bahamas

           

          After three years in Rotaract, Rolle took a year and a half off from Rotary. “I wanted to be a little more professional and make sure I was mature enough,” he recalls. Christine van der Linde, his boss and a longtime member of the Rotary Club of Lucaya, had a suggestion: She and several other Rotarians were forming a new club and thought Rolle would be a great fit. “It was a match made in heaven,” he says. On 24 June 2019, the Rotary Club of Grand Bahama chartered with 20 members, including Rolle, then age 29.

          The club was barely two months old when, on 1 September 2019, Hurricane Dorian made landfall in the Bahamas, causing billions of dollars in damage. “We had a bunch of new Rotarians and we were so excited to get involved in projects,” recounts Rolle. “Dorian became our project.”

          Rolle and his fellow Rotarians gathered on Saturdays to sort and distribute food. The Rotary Club of Grand Bahama remained involved in the relief work until January.

          With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rolle and his club turned to projects such as providing meals for hospital workers. He’s taking the lessons he learned from his parents and making service central to his life.

          • This story originally appeared in the September 2020 issue of Rotary magazine.

          A Hurricane Force in Every Phase of Rotary Life  2020-10-21 08:00:00Z 0

          Youth Hockey Tournament COVID-19 Cluster and Delay of KPBSD Hockey Season Start

          Any KPBSD staff or student, who participated in or attended the 2020 Termination Dust Invitational, held Oct. 2-4 at the Ben Boeke and Dempsey Anderson arenas, needs to quarantine for 14 days, through October 18, 2020* and is not permitted to attend school onsite-in-person, or report to work onsite-in-person, at a school campus until Monday, October 19, 2020.

          *Dr. Ohlsen, our KPBSD state Physician Consultant for schools, explained today that this quarantine applies to our school district. Many coaches and students are still testing positive.  Any KPBSD staff or students, who participated in or attended this event, must quarantine, and not go to school or work. Students can shift to 100% Remote Learning. Staff or students who need to quarantine can reach out to their school or supervisor for further information. The last day of quarantine will be October 18, 2020, and they can return to school on Monday, October 19, 2020.  If anyone experiences any symptoms of COVID19, they should be tested.

          KPBSD’s high school hockey season was slated to start Wednesday October 14, 2020 (first allowable practice date as per ASAA). As a result of this Youth Hockey event and resulting COVID-19 positive cluster, I am postponing the start of the KPBSD high school hockey season to Monday October 19, 2020.

          –KPBSD Superintendent John O’Brien, October 9, 2020

          Anchorage Health Department News Release: October 9, 2020

          AHD urges attendees of youth hockey tournament to
          quarantine or isolate following cluster of COVID-19 cases

          ANCHORAGE – The Anchorage Health Department (AHD) is investigating a youth hockey tournament after a cluster of COVID-19 cases were identified. The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services is assisting with the contact tracing investigation.

          Contact investigations indicate that the 2020 Termination Dust Invitational, held Oct. 2-4 at the Ben Boeke and Dempsey Anderson arenas, was attended by more than 300 players, coaches and fans. Teams from Anchorage, Eagle River/Chugiak, Wasilla/Palmer, Kenai/Soldotna and Juneau participated in the tournament. Contact investigations indicate significant close contact in indoor spaces, including locker rooms, with inconsistent use of face coverings.
          To avoid further spread of COVID-19, AHD urges all attendees without symptoms to quarantine at home for 14 days, except to get tested. Additionally, AHD urges all attendees with COVID-19 symptoms should isolate from others at home for 10 days, except to get tested.

           

          Most children have asymptomatic, mild or moderate symptoms and recover within one to two weeks of symptom onset. As with adults, children with medical conditions, for example, heart or lung disease, neurologic, genetic, or metabolic disorders, cancer, kidney disease, obesity, immune disorders, are at higher risk for severe disease.

          “Participating in physical activity is incredibly important for everyone, especially our youth. This year we have the added challenge of ensuring those activities are done consistently in a COVID-conscious way that keeps our youth, their families, and our community healthy,” said AHD Director Heather Harris. “It is extremely important for anyone who might have been exposed at this tournament to follow COVID-19 isolation and quarantine guidelines.”

          We must stop COVID-19 with simple steps and smart choices.

          • Stay home except for essential trips.
          • Feeling even mild symptoms? Get tested. Stay home.
          • Wear a mask and stay at least 6 feet from others outside your house.
          • Avoid social gatherings, especially indoors. Gatherings are not safe.
          • Keep a log of your contact with others.
          • Stay informed by listening to public health experts.
          • Get a flu shot. Use AnchorageFluShot.org to find free flu shot clinics.
          • Encourage your family, friends, and neighbors to remain vigilant. Do not underestimate COVID-19.

          What you do matters. Stop the spread of COVID-19. Together, we can save lives.

          ###

          Media Inquiries:

          AHD Director Heather Harris, Epidemiologist Dr. Janet Johnston and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Bruce Chandler will be available to answer questions at the Mayor’s Community Update today, October 9, at noon.

          Barry Piser, Public Information Officer, (907) 343-4622, barry.piser@anchorageak.gov

          Youth Hockey Tournament COVID-19 Cluster and Delay of KPBSD Hockey Season Start 2020-10-15 08:00:00Z 0

          McNeil Canyon Elementary Shifts to 100% Remote Learning

          McNeil Canyon Elementary School will shift to 100% Remote Learning on Monday, October 12, 2020 for contact tracing after a positive COVID-19 case

          October 11, 2020

          Dear McNeil Canyon School Staff and Families,

          Sunday morning, October 11, 2020, the school district learned that a positive COVID-19 case is connected to someone at McNeil Canyon Elementary School. Contact tracing is beginning, but without ample time to complete it immediately, and the potential that it affects the entire K-3rd grade classes, with positive cases trending upward, and out of an abundance of precaution, school will immediately change to 100% Remote Learning on Monday, October 12, 2020, and possibly longer. Additional communications will be sent later today, and as contact tracing happens, everyone who is a close contact will be called personally.

          Kindly trust that we are working as quickly as possible, and working with public health to assess any interactions in the time period the person was at school and potential exposure to others.

          Everyone who is identified as a close contact will be called personally today, and need to Quarantine for 14 days. The quarantine would likely go through October 22, 2020, and students or staff could return to school October 23, 2020. At this time, we request that everyone connected with K-3 grades limit interactions with others today, until contact tracing is complete.

          Principal Pete Swanson is away right now, and making arrangements to return asap. Paul Banks Principal Eric Pederson is assisting your school through this until his return, together with Nurse Iris, district leadership, and your school team. Your school and KPBSD will share further information as it becomes known—but we may not know until Monday if the 100% Remote Learning will continue into Tuesday.

          KPBSD honors HIPAA and FERPA privacy laws, so the identity of a student or employee will not be revealed by the school or KPBSD, unless permission is given to do so.

          Each case of COVID-19 is interviewed by public health, and our team. As part of this public health investigation and contact tracing at school, and based on CDC guidance and Alaska DHSS protocols:

          • Everyone diagnosed with COVID-19 is kept home from school until they are no longer infectious
          • The person’s activities when they could have spread COVID-19 were assessed
          • The people who were close contacts of the person with COVID-19 are instructed to stay home from school for 14 days after the exposure. This is called quarantine and there is no way to test out of a 14-day quarantine when someone is identified as a close contact

          What to know during 100% Remote Learning Monday, October 12, 2020, and possibly beyond

          • Teachers will reach out to students and parents on Monday with more information with how we are moving forward
             
          • Free Get-It-And-Go meals will be available Monday for all students during 100% Remote Learning. Daily pickup at your school between 12:00-12:30
             
          • No students or staff will be at school on Monday, October 12, 2020
             
          • You can expect regular contact as soon as there are updates. Check your School Messenger alerts, and the McNeil Canyon Facebook page.

          If you have questions, kindly contact your school, Principal Pederson at 907-435-7379 until Principal Swanson returns, or call our public health agency at 907-335-3400.

          You can find specific information for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District on our dedicated COVID-19 in KPBSD Hub webpage that includes communication updates, safety protocols, 2020 Smart Start Plan, sports and activities, risk levels on the Kenai Peninsula, and the COVID19 Confirmed Case in School Response Matrix.

          Thank you for your understanding and patience as contact tracing takes place, and our lives are further disrupted. Together the Dragons will get through this.

          McNeil Canyon Elementary Shifts to 100% Remote Learning 2020-10-15 08:00:00Z 0

          100% Remote Learning Extended for Schools in Eastern Kenai Peninsula

          October 14, 2020

          Four schools in the Eastern Kenai Peninsula will continue to operate in 100% Remote Learning, during High COVID-19 Risk (Red) status

          Today the school district leadership and KPBSD Medical Advisory Team met to discuss continued high positive COVID-19 case counts, the 7-Day trends, information from public health and DHSS stating Alaska is experiencing accelerated spread today, and determined an extension of 100% Remote Learning is merited.

          Moose Pass, Seward Elementary, Middle, and High School will continue with 100% Remote Learning for one more week, through Friday, October 23, 2020. An evaluation of risk status will be made next week, and an announcement about a return to onsite-at-school learning on October 26, 2020, will be made October 22, 2020, to aid in planning purposes for families and staff.

          “The decision to continue to operate KPBSD schools in High COVID-19 risk, with 100% Remote Learning, is not only to address concerns for the safety and wellbeing of our staff and students, but as a school district we play an important role to help our communities mitigate positive COVID-19 spread. By shifting to 100% Remote Learning during periods of high community spread, we lessen the number of large groups of people in one location. Even with our mitigation plans, we have seen an exponential growth of positive cases in our schools this past week. My hope is that we can slow the spread, and reopen schools as soon as Monday, October 26, 2020. We will all know more in the next week as the state catches up with a backlog of positive test results. I sincerely apologize for the strain and mental health concerns that this action puts on families, students, staff, and businesses in an already stressful pandemic.”

          Superintendent John O’Brien

          What to know during 100% Remote Learning in COVID-19 High Risk

          • Schools will contact their families to give further instructions, call your school if you have questions about materials, packets, or other issues
          • Get-It and Go Meals are free for all students during 100% Remote Learning, and can be picked up daily between 12:00–12:30. Make sure to order by noon on Friday for the following week. Note: No meals are available on Friday, October 16, 2020—it’s an inservice day for staff, no school for students
          • Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Special Education Intensive Needs students may still attend school onsite-at-school during 100% Remote Learning, based on the 2020 SmartStart Plan. Schools contacted these families directly
          • ASAA Protocols are in effect during High Risk school operations

          What you can do

          We urge Alaskans to exercise caution and take the following steps to help prevent the spread of COVID-19:

          • Do the 3 W’s: Wear a mask, watch your distance and wash your hands

          • Avoid the 3 C’s: Crowded places, close contact settings and confined or enclosed spaces. Keep contacts limited and social circles small. Avoid indoor gatherings

          • Don’t ride in cars with people who are not in your household bubble

          • Limit your errands and outings

          • Watch out for COVID-19 symptoms. Get tested even if you have just one symptom or mild symptoms

          • Don’t be around others if you are not feeling well. Stay home and isolate immediately

          • If you test positive, let close contacts know so they can protect others

          • Quarantine quickly if you are exposed to COVID-19, for a full 14 days

          *Decision Basis about operations in risk levels

          To determine if schools should operate in 100% Remote Learning, or offer options for 100% Remote Learning and onsite at-school learning, district leadership and the KPBSD Medical Advisory Team:

          Based on this analysis and scientific data, the medical advisory team watches positive cases closely, types of community spread, and offers informed insights about safely operating schools during a pandemic.

          Helpful Links

          KPBSD COVID-19 Hub or covid19.kpbsd.org

          KPBSD COVID-19 risk level dashboard

          100% Remote Learning Extended for Schools in Eastern Kenai Peninsula 2020-10-14 08:00:00Z 0

          Central Peninsula Schools Now 100% Remote Learning

          Beginning Wednesday, October 14, 2020,
          17 KPBSD schools in the central peninsula will shift to 100% Remote Learning, and operate in High COVID-19 Risk (Red)

          The school district leadership and KPBSD Medical Advisory Team discussed the high positive case count today of +14 COVID-19 cases in the central peninsula, the 7-Day trend, information from public health and DHSS, and determined the data merits immediate action for schools. Therefore, central peninsula schools will shift to 100% Remote Learning immediately, beginning Wednesday, October 14, 2020.

          The 100% Remote Learning in the central peninsula will be for a minimum of one week. Today, DHSS stated that Alaska is experiencing an accelerated phase of COVID-19 spread.
          Positive cases are reported daily in KPBSD schools and in the past few days in the central peninsula alone, between Nikiski Middle-High School, Nikiski North Star Elementary, Redoubt Elementary, and Skyview Middle School, contact tracing has placed over 63 staff and students in isolation or a 14-Day Quarantine.

          “The decision to operate central peninsula schools in High COVID-19 risk, with 100% Remote Learning, is not only to address concerns for the safety and wellbeing of our staff and students, but as a school district we play an important role to help our communities mitigate positive COVID-19 spread. By shifting to 100% Remote Learning during periods of high community spread, we lessen the number of large groups of people in one location. Even with our mitigation plans, we have seen an exponential growth of positive cases in our schools this past week. My hope is that we can slow the spread, and reopen schools as soon as Monday, October 26, 2020. We will all know more in the next week as the state catches up with a backlog of positive test results. I sincerely apologize for the strain this puts on families, students, staff, and businesses in an already stressful pandemic.”

          Superintendent John O’Brien

          What to know during 100% Remote Learning in COVID-19 High Risk

          • Schools will contact their families to give further instructions, call your school if you have questions about materials, packets, or other issues
          • Get-It and Go Meals are free for all students during 100% Remote Learning, and can be picked up daily at school between 12:00–1:00. Note: No meals are available on Friday, October 16, 2020—it’s an inservice day for staff, no school for students
          • Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Special Education Intensive Needs students may still attend school onsite-at-school during 100% Remote Learning, based on the 2020 SmartStart Plan. Schools will contact these families directly
          • ASAA Protocols are in effect during High Risk operations. Only state level competitions are approved at this time

          Central Peninsula Schools operating in High Risk (Red) Status

          Central Kenai Peninsula includes Kasilof to Sterling, extending through Kenai, Nikiski, Soldotna, and DHSS “other north” communities. Cooper Landing is not included in the 17 Central Peninsula schools:

          • Aurora Borealis Charter School
          • Kaleidoscope Charter School
          • K-Beach Elementary School
          • Kenai Alternative School
          • Kenai Central High School
          • Kenai Middle School
          • Mountain View Elementary School
          • Nikiski Middle-High School
          • Nikiski North Star Elementary School
          • Redoubt Elementary School
          • River City Academy
          • Skyview Middle School
          • Soldotna Elementary School
          • Soldotna High School
          • Soldotna Montessori Charter School
          • Sterling Elementary School
          • Other North: Tustumena Elementary School

          What you can do

          We urge Alaskans to exercise caution and take the following steps to help prevent the spread of COVID-19:

          • Do the 3 W’s: Wear a mask, watch your distance and wash your hands

          • Avoid the 3 C’s: Crowded places, close contact settings and confined or enclosed spaces. Keep contacts limited and social circles small. Avoid indoor gatherings

          • Don’t ride in cars with people who are not in your household bubble

          • Limit your errands and outings

          • Watch out for COVID-19 symptoms. Get tested even if you have just one symptom or mild symptoms

          • Don’t be around others if you are not feeling well. Stay home and isolate immediately

          • If you test positive, let close contacts know so they can protect others

          • Quarantine quickly if you are exposed to COVID-19, for a full 14 days

          *Decision Basis about operations in risk levels
          To determine if schools should operate in 100% Remote Learning, or offer options for 100% Remote Learning and onsite at-school learning, district leadership and the KPBSD Medical Advisory Team:

          Based on this analysis and scientific data, the medical advisory team watches positive cases closely, types of community spread, and offers informed insights about safely operating schools during a pandemic.

          Helpful Links

          KPBSD COVID-19 Hub or covid19.kpbsd.org

          KPBSD COVID-19 risk level dashboard

          Central Peninsula Schools Now 100% Remote Learning 2020-10-14 08:00:00Z 0

          Alaska Weekly Case Analysis September 27- October 3, 2020

           
           

          COVID-19 Weekly Case Update

          Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Weekly Case Analysis

          September 27- October 3, 2020

          Case trends and predictions

          • Alaska saw a sharp acceleration in new cases in the last week. The state had previously seen a steady rise over the preceding six weeks, but this last week saw substantial increases in case rates in nearly every region, with the largest increases in cases in Anchorage and Fairbanks. 
          • The daily state case rate as of October 3 data is 16.3, up from 11.7 on September 26th. This number is cases per 100,000 people averaged over the last 14 days. The state alert level is high. 
          • Compared to other states’ case rates, Alaska’s average case rate per capita over the last 7 days (20.1 average daily cases over the last week per 100,000) has jumped from #24 up to tying for #13 with Tennessee, just below Wyoming (21.6) and worse off than Alabama and Kansas, both at 19.6. between Nevada (13.4) and Indiana (12.7). If Anchorage were its own state, its 7-day case rate (18.4) would put it at rank #6, between Utah and Idaho, and if Fairbanks were a state, its 7-day rate of 33.6 would make it #5 in the nation, just behind Montana. The North Slope Borough would be #4 with a 7-day rate of 34.9, while the Northwest Arctic Borough’s 7-day case rate of 63.7 puts it at a higher average case rate this week than any state average in the US. Nationally, cases have been rising since mid-September, particularly in the Midwest but increases have been seen in most states this week. 24 states currently have 7-day average case rates over 15 per 100,000.
          • The reproductive number, a measure of contagion, is currently estimated to be approximately 1.14, an increase from 1.03 one week ago. A reproductive number of 1 means that each person who is diagnosed with COVID-19 gives it on average to one other person. A reproductive number of more than 1 means that the epidemic is growing, and the goal is to have enough people wear masks, stay at least 6 feet from others, and stay home and get tested when they are sick that Alaska’s reproductive number decreases to well below 1. Our reproductive number was below 1 as recently as late August.
          • An updated model epidemic curve predicts Alaska’s cases will continue to accelerate over the next week. One week ago, cases were now expected to double every 105 days, with a daily projected growth rate of 0.66%. This projection has worsened, with cases now expected to double around every 22 days, with a daily projected growth rate of around 3%.
          • Nonresident cases, which peaked in late July, decreased over August and continue to downtrend.
          • Alaska continues to have the fewest COVID-19 related deaths per capita of any US state, but this week passed Wyoming in total number of deaths. 

          Regional trends

          • Anchorage Municipality and Fairbanks North Star Borough both had substantial increases in case rates this week, indicating accelerating cases and high levels of community transmission. Anchorage Municipality’s case rate is now 21.5 from 16.1 last week, while Fairbanks North Star Borough is at 21.2 from 16.3. 
          • Northwest Region increased from 27.9 to 30.7, remaining the highest rate of new cases of any borough reported.
          • The Interior Region and Mat-Su both saw significant case increases this week and moved into the intermediate zone, with case rates increasing to 7.9 and 5.9 respectively.
          • Juneau City and Borough improved to 7.4 from 12.3 the week before and is now in the intermediate zone.
          • The Y-K Delta region improved from 8.7 to 7.1, remaining within the intermediate zone.
          • The Interior Region, Kenai and Northern Southeast Region also saw increases this week but remain in the low transmission zone

          Regional case trends

          Behavioral Health Region

          Average new cases Aug 16 - 29

          Average new cases Aug 23- Sept 5

          Average new cases  Aug 30- Sept 12

          Average new cases Sept 5- Sept 19

          Average new cases Sept 12- Sept 26

          Average new cases Sept 27- Oct 3

          Anchorage Municipality

          12.6

          14.1

          13.5

          13.2

          16.1

          21.5

          Fairbanks North Star Borough

          10.8

          13.7

          17.1

          15.9

          16.3

          21.2

          Interior Region except Fairbanks North Star Borough

          7.9

          4.3

          2.7

          3.1

          4.9

          7.9

          Juneau City and Borough

          5.1

          6.3

          13.4

          16.3

          12.3

          7.37

          Kenai Peninsula Borough

          5.8

          2.9

          2.2

          1.8

          2.5

          3.55

          Matanuska-Susitna Region

          6.2

          4.9

          4.3

          4.7

          4.0

          5.86

          Northern Southeast Region

          6.3

          5.2

          2.1

          3.1

          4.2

          4.89

          Northwest Region

          12.7

          11.0

          10.7

          15.6

          27.9

          30.7

          Southern Southeast Region

          6.1

          5.2

          2.5

          Insufficient data; low case rate

          Insufficient data; low case rate

          Insufficient data; low case rate

          Southwest Region

          1.7

          2.3

          4.2

          3.5

          3.5

          4.7

          Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Region

          7.3

          7.6

          6.0 

          8.4

          8.7

          7.1

          Statewide

          7.0

          7.9

          8.7

          10.2

          11.7

          16.3

          New cases, hospitalizations and deaths

          • This week saw 924 new cases in Alaskans, a significant jump from last week’s 645 new cases, for a total of 8,405 cumulative cases in Alaskans. While 3,701 of those are recorded as being active, or 44%, and 4,704 Alaskans are thought to have recovered or completed their isolation period, data on recovery lags data on new cases and is not up to date. This should not be interpreted as the number of true active cases decreasing since data entry of recovered cases has increased in recent weeks; true active cases are likely increasing significantly with rising case rates. For that reason, in future weekly case summaries we will not report the number of active or recorded cases, although this information can be obtained at the DHSS Data Hub linked above.
          • Cumulative hospitalizations increased to 300 with 17 new this week.
          • Deaths among Alaska residents increased by 2 to 58 total.
          • There were 21 nonresident cases identified this week, for a total of 971. 

          How COVID-19 spreads in Alaska

          • The majority of new infections among Alaskans are from community spread, not from travel. Most Alaskans get the virus from someone they work, socialize, or go to school with.
          • Many cases do not have a clear source, meaning that contact tracers have not been able to identify where the person got the virus. This means that there are cases in our communities that we do not know about.
          • Many Alaskans who are diagnosed with COVID-19 report that they went to social gatherings, community events, church services and other social venues while they were contagious but before they knew they had the virus.
          • The distribution of cases among people of different races and ethnicities has not changed significantly since last week.
          • Cases continue to increase most rapidly in young adult Alaskans aged 20-39. 

            Alaska Weekly Case Analysis September 27- October 3, 2020 2020-10-08 08:00:00Z 0

            The Conversation: Jeanne Gang
             

            A renowned Rotary alum affirms her commitment to environmentally sustainable architecture

            Growing up in Belvidere, Illinois, a city 70 miles northwest of Chicago, Jeanne Gang didn’t have to go far to glimpse her future. Her father, James, was a civil engineer and highway superintendent in Boone County, and on Saturday mornings, the girl who would one day become a world-renowned architect would visit his office and sit at the drafters’ drawing boards or clamber onto the heavy equipment used in road construction that sat idle in the county garage. On family vacations, James would pack his wife, Marjorie, and their four daughters into the family station wagon to drive around and look at bridges. “I really loved that,” recalls Gang. “We traveled to almost all the states, and I developed a love for the great landscapes that we have in this country.”

            Gang’s education continued at the University of Illinois, where she graduated with a degree in architecture in 1986. The recipient of a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, she traveled to Switzerland to study at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal University of Technical Studies). “I gained exposure to an international faculty and students that brought depth to my understanding of urban design,” she says. “Being able to do that really expanded my horizons.” She went on to earn her master’s degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Design — where she now serves as a Professor in Practice — and spent two years working with Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas.

            In 1995, Gang took a job in Chicago, a city with arguably the greatest collection of buildings in the United States — or at least, as Gang has asserted, the city with “the highest architecture IQ in the country.” Two years later, she started her own firm there; known today as Studio Gang, it also has offices in New York, San Francisco, and Paris.

            In 2010, Gang established herself as Chicago’s most prominent and creative architect with her 82-story Aqua Tower, a sensuously undulating building whose curved concrete overhangs evoke rippling water while also diffusing the Windy City winds. A structure both profoundly beautiful and eminently practical, Aqua earned Gang a slew of accolades and awards: Emporis, a global building-data research company, anointed it the best new skyscraper of the year, and PETA chimed in with a Proggy Award for the building’s bird-friendly design (also a characteristic of other Gang works). The following year she won a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant”; the foundation praised her “unusual optical poetry ... and integrative approach to contemporary building.”

            There was, for Gang, one galling aspect to Aqua: It was often identified as the tallest building in the world designed by a woman. (“It would be better to be known as a great architect without the qualifier,” she says.) Aqua has since been eclipsed in height by another Chicago skyscraper: Gang’s 101-story Vista Tower, which is expected to open this year. And in June, the publisher Phaidon released Studio Gang: Architecture, a lavishly illustrated retrospective of the firm’s accomplishments over two decades. “The new book is about what ties all of our projects together, the ideas that cohere across different categories,” Gang says.

            In typical Gang fashion, the book also looks toward the future. “How might we leverage and expand on the creative, collaborative nature of the profession to together shift societal values toward a more balanced and thriving planet?” Gang asks. “Our first 20 years of answers are collected in this book.”

            Recently, Paul Engleman, a frequent contributor to Rotary magazine, talked with Gang about a number of topics, including her commitment to sustainability, her office’s green roof, and the civic and ecological ambitions of Studio Gang.


            How would you describe the work you do and your approach to it?

            The way I sum up the practice is that we’re like-minded professionals working collaboratively and collectively on projects that connect people to each other and to their environment. In urban settings, that means bringing biodiverse nature back into cities so people can experience it. I’m passionate about the environment, and I want others to be too. Not everyone can get into the technical details of how we make our buildings greener. But they can get into developing a stronger connection to their environment. If you can make a space so compelling that people go out of their way to be there, that’s a great way to start building a good relationship between people and the environment, while also building stronger communities. We’re living in a time that is so polarizing that we’re losing our connections to one another. At Studio Gang, we want to connect people to each other. We design buildings, neighborhoods, and cities, and we use different media to express our ideas and the ideas of our clients and collaborators: books, exhibitions, and drawings and handmade models.

            We’re working collaboratively and collectively on projects that connect people to each other and to their environment.

            For an architect, what are the major elements of sustainability?

            At the most basic level, it’s about reducing carbon emissions. Buildings are responsible for about 39 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, so we have to work to make them less polluting in their construction and operation. But sustainability is also about social justice, equal rights, and reducing poverty. It’s about supporting nature and bringing it into the city so people can appreciate the ecosystem services that nature provides. We installed a green roof at our own headquarters in Chicago — and not just any green roof. It has more than 50 different plant species that support wildlife in the city: birds, insects, even bats. It’s a big experiment, and every year we measure the success or failure of it in a “bio-blitz.” We try to bring these sensibilities to all of our projects.

            How do you incorporate the goals of sustainability into projects?

            You look at what you have to work with and how you can shift available energy around to make the most use of it. You look at what assets and needs the client has, based on their location and climate. Then you work with engineers to incorporate those assets into the architecture. In Michigan, where we did the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College, there happens to be a tree type, white cedar, that is sustainably deployed. We modernized an old technique using the cedar as cordwood masonry, which uses all parts of the tree. It actually sequesters carbon. That went well with the center’s personality and its site. It’s visible, exciting, and beautiful.

            How far have architects come in terms of working toward sustainability?

            When I was an undergraduate, a lot of my teachers were former hippies. They were into solar power, living off the grid, that kind of thing. When I started practicing, that conversation was almost nonexistent. By starting my own practice, I was able to get back into that and adopt new approaches to making green buildings. These days, many of our clients are actually looking for these kinds of ideas and starting to ask for better-performing buildings. We’re designing a new global terminal at O’Hare airport in Chicago. The mayor wants to make it the world’s greenest airport. That’s a big advancement from when I started the firm. 

            Does having local governments as clients add a degree of difficulty in terms of resistance to innovation?

            You can encounter resistance in the private sector too. A problem I’m concerned with right now is the reuse of old heritage buildings. There seems to be a conflict between historical preservation and making a building sustainable. There shouldn’t be. Those goals should go hand in hand. You shouldn’t have to install single-pane windows because they existed in the original. That is literally what you’re asked to do to maintain the historic preservation label. I think that’s a problem we have to address soon. I think reuse should be more aligned with efficiency than with pure historical preservation.

            Is a net-zero carbon footprint a feasible goal in building construction?

            It’s not a question of whether it’s feasible. We have to do it. It’s an urgent thing, but it’s not easy to get there. We have two projects that are striving for that. At the California College of the Arts, we’re using a microgrid as part of the solution. They have activities like glass blowing, which produces excess heat. So one could use that heat to create energy to produce hot water in the residence halls. I like working at different scales and on different types of buildings and not specializing. We can innovate a lot that way, because we find strategies that work in one building type and can apply them in other building types.

            Sustainability is also about social justice, equal rights, and reducing poverty.

            Tell me about Polis Station, Studio Gang’s contribution to the Chicago Architecture Biennial in 2015.

            That was an attempt to present a concept as an open-source idea for other people to adopt. A lot of people are thinking about the problem between police and community members — the fear that police put into members of the community that they should be trying to protect. We wanted to explore what public safety might look like in these publicly owned buildings. We wanted to see if the design could start to positively impact those relationships. We recently completed a fire-rescue training facility in Brooklyn. It’s interesting that everyone loves rescue workers and firefighters, and that firehouses are often open buildings, completely different from police stations. For the Polis Station exhibit, we took policy guidelines that had been developed by experts on ways to improve the relationships between police and community members and tried to think about how they could be expressed in a physical structure.

            How does that align with the work you did with the Neighborhood Activation Study in New York?

            We were hired by the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice to do an urban design study aimed at creating safe spaces in two neighborhoods. It’s about improving relationships on a community scale, but not necessarily by way of a building. We were defining what the projects could be, and the city will then hire architects to design the projects. Doing a design study is a different way of having an impact.

            Is there a type of structure or project that you haven’t done yet but would really like to do? A prison? A bridge?

            I definitely don’t want to do a prison. Bridges are good metaphorically. We are doing a bridge — a pedestrian bridge — in Wisconsin at the Beloit College Powerhouse, which repurposes a former coal-burning power plant as a student union centered on wellness and recreation. I’m really interested in the hybridization of different types of buildings. If you have a hotel that is also a community center, something that happens casually now could be much stronger. There are a lot of interesting combinations that could happen. I want to bring different programs together into buildings. At the American Museum of Natural History in New York [where the Studio Gang-designed Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation is slated for a 2022 opening], they’re bringing together their technical programs and the arts — and different kinds of media are being adopted in the arts. It’s exciting for us as designers. We’re mixing classroom and exhibit spaces, and we’re thinking of it as an institution that has a strong educational focus at all levels, from kids to teachers to PhD students. It’s a research institution that’s also focused on education for visitors.

            Green or LEED buildings

            • 10increase in asset value over traditional buildings
            • 20lower maintenance costs than typical commercial buildings
            • 62fewer greenhouse gas emissions than an average building
            • $167.4 billion generated in Gross Domestic Product in the U.S. between 2011-14

            Are energy-efficient innovations for buildings unaffordable luxuries for some people?

            That’s a difficult question, because there are so many different ways to do affordable housing. A lot of affordable housing already uses wood construction. Surely there is less of a carbon footprint in a modest-size apartment built with wood than in a large, elaborate, high-end home. When you look at carbon footprint per household, it wouldn’t be an equal calculation. Sometimes it’s required that affordable housing be woven into a project. We are finishing up a high-rise in San Francisco, called Mira, that’s very high performing, and yet 40 percent of the homes there are being sold below market rate.

            When Rotarians travel internationally, how should they think about architecture?

            It’s good to see architecture in different places, because it’s always informed by the culture that’s there. Some interesting projects that are happening now involve designers thinking about mitigating natural disaster. Rotarians could think about how design could improve places that they travel to. There’s a flow of people on the move because of natural disasters or wars. I think there’s probably a good project in thinking about how to accommodate people who are displaced.

            Career Highlights

            1997 Jeanne Gang opens her own architecture firm, known today as Studio Gang.

            2003 Gang unveils her first public building, the renovated Starlight Theater in Rockford, Illinois.

            2010 Emporis names Aqua, Gang’s 82-story Chicago high-rise, its best new skyscraper of the year.

            2011 Gang wins a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.”

            2012 The Art Institute of Chicago stages Building: Inside Studio Gang, the firm’s first solo exhibition.

            2017 Jeanne Gang is elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

            2019 An architectural team led by Studio Gang wins an international competition to design a new global terminal at Chicago’s O’Hare airport.

            2020 Chicago’s Vista Tower and the publication of Studio Gang: Architecture cap the firm’s first 20-plus years.

            The Rotary Foundation Trustees and Rotary International Board of Directors have both unanimously approved adding a new area of focus: supporting the environment.

            Read more

            • Photo by Saverio Truglia, courtesy of Studio Gang

            • This story originally appeared in the September 2020 issue of Rotary magazine.

            The Conversation: Jeanne Gang  2020-10-07 08:00:00Z 0

            City of Homer Household Economic Relief Grant Program

            Small house made of blocks sits on top of a pile of cash register receipts.

            Households who are struggling to pay rent, mortgage or utility payments or need help paying for groceries, medicine and other household expenses caused by hardships related to COVID-19 are encouraged to apply for assistance from the City of Homer's Household Economic Relief Grant, or HERG. 

            Utilizing Federal CARES Act grant funds, Homer City Council authorized $1.5 million for the HERG program.  It is intended to provide economic stability to households within the City of Homer that have suffered economic hardship between March 1- December 30, 2020, either from a loss of income or increased expenses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Funding of up to $1,500 in grants is available per household. 

            Deadline to apply:  Friday, October 16, 2020!

            To qualify for HERG funding, applicants must meet the eligibility criteria*:

            Who Qualifies?

            HOUSEHOLD ECONOMIC RELIEF GRANT

            At least one adult member (18 or older) of the household must be a City of Homer resident, permanently living within the city limits prior to March 1, 2020. They will be considered the “Head of Household” by the City and will complete the application on the household’s behalf. Applicants must provide valid photo I.D., two current pieces of mail to prove residency, and a completed W-9 form from the Internal Revenue Service.

            The Head of Household must be a U.S. Citizen or permanent legal resident in order to receive grant funding.

            Only one grant is available per household. All members of the household over the age of 18 must be listed in the application. A household may consist of a single individual.

            The Head of Household on behalf of the household, must agree the household was/is negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and disclose, certify and document how the household has experienced, or continues to experience, economic hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with hardship incurred between March 1, 2020 and December 30, 2020. If it is determined the HERG funds were used for an ineligible purpose or that a household received more than one HERG grant, the applicant may be required to return those funds back to the City.

            HERG funds cannot be used to reimburse an expense that was already covered by or anticipated to be covered by another COVID-19 assistance/relief grant.

            * The City reserves the right to interpret the terms of this program.

            How to Apply

            Apply ONLINE:

            https://www.cityofhomer-ak.online/HERG-Program-Policy

            or DOWNLOAD and PRINT applications at the bottom of the page and return to the City of Homer's Finance Department's dropbox by City Hall entrance on Pioneer Avenue. Please secure your application within a sealed envelope addressed to Sara Perman.

            Completed applications may also be mailed to: 

            City of Homer
            ATTN: HERG - Sara Perman
            491 East Pioneer Avenue
            Homer, AK 99603

            Mailed applications must be postmarked by 5:00 pm, Friday, October 16th, 2020.

            Applications must be submitted with a copy of a valid photo ID, two forms of residence verification, and a completed W-9 form from the Internal Revenue Service.

            • Valid forms of photo ID include an up-to-date drivers license, state ID, U.S. Passport, certified copy of U.S. Birth Certificate, or I-551 Resident Alien/ Permanent Resident Card.
            • Valid forms of residence verification include mortgage statements, Kenai Peninsula Borough Property Tax statement, home utility bills, signed lease agreements, employment documents, two first class mail parcels with postmark, or signed letter on official letterhead verifying residency from housing authority/shelter.
            City of Homer Household Economic Relief Grant Program 2020-10-07 08:00:00Z 0

            KPBSD Eastern Peninsula schools may shift to 100% Remote Learning

             

            October 7, 2020

            Dear KPBSD Eastern Peninsula Families and Staff:

            We know you are concerned and watching the COVID-19 risk levels closely. The school district and KPBSD Medical Advisory Team joins your concern and on Wednesday carefully analyzed a spectrum of information and data.*

            Advance Notice: if positive COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the eastern peninsula over the next few days, there is a high likelihood we will shift to 100% Remote Learning on Monday, October 12, 2020, for a minimum of one week. A decision will be made no later than Sunday.

            At this time, Eastern Peninsula schools (Seward and Moose Pass) will continue to operate in Medium Risk (yellow) status this week, even though the 14-Day positive case count indicates high-risk levels. This means that schools will remain open to onsite at-school learning. The medical advisory team is watching this closely, and if positive cases are linked to a school, or trend upward Thursday or Friday, an updated decision for next week to operate schools at High Risk and 100% Remote Learning could happen, and will be communicated to staff and families immediately.

            *Decision Basis
            To determine if it is appropriate to shift schools to 100% Remote Learning when the 14-Day count data moved the Eastern Peninsula into high risk on October 7, 2020, the KPBSD Medical Advisory Team:

            • Analyzed the 14-Day positive COVID-19 case counts
              • Note: four positive cases will drop from the 14-Day case count in the next four days, which moves Eastern Peninsula into Medium Risk, if no additional positive cases are added
            • Analyzed the 7-Day positivity trend
            • Consulted with public health contact tracing knowledge, and local medical providers
            • Reviewed our COVID-19 Positive Case in a School Decision Matrix (no recent cases have been linked to eastern peninsula schools.)

            Based on this analysis, information, and that no cases that involve KPBSD schools, Seward and Moose Pass schools will be remain in yellow or medium risk October 8-9, 2020. The medical advisory team is watching this closely, and if positive cases trend sharply upward, or are linked to a school, an updated decision to move to High Risk and 100% Remote Learning could happen immediately, or beginning Monday, October 12, 2020.

            What to know during 100% Remote Learning in COVID-19 High Risk

            • Get-It and Go Meals are free for all students, and picked up Wednesday morning for the week
            • Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Special Education Intensive Needs students may still attend school onsite-at-school during 100% Remote Learning, based on the 2020 SmartStart Plan. Schools will contact these families directly.
            • Activities continue with ASAA High Risk Protocols in effect
            • Schools will communicate an update status mid-week to aid parent planning for the following week specific to if school reopens to onsite at school learning on Monday, October 19, 2020

            What you can do

            We urge Alaskans to exercise caution and take the following steps to help prevent the spread of COVID-19:

            • • Do the 3 W’s: Wear a mask, watch your distance and wash your hands
            • • Avoid the 3 C’s: Crowded places, close contact settings and confined or enclosed spaces. Keep contacts limited and social circles small. Avoid indoor gatherings
            • • Don’t ride in cars with people who are not in your household bubble
            • • Limit your errands and outings
            • • Watch out for COVID-19 symptoms. Get tested even if you have just one symptom or mild symptoms
            • • Don’t be around others if you are not feeling well. Stay home and isolate immediately
            • • If you test positive, let close contacts know so they can protect others
            • • Quarantine quickly if you are exposed to COVID-19, for a full 14 days

            Helpful Links

            “Offering predictability for our families, staff, and communities is tricky during a global pandemic. I am disappointed the positive case count appears to be trending upward. Every day we evaluate 7-Day risk level trends, 14-Day actual positive case counts, and confer with our medical advisory team. To aid planning for families and eliminate a ping-pong effect back and forth between risk levels, when we shift to 100% Remote Learning, it will be in one-week time blocks unless it’s a positive case at a school, which might have a different response or time frame. We will continue providing district level updates every week, plus each school will directly communicate with their staff and families.”

            -Superintendent John O’Brien
            KPBSD Eastern Peninsula schools may shift to 100% Remote Learning 2020-10-07 08:00:00Z 0
            37th Rotary Health Fair 2020-10-01 08:00:00Z 0

            Seward Elementary Shifts to 100% Remote Learning 

             

            September 25, 2020

            Communication to Seward Elementary staff and families. Principal Haskins will send a message via School Messenger on Saturday, September 26, 2020.

            Dear Seward Elementary students, parents, and staff,

            Friday evening September 25, 2020, we learned a second student or staff member at Seward Elementary School has been diagnosed with COVID-19, and as members of the school community, we understand that this raises care and concerns.

            To complete contact tracing and allow for additional cleaning, the entire school will shift to 100% Remote Learning September 28 and 29, 2020.

            Throughout the weekend we will work with public health to assess any interactions in the time period the person was connected with school, and everyone who is determined to be a close contact will be called personally.

            9/25/20, 10:30 PM: The shift to 100% Remote Learning is only for Seward Elementary at this time.

            Two or more positive cases in a school is defined as an outbreak. Each case of COVID-19 is interviewed by public health, and our team.

            We will be in communication with you with further information as it becomes available, and announce late Monday, or Tuesday morning, if we will reopen on Wednesday, or extend the 100% Remote Learning.

            As part of this public health investigation and contact tracing at school, and based on CDC guidance and Alaska DHSS protocols:

            • Everyone diagnosed with COVID-19 is kept home from school until they are no longer infectious.
            • The person’s activities when they could have spread COVID-19 will be assessed.
            • The people who were close contacts of the person with COVID-19 are instructed to stay home from school for 14 days after the exposure. This is called quarantine and there is no way to test out of a 14-day quarantine when someone is identified as a close contact.

            KPBSD honors HIPAA and FERPA privacy laws, so the identity of a student or employee will not be revealed by the school or KPBSD, unless permission is given to do so.

            If you have questions, kindly contact Principal Alan Haskins, or our public health agency at 907-335-3400.

            You can find specific information for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District on our dedicated COVID-19 in KPBSD Hub webpage that includes communication updates, safety protocols, 2020 Smart Start Plan, sports and activities, risk levels on the Kenai Peninsula, and the COVID19 Confirmed Case in School Response Matrix.

            Seward High School sporting events are cancelled on Saturday, September 26, 2020.

            “Friday evening we learned that Seward Elementary has had more than one confirmed case of COVID-19 within a three day time frame. This is defined as an outbreak in a school, causes a shift to 100% remote learning at Seward Elementary for at least Monday and Tuesday next week, in an effort to ensure thorough contact tracing and cleaning of the school will be conducted. Given the small size of the Seward community and out of an abundance of precaution, this weekend’s sporting events in Seward have been cancelled and Seward teams that were scheduled to travel and compete in away events have been kept home. I know our athletes will be disappointed, and I ask for everyone’s support and understanding.”

            –Superintendent John O’Brien
            Seward Elementary Shifts to 100% Remote Learning  2020-10-01 08:00:00Z 0

            Help Needed: Electronics Recycling on October 3rd

             
            To all Supporters of Kachemak Advocates of Recycling,

            I am pleased to send this information to all of you and hope some of you will volunteer. Please note the instructions given on how to volunteer and who to contact:

            Cook Inletkeeper is hosting our annual Electronics Recycling event and we need your help! The event will take place on Saturday, October 3rd from 10am to 2pm at Spenard Builders Supply in Homer. We need volunteers to help collect donations, direct traffic, sort recyclable electronics, and clean up after the event.
             
            Volunteers can work one of two shifts: 9:30-12:15 or 12-2:30. COVID safe policies will be in place and COVID safe snacks will be provided. If you are interested in volunteering or want more information, please contact Ariel at recycling@inletkeeper.org or (508) 728 -9399.

             
            Americans upgrade their computer systems on average every 3 to 5 years. But what do they do with all those old, obsolete computers? Computer electronics contain hazardous materials, especially lead, cadmium, and mercury, and if dumped in a landfill, will release heavy metals and other toxic materials into the air and water. 
             
            Here at Inletkeeper we envision a future where we recycle metals, instead of creating new mines that endanger world-class fisheries, wildlife and clean water. 
             
            On Saturday, October 3rd, Inletkeeper will be holding our annual electronic recycling day in Homer & Soldotna. Sustainable Seward will be hosting their event on October 10th. This is an opportunity for people who have been storing obsolete or broken electronics to dispose of them properly. Households, businesses and non-profit agencies are encouraged to bring televisions, monitors, computers, laptops, keyboards, phones, cameras and more for recycling.
            Help Needed: Electronics Recycling on October 3rd 2020-09-23 08:00:00Z 0

            KPBSD COVID-19 Positive Case Communications

             KPBSD COVID-19 Confirmed Case in School Response Matrix Letter Examples

            Dear KPBSD Parents and Guardians,

            This letter will help your family prepare should our school district or your school have a COVID-19 event occur. An event could be a positive COVID-19 case, outbreak (two or more positive cases in a school) or exposure to COVID-19 in a school. The health and safety of our students, staff, and families is our top priority.

            KPBSD works closely with local public health officials and they will provide support and direction to manage every COVID-19 related scenario that affects our school communities. If or when a COVID-19 event occurs related to your school, you will receive information via the usual school and district communication methods. Depending upon the situation and response needed by you, the contact may come via a phone call, email, alert, or general notification.

            KPBSD honors HIPAA and FERPA privacy laws, so your name and your child’s name will not be revealed by the school, unless you give the school permission to do so. A dedicated webpage at KPBSD.org is where to find the most up to date information.

            If your child receives a positive COVID-19 test result, and they have been at school two days prior to the onset of symptoms, or the testing date that resulted in a positive test result, it will be helpful to begin contact tracing at their school immediately. So, we need your help when you learn of a positive COVID-19 test result for your child. Call Nurse Iris, KPBSD Nursing Supervisor to confidentially report a positive COVID-19 test result. You can reach her at 907.260.2391, IWertz@kpbsd.k12.ak.us. ALternately, call your school nurse or administrator.

            It is important for everyone in our community to protect themselves against the remarkably contagious novel coronavirus. These are some ways to protect your family:

            • Symptom Free School Protocol: keep children who are sick at home -- do not send them to school
            • Teach your children to wash hands with soap and water for 20 seconds, and set a good example by doing this yourself
            • Teach your children to cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue or by coughing into the inside of their elbow, Be sure to set a good example by doing this yourself
            • Time and distance: teach your children to protect your family bubble or their school cohort, and practice physical distancing of about six feet away from others
            • Mask up with a cloth face covering when appropriate, especially indoors in crowded public places, on the school bus, and in school hallways. Grades 3 and older in the KPBSD wear a mask at school when six foot physical distancing is not possible

            When you have COVID-19 related questions, contact your school nurse, healthcare provider, local public health department, or visit the state DHSS or national CDC websites. You can find specific information for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District on our dedicated COVID-19 in KPBSD Hub webpage that includes communication updates, safety protocols, 2020 Smart Start Plan, sports and activities, risk levels on the Kenai Peninsula, and the COVID-19 Confirmed Casae in School Response Matrix. Your school is always available to help, or you can reach out to the school district COVID-19 line at 907.714.8864, email covid19@kpbsd.org, or visit covid19.kpbsd.org.

            This year will require adaption, a flexible mindset, and we will get through this with both challenges and blessings. We promise to communicate often, be proactive and swiftly reactive when necessary, even when we do not have all the answers. Superintendent John O’Brien reminds us, “We will focus on and provide for the social, emotional, and mental health needs of our students, staff, parents, and community. I have no doubt that together we will not only get through this new school year but will also hopefully become more resilient and empathic to the needs of others.”

            School Exposure Letter Templates

            ScenarioModify letter #Communication To
            1 student or staff with COVID-19 in a class or cohortLetter #1Parents or Guardians of all students in the class or cohort
            Outbreak of COVID-19 in a class or cohortLetter #2Parents or Guardians of all students in the class or cohort
            1 (or more) student or staff with COVID-19 in multiple classes or cohortsLetter #3Parents or Guardians of all students who are determined to be close contacts of a case of COVID-19 in the school
            School outbreakLetter #3

            AND

            Letter #4

            Parents or Guardians of all students who are determined to be close contacts of a case of COVID-19 in the school

            AND

            Parents or Guardians of students who were determined not to be close contacts of cases of COVID-19 in the outbreak

             
             

            Letter 1: Students in the classroom or cohort bubble with a single case of COVID-19

            Dear Parents and Guardians,

            This communication is a follow-up to a phone call you have received. A student or staff member in [Teacher's name] class has been diagnosed with COVID-19, and as members of the school community, we understand that this raises care and concerns. Each case of COVID-19 is interviewed by public health. As part of this public health investigation and contact tracing at school, and based on CDC guidance and Alaska DHSS protocols:

            • The person diagnosed is being kept home from school until they are no longer infectious.
            • The person's activities when they could have spread COVID-19 were assessed.
            • The people who were close contacts of the person with COVID-19 are instructed to stay home from school for 14 days after the exposure. This is called quarantine and there is no way to test out of a 14-day quarantine when someone is identified as a close contact.

            Because it is not possible to assess all interactions in a classroom and because of the length of time that classes spend together, all classroom or cohort members are considered close contacts. Your child was in the same class or group as the person diagnosed with COVID-19, so your child must follow quarantine instructions and stay home from school for 14 days. If you have children in other classes, they can still go to school unless their sibling gets sick, or receives a positive COVID-19 test result.

            Your child can return to school and normal activities on [date 14 days after the last day the person with COVID-19 was in the classroom]. During this time, your child should stay home and not go to other schools, activities, childcares, or other activities around other people. Instructions about how to quarantine are available here.

            All KPBSD students have the option of 100% Remote Learning with their school. Your school will work with you to make certain your child has what they need to continue learning at home while in quarantine.

            KPBSD honors HIPAA and FERPA privacy laws, so the identity of a student or employee will not be revealed by the school or KPBSD, unless permission is given to do so.

            If your child develops symptoms consistent with COVID-19:

            • Follow these isolation instructions
            • Have your child tested
            • Continue to keep your child home from school and avoid other activities around other people
            • Notify the school principal, nurse, or KPBSD Nurse Iris
            • Seek medical care and testing for COVID-19, calling your doctor before you show up

            Public Health may recommend or you may choose to have your child tested for COVID-19 a week after they were around the person with COVID-19, even if your child does not have symptoms. A negative test result does not mean that your child will not develop symptoms or become sick after the test. A negative test result means that your child did not have COVID-19 detected at the time of testing. A negative test will not allow your child to come back to school or attend other activities sooner. Medical insurance may not cover the cost of testing for people without symptoms.

            If you have questions, kindly contact [insert name of school principal or nurse contact] or our local public health agency [insert contact]. You can find specific information for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District on our dedicated COVID-19 in KPBSD Hub webpage that includes communication updates, safety protocols, 2020 Smart Start Plan, sports and activities, risk levels on the Kenai Peninsula, and the COVID19 Confirmed Case in School Response Matrix.

            CONTINUED

            KPBSD COVID-19 Positive Case Communications 2020-09-23 08:00:00Z 0

            Alaska DHSS Weekly Covid Summary- September 13-19, 2020

            COVID-19 Weekly Case Update

            Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Weekly Case Analysis

            September 13-19, 2020

            Case trends and predictions

            • Overall, new cases in Alaska are increasing. The daily state case rate as of September 19 is 10.2 cases per 100,000 people averaged over the last 14 days, so the state alert level is now high. This is up from 8.7 last week and 7.9 the week before.
            • The reproductive number, a measure of contagion, is currently estimated to be approximately 1. A reproductive number of 1 means that each person who is diagnosed with COVID-19 gives it on average to one other person. A reproductive number of more than 1 means that the epidemic is growing, and the goal is to have enough people wear masks, stay at least 6 feet from others, and stay home and get tested when they are sick that Alaska’s reproductive number decreases to well below 1. Our reproductive number was below 1 as recently as late August. 
            • An updated model epidemic curve predicts Alaska’s cases will continue to rise over the next week. Until two weeks ago, cases had been predicted to decrease. One week ago, cases were now expected to double every 62 days, with a daily projected growth rate of 1.12%. This projection has improved slightly, with cases now expected to double around every 190 days, with a daily projected growth rate of 0.37%.  
            • Nonresident cases, which peaked in late July, decreased over August and continue to downtrend. 
            • Data for COVID-19 in Alaska healthcare workers are now available, although limited as not all cases have an occupation reported. About half of the 260 cases reported in healthcare workers may have been acquired at work; others were related to travel, household or community exposure. 8 hospitalizations among healthcare workers are reported and no deaths.  

            • Alaska continues to have both the fewest COVID-19 related deaths and the fewest COVID-19 related deaths per capita of any US state.

            Regional trends

            • Juneau City and Borough now has the highest rate of viral transmission, having increased its rate to 16.3, continuing the rise from 13.4 last week and 6.3 the week before.
            • Fairbanks North Star Borough has the second highest rate of viral transmission with a case rate of 15.9, a slight decrease from 17.1 the week before. 
            • The Northwest Region had the steepest increase this week among communities with high transmission, with a rate now at 15.6 from 10.7 the previous week. 
            • Anchorage Municipality remains in the high transmission category and has again improved slightly from last week. 
            • The Y-K Delta region increased from 6.0 to 8.4, remaining within the intermediate zone.
            • The Interior Region, Mat-Su and Northern Southeast Region also saw increases this week. 
            • Other regions’ case rates downtrended this week.

            Regional case trends

            Behavioral Health Region

            Average new cases Aug 16 - 29

            Average new cases Aug 23- Sept 5

            Average new cases  Aug 30- Sept 12

            Average new cases Sept 5- Sept 19

            Anchorage Municipality

            12.6

            14.1

            13.5

            13.2

            Fairbanks North Star Borough

            10.8

            13.7

            17.1

            15.9

            Interior Region except Fairbanks North Star Borough

            7.9

            4.3

            2.7

            3.1

            Juneau City and Borough

            5.1

            6.3

            13.4

            16.3

            Kenai Peninsula Borough

            5.8

            2.9

            2.2

            1.8

            Matanuska-Susitna Region

            6.2

            4.9

            4.3

            4.7

            Northern Southeast Region

            6.3

            5.2

            2.1

            3.1

            Northwest Region

            12.7

            11.0

            10.7

            15.6

            Southern Southeast Region

            6.1

            5.2

            2.5

            Insufficient data; low case rate

            Southwest Region

            1.7

            2.3

            4.2

            3.5

            Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Region

            7.3

            7.6

            6.0 

            8.4

            Statewide

            7.0

            7.9

            8.7

            10.2

             New cases, hospitalizations and deaths

            • This week saw 558 new cases in Alaskans, an increase from last week’s 513 new cases, for a total of 6,836 cumulative cases in Alaskans. 4,610 of those are considered active, or 67%, an increase from 65% last week, as 2,226 Alaskans are thought to have recovered or completed their isolation period. Data on recovery lags data on new cases and may not be up to date. 
            • Cumulative hospitalizations increased to 262 with 16 new this week, slightly more than the increase of 14 last week.
            • Deaths among Alaska residents increased by 1 to 45 total. 
            • There were 16 nonresident cases identified this week, for a total of 931.  

            How COVID-19 spreads in Alaska

            • The majority of new infections among Alaskans are from community spread, not from travel. Most Alaskans get the virus from someone they work, socialize, or go to school with.
            • Many cases do not have a clear source, meaning that contact tracers have not been able to identify where the person got the virus. This could mean that there are cases in our communities that we do not know about. 
            • Many Alaskans who are diagnosed with COVID-19 report that they went to social gatherings, community events, church services and other social venues while they were contagious but before they knew they had the virus.
            • The distribution of cases among people of different races and ethnicities has not changed significantly since last week.
            • Cases continue to increase most rapidly in young adult Alaskans, especially those aged 20-29. 

             

              Alaska DHSS Weekly Covid Summary- September 13-19, 2020 2020-09-23 08:00:00Z 0

              Reporting COVID Deaths

              Behind every one of these statistics is an individual. We're saddened by every death and our hearts go out to the family and loved ones of these individuals who died. 

              DHSS is aware that the topic of how COVID-19 deaths are counted generates a great deal of interest. This webpage should answer some of your questions.

              Current process

              There are two avenues for the public reporting of COVID-19 deaths in Alaska.

               

              By health care facilities

              The first is from reporting by health care facilities. Because COVID-19 is a reportable infectious condition, hospitals report cases of COVID-19 directly to the Division of Public Health’s Section of Epidemiology. Later, if those hospitalized patients pass away, those deaths are also reported. 

              The benefit of this method is real time reporting. The state has the ability to report the death within days of the death occurring. However, this method may not capture deaths because of the time lag associated with COVID patients who may remain hospitalized for a longer period of time, have a more complex disease and death process, or died outside of Alaska. Further, this more real-time method means that deaths have not yet undergone review by CDC.

              Through death certificates

              The second process is through death certificates and their review by CDC. Every death in the state, and of out of state Alaska residents, results in the production of a death record. A death record contains the who, what, when, and where of a death. The cause of death section of a death record provides the ‘why’. A death record is registered by the Division of Public Health’s section of Health Analytics and Vital Records (HAVRS). The cause of death language is de-identified and forwarded to CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). There the cause of death language is coded by nosologists (professional trained to classify disease) using the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) medical classification. Once coded, the data are sent back to HAVRS. These data essentially serve as the final cause of death description.

              The benefit of reporting deaths that moved though the NCHS process is these data represent the most accurate death counts. The cause of death statements have undergone review and have been coded - coded as U07.1. However, a death certificate takes an average of 9 days from the death to be registered by the state. This is before the NCHS review. The disadvantage is a delay of one to three weeks for data review and return to the state. The data lag means NCHS provisional death counts may not reflect all deaths reported by the State during a given time period, especially for more recent periods.

              Data corrections

              Finally, data corrections may change death counts. On occasion a death record needs a correction that may change the death counts. An example might be the original death record had an incorrect state of residence. Generally, upon discovery, corrections are handled by a state’s vital records office and the updated data are provided to NCHS if necessary.

              The Death Certificate process

              The federal government has worked with states to collect and standardize death reporting since the early 1900s. Cause of death and a decedent’s demographics are first recorded onto a death record. Death records are administered by the vital records program in the state where the death occurred. A death record is first filled out by a funeral director; the cause of death section is provided by a medical professional; and final registration is completed by a state’s vital records office.

              CDC considers “Cause of Death” to be a best medical opinion. CDC wants the cause of death to come from medical professionals.

              People can die from more than one cause. CDC reporting conventions allow a death certificates to capture the many conditions that contribute to a person’s death. The Cause of Death section on a death certificate has two parts:

              • Part I is the chain of events –the diseases, injuries, or conditions that directly cause the death. There are four lines available, ‘a’ through ‘d’.

                • Line ‘a’ is reserved for the immediate cause of death. The immediate cause of death is the final disease or condition that resulted in death. 

                • Line ‘b’ (and ‘c’ if necessary) are reserved for intermediate causes of death. The medical professional outlines the logical sequence of causes, or etiology that leads from the underlying cause of death to the immediate cause of death. Sometimes, there is no intermediate cause of death.

                • The last line available is reserved for the underlying cause of death. This is the disease or injury that initiates the chain of events leading to the immediate cause of death.

              • Part II is where a medical professional may enter any medical conditions that contributed or exacerbated, but did not cause, the death.

              Note that for a death by a virus, if the symptomology and circumstances are compelling, and the medical professional is convinced a specific virus caused the death, NCHS will accept a cause of death certification without laboratory confirmation. Again, CDC is looking for a medical opinion. CDC does, however, encourage confirmation of viral deaths with testing.

              After a death record has been certified, the cause of death section is forwarded to CDC’s NCHS. NCHS nosologists review the data, determines its accuracy, electronically and manually code the deaths using ICD-10 classification, and report back the final and coded cause of death to the states. Nosology is a branch of medicine that deals with classification of disease. To become competent takes many years of training. This process has in place since the 1980s for all causes of death.

              Dying from a condition versus dying with a condition

              In the semantics of health researchers, dying from something means a condition is the underlying or contributing cause.

              Consider the case in the example above. The immediate cause of death is a rupture of the myocardium, preceded by an intermediate cause acute myocardial infarction, preceded by an intermediate cause of coronary artery thrombosis, preceded by an underlying cause of atherosclerotic coronary artery disease. If a researcher were asked the cause of death for this individual, they would be correct to say either a rupture of the myocardium, a heart attack, a blocked artery, or hardening and narrowing of the arteries. If a researcher were performing a study on heart disease, this case would be counted. If a researcher were making an annual count of deaths from hardening and narrowing of the arteries in general, again this case would be included. On the other hand, if the researcher was developing a year-end report of leading causes of death, they would just report the underlying cause.

              If a decedent had listed an immediate cause of death of stroke, that was a complication from an intermediate cause of blunt force trauma to the head, which had the underlying cause of a vehicle crash; a researcher would be correct in saying this individual died from a stroke, a head injury, or a car crash. Stroke and the head injury would be considered contributing causes associated with the underlying cause of a car crash.

              On the other hand, if an individual died in a car crash also happen to test positive for COVID-19, COVID-19 would not be listed on the death certificate and the death would not be considered a COVID-19 death. This would be a case of dying with a disease. In this case, the death certificate would only list the sequence of conditions associated with the vehicle crash.

              All reported Alaska resident COVID-19 deaths have the virus listed as a condition in Part I or Part II. A death where COVID-19 is listed in Part II might be considered as a contributing cause depending on how CDC nosologists interpret the cause of death provided by the medical professional. Most Alaskan deaths have listed COVID-19 somewhere in the lethal chain of conditions within Part I. However, if Alaska receives the coding of a COVID-19 death from CDC, even from Part II, we will report it.

              Epidemiological significance of reporting COVID deaths

              Whether COVID-19 shortened a life by 15 years or 15 minutes; whether COVID-19 is an underlying or contributing condition, the virus was in circulation, infected an Alaskan, and hastened their death. This must be reported.

              Despite Alaska’s COVID-19 deaths, we should note that Alaska’s per capita death rate from COVID continues to be lower than almost every other state. Alaska’s overall mortality rate is also lower than most other states. According to JAMA, Alaska has had no estimated level of excess deaths during the COVID time period of March 1 2020 to May 30 2020.  This conclusion is echoed in Alaska’s own look at excess mortality. So far, researchers have not found any unexpected increase in death counts or rates relative to recent years.

              Where can I find COVID Death Data?

              You can find counts of COVID-19 deaths on the Alaska Coronavirus Response Hub: data.coronavirus.alaska.gov.  On the COVID-19 Cases Dashboard, you can find the count of death that can be shown for Alaska residents (including AK residents diagnosed and isolated OOS), non-residents, or for both residents and non-residents diagnosed and isolated in Alaska.  The “Cumulative Deaths” graph on the COVID-19 Cases Dashboard reflects the date when a death was confirmed by the State, not when the death occurred.  “Table 1. Cases by Report Date” of the summary tables also shows a count of deaths; however, this table reflects deaths by the date when the case was confirmed COVID-19 positive, not by the date that the case was reported dead.

              Reporting COVID Deaths 2020-09-17 08:00:00Z 0

              People of Action Around the Globe

              United States

              The Rotary Club of Yakima Sunrise, Washington, has installed nine pianos in public spots where anyone can sit down and tickle the ivories — and the community. Sites include brewpubs, a shopping mall, and a coffee shop, and more installations are planned soon. The Painted Piano Project also provided stipends of $300 to artists who decorated the donated instruments.

              A Heintzman & Co. piano made of crystal was sold at auction for $3.2 million.

              “People stop to listen to the music or take a moment to examine the beautiful artwork,” says Nathan Hull, the club’s immediate past president. “The pianists play everything from Mozart to Van Halen, and that has been a lot of fun.”

              United Kingdom

              To raise funds for End Polio Now, the Rotary Club of Narberth & Whitland is selling Rotary-themed scarves designed by fashion and textiles student Mia Hewitson-Jones with help from graphics student Sam Stables, both enrolled at Pembrokeshire College. The scarves went on sale in 2019 after the club garnered approval from Rotary International for use of the logo. By April of this year, nearly 100 scarves had been sold and another shipment was on the way, says club member John Hughes. “We have sold a few in America and Canada,” adds Hughes. The idea of selling specially designed scarves was conceived by Mary Adams when she was president-elect of the club in 2016.

              Romania

              Faced with the coronavirus pandemic, the Rotaract Club of Cluj-Napoca “SAMVS” adapted an online mental health campaign on the club’s social media accounts, encouraging people to engage in satisfying activities, such as art. The social media campaign focused on “how to make the best of your #stayhome experience,” says club member Loana Vultur. More than 3,000 people have viewed the club’s posts on Facebook and Instagram. “No money was necessary,” Vultur says. “Our resources were our minds, creativity, and the will to help. In Romania we have the expression, ‘Make heaven from what you have.’”

              Image courtesy of Namaste Direct

              Guatemala

              More than 100 Guatemalan women have been helped financially by the Interact Club of Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, California; its sponsoring Rotary Club of San Mateo; and the nonprofit group Namaste Direct. Over the years, about 100 Hillsdale Interactors have joined chaperone Rotarians and teachers on trips to Antigua, a city in Guatemala’s central highlands, to meet the women who have received grants funded through student-led fundraising events including “penny war” collections and taco dinners.

              Nearly half of all Guatemalans live on less than $5.50 a day.

              The site visits are eye-openers for the students, who see how microloans, financial literacy workshops, and mentorship have empowered the women, says Namaste Direct’s founder and chief executive, Robert Graham. He cites Namaste’s policy of charging lower interest rates than many other nongovernmental organizations (loans range from a few hundred dollars to $4,000), its adherence to Western consulting methodologies, and Rotary involvement as major reasons for the program’s success. “Many women have corner convenience stores, while others purchase clothing and household goods in bulk for resale at the local market,” Graham says. Other beneficiaries include a nut vendor, a chicken butcher, and a chocolatier.

              India

              In the Rotary Club of Vapi’s first 20 years, club members oversaw the establishment of a school, a hospital, and a college. “Our club created an entire town worth residing in,” says Ketan Patel. In 2011, seeking a way to honor the RI presidency of club member Kalyan Banerjee, the Rotarians embarked on a project to provide free kidney dialysis that continues to this day. Nearly 3,800 patients have received more than 32,000 procedures. “The entire treatment is free of charge,” says Patel. The cost of the dialysis project is covered by Rotarian and community contributions, along with club fundraising.

              — BRAD WEBBER

              • This story originally appeared in the August 2020 issue of The Rotarian magazine.

              People of Action Around the Globe 2020-09-16 08:00:00Z 0

              CARES Act Funding Used to Support Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Efforts

              Alaska DHSS signup page

              DHSS Press Release: CARES Act funding used to support mental health and suicide prevention efforts

              Alaska DHSS sent this bulletin at 09/10/2020 02:44 PM AKDT

              FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

              Contact:  Clinton Bennett, DHSS, 907-269-4996, clinton.bennett@alaska.gov

              CARES Act funding used to support mental health and suicide prevention efforts

              Sept. 10, 2020 ANCHORAGE — The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) will distribute $750,000 of federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on mental health and address associated risk factors for suicide. The funds will provide direct support to Alaska’s communities and behavioral health providers as they respond to increased mental health needs that have arisen due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

              “We have not seen a significant increase in suicide rates so far this year, but we know that suicide is a leading cause of death for young people in Alaska and our annual suicide rate continues to be much higher than the national rate,” said DHSS Commissioner Adam Crum. “I thank Governor Dunleavy for his support in approving our use of CARES Act funding to help address risk factors for suicide so that Alaska families won’t have to bear the burden of the loss of their loved ones.”

              Through the end of this year, the following strategies will be implemented in response to the mental health challenges Alaskans are facing as a result of the pandemic:

              • Providing funding in each region of the state to prevent suicide, substance misuse and mental health stigma associated with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This will support local strategies, assuring familiarity with the needs unique to each region.
              • Expanding access to the statewide crisis call center which will include targeted efforts to engage youth and young adults, and connect them with local resources.
              • Training behavioral health providers on evidence-based, culturally relevant approaches to treating individuals at risk for suicide.
              • Facilitating postvention community planning and training to support healing after a suicide and prevent further suicides in the affected community. This strategy focuses on developing a community response plan with people from a variety of disciplines – such as police officers, teachers, tribes, journalists, social workers, faith communities and behavioral health providers – using best practices so no one inadvertently increases the likelihood of someone else taking their life. Each community develops a plan that is specific to the needs and resources within their own communities or regions.

              “We recognized the need for more support to individuals and communities given Alaska’s long-standing struggle with high rates of suicide, which is being compounded by additional stressors from the pandemic,” said Division of Behavioral Health Director Gennifer Moreau said. “But we also know Alaskans are resilient and that if we support one another, these strategies can provide the help we all need to get through this together.”

              The week of Sept. 6-12, 2020 is National Suicide Prevention Week which occurs each year during National Suicide Prevention Month. All year long, including the month of September, DHSS and Governor Dunleavy are committed to taking actions to improve the lives of Alaskans during these difficult times.

              # # #

              CARES Act Funding Used to Support Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Efforts 2020-09-16 08:00:00Z 0

              Week of September 8th -- Information From KPBSD

              link: COVID-19 in KPBSD Web Hub

              Dear KPBSD Parents and Guardians,

              This letter will help your family prepare should our school district or your school have a COVID-19 event occur. An event could be a positive COVID-19 case, outbreak (two or more positive cases in a school) or exposure to COVID-19 in a school. The health and safety of our students, staff, and families is our top priority.

              KPBSD works closely with local public health officials and they will provide support and direction to manage every COVID-19 related scenario that affects our school communities. If or when a COVID-19 event occurs related to your school, you will receive information via the usual school and district communication methods. Depending upon the situation and response needed by you, the contact may come via a phone call, email, alert, or general notification.

              KPBSD honors HIPAA and FERPA privacy laws, so your name and your child’s name will not be revealed by the school, unless you give the school permission to do so. A dedicated webpage at KPBSD.org is where to find the most up to date information.

              If your child receives a positive COVID-19 test result, and they have been at school two days prior to the onset of symptoms, or the testing date that resulted in a positive test result, it will be helpful to begin contact tracing at their school immediately. So, we need your help when you learn of a positive COVID-19 test result for your child. Call Nurse Iris, KPBSD Nursing Supervisor to confidentially report a positive COVID-19 test result. You can reach her at 907-260-2391, iwertz@kpbsd.k12.ak.us. Alternately, call your school nurse or administrator.

              It is important for everyone in our community to protect themselves against the remarkably contagious novel coronavirus. These are some ways to protect your family:
               

              • Symptom Free School Protocol: keep children who are sick at home—do not send them to school
                 
              • Teach your children to wash hands with soap and water for 20 seconds, and set a good example by doing this yourself
                 
              • Teach children to cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue or by coughing into the inside of their elbow, Be sure to set a good example by doing this yourself
                 
              • Time and distance: teach your children to protect your family bubble or their school cohort, and practice physical distancing of about six feet away from others
                 
              • Mask up with a cloth face covering when appropriate, especially indoors in crowded public places, on the school bus, and in school hallways. Grades 3 and older in the KPBSD wear a mask at school when six foot physical distancing is not possible

              When you have COVID-19 related questions, contact your school nurse, healthcare provider, local public health department, or visit the state DHSS or national CDC websites. You can find specific information for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District on our dedicated COVID-19 in KPBSD Hub webpage that includes communication updates, safety protocols, 2020 Smart Start Plan, sports and activities, risk levels on the Kenai Peninsula, and the COVID19 Confirmed Case in School Response Matrix. Your school is always available to help, or you can reach out to the school district COVID-19 line at 907-714-8864, email covid19@kpbsd.org, or visit covid19.kpbsd.org.

              This year will require adaption, a flexible mindset, and we will get through this with both challenges and blessings. We promise to communicate often, be proactive and swiftly reactive when necessary, even when we do not have all the answers. Superintendent John O’Brien reminds us, “We will focus on and provide for the social, emotional, and mental health needs of our students, staff, parents, and community. I have no doubt that together we will not only get through this new school year but will also hopefully become more resilient and empathetic to the needs of others.”

               

               

               

              Tuesday, September 8, 2020, schools throughout the central peninsula* will open to welcome students to onsite, at school learning!
              The COVID-19 risk levels have dropped in the central peninsula area, so after evaluating 14 day positive COVID-19 case counts, 7 day trends, consultation with the KPBSD COVID-19 Medical Risk Level Advisory Team and Public Health, everyone can plan for schools* to open!

              School Start and End Times

               

               

              Visit the new KPBSD COVID-19 risk level dashboard with daily updates.

              *Central Peninsula Schools will open on Tuesday, September 8, 2020, to onsite at school learning. The 100% Remote Learning option also continues.

              Central Kenai Peninsula includes Kasilof to Sterling, extending through Kenai, Nikiski, Soldotna, and DHSS “other north” communities

              • Aurora Borealis Charter School
              • Kaleidoscope Charter School
              • K-Beach Elementary School
              • Kenai Alternative School
              • Kenai Central High School
              • Kenai Middle School
              • Mountain View Elementary School
              • Nikiski Middle-High School
              • Nikiski North Star Elementary School
              • Redoubt Elementary School
              • River City Academy
              • Skyview Middle School
              • Soldotna Elementary School
              • Soldotna High School
              • Soldotna Montessori Charter School
              • Sterling Elementary School
              • Other North: Tustumena Elementary School

              Calendar change: the two Early Release days for students in September and October are cancelled.

              Week of September 8th -- Information From KPBSD 2020-09-09 08:00:00Z 0


              The Rotarian Conversation: Vivek Murthy

               
              Loneliness — the absence of human connection — is twice as prevalent as diabetes in the United States. A former surgeon general tells us what we can do about it
               
              Vivek Murthy grew up helping out in his parents’ medical practice, filing charts and cleaning the office as he watched the way they built connections with their patients by taking the time to listen to what they had to say.
               
              When he became America’s top doctor — the 19th U.S. surgeon general, a position he held from 2014 to 2017 — he went on a listening tour himself. Some of the problems people told him about were things he anticipated: opioids and obesity, diabetes and heart disease. He also talked to Elmo of Sesame Street about vaccines and called for addiction to be recognized as the health problem it is rather than a moral failing.
              But one unexpected topic became a recurring theme: loneliness, which “ran like a dark thread through many of the more obvious issues that people brought to my attention,” Murthy writes in his new book, Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World.
               
              A 2018 Kaiser Family Foundation report found that 22 percent of American adults say they often or always feel lonely — that’s 55 million people, twice the number that are diagnosed with diabetes. Australia pegs its problems with loneliness at around 25 percent of its adult population. The United Kingdom has a similar figure. And other countries in Europe and Asia are struggling with double-digit percentages. “My guess is that most of these survey numbers are underestimated, because most people still don’t feel comfortable admitting that they are lonely — whether that’s to an anonymous person administering a survey or even to themselves,” Murthy said in an interview with The Rotarian.
               
              Before becoming one of the country’s youngest surgeons general at age 37, overseeing 6,600 public health officers in more than 800 locations, Murthy partnered with Rotary clubs and other service organizations in India to set up community events for an HIV/AIDS education program that he co-founded with his sister, Rashmi. He also co-founded the nonprofit Doctors for America and the software technology company TrialNetworks.
               
              Murthy spoke with senior staff writer Diana Schoberg by phone in April from Miami, where he was staying during the COVID-19 pandemic.

              THE ROTARIAN: Hypothetically speaking, is a Tibetan monk in seclusion lonely?
               
              VIVEK MURTHY: Loneliness is a subjective state — it’s not determined by the number of people around you, but by how you feel about the connections in your life. People who are surrounded by hundreds of others, whether they are students on a college campus or workers in a busy office, may be lonely if they don’t feel those are people with whom they can fully be themselves. Others who may have only a few people around them may not feel lonely at all if they feel good about those relationships and good about themselves.
               
              For a monk to exist in complete isolation and not feel lonely, he would have developed a very deep spiritual practice and built a strong connection to God and the divine. 
               
              “Service shifts our attention from ourselves to other people.”
               
              TR: In your book, you describe someone who found his purpose and connection in the military. How can we find that sort of team environment?
               
              MURTHY: People who have served in the Peace Corps together can often experience similar bonds. People also have that deep shared experience in times of natural disasters — not just the shared pain and trauma of a disaster, but also the shared joy and inspiration of the response to that trauma. People who have been a part of an organization where they have a deep sense of mission and where they’ve sacrificed together for the cause can also experience the bond. 
               
              How do we create more opportunities for experiences like that? Part of that has to do with how we prioritize social connections as we get older. To many people, it seems almost like an indulgence to prioritize their relationships. They have responsibilities to their families, their kids, and their work, and it’s a question of where relationships fit in.
               
              TR: What role can Rotary play?
               
              MURTHY: What is powerful about organizations like Rotary is that they are rooted in service. Service shifts our attention from ourselves, where it increasingly is focused when we feel lonely, to other people and in the context of a positive interaction. Service reaffirms that we have value to add to the world. One of the consequences of loneliness when it’s long-lasting is that it can chip away at our self-esteem and lead us to start believing that the reason we’re lonely is that we’re somehow not likable. Service short-circuits that. 
               
              Right now, people want to help. What they don’t know is where to go to actually do something meaningful. Organizations can provide those opportunities. That can be extraordinarily powerful. When I started doing community work, one of the principles I was taught is that people come to the table for the mission, but they stay at the table for the people. It’s hard to sustain even the worthiest mission without building a strong sense of connection between the people who are participating. 
               
              TR: What can we build into our clubs to foster that sense of belonging?
               
              MURTHY: Shared experience, shared mission, and the opportunity to understand each other more deeply create deeper connections. We’ve touched a little bit on the shared experience and shared mission part. But the opportunity to understand each other more deeply is something you can facilitate with a little bit of structure. 
               
              When I was the surgeon general, we did an exercise called “Inside Scoop.” That turned out to be far more effective than the happy hours and group picnics that we had been doing before. At each weekly staff meeting, one person would show pictures to share something about their lives. It was so useful because it didn’t take much time at all — five minutes during a meeting. But it created an atmosphere where it was OK to share and it was OK to bring some part of yourself that was not work-related to the table. And that ended up being the key to helping people understand each other and learn about each other.
               
              TR: How can technology help us connect in a healthy way? 
               
              MURTHY: Despite all of the tools we have for staying in touch with each other, technology is a double-edged sword. Just as it can be used for strengthening our connections, it can contribute to their deterioration.
              When you use technology to strengthen social connections, it can happen in a few ways. For example, you can connect with people you might otherwise not be able to connect with. When I was younger, the only affordable way we had to connect with my grandparents or cousins in India was to write them a letter, which took two weeks to get there, and a response would take two weeks to come back. Now, we can talk much more frequently because we can videoconference with them at next to no charge. That is a great example of how to use technology for the better.
              Another example would be when we use online platforms as a bridge to offline connections. So if I’m coming to Milwaukee for a talk, I can post that on Facebook. And if that helps my friends get in touch with me and meet up, that’s a great way to facilitate in-person connection.
               
              “Loneliness is a natural signal that our body gives us when we’re lacking something that we need for survival.”
               
              TR: Is there anything we’re learning because of COVID-19 about communication that will help us as we go back to being in-person communicators?
               
              MURTHY: For many of us, the absence of physical contact with other people has made it all the more clear how essential in-person interaction is. And how there really isn’t a full substitute for it. We can get close with things like videoconferencing, but it’s just not the same. 
              Also, it’s become more apparent that it’s not just your family and friends that make a difference as to how connected you feel; it’s the interactions that you have with neighbors and community members and strangers. There’s something powerful in receiving a smile from someone. Those moments have a significant effect on lifting our mood.
               
              TR: Is loneliness something that can be diagnosed? Is it medically recognized?
               
              MURTHY: Loneliness can be assessed; the UCLA Loneliness Scale is one example. But it’s not the kind of condition that we currently would diagnose as an illness, per se. Loneliness is a universal condition that people experience for varying periods in their life. It’s a natural signal that our body gives us when we’re lacking something that we need for survival, which is social connection. In that sense, it’s very similar to hunger or thirst. Our social connections are just as vital to our survival as food or water. If we feel lonely in the absence of adequate social connections for a short time, we can use that signal to reach out and spend more time with a friend. But when loneliness lasts a long time, we start to run into trouble with it affecting our mood and having a long-term effect on our physical health. 
               
              Doctors and nurses should be aware of loneliness, because it’s likely present in the lives of many of the patients that they care for and likely having an impact on the health outcomes that they’re trying to address. But we should be cautious about making people think that loneliness is an illness. There is already a fair amount of stigma about loneliness that makes people feel that if they’re lonely, they’re socially deficient in some way. Not everyone who is lonely is broken. Nor do we need a new medication or medical device to solve the problem of loneliness. I think what we need is to re-center ourselves and refocus our lives on relationships. 
               
              TR: Because of the coronavirus, people are staying home for the good of all people — not necessarily for themselves, but so they don’t pass the virus to vulnerable populations. Why doesn’t that message translate for vaccines?
               
              MURTHY: It’s a fascinating and disturbing phenomenon. There were times when people were more accepting of the need to vaccinate in order to protect not only their own kids, but also other kids. What has happened over time is that misinformation has proliferated. Some of it has been based on erroneous studies. Some of it has capitalized on fears that parents had about their children developing conditions like autism around the same time they were getting vaccines, even though the two aren’t related. It is emotionally charged — we’re talking about people’s children here. 
              When a threat is new, people tend to come together because there is an immediate danger and they’ve got to figure out how to save themselves. But the longer that threat continues, the more likely you are to get misinformation, especially if the effort to contain the threat is painful. And in the case of COVID-19, it is painful.
               
              While the response to COVID-19 and the resistance to vaccines feel very different, there are similar risks. All of us want this to end as quickly as possible, and if a source that we trust starts to tell us that this is a hoax or there’s an easy way out, some people are going to believe that. Not because they’re bad people or uneducated, but because in the face of continued pain, all of our minds will look for a way out. 
               
              TR: What are the best responses to someone who refuses to vaccinate their children?
               
              MURTHY: We have to understand what’s driving people’s concerns. Is it because of a personal experience? Is it because someone that they trust had a bad experience? One of the worst ways you can deal with misinformation is to shut other people down and to make them feel that they’re ill-informed or that you don’t respect them.
               
              The second thing that’s important is to be vulnerable and open to sharing your own story. If you have a child and struggled with a similar decision, or if you felt the pain of seeing your child being poked with a needle, it’s important to share that. It’s easier for two people who share a human experience to talk about a complicated issue than for two strangers to do that. 
               
              Beyond vaccines, I’m thinking about political polarization in our country and in the world. We have lost so much of the power of our connection with each other. We’ve allowed our relationships to be edged out and deprioritized — not just with family and friends, but also with our neighbors and community members. As a result, it’s become harder for us to talk about difficult issues like health care, climate change, or any number of big issues that we’re facing as a society. If we can’t engage in healthy dialogue, we can’t solve big problems.
               
              • Rotary Action Groups connect Rotary members and friends who want to work together toward a shared mission such as water or the environment. Find out more at rotary.org/actiongroups.
               
              • Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa
               
              • This story originally appeared in the August 2020 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              The Rotarian Conversation: Vivek Murthy 2020-09-09 08:00:00Z 0

              What It’s Like to Survive Through Two Pandemics

              By Illustrations by 

              Sixty-five years ago, in 1955, I was diagnosed with polio. I was two years old, so I was unaware of what it meant to have been infected with the poliovirus, but I became more aware of it in subtle ways as I got older. And at some point, I understood what my mother meant when she said I was “one of the lucky ones.”

              My mother came from Jersey City, New Jersey, and she sounded like it all her life, aided and abetted by a daily regimen of unfiltered Kool cigarettes. She drove a supply truck as a civilian during World War II and delighted in telling a tale about a GI who tried to “get fresh” with her when she gave him a lift back to the base. When she told him she was married and her husband was deployed overseas, he said, “Baby, what’re you saving it for — the worms?”

              She stopped the truck and told him, “Ride in back, buster!” I have no doubt that she used an expletive, although she never employed one in the retelling, Jersey accent notwithstanding. But she still thought “saving it for the worms” was the funniest line she had ever heard. She was a woman who could take things in stride, the quintessential “tough cookie.”

              But there was one recollection that could unravel my mother like no other — the one that involved her youngest son being diagnosed with polio and the palpable fear that stalked parents across the country during the summers of the early 1950s. She could not stop her voice from cracking when she spoke about that time. That, along with her warnings about staying out of “polio puddles” after it rained, shaped my awareness of how frightening the epidemic had been.

              Among my childhood memories, getting the oral polio vaccine is as vivid as the classroom drills that taught us to seek safety under our desks in case of a nuclear attack. While I can now joke about how sturdy school desks must have been back then, there’s no amusement in my recollection of lining up outside the local firehouse for the Sabin sugar cube — that was serious, important business. I knew it then, and I know it now.

              My appreciation for having survived polio faded away over time, but returned in force about 12 years ago when I began writing for Rotary magazine. I had assumed polio had been eradicated — or, more accurately, I didn’t think about it. I have since had the opportunity to get to know, and be awed by, some of the Rotarian volunteers who are working to achieve that goal.

              One of the lucky ones

              Now, as the novel coronavirus makes its way across the world, I feel a renewed gratitude for what it means to be one of the lucky ones — and a deeper understanding of how terrifying life was for many people six decades ago. As a 67-year-old former smoker, I’m among those now considered vulnerable — I have two adult children to keep reminding me of that — but I’m also among the privileged. My wife and I are able to work from home, we live in a single-family house with creature comforts, and we can afford to practice social distancing with little sacrifice.

              Although adults were not immune to polio — President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously contracted the disease at age 39 — most of its victims were young children. Today, COVID-19 appears to pose the most danger to people over 60 — that is, the same group that polio targeted 65 years ago. “There was a high level of fear in the country then, very similar to what we have now,” says Cort Vaughan, who is one of those volunteers I’m awed by. When we spoke in April, Vaughan and his wife, Tonya, had recently returned from participating in a polio vaccination campaign in India.

              A member of the Rotary Club of Greater Bend, Oregon, and a past End Polio Now coordinator, Vaughan began his work on the polio front before he was even aware of it: He was a March of Dimes poster child in Riverside, California, when he was three years old. He still has a copy of an article from a local newspaper with a photo of him dressed as a cowboy guarding the spare change that people contributed during a fundraising drive in 1955.

              Vaughan doesn’t remember contracting polio at age two in October 1954, but, he says, “I have clear memories of my parents relating stories about it, and I could feel the emotion in their voices about what they went through. For my mother, it was like she was reliving the fear and anxiety of having her child stricken with a potentially deadly disease. Their stories were so vivid, so palpable, they almost became my own memories.”

              The darkest story starts with his mother discovering one morning that her toddler was suddenly unable to walk, calling the doctor, and rushing him to the hospital. “If you had to go to the hospital, there was a high probability of being crippled for life,” Vaughan says. “Once my parents took me there, it was out of their hands.” At that time, polio wards restricted visitors, and Vaughan’s mother was desperate to be with him. “She discovered a women’s group that was sending volunteers to hospitals. She joined the Junior League primarily to get to see me.”

              Vaughan’s illness paralyzed his right leg from the knee down, requiring him to wear a brace and sentencing him to a childhood in which frequent trips to the hospital for physical therapy replaced playing outdoors with friends. “I didn’t feel lucky then, but looking back, now I do,” he says. He also believes that the knowledge that comes from living with the scars of polio has heightened his grasp of what is required to overcome the current pandemic. “I know what it’s like to face a hidden threat, and I understand the need for people to stay vigilant and work together to prevent the spread,” he says. “I was defending the stay-at-home order in Oregon early on, when friends and relatives were thinking it was not really serious.”

              Breaking the silence around polio

              If the term “tough cookie” ever makes it back into common parlance, Carol Ferguson could be its poster adult. It wasn’t until her late 40s that she realized the pain and muscle weakness she was experiencing were post-polio syndrome linked to contracting the virus four decades earlier. Six years ago, Ferguson enlisted the help of three other polio survivors and five friends to launch the Pennsylvania Polio Survivors Network, a volunteer advocacy organization that shares people’s stories, provides information about post-polio syndrome, and lobbies legislators to increase awareness of polio and of the need to prevent infectious diseases through immunization.

              Ferguson, a member of the Rotary Club of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, and District 7430 PolioPlus subcommittee chair, says the stories she began hearing at the start of the first wave of COVID-19 bear an eerie resemblance to those her fellow polio survivors tell: a girl hospitalized at age five who remembers weekly visits from her parents during which she could only wave to them through a window; a two-year-old boy who was turned away from a hospital because no beds were available.

              Ferguson’s own story is revealing for what her parents didn’t tell her. “When I was two years old, I had the ‘summer grippe,’ which we now know to be polio,” she says. “Ten years later, a doctor examined me and said I had a ‘polio foot.’ That was the only time that word was mentioned. My mother lived to be 92, but she didn’t speak about polio until shortly before she died. My father died having never spoken the word. I realize now that this is a reflection of the fear that they felt.”

              Ferguson feels no such need for silence. Earlier this year, she spearheaded an initiative, in partnership with the Pennsylvania Immunization Coalition and local Rotary clubs, to produce a vaccination information and resource card to distribute to new parents in the state.

              When Jonas Salk announced the success of his historic vaccine trial in April 1955, there was widespread acceptance of the need for mass immunizations. At some point in the future, a modern-day Salk or Albert Sabin will emerge to announce a vaccine to control the spread of COVID-19. But it’s anyone’s guess how widely accepted that vaccine will be.

              Although we now have the benefit of communications technology that people in the 1950s could hardly imagine, that technology can also allow misinformation — and disinformation — to spread as rapidly as a virus itself. Ferguson is hopeful that credible and accurate information about vaccines will prevail. Oh, do I hope she’s right.

              • This story originally appeared in the September 2020 issue of Rotary magazine.

              • Paul Engleman is a polio survivor and a frequent contributor to Rotary magazine.

              What It’s Like to Survive Through Two Pandemics 2020-09-02 08:00:00Z 0

              COVID-19 in Alaska From Sunday, August 23rd Through Saturday, August 29th, 2020

              COVID-19 Weekly Case Update

              This Data Summary Covers COVID-19 in Alaska From Sunday, August 23rd Through Saturday, August 29th, 2020.

              Background

              The Alaska COVID-19 Weekly Case Update will be composed every weekend with data from the previous week and the report will be published by the following Wednesday. Data are continually updated on the AK DHSS Data Hub, which reflects the most current case counts. This summary presents data from the previous week and is a snapshot of the information available on known cases at the time. 

              Highlights

              • We continue to see new cases of COVID-19 in Alaska. 

              • The majority of new infections among Alaskans are from community spread, not from travel, meaning that most Alaskans get the virus from someone they work, socialize, or go to school with.

              • Many Alaskans who are diagnosed with COVID-19 report that they went to social gatherings, community events, church services and other social venues while they were contagious but before they knew they had the virus.

              • Cases disproportionately affect Alaska Native People and that proportion is rising; Alaskans who identify as Black or Pacific Islander are also disproportionately impacted although the numbers of people affected in these populations are smaller, making it more difficult to judge whether these differences will be statistically significant

              • Many cases are still under investigation and race is not yet known.

              • Hospital occupancy statewide remained between around 50% and 60% this week, however this number includes beds in smaller hospitals that do not usually accept patients transferred from larger communities.

              • Alaskans should avoid gatherings, wear masks when around any non-household member, keep six feet of distance from anyone not in their household and wash hands frequently to slow community transmission of COVID-19.

              New cases

              This week saw 491 new cases in Alaskans and 21 in nonresidents, for a total of 5,226 and 860 respectively. Several cases previously classified as resident cases have since been reclassified as nonresident cases after further investigation took place. 18 additional Alaskans required hospitalization this week for COVID-19, for a total of 215 since the epidemic began. Five additional deaths were reported this week, for a total of 37. By convention, deaths are counted based on the residency of the patient rather than where they contracted the virus.  

              Cases occurring in schools

              As school starts around Alaska, several cases have been identified in conjunction with schools or school sports, including several cases identified in Matanuska-Susitna Borough schools, one case identified in a high school football player in Fairbanks North Star Borough, and several cases identified in conjunction with the UAF hockey team. 

              The divisions of Public Health and Epidemiology are working closely with school districts to respond to cases in school, conduct contact tracing, investigate whether there has been any spread within schools and determine when it is reasonable to reopen.  

              Epidemic curve

              This analysis projects growth or reduction in cases predicted in the coming weeks based on the growth of cases in recent weeks. The most recent 7 days (grey bars) are not included because there can be a delay in reporting data. This model assumes exponential growth or reduction in cases and can be a useful tool to visualize how quickly cases are increasing or decreasing. This curve does not project what might happen if more people start wearing masks or increase physical distancing; it assumes Alaskans and visitors to Alaska do not change their behavior. The dotted line is the average prediction, and the grey shaded area is estimated error for the predicted rise in cases. For a full description of methods, visit https://coronavirus-response-alaska-dhss.hub.arcgis.com/

              Currently, cases are predicted to halve about every 75 days based on the current case trend, a slight improvement from last week, when cases were predicted to halve every 90 days. Keeping the case trend prediction downsloping will depend on a continued effort among Alaskans to slow the spread of transmission through physical distancing, masks and limiting contacts. 

              Communities affected this week 

              New cases were found in Alaskans who are residents of the following communities:

              • Anchorage (269), Chugiak (1), Eagle River (6), for a total of 276 in the Anchorage Municipality
              • Bethel (4) and smaller communities in the Bethel Census Area (16) for a total of 20
              • Fairbanks (71), North Pole (6) and one in a smaller community, for a total of 78 in the Fairbanks North Star Borough
              • Juneau (11)
              • Kenai (4), Homer (1), Soldotna (5) and one in a smaller community, for a total of 11 in the Kenai Peninsula Borough
              • Ketchikan (4)
              • Wasilla (26), Palmer (9), Sutton-Alpine (2) and 1 in Willow for 38 in the Mat-Su Borough
              • Nome (2) and 6 in a smaller community or communities, for a total of 8 in the Nome Census Area
              • Utquiagvik (9) and one in a smaller community, for a total of 10 in the North Slope Borough
              • Kotzebue (1) and 3 in a smaller community or communities, for a total of 4 in the Northwest Arctic Borough
              • 5 in communities in the Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area
              • Sitka (4)
              • Unalaska (2)
              • Cordova (1), Valdez (2), and one in a smaller community, for a total of 4 in the Valdez-Cordova Census Area
              • Wrangell (2)
              • Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon Census Areas (9)
              • Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (5)

              Case rates and alert levels

              7-day Case Rate Map (cases per 100,000 people)

              The 7 day case rate map depicts cases adjusted by population for a given region (cases per 100,000 people). The regions are large because Alaska is a large state with few densely populated centers, so this case rate can only be meaningful across large regions. 

              Regions with increased rates this week included the Anchorage Municipality (13.1 from 11.7), Fairbanks North Star Borough (11.5 from 10.3), Y-K Delta Region (10.9 from 4.9), the Southern Southeast Region (6.5 from 5.7) and the Northern Southeast Region (9.1 from a rate too small to calculate last week). 

              Among improved regions are the Northwest region, still high at 10.4 but improved from 15.6 last week, the Interior Region at 5.5 from 9.8, Mat-Su (5.0 from 7.7), Kenai Peninsula Borough (2.7 from 7.7), and Juneau City and Borough (4.0 from 6.7). 

              Most states use a 7 day case rate per 100,000 population to estimate trends in community transmission. Roughly, rates of >10 cases daily per 100,000 population correspond to widespread community transmission and >5 to moderate community transmission, but a sharp increase or decrease in these rates can help predict how the next week or weeks will look for the region.  

              Because of Alaska’s unique geography and smaller population, a 14 day case rate can also be useful. The alert level map above, designed to help long term facilities decide when it may be safer to allow visitors in their facilities, uses a 14 day case rate approach. 

              In high alert level (red) is the Northwest Borough (12.7 from 11.7 last week),  Fairbanks North Star Borough (10.8 from 8.3), and the Anchorage Municipality (12.6 from 13.0). 

              In intermediate alert level (orange) is Kenai Peninsula Borough (5.8 from 9.1), the Interior Region excluding Fairbanks (7.9 from 10.4), Juneau City and Borough (5.1 from 11.6), Matanuska-Susitna Borough (6.2 from 6.4), the Y-K Delta Region (7.3 from 5.4), the Northern Southeast Region (6.3 from 4.5), and the Southern Southeast region (6.1 from 6.5). 

              In low alert level (yellow) is the Southwest region (1.7 from 3.5).

              More information on alert levels is available on this page

              How Alaskans acquired COVID-19

              DHSS monitors how people most likely got the virus. In green in the plot below are Alaska residents who acquired COVID-19 by traveling to other states or countries. In March, a substantial proportion of our cases were related to Alaskans returning from elsewhere, while in April and May, fewer Alaskans traveled. Since June, as travel has started to increase, cases in Alaskans related to travel have begun to occur more regularly. 

              In blue below are cases where Alaskans got COVID-19 from a known contact. These are people who did not leave the state, but we could trace their illness back to the person they got it from. The goal is for contact tracing to identify each of these cases where someone got it from someone else they had contact with so they can let all other contacts of both people know to quarantine. As contact tracing expanded in May, more cases from contacts were identified.

              In red, however, are cases where Alaskans got COVID-19 and contact tracing was not able to establish a clear source. This demonstrates that there are other cases in our communities that we have not found yet. The biggest increase in cases in Alaska has been in people aged 20-39, with many cases linked to bars and social gatherings.

              Grey bars show the cases where the investigation has not yet concluded. Since the workload for contact tracers has more than doubled in the last few weeks, they are working as fast as possible to identify and quarantine contacts. Alaskans can help contact tracers move faster and prevent more cases by keeping their contact list small, keeping a diary of who they are in close contact with (defined as within 6 feet for 10 minutes or more), wearing cloth face coverings when around any non-household members or in public, and responding promptly to being contacted. 

               

              COVID-19 in Alaska From Sunday, August 23rd Through Saturday, August 29th, 2020 2020-09-02 08:00:00Z 0

              COVID19 Risk Level in the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District

               

              VISIT THE NEW KPBSD COVID19 Data Dashboard

              Current Risk Levels effective August 31, 2020, until further notice*
              Central Peninsula: MEDIUM
              Eastern Peninsula: LOW
              Southern Peninsula: LOW
              Small Communities: LOW

              (updated 8-31-20)

              KPBSD Central Peninsula Schools

              When the COVID-19 risk level jumped to high on August, 18, 2020, a decision to assist with parent and staff planning was made to delay the onsite learning option at 17 central peninsula schools. Therefore, from August 24 - September 4, school opened with only a 100% Onsite Learning option. Superintendent O'Brien will announce on Wednesday, September 2, 2020, if schools will open to at school learning after Labor Day on Tuesday, September 8, 2020, depending on COVID-19 risk levels.
              Update August 31, 2020: Risk Levels in Central Peninsula dropped to medium risk, so sports and activities may resume immediately with ASAA guidelines for intermediate COVID-19 risk. Schools will potentially open classes to students and onsite learning on September 8, 2020.

              When the onset of COVID-19 happened, the need to make rational and informed operational decisions became primary for the health and safety of our students, staff, and communities. KPBSD incorporated science-based guidance to assist in our decision-making processes.

              The KPBSD COVID19 risk map shows low, medium, or high risk in three general areas of the Kenai Peninsula, and small communities. The risk determination is made in conjunction with the State of Alaska actual 14 day test counts, state seven day averages of positive cases, Public Health, the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS), the Alaska Department of Education and Early Learning (DEED), Kenai Peninsula cooperators, and the KPBSD COVID19 Community Risk Level Medical Advisory Group.

               

              The KPBSD is divided into geographical risk areas:

               

              • Central Kenai Peninsula includes Sterling to Kasilof, extending through Kenai, Nikiski, Soldotna, and DHSS “other north” communities:
                Aurora Borealis Charter School; Connections Homeschool; Kaleidoscope Charter School; K-Beach Elementary School; Kenai Alternative School; Kenai Central High School; Kenai Middle School; Mountain View Elementary School; Nikiski Middle-High School; Nikiski North Star Elementary School; Redoubt Elementary School; River City Academy; Skyview Middle School; Soldotna Elementary School; Soldotna High School; Soldotna Montessori Charter School; Sterling Elementary School and Other North: Tustumena Elementary School

               

              • Eastern Kenai Peninsula includes Seward area, including Moose Pass
                Moose Pass Elementary School; Seward Elementary School; Seward High School; Seward Middle School

               

              • Southern Kenai Peninsula includes Homer area, north to Ninilchik, Anchor Point, Fritz Creek, and DHSS “other south” communities:
                Chapman School; Connections Homeschool; Fireweed Academy; Homer Flex School; Homer High School; Homer Middle School; McNeil Canyon Elementary School; Paul Banks Elementary School; West Homer Elementary School; and Other South: Kachemak-Selo School;Nikolaevsk School; Ninilchik School; Razdolna School; Voznesenka School

               

              • Schools in Individual or Remote Communities

              Cooper Landing School; Hope School; Nanwalek School; Port Graham School; Susan B. English School (Seldovia); Tebughna School

              The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) created a tool with three levels of alert based on the amount of community transmission on a per capita incidence of cases per 100,000 population as part of their plan to reopen long-term care facilities to visitors. Every day the DHSS calculates the number of new cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents, then averages it over the past 14 days. The DHSS article and chart are found at the following link: http://dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/id/Pages/COVID-19/alertlevels.aspx

              20-0720 COVID Alert Level Chart

              The DHSS article specifically states:

              “These community transmission levels were developed to inform decisions about allowing visitors to long-term care facilities. However average daily per capita incidence may inform decision making in other sectors as well, such as schools, institutions of higher education, and businesses.”

              The Alaska School Activities Association (ASAA) adopted this modeling to determine risk levels for student activities and sports.

              KPBSD believes that the safety of our staff and students should be as important as the safety of our senior citizens, so we have adopted the same numbers used by DHSS. We have created a “KPBSD Level of Determination by Community-Region” chart that converts the population of the borough and its communities on the “cases per 100,000 population” standard that the State used. The KPBSD chart shows case counts in two ways, the daily average case rate over fourteen days, and the total maximum number of cases in the last 14-day period.

              KPBSD created a “Resident Coronavirus Cases On The Kenai Peninsula” chart to track the daily number of cases on the Kenai Peninsula as reported by the State of Alaska on the upper portion of the chart. On the bottom half of the page, cases are grouped by Region. The cases are shown in three different ways:

              • a total of all cases
              • a total of cases in the last 14-day period
              • a daily average in the last 14-day period

              The latter two numbers are used in coordination with the “KPBSD Level of Determination by Community-Region” chart to determine what alert level each region is in for KPBSD operations. Risk levels are not solely determined by the 14 day counts, but this data provides a framework for risk level.

              COVID19 Risk Level in the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District 2020-09-01 08:00:00Z 0

              KPBSD Weekly Update: August 26, 2020

              KPBSD Weekly Update: August 26, 2020

              “During this first week of school, I have heard countless positive stories from our staff about how excited they are to have students back and begin a new school year. I am closely watching each day as DHSS releases COVID-19 case counts, and am pleased with how the Central Peninsula has been trending the past few days.

              I am hopeful that we will be able to open our Central Peninsula schools to in-person onsite learning on Tuesday September 8, 2020, if these encouraging trends continue. Thank you for your patience and commitment to education on the Kenai Peninsula.” –Superintendent John O’Brien

              New Risk Level Data Dashboard by school, geographical area, and 14 day positive case count is live, and updated automatically, every day! The need to make rational and informed operational decisions is primary for the health and safety of schools. KPBSD incorporates science-based guidance to assist in decision-making processes. Learn more at the KPBSD and COVID19 risk level webpageTip: visit and bookmark the new data dashboard.
               

              What is the Symptom-Free School Protocol for students and staff?

              The purpose of this protocol is to provide a learning environment that is as free of illness as possible, so students and staff of all health levels can participate in school without fear. By extension, this will also promote the safety, health and welfare of our communities. This applies to students, staff, parents and guardians, volunteers, and any school visitors.

              Parents and Guardians: check your child’s temperature every morning before sending them to school. Ask your child how they feel before determining if they should be sent to school.

              When to Stay Home from School

              Stay home if:

              • You have active vomiting or diarrhea
              • You have fever, chills, generalized body aches. (Fever threshold will constitute 100.0 degrees Fahrenheit or higher without use of fever-reducing medication like Tylenol or Ibuprofen.)
              • If you have any other COVID-19 symptoms: fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, shaking with chills, muscle pain, runny or stuffy nose, headache, sore throat, new loss of taste or smell.
                • Parent, guardian, or individual should call their health care provider or Public Health first for guidance regarding presenting symptoms and possible testing for COVID-19
              • You are taking the first 24 hours of antibiotic treatment
              • You have an undiagnosed, new and, or, untreated rash or skin condition
              • If you have traveled outside Alaska or returned in the last 14 days and have not yet completed the state-required quarantine and, or, testing protocol

              When to Return to School After Illness

              • If you have been tested and are diagnosed with COVID19, you may return to school no sooner than 10 days after the onset of symptoms, or the date you took the test that was returned positive, whichever is earlier, and you have been symptom free for 24 hours without medication
              • If you have COVID19-like symptoms but choose not to be tested, you may return to school no sooner than 10 days after the onset of symptoms AND you must be fever-free for 24 hours without taking any medicine to reduce the fever AND you must be free of cough, cold, or other symptoms for 24 hours, without taking medication to reduce symptoms
              • If you have COVID19-like symptoms, are tested and receive a negative result, you may provide the test result and return to school 24 hours after you have been symptom-free with no medication
              • If you have symptoms and visit a doctor who determines your symptoms are caused by something else besides COVID19, you can provide a doctor’s note and return to school 24 hours after you have been symptom free with no medication
              • If you feel the symptoms were caused by a chronic problem, such as allergies, please consult your school nurse. Your doctor may be able to provide an order with an alternate diagnosis. However, your child will still have to be symptom-free before returning to school

              Links

              If you have a first day of school photo to share in the KPBSD 2020-2021 Social Photo Album, email it to communications@KPBSD.org!

              Tags: 

              This entry was posted on August 26, 2020 at 5:17 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

              Posted in KPBSD District Stories by Pegge Erkeneff 

              KPBSD Weekly Update: August 26, 2020 2020-08-27 08:00:00Z 0

              African Region Declared Free of Wild Poliovirus

              Rotary and its GPEI partners celebrate a monumental achievement, say global eradication of wild polio is possible with the continued dedication and persistence of Rotarians.
               
              Story Written By: 
              Ryan Hyland

              Aug. 24, 2020

              The World Health Organization (WHO) on 25 August announced that transmission of the wild poliovirus has officially been stopped in all 47 countries of its African region. This is a historic and vital step toward global eradication of polio, which is Rotary’s top priority.

              After decades of hard won gains in the region, Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) — WHO, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gavi, the vaccine alliance — are proclaiming the milestone an achievement in public health. They offer it as proof that strong commitment, coordination, and perseverance can rid the world of polio. 

              The certification that the African region is free of wild poliovirus comes after the independent Africa Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) conducted thorough field verifications that confirmed no new cases and analyzed documentation of polio surveillance, immunization, and laboratory capacity by Cameroon, Central African Republic, Nigeria, and South Sudan. The commission had already accepted the documentation of the other 43 countries in the region. 

              The last cases of polio caused by the wild virus in the African region were recorded in Nigeria’s northern state of Borno in August 2016, after two years with no cases. Conflict, along with challenges in reaching mobile populations, had hampered efforts to immunize children there.

              Now that the African region is free of wild poliovirus, five of WHO’s six regions, representing more than 90 percent of the world’s population, are now free of the disease. Polio caused by the wild virus is still endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean region. 

              The African region’s wild polio-free certification was celebrated during a livestream event. Speakers included Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, Bill Gates, Rotary International President Holger Knaack, Nigeria PolioPlus chair Dr. Tunji Funsho, and representatives of other GPEI partners. The celebration was followed by a press conference. 

              In the program, Knaack spoke about people needing good news during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. “The challenges ahead are formidable,” Knaack said. “That’s why we must recognize this great achievement and commend all the people who played important roles in reaching this milestone. It took tremendous effort over many years.”

              An achievement decades in the making 

              Not detecting any wild poliovirus in Africa is in stark contrast to the situation in 1996, when 75,000 children there were paralyzed by the disease. That year, at a meeting of the Organization of African Unity in Cameroon, African heads of state committed to eradicating the disease from the continent. 

              To bolster the effort, also in 1996, Rotary, its GPEI partners, and South African President Nelson Mandela launched the Kick Polio Out of Africa campaign. Using soccer matches and celebrity endorsements, the campaign raised awareness of polio and helped more than 30 African countries to hold their first National Immunization Days. Mandela’s call to action helped mobilize leaders across the continent to increase their efforts to reach every child with polio vaccine. 

              Since 1996, countless Rotary members from across Africa and around the world have raised funds, immunized children, and promoted vaccinations, enabling the GPEI to respond to and stop polio outbreaks. More than 9 billion doses of oral polio vaccine have been provided throughout the region, preventing an estimated 1.8 million cases of paralysis. Each year, about 2 million volunteers help vaccinate 220 million children against polio multiple times in the African region. 

              Rotary members have contributed nearly $890 million toward polio eradication efforts in the African region. The funds have allowed Rotary to issue PolioPlus grants to fund polio surveillance, transportation, awareness campaigns, and National Immunization Days. 

              Dr. Tunji Funsho, chair of Rotary’s Nigeria PolioPlus committee, noted Rotarians’ tremendous contributions to polio eradication efforts in Africa: “From raising funds and immunizing children, to providing ‘polio plusses,’ such as soap and health kits, Rotary members have shown resilience and steadfast dedication to our top priority of ending polio.”

              Rotary members have helped build extensive polio infrastructure that has been used to respond to COVID-19 and, in 2014, the Ebola crisis, as well as to protect communities from yellow fever and bird flu. 

              Challenges still ahead

              The GPEI’s challenge now is to eradicate wild poliovirus in the two countries where the disease has never been stopped: Afghanistan and Pakistan. Additionally, routine immunization in Africa must also be strengthened to keep the wild poliovirus from returning and to protect children against circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus, which is rare but continues to infect people in parts of the African region. 

              To eradicate polio, multiple high-quality immunization campaigns must continue to be given priority. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s necessary to keep children vaccinated against polio while also protecting health workers from COVID-19 and making sure they don’t contribute to its transmission. 

              Global health officials and experts say that sustained fundraising and advocacy are still crucial, not only to protect gains in Africa, but to reach the ultimate goal of a world without polio. Rotary members still have a critical role to play in keeping the African region free of wild poliovirus and eliminating the virus in the two countries where polio remains endemic.

              As Knaack said, “This is a big step in our journey to a polio-free world, but the fight is not over yet. We still need the support of our Rotary members, donors, and heroic effort of health care workers to finish the job.”

              From THE ROTARIAN

              African Region Declared Free of Wild Poliovirus 2020-08-27 08:00:00Z 0

              COVID-19 Cases in Alaska From Sunday, August 16thThrough Saturday, August 22nd, 2020

              COVID-19 Weekly Case Update
               
              This data summary covers COVID-19 in Alaska from Sunday, August 16th through Saturday, August 22nd, 2020.
               
              Background
              The Alaska COVID-19 Weekly Case Update will be composed every weekend with data from the previous week and the report will be published by the following Wednesday. Data are continually updated on the AK DHSS Data Hub, which reflects the most current case counts. This summary presents data from the previous week and is a snapshot of the information available on known cases at the time. 
               
              Highlights
              • There are far more active cases in Alaska now than there were at any point in March, April, May or June, but there has been a gradual decrease since a high in late July.
              • In the last week, Alaska saw a 11% increase in cases, with 47% of new cases identified in Anchorage. 
              • Nearly 40% of this week's new cases were among people aged 20-39 years.
              • The percent of Alaskans who have recovered from COVID-19 compared to total cases in Alaska residents is increasing, but there are still more active than recovered cases reported.
              • Of complete investigations, 61% of this week's new cases were community-acquired or secondary, meaning that those Alaskans got COVID-19 from others in their community rather than through travel.
              • Many people diagnosed with COVID-19 statewide continue to report attending social gatherings, community events, church services and other social venues while they were contagious but before they were aware they had the virus. 
              • Hospital beds used for patients with COVID-19 ranged from 32 to 45 over the past week.
              • Total statewide hospital bed occupancy has remained between 50% to 60% over the past week, although this includes urban hospital beds as well as beds in smaller hospitals that do not often accept transfers from other hospitals.
              • Alaskans should avoid gatherings, wear masks in public, keep six feet of distance from anyone outside of their household and wash hands frequently to slow the spread of COVID-19.  
              New cases
              This week saw 482 new cases in Alaskans and 15 in nonresidents, for a total of 4,741 and 817 respectively. Several cases previously classified as resident cases have since been reclassified as nonresident cases after further investigation took place. 12 additional Alaskans required hospitalization this week for COVID-19, for a total of 197 since the epidemic began; several hospitalizations that began before this week were also identified. Four additional deaths were reported this week, for a total of 32. By convention, deaths are counted based on the residency of the patient rather than where they contracted the virus.  
               
              Epidemic curve
              This analysis projects growth or reduction in cases predicted in the coming weeks based on the growth of cases in recent weeks. The most recent 7 days (grey bars) are not included because there can be a delay in reporting data. This model assumes exponential growth or reduction in cases and can be a useful tool to visualize how quickly cases are increasing or decreasing. This curve does not project what might happen if more people start wearing masks or increase physical distancing; it assumes Alaskans and visitors to Alaska do not change their behavior. The dotted line is the average prediction, and the grey shaded area is estimated error for the predicted rise in cases. For a full description of methods, visit https://coronavirus-response-alaska-dhss.hub.arcgis.com/
              Currently, cases are predicted to halve about every 90 days based on the current case trend, worse from from last week, when cases were predicted to halve every 20 days. Keeping the case trend prediction downsloping will depend on a continued effort among Alaskans to slow the spread of transmission through physical distancing, masks and limiting contacts. 
               
              Communities affected this week 
              New cases were found in Alaskans who are residents of the following communities:
              ·         Anchorage (226), Chugiak (2), Girdwood (1) and Eagle River (11), for a total of 240 new cases in the Anchorage Municipality. 
              ·         Fairbanks (63), North Pole (7) and one in a smaller community for a total of 71 new cases in the Fairbanks North Star Borough
              ·     Wasilla (41), Palmer (11), Willow (1), Houston (1) and Big Lake (3) for a total of 57 new cases in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough
              ·     Kenai (18), Soldotna (14), Homer (2), Kenai (10) and a smaller community (2) for a total of 46 new cases in the Kenai Peninsula Borough
              ·     Valdez (1) and 6 in a smaller community or communities in Valdez-Cordova Census Area, for a total of 7
              ·     Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (9)
              ·     Juneau (15) and Douglas (2), for a total of 17 in the Juneau City and Borough
              ·     Ketchikan (3)
              ·     Kotzebue (13) and 4 in a smaller community or communities in the Northwest Arctic Borough, for a total of 17
              ·     Sitka (3)
              ·     Kodiak (3)
              ·     Utqiagvik (6) and one in a smaller community in the North Slope Borough, for a total of 7
              ·     Nome (5) and 4 in a smaller community or communities in the Nome Census Area for a total of 9
              ·     Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula (1)
              ·     Dillingham (1)
              ·     Bethel (4) and 5 in a smaller community, for 9 total in the Bethel Census Area 
              ·     Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area (5)
              ·     Wrangell (1)
               
              Case rates and alert levels
              The 7 day case rate map depicts cases adjusted by population for a given region (cases per 100,000 people). The regions are large because Alaska is a large state with few densely populated centers, so this case rate can only be meaningful across large regions. 
              The highest case rate this week was in the Northwest Region, which nearly doubled from 8.3 to 15.6. Next is Anchorage Municipality, which improved from 14.6 to 11.7 in the last week, and Fairbanks North Star Borough, at 10.3 from 7.3. The Interior Region improved to 9.8 from 11.0, while Kenai Peninsula Borough improved from 10.0 to 8.8. Mat-Su increased from 5.8 to 7.7 this week, while Juneau City and Borough improved from 16.5 to 6.7. The southern Southeast region improved from 7.2 to 5.7, while the Y-K Delta improved from 6.0 to 4.9. The Southwest Region and the northern Southeast region had few cases this week and a rate was not calculated. Most states use a 7 day case rate per 100,000 population to estimate trends in community transmission. Roughly, rates of >10 cases daily per 100,000 population correspond to widespread community transmission and >5 to moderate community transmission, but a sharp increase or decrease in these rates can help predict how the next week or weeks will look for the region. 
              7-day Case Rate Map (cases per 100,000 people)
               
              Because of Alaska’s unique geography and smaller population, a 14 day case rate can also be useful. The alert level map below, designed to help long term facilities decide when it may be safer to allow visitors in their facilities, uses a 14 day case rate approach. 
              In high alert level (red) is the Northwest Borough (11.7 from 7.8 last week), the Interior Region excluding Fairbanks (10.4 from 8.5), Juneau City and Borough (11.6 from 13.0), and the Anchorage Municipality (13.0 from 14.4). 
              In intermediate alert level (orange) is Fairbanks North Star Borough (8.3 from 6.0), Kenai Peninsula Borough (9.1 from 7.3). Matanuska-Susitna Borough (6.4 from 5.1), the Y-K Delta Region (5.4 from 3.8), and the Southern Southeast region (6.5 from 4.3). 
              In low alert level (yellow) is the Northern Southeast Region (4.5, the same as last week) and the Southwest region (3.5 from 3.7). 
              More information on alert levels is available on this page
               
              How Alaskans acquired COVID-19
              DHSS monitors how people most likely got the virus. In green in the plot below are Alaska residents who acquired COVID-19 by traveling to other states or countries. In March, a substantial proportion of our cases were related to Alaskans returning from elsewhere, while in April and May, fewer Alaskans traveled. Since June, as travel has started to increase, cases in Alaskans related to travel have begun to occur more regularly. 
              In blue below are cases where Alaskans got COVID-19 from a known contact. These are people who did not leave the state, but we could trace their illness back to the person they got it from. The goal is for contact tracing to identify each of these cases where someone got it from someone else they had contact with so they can let all other contacts of both people know to quarantine. As contact tracing expanded in May, more cases from contacts were identified.
              In red, however, are cases where Alaskans got COVID-19 and contact tracing was not able to establish a clear source. This demonstrates that there are other cases in our communities that we have not found yet. The biggest increase in cases in Alaska has been in people aged 20-39, with many cases linked to bars and social gatherings.
              Grey bars show the cases where the investigation has not yet concluded. Since the workload for contact tracers has more than doubled in the last few weeks, they are working as fast as possible to identify and quarantine contacts. Alaskans can help contact tracers move faster and prevent more cases by keeping their contact list small, keeping a diary of who they are in close contact with (defined as within 6 feet for 10 minutes or more), wearing cloth face coverings when around any non-household members or in public, and responding promptly to being contacted. 
               
               
              Age and gender distributions
              More COVID-19 cases have been found in adults aged 20-39 than any other age group. Gender distribution has been close to equal, with slightly fewer than half of cases in males and slightly over half in females. 
               

               
              COVID-19 Cases in Alaska From Sunday, August 16thThrough Saturday, August 22nd, 2020 2020-08-27 08:00:00Z 0

              17 KPBSD Schools in Central Peninsula Will Open With 100% Remote Learning on August 24, 2020

               

              News Release: 17 KPBSD schools in Central Peninsula will open with 100% remote learning on August 24, 2020

              Kenai Peninsula Borough School District

              Soldotna, August 18, 2020—COVID19 community transmission risk level jumped to High Risk (Red) on August 18, 2020, for the geographical region KPBSD defines as “Central Peninsula” when the State of Alaska positive COVID19 case count reported numbers today. This triggers a safety and operational decision for the school district about opening schools to onsite learning. The need to make rational and informed operational decisions is primary for the health and safety of our students, staff, and communities. In contrast, at this time, risk levels dictate schools in the Southern Peninsula (Homer area), Eastern Peninsula (Seward area); and schools in individual or remote communities* will all begin with the onsite school option available.

              “Offering predictability for our families, staff, and communities is tricky during a global pandemic,” said Superintendent O’Brien. “I’ve made the difficult decision to suspend opening schools in central peninsula to onsite at school learning on August 24, 2020. I know how hard this is for our students who are excited to return to school, for families, and for our staff. I’ve looked at the science-based guidance to assist in our decision-making process, consulted with our KPBSD COVID19 Risk Level Medical Advisory Group, and am following our SmartStart plan. I am disappointed the positive case count appears to be trending with increases in high risk levels. Every day we will evaluate risk level trends and actual counts. To aid planning for families and eliminate a ping-pong effect back and forth between risk levels, I hope that if case levels in the central peninsula drop to a medium risk level, we can open schools to onsite learning after Labor Day, on Tuesday, September 8, 2020. We will continue providing district level updates every week, plus each school will communicate directly with their families.”

              When a school moves into a High Risk (red) level, KPBSD will provide services and learning opportunities onsite in school for vulnerable students. In the SmartStart plan, Special Education PreK; Title I PreK; Kindergarten; and certain groups of students in special education will be able to attend school in person. Bus transportation will continue for students in special education who already receive special education bussing services. In all other instances, transportation will need to be provided by parents or guardians during high-risk levels. Please contact your school or case manager directly with questions.

              Which schools are opening with High Risk, 100% Remote Learning?

              Central Kenai Peninsula includes Kasilof to Sterling, extending through Kenai, Nikiski, Soldotna, and DHSS “other north” communities

              • Aurora Borealis Charter School
              • Kaleidoscope Charter School
              • K-Beach Elementary School
              • Kenai Alternative School
              • Kenai Central High School
              • Kenai Middle School
              • Mountain View Elementary School
              • Nikiski Middle-High School
              • Nikiski North Star Elementary School
              • Redoubt Elementary School
              • River City Academy
              • Skyview Middle School
              • Soldotna Elementary School
              • Soldotna High School
              • Soldotna Montessori Charter School
              • Sterling Elementary School
              • Other North: Tustumena Elementary School

              What do parents and guardians need to know?

              • Schools will contact their families to give further instructions and respond to questions about the new school year beginning with 100% remote learning
              • Get It and Go Meals for students will begin Monday, August 24, 2020. Details will be in a separate communication
              • All sports competitions in the central peninsula are cancelled. This affects Kenai Central High School; Nikiski Middle-High School; Soldotna High School; Aurora Borealis Charter School; Kenai Middle School; and Skyview Middle School. KPBSD follows ASAA Return-to-Practice Protocols  
              • Pools: Kenai Central High School, Skyview High School, and Soldotna High School pools are closed to public use
              17 KPBSD Schools in Central Peninsula Will Open With 100% Remote Learning on August 24, 2020 2020-08-20 08:00:00Z 0

              COVID-19 Statistics for Alaska From Sunday, August 9th through Saturday, August 15th, 2020

              COVID-19 Weekly Case Update

               

              This data summary covers COVID-19 in Alaska From Sunday, August 9th through Saturday, August 15th, 2020.

              Background

              The Alaska COVID-19 Weekly Case Update will be composed every weekend with data from the previous week and the report will be published by the following Wednesday. Data are continually updated on the Alaska Coronavirus Response Hub, which reflects the most current case counts. This summary presents data from the previous week and is a snapshot of the information available on known cases at the time. 

              Highlights

              • Alaska continues to see rapid increases in resident new cases 
              • The biggest increase this week was in Anchorage, which had 286 new cases, representing 14 more cases than last week and 52% of this week’s increase
              • Total cases among Alaska residents rose 15% this week with 554 new cases
              • The majority of new cases continue to be among Alaskans aged 20-29, with cases among Alaskans in their 20s and 30s still rising
              • Most nonresident cases have been identified before the person had significant community interaction
              • Most new cases in Alaskans are acquired from other Alaskans who have not traveled
              • Transmission between Alaskans at social gatherings, within families, at community events, churches and bars has significantly contributed to the rise in cases
              • Hospital capacity is currently adequate, but hospitalizations and deaths are increasing 
              • Alaskans should avoid gatherings, wear face coverings in public, keep six feet of distance from non-household members and practice good hand hygiene to slow transmission of COVID-19 

              New cases

              This week saw 554 new cases in Alaskans and 38 in nonresidents, for a total of 4,259 and 801 respectively. Several cases previously classified as resident cases have since been reclassified as nonresident cases after further investigation took place. 10 additional Alaskans required hospitalization this week for COVID-19, for a total of 154 since the epidemic began. Two additional deaths were reported this week, for a total of 28. By convention, deaths are counted based on the residency of the patient rather than where they contracted the virus.  

              Epidemic curve

              This analysis projects growth or reduction in cases predicted in the coming weeks based on the growth of cases in recent weeks. The most recent 7 days (grey bars) are not included because there can be a delay in reporting data. This model assumes exponential growth or reduction in cases and can be a useful tool to visualize how quickly cases are increasing or decreasing. This curve does not project what might happen if more people start wearing masks or increase physical distancing; it assumes Alaskans and visitors to Alaska do not change their behavior. The dotted line is the average prediction, and the grey shaded area is estimated error for the predicted rise in cases. For a full description of methods, visit https://coronavirus-response-alaska-dhss.hub.arcgis.com/

              Currently, cases are predicted to halve about every 22 days based on the current case trend, an improvement from last week, when cases were predicted to halve every 38 days; however, this will depend on a continued effort among Alaskans to slow the spread of transmission through physical distancing, masks and limiting contacts. 

              Communities affected this week 

              New cases were found in Alaskans who are residents of the following communities:

              • Anchorage (286), Chugiak (8), and Eagle River (12), for a total of 306 new cases in the Anchorage Municipality.
              • Fairbanks (45), North Pole (6) and one in a smaller community for a total of 52 new cases in the Fairbanks North Star Borough
              • Wasilla (27), Palmer (8), Willow (3), and Big Lake (1) for a total of 39 new cases in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough
              • Seward (2), Soldotna (12), Homer (4), Kenai (10), Sterling (10), Anchor Point (1) and a smaller community (2) for a total of 41 new cases in the Kenai Peninsula Borough
              • Cordova (1), Valdez (2), and 9 in a smaller community or communities in Valdez-Cordova Census Area, for a total of 12
              • Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (5)
              • Juneau (38) and Douglas (2), for a total of 40 in the Juneau City and Borough
              • Delta Junction (1)
              • Ketchikan (3)
              • Kotzebue (1) and 6 in a smaller community or communities in the Northwest Arctic Borough, for a total of 7
              • Sitka (5)
              • Haines (1)
              • Petersburg (1)
              • Kodiak (5)
              • Utqiagvik (4) and one in a smaller community in the North Slope Borough, for a total of 5
              • Nome (5)
              • Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula (1)
              • Dillingham (3)
              • Bethel (8) and one in a smaller community, for 9 total in the Bethel Census Area
              • Unalaska (1)
              • Metlakatla (1) and 7 in a smaller community or communities in the Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, for a total of 8
              • Wrangell (1)
              • Kusilvak Census Area (1)
              • Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon (2)

              Case rates and alert levels

              The 7 day case rate map depicts cases adjusted by population for a given region (cases per 100,000 people). The regions are large because Alaska is a large state with few densely populated centers, so this case rate can only be meaningful across large regions. 

              Currently, Anchorage Municipality remains in the red and has gone from 14 to 14.6 in the last week; Juneau City and Borough has joined it with 16.5, significantly up from 8.5 last week. The Interior Region has worsened to 11.0 from 9.2, and the Northwest Region has worsened from 6.3 to 8.3. Next, Fairbanks North Star Borough and Kenai Peninsula Borough had 7.3 and 10.0; significantly worse than last week’s 4.6 and 5.9 respectively. Matanuska-Susitna Borough has held relatively steady at 5.1 from 5.8 last week. Northern and southern Southeast regions had rates of 6.3 and 7.2 this week respectively, while the Y-K Delta had a rate of 6.0 and the Southwest Region, 5.0. Most states use a 7 day case rate per 100,000 population to estimate trends in community transmission. Roughly, rates of >10 cases daily per 100,000 population correspond to widespread community transmission and >5 to moderate community transmission, but a sharp increase or decrease in these rates can help predict how the next week or weeks will look for the region. 

              7-day Case Rate Map (cases per 100,000 people)

              Because of Alaska’s unique geography and smaller population, a 14 day case rate can also be useful. The alert level map below, designed to help long term facilities decide when it may be safer to allow visitors in their facilities, uses a 14 day case rate approach. By that approach, the Interior Region excluding Fairbanks continues in the intermediate alert level, going from a case rate of 7.9 to a case rate of 8.5 in a week. Juneau City and Borough is significantly worse off this week, now in the high alert level with 13.0,up from 7.4 last week. The Anchorage Municipality is down to 14.4 from 18.5, still in the high alert level. Fairbanks itself has worsened slightly, going from 5.0 to 6.0. Kenai Peninsula Borough’s rate has risen slightly from 6.5 to 7.3. Matanuska-Susitna Borough improved to 5.1 from 7.4 and with the Northwest Borough (7.8 from 7.6 last week) is in the intermediate (orange) alert level. Other regions had case rates <5, including the Northern and Southern Southeast Regions, which have been steady in the low alert level at 4.5 and 4.3 respectively, as well as the Y-K Delta Region, at 3.8, and the Southwest region, at 3.7. 

              Alaska COVID-19 Alert Levels

              More information on alert levels is available on this page

              How Alaskans acquired COVID-19

              DHSS monitors how people most likely got the virus. In green in the plot below are Alaska residents who acquired COVID-19 by traveling to other states or countries. In March, a substantial proportion of our cases were related to Alaskans returning from elsewhere, while in April and May, fewer Alaskans traveled. Since June, as travel has started to increase, cases in Alaskans related to travel have begun to occur more regularly. 

              COVID-19 Statistics for Alaska From Sunday, August 9th through Saturday, August 15th, 2020 2020-08-20 08:00:00Z 0

              Education on the Front Lines

              In Nigeria, a University President and Rotary Club  Fight Boko Haram by Educating and Feeding Victims
               
              By Frank Bures           Photographs by Andrew Esiebo
               
              In her office at the American University of Nigeria, in the dusty northeastern town of Yola, Margee Ensign heard the news: Some 170 miles to the north, nearly 300 girls at a boarding school had been roused from sleep and kidnapped at gunpoint by the terrorist group Boko Haram. 
               
              Ensign, the president of the fledgling university, was already struggling with the fallout from Boko Haram’s attacks in Nigeria’s north, which had sent a flood of refugees into Yola. Together with community leaders, including her fellow Rotarians, she had worked to run feeding programs to keep the refugees – whose number eventually swelled to 400,000 – alive.
               
               
              Rotarians working with the Adamawa Peace Initiative help run the Feed and Read program, which provides a hot meal along with lessons in English and math, and the Peace through Sports program.
               
              After the news of the kidnapping broke in April 2014, a woman who worked for the university asked to see Ensign. She sat down in the president’s office and told Ensign that her sister had been one of 58 girls who had escaped that night by jumping out of Boko Haram’s trucks and running into the bush.
               
              Ensign quickly began contacting those girls’ families to offer them a place at the university, which also houses a high school. In the end, 27 girls decided to come, and on 30 August – four months after the raid – Ensign prepared to head into the heart of the conflict to pick up the girls. 
              “We were going into dangerous territory,” says Lionel Rawlins, the university’s security chief. “We were going into Boko Haram’s backyard to snatch the girls. The morning before we left, we went to the police and said, ‘Are we ready?’ And they said, ‘We’re not going. It’s too dangerous up there.’ So I went back and told Margee we were on our own. We looked at each other, and I knew exactly what she was thinking. She said, ‘If you’re up to it, I’m up to it. Let’s go get the girls.’”
               
              This wasn’t exactly what Ensign had imagined she would be doing when she arrived in Yola in 2010. An educator and administrator originally from California, she had come to run the American University of Nigeria (AUN), which had been founded in 2004 by Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president of Nigeria and a multimillionaire. Abubakar chose Yola because it’s in one of the country’s poorest, least developed states, with 80 percent unemployment, 75 percent illiteracy, and a “stunting” rate – due to chronic malnutrition – of 47 percent. 
               
              Ensign was intrigued by the job offer: Abubakar wanted AUN to be a development university that would transfer its knowledge to the poor areas around it, the way American land grant universities passed on agricultural knowledge to farmers. 
               
               “I hadn’t worked in West Africa,” she says. “It was a gigantic challenge: the complexity, the size, the scale of the country, the scale of the problems. But I kept thinking maybe this would be a chance to educate some of the future leaders of this very important country. Nigeria will be the third-largest country in the world by 2050.”
               
              University President Margee Ensign, center, chats with students. “Every single person in Rwanda knows Margee because of her work. She’s part of our story,”  says Mathilde Mukantabana, Rwandan ambassador to the United States.
               
              Ensign had been researching and teaching about development issues long before she came to Nigeria. In 1993, she was teaching a class in Washington, D.C., when one of her students, Bonaventure Niyibizi, told her he needed to go home to Rwanda. He was worried his family would be killed. Ensign drove him to the airport and said goodbye, and four months later the genocide began: In 100 days, nearly a million people were killed by their neighbors. 
               
              For much of the world this was a distant, horrific news story. But for Ensign, it had names and faces. She couldn’t forget her students. In 1999, she flew to Arusha, Tanzania, to attend the United Nations’ International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. There, she learned that Niyibizi was alive and working with the Rwandan government. 
               
              For the next 10 years, as dean of the School of International Studies at the University of the Pacific in California, Ensign spent almost every summer in Rwanda working on development projects, including a committee to establish the University of Rwanda.
               
              At the same time, she researched how the country had emerged from one of the worst tragedies of the 20th century to become a fast-growing, stable economy. Part of that process involved reconciliation between killers and families of those who had been killed. 
               
               “Every single person in Rwanda knows Margee because of her work,” says Mathilde Mukantabana, the Rwandan ambassador to the United States. “She was one of the first people to help us start organizing a conference on the genocide. She never quit. She was one of the people who – as an individual and on an institutional level – helped Rwanda to heal. She’s part of our story.”
               
              Lionel Rawlins, a criminology and counterterrorism expert, is a member of the America University of Nigeria chapter of the Yola Rotary Club and chief of security at the university. He oversees training and education for the university’s security staff.
               
              When Ensign first arrived in Yola in 2010, it was the rainy season and everything was green. There was no indication of the heat to come, of the dust from the Sahara, or of the insurgency brewing in the north. 
               
              Shortly after arriving, she helped charter the AUN chapter of Rotary Club of Yola, which she knew would motivate university leaders to get involved in the community, and she implemented a required community development course for students. 
               
              She also called on an old colleague: Lionel Rawlins, a counterterrorism expert who had been born on the island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean and who was training troops in Iraq and Afghanistan at the time. He agreed to come to Yola to work with the university’s security staff, turning it into a more professional force, and to teach classes in criminology. 
               
              Then, in January 2012 – less than two years after Ensign took the job – the first crisis hit. The Nigerian government ended fuel subsidies, and protests broke out everywhere. “The whole country was rioting,” she says. 
               
              Ensign and Ahmed Joda, a prominent Muslim leader and chair of the university’s board of directors, met and said, “We’ve got to do something. We’ve got to build something in this community.” So they each invited people they knew to meet at the university. What started as a conversation grew into the Adamawa Peace Initiative (API).
               
               Once we’d dealt with those first 5,000 we thought we’d solved it. ...Then by July it had gone from 5,000 to 20,000, and all of a sudden, in September, it was 10 times that.
              Margee Ensign, 
              American University of Nigeria President and Rotarian
               
              The group decided to focus on identifying and helping vulnerable youth. At that time, Yola had about 2,000 orphans and 40,000 almajiri, children who are sent away by their families to study the Koran. In Yola, those children often gathered outside the university gates to beg. They were potential targets for recruitment by terrorists.
               
              The API’s first major program, called Peace through Sports, organized local boys and girls from different religious and ethnic groups into “unity teams” in which they played games and ate meals together. One boy told Ensign: “It was either this program or Boko Haram. There is nothing else here.”
               
              Then, in spring 2014, a new challenge arose. People had begun fleeing from the north, where Boko Haram was attacking towns, burning homes, and enslaving girls. Ensign, Rawlins, and fellow Rotarian Abdullahi Bello drove to Mubi, a city about 120 miles northeast, to hear about the plight of hundreds of women and children who had fled the fighting. 
               
              Refugees began pouring into Yola. People who worked at AUN told stories about family members fleeing from the north after their villages were destroyed. One driver had 50 relatives living at his house.
               
              By June 2014, there were 5,000 refugees in Yola. The university, the API, and the Rotary Club worked together to raise money to help the newcomers buy seeds to plant crops and pay their children’s school fees. 
               
               “Once we’d dealt with those first 5,000 we thought we’d solved it, because that’s a huge number of people,” Ensign says. “Then by July it had gone from 5,000 to 20,000, and all of a sudden, in September, it was 10 times that.”
               
              Children at a camp for internally displaced persons in Yola receive meals and other relief materials organized by Rotarians, the university, and the peace initiative.
               
              The city was overwhelmed, but the government did nothing. Representatives of the international community hadn’t yet arrived on the scene. (And when they finally did, their response was “inadequate and incorrectly targeted,” according to a university report.) So Ensign and the others raised more money, which was funneled through the API, to buy food and supplies for the internally displaced people in and around Yola. They bought rice, beans, maize, cooking oil, blankets, sugar, salt, pasta, guinea corn, soap. They gave out petty cash for transportation. At the distribution points, tens of thousands of people lined up.
               
              Meanwhile Boko Haram moved closer. In October 2014, the militants captured Mubi, and the river of refugees became a flood. By early 2015, an estimated 400,000 displaced people were living in Yola, and residents began to fear that Boko Haram would march all the way to the gates of the university. 
               
              “We had sleepless nights for weeks,” Rawlins says. “All the schools were closed down and everyone was running. But we stayed open.” 
              In a massive effort, the university, the API, and the Rotarians worked with Muslim, Christian, and other religious leaders to make sure no one starved. 
               
              “None of us had time to think about what we were doing,” Ensign says. “It was just: Raise the money, get the food, get it out, take care of these people. For six or seven months we had thousands of people in the streets and almost daily food distribution.”
               
              With refugee crises going on around the world, Ensign says their experience has some lessons to offer. “In Yola, we took care of the same number of people as are refugees in some parts of Europe right now, where they say it’s impossible for these rich countries to take care of these refugees,” she says. “But we’re one of the poorest communities in the world, and we somehow figured it out.”
               
              In November 2014, the Nigerian army retook Mubi and began pushing Boko Haram back to the north. Refugees started to leave Yola to return to their homes, but with everything burned and broken – hospitals, schools, banks, farms – it was going take a long time for normal life to resume, let alone for the wounds to heal. 
               
              We had sleepless nights for weeks. Everyone was running. But we stayed open.
              Lionel Rawlins, 
              Assistant Vice President for safety and security, American University of Nigeria
               
              To that end, the API expanded its goals to include reconciliation. “My experience in Rwanda tells me that rebuilding structures and rebuilding schools is important, but people have to figure out a way to deal with what happened,” Ensign says.
               
              Education on the Front Lines 2020-08-19 08:00:00Z 0

              COVID-19  Data Summary for Alaska From Sunday, August 2nd Through Saturday, August 8th, 2020

              COVID-19 Weekly Case Update

               

               

              This data summary covers COVID-19 in Alaska from Sunday, August 2nd through Saturday, August 8th, 2020.

              Background

              The Alaska COVID-19 Weekly Case Update will be composed every weekend with data from the previous week and the report will be published by the following Wednesday. Data are continually updated on the AK DHSS Data Hub, which reflects the most current case counts. This summary presents data from the previous week and is a snapshot of the information available on known cases at the time. 

              Highlights

              ·         Alaska continues to see rapid increases in resident and nonresident new cases 

              ·         The biggest increase this week was in Anchorage, which had 272 new cases, or 62% of this week’s increase

              ·         Fewer new cases were seen this week than last week in Anchorage, the second full week since Anchorage reinstituted restrictions July 22 on restaurants, bars and other gathering places in response to community-wide spread; Anchorage also closed bars and restaurants to all in-person service August 3rd.

              ·         Total cases among Alaska residents rose 14% this week with 442 new cases

              ·         The majority of new cases continue to be among Alaskans aged 20-29, with cases among Alaskans in their 20s and 30s still rising 

              ·         Most nonresident cases have been identified before the person had significant community interaction

              ·         Most new cases in Alaskans are acquired from other Alaskans who have not traveled

              ·         Transmission between Alaskans at social gatherings, within families, at community events, churches and bars has significantly contributed to the rise in cases

              ·         Hospital capacity is currently adequate, but hospitalizations and deaths are increasing 

              ·         Alaskans should avoid gatherings, wear face coverings in public, keep six feet of distance from non-household members and practice good hand hygiene to slow transmission of COVID-19 

              New cases

              This week saw 442 new cases in Alaskans and 60 in nonresidents, for a total of 3,706 and 764 respectively. 10 additional Alaskans required hospitalization this week for COVID-19, for a total of 154 since the epidemic began. Two additional deaths were reported this week, for a total of 26. By convention, deaths are counted based on the residency of the patient rather than where they contracted the virus. 

              Epidemic curve

              This analysis projects growth or reduction in cases predicted in the coming weeks based on the growth of cases in recent weeks. The most recent 7 days (grey bars) are not included because there can be a delay in reporting data. This model assumes exponential growth or reduction in cases and can be a useful tool to visualize how quickly cases are increasing or decreasing. This curve does not project what might happen if more people start wearing masks or increase physical distancing; it assumes Alaskans and visitors to Alaska do not change their behavior. The dotted line is the average prediction, and the grey shaded area is estimated error for the predicted rise in cases. Currently, cases are predicted to halve about every 38 days based on the current case trend, a reversal in trend from last week, when they were predicted to double about every 21 days; however, this will depend on a continued effort among Alaskans to slow the spread of transmission through physical distancing, masks and limiting contacts. 

              For a full description of methods, visit https://coronavirus-response-alaska-dhss.hub.arcgis.com/

               

              Communities affected this week 

              New cases were found in Alaskans who are residents of the following communities:

              ·         Anchorage (272), Chugiak (5), and Eagle River (14), for a total of 291 new cases in the Anchorage Municipality. 

              ·         Fairbanks (29) and North Pole (6) for a total of 35 new cases in the Fairbanks North Star Borough

              ·         Wasilla (20), Palmer (10), Houston (1), Willow (4), Sutton-Alpine (1), Big Lake (1), and a smaller community (1) for a total of 39 new cases in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough

              ·         Seward (2), Soldotna (9), Homer (1), Fritz Creek (1), Sterling (4) and a smaller community (1) for a total of 18 new cases in the Kenai Peninsula Borough

              ·         Cordova (1), and 1 in a smaller community in Valdez-Cordova Census Area, for a total of 2

              ·         Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (6)

              ·         Juneau (17)

              ·         Delta Junction (3)

              ·         Ketchikan (1)

              ·         Kotzebue (1) and 3 in a smaller community or communities in the Northwest Arctic Borough, for a total of 4

              ·         Sitka (3)

              ·         Utqiagvik (5)

              ·         Nome Census Area (2) 

              ·         Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula (4)

              ·         Bethel Census Area (1)

              ·         Aleutians East Borough (1)

              ·         Metlakatla (1)

              ·         Wrangell (1)

              ·         Hooper Bay (1) and one in a smaller community for 2 total in Kusilvak Census Area 

               

              Case rates and alert levels

              The 7 day case rate map depicts cases adjusted by population for a given region (cases per 100,000 people). The regions are large because Alaska is a large state with few densely populated centers, so this case rate can only be meaningful across large regions. 

              Currently, Anchorage Municipality remains in the red, but has decreased its 7 day case rate from 28 to 14 in the last week. The Interior Region has worsened slightly to 9.2 from 7 last week, and the Northwest Region has improved to 6.3 from 8.8. Next, Fairbanks North Star Borough and Kenai Peninsula Borough had 4.6 and 5.9 respectively, both declined modestly since last week. Matanuska-Susitna Borough has improved to 5.8 from 8.6 last week. Juneau City and Borough worsened to 8.5 from 6.7. Most states use a 7 day case rate per 100,000 population to estimate trends in community transmission. Roughly, rates of >10 cases daily per 100,000 population correspond to widespread community transmission and >5 to moderate community transmission, but a sharp increase or decrease in these rates can help predict how the next week or weeks will look for the region. 

               7-day Case Rate Map (cases per 100,000 people)

              Because of Alaska’s unique geography and smaller population, a 14 day case rate can also be useful. The alert level map below, designed to help long term facilities decide when it may be safer to allow visitors in their facilities, uses a 14 day case rate approach. By that approach, the Interior Region excluding Fairbanks is improved to the intermediate alert level, going from a case rate of 18 to a case rate of 7.9 in a week.  The Anchorage Municipality, which nearly doubled its rate in a week from 10.9 to 20.5, is now down to 18.5 a week later. Fairbanks itself has improved from 7.2 to 5. Kenai Peninsula Borough’s rate has improved slightly to 6.5 from 8 last week. Matanuska-Susitna Borough rose to 7.4 from 7.25 and Juneau City and Borough from 6.7 to 7.4, and with the Northwest Borough (7.6 from 7.3 last week) are in the intermediate (orange) alert level. Other regions had case rates <5, including the Northern and Southern Southeast Regions, which improved from 5.9 to 4.2 and 5.0 to 2.2 respectively in the past week. 

              Alaska COVID-19 Alert Levels

              More information on alert levels is available on this page

              How Alaskans acquired COVID-19

              DHSS monitors how people most likely got the virus. In green in the plot below are Alaska residents who acquired COVID-19 by traveling to other states or countries. In March, a substantial proportion of our cases were related to Alaskans returning from elsewhere, while in April and May, fewer Alaskans traveled. Since June, as travel has started to increase, cases in Alaskans related to travel have begun to occur more regularly. 

              In blue below are cases where Alaskans got COVID-19 from a known contact. These are people who did not leave the state, but we could trace their illness back to the person they got it from. The goal is for contact tracing to identify each of these cases where someone got it from someone else they had contact with so they can let all other contacts of both people know to quarantine. As contact tracing expanded in May, more cases from contacts were identified.

              In red, however, are cases where Alaskans got COVID-19 and contact tracing was not able to establish a clear source. This demonstrates that there are other cases in our communities that we have not found yet. The biggest increase in cases in Alaska has been in people aged 20-39, with many cases linked to bars and social gatherings.

              Grey bars show the cases where the investigation has not yet concluded. Since the workload for contact tracers has more than doubled in the last few weeks, they are working as fast as possible to identify and quarantine contacts. Alaskans can help contact tracers move faster and prevent more cases by keeping their contact list small, keeping a diary of who they are in close contact with (defined as within 6 feet for 10 minutes or more), wearing cloth face coverings when around any non-household members or in public, and responding promptly to being contacted. 

               

              COVID-19  Data Summary for Alaska From Sunday, August 2nd Through Saturday, August 8th, 2020 2020-08-12 08:00:00Z 0

              Jennifer E. Jones, of Canada, Has Been Nominated to Become Rotary International’s President for 2022-23
               

              By 

              Jennifer E. Jones, of the Rotary Club of Windsor-Roseland, Ontario, Canada, is the selection of the Nominating Committee for President of Rotary International for 2022-23.

               

              Jennifer E. Jones, a member of the Rotary Club of Windsor-Roseland, Ontario, Canada, has been nominated to become Rotary International’s president for 2022-23, a groundbreaking selection that will make her the first woman to hold that office in the organization’s 115-year history.

              Jones will officially become president-nominee on 1 October if no other candidates challenge her.

              Jones says she sees Rotary’s Action Plan as a catalyst for increasing Rotary’s impact.

              “As we reflect upon our new strategic priorities, we could have never envisioned that our ability to adapt would become our North Star during what is inarguably the most profound time in recent history,” Jones said in her vision statement. “Silver linings rise out of the most challenging circumstances. Using metric-driven goals, I will harness this historic landscape to innovate, educate, and communicate opportunities that reflect today’s reality.”

              As the first woman to be nominated to be president, Jones understands how important it is to follow through on Rotary’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Statement. “I believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion … begins at the top and for us to realize growth in female membership and members under the age of forty — these demographics need to see their own reflection in leadership,” Jones said. “I will champion double-digit growth in both categories while never losing sight of our entire family.”

              Jones is founder and president of Media Street Productions Inc., an award-winning media company in Windsor. She was chair of the board of governors of the University of Windsor and chair of the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce. She has been recognized for her service with the YMCA Peace Medallion, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, and Wayne State University’s Peacemaker of the Year Award, a first for a Canadian. Jones holds a Doctor of Laws (LL.D.).

              A current Rotary Foundation trustee, Jones has been a Rotary member since 1997 and has served Rotary as RI vice president, director, training leader, committee chair, moderator, and district governor. She played a lead role in Rotary’s rebranding effort by serving as chair of the Strengthening Rotary’s Advisory Group. She is the co-chair of the End Polio Now Countdown to History Campaign Committee, which aims to raise $150 million for polio eradication efforts.

              Jones recently led the successful #RotaryResponds telethon, which raised critical funds for COVID-19 relief and was viewed by more than 65,000. Jones has also received Rotary International’s Service Above Self Award and The Rotary Foundation Citation for Meritorious Service. She and her husband, Nick Krayacich, are members of The Rotary Foundation’s Arch Klumph Society, Paul Harris Society, and the Bequest Society.

              The members of the Nominating Committee for the 2022-23 President of Rotary International are: Robert L. Hall, Dunwoody, Metro Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Bradford R. Howard Oakland Uptown, California, USA; Per Høyen, Aarup, Gelsted, Denmark; Peter Iblher, Nürnberg-Reichswald, Zirndorf, Germany; Ashok Mahajan, Mulund, Mah., India; Sam Okudzeto, Accra, Accra, Ghana; Eduardo San Martín Carreño, Majadahonda, Madrid, Spain; Takeshi Matsumiya, Chigasaki-Shonan, Chigasaki Kanagawa, Japan; Michael K. McGovern (secretary), Cape Elizabeth, Maine, USA; José Alfredo Pretoni, São Paulo-Sul, São Paulo, Brazil; Saowalak Rattanavich, Bang Rak, Bangkok, Thailand; Hendreen Dean Rohrs, Langley Central, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada; Kenneth M. Schuppert, Jr (chair)., Decatur, Alabama, USA; Ravindra P. Sehgal, Belur, West Bengal, India; Noel Trevaskis, Merimbula, Tura Beach, Australia; Giuseppe Viale, Genova, Genova, Italy; and Chang-Gon Yim, Daegu-West, Daegu, Korea.

              Jennifer E. Jones, of Canada, Has Been Nominated to Become Rotary International’s President for 2022-23  2020-08-12 08:00:00Z 0
              KPBSD Covid-19 Information  2020-08-12 08:00:00Z 0

              Healthy Alaskans 2030

              Healthy Alaskans

              FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, August 12, 2020

              Contact:

              Shirley Young, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, (907) 268-1014

              Clinton Bennett, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, (907) 269-4996

               

              Comments and personal action needed on Alaska's draft health improvement plan, Healthy Alaskans 2030

              The State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) are pleased to announce that the draft state health improvement plan, Healthy Alaskans 2030, is now open for public comment on the State of Alaska Public Notice website at http://notice.alaska.gov/199049 until Sept. 2, 2020, at 5 p.m. 

               

              Healthy Alaskans is a long-standing partnership and joint effort of DHSS and ANTHC to provide data-driven objectives for ambitious — yet achievable — goals for improving the health of all Alaskans. The Healthy Alaskans 2030 plan is composed of 15 priority health topics containing 30 health objectives. Each objective has an established target to reach by 2030.


              We need action from every Alaskan in order to reach these goals.


              “What helps this plan succeed is engagement and commitment from as many Alaskans as possible,” said Alaska’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink. “Whether you’re an individual, a community leader, a business owner or in the health care field – no matter what your role – we encourage you to read this plan, make comments and take steps to improve your own health and the health of our communities.”


              Within each plan objective, there are specific evidence-based strategies and actions that are recommended to move the state closer to achieving the target. HA2030 provides a framework for partners and stakeholders who are actively engaged in improving the health of Alaskans. This collaborative planning process is intended to encourage shared ownership and responsibility for the plan’s implementation, the framework of which has been grounded in a review of national models such as Healthy People and County Health Rankings, completion of a statewide health assessment, the prioritization of health topics, objectives, and targets, and the identification of strategies and actions to reach those targets.

               

              “We strongly encourage Alaskans across the state to select two to three individual goals that they can target within their own households and spheres of influence,” said Kirsten Kolb, Chief Administrative Officer for ANTHC and member of the Healthy Alaskans Advisory Team. “Especially during these changing times, attainable areas of focus such as limiting the sugary drinks in our homes, increasing the amount of exercise we get per day and evaluating the ways we relieve stress are some of the ways these strategies can be put into action in everyone’s day-to-day lives.”

              Another way to help on an individual and corporate level is to ensure that the state health improvement plan is a complete, effective and thoroughly vetted plan by reviewing it, responding to the guiding questions and submitting your comments and any questions per the instructions in the public comment announcement.

              To learn more about Healthy Alaskans or to participate in Healthy Alaskans efforts, go to: www.healthyalaskans.org 

              ###

               

              Healthy Alaskans 2030 2020-08-12 08:00:00Z 0

              Eight Additional COVID-19 Cases Identified at the Anchorage Pioneer Home

              DHSS Press Release

              FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

              Contact:  Clinton Bennett, DHSS, 907-269-4996, clinton.bennett@alaska.gov

              Eight additional COVID-19 cases identified at the Anchorage Pioneer Home; frequent testing will continue

              August 12, 2020 ANCHORAGE— The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) has confirmed eight new COVID-19 cases – seven elders and one staff member – at the Anchorage Pioneer Home. These cases are in addition to the four cases announced on August 6 bringing the total number of cases at the home to 12: 10 elders and two staff members.

              After the first positive case of COVID-19 was identified at the Anchorage Pioneer Home, testing of all residents was conducted as part of recommendations by the DHSS Division of Public Health, Section of Epidemiology. Employees, who are regularly tested every two weeks, also underwent another round of testing. The most recent cases involving elders are in residents living in two separate neighborhoods, with all but one of the cases being from the same neighborhood as the cases reported last week. All residents who have tested positive are currently in isolation within the home and no residents have been hospitalized at this time.

              “Since the initial COVID-19 case was discovered in the Anchorage Pioneer Home, staff and leadership have responded with increased testing and other infection control measures to quickly detect and respond to any other potential cases inside the home,” said Dr. Anne Zink, Chief Medical Officer. “It always causes us great concern when this virus makes its way into our vulnerable populations, which is why I appreciate the swift and responsive actions taken at the home to ensure all affected residents and staff are receiving proper care and monitoring.”

              The following guidance from the Section of Epidemiology is currently underway and has been expanded throughout the entire Anchorage Pioneer Home to protect all residents and employees:

              • All elders who tested positive have been placed into isolation and will have, as much as possible, dedicated staffing.
              • All employees who tested positive are self-isolating at home.
              • The Anchorage Pioneer Home continues to undergo thorough daily sanitizing of all resident rooms in the home and all common areas including doorknobs, handrails, dining areas, workspaces, rest rooms and break areas.
              • All current testing has been completed for residents living in the home and all test results are back from Pioneer Home staff.
              • Weekly resident and staff testing will continue until further notice, in addition to immediate testing of anyone who shows symptoms.

              During the pandemic, all Alaska Pioneer Homes have been continually educating staff about infection control procedures; conducting health screenings of any personnel entering the building; regularly testing employees every two weeks; immediately sending home any employee who has symptoms and requiring testing before return; screening residents daily for symptoms; and testing any residents who have any symptoms. The Anchorage Pioneer Home has been closed to visitors since March 17, 2020.

              Eight Additional COVID-19 Cases Identified at the Anchorage Pioneer Home 2020-08-12 08:00:00Z 0

              Update on the Peter Larson Memorial Garden

              After church today I checked on the flowers at Ben Walters, pulled a couple weeds and then ran over to the Peter Larson garden at the library, found these two ladies enjoying it. One of them asked the name of the bush with white flowers. I have no clue. She said she would put a picture on Facebook.
               
              Thank you to whoever did the rest of the weeding.  Looks great.  I spotted some horsetail,  it is now in the trunk of my car.
               
              Milli
               
              Image preview
               
              Image preview
               
               
              Update on the Peter Larson Memorial Garden 2020-08-05 08:00:00Z 0

              COVID-19 in Alaska From Sunday, July 26th Through Saturday, August 1st, 2020.

              COVID-19 Weekly Case Update

               

              This data summary covers COVID-19 in Alaska from Sunday, July 26th through Saturday, August 1st, 2020.

              Background

              The Alaska COVID-19 Weekly Case Update will be composed every weekend with data from the previous week and the report will be published by the following Wednesday. Data are continually updated on the Alaska Coronavirus Response Data Hub, which reflects the most current case counts. This summary presents data from the previous week and is a snapshot of the information available on known cases at the time. 

               

              Highlights

              ·       Alaska continues to have rapid increases in resident and nonresident new cases. 

              ·      The biggest increase this week was in Anchorage, which had 505 new cases, or 67% of this week’s increase.

              ·      Total cases in Alaska residents rose 30% this week with 755 new cases, the most Alaska has had in a single week. 

              ·       Most new cases in Alaskans are acquired from other Alaskans who have not traveled.

              ·       Transmission between Alaskans at social gatherings, within families, at community events, churches and bars has significantly contributed to the rise in cases.

              ·       There were more than four times as many people hospitalized from COVID-19 in July as there were in June or previous months.

              ·       Cases are expected to continue to rise, although several communities have adopted more restrictions.

              ·       The majority of new cases continue to be among younger adults, particularly Alaskans in their 20s and 30s.  

              ·       The share of cases by race distribution rose by 4% among Alaska Native People, 1% among African Americans, and 1% among Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders this week. Many cases continue to be under investigation, so race distribution data lags overall case counts.  

              ·       Most nonresident cases have been identified before the person had significant community interaction.

              ·       Alaskans should avoid gatherings, wear masks in public, keep six feet of distance from non-household members and practice good hand hygiene to slow transmission of COVID-19. 

               

              Correction

              The Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home association has clarified that the hospital bed counts provided to the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services and displayed on the Dashboard include adult and pediatric (child and teenager) staffed ICU beds but do not include NICU beds. NICU beds are used only for infants. Hospitals excluding NICU beds ensures that ICU bed counts reflect only beds that could be potentially used for adult or teenage patients who are severely or critically ill with COVID-19. Inpatient beds include all staffed inpatient beds. The total bed count includes surge capacity using all areas of the hospital. 

              Larger Outbreaks

              Defined as more than 5 people linked to a single location, workplace or event. This is a compilation of previously publicly reported outbreak events. This does not represent every instance of an outbreak or large outbreak in Alaska and is not comprehensive. Several of these outbreaks or clusters are still undergoing investigation and some data may be updated in the future as more information comes to light through ongoing efforts in contact tracing and testing.

               

              Location

              First case found

              Associated industry or setting

              # cases in outbreak

              Hospitalizations  & deaths

              OBI/Seward

              7/19

              Seafood 

              139 (of 252 workers total)

               

              Copper River Seafoods/Anchorage

              7/17

              Seafood

              76 (of 135 workers total)

               

              F/V American Triumph

              7/16

              Seafood

              85 (of 119 aboard)

              1 hospitalized

              Alaska Glacier Seafoods plant/Juneau

              7/4

              Seafood

              62 (of 150 workers total)

               

              M/V Tustumena

              6/6

              Alaska Marine Highway

              10

              1 hospitalized

              Whittier Seafoods

              6/1

              Seafood

              11

               

              PTCC

              5/29

              Elder care

              59

              5 hospitalizations, 2 deaths

              New cases

              A total of 755 new cases were identified in Alaskans and 126 new cases were identified in nonresidents, for a total of 3,280 and 704 respectively. A total of 19 Alaskans required hospitalization this week for COVID-19, for a total of 134 hospitalizations since the epidemic began. Four additional deaths were reported this week, for a total of 24 fatalities since the epidemic began. By convention, deaths are counted based on the residency of the patient rather than where they contracted the virus. 

              Epidemic curve

              This analysis projects growth or reduction in cases predicted in the coming weeks based on the growth of cases in recent weeks. The most recent 7 days (grey bars) are not included because there can be a delay in reporting data. This model assumes exponential growth or reduction in cases and can be a useful tool to visualize how quickly cases are increasing or decreasing. This curve does not project what might happen if more people start wearing masks or increase physical distancing; it assumes Alaskans and visitors to Alaska do not change their behavior. The dotted line is the average prediction, and the grey shaded area is estimated error for the predicted rise in cases. Currently, cases are predicted to double about every 21 days, worse than last week where cases were projected to double every 23 days. 

              For a full description of methods, visit https://coronavirus-response-alaska-dhss.hub.arcgis.com/

               

              https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/xu3YSCLMnktM05yJUO6Z2A6BH7U6YrrsgHJV0GdpGfCUY9IfAcCx6jHD3ds1qKTmYGgwDAyPCep3aFOKajmPVcKho98iNe01kC3ygXP4-DVWp10tbIZrGeNeoL5R2hAFrmBcZHLf

               

              Cumulative Cases by Death, Recovered, and Active Status

              https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/0k0gS2m0bBu5yjdp5x7P8hiwBUp6lVJBkdRi2uPsg2A2CAXRGFAUB8SV3S_jeD3kmkD-62HqUYgKkMhuTqz4LjD4wmJsAvzD_ON1aZZsTyeJiQQTVlR4ALfl7glIQnBgt9XWUBel

               

              Communities affected this week 

              New cases were found in Alaskans who are residents of the following communities:

              ·        Anchorage (505), Chugiak (7), Eagle River (21), and Girdwood (1), for a total of 534 new cases in the Anchorage Municipality. Anchorage cases alone make up 67% of this week’s cases. 

              ·        Fairbanks (35), North Pole (3), and a smaller community (1), for a total of 39 new cases in the Fairbanks North Star Borough

              ·        Wasilla (39), Palmer (26), Houston (1), Willow (2), Sutton-Alpine (1), Big Lake (3), and a smaller community or communities (2) for a total of 74 new cases in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough

              ·        Kenai (9), Seward (4), Soldotna (9), and Homer (11) for a total of 33 new cases in the Kenai Peninsula Borough

              ·        Cordova (5), Valdez (3) and 2 in smaller communities or community in Valdez-Cordova Census Area, for a total of 10

              ·        Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (4)

              ·        Juneau (14)

              ·        Ketchikan (2)

              ·        Kotzebue (4) and 13 in a smaller community or communities in the Northwest Arctic Borough, for a total of 17

              ·        Sitka (4)

              ·        Yakutat plus Hoonah Census Area (4)

              ·        Bethel (2) and one in a smaller community, for 3 in Bethel Census Area 

              ·        Unalaska (2)

              ·        Utqiaġvik (5) 

              ·        Craig (2) and 2 in a smaller community or communities for a total of 4 in the Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area 

              ·        Wrangell (3)

              ·        Kodiak (1)

              ·        Kusilvak Census Area (1)

               

              Case rates and alert levels

              The 7 day case rate map depicts cases adjusted by population for a given region (cases per 100,000 people). The regions are large because Alaska is a large state with few densely populated centers, so this case rate can only be meaningful across large regions. Currently, Anchorage Municipality remains in the red, having doubled its case rate from 14 to 28 in the last week. The Interior Region has improved to 7 from 29 last week, and the Northwest Region has passed it, now at 8.85, also nearly doubled from 4.7 last week and now in the high orange zone. Next, Fairbanks North Star Borough and Kenai Peninsula Borough had 6.7 and 7.3 respectively, both declined modestly since last week. Matanuska-Susitna Borough has increased to 8.6 from 6.3 last week. Juneau City and Borough held steady at 6.7, while the southernmost Southeast Region improved from orange to yellow, with 4.3 from 5.7 last week. The northern Southeast Region is now in orange, at 7.7. Most states use a 7 day case rate per 100,000 population to estimate trends in community transmission. Roughly, rates of >10 cases daily per 100,000 population correspond to widespread community transmission and >5 to moderate community transmission, but a sharp increase or decrease in these rates can help predict how the next week or weeks will look for the region. 

               

              7-day Case Rate Map (cases per 100,000 people)https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/QB8oo9vrvGAkQxQy02reU47y9VX6IT7ZMJij18WZa6pvV1B2UlG0oVAEje8evGmniaQrIlcys5_pwdia4hJUUzqjE7tZ9uHFUR5H8-bjm9sWJwb96d_F7vMdvOdYued3tIujDeC4

              Because of Alaska’s unique geography and smaller population, a 14 day case rate can also be useful. The nursing home alert level map below, designed to help long term facilities decide when it may be safer to allow visitors in their facilities, uses a 14 day case rate approach. By that approach, the Interior Region excluding Fairbanks has continued to have case rates in the high alert level, with a case rate of 18; now surpassed by the Anchorage Municipality, which nearly doubled its rate in a week from 10.9 to 20.5. Fairbanks itself has improved slightly within the high orange/intermediate, at 7.2. Kenai Peninsula Borough’s rate has improved slightly to 8 from 9.6 last week. Matanuska-Susitna Borough rose to 7.25 from 5.8 and Juneau City and Borough from 5.6 to 6.7, and were joined by the Northwest Borough and the Northern and Southern Southeast Regions in the intermediate (orange) alert level, with case rates of 7.3, 5.9 and 5.0 respectively. Other regions had case rates <5. 

               

              Alaska COVID-19 Alert Levels

              https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/37KIk2IqgfbOwg4V8wNGUzBibnr4sQlWWaqJ1aukosBSnzHd5GZlNf0YmRqtszB34AaN99mh8ljq6igr0ijhTCDz_wvSSf6B1IJ-kSSgHygD8Y8p3-RRAr4cQnkBHEegrS-P7GoQ

              More information on alert levels is available on this page

              https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/aZ5TfqBB6YLQR04aiVAuV-6IuIjFbpKJuYzt59njephfsvWDsn8yMqyc-rPXZxUJ7cj_wk5Sk4nF-TeFyOV7PSYNYsr19TU2uY0__5iGyD--QOKL_4Os6c7d0l3njZE60aNDK495


               

              COVID-19 in Alaska From Sunday, July 26th Through Saturday, August 1st, 2020. 2020-08-05 08:00:00Z 0

              This data summary covers COVID-19 in Alaska from Sunday, July 19th Through Saturday, July 25th, 2020.

              COVID-19 Weekly Case Update

              This data summary covers COVID-19 in Alaska from Sunday, July 19th through Saturday, July 25th, 2020.

               Background

              The Alaska COVID-19 Weekly Case Update will be finalized every weekend with data from the previous week and the report will be published by the following Wednesday. Data are continually updated on the Alaska Coronavirus Response Data Hub, which reflects the most current case counts. This summary presents data from the previous week and is a snapshot of the information available on known cases at the time. 

               Highlights

              • This has been Alaska’s worst week of the pandemic in terms of rapid increases in resident and nonresident new cases. 
              • Total cases in Alaska residents rose 34% this week.
              • The majority of new cases are among Alaskans aged 20-29, with cases among Alaskans in their 20s and 30s rising sharply.
              • Most nonresident cases have been identified before the person had significant community interaction, so most new cases in Alaskans are acquired from other Alaskans who have not traveled.
              • Hospital capacity is currently adequate, but hospitalizations and deaths are increasing
              • With current rates of physical distancing, face covering use and other measures to prevent transmission, cases are expected to continue to rise rapidly.
              • Alaskans should avoid large and indoor gatherings, wear face coverings in public, keep six feet of distance from non household members and practice good hand hygiene to slow transmission of COVID-19. 

              Major Outbreaks

              This is a compilation of previously publicly reported outbreak events. It is not comprehensive and does not represent every instance of an outbreak (defined as more than 5 people linked to a single location, workplace or event) in Alaska. A significant number of outbreaks are associated with private social gatherings and social events. Please note that dates and numbers may evolve as more information comes to light through ongoing efforts in contact tracing and testing. 

              LocationFirst case identifiedAssociated industry# cases in outbreakHospitalizations  & deaths
              OBI/Seward7/19Seafood 139 (of ~252 workers total)1 hospitalized
              Copper River Seafoods/Anchorage7/17Seafood76 (of ~135 workers total) 
              F/V American Triumph7/16Seafood85 (of ~119 aboard)1 hospitalized
              Alaska Glacier Seafoods plant/Juneau7/4Seafood62 (of ~150 workers total) 
              M/V Tustumena6/6Alaska Marine Highway101 hospitalized
              PTCC5/29Elder care595 hospitalizations, 2 deaths

              New cases

              This week saw 653 new cases in Alaskans and 171 in nonresidents, for a total of 2,524 and 574 respectively. 16 Alaskans required hospitalization this week for COVID-19, for a total of 115 since the epidemic began. Two additional deaths were reported this week, for a total of 20. By convention, deaths are counted based on the residency of the patient rather than where they contracted the virus. 

               Epidemic curve

              This analysis projects growth or reduction in cases predicted in the coming weeks based on the growth of cases in recent weeks. The most recent 7 days (grey bars) are not included because there can be a delay in reporting data. This model assumes exponential growth or reduction in cases and can be a useful tool to visualize how quickly cases are increasing or decreasing. This curve does not project what might happen if more people start wearing masks or increase physical distancing; it assumes Alaskans and visitors to Alaska do not change their behavior. The dotted line is the average prediction, and the grey shaded area is estimated error for the predicted rise in cases. Currently, cases are predicted to double about every 23 days, improved from last week where cases were projected to double every 18 days. For a full description of methods, visit https://coronavirus-response-alaska-dhss.hub.arcgis.com/

              photo1

              Cumulative Cases by Death, Recovered, and Active Status

               

              photo2

              Communities affected this week 

              New cases were found in Alaskans who are residents of the following communities:

              • Anchorage (416), Chugiak (6), Eagle River (7), and Girdwood (1), for a total of 430 new cases in the Anchorage Municipality
              • Fairbanks (51), North Pole (8), and Ester (1), for a total of 60 new cases in the Fairbanks North Star Borough
              • Wasilla (30), Palmer (11), Houston (1), Sutton-Alpine (1), and Big Lake (1) for a total of 44 new cases in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough
              • Kenai (8), Seward (11), Soldotna (6), Homer (4), Sterling (2) and smaller communities (3), for a total of 34 new cases in the Kenai Peninsula Borough
              • Cordova (3) and 19 in smaller communities or community in Valdez-Cordova Census Area, for a total of 22
              • Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (13)
              • Juneau (13)
              • Ketchikan (8)
              • Kotzebue (2) and 4 in a smaller community or communities in the Northwest Arctic Borough, for a total of 6
              • Sitka (4)
              • Yakutat plus Hoonah Census Area (3)
              • Southeast Fairbanks Census Area (2)
              • Bethel Census Area (2)
              • Unalaska (2)
              • Utqiagvik (1) and 1 in a smaller community, for 2 total in the North Slope Borough
              • Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area (1)
              • Wrangell (1)
              • Nome Census Area (1)
              • Haines (1)
              • Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula Census Area (1)
              • Denali Borough (1)
              • Aleutians East Borough (1)

              Case rates and alert levels

              The 7 day case rate map depicts cases adjusted by population for a given region (cases per 100,000 people). The regions are large because Alaska is a large state with few densely populated centers, so this case rate can only be meaningful across large regions. Currently, the Interior region with the exception of Fairbanks North Star Borough has the highest new case rates in Alaska, averaging 29 new cases daily per 100,000 people, nearly double its rate from last week. The Anchorage Municipality has joined it in the red zone with a case rate of 14, up sharply from 9 last week. Next, Fairbanks North Star Borough and Kenai Peninsula Borough had 8.5 and 9.3 respectively, both declined modestly since last week, while Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Juneau City and Borough and the southernmost Southeast region have joined them in orange, with 6.3, 6.7, and 5.7 respectively. The Northwest region is also rising within the yellow category, with a 4.7 rate currently. Most states use a 7 day case rate per 100,000 population to estimate trends in community transmission. Roughly, rates of >10 cases daily per 100,000 population correspond to widespread community transmission and >5 to moderate community transmission, but a sharp increase or decrease in these rates can help predict how the next week or weeks will look for the region. 

              7-day Case Rate Map (cases per 100,000 people)

               

              photo3

              Because of Alaska’s unique geography and smaller population, a 14 day case rate can also be useful. The nursing home alert level map below, designed to help long term facilities decide when it may be safer to allow visitors in their facilities, uses a 14 day case rate approach. By that approach, the Interior Region excluding Fairbanks has continued to have rising case rates in the high alert level, with a case rate of 19. Fairbanks itself has come out of the red high alert level to high orange/intermediate, at 9.7. Kenai Peninsula Borough’s rate has risen slightly to 9.6 from 9.3 last week, while Anchorage Municipality has entered the red high alert level with a rate of 10.9. Both Matanuska-Susitna Borough and Juneau City and Borough have entered the intermediate (orange) alert level, with case rates of 5.8 and 5.6 respectively. Other regions had case rates <5. 

              Alaska COVID-19 Alert Levels

              photo4

              More information on alert levels is available on this page

              photo5

              How Alaskans acquired COVID-19

              DHSS monitors how people most likely got the virus. In green in the plot below are Alaska residents who acquired COVID-19 by traveling to other states or countries. In March, a substantial proportion of our cases were related to Alaskans returning from elsewhere, while in April and May, fewer Alaskans traveled. Since June, as travel has started to increase, cases in Alaskans related to travel have begun to occur more regularly. 

              In blue below are cases where Alaskans got COVID-19 from a known contact. These are people who did not leave the state, but we could trace their illness back to the person they got it from. The goal is for contact tracing to identify each of these cases where someone got it from someone else they had contact with so they can let all other contacts of both people know to quarantine. As contact tracing expanded in May, more cases from contacts were identified.

              In red, however, are cases where Alaskans got COVID-19 and contact tracing was not able to establish a clear source. This demonstrates that there are other cases in our communities that we have not found yet. The biggest increase in cases in Alaska has been in people aged 20-39, with many cases linked to bars and social gatherings.

              Grey bars show the cases where the investigation has not yet concluded. Since the workload for contact tracers has more than doubled in the last few weeks, they are working as fast as possible to identify and quarantine contacts. Alaskans can help contact tracers move faster and prevent more cases by keeping their contact list small, keeping a diary of who they are in close contact with (defined as within 6 feet for 10 minutes or more), wearing cloth face coverings when around any non-household members or in public, and responding promptly to being contacted. 

              photo6

               
               
              This data summary covers COVID-19 in Alaska from Sunday, July 19th Through Saturday, July 25th, 2020. 2020-07-29 08:00:00Z 0

              COVID-19 Alaska Weekly Case Update: June 13-19, 2020

              Alaska DHSS signup page

              COVID-19 Alaska Weekly Case Update: June 13-19, 2020

              Alaska DHSS sent this bulletin at 06/22/2020 08:59 PM AKDT

              The purpose of this email newsletter is to help provide better context to Alaska's case count data. Please note that the cases described here are from the past week and do not reflect current totals.  We plan on publishing this communication weekly. 

              This data summary covers COVID-19 in Alaska from Saturday, June 13 through Friday, June 19, 2020

              New cases

              This week saw 91 new cases in Alaskans and 34 in nonresidents, for a total of 743 and 104 respectively. No additional deaths were reported this week. 9 Alaskans were reported to require hospitalization this week for COVID-19, for a total of 61 since the epidemic began. 

              Communities affected this week 

              New additional cases were found in Alaskans who are residents of the following communities:

              • Anchorage (26), Chugiak (1), Eagle River (3) and Girdwood (1), for a total of 31 new cases and 346 overall in the Anchorage Municipality
              • Homer (4), Kenai (1), South Kenai Peninsula Borough (2) and Soldotna (4), for a total of 11 new cases and 119 overall in the Kenai Peninsula Borough
              • Kodiak (1), for a total of 3 cases overall in the Kodiak Island Borough
              • Fairbanks (15) and North Pole (7), for a total of 22 new cases and 114 overall in the Fairbanks North Star Borough
              • Big Lake (2), Palmer (6) and Wasilla (3), for a total of 11 new cases and 54 overall in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough
              • North Slope Borough (2), for a total of 3 cases overall
              • Haines (1), for a total of 2 cases overall in the Haines Borough
              • Juneau (2), for a total of 39 cases overall in Juneau City and Borough
              • Ketchikan (2), for a total of 21 cases overall in Ketchikan Gateway Borough
              • Sitka (3), for a total of 11 cases overall in Sitka City and Borough
              • Wrangell (1), for a total of 3 cases overall in Wrangell City and Borough
              • Bethel Census Area (2), for a total of 6 cases overall
              • Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula (1), for a total of 2 cases overall

              This week, there were no new cases in the Southeast Fairbanks Census Bureau (which has had 3 cases overall), Nome Census Area (5 cases overall), Northwest Arctic Borough (4 cases overall), Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area (2 cases overall) and Petersburg Borough (4 cases overall). 

              Nonresident cases

              Of the 34 nonresident cases identified this week, 11 were in the Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula Borough, 7 were in Anchorage, 3 in Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, 3 in Ketchikan Gateway Borough, 3 in Fairbanks North Star Borough, two in Wrangell-Petersburg Census Area and one each in Sitka City and Borough, Valdez-Cordova Census Area, Nome and Aleutians East Census Area. Currently, one nonresident has a location not yet recorded. 

              Recovered cases

              This week, 59 Alaskans were released from isolation following their COVID-19 diagnosis, for a total of 464, or 62% of total cases. 

              Testing update

              By Friday evening, 86,918 tests had been conducted. 14,510 of them were performed this week, with an average positive rate of around 0.7%. This was the second full week of traveler testing, with testing capabilities expanding at points of entry to Alaska, including by air, land and sea. Travelers arriving to Alaska by any mode of transportation are required to complete a 14 day quarantine or test negative for COVID-19. 

              Tourism, visitors and airport testing

              This week saw 12,044 travelers screened at airports entering Alaska. Complete data were immediately available for 11,084 arrivals. Of those, 4,237 (38%) had opted to pre-test within 72 hours of arrival and 4,894 (44%) chose to be tested on entry to Alaska. The remaining 1953 (18%) selected the 14 day quarantine option. 13 new cases were discovered through airport arrival testing, for a test positivity rate of 0.27%. 

              Of the 34 cases in nonresidents this week, 7 were linked with tourism or visiting, including 2 in Ketchikan, 1 in Sitka City and Borough, 2 in Fairbanks North Star Borough, and 2 in Anchorage. 

              Nursing homes

              One additional case was found after retesting all residents and staff at the Providence Transitional Care Center, for a total of 46 cases among 19 residents and 27 caregivers. A fourth round of testing was completed this week, with results pending. 

              Last week, after an employee at the Fairbanks Pioneer Home tested positive for COVID-19, all residents and staff were tested. Those tests have all been completed and all results were negative. Testing of residents and staff members at the other Pioneer Homes is also underway. In addition to the standard practice of testing any staff member or resident who has any symptoms or who has come in contact with a known COVID-19 case, the feasibility of testing staff every two weeks is being evaluated.

              Ketchikan

              A traveler arriving in Ketchikan caused widespread concern after they were found to have attended multiple social gatherings prior to receiving a positive test result from a swab taken on arrival. Contact tracing is ongoing and contacts will quarantine for 14 days, while some sports practices were cancelled, an office was closed and many others in the community were negatively impacted. This illustrates the importance of quarantining until any traveler results are received. Because Alaska’s approach to controlling COVID-19 depends on Alaskans and visitors assuming personal responsibility, everyone has a role in following health mandates and guidance to protect our communities. Local emergency response leaders are coping with community frustration while ensuring COVID-19 patients are safe and supported with medical care. 

              Seafood industry

              Of 34 nonresident cases total identified this week, 21 are in workers in the seafood industry, including 5 in Anchorage, 11 in Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula Borough, 1 in Aleutians East Census Area, 1 in Valdez-Cordova Census Area, 1 in Wrangell-Petersburg Census Area, 1 in Ketchikan Gateway Borough and 1 with location not specified. 

              Other industries

              Other nonresidents who were found to have COVID-19 work in the mining industry (1 in Fairbanks North Star Borough and 3 in Southeast Fairbanks Census Area), while one case in Nome and one in Wrangell-Petersburg Census Area were in nonresidents here to work in other occupations.

              Three Alaskans in Fairbanks found to have COVID-19 this week work in healthcare, while six cases in one household were found at Fort Wainwright. 

              Reporting of deaths due to COVID-19

              12 Alaskans are reported as having died from COVID-19, meaning that the virus was listed as one of up to four conditions on their death certificate that contributed to their death. This follows federal reporting conventions that require doctors to list multiple contributing causes for a patient’s death. Only conditions that contribute to the person’s passing may be listed on a death certificate, so if a person has COVID-19 at the time of their death but it did not contribute to their death, COVID-19 could not be listed on their death certificate and their passing would not be included in the count of Alaskans who had died from COVID-19. 

              Data timeliness and accuracy

              Weekly summaries are published early the following week because that gives the state public health workforce time to collect data, verify its accuracy, make sure cases have not been counted in multiple places and verify patient identities. This summary is designed to more accurately summarize the Alaska Coronavirus Response Hub dashboard, which displays data as it was collected in the past 24 hours as well as maintaining a record of available data since the pandemic began. The dashboard data occasionally change as new information is received or as cases are reclassified once verification takes place, since this process takes time and case counts sometimes change with more information. 

              Further information

              Please see the State of Alaska COVID-19 information page for more information about the virus and how individuals and businesses can protect themselves and others from transmission. 

              For the most up-to-date case information, see the Alaska Coronavirus Response Hub dashboard. Some data may change as more information comes to light through contact tracing and other public health work. 

              For questions regarding DHSS COVID response, including mandates and alerts, email covidquestions@alaska.gov. Since DHSS is experiencing a high volume of inquiries, the Frequently Asked Questions webpage can often be the quickest route to an answer regarding testing, travel, health mandates and other COVID-19 information. 

              For DHSS media inquiries, please contact clinton.bennett@alaska.gov.

              ###

              COVID-19 Alaska Weekly Case Update: June 13-19, 2020 2020-07-29 08:00:00Z 0

              5 Questions About Environmental Projects
               

              with
              Karen Kendrick-Hands
              Communications director, Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group (ESRAG)
               
              1. How does the environment fit into Rotary’s areas of focus?
               
              Any project in any area of focus will benefit from having environmental sustainability as one of its watchwords. It’s a lot harder to supply clean water to people if your watershed is compromised— if your river is full of industrial, human, and animal waste. Basic education and literacy is a challenge when kids are sick because the school well is contaminated. Health is affected when insects carrying diseases expand their geographic range due to changing climate patterns. Water wars and climate refugees will make achieving peace and conflict resolution more complicated. Economic development is slowed when there’s not adequate energy. Rotary would do a huge service to the world if it moved every water project from a diesel pump to wind or solar. That’s a project that’s scalable.
               
              2. Why did ESRAG publish a handbook with environmental project ideas?
               
              A lot of people say they’d like to do an environmental project, but they don’t know where to start. Or they may already be doing something in their community that they didn’t even realize was an environmental project — like adopting a highway or organizing an electronic waste recycling drive — and the handbook, which we worked with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to create in 2019, helps educate them about the broad range of projects that help the environment. Other people say they need an idea that will inspire their clubs. I was astonished at the wide variety of project ideas we were able to gather and present in the handbook.
               
              3. Can you describe some of the project suggestions?
               
              We looked to address topics that we thought were important, topics that fit well with existing areas of focus, and topics that expanded Rotary clubs’ reach into the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Six of the 17 goals don’t currently fit under one of Rotary’s areas of focus — things like affordable and clean energy, sustainable cities and communities, and responsible consumption and production. The back cover is a sample press release. It’s a reminder that sharing our story builds the brand and creates momentum for more service.
               
              4. What inspired ESRAG’s collaboration with UNEP?
               
              In 2018, Rotary Day at the United Nations was celebrated in Nairobi, Kenya, and UNEP, which is based there, helped host the event. Rotary and UNEP decided to work together to create a handbook for Rotary clubs that want to participate in World Environment Day, which is 5 June. ESRAG worked with UNEP on the handbook. It starts with a joint statement from former RI Presidents Barry Rassin and Mark Daniel Maloney. We were thrilled to have that endorsement and hope this can be the start of more collaboration between Rotary and UNEP.
               
              5. Are Rotarians getting more involved in environmental projects?
               
              I was invited by Rotary staff earlier this year to help put together a survey to gauge interest in environmental projects throughout the Rotary world. We had some input from the Climate Solutions Coalition, which is a youth movement within ESRAG. We sent out the survey link in a newsletter on 23 January. We had to get all the results in by 31 January. In that brief time, we got over 5,000 completed surveys back. I think that shows there is a lot of pent-up demand. People interested in environmental solutions could go out and work with other groups, and many Rotarians do. But what we’re seeing is a real desire to do their environmental work within the Rotary framework. That’s a valuable future asset for Rotary. We have no idea of the members it will attract, the purse strings that will be loosened. With the people who will be the next generation of Rotary, the future is clear.
               
              — DIANA SCHOBERG
               
              • Download your copy of the ESRAG-UNEP handbook at esrag.org/esrag-unep-handbook.
              • Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa
              • This story originally appeared in the July 2020 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              5 Questions About Environmental Projects  2020-07-29 08:00:00Z 0

              Philippine Club Mobilizes Transportation for Frontline Coronavirus Health Workers

              COVID-19 forces lockdown on public transportation in Manila. Members bring vans, accommodations for hospital and lab workers.
               
              By Ryan Hyland
               
              It didn’t take long for members of the Rotary Club of Makati West to take action once the deadly coronavirus entered the country. Shortly after the local government announced the first case of COVID-19 in January, the club in Makati City, Philippines, called a series of emergency meetings to quickly assemble resources and direct aid.
               
              "The pandemic was a battle cry for our club,” says club president Enrico Tensuan. “We are Rotary, and with that comes problem-solving. We focused our efforts on how to bring immediate assistance to frontline health workers.” A surge in cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, led to a government-mandated lockdown starting 15 March. On the island of Luzon, home to half of the Philippines’ population, the new rules closed most businesses and shut down public transit.
               
              As a result, many health workers and other essential employees faced daunting commutes to their jobs — up to two hours each way on foot, Tensuan says.
               
              "At times like this, even the smallest of gestures can make a big difference."
              Enrico Tensuan, president of the Rotary Club of Makati West, Philippines
               
              In response to the need for safe transportation, club member Elmer Francisco — chief executive and chair of Francisco Motor Corp. and 1111 Empire Inc., which manufactures jeeps and other vehicles — donated 10 vans to transport frontline health workers to hospitals in and around Makati and the capital city, Manila. Francisco coordinated with officials at the Department of Transportation to obtain permits to operate the fleet and plan the most convenient routes for riders.
              Since March, the vans, which carry up to 30 passengers each, have operated 24 hours each day from four designated pickup spots and local hospitals, including the Philippine General Hospital, one of the country’s biggest health care facilities.
               
              The club paid for the fuel, and members handed out snacks to exhausted passengers. In addition, the initiative paid the salaries of 17 drivers, all of whom had temporarily lost their public utility jobs because of the transit shutdown. The club expects the project to operate at least until the end of May.
               
              “The dedication of these frontline workers and our drivers is awe-inspiring,” Francisco says. “Walking two hours each way is simply unforgiving. They are already risking their lives fighting COVID-19. This was necessary to keeping them safe.”
              Hospital workers in the Philippines are being transported for free to and from work thanks to an initiative by the Rotary Club Makati West, Philippines.
               
              One of the transportation drivers fuels up a van provided by the Rotary Club of Makati West, Philippines. The club paid for fuel and the salary of more than a dozen drivers.
               
              The Rotary Club of Makati West, Philippines, and member Elmer Francisco donated more than 10 vans to help give free transportation for frontline healthcare workers in and around Manilia.
               
              Helping lab employees shelter near work Members of the Makati West club also worked to provide lodging for medical professionals. They helped secure 30 days of accommodations at area motels for nearly 50 lab technicians and workers at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, which conducts COVID-19 tests. The employees work long hours and the nearby facilities provide much-needed relief, Tensuan says
              .
              The club planned to pay for the rooms, but local officials, inspired by the club’s actions, funded the workers’ monthlong stay. Members prepared bags of toiletries and snacks for institute workers and motel employees. “They were small bags with just a few things, but they brought big smiles. At times like this, even the smallest of gestures can make a big difference,” Tensuan says.
               
              The club also raised funds for Fashion for Frontliners, an effort by a group of fashion designers in the Philippines who have produced thousands of items of much-needed personal protection equipment (PPE) for hospital workers. And club members have donated thousands of dollars’ worth of PPE, including masks, gloves, and gowns, using Francisco’s fleet of vehicles to deliver the equipment to hospitals. Tensuan, who leases properties, personally donated three laundry machines to the Philippine General Hospital so that workers can wash their clothes and PPE.
               
              “I’m proud of how our club responded so far,” Tensuan says. “But we have a long way to go. We will use our club’s resources for as long as the virus is a threat.”
              Philippine Club Mobilizes Transportation for Frontline Coronavirus Health Workers 2020-07-22 08:00:00Z 0

              COVID-19 Alaska Weekly Case Update: July 12- July 18, 2020

              Alaska DHSS signup page

              COVID-19 Alaska Weekly Case Update: July 12- July 18, 2020

              Alaska DHSS sent this bulletin at 07/21/2020 06:43 PM AKDT

              This data summary covers COVID-19 in Alaska from Sunday, July 12th through Saturday, July 18th, 2020. 

              Background

              The Alaska COVID-19 Weekly Case Update will be finalized every weekend with data from the previous week and the report will be published by the following Wednesday. Data are continually updated on the AK DHSS Data Hub, which reflects the most current case counts. This summary presents data from the previous week and is a snapshot of the information available on known cases at the time. 

              Highlights

              · Total cases in Alaska residents have risen by more than a quarter in this week alone

              ·  We see community transmission occurring in almost every business type that involves in-person interaction

              ·  Alaskans are acquiring the virus from many types of social gatherings: backyard barbecues, funerals, weddings, children's sporting events, camps, churches and any time groups gather with others outside their household

              ·  Fairbanks has had very high rates of test positivity, reflecting widespread community transmission

              ·   The majority of new cases are among Alaskans aged 20-29, with cases among Alaskans in their 20s and 30s rising sharply

              ·  Most nonresident cases have been identified before the person had significant community interaction, so most new cases in Alaskans are acquired from other Alaskans who have not traveled

              ·  Hospital capacity remains adequate

              ·  With current rates of physical distancing, face covering use and other measures to prevent transmission, cases are expected to continue to rise rapidly 

              ·  Alaskans should avoid gatherings with non-household members, wear face coverings in public, keep six feet of distance from non household members and practice good hand hygiene to slow transmission of COVID-19 

              New cases

              This week saw 399 new cases in Alaskans and 104 in nonresidents, for a total of 1,874 and 403 respectively. 6 Alaskans required hospitalization this week for COVID-19, for a total of 99 since the epidemic began. One additional death was reported this week, for a total of 18. By convention, deaths are counted based on the residency of the patient rather than where they contracted the virus. 

              https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/b7gelACCcH2KZ8xPceQ1LJMl1sjmle2y-stto5mWOsGVivFUMlOprEVTmC4fk2BeQbvf_impiCA6sRMt9XGKfftBLJCSZSWrPB2JkgPlNun8hA48czBoBpEcs-AJ-fMdpwIgjgVQ

              Communities affected this week 

              New cases were found in Alaskans who are residents of the following communities:

              ·         Anchorage (184), Chugiak (6), Eagle River (14), and Girdwood (1), for a total of 205 new cases in the Anchorage Municipality

              ·         Fairbanks (58) and North Pole (6), for a total of 64 new cases in the Fairbanks North Star Borough

              ·         Kenai (5), Seward (7), Soldotna (18), Homer (2), Nikiski (2), Sterling (2) and smaller communities (4), for a total of 40 new cases in the Kenai Peninsula Borough

              ·         Wasilla (28), Palmer (7), Willow (1), Sutton-Alpine (1), and Meadow Lakes (1) for a total of 37 new cases in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough

              ·         Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (16)

              ·         Juneau (11)

              ·         Valdez-Cordova Census Area (9)

              ·         Utqiagvik (2)

              ·         Ketchikan (2)

              ·         Sitka (2)

              ·         Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula Census Area (2)

              ·         Kotzebue (1) and one in a smaller community, for a total of 2 new cases in the Northwest Arctic Borough

              ·         Bethel (1) and one in a smaller community, for a total of 2 new cases in the Bethel Census Area

              ·         Southeast Fairbanks Census Area (1)

              ·         Nome Census Area (1)

              ·         Haines (1)

              ·         Kusilvak Census Area (1)

              ·         Kodiak (1)

               Case rates and alert levels

              The 7 day case rate map depicts cases adjusted by population for a given region (cases per 100,000 people). The regions are large because Alaska is a large state with few densely populated centers, so this case rate can only be meaningful across large regions. Currently, the Interior region with the exception of Fairbanks North Star Borough has the highest new case rates in Alaska, averaging 15.8 new cases daily per 100,000 people. Next, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Kenai Peninsula Borough and Anchorage Municipality had 9.4, 9.8 and 9.0 new cases daily per 100,000 people this week.  Juneau City and Borough has the next highest rates, at 4.91. Most states use a 7 day case rate per 100,000 population to estimate trends in community transmission. Roughly, rates of >10 cases daily per 100,000 population correspond to widespread community transmission and >5 to moderate community transmission, but a sharp increase or decrease in these rates can help predict how the next week or weeks will look for the region. 

              COVID-19 Alaska Weekly Case Update: July 12- July 18, 2020 2020-07-22 08:00:00Z 0

              The Rotarian Conversation: Marc Freedman

              This longevity expert has found that both younger and older people thrive when they work together with a common purpose — something Rotarians know a lot about
               
              While visiting a Rotary club in Sacramento, California, Marc Freedman was struck by the diversity of the group — in age as well as ethnicity. “There were so many barriers being bridged around this common sense of purpose,” he says. “It’s one of the reasons I love Rotary. So much of society has sorted itself into highly age-segregated arrangements. Rotary and other like-minded groups are resisting that trend and creating spaces where people of all generations can work together for the greater good.”
               
              Freedman is the kind of person who would notice that. Named a Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the World Economic Forum in 2014 and featured by AARP the Magazine in 2012 among its “50 over 50” influencers, he is one of the leading experts in the United States on the longevity revolution and the transformation of retirement.
               
              Freedman is founder and CEO of Encore.org, a nonprofit focused on bridging generational divides and making “encore careers” for retirement-age workers a new social norm. He’s also co-founder of what is now AARP Experience Corps, a program that brings volunteer tutors age 50 and over together with students in kindergarten through third grade who are struggling to read. Researchers have found that the support of these volunteers has a beneficial effect on the children equivalent to a 40 percent reduction in class size; referrals for behavior problems have also gone down 30 to 50 percent. There are advantages for the adults as well; studies have found that the volunteers experienced physical benefits such as less arthritis pain and better blood sugar control. The program, a 2014 Atlantic article noted, “dusted off the cobwebs in their brains.”
              Freedman, who lives in the San Francisco Bay area, spoke with senior staff writer Diana Schoberg about his most recent book, How to Live Forever: The Enduring Power of Connecting the Generations.

              THE ROTARIAN: What do connections across generations provide that connections within your own age group don’t?
               
              FREEDMAN: There’s a growing appreciation of connections in general these days, fostered by the awareness of how profound the problem of loneliness is in America and elsewhere. People need a variety of connections — with their peers as well as across generations.
               
              A Harvard study found that relationships are the key to happiness throughout adulthood. It shows that older people who connect with younger people are three times as likely to be happy as those who fail to do so. Why is that bond so important? One reason is that as we reach the time in our lives when there are fewer years ahead of us than behind us, it’s a great comfort to know that what we’ve learned is likely to live on in younger friends and family members.
               
              TR: What are the benefits of these relationships for children?
               
              FREEDMAN: On an emotional level, the needs of older and younger people fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. When I started my career, I spent years working on kids’ issues. I didn’t have any background in aging or gerontology. But I was struck by how important the presence of caring adults is for the well-being of young people, particularly young people who are growing up in economic hardship.
               
              Urie Bronfenbrenner, who was one of the great child psychologists of the 20th century and who co-founded Head Start, was asked what he had learned from decades of studying children’s development. He said that every child needs at least one adult to be irrationally crazy about them. I think he captured something fundamental. Young people need love and support from adults — not just from their own parents, but from other adults in the community. And as we get older, we also need to be irrationally crazy about young people. It’s a key source of happiness, according to research, and it’s something that we get better at as we age. The skills that are required to build and sustain relationships blossom in later life, as do emotional regulation and even the drive to connect.
               
              TR: In your book, you write about the physical benefits of these kinds of connections, such as decreased rates of diabetes and arthritis in older people. What are some other benefits that might be surprising?
               
              FREEDMAN: I was involved in creating Experience Corps, a national service program that recruits older people to serve in low-income elementary schools, helping kids learn to read. One of the discoveries we’ve made along the way is that this intersection between purpose and connection is incredibly important for well-being, especially as we grow older.
               
              We found with Experience Corps that having responsibility and a place to go several days a week forces older people to be more physically active — they have to get out of their homes and to the schools. And purposeful activity, particularly with young people, involves a lot of learning. Explaining and teaching things to younger people helps keep older people’s minds active. There is now research from Johns Hopkins University that suggests being involved in programs like Experience Corps can offset some of the things that predispose people to dementia.
               
              And then there’s our spiritual health — the idea that we’re living a life that still matters, rather than heeding signals from society that older people should head prematurely to the sidelines.
               
              TR: How has our ability to connect with each other been affected by the social distancing that COVID-19 has required?
               
              FREEDMAN: Social distancing has exacerbated the loneliness epidemic, which is also a public health crisis, contributing to millions of “deaths of despair” globally every year. But this period of sheltering at home helps us all develop a deeper empathy for those who are isolated most of the time. Suddenly, many millions of people are experiencing the kind of loneliness that had been reserved for much smaller numbers.
               
              When social distancing ends, I believe we’ll have a newfound appreciation for face-to-face connection. Sure, we’ve learned to use tools like Zoom, FaceTime, and Google Hangouts — and they help. But we’ll also see that virtual connection is no substitute for the real thing.
               
              TR: Is our society more segregated by age than it used to be? If so, how did that come about?
               
              FREEDMAN: It happened in waves. In the United States, the first wave came during the Progressive era, as we enacted child labor laws and universal schooling. All of a sudden, young people were grouped together in educational institutions entirely geared to them. Social Security had the effect of getting older people out of the workforce, which in turn helped create a whole set of institutions geared toward older people. It was all seen as being a more efficient way to organize society.
               
              None of that happened for nefarious reasons. We just thought it was going to be more efficient to put children in schools and to get older people into settings where we felt we could more effectively address their needs, like senior centers and nursing homes and retirement communities. Then we were left with workplaces occupied by all the adults in the middle. And the twain stopped meeting. For all the benefits, something profound — an essential part of the human experience — was lost along the way.
               
              In 1949, United Auto Workers President Walter Reuther got up in front of the union and described retirees as too old to work, too young to die. People were ashamed to be elderly. So real estate developers created places for them to go where they would be apart from the rest of society and wouldn’t have to deal with that stigma. They could pretend they were young in a society that glorifies youth. In retirement communities like Sun City, Arizona, everybody was old, so nobody was old. You could pretend you were a kid again. The weekend Sun City opened, 100,000 people showed up. There was a traffic jam for 2 miles.
               
              What we’re seeing now is a wave of social innovation that’s essentially trying to find new ways to do old things. And that’s terrific. But Rotary has been doing it all along. That’s an extraordinary credit to the organization. It is among the few places in American society where older and younger people can come together to work for the common good. It’s a place where people get a sense of the cycle of life and some relief from this radical age segregation that has been so prevalent for the past century.
               
              TR: Is age segregation a problem in other parts of the world as well?
               
              FREEDMAN: It’s a global issue, and there is a global community of innovators who are working to bring generations together and to create societies where what’s natural is once again normal.
               
              Probably the most ambitious effort is in Singapore, where the government is spending over $2 billion on an aging action plan, including creating a “Kampong for All Ages”—kampong being the Malay word for village. New senior centers and preschools are being situated together. New intergenerational housing is being designed. They’re building playgrounds that are designed to bring older and younger people together. They’ve created a volunteer corps of older people focused on helping children. They are trying to reorganize society to demonstrate that the generations can not only get along; they can be invaluable to each other.
               
              One of my favorite examples is happening in the United Kingdom. At age 57, Lucy Kellaway, a columnist at the Financial Times, announced that she was going to quit her job to become a math teacher in a low-income London school. She was inspired by her daughter, who was in the British equivalent of Teach for America. Kellaway challenged her readers of a certain age to quit their jobs and join her as math and science teachers, and 1,000 people signed up for what she calls Now Teach. It has really affected how older people in the UK think about their future.
               
              In Finland, an effort to create “communal grandparents” came out of the realization that many grandparents and their grandchildren do not live near each other. And many older people don’t have their own grandchildren. So they had the idea of creating grandparent/grandchild-like bonds among people who aren’t related to each other.
               
              These experiments are part of an attempt to rethink relationships between older and younger people in a world that is aging rapidly. In the United States, 2019 was the first year that we had more people over 60 than under 18, and that trend is going to continue. We need to think about how to organize society in ways that not only mitigate the challenges of these new demographics, but take advantage of some of the opportunities they present.
               
              TR: What can Rotarians do to promote connections between the generations?
               
              FREEDMAN: There are opportunities for older and younger people to come together around projects that benefit the future well-being of humanity. Young people have an interest in that, because that’s the world they’re going to inhabit. And as we get older and come face to face with our own mortality, one of the central ways to address the fact that we don’t live on and on is to help create a better future.
               
              I know from reading and seeing the projects that Rotary is working on — like climate change and water issues — that many of the priorities that are core to Rotary’s social mission are ones that older and younger people can come together around and bring their unique skills to help address.
               
              TR: How can we create programs that bring generations together to the greatest effect?
               
              FREEDMAN: Establish programs that create the opportunity to build real relationships through working together around a shared purpose. Ongoing, consistent, and mutual efforts are going to have the biggest payoff. Opportunities for older Rotarians to work with young people on issues of high priority to Rotary and its members will offer some of the deepest rewards.
               
              TR: If you could create a world where relationships between people of different generations are the best they could be, what would that look like?
               
              FREEDMAN: We would have to reorganize our daily life in ways that prize cross-generational proximity and purpose. One example is to create age-integrated housing. Another is to bring together institutions currently aimed at separate age groups into mutually beneficial collaboration, such as preschools combined with senior centers. We would need to encourage people of different ages to be in the workplace together, and we would have to reassess the nature of education. There is a movement on university campuses where people in their 60s and 70s are coming back to school in programs designed to help them launch the next phase of their lives. One of the great side benefits is that they generate interaction between older people and the young people they take classes with.
               
              One of the stories I told in the book still has a grip on me. It’s an example from Judson Manor in Cleveland, an upscale retirement community in a beautiful 1920s building near the Case Western Reserve University campus. Judson started housing graduate students in music and art for free in return for the students’ performing concerts and doing art projects with the residents. The exchange ended up producing extraordinary cross-generational relationships. When a young violist who spent time living at Judson got married, for example, she asked her 90-something neighbor to be in their wedding party. They had formed a deep bond. Proximity and purpose yet again! When you create those kinds of opportunities, very powerful things start happening.
               
              • Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa
               
              • This story originally appeared in the July 2020 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              The Rotarian Conversation: Marc Freedman D Schoberg 2020-07-15 08:00:00Z 0

              Young at Heart

              Holger Knaack has a fresh vision for the Rotary of the future. With a little help from his friends, things should go swimmingly
              The Küchensee, one of Ratzeburg’s four lakes, provides a scenic backdrop for lunch with Holger’s sister, Barbara (left), and Susanne’s sister, Sabine (right).
               
              Holger Knaack is vacuuming.
               
              The Rotary Club of Herzogtum Lauenburg-Mölln in Germany has wrapped up its annual Christmas bazaar in the cloister of the 12th-century Ratzeburg Cathedral. Two days of selling handicrafts, mistletoe, and homemade cakes and cookies have netted the club some 8,000 euros, which this year will go to a German nonprofit that supports children who are critically ill. As the club members break down booths and put away tables and chairs, Knaack grabs the vacuum cleaner and, head down in concentration, tackles the crumbs, dirt, and bits of tinsel that litter the floor.
              At this moment, Knaack is president-elect of Rotary International, preparing to take office on 1 July 2020. But at the same time he’s a regular Rotarian, a 27-year member of his club, pitching in like everybody else. “He just wants to be one friend among friends,” says club member Barbara Hardkop.
               
              There’s a German phrase: man holt die Leute ins Boot. It means getting people on board to work together toward a common goal. In the coming year, Rotarians will find that Holger Knaack is not one to stand on the sidelines while others do the work. But equally important for Knaack is the philosophy that working hard doesn’t mean you can’t also have a good time. As he spends this year getting people on board — especially to carry out his highest priority, investing in young people — he will also be doing his best to make sure everyone is enjoying themselves.
               
              “It’s a basic principle with Holger,” says his longtime friend Hubertus Eichblatt, a fellow club member. “When we get together, it has to be fun.”
              Holger Knaack, Rotary International’s 2020-21 president. “He looks youthful,” says a friend. “He is youthful!”
               
              Holger Knaack is an atypical Rotary president, and not just because he wears jeans and eschews ties much of the time. He’s the organization’s first German president, and he came to that position in untraditional fashion. Unlike many of his predecessors, he didn’t rise step by step through the ranks of Rotary offices. He served as club president and district governor, but he had held only one Rotary International post, that of training leader, before becoming director. And he remembers being at a Rotary institute where people asked him what other district offices he had held before becoming governor. “I said, ‘None. None.’ All of them were very surprised,” he recalls.
               
              What Knaack is most known for is his involvement in Rotary’s Youth Exchange program. That experience is deep, broad, and extraordinarily meaningful to him and his wife, Susanne. They have no children of their own, but they have opened their home — and their hearts — to dozens of students. “The Knaack house is always full of guests, especially young people,” says Helmut Knoth, another friend and member of Holger’s club. “They’ve had hundreds of guests over the years.”
               
              Shortly after joining his Rotary club in 1992, Knaack helped out with a camp for short-term Youth Exchange students in northern Germany. He was immediately hooked. “I thought it was a really great program,” he says. “This is something, you’d say in German, wo dein Herz aufgeht: Your heart opens. Whenever you talk to the young people, they’ll tell you, ‘It was the best time in my life.’ Sometimes I think they are surprised about themselves, about what they are able to do, and about the possibilities that are open to them through Rotary.”
               
              The opportunities opened for Knaack, as well. He became Youth Exchange chair for his club, and after serving as governor of District 1940 in 2006-07, he was asked to chair the German Multi-District Youth Exchange, a position he held until the day before he started his term on Rotary’s Board of Directors in 2013. Along the way, he notes, he always relied on other people. “You develop a vision together, and then let’s go ahead,” he says. “Everybody’s going a little different way; there’s never just one road. But the goal should be the same.”
               
              Young people seem to intuitively understand Knaack’s way of doing things. “Holger has a vision, and he is executing on that vision,” says Brittany Arthur, a member of the Rotaract Club of Berlin and the Rotary Club of Berlin International. “And you recognize that this vision is not new for him. Holger and Susanne have had dozens of Youth Exchange students. Do you think they did all that so that in 2020 he could say, ‘We need to invest in youth’? This is who they are.”
               
              Arthur also sees Knaack as unusual in his willingness to invest in “potential, not experience.” In 2012, as an Australian Ambassadorial Scholar in Germany, she had a brief exchange with him at a club meeting. That led to her speaking about her “Rotary moment” at a Berlin peace forum sponsored by 2012-13 RI President Sakuji Tanaka. After her presentation, she thought she was done. But Knaack, who had organized the forum and was now putting together a Rotary institute, had other ideas. “I had just finished speaking to hundreds of Rotarians,” she recalls. “I was feeling so great, and he said, ‘Do you want to help with the institute?’ and I said, ‘Yes!’”
               
              Like other Rotarians, Arthur perceives the depth of Knaack’s persuasive personality. “He’s super funny and nice, but he’s dead serious when it comes to certain things. Which is why he’s such an interesting leader: He can show up on so many different levels when you need him.”
               
              “He’s super funny and nice, but he’s dead serious when it comes to certain things, which is why he’s such an interesting leader.”
               
              Holger and Susanne Knaack love to travel, but they have lived their entire lives not far from where they were born: she in Ratzeburg and he in the nearby village of Groß Grönau, about 40 miles northeast of Hamburg. Their upbringings were remarkably similar. Each was born in 1952 and lived over the shop of the family business: Susanne’s father and grandfather were sausage makers, and Holger’s family bakery was founded by his great-great-great-grandfather in 1868. “We were very loved,” Holger remembers. “Everybody took care of you; everybody always knew where you were.”
               
              Hubertus Eichblatt also grew up in Ratzeburg, where his sister and Susanne, whose maiden name was Horst, were childhood friends. “The Horst family had a very open house, and it’s exactly the same with Holger,” he says. “Friends are always coming in and out.”
              Holger and Susanne live in the home that once belonged to Susanne’s grandmother; next door, Susanne’s sister, Sabine Riebensahm, lives in the house where the two grew up. About a decade ago, after her husband died, Holger’s sister, Barbara Staats, moved into an apartment on the top floor of that house. The two homes have a total of nine guest rooms, and what with Barbara’s 12 grandchildren, dozens of current and former Youth Exchange students, and various other friends, at least one of those rooms is usually occupied.
               
              Every morning, everyone meets for coffee in a cozy nook off Holger and Susanne’s living room, where floor-to-ceiling windows offer views of the Küchensee, one of four lakes that surround Ratzeburg. They often lunch together as well, followed by more coffee. Then Holger has a ritual: He folds his long frame onto a little sofa for a nap while Susanne, Barbara, and Sabine continue their chat. “He likes to hear us talking while he’s napping,” Sabine says.
               
              The four share duties, including shopping and cooking. “When someone needs something, you just shout,” Holger says. “I think this is the perfect way to live: together. The secret to anything is to ask: What’s our goal? This is exactly our goal, how we live right now.”
               
              One Saturday in December, Holger, Susanne, Barbara, and Sabine are preparing boeuf bourguignon to serve at a dinner party for 23 close friends the Knaacks will be hosting the next day. They’re simultaneously planning the menu for Christmas, when they’ll have 15 people — 16 if a young Egyptian woman who is studying in Germany, the daughter of some Rotarians they met at a Rotary institute in Sharm el-Sheikh, takes them up on their invitation.
               
              Helmut Knoth calls the Knaacks’ hospitality “a stroke of luck for Rotary. At least once a year we have a party there, in their beautiful garden,” he says. “When the weather is nice, we go swimming. In winter, there’s a traditional event for Holger’s birthday. We meet at the rowing club and hike around the lake.” All the birthday gifts are donations to the Karl Adam Foundation, which Knaack founded to support the rowing club. (Ratzeburg is world-famous for its rowing club, whose members formed the core of the German teams that won gold at the 1960, 1968, 2000, 2004, and 2012 Olympics. The club’s co-founder and longtime trainer, a local high school teacher named Karl Adam, is considered one of the best rowing coaches of all time and developed what’s known as the “Ratzeburg style.”)
              Over hot punch at the Rotary Club of Herzogtum Lauenburg-Mölln’s Christmas party in December, Knaack chats with fellow club member Barbara Hardkop and her husband, Gerrit (with Jan Schmedes in the background).
               
              Looking through family photo albums, the Knaacks talk about childhood vacations to the seaside — Holger and his family to the island of Sylt on the North Sea, and Susanne and her family to the Baltic Sea coast. A few kilometers from their home, Holger’s family also had a small summer house with a large garden where they would spend weekends. The forests and meadows were his to explore. “It was a perfect childhood,” he says.
              Holger’s boyhood home was situated about 500 meters from a small river, the Wakenitz, that formed the border with East Germany. “For me, that was really the end of the world,” he remembers. In the summer, he and his friends would test their courage by swimming across the river. On the other side was a swamp, a minefield, and watchtowers manned by East German guards. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, he says, “the first thing we did was to explore the other side by bicycle. All the watchtowers were open. I had never seen our own village, or our own house, from that perspective.”
               
              As a young man, on holidays and weekends, Holger worked as a driver for his family bakery. After finishing secondary school he learned the trade, working in another bakery for two years for his Ausbildung, or apprenticeship. “So I can bake a lot of things,” he says cheerfully. “And I still like to bake. You have to love what you do in order to be very good. Whatever marketing techniques you may use, it’s all about the quality. Quality is about loving the product and trying to make it the best you can. But you have to take your time. That’s the secret to many things.”
              After completing his Ausbildung and another year of internship in a large bread factory in Stuttgart, he went to the city of Kiel to study business administration. At the first student assembly, he caught sight of his future wife. “I saw Susanne on the 20th of September 1972,” he says. “I remember that quite well.”
              Holger and Susanne Knaack love to cook for themselves and their friends; here, they assemble a meal in Holger’s sister’s kitchen.
               
              Holger didn’t make the same impression on Susanne, perhaps because there were 94 men and only three women in their class. But they soon got acquainted, and on weekends, they would drive home together to each work in their family’s business. Before returning to Kiel on Sunday evenings, they would load up the car with bread from the Knaack bakery and sausage from the Horst shop. “Our friends always knew to come over on Mondays,” Susanne says with a laugh.
               
              They graduated in 1975 and got married the next year. Each of them continued to work in their own family’s business. At the time, the Knaack bakery had several shops and about 50 employees. After taking over from his father in the late 1970s, Knaack decided to expand the company. He also decided that he wanted to know exactly where the grain used to bake his bread was coming from. So he turned to his friend Hubertus Eichblatt, a farmer, who started a cooperative with other farmers. Knaack also worked with Günther Fielmann, Europe’s largest optician, who invested in cultivating organic grain on his own farm, Hof Lütjensee. Together Knaack and Fielmann built their own mill and marketed organic baked goods —something new 30 years ago. “Holger was always very innovative,” Eichblatt says, “very forward-thinking about those kinds of things.”
               
              Another of Knaack’s innovations was to move the baking of the bread into the shops. Before that, bread was baked in the factory and the loaves were trucked to the shops. Knaack’s idea was to continue to make the dough in the factory, but then to freeze it in portions that were distributed to the shops to be baked. His motto was Der frische Bäcker – “the fresh baker.” Today, almost every bakery in Germany does it that way.
               
              Knaack kept expanding the business; eventually there were about 50 shops and the factory with hundreds of employees. He received an offer to buy his company from an internationally active firm that was investing in bakeries. It was a very good offer, and Knaack took it. Still a young man in his 40s, he pursued other business ventures and took up golf (and was quickly tapped to be president of his golf club). He had been an active member of Round Table, an organization for people under age 40; at 39, he joined the Rotary club in the nearby town of Mölln (remaining a member there even when a new club was chartered shortly afterward in Ratzeburg with many of his friends as members). And before long, he found his calling with Rotary Youth Exchange.
              Ratzeburg with its 12th-century cathedral and its glacial lakes.
               
              Medieval Ratzeburg, with its ancient cathedral and half-timbered burghers’ houses, is situated on an island surrounded by four glacial lakes. The northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein is dotted with such lakes; winding roads lead through rolling green countryside past farms and villages built in the characteristic regional style of brick architecture. But the students who have stayed with Holger and Susanne have found something much deeper than a picture-postcard experience of Germany.
              Young at Heart 2020-07-08 08:00:00Z 0

              Induction of 2020-2021 Officers

              Here’s a little info about the induction:
               
              For his last meeting as president of the Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay, Don Keller organized a successful Zoom and in-person induction of officers for the 2020-2021 Rotary year. A few technical glitches didn’t spoil the fun June 25 on the deck of Alice’s Champagne Palace. Will Files, a former district governor and past president of the club, officiated. Vince Greear gave the invocation. Returning officers are Sue Clardy, vice president; Charlie Franz, secretary; Read Dunn, treasurer; Marv Peters, sergeant-at-arms; and directors Beth Trowbridge and Dennis Weidler. Lori Evans is now president of the club and Bill Hague is president-elect. Don Keller serves on the board as immediate past president. 
               
              Not all of the Officers are pictured here, as some were not able to attend the "in-person" part of the ceremonies.
               
              Pictures by McKibbon Jackinsky
               
              Don Ringing the Bell
               
              Vince Giving Invocation
               
              Susie With Birthdays and Anniversaries
               
              Director Dennis
               
               
              Director Marv
               
              Vice-President Sue
               
              President Lori
               
              President-Elect Bill
               
              Secretary Charlie With Past District Governor Will
               
              PDG Will and President Don
               
              Past President Don With Plaque Thanking Him For His Service to Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary
              Induction of 2020-2021 Officers 2020-07-01 08:00:00Z 0

              Anti-Covid-19 Toolkits for Businesses (and Homes)

               
              Here are the links to the two different business toolkits – the first from CDC, the second Alaska specific support.
               
              Information from the CDC
               
              Loads of Alaska materials
               
              These toolkits are the ones Derotha told us about at last week's meeting.  As far as I can see, all of the information is appropriate for businesses, and some are even appropriate for some homes.
               
              The Alaska specific toolkits are especially appropriate for Alaska, and do cover some Alaska specific items.  They both worth looking at.
               
              Here is just one example of the Posters available for download.
               
              Anti-Covid-19 Toolkits for Businesses (and Homes) DF and CF 2020-07-01 08:00:00Z 0

              Alaska’s COVID-19 Economic Stabilization Plan

              Office of Governor Mike Dunleavy
               
              As the COVID-19 virus and the economic impacts unfold, the plan will adjust to take into consideration new, unforeseen negative impacts. It must be noted that this is a stabilization plan – not an enhancement, not an attempt to grow government, and not in place to create new programs. Rather, the plan is merely an attempt to mitigate the health and economic impacts as a result of this virus. The details of this six-point plan will be forthcoming over the weekend and there may be additional stabilization efforts added to the six points outlined in the attached handout. The Alaska Economic Stabilization Team lead by Former Governor Sean Parnell and Former U.S. Senator Mark Begich, who are in constant contact with the business community of Alaska, will also add suggestions that modify this plan. As this is an ever evolving and unprecedented event, so should be the response.
               
              Governor Dunleavy's 6 Point Plan
               
              In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Dunleavy is focusing on six areas to provide stability to the economy and ensure Alaskans have the resources needed during this unprecedented time.
              1. Immediate Relief for Alaskans
                • COVID-19 Emergency Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) – $815 million (Dependent Upon Legislative Action)
                  • Immediate appropriation and release of the unfunded 2019 PFD
                • Full Statutory 2020 PFD (Dependent Upon Legislative Action)
                  • Issued in two payments of ~$1,550 in June & October
                • Emergency unemployment benefits (Dependent Upon Legislative Action)
                • Alaska Housing Finance Corporation mortgage relief
                • Student loan interest waiver – $2.3 million (Dependent Upon Legislative Action)
                • Reduction/suspension of fees across selected state agencies
                   
              2. Alaska Businesses
                • Establish the Alaska COVID-19 Emergency Business Loan Program
                  • Provide 100% state-guaranteed loans to Alaskan businesses for immediate relief.
                  • Loan program will be administered by local banks and structured to meet Alaska’s unique needs.
                • State Training Employment Program (STEP) – $2 million (Dependent Upon Legislative Action)
                   
              3. COVID-19 Emergency Healthcare Enhancements
                • Alaska COVID-19 Healthcare Fund – $75 million
                  • Emergency response/isolation shelters
                  • Additional medical personnel
                  • Critical supplies, test kits, ventilators, & protective gear
                • Expand telehealth services
                   
              4. Municipalities
                • Emergency Community Lost Revenue Replacement Program
                  • Replace lost revenue due to negative economic impacts associated with COVID-19
                     
              5. School Districts
                • Statewide virtual schools – $518,000 (Dependent Upon Legislative Action)
                • School nutrition – $3 million (Dependent Upon Legislative Action)
                • Distance delivery education – $500,000 (Dependent Upon Legislative Action)
                • Student laptop & digital content – $1 million (Dependent Upon Legislative Action)
                   
              6. State Workforce
                • Retrofit state offices to protect against the spread of COVID-19
                • Telecommuting options for state employees
              Alaska’s COVID-19 Economic Stabilization Plan 2020-06-18 08:00:00Z 0

              Stay Connected Through Rotary’s Online Learning Center

              Rotary Connects the World — that is Rotary President Mark Daniel Maloney’s theme, and despite the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, Rotarians are continuing to connect with one another and the world. Rotary’s new Action Plan calls on us to increase our ability to adapt — and members are coming up with innovative ways to serve their communities and create opportunities for fellowship. Many clubs are meeting online for the first time, reimagining fund-raisers and other events, and reinventing planned service projects.
               
              Rotary’s online Learning Center has resources that can help you stay connected to the organization and to one another. Instead of a meeting one week, for instance, everyone in your club might choose a topic to learn more about and then report back to the other members. You might even decide to develop a webinar using Rotary tips and resources. “The Learning Center courses could be used for general knowledge and for brainstorming, action planning, and idea sharing,” says Kimberly Kouame, learning resources manager at Rotary International.
               
              Often, the first time Rotarians use the Learning Center is when they are elected to a club office. But with more than 600 courses in over a dozen languages (including more than 80 in English), the Learning Center has something to interest every Rotarian. Here are a few to pique your interest; find them all at rotary.org/learn.
               
              COURSES
               
              Is Your Club Healthy?
              When your club isn’t able to meet in person, it can be a challenge to keep members engaged. Now might be an ideal time to assess the state of your club and ask members what is working for them and what isn’t.
               
              Your Membership Plan
              Perhaps you’ve been thinking about creating a long-term membership plan. This course offers a helpful worksheet and step-by-step guidelines for crafting a strong future for your club.
               
              Building a Diverse Club
              In line with Rotary’s focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, this course can help you expand your club’s membership to include people from different walks of life.
               
              Committing to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
              This course offers a closer look at Rotary’s DEI statement and how you can put those values into action.
               
              Practicing Flexibility and Innovation
              This course guides you through some of the ways your club can be innovative, with advice on subjects such as setting up satellite clubs.
               
              Kick-Start Your New Member Orientation
              If your club has had trouble retaining new members, with people joining only to leave a few years later, this course can help. Get tips on how to make sure your new members feel welcome and engaged.
               
              All About Rotary Peace Fellowships
              Perhaps you know someone who might be a good candidate for a Rotary Peace Fellowship and you want to be able to talk knowledgeably about the program. Or maybe you would like your club to be more involved. This course will give you information on Rotary’s Peace Centers and the requirements and deadlines for applicants.
              Building Rotary’s Public Image
              Rotarians are people of action, and we want the world to know what we are accomplishing. But how can you get the message out? This course will teach you how to build awareness of Rotary and its work.
               
              Planning Your Projects: Service Projects Committee
              This course is designed for people serving on a club service projects committee, but anyone can benefit from the ideas about how to carry out effective projects — with tips on doing a community needs assessment and executing the project.
               
              Rotary Foundation Basics
              The Rotary Foundation is central to Rotary’s work in the world. This course will walk you through the century-long history of the Foundation and its role in grant-making, supporting polio eradication efforts, and funding the Rotary Peace Centers.
               
              Becoming an Effective Facilitator
              Develop your leadership skills for Rotary and beyond through this course, which guides you on how to effectively work with a team to define and achieve objectives.
               
              Mentoring Basics
              Mentoring has always been one of the cornerstones of Rotary. This course identifies the traits of a good mentor and suggests some best practices to make sure your mentoring relationship is beneficial to all concerned.
               
              Essentials of Understanding Conflict
              We’ve all had to deal with interpersonal conflict, whether the issues are small (who sits at which table at the meeting?) or large (what are our club’s priorities?). This course gives you tools to understand different types of conflict and describes conflict management styles.
               
              Leading Change
              Change is hard, especially in a collaborative organization. This course offers ideas on how to lead a group of people through organizational change, how to assess people’s readiness for change, and how to deal with resistance to change.
               
              • Illustrations by Anders Wenngren
               
              • This story originally appeared in the June 2020 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              Stay Connected Through Rotary’s Online Learning Center 2020-06-18 08:00:00Z 0

              June 2020 District Governor Message to Members:

              Reflecting on the 2019-2020 Rotary year, it seems my Rotary year began just yesterday and is now wrapping up much sooner than I anticipated.  Looking back,  I recall with great clarity how inspired I was following the International Assembly in January 2019.   It was only then that I fully understood the awesome responsibility, great honor and tremendous opportunities that lay ahead for me as District Governor.  I asked each club President-Elect in February 2019 to be “All In’ and to taking their clubs to new heights, and gave my very best to model what I had asked of each Pres-Elect. Who could have imagined the challenges and opportunities that 2020 would bring?

              I began my Rotary year visiting both Ketchikan Rotary clubs the first week in July and I remember the high I felt from the energy of Rotarians putting on the 4th of July Duck Race and Parade. During the next four months I was able to visit the remaining 37 Rotary clubs. Some highlights were more parades and duck races, seeing inspiring club projects, Polio runs, tremendous Foundation events and many club socials welcoming Sheri and I. In late January I completed my final club visit in Utqiagvik (Barrow Nuuvuk). We experienced the very best of Rotary hospitality in every Alaska community we visited.  A common feature was meeting the many dedicated Rotarians who serve others while having fun doing what they love.  The hospitality I experienced and the mutual appreciation expressed by so many Rotarians was a highlight. We met so many dedicated Rotarians and made many new friends in the process.

              I had high hopes for each of the initiatives I shared during my club visits.  Many were successfully implemented, others fell short of my best hopes.  D5010 members gave generously to Polio Plus this year, raising 148% over last year.  I'm especially proud of the new mobile APP that was developed, the success we had with our virtual Training Assembly in late April, the success of the Peace Scholarship Committee, and the work of the committee tasked with the developing a new Education and Training initiative. I'm especially proud that D5010 could provide every club with $1,000 to help their community in response to the pandemic, under the cause of D5010 Rotary Cares for Kids.  I'm also grateful for the partnership with the Alaska Community Foundation and $25,000 in funds donated by our members that will further help communities where we have Rotary Clubs. The Rasmusen Foundation has generously matched these donations 1:1, so we will soon distribute  $50,000 statewide to further help in response efforts.

              My biggest disappointment (and those of the Conference Planning Committee) was not being able to host our Peace Forum and District Conference in Fairbanks due to the pandemic. Along the way, other opportunities and challenges presented themselves but we were able to PIVOT and keep moving forward.  The Coronavirus proved to be a formidable challenge.  I was stunned after learning I had tested positive for Covid-19 in late March, and feel very fortunate that I recovered without time in the hospital. I appreciate the many ways clubs stayed connected with their members and continue to do the important work of Rotary. 

              In just a couple weeks, Governor-Elect Joe Kashi will begin his Rotary year, bringing his unique expertise, vision and priorities to the role.  Joe has worked quite closely with me over the past two years, and also with Cheryl Metiva (DGN) and Mike Ferris (DGD).  I wish Joe all the best for a successful year in 2020-2021.  

              I would like to give a special shout out to Rosie Roppel (Ketchikan First City Rotary) for her work as my Lt. Governor in 2019-2020.  She has been an invaluable resource to me and brought so much enthusiasm, fun and support that helped make my year a success.  I want to thank Dean McVey who has served as our Treasurer this past three years,  PDG Brad Gamble, who is completing his 3 year term as Foundation Chair, and Lindsay Knight who is completing his 3 year term as Membership Chair.  Thank you Janine Becca for the consistent support you've provided to me and all our officers this year. I have so much gratitude and appreciation for our dedicated Youth Exchange Chair(s), Jeff Johnson and Cheryl Keepers, their executive team of officers and the club level YEO's for their work and dedication this year adapting to the challenges of supporting Youth Exchange students, host families and clubs while maintaining excellence we have come to expect.

              Finally, thank you to all the Past District Governors who provided sound advice and support when I reached out and to others who helped me in so many ways when I asked for help.  Our Rotary District is blessed to have so many who served this year in Leadership roles and on various committees. Your help was invaluable, and your friendships will be one of the highlights of my Rotary year.  I will be recognizing all the many D5010 volunteers as part of the Thursday, June 18th Awards Celebration.

              Sincerely,

              Andre’ Layral (and Sheri)

              D5010 Governor 2019-2020

              Fairbanks Sunrisers Rotary

              June 2020 District Governor Message to Members: 2020-06-17 08:00:00Z 0

              Peter Larson Memorial Garden

              Milli and Suzi did a lot of work on the Peter Larson Memorial Garden recently.  Here is part of Milli's email.
               
              Got pictures of Peter Larson's garden, which looks so pretty, but will need weeding soon, those dandelions are persistent, will attach the pictures I took yesterday.
              Flowers have been planted in the boxes at Ben Walters, encourage folks to drive through and see how nice it looks just now. Susie and I did the planting, the City met us at Wagon Wheel and paid for the flowers, which is nice of them. Our two spring projects are done!
               
               
              Peter Larson Memorial Garden 2020-06-10 08:00:00Z 0

              Our Clubs:  5 Stories About Meeting Online

              with

              George Robertson-Burnett

              Rotary coordinator and member of the Rotary Club of Bartow, Florida

              1. What made you decide to help clubs adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic?

              A large club in my district announced that it would not be meeting anymore: “No Rotary until further notice.” Those five words kept running through my mind. I had to do something.

              So I wrote a guide to help clubs navigate online platforms like Zoom so they can meet virtually.

              As Rotary coordinator for Zone 34, which includes Georgia, Florida, and parts of the Caribbean region, I’m very membership oriented. My initial thought was that clubs should keep meeting online to retain members, but now I’ve realized there’s also a possibility for growth there. So many people are stuck at home right now, and there are no sports for them to watch. Virtual meetings offer an opportunity to get some new people into Rotary. It’s also a good time to increase a club’s exposure on social media, because people have more time to look. That may turn into new interest in your club, in addition to being a way of connecting with members.

              2. What is the most common question clubs ask?

              Many people want ideas for projects. I suggest reaching out to local organizations that are heavily affected, like food banks or homes that care for the elderly. Tell them that Rotary still cares about those in need and ask how you can help.

              Sometimes the assistance that we give has to be to our own members who are in the at-risk group. Reach out to older club members and reinforce our fellowship. I also suggest a social evening, a glass of wine and video chat, over Zoom. My club tried this out very successfully.

              3. What successes have you seen?

              Since the guide came out, I’ve been videoconferencing with clubs around the world that have never been online before. Now everyone is laughing and sharing. At a traditional meeting, you often only talk to the people at your own table. On video, everyone can talk to each other. I also got a piece of really good news this morning. That club that said “No Rotary until further notice” got in touch and asked for assistance to get online meetings started. Many districts have a communications officer or public image committee who can be great resources. Also, let’s motivate those who are tech-savvy to assist their fellow Rotarians. It’s a victory for Rotary in so many ways if we convince people to meet online.

              4. What if meeting online is not an option?

              In Florida, we have many communities made up of older people. One of the clubs here said, “There is absolutely no way we can go online. It’s just not a possibility. No one in the club is tech-savvy.” The fail-safe is to maintain a written newsletter and send personal cards and letters to members. It’s important to show that Rotary continues in its mission even in adversity.

              5. How do you think Rotary will be different after this?

              Rotary is an organization of professional people. There is a grave concern with regard to small businesses. It’s going to heavily affect employment. We need to be mindful and do anything we can to help each other.

              I came to the United States from the UK in 2004. I knew no one here, and within two weeks of arrival, I had 72 friends because I joined a Rotary club. That fellowship is our fundamental strength. Of course, it’s being challenged for safety’s sake, but we must respond in a positive manner and get through this, hopefully with stronger bonds of fellowship.

              — VANESSA GLAVINSKAS

              • Learn more about meeting online at on.rotary.org/onlinemeetings.

              • This story originally appeared in the June 2020 issue of The Rotarian magazine.

              Our Clubs:  5 Stories About Meeting Online 2020-06-10 08:00:00Z 0

              2020 Rotary Virtual Convention

              If you are having trouble viewing this email, view it online
              Membership Minute
              June 2020Ideas for strengthening membership
              The 2020 Rotary Virtual Convention 
              Rotary's first online convention will be a great way to connect with members around the world. Now More Than Ever, Rotary Connects the World: The 2020 Rotary Virtual Convention is happening 20-26 June. You'll find breakout sessions on new ways to engage members and be inspired by internationally known speakers during the general sessions. 

              Several breakout sessions focus on engaging and attracting members. Plan to attend one or all of these: 

              •    Using Virtual Tools to Engage Members, on 22 June
              •    Grow Rotary Through New Club Types, on 23 June
              •    Digital Trends of 2021: Using Tech to Engage Millennials, on 25 June
              •    Engage Young Families With Service and Alternative Meetings, on 26 June

              See the full list of breakout sessions and look again often for updates. We hope to see you online! 
               
               
              How to stay connected when you can't meet in person  

              Whether it's a club meeting, awards ceremony, or new member induction, you can still connect with and recognize your members even when meeting in person isn't possible. 

              Watch our recent webinar, Connect With the (Online) Rotary World, and learn how to set up online meetings, use social media to engage with members, and maintain fun traditions virtually. We asked for questions before the session and compiled a list of the ones asked most often, along with resources. You can download the FAQ from the Learning Center. (Signing in to My Rotary is required.) Or search for the webinar title. 

              If you're planning a virtual induction ceremony, have the new member induction video from RI President Mark Daniel Maloney ready to show. Look at the Meeting Online topic in the Learning Center for more ideas on how to connect virtually. 

              A reminder about adding new members 

              As club leaders prepare to complete their terms, remember that members added on or before 30 June will count as starting during the current Rotary year, 2019-20. Members added with 1 July effective dates will count toward the new Rotary year, 2020-21. Write to us at membershipdevelopment@rotary.org if you have questions. 

              Share your story on Rotary Showcase

              Rotary clubs around the world are responding to the coronavirus pandemic to help keep their communities safe and healthy. We know this because more than 1,000 service projects related to COVID-19 have been added to Rotary Showcase. Be inspired, connect with others, and add your own project.

              Strengthening Rotary clubs during difficult times 
              Jenny Stotts, membership chair of District 6690, suggests using resilience to strengthen Rotary clubs while we are coping with the COVID-19 pandemic. From helping members maintain realistic and positive perspectives to planning service projects that help people feel a sense of purpose, read how Stotts fosters resilience among members to create stronger clubs.
               
               
               
              How to host a virtual changeover ceremony
              Changeover ceremonies are important events for clubs. It's a chance to acknowledge the great work your club accomplished during the past Rotary year, welcome new leaders, and generate excitement for the coming year. Learn how you can host this important event online. Don't miss out on having one! 
               
               
              More from our blog:
               
               
               
              Membership Minute is a bimonthly newsletter that provides the latest membership trends, strategies, best practices, and resources to help strengthen membership in your clubs. The newsletter is sent to Rotary coordinators, district governors, district membership chairs, club membership chairs, club presidents and subscribers. Please forward this to anyone who may be interested. 

              One Rotary Center, 1560 Sherman Ave., Evanston, IL 60201-3698, USA


              © Rotary International

               
              2020 Rotary Virtual Convention 2020-06-10 08:00:00Z 0
              Memorial for Rebekah (Honey) Griffard May 30, 2020 2020-05-28 08:00:00Z 0

              Kenyan Rotarians Take Action to Prevent Spread of COVID-19 

              Rotary clubs in East Africa are forging partnerships to provide hand washing stations and food in areas where social distancing is a luxury that few can afford
               
              by Arnold R. Grahl , Rotary International
               
              Almost 80 percent of the population in Nairobi, Kenya, lives in informal settlements where it’s not unusual for families of day laborers to live together in one house. Surviving day to day on the meager wages they typically earn as shop clerks, construction workers, or domestic employees, as many as eight people cook, do homework, eat, and sleep in these tight quarters.
               
              In short, social distancing is a luxury that many poor Kenyans can’t afford.
               
              “If the [COVID-19] pandemic hits here, like it has in North America and other places, it will be just catastrophic” because of the inability to social distance, says Geeta Manek, a Rotary Foundation trustee-elect and member of the Rotary Club of Muthaiga, Kenya. “We’re working very hard, through preventative measures, desperately trying to keep this thing away from us.”
               
              Shortly after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, Joe Otin, governor of Rotary District 9212 (Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Sudan), formed a districtwide response team. Chaired by Nairobi-East Rotarian Joe Kamau, the team is working with clubs across the district to provide hand washing stations, deliver food to families who have lost jobs, and raise money for personal protective equipment.
               
              “The world needs Rotary more now than ever before.”
               
              The 100-liter tanks rest on metal stands and have brass taps at the bottom and ledges for soap.
               
              “When [Kamau] asked what we wanted to do first, we said let’s go with hand washing stations,” says Manek, a member of the response team.
              Manek led a fundraising effort in Ethiopia and Kenya that raised more than $21,000 within 20 days. Prime Bank in Kenya offered to match all contributions 1-to-1. The team used the money to purchase 100 water tanks and then persuaded the supplier to donate an additional 100. The 100-liter tanks rest on metal stands and have brass taps at the bottom and ledges for soap. The response team has distributed these hand washing stations in Kilifi, Mombasa, and Nairobi and is now working with national health departments to decide who to help next. The tanks are being refilled by trucks, but local authorities are also discussing ways to pipe in water.
               
              The Rotary Community Corps, groups of non-Rotarians who work alongside Rotary members on service projects, are teaching people effective hand washing techniques, counting the number of times people come back to wash their hands, and collecting other data. Clubs are also partnering with Shofco, a grassroots organization that provides critical services, advocacy, and education for girls and women in Kenya’s urban slums, to monitor the stations.
               
              The response team is also using the stations to ask people coming to wash their hands for information about families who are short of food. Manek says work-from-home orders made it impossible for day laborers to earn a living. Clubs have distributed packages of sugar, maize meal, rice, lentils, salt, and soap.
               
              Clubs have distributed packages of sugar, maize meal, rice, lentils, salt, and soap.

               
              Purchasing personal protective equipment for frontline health care workers has been more difficult. Manek says they’ve been able to negotiate with vendors and donors to get some surgical masks and gowns, but supplies are scarce and much of it is available only by airlift, which makes it too expensive.
               
              If there is a positive side to the crisis, it’s been the way it has energized Rotarians and attracted the attention of partnering organizations.
              “We’ve been the first ones on the ground,” Manek says. “We’re getting invitations from corporate partners like banks and insurance companies who are seeing what we’re doing and want to work with us.”
              • $21,000
              Amount Manek raised in 20 days in Kenya and Ethiopia
              • 200
              Initial number of tanks distributed
              • 100
              Liter capacity of water tank
               
               
              Manek has been most involved in her home country of Kenya, but she says Rotarians have been active in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and South Sudan as well.
               
              “Through this initiative, we’ve come across so many partners we didn’t know existed, or if we knew they existed, we would just have let them do their thing and we do our thing,” Manek says. “Now, people are coming to us. They want a credible partner. They don’t want to give money to a big pot and not know where it’s going. All these values we have been sharing with the world are paying off.”
               
              Says Otin, “the embodiment of Rotary clubs and their ultimate purpose is to embrace and support communities in need, and thus the world needs Rotary more now than ever before.”
               
              Kenyan Rotarians Take Action to Prevent Spread of COVID-19  2020-05-28 08:00:00Z 0

              Covid-19 and Households Living in Close Quarters

              How to Protect Those That Are Most Vulnerable
               
              This guidance is intended for people living together in close quarters, such as people who share a small apartment, or for people who live in the same household with large or extended families.
              Older adults (65 and older) and people of any age who have serious underlying medical conditions are at higher risk for severe illness from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The following information is aimed to help you protect those who are most vulnerable in your household.
              Everyone should limit risks
              If your household includes one or more vulnerable individuals then all family members should act as if they, themselves, are at higher riskMore information on steps and actions to take if at higher risk.
              Limit errands
              Family members should leave only when absolutely necessary. Essential errands include going to the grocery store, pharmacy, or medical appointments that cannot be delayed (e.g., infants or individuals with serious health conditions in need of aid).
              If you must leave the house, please do the following:
              • Choose one or two family members who are not at a higher risk to run the essential errands.
              • Wear a cloth face covering, avoid crowds, practice social distancing, and follow these recommended tips for running errands.
              • Limit use of public transportation, such as the train or bus, during this period if possible.
                If you must use public transportation:
                • Maintain a 6-foot distance from other passengers as much as possible.
                • Avoid touching high-touch surfaces such as handrails, and wash hands or use hand sanitizers as soon as possible after leaving.
                • More information on how to protect yourself when using public transportation
              • Don’t ride in a car with members of different households. If that’s not possible:
                • Limit close contact and create space between others in the vehicle.
                • Improve air flow in the car by opening the window or placing air conditioning on non-recirculation mode.
              • Wash your hands immediately after you return home.
              • Maintain as much physical distance as possible with those at higher risk in the home. For example, avoid hugging, kissing, or sharing food or drinks.
              Vulnerable members should avoid caring for children and those who are sick
              Adults 65 years and older and people who have serious medical conditions should avoid caring for the children in their household, if possible. If people at higher risk must care for the children in their household, the children in their care should not have contact with individuals outside the household. Members of the household who are at high risk should also avoid taking care of sick people of any age who are sick.
              Separate a household member who is sick
              Provide a separate bedroom and bathroom for the person who is sick, if possible. If you cannot provide a separate room and bathroom, try to separate them from other household members as much as possible. Keep people at higher risk separated from anyone who is sick.
              • If possible, have only one person in the household take care of the person who is sick. This caregiver should be someone who is not at higher risk for severe illness and should minimize contact with other people in the household.
                • Identify a different caregiver for other members of the household who require help with cleaning, bathing, or other daily tasks.
              • If possible, maintain 6 feet between the person who is sick and other family or household members.
              • If you need to share a bedroom with someone who is sick, make sure the room has good air flow.
                • Open the window and turn on a fan to bring in and circulate fresh air if possible.
                • Maintain at least 6 feet between beds if possible.
                • Sleep head to toe.
                • Put a curtain around or place other physical divider (e.g., shower curtain, room screen divider, large cardboard poster board, quilt, or large bedspread) to separate the ill person’s bed.
              • If you need to share a bathroom with someone who is sick, the person who is sick should clean and disinfect the frequently touched surfaces in the bathroom after each use. If this is not possible, the person who does the cleaning should:
                • Open outside doors and windows before entering and use ventilating fans to increase air circulation in the area.
                • Wait as long as possible before entering the room to clean and disinfect or to use the bathroom.
              • If you are sick, do not help prepare food. Also, eat separately from the family.
              Covid-19 and Households Living in Close Quarters 2020-05-27 08:00:00Z 0
              Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children-Associated With Covid-19 CDC 2020-05-21 08:00:00Z 0

              Announcements--March 25, 2021

               From the Desk of President Lori

               

              FROM PRESIDENT LORI

              At this week’s meeting, we will officially elect Bernie Griffard as President-Elect for the remainder of this Rotary year and President for 2021-22. Please show your support for Bernie as he once again steps up to lead our Club. Bernie, again, many, many, many thanks for agreeing to do this.

              We also will hear from Karin Marks, who serves on the Board of Directors of the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District, about an upcoming Workforce Development Forum and this year’s Peony Celebration.

              I’m excited about our Club once again participating in the Peony Celebration, which will run from Friday, July 9, to Saturday, July 24. Last year’s event was a bright spot in an uncertain, pandemic summer. It was fun selling peonies and seeing neighbors and visitors to our community. The money raised from last year’s sales helped fund the scholarship we presented to Winston Ajakaye for his fall semester studies at Kachemak Bay Campus and the Gary Thomas Memorial Bench Project. Three of the benches have been purchased and are currently sitting in a city storage area waiting for spring and the opportunity to install them. The main Gary Thomas bench will be installed at WKFL Park. A bench designed to honor Rotarians who die while active members of our Club is destined for Bishops Beach. The third bench will go near the Fishing Hole Pavilion, another Rotary project. Dave Brann and Tom Early are going to build the bench for the floating dock at Ben Walters Park. Many thanks to Dave and Tom for their continuing work on this project.

              There’s another opportunity to help at Saturday’s COVID vaccine clinic at Homer High School. Just a couple of volunteers are needed from 9 a.m.-noon (for an hour or two or three) to be the friendly faces pointing folks toward the main entrance. There will be other clinics in April where friendly faces and helping hands also will be appreciated.

              Speaking of helping, do you have ideas for programs? If so, will you pursue them or let me know about them so someone else can pursue them? We all want engaging programs that connect us to our community and our world — and the more of us who are involved in getting speakers, the more varied and interesting those programs are. Many thanks for your help.

              Don’t forget to bring your brags and complaints to Thursday’s meeting.

              Grateful for each of you,

              Lori 

              Lori Evans

              2020-21 President

              Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay


              This Week's Speaker -- Karin Marx, Workforce Developement Forum

              Invocation -- Jim Hornaday

              Speakers and Invocators are needed from April through June Including next week!

              ANNOUNCEMENTS

              Note:  New Guidelines for Who Is Eligible for Covid-19 Vaccines in Alaska 

                                 Who is eligible? Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible.

                                          Note: Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older.

              Request From Haven House

              Fellow Rotarians,
               
              I was asked to please tell my fellow Rotary Club members that Teddy Bears and yarn are needed for a project to support children needing Haven House services.  There is a box, with Jane Regan's name on it, inside the main door at KBBI where donations can be placed.  Teddy Bears must be NEW, and any yarn will be welcomed.  The yarn is knitted to form blankets for the Teddy Bears and then they are donated to this Haven House project.
               
              Thank you.
               
              Vivian
              (435-3903)

              Regular Meeting Thursday Noon March 25, 2021 Using Zoom or in Person

              Please join us for the weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay. We are meeting both in person (Bidarka) and via Zoom. This week we will hear from Karin Marks, who serves on the Board of the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District, about an upcoming Workforce Development Forum. 

              Time: March 25, 2021 11:45 AM Alaska Daylight Time
               
               
              Meeting ID: 860 7236 1642
              One tap mobile
              +12532158782,,86072361642# US (Tacoma)
              +13462487799,,86072361642# US (Houston)
              Dial by your location
                      +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
                      +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
                      +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
                      +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
                      +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
                      +1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
              Meeting ID: 860 7236 1642
              Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kRV9rg3Ah
               
              Looking forward to seeing you either in person or via Zoom on Thursday,
               
              Lori
               
              Lori Evans
              2020-21 President
              Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay
              xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
              Continued
               
              Announcements--March 25, 2021 2020-05-20 08:00:00Z 0

              Phase 3/4 Starts Friday, May 22, 2020 General Guidance 

                      
              Reopen Alaska Responsibly
              Alaska’s Plan Forward
                       
              Alaska has done an excellent job of managing COVID-19. We responded quickly to an unknown threat to keep our cases low and to ensure our healthcare systems have the increased capacity to deal with COVID-19 cases in the future. The base actions that led to our success will continue to be our playbook for the future:
                         • Stay six feet or more away from non-family members.
                         • Wash your hands frequently.
                         • Wipe down surfaces frequently.
              • Wear a face covering when in a public setting in close contact with others.
              • Stay home if you are sick and get tested for COVID-19 if you have symptoms.
              • Be mindful and respectful to those Alaskans that are most vulnerable to this virus. Those being our seniors and those with existing health issues.
               
               Under Phases I and II, businesses and organizations found new and creative ways to minimize the risk of COVID-19, and each day we are seeing new national and industry guidelines being released that provide guidance on safely operating. 
               
              It is with the listed guidelines and safety advisories that we can empower businesses, organizations and Alaskans to protect themselves and each other while continuing to open responsibly. 
              Now is the time for the next phase of our response. To move ahead, we are combining our future phases, while encouraging personal and organizational responsibility to safely operate while mitigating the spread of this disease.
               
              Make no mistake. The virus is with us. We must function with it and manage it. There will be folks who contract the virus and fall ill, but if we follow these guidelines, we can help lower potential risks and keep our way of life intact with a few exceptions.
               
              The state, local communities, tribal partners, and healthcare providers have come together to do tremendous work. We built up our health care capacity to handle a potential increase in cases. We have increased screening and testing and continued to have robust contact tracing. We have trained our healthcare workers to safely work with, and treat, the virus. We have stockpiled and distributed PPE around the state. 
               
              We will monitor the situation daily, as we have since this virus arrived in Alaska, and we will adjust, if necessary, to handle a growth in case clusters to prevent cases spiking.
               
              Effective Friday May 22, 2020 Alaska is open for business:
               - All businesses can open - All houses of worship can open
              - Libraries and museums can open
              - All recreational activities can open
              - All sports activities can open
               
               It’s the responsibility of individuals, businesses, and organizations to minimize the spread of COVID-19. We encourage all to follow local, state, national, and industry guidelines on ways to conduct business and activities safely. 
               
              Exceptions/restrictions/closures:
              - 14-day quarantine for interstate and international travel to Alaska remains in place. This will be reevaluated by June 2, 2020, but will be reviewed weekly.
              - All senior centers, prisons, and institutions will continue to have restricted access.
               - Any proposed large public gatherings such as festivals and concerts need to consult first with public health before scheduling.
              - The State will continue to work with large industries to protect their workforce and the communities in which they operate.
              - Communities may still elect to keep in place travel restrictions. 
              o - Some Alaskan communities may wish to extend restrictions on non-essential travel into their communities for health reasons. Check with your local   community.
              - Health Mandates 15 (Elective Medical/Dental), 17 (Commercial Fishing), and 18 (Intrastate Travel) remain in effect.
               
              It’s because of you, Alaska, that our statewide numbers remain low. We will keep our numbers low because of your actions.
              Phase 3/4 Starts Friday, May 22, 2020 General Guidance  2020-05-19 08:00:00Z 0

              Alaska Covid-19 Health Mandate #18

              Learn More about the Reopen Alaska Responsibly Plan.
              Health Mandate 018: Intrastate Travel
              Issued: May 11, 2020
               
              By:      Governor Mike Dunleavy; Commissioner Adam Crum, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services; Dr. Anne Zink, Chief Medical Officer, State of Alaska
              To prevent the spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), the State of Alaska is issuing its eighteenth health mandate based on its authority under the Public Health Disaster Emergency Declaration signed by Governor Mike Dunleavy on March 11, 2020.
               
              Given the ongoing concern for new cases of COVID-19 being transmitted via community spread within the state, Governor Dunleavy and the State of Alaska are issuing Mandate 018, to go into effect May 12, 2020 at 8:00 a.m. and will remain in effect until amended, superseded, or rescinded.
               
              This Mandate is being issued to protect the public health of Alaskans. By issuing this Mandate, the Governor continues to establish consistent mandates across the State in order to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19. The goal is to flatten the curve, disrupting the spread of the virus.
               
              The purpose of this Mandate is to clarify and centralize all requirements related to intrastate travel, to increase the ability of individuals within Alaska to travel, while still working to provide sufficient mitigation factors to prevent, slow, and otherwise disrupt the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19.  
              This Mandate supersedes Mandate 012 and Mandate 016-Attachment M.
               
              Effective 8:00 a.m. on May 12, 2020, intrastate travel is permitted under the following conditions and guidance:
               
              Definitions for purposes of this Mandate:
              1. “Road System” is defined as any community connected by a road to the Seward, Parks, Klondike, Richardson, Sterling, Glenn, or Top of the World Highways.
              2. “Marine Highway System” is defined as any community served by the Alaska Marine Highway System or the Inter-Island Ferry System.
              3. “Critical Personal Needs” is defined as those needs that are critical to meeting a person’s individual or family needs. Those needs include buying, selling, or delivering groceries and home goods; obtaining fuel for vehicles or residential needs; transporting family members for out-of-home care, essential health needs, or for purposes of child custody exchanges; receiving essential health care; providing essential health care to a family member; obtaining other important goods; and engaging in subsistence activities.
              4. “Essential Services/Critical Infrastructure” is defined as businesses included in “Alaska’s Essential Services and Critical Infrastructure” (formerly Attachment A)
              Intrastate Travel Between Communities Located On The Road System And/Or The Marine Highway System is permitted for all purposes. Note: travelers may travel between the Road System and Marine Highway System communities via any normal means of transportation, including vehicle, boat, ferry, aircraft, and commercial air carrier.
               
              All Travel To Or From A Community Off The Road System Or The Marine Highway System Is Prohibited, Except As Necessary For:
              1. Critical Personal Needs
              2. The conduct of Essential Services/Critical Infrastructure
              General Requirements
              1. No one traveling to or from any community for Critical Infrastructure/Essential Services reasons or Critical Personal Needs travel may be subject to any automatic quarantine or isolation on arrival, except as allowed under Alaska Statutes or Health Mandates.
              2. Air carriers, ferries, and other travel-related businesses have no duty to verify that intrastate travelers meet the criteria for permissible travel under this Mandate. Air carriers shall inquire if travelers are permitted to travel under this Mandate and shall rely upon a traveler’s assurance that they are eligible to travel.
              3. Groups traveling are subject to Mandate 016, Attachment N, Social Distancing.
              4. All businesses, whether Essential Services/Critical Infrastructure or non-essential/non-critical, that have staff traveling between communities, must file a protective plan with akcovidplans@ak-prepared.com. The plan should outline how the business will avoid the spread of COVID-19 and not endanger lives in the communities in which the business wants to operate, endanger others who serve as a part of the business community, or endanger the ability of critical infrastructure to function. If you have already submitted a plan pursuant to a prior Health Mandate, you do not need to submit another plan. Visit https://covid19.alaska.gov/unified-command/protective-plans/ for guidance.
              5. Alaskans should refer to other Health Mandates and guidance as necessary and appropriate.
              Precautions while traveling:
              1. Stops shall be minimized on the way to the final destination.
              2. If travelers must stop for food, gas, or supplies, only one traveler shall engage with the third-party vendor. All travelers must practice social distancing by keeping six feet away from others when possible, and avoid crowded places whenever possible. Cloth face coverings should be used whenever a traveler engages with a third-party vendor(s).
              3. Travelers, traveling by car or vehicle, who have to stop shall wash their hands or use hand sanitizer before exiting, and immediately after returning to, the car or vehicle.
              ***This Health Mandate Supersedes Mandate 012, Attachment B, and Mandate 016-Attachment M.
              Alaska Covid-19 Health Mandate #18 2020-05-13 08:00:00Z 0


              Never Too Young to Lead

              Six Rotarians reveal the secrets of balancing family and work that allowed them to take on the role of district governor before turning 50
               
              by Kim Lisagor Bisheff             
               
              As an active member of the Rotary Club of Hampton Roads (Norfolk) in Virginia, Clenise Platt had been a club president and taken on some leadership roles in her district. Even so, it came as a complete surprise when Mary Landon, the club’s 2016-17 president, approached her at the end of a meeting and asked if it would be OK to nominate her for District Governor.
               
              “I thought one day I might place my name in the hat to become a district governor,” says Platt, 48. “But truth be told, I thought ‘one day’ was years away.”
               
              Moved by the request, she asked for a few days to think it over. She consulted with friends and family, researched the job requirements, and did some soul-searching. “I determined that it was important to me that if I agreed to be nominated, it would be because I believed I could bring a fresh perspective to the role,” she says. “Becoming district governor would not be a résumé builder or an item to check off on a to-do list.”
               
              Decision made, Platt accepted the nomination and later learned that she would become the first African American woman to serve as governor in District 7600’s history.
              Platt may be part of a growing trend within Rotary. In recent years, an increasing number of young Rotarians have accepted district-level positions that had traditionally been held by older members. On 1 July 2019, Rotary inaugurated 36 district governors under age 50. They are midcareer professionals with demanding jobs in medicine, education, tech, finance, and broadcasting. There’s an architect, an advertising executive, a legislator, a lawyer, a veterinarian, and a soy sauce manufacturer. They all have families and friends; some have young children. Yet each of them managed to find the time to take a top leadership position in their districts. Here’s how six of them make it work.

              Shia Smart
              District 9810, Australia | 41 clubs; 1,128 members
               
              Shia Smart joined Rotary when her son, Flynn, was four months old. “So effectively he’s only known Rotary,” she says. “He’s been brought up with it.” Now 15, Flynn travels with his mother to district functions and has logged more meeting hours than many adult Rotarians.
               
              During the same period, Smart, who lives about 15 miles east of Melbourne, was developing her career as an IT business analyst. “I’ve always worked for other people,” she says. “I’ve had flexible working arrangements, but I’ve never been in a position where I control what I do or where I’m going.”
               
              So how did a working mom become a Rotary district governor? Club culture played a significant role, says Smart, 49. She’s a charter member of the Rotary Club of Mont Albert & Surrey Hills, which enacted policies that encouraged working parents to rise through the Rotary ranks: They welcomed children at meetings, relaxed attendance requirements, and scheduled board meetings outside business hours.
               
              That culture empowered Smart to shape her year as district governor to accommodate her job and her responsibilities as a parent. Her first move upon learning that she would become DG was to get her son’s school calendar so she could schedule club visits and meetings accordingly. And when she got a new job just before the start of her term, she set her schedule to make it work. “I said, ‘I need all these days off for Rotary,’ ” and her new employer assented. “I have been very lucky that Rotary is so structured and organized.”
               
              Every step of the way, Smart says, she has made an effort to communicate with colleagues, friends, and family about her Rotary life. “It’s amazing how accommodating people can be when you explain things,” she says. “Take people on the journey with you, and you will find they are very supportive.”

              Santhana Naidu
              District 6580, Indiana | 32 clubs; 1,515 members
               
              Santhana Naidu explains the strategy that helps him manage his roles as husband, father, District Governor, and associate vice president of marketing and communications at Indiana State University in Terre Haute. It can be summed up in one word: compartmentalization. “I set aside two workday evenings and weekends for Rotary business,” he says. “I don’t generally take [Rotary-related] calls or emails during workdays unless it’s an emergency.”
               
              Of course, that approach depends on the cooperation of all stakeholders. ISU lets him work remotely when needed, and his wife, Amy, “has been pulling my share at home when I’m away,” Naidu admits. “I couldn’t do this without a supportive employer and family.”
               
              The district’s clubs have also lent their support. About two-thirds of them have held joint meetings or socials so he wouldn’t have to travel on his workdays. “At the social events, several people have told me how much they’ve enjoyed interacting with a DG,” he says. “I see that as a win.”
               
              In recent years, the district has developed a culture of supporting young leaders, Naidu says. “Past district governors have been instrumental in resetting expectations for younger Rotarians and working professionals.” That included hiring a district administrator to help with day-to-day office duties. The result: At 42, Naidu, a member of the Rotary Club of Terre Haute, is the district’s youngest-ever DG, and the next in line is a working mother of four.
               
              “I truly believe Rotary leadership is possible while working full time,” Naidu says, “and you can do a good job on both fronts.”
               

              Anna Tumanova
              District 2223, Russian Federation | 77 clubs; 1,107 members
               
              When your district spans all of Russia, visiting each of its clubs can be a challenge. Consider this: Flying east from St. Petersburg on the Gulf of Finland to Vladivostok on the Sea of Japan — more than 4,000 miles — takes about 12 hours. That’s why Russia’s District 2223 has initiated a six-year pilot program that divides the district into five regions, each of which has its own director. “I hope that all these regions in six years can be separate districts,” Anna Tumanova says. “We have huge potential here. Of course, we still have a lot of work to do.” Tumanova, 43, is no stranger to work. She has been an active Rotarian and full-time financial consultant since 2005, when she and her husband, Vladimir Rtishchev, chartered the Rotary Club of Ulyanovsk, a city on the Volga River about 500 miles east of Moscow. When Rtishchev died of liver cancer in 2015, Tumanova didn’t step back from Rotary. She leaned in. Rtishchev had hoped to become a district governor one day. In taking on that role, Tumanova has fulfilled his dream. “It helped that I had Rotary friends all across Russia,” she says. Everywhere Rotary takes Tumanova, her daughter, Varvara, goes as well. “Now she also has friends all over the country,” Tumanova says. “Rotary kids.” Varvara, 12, plans to launch an Interact club with her Rotary friends from across the region so they can more easily keep in touch. She gets straight A’s in school, where she is allowed to do homework via the internet when she is on the road. And she and her friends have learned to enjoy one of the perks of Rotary trips: “Rotarians travel not like tourists but like real guests,” Tumanova says. “I hope that Varvara and her friends will grow up as people of the world. They have no borders in their minds, and that’s very important.” 
              “It helped that I had Rotary friends all across Russia.”

              Igor Lenin Peniche Ruiz
              District 4195, Mexico | 78 clubs; 1,170 members
               
              In a typical workday, Igor Lenin Peniche Ruiz drives an hour from his home to his family’s 3,000-acre ranch in the Yucatán jungle, where he and his 10 employees are raising about 500 beef cattle. As general manager, he observes the animals, talks with his team, takes notes on the cows, bulls, and calves, and monitors their feed, which they grow on-site. It’s a demanding job, and the only one he has ever known: The ranch belongs to his 79-year-old father, who has worked alongside him for years.
              That routine changed significantly when Peniche Ruiz became a Rotary district governor. At the start of his term, he was traveling for Rotary five or six days a week. His father, his sister, and his workers — some of whom have been with the ranch for 30 years — picked up the slack. “My Rotary team is really good, but my work team is even better,” he says. “I trust in my team, I trust in my family, and they allowed me to do this work.”
               
              Peniche Ruiz, 49, says his employees are happy to pitch in because they’ve seen how Rotary has helped people in their communities. “They already live the magic of Rotary,” he says. In one instance, his club, the Rotary Club of Mérida-Itzaes, sponsored a medical clinic in a nearby town. Doctors diagnosed life-threatening conditions in time to save two patients’ lives.
               
              At home, that magic has spread to each of his five daughters. Four have participated in Rotary Youth Exchange, three have been Rotaractors, one was a Rotaract club president and district representative, and one was an Interact club president. “My wife, Norma, is the main key to keeping every-thing in balance,” he says.
               
              When Peniche Ruiz joined Rotary 20 years ago, his oldest daughter was 10. His youngest is now 18, so he and his wife decided that this was the right time for him to take on the role of DG. As always, he has Norma’s full support. “That’s the only way you’re going to be a successful person,” he says. “Family is the most important thing.”

              Clenise Platt
              District 7600, Virginia | 62 clubs; 2,508 members
               
              Clenise Platt’s first Rotary leadership role was chairing her club’s dictionary project, a fitting assignment for someone who had written a children’s book. When club members found out about the book, Keep Your Chin Up, they asked her to read it to local third graders when she delivered the dictionaries. A few years later, the club began donating copies of the book along with the dictionaries; since then, about 2,000 students have received her book.
               
              “I am so appreciative of the way my club engaged me as a young leader,” Platt says. “I think their willingness to make space for me to be a leader in the club, and the way they asked to include my book in the program for the third graders, helped me to feel engaged and an important part of the club.”
               
              The experience led her to pursue increasingly influential roles within her club and her district. Along the way, she learned to integrate her service life with her job by being clear about her priorities. On her first day as the staff development coordinator at the Virginia Beach Public Library, Platt told her co-workers that she was a Rotarian and hoped to become a district governor one day. “I had no idea that I would be on the pathway to governor less than a year later,” she says.
               
              To maximize time with friends and family, Platt has looked for opportunities to include them in Rotary functions. Her parents, Clinton and Hattie, have attended meetings, fundraisers, club visits, installation ceremonies, and international conventions, and they have volunteered at a district conference. “They have fans who ask about them when they aren’t at an event,” she says. “I made my parents Paul Harris Fellows because they were the first people who taught me the meaning of Service Above Self.” Her brother, Gabriel, will soon become a Paul Harris Fellow as well.
               
              “Rotary has been a complement to my family,” she says. “I have found that incorporating my personal and professional life with Rotary has enriched my experience as a district governor in a number of ways.”

              Jaco Stander
              District 9370, South Africa and Lesotho | 88 clubs; 1,446 members
               
              Jaco Stander may be one of the oldest of the 36 younger DGs — he turned 50 about halfway into his term — but like others in his cohort, he has embraced Rotary as a family affair. His wife, Lisa, a pharmacist, is also a Rotarian. In the year leading up to his term, she traveled with him to all of his training sessions so, he explains, “we could share our Rotary journey together.” They planned their visits to the district’s clubs in a way that allowed them to keep tabs on Stander’s two gas stations and block out time for family and friends.
               
              “Both my wife and I planned our working environment to commit to the DG year,” he says. Stander trained two managers to oversee his business. (He adds, “I’m also fortunate to still have my parents, who are able to assist where needed.”) So she could have more flexibility, Lisa became a locum pharmacist, which means she’s employed on a contractual rather than full-time basis. It helped that their children — Christopher, 24, and Brigitte, 22 — had finished or were about to finish college. “The timing made sense at that stage,” he says.
               
              The process that led to Stander taking on the DG position started years earlier, when he became a Rotarian. “My club encourages young and new members to play an active role in club leadership,” he says. “I had the opportunity to lead a wide range of portfolios.” (Stander is a member of the Rotary Club of Klerksdorp, a city about 100 miles southwest of Johannesburg.) His district took the same approach, pulling him into a district youth committee, a term as assistant governor, and various training events early in his Rotary career. And when he completes his term as governor, he will lead his district’s 2020-21 youth services committee.
              Those experiences encouraged him to aim higher. “I wanted to be part of district leadership and be more involved in the management of Rotary,” he says. The final nudge was a phone call from Bruce Steele-Gray, a past district governor, who asked him to apply. Stander also received support and encouragement from what he calls his “close group of PDG friends.”
               
              “Becoming a district governor is an amazing opportunity to experience Rotary at a totally different level,” he says. Stander also recommends diving into district activities early and often. “It’s a way to acquire knowledge and experience,” he says, “as well as an opportunity to contribute new energy and views that will help bring Rotary into the modern era.”
               
              “My club encourages young and new members to play an active role.”

              In our February issue, Kim Lisagor Bisheff wrote about how to spot fake news.
              • This story originally appeared in the May 2020 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
               
              Never Too Young to Lead 2020-05-13 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Peace Fellow Applications Sought

              I am writing you because the D5010 Rotary Peace Fellowship committee needs your help.  Specifically we need every D5010 Rotarian to help us promote this great scholarship opportunity. Help us by encouraging eligible applicants to apply, and help interested applicants with the application process.  This is very important to me because D5010 is a Peace District.
               
              Last week I sent a short PowerPoint presentation to every club President, asking they share it at a club meeting this week.  Did your club share it with members?  If it was not shared, I am attaching the PowerPoint below for you to preview on your own.  It will help you understand one of the Rotary Foundation's most important programs.  After previewing the PowerPoint you will be more aware about why this is such a wonderful opportunity.
               
              The PowerPoint provides details about the two programs (Masters and Certificate), scholarship eligibility requirements, locations of the Peace Centers, details about the application process and the application deadline (May 31st).
               
              Here is a link to a 2 minute video by recent Peace Fellow graduate Shea Brenneman, who is working in Fairbanks.
               
               
              So potential applicants who may need help with their application can receive it from you or your club, I'm including the names and contact information below of the Committee members. Please reach out to a committee member to see how you can provide support to the applicants.
               
              Here is the contact info for the committee members:
               
              Lori Draper (Seward) alaskaldraper@gmail.com
              Lois Craig (E-Club) lois.craig@gmail.com
              David Wartinbee (Soldotna) kbwart@alaska.net
              Patty Meritt (Fairbanks) pameritt@alaska.edu
               
              Thank you Rotarians for helping us find applicants for this wonderful scholarship opportunity.
               
              Sincerely,
               
              Andre' Layral
              District Governor 2019-2020
              District 5010 - Alaska
              Rotary Peace Fellow Applications Sought 2020-05-13 08:00:00Z 0

              State of Alaska Health Mandate 17:  Protective Measures for Independent Commercial Fishing Vessels

              Health Mandate 017: Protective Measures for Independent Commercial Fishing Vessels

              Issued: April 23, 2020

              By: Governor Mike Dunleavy
              Commissioner Adam Crum, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services
              Dr. Anne Zink, Chief Medical Officer, State of Alaska

              To slow the spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), the State of Alaska is issuing its seventeenth health mandate, based on its authority under the Public Health Disaster Emergency Declaration signed by Governor Mike Dunleavy on March 11, 2020.

              Given the ongoing concern for new cases of COVID-19 being transmitted via community spread within the state, Governor Dunleavy and the State of Alaska are issuing Mandate 017 to go into effect April 24, 2020 at 8:00 a.m. and will reevaluate the Mandate by May 20, 2020.

              This Mandate is issued to protect the public health of Alaskans. By issuing this Mandate, the Governor is establishing consistent mandates across the State in order to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. The goal is to flatten the curve and disrupt the spread of the virus.

              The purpose of this Mandate is to enact protective measures for independent commercial fishing vessels operating within Alaskan waters and ports in order to prevent, slow, and otherwise disrupt the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19.

              The State of Alaska acknowledges the importance of our commercial fishing fleet to our economy and lifestyle as Alaskans. In order to ensure a safe, productive fishing season this year, while still protecting Alaskan communities to the maximum extent possible from the spread of the virus, the State is establishing standardized protective measures to be followed by all independent commercial fishing vessels operating in Alaskan waters and ports.

              Health Mandate 017 – Protective Measures for Independent Commercial Fishing Vessels.

              • Applicability
                1. Definition: For the purposes of this Mandate, “independent commercial fishing vessels” are defined as all catcher and tender vessels that have not agreed to operate under a fleet-wide plan submitted by a company, association, or entity that represents a fleet of vessels. This Mandate alleviates the requirement for independent commercial fishing vessels to submit a Community/Workforce Protective Plan in response to Health Mandates 010 or 012.
                2. This Mandate does not apply to skiffs operating from shore; protective measures for those vessels will be provided under separate guidance.
              • Required Protective Measures/Plans
                1. Independent commercial fishing vessels operating in Alaskan waters and ports must enact the protective measures and procedures described in Appendix 01, the Alaska Protective Plan for Commercial Fishing Vessels.
                2. Vessel captains must enact controls on their vessel to ensure crewmember compliance with this Mandate.
              • Travel and Access
                1. Compliance with this Mandate does not constitute a right to travel or access into any areas.
                2. It is incumbent upon the individual traveler to ensure that any proposed travel itinerary is still possible, and to adhere to any additional restrictions enacted by air carriers and lodging facilities or by small communities in accordance with the State of Alaska Small Community Emergency Travel Order (Health Mandate 012-Attachment B).
              • Compliance and Penalties
                1. Vessel captains are required to maintain documentation as directed by Appendix 01, Paragraph I, and must provide a copy of the Mandate 017 Acknowledgement Form (Appendix 02) upon request by any seafood purchasing agent or Federal, State, or local authority, to include law enforcement and fisheries regulators.
                2. A violation of a State COVID-19 Mandate may subject a business or organization to an order to cease operations and/or a civil fine of up to $1,000 per violation.
                3. In addition to the potential civil fines noted above, a person or organization that fails to follow the State COVID-19 Mandates designed to protect the public health from this dangerous virus and its impacts may, under certain circumstances, also be criminally prosecuted for Reckless Endangerment pursuant to Alaska Statute 11.41.250. Reckless endangerment is defined as follows:

              (a) A person commits the crime of reckless endangerment if the person recklessly engages in conduct, which creates a substantial risk of serious physical injury to another person.

              (b) Reckless endangerment is a class A misdemeanor.

              Pursuant to Alaska Statute 12.55.135, a defendant convicted of a class A misdemeanor may be sentenced to a definite term of imprisonment of not more than one year.

              Additionally, under Alaska Statute 12.55.035, a person may be fined up to $25,000 for a class A misdemeanor, and a business organization may be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding the greatest of $2,500,000 for a misdemeanor offense that results in death, or $500,000 for a class A misdemeanor offense that does not result in death.

              This Mandate Supersedes And Replaces All Previously Submitted Protective Plans For Independent Commercial Fishing Vessels.

              This Mandate Does Not Supersede Or Replace Any Previously Enacted Protective Plans For Corporate Vessel Fleets.

              Appendix 01, the Alaska Protective Plan for Commercial Fishing Vessels

              Appendix 02, Mandate 017 Acknowledgement Form 

              For the latest information on COVID-19, visit covid19.alaska.gov

              State of Alaska Health Mandate 17:  Protective Measures for Independent Commercial Fishing Vessels 2020-05-07 08:00:00Z 0

              Hacking a Solution to the COVID-19 Pandemic

              Rotarians in Lithuania and the United States promote the use of bubble helmets to help patients avoid mechanical ventilators
               
              by Arnold R. Grahl
               
              Rotarians in Lithuania and Chicago, Illinois, USA, are using their influence to promote the use of “bubble helmets” and potentially lessen the need for mechanical ventilators for COVID-19 patients who struggle to breathe on their own.
               
              The Rotary Club of Vilnius Lituanica International, Lithuania, participated in Hack the Crisis, an online event in March that brought together innovators in science and technology to “hack,” or develop solutions to, issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Members of the Lithuanian club, along with members of the Rotary Clubs of Chicago and Chicagoland Lithuanians (Westmont), joined a team to brainstorm ways to help COVID-19 patients breathe without using mechanical ventilators.
              Bubble helmets come in various designs and are noninvasive, supplying oxygen without the need for intubation.
               
              “Traditional ventilators used with intubation are a painful intervention into the body and require trained medical staff,” says Viktorija Trimbel, a member of the Vilnius Lituanica club, who was a mentor during Hack the Crisis. “There’s also a shortage of the drugs used for sedation. But you don’t have to be sedated with helmets.”
               
              Bubble helmets are noninvasive and supply oxygen without the need for intubation, a procedure where a tube is inserted down a patient’s throat. A helmet fits over a patient’s head with a rubber collar that can be adjusted around the neck. The collar has ports that can deliver oxygen and air.
               
              Before the pandemic, doctors typically used noninvasive devices to help patients breathe if their oxygen levels dropped below a certain level. If the noninvasive devices don’t boost those levels enough, mechanical ventilators are used to push oxygen into the lungs through the tube at a preset rate and force.
               
              Benefits of bubble helmets
              • Helps with respiratory distress                     
              • Noninvasive                                                 
              • Can be used outside of intensive care units 
              But some critical care physicians are becoming concerned that intubation and mechanical ventilators are being used unnecessarily on COVID-19 patients and suggest that more patients could benefit by remaining longer on simpler, noninvasive respiratory support.
               
              Helmetbasedventilation.com connects researchers, manufacturers, medical professionals, and funding sources to increase the supply of bubble helmets.
               
              “Being a Rotarian, I have in my network people from all over the world,” adds Trimbel, governor-elect of the district that covers Lithuania. “This pandemic has moved like a wave, first in Asia, then Europe, and then the United States. Yet countries like Mexico, Brazil, and India aren’t yet as impacted. We’re trying to get word out in time for the information to help.”
               
              Beginnings of an idea
               
              The idea to promote helmets actually began around a kitchen table in Chicago three days before the hackathon when Aurika Savickaite, a registered nurse and member of the Chicagoland Lithuanians (Westmont) club, discussed the crisis with her husband, David Lukauskas, who is Trimbel’s brother. Savickaite recalled a clinical trial she participated in that involved the helmets a few years earlier.
               
              The three-year study found that using these kinds of helmets helped more patients with respiratory distress avoid intubation than masks, another noninvasive method. The patients’ overall outcomes were also much improved. The helmets can be used in any room equipped with a wall oxygen supply, not just an intensive care unit.
               
              “You want to avoid intubation for as long as you can, because generally the mortality rate on intubation is fairly high,” said Savickaite.
               
              “Through Rotary, we’re able to connect so many people around the world. It’s a great way to collaborate in this battle.”
               
              Lukauskas was surprised that more people weren’t talking about helmets and called Trimbel, who had already signed up as a mentor for Hack the Crisis. Together they enlisted more than a dozen Rotary members from their clubs to explore noninvasive ventilation options and how to expand the use of helmets.
               
              The group worked with intensive care unit clinicians, healthcare leaders, helmet manufacturers, technology professionals, and marketing managers. They developed a short questionnaire for clinicians and hospital leaders worldwide, gathered practice-based knowledge on noninvasive ventilation for COVID-19 patients, devised an online platform to connect suppliers with demand, and pursued funding to finance the production of more helmets.
               
              Spreading the word
               
              Trimbel, her brother, and Savickaite launched their website to encourage collaboration and link manufacturers, clinicians, and funding sources. Trimbel says they’ve also spoken with media outlets in the United States.
               
              The website posts news such as the mid-April announcement by Virgin Galactic that it was teaming up with the U.S. space agency NASA and a U.S. hospital to develop their own version of bubble helmets to supplement scarce supplies of ventilators in hospitals in southern California and beyond.
               
              “Because of trade restrictions and borders being closed, most countries are on their own,” says Trimbel. “There’s a Facebook group where people are designing their own helmets using balloons and plastics. Some may think it’s funny, but it’s also inspiring. The helmet part is not rocket science, as long as it works with the connectors. We believe this has very big potential.”
              The problem-solving team also worked on how to improve the isolation of patients who think they may have the virus, and how to match the supply and demand for medical equipment with available funding. Another team at the hackathon developed a digital platform that helps family physicians find up-to-date medical information on the virus for their patients.
              Savickaite feels Rotary is in a strong position to find solutions to problems caused by the pandemic.
               
              “Through Rotary, we’re able to connect so many people around the world,” she said. “It’s a great way to collaborate in this battle.”
               
              From the ROTARIAN
              Hacking a Solution to the COVID-19 Pandemic ARG 2020-05-06 08:00:00Z 0

              Painting Tables!!

              Annual picnic table painting at the Water Trail Picnic Shelter by the Nick Dudiak Fishing Hole
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Painting Tables!! 2020-05-06 08:00:00Z 0

              Kachemak Bay State Park -- 50th Anniversary

              Hi all,

              Saturday, May 9 is the 50th Anniversary of the creation of Kachemak Bay State Park.  Due to the pandemic, planned celebrations have been cancelled or postponed.  As a way to celebrate our Park, I am suggesting folks have a “stay at home” birthday party with a Park themed cake and ice cream.  Take a picture of your cake and share it for all to enjoy on the Water Trail and the Friends of Kachemak Bay State Park Facebook pages and send the pictures to Craig for our Bulletin.  No judging, no prizes, just a few extra calories and a bit of creative fun.

              Below is my practice cake, a Kachemak Bay Blueberry (berries, not wine) cake with a canned frosting and a few sprinkles.  Hope others will think, “I can do better than that.” And then do it.  I will do better than that for our Saturday Party.

              Have fun, stay well,

              Dave

              Kachemak Bay State Park -- 50th Anniversary 2020-05-05 08:00:00Z 0
              New Cases of Covid-19 in Homer 2020-04-30 08:00:00Z 0
              Why 6 Feet May Not Be Enough to Protect You From Coronavirus 2020-04-30 08:00:00Z 0

              2022 Rotary Peace Fellowships

               Now Accepting Applications for the 2022 Rotary Peace Fellowship - Apply Now!
              Promoting peace is one of Rotary’s main causes. The fully funded Rotary Peace Fellowship, which covers tuition and living expenses, increases the capacity of existing leaders to prevent and resolve conflict by offering academic training, field experience, and professional networking.
              Up to 130 fellows are selected every year in a globally competitive process based on personal, academic, and professional achievements. Fellows earn either a master’s degree or a professional development certificate in peace and development studies at one of the seven Rotary Peace Centers, located at leading universities around the world.
              More than 1,300 program alumni are working in more than 115 countries as leaders in national governments, nongovernmental organizations, social enterprises, the military, law enforcement, and international organizations such as the United Nations.
               
              ▪ 15-24 month program, small-group classroom learning, in fields related to peace and development
              ▪ Intended for leaders near the start of their careers
              ▪ 50 fellows selected annually to study at one of five Rotary Peace Centers at partner universities, which offer interdisciplinary curricula with research-informed teaching
              ▪ 2-3 month field study experience to develop practical skills
              ▪ Fellows connect with an international cohort of fellows, thought leaders, and a global network of Rotarians
               
              ▪ Year long program that blends online learning, in-person classes, and an independent project, based at a Rotary Peace Center in Thailand or Uganda
              ▪ Intended for social change leaders with extensive experience working in peace-related fields
              ▪ 80 fellows selected annually to earn a certificate in peace and development studies
              ▪ Interdisciplinary program includes a two-week online preliminary course, 10 weeks of on-site courses with field studies, a nine-month period during which fellows implement a social change initiative (with interactive online sessions), and an on-site capstone seminar
               
              Eligibility: Take the eligibility quiz.
               
              Qualified candidates must:
              ▪ Have five years of related work experience for the certificate program and be able to explain how their plan to promote peace aligns with Rotary’s mission
              ▪ Be proficient in English
              ▪ Have a bachelor’s degree
              ▪ Demonstrate leadership skills
              ▪ Have a strong commitment to cross-cultural understanding and peace
              Have three years of related work experience for the master’s program
               
              Applications for the 2021-22 academic term need to be submitted to Rotary districts by 31 May 2020. Please write to pameritt@alaska.edu with questions.
              If you know someone who might be a good candidate for this fellowship, please submit a referral form with their name and email address. We’ll contact them with information on how to apply. Thank you for supporting our program.
              2022 Rotary Peace Fellowships 2020-04-30 08:00:00Z 0


              ShelterBox Team Rises to Challenge

              When El Niño caused abnormally intense rainfall in April and May 2019, Paraguay experienced massive flooding that displaced an estimated 60,000 people. In Asunción, the capital, the Paraguay River overflowed, and tens of thousands had to live in temporary settlements with inadequate shelter and poor sanitation. With the high waters persisting for months, residents needed humanitarian assistance while they figured out what to do in the long run.
               
              That’s how Ned Morris, a member of the Rotary Club of Walla Walla, Washington, found himself in Asunción for 22 days in July and August. It was Morris’ fifth deployment since late 2017, when he completed his training with ShelterBox, Rotary’s partner for disaster relief.
               
               
              Ned Morris (second from left) worked closely with ShelterBox team members and community members to ensure that displaced people were getting things they needed.
              Image credit: Alyce Henson / Rotary International
               
              In its May 2018 issue, The Rotarian followed Morris, fellow Rotarian Wes Clanton, and Rotaractor Katelyn Winkworth as they trained to become members of the ShelterBox Response Team. After 11 months developing the skills needed to assist displaced people around the world, they were invited to participate in the intensive final stage of training conducted by ShelterBox in the rugged countryside in Cornwall, England. After nine days dealing with simulations of the disasters they might encounter on a deployment, ShelterBox welcomed Morris, Clanton, and Winkworth to its response team, which numbers about 200 people worldwide.
               
              Since then, Morris has supported families in the Caribbean, Ethiopia, and Kenya as well as Paraguay, experiencing firsthand the power of the Rotary-ShelterBox partnership. “When we hit the ground on any deployment, Rotarians and Rotaractors are our first contact,” he says. “They help us identify safe and unsafe areas, the right places to set up base. They provide drivers and translators. We wouldn’t have the impact we do without the partnership.”
               
              In Paraguay, members of the Rotaract clubs of Asunción and Asunción Catedral were crucial to the mission’s success. Mariana Santiviago and Oliver Lugo Fatecha helped with translation, and Gabriela Grasso, Fanny Santos, and others provided logistical support.
               
              ShelterBox Response Teams provided shelter kits packed with tarpaulins and tools to help repair homes. They also distributed solar lights, mosquito nets, and blankets to displaced people in Asunción. As for Morris, he served on a team dedicated to monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning (MEAL), part of ShelterBox’s effort to garner knowledge from each deployment. “The purpose of the MEAL team is to make sure we’re providing the right type of aid that’s needed now,” he explains. “And if they need other things, we want to know what those are. If it’s something that we can bring in the future to improve our response, we want to know.”
               
              ShelterBox distributed thermal blankets for the cold nights; mosquito nets are essential for disease prevention.
              Image credit: Alyce Henson / Rotary International
               
              Community engagement is key to the partnership’s success. The response teams work with local leaders and teach them to show others how to use the resources ShelterBox provides. That means the ShelterBox teams can be small, with lower deployment costs and greater ability to adapt to changing circumstances.
               
              The response teams also work directly with the people most affected by a disaster, but they are careful not to be intrusive. “These people are in a horrible situation and they deserve to be respected, consulted, and treated with dignity,” Morris says. “We don’t want to be a burden on them. They’ve already gone through enough.”
               
              ShelterBox is always preparing for its next deployment, without knowing where that might be. “We fundraise for the next disaster,” says Morris, who also works as a ShelterBox ambassador, spreading the word about the Rotary-ShelterBox mission. “We already had the supplies in place that we’re delivering now. We are ready when the next hurricane or earthquake hits, wherever that might be. Whatever it is, as soon as the next disaster hits, we are ready.”
              — HANK SARTIN
              • This story originally appeared in the April 2020 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
               
              The ShelterBox team, including Rotarians from the UK and the United States, worked alongside local Rotaractors; solar lights make it possible to do chores and cook at night, and provide a sense of comfort.
              Image credit: Alyce Henson / Rotary International
               
              ShelterBox Team Rises to Challenge 2020-04-30 08:00:00Z 0

              Visualizing Speech-Generated Oral Fluid Droplets with Laser Light Scattering

              To the Editor:
              Video
               
              Digital Object Thumbnail
               
              Aerosols and droplets generated during speech have been implicated in the person-to-person transmission of viruses,1,2 and there is current interest in understanding the mechanisms responsible for the spread of Covid-19 by these means. The act of speaking generates oral fluid droplets that vary widely in size,1 and these droplets can harbor infectious virus particles. Whereas large droplets fall quickly to the ground, small droplets can dehydrate and linger as “droplet nuclei” in the air, where they behave like an aerosol and thereby expand the spatial extent of emitted infectious particles.2 We report the results of a laser light-scattering experiment in which speech-generated droplets and their trajectories were visualized.
               
              The output from a 532-nm green laser operating at 2.5-W optical power was transformed into a light sheet that was approximately 1 mm thick and 150 mm tall. We directed this light sheet through slits on the sides of a cardboard box measuring 53×46×62 cm. The interior of the box was painted black. The enclosure was positioned under a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter to eliminate dust.
               
              When a person spoke through the open end of the box, droplets generated during speech traversed approximately 50 to 75 mm before they encountered the light sheet. An iPhone 11 Pro video camera aimed at the light sheet through a hole (7 cm in diameter) on the opposite side of the box recorded sound and video of the light-scattering events at a rate of 60 frames per second. The size of the droplets was estimated from ultrahigh-resolution recordings. Video clips of the events while the person was speaking, with and without a face mask, are available with the full text of this letter at NEJM.org
              .
               
              Figure 1. Emission of Droplets While a Person Said “Stay Healthy.”
               
              We found that when the person said “stay healthy,” numerous droplets ranging from 20 to 500 μm were generated. These droplets produced flashes as they passed through the light sheet (Figure 1). The brightness of the flashes reflected the size of the particles and the fraction of time they were present in a single 16.7-msec frame of the video. The number of flashes in a single frame of the video was highest when the “th” sound in the word “healthy” was pronounced (Figure 1A). Repetition of the same phrase three times, with short pauses in between the phrases, produced a similar pattern of generated particles, with peak numbers of flashes as high as 347 with the loudest speech and as low as 227 when the loudness was slightly decreased over the three trials (see the top trace in Figure 1A). When the same phrase was uttered three times through a slightly damp washcloth over the speaker’s mouth, the flash count remained close to the background level (mean, 0.1 flashes); this showed a decrease in the number of forward-moving droplets (see the bottom trace in Figure 1A).
               
              We found that the number of flashes increased with the loudness of speech; this finding was consistent with previous observations by other investigators.3 In one study, droplets emitted during speech were smaller than those emitted during coughing or sneezing. Some studies have shown that the number of droplets produced by speaking is similar to the number produced by coughing.4
               
              We did not assess the relative roles of droplets generated during speech, droplet nuclei,2 and aerosols in the transmission of viruses. Our aim was to provide visual evidence of speech-generated droplets and to qualitatively describe the effect of a damp cloth cover over the mouth to curb the emission of droplets.
               
              Philip Anfinrud, Ph.D.
              Valentyn Stadnytskyi, Ph.D.
              National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
               
              Christina E. Bax, B.A.
              Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
               
              Adriaan Bax, Ph.D.
              National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
               
              Disclosure forms. opens in new tab provided by the authors are available with the full text of this letter at NEJM.org.
               
              This letter was published on April 15, 2020, at NEJM.org.
              Visualizing Speech-Generated Oral Fluid Droplets with Laser Light Scattering 2020-04-23 08:00:00Z 0
              Some Common Symptoms Compared to Covid-19 2020-04-23 08:00:00Z 0

              Alaska Coronavirus Health Mandate 16 F,G, and H

              Restaurants Dine-In Services
              Attachment F
              Issued April 22, 2020 Effective April 24, 2020
              State of Alaska COVID-19 Mandate 016 - Attachment F Restaurants Dine-In Services
              By:  Governor Mike Dunleavy 
              Commissioner Adam Crum, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services 
              Dr. Anne Zink, Chief Medical Officer, State of Alaska
              I. Applicability: This section applies to restaurants only. Bars remain closed.
              II. Restaurants may resume table service dining if they meet all of the following requirements:
              a. General:
                          i.             Social distancing protocol is maintained.
                          ii.            Continue to follow all regulatory and legal standards required to operate a food services business in Alaska.
                          iii.           Develop protocols in the restaurant’s COVID-19 Mitigation Plan to minimize direct contact between employees and customers, and increase physical distancing.
              b. Capacity:
               i.             Indoors
                          1. Groups limited to household members only.
              2. Limit maximum indoor capacity by 25 percent based on factors such as   square footage, configuration, or fire code capacity. Business must determine, post, and            enforce. 
              3. Tables seating non-household members must be a minimum of ten feet apart 
              ii. Outdoors
                                1. Groups limited to household members only.
                                2. No more than 20 tables.
                    3. Tables seating non-household members must be a minimum of ten feet apart.
               
              c. Operations:
              i.      Reservations only. Walk-in prohibited.
              ii.     Groups limited to household members only.
              iii.    Fabric face coverings worn by all employees.
              iv.     Entryway signage stating that any customer who has symptoms of COVID-19 must not enter the premises.
               v.     Establish a COVID-19 Mitigation Plan addressing the practices and protocols to
                       protect staff and the public.
              vi. Hard copy of written safety, sanitization, and physical distancing protocols (specific to COVID-19) on the business premises.
              vii. Disposableware should be used when available.
              viii. Condiments by request in single-use disposable packets or reusable condiments by request that are sanitized between parties.
              ix. Fully sanitize tables and chairs after each party.
              x. Sanitize or provide disposable menus or menu board. xi. Provide sanitizer on each table or at customer entrance
              xii. Hourly touch-point sanitization (workstations, equipment, screens, doorknobs, restrooms).
              a. Hygiene:
              i. Employer must provide hand-washing or sanitizer at customer entrance and in communal spaces.
              ii. Frequent hand washing by employees, and an adequate supply of soap, disinfectant, hand sanitizer, and paper towels available. 
              iii. Employer must provide for hourly touch-point sanitization (e.g. workstations, equipment, screens, doorknobs, restrooms) throughout work site.
              d. Staffing:
              i.         Provide training for employees regarding these requirements and the COVID-19
                         Mitigation Plan; 
                          ii.        Conduct pre-shift screening, maintain staff screening log;
              iii.       No employee displaying symptoms of COVID-19 will provide services to customers – symptomatic or ill employees may not report to work;
                          iv.        No person may work within 72 hours of exhibiting a fever;
              v.         Employer must establish a plan for employees getting ill and a return-to- work plan following CDC guidance, which can be found here.
               
              e. Cleaning and Disinfecting:  
              i.        Cleaning and disinfecting must be conducted in compliance with CDC protocols weekly or, in lieu of performing the CDC cleaning and disinfecting, the retail business             may shut down for a period of at least 72 consecutive hours per week to allow for natural deactivation of the virus, followed by site personnel performing a                               comprehensive disinfection of all common surfaces.
              ii.       When an active employee is identified as being COVID-19 positive by testing, CDC cleaning and disinfecting must be performed as soon after the confirmation of a                 positive test as practical. In lieu of performing CDC cleaning and disinfecting, retail businesses may shut down for a period of at least 72 consecutive hours to allow for           natural deactivation of the virus, followed by site personnel performing a comprehensive disinfection of all common surfaces.
              iii. CDC protocols can be found here and here
               
              III. Restaurants are encouraged to follow additional best practices:
               
              a. Entryway, curbside, and home delivery.
              b. Telephone and online ordering for contactless pickup and delivery.
               c. Cashless and receiptless transactions.
              d. Customers enter and exit through different entries using one-way traffic, where possible.
               
               
              Personal Care Services
              Attachment G
              Issued April 22, 2020 Effective April 24, 2020
              State of Alaska COVID-19 Mandate 016 - Attachment G Personal Care Services
              By:  Governor Mike Dunleavy
               Commissioner Adam Crum, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services 
               Dr. Anne Zink, Chief Medical Officer, State of Alaska
               
              I. Applicability: This section applies to personal care services including, but not limited to, the following business types:
                           i.             Hair salons;
               ii.           Day spas and esthetics locations;
              iii.            Nail salons; 
              iv.            Barber shops; 
              v.             Tattoo shops; 
              vi.            Body piercing locations; 
              vii.           Tanning facilities; 
              viii.          Rolfing; 
              ix.            Reiki;
              x.             Lactation consultants;
              xi.            Acupressure.
              x.             Personal Care Services can resume if they meet all of the following     requirements:
               
              a. Compliance with Licensing and Board Direction: Nothing in this mandate or any attachment shall be construed to waive any existing statutory, regulatory, or licensing requirements applicable to providers or businesses operating under this attachment. Service providers should consult their licensing board for additional direction on standards for providing services.
              b. Social Distancing:
              i.             Reservations only. Walk-ins prohibited.
              ii.            No person is allowed to stay in waiting areas. Waiting areas should not have any magazines, portfolios, or catalogues. No beverage service can be provided.
              iii.           Only the customer receiving the service may enter the shop, except for a parent or guardian accompanying a minor or a guardian ad litem or someone with                    legal power of attorney accompanying an individual with disabilities. Drivers, friends, and relatives cannot enter the business.
                          iv.           Limit of one customer per staff person performing personal care services.
              v.            No more than ten people should be in the shop at a time, including staff and clients.
              vi.          Customers must receive pre-visit telephonic consultation to screen for symptoms consistent with COVID-19, recent travel, and exposure to people with                          suspected or confirmed COVID-19. 
              vii.          No more than 20 customers, or 25 percent maximum building occupancy as required by law (whichever is smaller) at any one time; viii. Social distancing of                   at least six feet between customer-employee pairs.
                          viii.         Social distancing of at least six feet between customer-employee pairs.
              ix.           Workstations must be greater than six feet apart to ensure minimum social distancing is maintained.
              x.            Establish a COVID-19 Mitigation Plan addressing the practices and protocols to protect staff and the public.
              xi.           Entryway signage notifying the public of the business’s COVID-19 Mitigation Plan and stating clearly that any person with symptoms consistent with COVID19 may not enter the premises.
              c. Hygiene Protocols:
                                        i.             Hand-washing or sanitizer shall be provided at customer entrance.
              ii.            Service providers must wear surgical masks, at a minimum. Cloth face coverings do not provide sufficient protection given the close proximity of individuals.
              iii.           Customers must wear cloth face coverings and wash or sanitize hands upon arrival. Face coverings worn by customers may be removed for a short time when                necessary to perform services, but must be worn at all other times, including when entering and exiting of the shop.
              iv.           Employees must wash their hands frequently, including before and after each client, using an adequate supply of hot water with soap.
              v.            An adequate supply of disinfectant, hand sanitizer, and paper towels must be   available. 
              vi.           Owners/employees must clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces periodically throughout the day at least every four hours. This includes tables,                            doorknobs, light switches, countertops, handles, desks, phones, keyboards, toilets, faucets, and sinks. 
              vii.          Business must have a designated employee on-site responsible for monitoring and following all sanitation protocols. 
              viii.         Workstations, chairs, tools, shampoo bowls, and anything within six feet of seat must be cleaned and disinfected after each patron. In addition, hourly touch-                   point sanitation must occur. 
              ix.           Visibly dirty surfaces must be cleaned immediately. Use detergent or soap and water prior to disinfection. Then, use a disinfectant. Most common EPA
                             registered household disinfectants will work.
              x.            Aprons must be worn by licensed practitioners and changed between each patron. Aprons must be cleaned and disinfected before re-using. 
              xi.           Customer capes are single use only or need to be cleaned and disinfected before re-using.
              xii.          Any sanitation protocols required in state licensing statutes or regulations that are more stringent than those listed in this mandate must be followed.
               
              d. Staffing/Operations: 
              i.        The shop owner is responsible for supplying personal protective equipment and sanitation supplies to its employees or contractors, including masks and                    
              Alaska Coronavirus Health Mandate 16 F,G, and H 2020-04-23 08:00:00Z 0


              Alaska Coronavirus Health Mandates D and E

              Non-Essential Public Facing Businesses Generally (Not Including Retail)
              Attachment D
              Issued April 22, 2020 Effective April 24, 2020
               
              By:  Governor Mike Dunleavy 
               
              Commissioner Adam Crum Alaska Department of Health and Social Services 
               
              Dr. Anne Zink, Chief Medical Officer, State of Alaska
               
              I. Applicability: This section generally applies to businesses interacting with the public which are not included in Attachment A: Alaska Essential Services and Critical Infrastructure Order. Retail businesses are addressed in Attachment E.
               
              II. Non-Essential Businesses can resume operations if they meet all of the following requirements:
               
              a. Social Distancing:
                                        i. Reservations only. Walk-ins prohibited.
                                       ii. Fabric face coverings must be worn by all employees.
                                      iii. No more than 20 customers, or 25% maximum building occupancy as required by law (whichever is smaller) is permitted at any one time.
                                      iv. Outdoor businesses are not limited by number of customers, but must maintain social distancing between individuals and household groups.  
                                       v. Groups or parties must be limited to household members only.
                                      vi. Social distance of at least six feet is maintained between individuals.
              vii. Establish a COVID-19 Mitigation Plan addressing the practices and protocols to protect staff and the public.
              viii. Entryway signage must notify the public of the business’s COVID-19 Mitigation Plan and clearly state that any person with symptoms consistent with COVID-19 may not enter the premises.
              b. Hygiene Protocols:
              i. Employer must provide hand-washing or sanitizer at customer entrance and in communal spaces.
              ii. Frequent hand washing by employees, and an adequate supply of soap, disinfectant, hand sanitizer, and paper towels available.
              iii. Employer must provide for hourly touch-point sanitization (e.g. workstations, equipment, screens, doorknobs, restrooms) throughout work site.
              c. Staffing:
              i. Employer must provide training for employees regarding these requirements and provide each    employee a copy of the business mitigation plan. 
                                      ii. Employer must conduct pre-shift screening and maintain staff screening log.
              iii. No employee displaying symptoms of COVID-19 will provide services to customers – symptomatic or ill employees may not report to work
              iv. No employee may report to the work site within 72 hours of exhibiting a fever. v. Employer must establish a plan for employees getting ill and a return to work plan following CDC guidance, which can be found here.
               
              d. Cleaning and Disinfecting:
               i.      Cleaning and disinfecting must be conducted in compliance with CDC protocols weekly or, in lieu of performing the CDC cleaning and disinfecting, the business may              shut down for a period of at least 72 consecutive hours per week to allow for natural deactivation of the virus, followed by site personnel performing a comprehensive              disinfection of all common surfaces.
              ii.      When an active employee is identified as being COVID-19 positive by testing, CDC cleaning and disinfecting must be performed as soon after the confirmation of a                positive test as practical. In lieu of performing CDC cleaning and disinfecting, businesses may shut down for a period of at least 72 consecutive hours to allow for natural          deactivation of the virus, followed by site personnel performing a comprehensive disinfection of all common surfaces.
                         iii.     CDC protocols can be found here and here.
               
               III. Non-Essential Businesses Requiring In-Home Services
               
              a. Applicability: Businesses not falling under Attachment A: Alaska Essential Services and Critical Infrastructure Workforce which require provision of services in a person’s home. Examples include, but are not limited to, installation of products such as windows, blinds, and furniture, non-critical inspections and appraisals, and showing a home for sale.
              b. These businesses can resume operations if they meet all of the following requirements:
               
                                     i.     Social Distancing:
                                       1. Fabric face coverings worn by all workers and residents of the home.
                                       2. Social distance of at least six feet is maintained between nonhousehold individuals.
                           3. Establish a COVID-19 Mitigation Plan addressing the practices and protocols to protect staff and the public.
               
                        ii. Hygiene Protocols:
                            1. The worker must wash and/or sanitize hands immediately after entering the home and at time of departure.
                            2. The worker must sanitize surfaces worked on, and must provide their own cleaning and sanitation supplies.
                                    iii. Staffing:
                            1. Provide training for employees regarding these requirements and the business mitigation plan.
                                                    2. Conduct pre-shift screening and maintain staff screening log.
                            3. No employee displaying symptoms of COVID-19 will provide services to customers – symptomatic or ill employees may not report to work.
                                                    4. No person may work within 72 hours of exhibiting a fever.
               
              Alaska Coronavirus Health Mandates D and E 2020-04-23 08:00:00Z 0

              Alaska Coronavirus Health Mandate 16

              Health mandates are orders issued by Governor Mike Dunleavy, Alaska Health and Social Services Commissioner Adam Crum, and Alaska Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink.
              Health mandates must be followed
              .
              Health Mandate 016: Reopen Alaska Responsibly Plan - Phase 1-A
              Issued: April 22, 2020
              By:       Governor Mike Dunleavy
               
                          Commissioner Adam Crum, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services
               
                          Dr. Anne Zink, Chief Medical Officer, State of Alaska
               
              The State of Alaska is issuing its sixteenth health mandate, based on its authority under the Public Health Disaster Emergency Declaration signed by Governor Mike Dunleavy on March 11, 2020. This Mandate will go into effect April 24, 2020. The State of Alaska reserves the right to amend the Mandate at any time.
               
              To date, the State of Alaska has issued 15 mandates to protect the public health of all Alaskans. These mandates, which have been aimed at flattening the curve, have been beneficial in slowing the spread of the disease.
               
              This Mandate seeks to balance the ongoing need to maintain diligent efforts to slow and disrupt the rate of infection with the corresponding critical need to resume economic activity in a reasonable and safe manner.
               
              This Mandate is the first of a series that are intended to reopen Alaska responsibly. By issuing this Mandate, the Governor is establishing consistent mandates across the State in order to mitigate both the public health and the economic impacts of COVID-19 across Alaska.
               
              This Mandate addresses and modifies a number of prior Mandates and Health Care Advisories, as appropriate, to implement Phase I of the “Reopen Alaska Responsibly Plan.” If there is any discrepancy between this Mandate, including its attachments, and any other statements, mandates, advisories, or documents regarding the “Reopen Alaska Responsibly Plan”, this Mandate and its attachments will govern. FAQs may be issued to bring additional clarity to this Mandate based on questions that may arise.
               
               Health Mandate 016 – REOPEN ALASKA RESPONSIBLY PLAN- PHASE I-A
               
              Health Mandate 016 goes into effect at 8:00 a.m. on Friday, April 24, 2020.
               
              Reopening Alaska’s businesses is vital to the state’s economic well-being, and to the ability of Alaskans to provide for their families. At the same time, everyone shares in the obligation to keep Alaska safe and continue to combat the spread of COVID-19. As a result, businesses and employees must, to the extent reasonably feasible, continue to take reasonable care to protect their staff and operations during this pandemic. Meanwhile, all Alaskans have an obligation to help promote public health and fight this pandemic by continuing to follow public health guidance regarding sanitizing, handwashing, and use of face masks. Those that are at high risk of infection are encouraged to continue to self-quarantine, to the extent possible, and strictly follow social distancing mandates and advisories.
               
              Unless explicitly modified by this Mandate as set forth below and in Attachments D through H, prior Mandates remain in effect unless and until they are amended, rescinded, or suspended by further order of the Governor. The Governor and the State of Alaska reserve the right to amend this Mandate at any time in order to protect the public health, welfare, and safety of the public and assure the state’s safe resumption of economic activity.
               
              The activities and businesses listed below that were previously governed by the referenced Mandates may resume under the conditions and guidance provided in the following attachments.
               
              Attachment D – Non-Essential Public Facing Businesses Generally – modifies Mandate 011
              Attachment E – Retail Businesses – modifies Mandate 011
              Attachment F – Restaurants Dine-In Services – modifies Mandate 03.1
              Attachment G – Personal Care Services – modifies Mandate 09
              Attachment H – Non-Essential Non-Public-Facing Businesses – modifies Mandate 011 
               
              PREEMPTION OF LOCAL MANDATES
               
              The policies contained in this Health Mandate are most effective when implemented uniformly across the State. Conflicting local provisions will frustrate this Mandate’s health and economic objectives and, therefore, are irreconcilable with this Mandate’s purposes. Therefore, unless specifically authorized by this, or any another Mandate issued by the Governor, this Mandate, Attachment A (Alaska Essential Services and Critical Workforce Infrastructure Order), Attachment B (Alaska Small Community Emergency Travel Order), and Attachments D through G expressly and intentionally supersede and preempt any existing or future conflicting local, municipal, or tribal mandate, directive, resolution, ordinance, regulation, or other order.
               
              Business operations and other activities permitted to operate under this mandate may not be prohibited by local, municipal, or tribal mandate, directive, resolution, ordinance, regulation, or other order.
               
              Notwithstanding the above, businesses subject to this mandate that are located within the Municipality of Anchorage, must continue to operate under prior state and municipal mandates through 8 a.m. Monday April 27, 2020, at which time, this Mandate will control
              ENFORCEMENT
               
              A violation of a State of Alaska COVID-19 Mandate may subject a business or organization to an order to cease operations and/or a civil fine of up to $1,000 per violation. In addition to the potential civil fines noted, a person or organization that fails to follow State COVID-19 Mandates designed to protect the public health from this dangerous virus and its impact may, under certain circumstances, also be criminally prosecuted for Reckless Endangerment pursuant to Alaska Statute 11.41.250. Reckless endangerment is defined as follows:
              (a)          A person commits the crime of reckless endangerment if the person recklessly engages I       n conduct which creates a substantial risk of serious physical injury to another        person.
                          (b)         Reckless endangerment is a class A misdemeanor.
              Pursuant to Alaska Statute 12.55.135, a defendant convicted of a class A misdemeanor may be sentenced to a definite term of imprisonment of not more than one year.
              Additionally, under Alaska Statute 12.55.035, a person may be fined up to $25,000 for a class A misdemeanor, and a business organization may be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding the greatest of $2,500,000 for a misdemeanor offense that results in death, or $500,000 for a class A misdemeanor offense that does not result in death.
               
              ***This Mandate is in effect until rescinded or modified.***
               
              I. Applicability: This section generally applies to businesses interacting with the public which are not included in Attachment A: Alaska Essential Services and Critical Infrastructure Order. Retail businesses are addressed in Attachment E.
               
              II. Non-Essential Businesses can resume operations if they meet all of the following requirements:
                              
              a.            Social Distancing:
               i.            Reservations only. Walk-ins prohibited. 
              ii.            Fabric face coverings must be worn by all employees.
              iii.           No more than 20 customers, or 25% maximum building occupancy as required by law (whichever is smaller) is permitted at any one time.
              iv.           Outdoor businesses are not limited by number of customers, but must maintain social distancing between individuals and household groups.  
              v.            Groups or parties must be limited to household members only.
              vi.           Social distance of at least six feet is maintained between individuals.
              vii.          Establish a COVID-19 Mitigation Plan addressing the practices and protocols to protect staff and the public.
              viii.        Entryway signage must notify the public of the business’s COVID-19 Mitigation Plan and clearly state that any person with symptoms consistent with COVID-19 may not enter the premises.
              b. Hygiene Protocols:
               i.            Employer must provide hand-washing or sanitizer at customer entrance and in communal spaces.
              ii.            Frequent hand washing by employees, and an adequate supply of soap, disinfectant, hand sanitizer, and paper towels available. 
              iii.           Employer must provide for hourly touch-point sanitization (e.g. workstations, equipment, screens, doorknobs, restrooms) throughout work site.
              c. Staffing:
              i.            Employer must provide training for employees regarding these requirements and provide each employee a copy of the business mitigation plan.
               ii.           Employer must conduct pre-shift screening and maintain staff screening log.
              iii.           No employee displaying symptoms of COVID-19 will provide services to customers – symptomatic or ill employees may not report to work
              iv.           No employee may report to the work site within 72 hours of exhibiting a fever.
              v.           Employer must establish a plan for employees getting ill and a return to work plan following CDC guidance, which can be found here.
                             d. Cleaning and Disinfecting:
              i.            Cleaning and disinfecting must be conducted in compliance with CDC protocols weekly or, in lieu of performing the CDC cleaning and disinfecting, the business may shut down for a period of at least 72 consecutive hours per week to allow for natural deactivation of the virus, followed by site personnel performing a comprehensive disinfection of all common surfaces.
               ii.          When an active employee is identified as being COVID-19 positive by testing, CDC cleaning and disinfecting must be performed as soon after the confirmation of a positive test as practical. In lieu of performing CDC cleaning and disinfecting, businesses may shut down for a period of at least 72 consecutive hours to allow for natural deactivation of the virus, followed by site personnel performing a comprehensive disinfection of all common surfaces.
              iii.          CDC protocols can be found here and here. 
               III. Non-Essential Businesses Requiring In-Home Services
              a.            Applicability: Businesses not falling under Attachment A: Alaska Essential Services and Critical Infrastructure Workforce which require provision of services in a   person’s home. Examples include, but are not limited to, installation of products such as windows, blinds, and furniture, non-critical inspections and appraisals, and showing a home for sale.
              b.            These businesses can resume operations if they meet all of the following requirements:
              i.             Social Distancing:
              1.            Fabric face coverings worn by all workers and residents of the home.
              2.            Social distance of at least six feet is maintained between non-household individuals.
              3.            Establish a COVID-19 Mitigation Plan addressing the practices and protocols to protect staff and the public.
              ii.            Hygiene Protocols:
                          1. The worker must wash and/or sanitize hands immediately after entering the home and at time of departure.
                          2. The worker must sanitize surfaces worked on, and must provide their own cleaning and sanitation supplies.
              iii.           Staffing:
                                       1.            Provide training for employees regarding these requirements and the business mitigation plan.
               2.           Conduct pre-shift screening and maintain staff screening log.
               3.            No employee displaying symptoms of COVID-19 will provide services to customers – symptomatic or ill employees may not report to work.
               4.            No person may work within 72 hours of exhibiting a fever.
              Alaska Coronavirus Health Mandate 16 2020-04-23 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Monitors the Coronavirus Impact

              Rotary is closely monitoring the pandemic of COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, and continuously assessing the potential impact on Rotary operations, events, and members.
               
              Your health and safety are always our top priorities. Look below for information on Rotary activities that may be affected. We will update this page as new information becomes available.
               
              Read how members are using ingenuity and flexibility to help people affected by coronavirus and to stay connected.
              Affected areas
              Resources 
              Grant options to respond to COVID-19
               
              As people of action, Rotary members want to find ways to respond to COVID-19, and to help people affected by it. The Rotary Foundation offers several options that Rotarians can use to help care for and protect people in their own communities and others around the world.
               
              District grants
               
              Districts can use District Grant funds to support local activities, like purchasing thermometers, protective medical gear, or other items to donate to medical professionals who need them. Districts can also use contingency funds from an open district grant or repurpose previously planned activities as a COVID-19 response. As districts prepare to submit new district grant applications for 2020-21, we encourage you to designate funds for COVID-19 responses. As a one-time exception, the Foundation will allow expenses related to COVID-19 that were incurred since 15 March 2020 to be reimbursed through 2020-21 district grants.
               
              Disaster Response Grants and Rotary’s Disaster Response Fund
               
              Rotary’s Disaster Response Grants provide a fast and effective way to respond to local events. The Rotary Foundation recently added COVID-19 projects to its list of eligible activities for these grants. Each district can apply for one grant (of up to $25,000) to address COVID-19, depending on the availability of funds. Disaster response grants are funded by the Rotary Disaster Response Fund to help districts around the world respond to disasters. The fund accepts online contributions and DDF. Districts may designate that their DDF contributions to the Disaster Response Fund be used exclusively for COVID-19 grant activities. Cash contributions will be used for general disaster response, including response to COVID-19.
               
              Global Grants
               
              Global Grants remain an excellent way to make a transformative impact in a community. If medical equipment is needed in order to respond effectively to COVID-19, global grants can help pay for these items. The Foundation is waiving the 30 percent foreign financing requirement for any new global grant that addresses COVID-19. Note that these grants still require both a host and international partner.
               
              For additional information, contact your Regional GrantsOfficer.
               
              Polio
               
              Using the vast infrastructure developed to identify the poliovirus and deliver vaccination campaigns, the polio eradication program is pitching in to protect the vulnerable from COVID-19, especially in polio-endemic countries. Learn more.
               
              Rotary International Convention
               
              We regret to announce that the Rotary International Convention, scheduled for 6-10 June 2020 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, has been canceled due to the ongoing threat of COVID-19. Learn more
               
              Other major Rotary events
               
              To protect the health of all involved, Rotary canceled the presidential conferences scheduled for 28 March at UNESCO in Paris, France, and 9 May at the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, Italy. People who registered will receive an email from the organizers with additional information and details about refunds. 
               
              Club and district meetings
               
              Rotary International recommends that districts and Rotary and Rotaract clubs meet virtually, cancel, or postpone meetings. Learn from other clubs about hosting virtual club meetings in the Learning Center
              Closely examine your personal circumstances, including any health issues, when you consider travel and participation in events.
               
              Rotary leadership, committees, RI secretariat
               
              The RI Board of Directors and The Rotary Foundation Trustees meetings will take place remotely via webinar rather than in-person. 
              All Rotary committees and events scheduled to take place at Rotary International headquarters in Evanston, Illinois, USA, have been canceled through 31 May. If feasible, committees may choose to hold virtual meetings
              All RI staff travel, both international and domestic, has also been canceled through 31 May. RI staff at Evanston headquarters and all of Rotary’s global offices are practicing social distancing by working from home until least 30 April. 
               
              Rotary Youth Exchange
               
              Contact your partner districts to confirm specific precautions related to COVID-19 where students are being hosted. All districts, as well as students and their parents, should consult travel advisories and guidelines issued by their embassies or consular offices, international public health agencies like the World Health Organization, and local health authorities for the latest and most relevant information.
               
              Districts should strongly consider ending exchanges and returning students home if it is safe and possible to do so. 
               
              In some situations, returning a student home may present a greater risk. Determine how international travel conditions or requirements (medical screenings, preauthorization, etc.), strict quarantine measures, or the situation in a student’s host and home country may impact each student’s return depending on their specific circumstances. However, it is also important to consider how this rapidly changing situation may progress and present new challenges in the future, including the possibility that students may be prevented from returning home for an indefinite period of time.
               
              Districts must communicate regularly with parents or /legal guardians and consult with local embassies, consulates, and public health authorities to make informed decisions that prioritize safety, minimize risk, and consider the impact of each decision related to a student’s exchange. In any event, parents or legal guardians may choose to remove their child from the program at any time.
               
              Also, consider whether student trips or local activities planned for the future could expose participants to an increased risk or to challenges returning home and cancel or postpone all nonessential travel.
               
              Rotary Peace Fellowships and other programs
               
              For peace fellows: Countries listed as Level 3 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been added to Rotary’s travel ban list, and all nonessential travel to, from, or through those countries is restricted for Rotary staff and fellows. Use discretion if you plan to travel to or through Level 2 countries. Fellows currently in a country experiencing the spread of COVID-19 are advised to follow the recommendations of your host university and the country’s national health agencies. 
               
              For first-year fellows preparing for your applied field experience, we recommend you consider options in your study country and have an alternate plan in place in case travel is restricted further. Beyond health and safety concerns, we do not want fellows to be subject to quarantines or have challenges returning to the country where you study because of your field experience travel. You can contact your staff specialist with specific questions about how Rotary’s policy may affect your field experience planning.
               
              For Interact and Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA): Consider whether planned events, trips, or local activities could expose young people to an increased risk, and consider canceling or postponing nonessential travel or large gatherings. 
               
              Follow the guidance of schools for any closures or delayed start times that may affect school-based program participants. Discuss how they can stay engaged and safe until school resumes. Talk with parents or guardians about their child’s health and safety and what Rotary clubs and districts are doing to minimize the exposure and impact for participants in Rotary activities and events. 
               
              Participants in Rotary Friendship Exchanges, and Rotary Action Groups and their affiliated chapters should follow recommendations from the World Health Organization and the host region’s national, regional, or local health authorities when considering whether to cancel or postpone events, meetings, or activities.
              Districts organizing international programs such as Rotary Friendship Exchanges and New Generations Service Exchanges could expose participants to an increased risk. Organizers should follow the guidelines set by the World Health Organization and the national, regional, or local health authorities of participating districts when considering whether to cancel or postpone planned trips or activities.
               
              Rotary-funded travel
               
              Any Rotary-funded travel, including grant recipients, Rotary Youth Exchange participants, and Rotary Peace Fellows, have been canceled through 31 May. Direct additional questions about Rotary-funded travel to your appropriate program officer.
              Rotary Monitors the Coronavirus Impact 2020-04-15 08:00:00Z 0

              Alaska COVID-19 Health Mandate  15

              COVID-19 Health Mandates

              Issued By: Governor Mike Dunleavy

              Health mandates are orders issued by Governor Mike Dunleavy, Alaska Health and Social Services Commissioner Adam Crum, and Alaska Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink.


              Health mandates must be followed.

              Health Mandate 015: Services by Health Care Providers

              Issued: April 15, 2020

              By: Governor Mike Dunleavy
              Commissioner Adam Crum, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services
              Dr. Anne Zink, Chief Medical Officer, State of Alaska

              To slow the spread of COVID-19, the State of Alaska is issuing its fifteenth health mandate, based on its authority under the Public Health Disaster Emergency Declaration signed by Governor Mike Dunleavy on March 11, 2020.

              While health care is an essential service, there is also the risk of coronavirus spreading in health care facilities and to vulnerable populations. The suspension of non-essential procedures and health care have been beneficial in slowing the spread of the disease. The benefits of suspension must also be balanced with delayed health care and other health outcomes.

              Health Mandate 015 is being issued by Governor Mike Dunleavy and the State of Alaska. Mandate 015 will go into effect in phases, with Section II going into effect April 20, 2020 and Section IV going into effect May 4, 2020; however, the State of Alaska reserves the right to amend the Mandate at any time.

              This Mandate supersedes Mandate 005 and 006 and affects the health care providers directly addressed in Mandate 009.

              Health Mandate 015 – Services by Health Care Providers

              I. Applicability: This Mandate applies to the following heath care facilities and health care providers:

              a. Heath Care Facilities
              i. Hospitals, private, municipal, state, or federal, including tribal
              ii. Independent diagnostic testing facilities
              iii. Residential psychiatric treatment centers
              iv. Skilled and intermediate nursing facilities
              v. Kidney disease treatment, including free-standing facilities
              vi. Ambulatory surgery centers
              vii. Free-standing birth centers
              viii. Home health agencies
              ix. Hospice
              x. Rural health clinics defined under AS 47.32.900(21) and 7 AAC 12.450
              xi. A health care provider office (for reference see 7 AAC 07.001)

              b. Health Care Providers as Defined in Statute
              i. Acupuncturists
              ii. Ambulatory Surgery Centers
              iii. Assistant Behavior Analysts
              iv. Athletic Trainers
              v. Audiologists/Speech-Language Pathologists
              vi. Behavior Analysts
              vii. Certified Nurse Aides
              viii. Chiropractors
              ix. Dental Hygienists
              x. Dentists
              xi. Dieticians
              xii. Hospitals
              xiii. Hearing Aid Dealers
              xiv. Health Aides
              xv. Long-Term Care Facilities
              xvi. Marital and Family Therapists
              xvii. Massage Therapists
              xviii. Midwives
              xix. Mobile Intensive Care Paramedics
              xx. Naturopaths
              xxi. Nurses
              xxii. Nutritionists
              xxiii. Occupational Therapy Assistants
              xxiv. Opticians
              xxv. Optometrists
              xxvi. Pharmacists
              xxvii. Pharmacy Technicians
              xxviii. Physical Therapists
              xxix. Occupational Therapists
              xxx. Physician Assistants
              xxxi. Physicians/Osteopathic Physicians
              xxxii. Podiatrists
              xxxiii. Professional Counselors
              xxxiv. Psychologists
              xxxv. Psychological Associates
              xxxvi. Religious Healing Practitioners
              xxxvii. Social Workers
              xxxviii. Veterinarians
              xxxix. Students training for a licensed profession who are required to receive training in a health care facility as a condition of licensure

              II. Health Care Delivery
              Section II goes into effect April 20, 2020

              a. Health care facilities and providers defined in statute and listed in Section I, will be able to resume services that require minimal protective equipment and follow the guidance below.
              i. Every effort should continue to be made to deliver care without being in the same physical space, such as utilizing telehealth, phone consultation, and physical barriers between providers and patients.
              ii. All health care, delivered both in and out of health care facilities, (this includes hospitals, surgical centers, long-term care facilities, clinic and office care, as well as home care) shall deploy universal masking procedures in coordination with the facility infection control program. This may be a combination of cloth face coverings (for employees not present for provision of services or procedures, such as front desk staff) and surgical masks for those involved in non-aerosolizing direct-patient care.
              iii. Regardless of symptoms, all health care facilities should screen all patients for recent illness, travel, fever, or recent exposure to COVID-19, and to the extent that is possible, begin testing all admitted patients.
              iv. Every effort shall be made to minimize aerosolizing procedure (such as a nerve block over deep sedation or intubation).
              v. Other urgent or emergent procedures with an increased risk of exposure, such as deliveries, dental work, aerosolizing procedures such as suctioning, intubation, and breathing treatments, should have patients tested for SARS CoV-2 prior to the procedure or birth, to the extent that is reasonably possible, after considering available testing capacity and any other relevant constraints. In the alternative, clinicians should use rigorous screening procedures and treat suspicious patients as if they are positive for COVID-19.
              vi. It is the duty of the provider to ensure the health considerations of staff and patients. This includes the health of the provider, ensuring providers not come to work while ill, minimizing travel of providers, and adequate personal protective equipment. They are also encouraged to utilize the following means of protection:
              1. Pre-visit telephonic screening and questionnaire.
              2. Entry screening.
              3. Lobbies and waiting rooms with defined and marked social distancing and limited occupancy.
              4. Other personal and environmental mitigation efforts such as gloves, exceptional hand hygiene, environmental cleaning, and enhanced airflow.

              III. Urgent and Emergent Services

              a. Health care services that are urgent or emergent should continue, but with the enhanced screening and safety measures listed in Section II.
              i. In addition to emergent surgeries and procedures that cannot be delayed without significant risk to life, surgeries and procedures are permitted to proceed if delay is deemed to cause significant impact on health, livelihood, or quality of life. Each facility should review these procedures with its task force that was created in the April 7, 2020 revision to COVID-19 Health Mandate 005. Surgeries and procedures that can be delayed without posing a significant risk to health, livelihood, or quality of life must be postponed until further notice.
              ii. All patients coming to surgery should be tested for SARS CoV-2 within 48 hours of their procedure. If positive, all procedures should be considered for delay, and specifically those procedures not urgent or emergent, as defined by the American College of Surgeons (ACS), should be postponed or canceled. If a facility is unable to test patients within 48 hours of their procedure, facilities should use rigorous screening procedures and treat suspicious patients as if they are positive for COVID-19.

              IV. Provision for Resuming Non-Urgent/Non-Emergent Elective Services

              a. Health care services that cannot be delayed beyond eight weeks without posing a significant risk to quality of life may resume Monday May 4, 2020 if the following conditions are met:
              i. Health care delivery can meet all of the standards outlined in Section II of this mandate.
              ii. Health care is delivered by a provider listed in statute (see Section I).
              iii. Health care can be safely done with a surgical mask, eye protection and gloves.
              iv. If the procedure puts the health care worker at increased risk such as deliveries, dental work, or aerosolizing procedures such as suctioning, intubation, or breathing treatments then a negative PCR for Sars-CoV-2 must be obtained within 48 hours prior to the procedure.
              v. There are to be no visitors in health care facilities except for: end-of-life visits; a parent of a minor; a support person for labor and delivery settings; and only one (1) spouse or caregiver that resides with the patient will be allowed into the facility during the day of a surgery or procedure and at the time of patient discharge to allow for minimal additional exposure. If a caregiver does not reside with the patient, they can be with the patient at the time of discharge. Any of the allowed visitors must wear a fabric face covering.
              vi. Workers must maintain social distancing of at least six feet from non-patients and must minimize contact with the patient.
              vii. Exceptional environmental mitigation strategies must be maintained, including the protection of lobbies and front desk staff.
              viii. Unlicensed assistive personnel necessary to procedures under this section may be included in service delivery.

              V. Other Considerations
              a. Patients traveling for medical procedures and health care services is allowed under Health Mandate 012 to travel within Alaska as a critical personal need.
              b. Patients whose communities have established quarantines for return from intra-state travel as outlined in Attachment B – Alaska Small Community Emergency Travel Order, should have a plan in place, developed with their local community, for return home after their procedures.
              c. Transportation may be arranged on behalf of individuals who must travel to receive medical care and must be able to return home following the medical treatment or must arrange for their own accommodations if they are unable to return home.
              d. Every effort should be made to minimize physical interaction and encourage alternative means such as telehealth and videoconferencing. For many licensed health care professionals, this will mean continued delays in care or postponing care.
              e. Every effort should be made in the outpatient and ambulatory care setting to reduce the risk of COVID-19 and follow the following guidelines:
              • https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/ambulatory-care-settings.html
              f. Dental work carries an added risk of spreading COVID-19, especially to the dentist who can spread it to others and so dental guidance should be followed and are listed here:
              • https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/dental-settings.html
              g. Dialysis centers provide life-saving work, but it is also a place where high-risk individuals congregate. They need to follow the following guidelines:
              • https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/dialysis.html

              *** State of Alaska reserves the right to change this mandate at any time ***

              THIS MANDATE SUPERSEDES ANY AND ALL LOCAL GOVERNMENT MANDATES OR ORDERS PUT INTO EFFECT BY BOROUGHS, MUNICIPALITIES, CITIES, VILLAGES, AND TRIBES.

              For the latest information on COVID-19, visit covid19.alaska.gov

              State of Alaska COVID-19 Mandate 015

              Alaska COVID-19 Health Mandate  15 2020-04-15 08:00:00Z 0

              Several Articles on Protecting Yourself and Others From Covid-19

               

              How To See How Germs Can Spread (Coronavirus)


              Yes, You Can Spread Coronavirus Even If You Don’t Have Symptoms
              Tara C. Smith, Ph.D.
              6 days agoMiddle-aged Asian man looking through a window, sipping coffee and using ideas
              © Getty Middle-aged Asian man looking through a window, sipping coffee and using ideas
               
              There’s one question about the new coronavirus that keeps coming up over and over again: Why should I have to stay at home, avoid seeing my friends, and not let my kids play with other kids if we’re all fine and healthy? None of us have symptoms, none of us have been exposed, none of us are high-risk. We don’t even have many cases in our area. Why do we still have to isolate ourselves as much as possible?
               
              The short answer: Because we know that the new coronavirus can spread before people have symptoms. And we know that not everyone is getting tested. So, it’s entirely possible that while everyone in your immediate circle seems fine and safe, there’s (at least) one person who is unknowingly spreading the virus without any symptoms at all. It’s also possible that this is happening outside your immediate circle, but somewhere else in your town, leading to a swath of cases that no one will see coming until some people do start to have symptoms, end up in the hospital, and start getting tested.
               
              This is why we all need to be social distancing—even when it seems like it shouldn’t apply to you.
               
               
              But what we’re still figuring out is when exactly the new coronavirus is contagious in people without symptoms, when you can expect to see symptoms after being exposed, and whether or not the people who never get symptoms can still actively spread the disease around.
               
              To sort through what we know about these questions, I reached out to virologist Chad Petit, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Caroline Colijn, Ph.D., an infectious disease modeler at Simon Fraser University in Canada.
               
              This is how a virus spreads.
               
              First, let’s discuss what we mean when we say “viral transmission,” which refers to the process by which viruses spread from host to host. “Typically, this is person to person but can also include viruses jumping from one species to another,” Petit tells SELF. (It’s thought that the new coronavirus entered the human population through this mechanism, probably from a bat but potentially via another animal species.)
               
              The new coronavirus mostly seems to be spreading via “droplet transmission.” This happens when someone close to you (within about six feet) is coughing, sneezing, talking, or even just breathing and releases droplets containing the virus, which can then land on your nose and mouth and enter your system. These droplets can also land on surfaces, like countertops and doorknobs, which you might then touch. If you touch your face afterward, especially your eyes, mouth, or nose, the virus can get into your body.
               
              Once the virus is in your body, it can attach to and enter your cells. While inside a host cell, “the virus shuts down the cell’s defense mechanisms and commandeers your cell’s resources to make more viruses, essentially turning your own cell into a virus-producing factory,” each of which can release more viruses to start the process all over again on other cells, Petit says.
               
              UP NEXT
               
              Click on Picture to Run Video
               
              This kicks off the incubation period, which is the timeframe when your body is producing more of the virus but you’re not yet showing symptoms like a fever, aches, coughing, and shortness of breath. “During this time, there may not be any clinical symptoms to alert the person that they are, in fact, infected,” Petit explains, but you could still be infecting other people. This is called “presymptomatic transmission,” and it’s the reason why you can’t just say, “Well, I’m not sick, and no one I’m spending time with is sick, and none of us have been exposed to anyone showing symptoms—so aren’t we in the clear?” Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work like that.
              Research does back up the idea that people are likely spreading the new coronavirus before they have symptoms. A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) rporte found that 331 of 712 people on the Diamond Princess cruise ship who tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 didn’t have any symptoms when they tested positive. That amounted to 46.5 percent of those with positive tests—so, almost half. They could have had the potential to spread the virus at that time, but we aren’t sure how much that actually happened. Another CDC article described how the new coronavirus spread from one teacher to two others during a dinner meeting on January 6. The first person in this trio to develop symptoms started feeling ill two days after the dinner, and the others—who aren’t known to have had any other potential COVID-19 exposures—developed symptoms four and six days after the dinner, respectively. They all appeared to be in fine health at the dinner, but it seems that one teacher still spread the new coronavirus to the others, who then reportedly spread it to some of their family members.
               
              We still don’t know exactly when in the incubation period someone starts being contagious.
               
              To determine the incubation period, we test sick individuals, figure out who they were in contact with and who might have been exposed to the virus, and then follow those exposed contacts over time to see if they get sick. If we know when those individuals were exposed and when they came down with the illness, then we can figure out the incubation period. “Currently, the incubation period typically lasts for 2 to 7 days ([with an] estimated median incubation period of 5.1 days), with 98 percent of those infected developing symptoms within 11.5 days,” Petit explains, adding that these numbers might shift when we have more information from new cases. A small percentage of people seem not to show symptoms until closer to 14 days.
               
              But that still doesn’t tell us exactly when during the incubation period a person can spread the virus. It can’t be right at the beginning, because the virus hasn’t started to grow inside a person’s system at that point. Colijn is currently working on a project to figure this out.
               
              “We can compare two things: (a) the incubation period,” she tells SELF, “and (b) the serial interval, the time between one person getting symptoms and someone they infected getting symptoms.” Colijn and her fellow researchers have described their findings in this study, which hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed but still offers interesting insights into this question. When analyzing information from Singapore and Tianjin, China, they found that the serial interval was shorter than the incubation period, meaning people seem able to spread the new coronavirus before they feel sick. Specifically, the study suggests that people may be able to transmit the virus to others at least three days before their own symptoms develop.
               
              And what about people who test positive but never seem to develop symptoms?
               
              The CDC study of cruise ship COVID-19 transmission determined that almost 18 percent of people on the Diamond Princess who had the new coronavirus never showed symptoms at all, then recovered. They apparently remained asymptomatic.
               
              “Data on those who are completely asymptomatic is a major gap right now,” Colijn says. She explains that we can start to fill this gap when we can do large-scale serological tests to measure COVID-19 antibodies in people’s blood. This will tell us who was exposed to the virus at some point in the past but may never have known they were infected because they never felt ill. But until we have those widespread testing capabilities, we won’t have the full picture of who exactly is spreading the virus and when.
               
              If people can spread the virus before they have symptoms, controlling the spread requires drastic measures.
               
              For now, we’re still left with questions about how and when asymptomatic and presymptomatic COVID-19 spread is occurring. But we do know this: An outbreak is more difficult to control if we can spread the disease even when we don’t have symptoms. Yes, as Petit notes, it can seem completely counterintuitive that you could have COVID-19 but feel fine. But when people try to go about their daily lives as much as possible right now, it’s enhancing the spread of the virus, Petit explains. There’s really no way around that. This means that we can’t just take precautions if we’re feeling sick or think we’ve been exposed to someone who is sick.  
               
              This is why social distancing is critical right now (along with other important practices like washing your hands well and often). It’s why we’re telling you not to meet up with your friends, or go out to the bar that’s still open in your town, or schedule a playdate for your kids, or otherwise carry on as you normally would. We can’t just assume that we would know if someone was transmitting the virus. Because, at this point, we don’t.
               
              Even if you think your risk of getting sick is low, don’t let that perception make you feel like the rules don’t apply to you. You have no way of knowing if anyone you come into contact with has the virus or was recently exposed to someone who does, regardless of symptoms. And if you think you’re not at risk because you’re young and healthy, you should know that experts are starting to realize even younger people with no underlying health conditions can become extremely sick and, tragically, even die from COVID-19.
               
              “We will be unlikely to control this by only isolating ill people,” Colijn says. “[There’s] need for broader measures—keeping away from each other—even if we don't know that we are sick.” She also cautions patience and notes that we won’t see the effects of social distancing immediately. “Cases that are confirmed today were infected some time ago, and we have only just started seriously physically distancing ourselves,” she says. “So take heart,” she adds. “We hope to see the results soon.”
              Several Articles on Protecting Yourself and Others From Covid-19 2020-04-08 08:00:00Z 0

              6 Mild Symptoms of Coronavirus You Shouldn’t Ignore, According to Doctors

              Korin Miller
              4 days ago
               
              The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has made the symptoms of COVID-19 crystal clear: fever, cough, and shortness of breath. But as more and more people develop the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus, experts are seeing a wide range of symptoms in patients—and they tend to overlap with the common cold, flu, and even allergies.
              a person lying on a bed: The signs of COVID-19 can go beyond a fever, cough, and shortness of breath. Here, doctors explain the mild symptoms of novel coronavirus you shouldn’t ignore.© Westend61 - Getty Images The signs of COVID-19 can go beyond a fever, cough, and shortness of breath. Here, doctors explain the mild symptoms of novel coronavirus you shouldn’t ignore.
               
              The CDC maintains those big three are the symptoms of novel coronavirus, but the World Health Organization (WHO) has a more extensive list that includes 14 different symptoms detected in people with mild cases of COVID-19. That’s a big deal, since “most people infected with the COVID-19 virus have mild disease and recover,” per a February report of a joint World Health Organization-China mission. In fact, that report found that 80% of confirmed patients had mild to moderate disease.
               
              So, which coronavirus symptoms should you be paying closer attention to—and what should you do if you think you may be infected? Here’s what doctors want you to know.
               
              Back up: Why does the CDC only list three novel coronavirus symptoms?
               
              “It’s because these are the most common symptoms in the U.S.,” says Richard Watkins, M.D., infectious disease physician and professor of internal medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University.
              • Fever: This is by far the most common sign of COVID-19, and is defined by having a temperature of 100.4° F or higher.
              • Cough: Experts say patients typically develop a dry cough, meaning you’re coughing but nothing is coming up, like phlegm or mucus.
              • Shortness of breath: This symptom often presents in more advanced cases and can range in severity. Some people simply feel winded by otherwise normal activities, while others end up having trouble breathing on their own. “It feels like you’re not getting enough air,” says David Cutler, M.D., a family medicine physician at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif.
              That said, several studies have shown a solid number of people infected with COVID-19 have no symptoms. “We are likely missing many cases here in the U.S.,” Dr. Watkins says.
               
              What are the mild symptoms of novel coronavirus?
               
              In the WHO report, the organization analyzes nearly 56,000 cases of COVID-19 in China and breaks down a wide range of “typical” symptoms, as well as how often people with the virus experienced them:
              • Fever (87.9%)
              • Dry cough (67.7%)
              • Fatigue (38.1%)
              • Sputum production (33.4%)
              • Shortness of breath (18.6%)
              • Sore throat (13.9%)
              • Headache (13.6%)
              • Muscle aches and pains (14.8%)
              • Chills (11.4%)
              • Nausea or vomiting (5.0%)
              • Nasal congestion (4.8%)
              • Diarrhea (3.7%)
              • Coughing up blood (0.9%)
              • Red eyes (0.8%)
              A lost sense of smell wasn’t on the WHO’s list, but several organizations—including the British Rhinological Society, British Association of Otorhinolaryngology, and American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS), say it’s a possible symptom, too.
               
              Below, what you need to know about the mild symptoms that didn’t make the CDC’s list:
               
              1. Lost sense of smell
              This “has been seen in patients ultimately testing positive for the coronavirus with no other symptoms,” the AAO-HNS said in a statement. “It could potentially be used as a screening tool to help identify otherwise asymptomatic patients, who could then be better instructed on self-isolation.” According to a joint statement from the British Rhinological Society and British Association of Otorhinolaryngology, two out of every three people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Germany had a lost sense of smell, and 30% of patients in South Korea who tested positive experienced the same thing.
               
              “Viruses are a common cause of changes to the sense of smell or taste that can occur with an upper respiratory infection,” says Rachel Kaye, M.D., assistant professor of laryngology-voice, airway, and swallowing disorders at Rutgers University. “Viral infection can result in both inflammation and swelling of the nasal cavity lining, leading to nasal congestion, which in turn causes a change in smell. Furthermore, there is also some evidence that viral infection can lead to neurologic damage in the smell receptors.”
               
              2. Fatigue
              It’s not shocking that a viral infection would cause people to feel completely wiped out, says Susan Besser, M.D., a primary care physician at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore. “Your body is working hard to fight the virus, and that requires a lot of energy,” she says. “It doesn’t leave much energy left over for you.”
               
              3. Sputum production
              Sputum production, a.k.a. excess mucus that you may cough up, isn’t super common with COVID-19, but it’s common enough that more than a third of patients have experienced it. Dr. Cutler points out that sputum production is common with plenty of other respiratory conditions, like the common cold and allergies, so you shouldn’t rush to assume you have coronavirus if you’re experiencing this.
               
              4. Sore throat
              Because COVID-19 is a respiratory virus, you may have postnasal drip (where excess mucus drips down the back of your nose and throat) and that can cause irritation in your throat, Dr. Besser says. Also, constantly coughing can be tough on your throat in general.
               
              5. Aches, pains, and headaches
              These are common symptoms with viruses, Dr. Cutler says. “When you get a viral infection, often you get a fever and that fever response can cause the body to feel achy all over,” he explains. “We see that with the flu and other infections as well.”
               
              6. Diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting
              There’s no clear reason to explain why this is happening in some people, Dr. Besser says, but she has some theories. “It’s possibly due to increased drainage from postnasal drip into the stomach—that can cause issues,” she says. It could also just be the way the virus itself behaves in some people, she says.
               
              New research in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found that a “unique sub-group” of COVID-19 patients develop digestive symptoms. “In some cases, the digestive symptoms, particularly diarrhea, can be the initial presentation of COVID-19, and may only later or never present with respiratory symptoms or fever,” the researchers wrote.
               
              They believe these symptoms may occur because the virus enters your system through “a receptor found in both the upper and lower gastrointestinal tract where it is expressed at nearly 100-fold higher levels than in respiratory organs.”
               
              What should you do if you think you have novel coronavirus symptoms?
              If you’re experiencing multiple symptoms of COVID-19, get your doctor on the phone. You should not go to the hospital, because you could potentially spread the virus if you do have it or pick it up if you actually don’t. Once you discuss your symptoms, your doctor will be able to determine if you qualify for a COVID-19 test and go from there.
               
              However, there is no specific cure for novel coronavirus and most people are being advised to treat mild symptoms with over-the-counter remedies while isolating at home for at least 14 days, Dr. Watkins says. “Many people have symptoms for two weeks—some longer and others a shorter duration,” he adds.
               
              For a fever, aches, and pains, have acetaminophen (Tylenol) on hand and follow the label’s dosage instructions. Turn to cough medicine or tea with honey to relieve your cough or sore throat. Plenty of rest and fluids are also recommended. If you notice your symptoms getting worse, though, call your doctor again about next steps. And if the following occur, the CDC says it’s your cue to head to the hospital: 
              • Trouble breathing
              • Persistent pain or pressure in the chest
              • New confusion or inability to arouse
              • Bluish lips or face
              • Other severe or concerning symptoms (like a fever that won’t die down)
              When can you leave your home after experiencing novel coronavirus symptoms?
               
              The CDC has guidelines that depend on whether you have access to a COVID-19 test.
               
              If you will not have a test, the CDC says you can leave home after these three things happen:
              • You don’t have a fever for at least 72 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication.
              • Your symptoms have improved.
              • At least seven days have passed since you first had symptoms.
              If you will have a test, you can leave home after the following:
              • You no longer have a fever without the use of fever-reducing medication.
              • Your symptoms have improved.
              • You received two negative tests in a row, 24 hours apart.
              When in doubt, call your doctor to be on the safe side.
               
              From PREVENTION
               
               
               
              6 Mild Symptoms of Coronavirus You Shouldn’t Ignore, According to Doctors 2020-04-06 08:00:00Z 0

              THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS:  Should We All Be Wearing Masks In Public?

              Health Experts Revisit The Question
              CARMEL WROTH
              Even without symptoms, you might have the virus and be able to spread it when out in public, say researchers who now are reconsidering the use of surgical masks.
              Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images
               
              Updated March 31, 8:25 p.m. ET
               
              A few months ago, it may have seemed silly to wear a face mask during a trip to the grocery store. And in fact, the mainline public health message in the U.S. from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been that most people don't need to wear masks.
               
              But as cases of the coronavirus have skyrocketed, there's new thinking about the benefits that masks could offer in slowing the spread. The CDC says it is now reviewing its policy and may be considering a recommendation to encourage broader use.
               
              At the moment, the CDC website says the only people who need to wear a face mask are those who are sick or are caring for someone who is sick and unable to wear a mask.
               
              But in an interview with NPR on Monday, CDC Director Robert Redfield said that the agency is taking another look at the data around mask use by the general public.
               
              "I can tell you that the data and this issue of whether it's going to contribute [to prevention] is being aggressively reviewed as we speak," Redfield told NPR.
               
              And Tuesday, President Trump weighed in suggesting people may want to wear scarves. "I would say do it," he said, noting that masks are needed for health care works. "You can use scarves, you can use something else," he said.
               
              On Tuesday Dr. Deborah Birx, who serves as the White House's coronavirus response coordinator, said the task force is still discussing whether to change to the recommendation on masks.
               
              Other prominent public health experts have been raising this issue in recent days. Wearing a mask is "an additional layer of protection for those who have to go out," former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told NPR in an interview. It's a step you can take — on top of washing your hands and avoiding gatherings.
               
              In a paper outlining a road map to reopen the country, Gottlieb argues that the public should be encouraged to wear masks during this current period of social distancing, for the common good.
               
              "Face masks will be most effective at slowing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 if they are widely used, because they may help prevent people who are asymptomatically infected from transmitting the disease unknowingly," Gottlieb wrote. Gottlieb points to South Korea and Hong Kong — two places that were shown to manage their outbreaks successfully and where face masks are used widely.
               
              A prominent public health leader in China also argues for widespread use of masks in public. The director general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, George Gao, told Science that the U.S. and Europe are making a "big mistake" with people not wearing masks during this pandemic. Specifically, he said, mask use helps tamp down the risk presented by people who may be infected but aren't yet showing symptoms.
               
              If those people wear masks, "it can prevent droplets that carry the virus from escaping and infecting others," Gao told Science.
               
              The argument for broadening the use of face masks is based on what scientists have learned about asymptomatic spread during this pandemic.
               
              It turns out that many people who are infected with the virus have no symptoms — or only mild symptoms.
               
              What this means is that there's no good way to know who's infected. If you're trying to be responsible when you go out in public, you may not even know that you're sick and may be inadvertently shedding the virus every time you talk with someone, such as a grocery store clerk.
               
              "If these asymptomatic people could wear face masks, then it could be helpful to reduce the transmission in the community," says Elaine Shuo Feng, an infectious disease epidemiology researcher at the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford.
               
              Given the reality of asymptomatic spread, masks may be a good socially responsible insurance policy, Gottlieb argues. "[Wearing masks] protects other people from getting sick from you," he says.
               
              But there is still a big concern about mask shortages in the United States. A survey released Friday from the U.S. Conference of Mayors finds that about 92% of 213 cities did not have an adequate supply of face masks for first responders and medical personnel.
               
              At this point, experts emphasize that the general public needs to leave the supply of N95 medical masks to health care workers who are at risk every day when they go to work.
               
              And supplies are also tight for surgical masks, the masks used everywhere from dentists' offices to nail salons and that are even handcrafted.
               
              "We need to be very mindful that the supply chain for masks is extremely limited right now," Gottlieb says. "So you really don't want to pull any kind of medical masks out of the system."
               
              Given current shortages, it may be too soon to tell the general public to start wearing surgical masks right now. "We certainly don't have enough masks in health care," says William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University. "I wouldn't want people to go out and buy them now, because we don't want to siphon them off from health care."
               
              Where does that leave us? Some research has shown that cotton T-shirt material and tea towels might help block respiratory droplets emitting from sick people, even if the effect is minimal.
               
              "Homemade masks, shawls, scarves and anything that you can conjure up at home might well be a good idea," says Schaffner. "It's not clear that it's going to give a lot of protection, but every little bit of protection would help."
               
              But experts say homemade masks may not be effective if not constructed and handled properly.
               
              That's why Gottlieb says the CDC should issue guidelines advising people on how to construct their own cotton masks. "Cotton masks constructed in a proper way should provide a reasonable degree of protection from people being able to transmit the virus," he told NPR.
               
              There's no definitive evidence from published research that wearing masks in public will protect the person wearing the mask from contracting diseases. In fact, randomized controlled trials — considered the gold standard for testing the effectiveness of an intervention — are limited, and the results from those trials were inconclusive, says Feng.
               
              But Feng points out that randomized clinical trials have not shown significant effects for hand hygiene either. "But for mechanistic reasons, we believe hygiene can be a good way to kill pathogens, and WHO still recommends hand hygiene," she says.
               
              And those randomized studies were looking at how the face mask could protect the wearer, but what experts are arguing is that face masks may prevent infected but asymptomatic people from transmitting the virus to others. It's hard to come by data on this point. One meta-analysis reviewing mask use during the SARS epidemic found that wearing masks — in addition to other efforts to block transmission, including hand-washing — was beneficial. Another meta-analysis of mask use to prevent influenza transmission was not conclusive but showed masks possibly help.
               
              The research may not be conclusive, but researchers we interviewed agreed that mask use is better than nothing. "There are some modest data that it will provide some modest protection," Schaffner says. "And we can use all the protection we can get."
               
              Concern over presymptomatic spread in the community has also led some hospitals to change their policies and extend the use of masks to nonclinical employees and visitors. Last week, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston took the unusual step of giving surgical or procedural face masks to all employees who go into the hospital to work, even if they don't provide care to patients, the hospital's Infection Control Unit associate chief, Erica Shenoy, told NPR.
               
              "This runs very contrary to what we normally do in infection control," she says. "But we felt that with the unprecedented nature of the pandemic, this is the right decision at this time." She says if an employee were to get sick while at work, "the face masks would serve to contain the virus particles and reduce the risk of patients and others working at our facilities."
               
              On March 29, the University of California, San Francisco, also started giving surgical masks to all staff, faculty, trainees and visitors before they enter any clinical care building within the UCSF system.
               
              Feng cautions that if people do start wearing face masks regularly in public, it is important to wear them properly. She notes that the World Health Organization has a video on how to practice correct hygiene when putting on or taking off a mask.
               
              Saskia Popescu, an infectious disease researcher and biodefense consultant, is skeptical that healthy members of the public need to start wearing masks regularly — she says people should follow current CDC guidelines. But she emphasizes that if you are going to wear a mask, "you have to wear it appropriately." That means, she says, "you have to discard it when it gets damp or moist. You want to stop touching the front of it. Don't reach under to scratch your nose or mouth."
               
              Otherwise, she warns, wearing masks could give "a false sense of security."
              THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS:  Should We All Be Wearing Masks In Public? 2020-04-01 08:00:00Z 0

              MYTHBUSTERS ‘CONTAMINATION’ EXPERIMENT PROVES WHY SOCIAL DISTANCING IS SO DAMN IMPORTANT
               


              Embrace your inner germaphobe…

              Twitter Facebook Flipboard Email 

               
              •                                                         
              •                                                       Wednesday 25th March, 2020

              We all know how fast the germs can spread. When we’re in the supermarket we give other shoppers a wide berth. When we’re on a plane or train we remind ourselves not to touch our face. When walking down the street we hold our breath as a jogger passes. After paying for takeaway we sanitize our hands.

              Then we go for dinner at our parents’ house, or friends’ and let our guard down. While this kind of gathering should now be curtailed (with the new recommendations in place), as little as two weeks ago Australians were still having large scale weddings. Even now, weddings are still allowed (though there are new, significant restrictions on their size).

              In this atmosphere, we let our guard down. But as the following Mythbusters video shows, these kind of scenarios are one of the worst when it comes to contamination. And before The Glib retort: “If you’re living with your friends or family (or spending time with them) you’re screwed anyway,” – we’d highly encourage you to watch the video.

              In the video, Adam has a drip attached to his nose, set to leak at the same rate as a usual runny nose. The liquid leaked is invisible to the naked eye, but detectable to UV light. His mission? Infect as many of the unwary guests as possible, without doing anything people don’t usually do at a dinner party. The result: overwhelming success.

              Though it appears today’s virus spreads even faster than the fake version of a cold this Mythbusters video tested, it proves two crucial points. Firstly: being a germaphobe pays off. And secondly: social distancing is crucial if you want to reduce your infection risk.

              Both points appear to be resonating with people. Even though the video was published in 2015, people are watching it today.

              In fact, the top comment is: “Who else is watching this to find out/learn how easy this could spread?”

              “Looks like germaphobes will have a higher survival rate….be like the germaphobes.”

              “This probably is great timing,” wrote another. “Practice social distancing right now during this time.”

              MYTHBUSTERS ‘CONTAMINATION’ EXPERIMENT PROVES WHY SOCIAL DISTANCING IS SO DAMN IMPORTANT  2020-03-31 08:00:00Z 0
              Alaska Covid-19 Mandates #11 and #12 2020-03-27 08:00:00Z 0
              Alaska Covid-19 Mandates #9 and #10 2020-03-25 08:00:00Z 0

              Why to Use a Face Mask, and How to Make One

               
              The China Red Cross delegation to Italy was appalled that social isolation was so weak, because it was obvious that everyone was not required to use a face mask.  Doctors say that masks are needed for sick people to prevent droplet spread when talking, clearing a throat, or respiratory action. We now know that there are many non-symptomatic infected people spreading the virus, who have no knowledge that they are infected.  The only way to have almost 100% of droplet spread stopped is to have 100% of all people using masks when in public. That also gets rid of any 'you’re sick' stigma. Droplet spread from less than 6 feet is the most prevalent form of transmission, followed by droplet contamination of surfaces. These transmission methods both can be greatly reduced with community use of masks, including homemade cloth masks. Community use of sewn cloth masks also reserves medical grade masks for the health care system.
               
              The news videos of each country that has 'controlled' the Coronavirus pandemic show 100% mask usage when people are outdoors or in public.  In a time of mask shortage, we are trying to give you a way to get a useable mask.  These are not normally as good as an N95 mask, and are NOT recommended for those who are actually known to have the coronavirus, but are FAR better than nothing.  This has been proven, and is recommended by the CDC.
               
              In order to make it more likely that people can get a useable and useful mask, we are including some patterns for you on the < homerrotary.org > website.  Some are very easy to make, and most will work well for everyone. The biggest thing is to get a good seal, so that you are actually breathing THROUGH the cloth.  Using 1/8” elastic seems to be the most comfortable to use for holding the masks in place, but make them so that people will actually use them.  If useable elastic is not available, ribbons that will tie around your head will work.  Please remember, the masks are for preventing the spread of disease, not to stigmatize anyone.  If we are all wearing masks, we are all less likely to get a disease.
               
              People can get many patterns to sew their own or for their community. Many use double layers of cloth, but they may be so thick they do not pass air well. If you, or your child, cannot breathe through the mask, find something easier to breathe through. A single layer of flannel passes air but absorbs or stops passage of droplets created when talking, coughing, or sneezing. Remember, CDC says washing with soap and water will kill the virus, so these are reusable for the non-medical community after soap and water washing. An individual may need two or three for a day, but all can be washed, dried, and be ready for reuse overnight. People should save the used masks for washing in a plastic bag, and to treat them as contaminated until washing.  Of course, wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds after handling droplet laden used masks. 100% cotton cloth (no synthetic or synthetic blends) works best.
               
               We have lots of people sitting at home across the area wanting to know how to help. This could be a great local Rotary project, similar to the prevention project of Polio Plus.
               
              Paul
              Why to Use a Face Mask, and How to Make One 2020-03-25 08:00:00Z 0

              How to Make a Simple Particle Mask.

              This is a homemade particle mask as made by Tina Seaton.  It is pretty simple, and works very well.  The "pipe cleaner" used as a stiffener is something that makes this mask work very well by allowing you to form the mask around the nose.  Apparently the large diameter pipe cleaners cut in half work out very well. Dimensions can be adjusted to better fit smaller or larger people. there are many other designs available on the internet.
               
              Several studies have been done on the best cloth to use.  Tea towels or dish towels appear to provide the best filtration, with two layers providing up to 97% filtration, but being almost impossible to breathe through.  The flannel here works very well, and is normally fairly comfortable. Normally, new cloth is washed prior to making the masks. then washed again afterwards. Using soap and as hot water as is available works the best.  This decreases the likelihood of contamination, also.
               
              Large Size7"x 11"
               
              Fold Over and Sew End Seams
               
               
              Half a Pipe Cleaner Sewn Into Upper Seam.  1/8" Elastic, 7" Long On Each End.
               
              Fold Up and Sew Bottom, Catching Elasticat Corners.  Reinforce Stich on Elastic
               
              Three Tucks On Each End (Folded the Same Way).  Sew on Each End.

              A View of One End of the Mask Illustrating the Folds
               
              And Here Is Paul Modeling the Mask.
              How to Make a Simple Particle Mask. 2020-03-24 08:00:00Z 0

              How Soap Kills the Coronavirus

              We are being told constantly that we need to wash with soap and water.  Our hands, our faces, etc., Here are two short videos that tell us how and why this works to help protect us from the Coronavirus.
               
               
               
               
               
              Here is a short video that tells why and how "social distancing" works to make it more likely for us to survive Coronavirus.  You need to watch it all the way to the end to get the entire picture.  This is something that has been tried and actually works!
               
               
               
               
              How Soap Kills the Coronavirus 2020-03-23 08:00:00Z 0
              Alaska COVID-19 Health Mandate #4 2020-03-18 08:00:00Z 0
              Alaska COVID-19 Health Mandate #3 2020-03-18 08:00:00Z 0
              Social Distancing: what does it mean? 2020-03-16 08:00:00Z 0

              If You Are at Higher Risk Get Ready for COVID 19 Now

               
              If You Are at Higher Risk
               
              Who is at higher risk?
              Early information out of China, where COVID-19 first started, shows that some people are at higher risk of getting very sick from this illness. This includes:
              • Older adults
                • 60 or older
              • People who have serious chronic medical conditions like:
                • Heart disease
                • Diabetes
                • Lung disease
              Get ready for COVID-19 now
               
              Take actions to reduce your risk of getting sick
              Group of senior citizens
              If you are at higher risk for serious illness from COVID-19 because of your age or because you have a serious long-term health problem, it is extra important for you to take actions to reduce your risk of getting sick with the disease.
              • Stock up on supplies.
              • Take everyday precautions to keep space between yourself and others.
              • When you go out in public, keep away from others who are sick, limit close contact and wash your hands often.
              • Avoid crowds as much as possible.
              • Avoid cruise travel and non-essential air travel.
              • During a COVID-19 outbreak in your community, stay home as much as possible to further reduce your risk of being exposed.
              Have supplies on hand
              Prescription medicines and groceries
              • Contact your healthcare provider to ask about obtaining extra necessary medications to have on hand in case there is an outbreak of COVID-19 in your community and you need to stay home for a prolonged period of time.
              • If you cannot get extra medications, consider using mail-order for medications.
              • Be sure you have over-the-counter medicines and medical supplies (tissues, etc.) to treat fever and other symptoms. Most people will be able to recover from COVID-19 at home.
              • Have enough household items and groceries on hand so that you will be prepared to stay at home for a period of time.
               
              Take everyday precautions
              washing hands
              Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
              Take everyday preventive actions:
              • Clean your hands often
              • Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing, or having been in a public place.
              • If soap and water are not available, use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.
              • To the extent possible, avoid touching high-touch surfaces in public places – elevator buttons, door handles, handrails, handshaking with people, etc. Use a tissue or your sleeve to cover your hand or finger if you must touch something.
              • Wash your hands after touching surfaces in public places.
              • Avoid touching your face, nose, eyes, etc.
              • Clean and disinfect your home to remove germs: practice routine cleaning of frequently touched surfaces (for example: tables, doorknobs, light switches, handles, desks, toilets, faucets, sinks & cell phones)
              • Avoid crowds, especially in poorly ventilated spaces. Your risk of exposure to respiratory viruses like COVID-19 may increase in crowded, closed-in settings with little air circulation if there are people in the crowd who are sick.
              • Avoid all non-essential travel including plane trips, and especially avoid embarking on cruise ships.
               
              If COVID-19 is spreading in your community
              Practice social distancing and stay away from anyone who is sick
              Take extra measures to put distance between yourself and other people to further reduce your risk of being exposed to this new virus.
              • Stay home as much as possible.
              • Consider ways of getting food brought to your house through family, social, or commercial networks
              If a COVID-19 outbreak happens in your community, it could last for a long time. (An outbreak is when a large number of people suddenly get sick.) Depending on how severe the outbreak is, public health officials may recommend community actions to reduce people’s risk of being exposed to COVID-19. These actions can slow the spread and reduce the impact of disease.
               
              Have a plan for if you get sick
              on the phone with doctor
              • Consult with your health care provider for more information about monitoring your health for symptoms suggestive of COVID-19.
              • Stay in touch with others by phone or email. You may need to ask for help from friends, family, neighbors, community health workers, etc. if you become sick.
              • Determine who can care for you if your caregiver gets sick.
              Watch for symptoms and emergency warning signs
              • Pay attention for potential COVID-19 symptoms including, fever, cough, and shortness of breath. If you feel like you are developing symptoms, call your doctor.
              • If you develop emergency warning signs for COVID-19 get medical attention immediately. In adults, emergency warning signs*:
                • Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
                • Persistent pain or pressure in the chest
                • New confusion or inability to arouse
                • Bluish lips or face
              *This list is not all inclusive. Please consult your medical provider for any other symptoms that are severe or concerning.
               
              What to do if you get sick
              • Stay home and call your doctor.
              • Call your healthcare provider and let them know about your symptoms. Tell them that you have or may have COVID-19. This will help them take care of you and keep other people from getting infected or exposed.
              • If you are not sick enough to be hospitalized, you can recover at home. Follow CDC instructions for how to take care of yourself at home.
              • Know when to get emergency help.
              • Get medical attention immediately if you have any of the emergency warning signs listed above.
               
              What others can do to support older adults
               
              Community support for older adults
              • Community preparedness planning for COVID-19 should include older adults and people with disabilities, and the organizations that support them in their communities, to ensure their needs are taken into consideration.
                • Many of these individuals live in the community, and many depend on services and supports provided in their homes or in the community to maintain their health and independence.
              • Long-term care facilities should be vigilant to prevent the introduction and spread of COVID-19. Information for long-term care facilities can be found here.
              Family and caregiver support
              • Know what medications your loved one is taking and see if you can help them have extra on hand.
              • Monitor food and other medical supplies (oxygen, incontinence, dialysis, wound care) needed and create a back-up plan.
              • Stock up on non-perishable food to have on hand in your home to minimize trips to stores.
              • If you care for a loved one living in a care facility, monitor the situation, ask about the health of the other residents frequently and know the protocol if there is an outbreak.
               
              If You Are at Higher Risk Get Ready for COVID 19 Now 2020-03-16 08:00:00Z 0

              Letter From DG Andre' Layral -- District Conference and More Cancelled Due to Coronavirus
               

              D5010 Rotarians:
               
              On Saturday I met with members of the D5010 Leadership team and several Past District Governors to discuss my recommendation to cancel the 2020 Peace Forum and District Conference.  I laid out the case for cancellation, sharing concerns discussed by conference planning committee. There was unanimous support in the meeting on Saturday for my recommendation to cancel the 2020 conference.  Therefore, I am officially announcing the cancellation of the April 30 to May 3, 2020, Peace Forum and District Conference. 
               
              In an e-mail to D5010 Rotarians last week I announced we were still planning to go forward with the April 30th Peace Forum and May 1-3 District Conference.  At the time there were no positive cases of the virus in Alaska and we had many unanswered questions about the impact cancelling would have, chief among them whether we could back out of our contract with the Westmark hotel without financial ramifications.  After looking into what RI insurance covered and whether supplemental insurance was available, it became obvious that there were too many exclusions in the current policy, and no alternate insurance coverage was available that covered the Coronavirus threat.  Our conference Chair, Cindy Wright, met with the hotel management and learned that we would need to notify the hotel of our intentions no later than March 31st, a date after which there would be financial implications for our Rotary district. This accelerated our efforts to look at what other factors might justify cancelling our conference.  
               
              The Work Health Organization’s announcement of a Global Pandemic, along with emergency declarations announced by the CDC and Governor Dunleavy, made this matter much more urgent. On Friday we were notified by the RI Representative to our conference, David Stovall, that RI had cancelled all travel by RI staff, and therefore he would be unable to attend.  After talking with each of our keynote speakers, each expressed concerns about traveling at this time, primarily because of the Coronavirus threat. We had not yet purchased travel for our speakers, so no financial risk would be incurred  if we made a decision to cancel.
               
              There were many other factors we considered, to numerous to mention, but the health and safety of our conference participants was chief among them.  To our knowledge, there has never been a cancellation of a district conference, and postponement was out of the question due to other bookings at the hotel and higher costs after May 15th.  At this time, the CDC has also declared all gatherings of greater than 50 people be cancelled.
               
              In my conversations with our Keynote speakers, each committed to working with our district to offer a virtual presentation, so we will look at the logistics of this.  We are also looking to the possibility of holding our Peace Forum prior to the Zone 28 conference in Anchorage in November.  We will keep members up to date regarding both these possibilities.
               
              We are at an unfamiliar place.  How ironic that our Rotary theme this year is “Rotary Connects the World” yet people are being asked to socially distance themselves, including “self isolation” to slow the spread of the virus. Of course it saddens me that instead of celebrating our many Rotary accomplishments this year with friends, sharing our Rotary stories, and showcasing what Rotary clubs have accomplished, we are now challenged to keep our members engaged, learning, growing and serving.  Still I have never been more proud to be a Rotarian, nor more committed to completing my work as your District Governor.
               
              With over three months remaining in this Rotary year, we will continue to plan and deliver training for club officers and Rotary education for members, but in innovative ways that minimize face to face delivery.  Similarly, I will be convening a group to develop some innovative approaches clubs can take to serve their communities in Alaska helping the less fortunate and seniors cope with isolation and fear and for Clubs to lead in meaningful ways working with local health authorities and social agencies address local needs during this unprecedented time.
               
              A separate notification will be made soon to Rotarians who registered for the conference, describing how conference registration refunds will be made. 
               
              Today I discussed with Don Poulton, Administrative Chair, my intentions for holding a virtual business meeting on May 2nd to take action as planned on 2020 D5010 Resolutions, the 2019-2020 Financial update, 2020-2021 Budget approval and action on selecting a Council on Legislation representative for our district for 2020-2023. More to follow.  In the meantime, please remember to submit your proposed resolution by the March 20th deadline and nominations for Council on Legislation representative by April 15th.
              Sincerely,
               
              Andre’ Layral
               
              D5010 District Governor
              2019-2020
              Letter From DG Andre' Layral -- District Conference and More Cancelled Due to Coronavirus  2020-03-16 08:00:00Z 0

              Working with Rotary to Eradicate Polio

               
               
              with
               
              Bill Gates
              Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
               
              1. What made you decide to work on polio eradication?
              In 1952, three years before I was born, the U.S. experienced one of the worst polio epidemics in its history. Thousands died and even more were paralyzed. I was born a few months after the first polio vaccine became available. Growing up, I had no idea how lucky I was.
               
              Later in life through the work of our foundation, I began to see firsthand the impact that polio was having on kids. The U.S. had seen its last case of polio in 1979 thanks to polio vaccines, but even 25 years later in 2004, more than 1,000 children in Asia and Africa were paralyzed by polio simply because of where they were born.
               
              Before our foundation joined the fight to end polio in 2007, I had spent months talking to experts and analyzing the history of eradication. While global progress against polio had stalled, I believed that eradication was possible because the world had done it before, with smallpox in 1980.
               
              Rotary played an important role in inspiring the foundation to become involved in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, an incredible global partnership committed to fighting the disease. We knew that Rotarians would be passionate, committed allies in the push for eradication.
               
              2. The number of polio cases increased in 2019. Why are you still optimistic that eradication is possible?
              It’s true that we saw the number of cases go up in 2019, but we need to look at what has happened over the past three decades. In the 1980s, polio paralyzed 1,000 children globally every day. Today, that number has fallen 99.9 percent and the wild poliovirus is confined to just Afghanistan and Pakistan. Because of eradication efforts, there are 18 million people walking around who would have otherwise been paralyzed by the virus.
               
              The past 30 years have been marked with incredible achievements. One of my favorite examples is India. The country was once considered the toughest place to eliminate the disease, but in 2011, the country recorded its last case of polio derived from the wild poliovirus.
               
              In 2013, health workers managed to contain a wild poliovirus outbreak during the Syrian civil war. Vaccinators not only had to enter the war zone, waiting for lulls in the fighting to make sure children were protected, but also had to account for the 2 million refugees fleeing to neighboring Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. Within weeks, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced a plan to immunize 2.4 million Syrian children, and the outbreak was over by the following year.
               
              In 2016, the wild poliovirus re-emerged in Nigeria. Health workers and partners redoubled their efforts, and the country has now gone more than three years without a new case, which means the entire WHO African region could be certified free of wild poliovirus in 2020. This achievement was difficult to imagine just a few years ago.
               
              The final cases of polio are proving particularly difficult. But the polio program has overcome enormous challenges to keep driving progress, and we’ve spent the past decade sharpening the tools and strategies we need to finish the job. With the continued commitment of our partners like Rotary, I’m sure we’ll consign polio to history.
               
              3. Why are you extending the Gates Foundation’s 2-to-1 funding match with Rotary?
              The Gates Foundation’s long-standing partnership with Rotary has been crucial in the fight against polio. Through extending our funding match, we can raise $150 million every year — money that is essential to the eradication effort.
               
              But there’s another thing about this funding match, which people don’t often know: The money helps us fight more than polio. At the same time that we’re delivering the polio vaccine to communities, we’re also bringing them bed nets to protect against malaria, improving access to clean drinking water, and helping immunize kids against other vaccine-preventable diseases. We’re making sure that every dollar we raise counts.
               
              4. What message would you like to deliver to Rotarians as we confront the final challenges to eradication?
              Everyone at our foundation is inspired by Rotary and proud to work alongside you.
               
              Rotary was the first organization to push for a polio-free world. And for the past 30 years, so many Rotarians have been part of fundraising, vaccination, and advocacy efforts that have brought us close to the magic number of zero cases.
               
              The final steps to a polio-free world are the hardest — and we’ll need the help of every Rotarian to get there. But I’m confident that we will end polio together.
               
              • Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa
               
              • This story originally appeared in the March 2020 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              Working with Rotary to Eradicate Polio 2020-03-12 08:00:00Z 0

              Pictures of RYLA 2020 in Homer

              As most all of us know, RYLA 2020 was held in Homer.
                Below are some pictures take during some of the various RYLA activities. 
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Pictures of RYLA 2020 in Homer 2020-03-11 08:00:00Z 0
              DISTRICT 5010 APP 2020-03-09 08:00:00Z 0

              For the Record:  Business Casual

              A youthful outlook isn’t the only key to rejuvenating Rotary, but it’s a start.
               
              For President-elect Holger Knaack, the opportunities are endless.
               
              Photos by Samuel Zuder
               
              Outside of One Rotary Center, it was an overcast October day. Lake Michigan shimmered a steely gray, and the trees’ red and orange leaves appeared drab.
              But inside the office of Rotary’s president-elect, it was a bright new day, and not just because of the paisley handkerchief sprouting from the breast pocket of Holger Knaack’s blue blazer. Those vivid colors matched the cheerful attitude with which Knaack looks optimistically to the future — only one of the then-67-year-old’s youthful traits.
               
              Over two hours, on two separate occasions, Knaack sat down for a conversation with John Rezek, editor in chief of The Rotarian, and Jenny Llakmani, the magazine’s managing editor. Speaking fluent, German-inflected English, Knaack discussed his atypical rise in Rotary, an ascent propelled by his longtime involvement with the Rotary Youth Exchange program. Those experiences define his aspirations as president. “Growing Rotary, and especially growing with young members, will definitely be one of my goals,” he said. “Because if we lose contact with the younger generation” — he lifted his hands and shrugged — “we are outdated.”
               
              During the conversation, Knaack discussed his January 2018 speech at the International Assembly, where he had quoted Paul Harris: “If Rotary is to realize its proper destiny, it must be evolutionary at times, revolutionary on occasions.” He then offered his own take on that thought: “To be prepared for the future, Rotary must continue to be revolutionary and must believe in the power of youth.”
               
              Knaack introduced a few aphorisms of his own — including “There’s no wrong age to become a Rotarian” — and spoke about the economic necessity of having a presidential tie. (Knaack, who rarely wears a tie, revealed that he keeps one of Mark Daniel Maloney’s blue presidential ties tucked into a desk drawer to have on hand if needed.) He also introduced his presidential theme: Rotary Opens Opportunities. The phrase is paired visually with the silhouette of three open doors, one blue, another gold, and the third in bright Rotaract pink. He chose the theme for its aptness, explains Knaack, and because “it’s easy to translate in every language.” (In Knaack’s native German, it’s Rotary eröffnet Möglichkeiten.)
               
              During the first interview, Knaack’s wife, Susanne, sat in and provided clarifications. When Rezek asked Knaack about his reputation for being “unflappable,” the president-elect responded with a flapped expression. After briefly consulting her phone, Susanne provided a translation: unerschütterlich. With that settled, Knaack, ever imperturbable, continued the conversation.

              THE ROTARIAN: You’re the first president-elect from Germany in Rotary’s history. Tell us about the nature of Rotary in Germany. 
              KNAACK: Rotary is different all over the world. We all share the same core values, but with different emphases. In Germany, it’s really about friendship or fellowship — and it’s about integrity and ethics. That’s how German Rotarians look for members. And then the service we do grows out of friendship. I think one of the major points is that German Rotary clubs select their members carefully, and we have a very good retention rate. We don’t even think about retention.
               
              TR: How did you get involved in Rotary?
              KNAACK: For me, it started with an organization called Round Table, which has hundreds of clubs in Europe. Surprisingly, it was founded by Rotarians in England in 1927 who were tired of always hanging out with old men. So they created a new organization, Round Table, but stipulated that you had to leave when you turned 40. I joined at 30 and left when I was 39. They had this wonderful motto: Adopt, Adapt, Improve. I was interested in service; I was also interested in networking. Many of my friends from this organization joined Rotary, and again, the reason was the opportunity for networking, especially because of Rotary’s classification system. You need different people to make an organization more interesting, to have discussions go in unexpected directions.
              I was asked to join the Rotary Club of Herzogtum Lauenburg-Mölln. It’s a crazy name. When Ron Burton was a director, he once introduced me as “Holger Knaack from the Rotary Club of [pauses] somewhere in Germany.” A new Rotary club in my hometown, Ratzeburg, was looking for members, but I knew many of the people in that club already, so I decided to join the old club. It gave me the opportunity to meet totally different people.
               
              TR: What was your pathway to the presidency of Rotary?
              KNAACK: I’ve been asked to list all the district leadership positions I held before I became a district governor. None. Zero. I didn’t have any before I became district governor, and I didn’t have any appointments in the district leadership. I was just known for my engagement in Youth Exchange, and because of that, people knew about me and my passion for Rotary. It was the same thing when I became a director: I had never, ever had any appointments at the zone level. When I came here to Evanston for my director-elect training, that was the first time I entered this building.
               
              TR: What is it about Youth Exchange that makes it such a great program?
              KNAACK: Youth Exchange was my path into Rotary. Susanne and I hosted Rotary Youth Exchange students and became involved in organizing Youth Exchange camps, where Rotary clubs and districts host students from all over the world. And then I learned how this enriched our lives. We don’t have children ourselves, so this program is really great for us. I think it keeps us young.
               
              TR: We’ve heard that you are unflappable. Nothing upsets you. How can that possibly be true?
              KNAACK: I can sometimes be embarrassed because of small things, as my wife knows. But when confronted by serious things, when we have to make serious decisions, then I become more calm. Plus, I’m always counting on other people. I know I can’t do anything alone. I have the greatest respect for people who are doing the work — not just doing the work, but doing it with passion. We have to show our respect for all people like that. That’s what I learned very early.
               
              Right: Holger Knaack, with his wife Susanne, near their home in Ratzeburg, Germany, believes in trusting young people to steer Rotary into the future.
               
              TR: What areas are you going to concentrate on during your year? And what do you hope to accomplish?
              KNAACK: I have no crazy new ideas [laughing]. We promised to eradicate polio, and I mean to do everything we can to keep that promise. If we succeed, it will help enhance how Rotary is seen in the world. No. 2, of course, is growing Rotary, and that’s not just about growing our membership. It’s about growing Rotary at all levels. It’s about making our organization stronger. It’s about retention and growing through new Rotary club models. Rotary is indeed one of the slowest-changing organizations in the world. What we do takes so much time. We have to be much faster.
               
              TR: What about Rotary doesn’t have to change?
              KNAACK: Our core values have always been the basis for what we do. Friendship, diversity, integrity, leadership, service — they will never be outdated. The way we express and live those values, that will change. Our tradition of meeting for a meal might have worked for 100 years. But it doesn’t work anymore, because lunch is no longer a central thing in your life. We have to look for models that young people are interested in. Let them decide what kind of Rotary club they would like to join to share our core values. Rotary is a place for everybody: for young and old, for old club models and for new club models. There’s no need for very strict rules. Let’s enjoy what fits best.
               
              TR: Are you worried that the average age for Rotarians keeps going up?
              KNAACK: I’m so happy that our older Rotarians remain Rotarians and that older people still join Rotary clubs. They’re a great value for the clubs and our organization. But I want to encourage Rotary clubs to think about their future. Clubs should have a strategic meeting twice a year. If they really think about their future, it’s important that there is no big gap between age groups. If they’re able to attract members in every age group, in every decade, then there is not a big gap. It’s important for Rotary clubs to stay on track and yet still be interesting for young professionals. It’s always dangerous if a Rotary club says, “OK, we have the perfect number of members. We have 50 or 60 or 70 or whatever; we don’t want any more members right now.” Then the gap can grow very, very fast. One of my sayings is, “There’s no wrong age to become a Rotarian.” If someone is 18 and becoming a member, that’s great. And if someone is 80, that’s great too. So there is no wrong age to become a Rotarian — and there’s no perfect size for a Rotary club.
               
               
               
              For the Record:  Business Casual 2020-03-04 09:00:00Z 0

              Help Rotary Change the Narrative - New Details on Life Below Water Symposium in Bermuda

               
               
               
               
               
              I wrote you last month to let you know about two exciting Rotary Symposiums our Zones are hosting in 2020-21.  The first, Life On Land, will be held in Anchorage, Alaska this November.
               
              The second symposium takes place January 14-16, 2021. We are excited to visit Hamilton, Bermuda for this event, which will focus on the Unites Nations Sustainable Development Goal, Life Under Water. Past Rotary International President Barry Rassin has agreed to be our keynote speaker in Bermuda. The Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group (ESRAG) and a United Nations Environmental committee representative will support both symposiums. All Rotarians, community partners and NGOs are invited to participate in this symposium with a focus on changing the narrative.
               
              Here are the expert speakers who have committed to joining us in Bermuda:
               
               
               
               
              Barry Rassin, Past Rotary International President
               
               
               
              Richard Randolph, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Heart to Heart International
               
               
               
              Dr. Chris King, Former Head of the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering at the United States Military Academy
               
               
               
               
               
              Mark Eakin, Coordinator of NOAA's Coral Reef Watch program
               
               
               
              Ludovic Grosjean, Independent Collaborator working to preserve the Environment with the ultimate goal of Saving our Oceans
               
               
               
               
              Help Rotary Change the Narrative - New Details on Life Below Water Symposium in Bermuda 2020-03-04 09:00:00Z 0

              Health Education and Wellness Rotarian Action Group Seeking Your Input

              RECOMMENDATION/QUESTIONS

              As a Rotarian Action Group, HEWRAG has been and can continue to be an important resource for Rotarians in the global quest to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem.  With that statement as the premise, we need to acknowledge that HEWRAG has reached a plateau and needs to redefine its mission in CCP to be successful in the future.

               To that end, we are asking you to respond to three questions:   

              1.    We believe that now is the time for HEWRAG to reassess its approach to CCP.  How do you believe HEWRAG can best help Rotarians to work within the WHO plan to address cervical cancer as a public health problem?  

              2.     We believe that we need a much larger and more diverse team to support Rotarians when they ask for HEWRAG's assistance with CCP projects.  Are you willing to serve as a member of that team?  If so, how would you be able to help?  

              3.     We have found that we need to fund supplies and travel in order to best serve Rotarians, and while we have self-funded in the past, our needs have grown beyond our abilities.  What suggestions do you have about how we can fund HEWRAG's CCP activities?

              GOING FORWARD

              We hope that you will reply to this message by or before Tuesday, March 31, 2020 after which we will compile a summary of the responses and include them into our plan going forward before the Rotary International Convention in early June. 

              If you have questions that could help inform your comments, you’re encouraged to write to PDG/HEWRAG Director Karl Diekman.  Please send your completed responses to him at kddiekman@aol.com.

              Kindest regards,

              Karl Diekman

              Rotary Club of Woodland

               District Rotary Foundation Committee Chair 2013-16 and 2017-20

               

              Health Education and Wellness Rotarian Action Group Seeking Your Input 2020-03-02 09:00:00Z 0

              Viewpoint:  Bound Together

              While you’re holding a book,
              the book is holding you

               

              by

               

              Illustration by Richard Mia 

              The image looks like a million other family travel photos: two adults and a 10-year-old at a historic destination — in this case England’s Greenwich Observatory, the place where you could say time starts. But on close examination, the picture has a fourth element: a just-published Harry Potter novel, as big as the 10-year-old is small. Holding his place, the kid’s finger has disappeared into the book, and from the expression on his face, so has he.

              We may have been in Greenwich, but my son was at Hogwarts.

              A long time before, when I was about his size, I had torn through Treasure Island, dealing with words I didn’t recognize by either skipping over them or trying to sound them out, producing outlandish internal pronunciations that fortunately nobody ever heard. A bit later, I flung myself at James Michener’s Potter-weight Hawaii, with passages I still remember more sharply than things I read last week.

              But in the years since Greenwich Mean Time became the standard measure of the moment, technology has surged past the binding together of printed pages. Information now moves with the form and speed of electronic impulses. Yet books persist, much like that kid refusing to be budged from the world his imagination has conjured. “Every time there is a new innovation, they predict the death of the book,” Michael Herrmann, the owner of Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord, New Hampshire, said recently. “But the book is a perfect technology. Like the shark, it hasn’t changed and continues to thrive.”

              The newest challenges to the printed book range from 500 channels of television and the boundless resources of the internet to the small plastic devices, the weight and thickness of a slice of pizza, that can display multiple volumes. The threats at one time appeared lethal: In the first decade of this century, the number of U.S. bookstores, both chain and independent, dropped sharply. All over America, bookstores were closing down, their spaces turning into nail salons and hot yoga studios.

              But over the past decade, the number of independent bookstores across the country has rebounded — shooting up from 1,651 to 2,524, with sales rising steadily. This resurgence is not about “information,” or what the tech folks call “content.” It’s about actual books, ink on paper, that not only send words out but pull people in. Bookstores are drawing people back to the comfort of print.

              In 2012, best-selling author Ann Patchett wrote in the Atlantic: “You may have heard the news that the independent bookstore is dead, that books are dead, that maybe even reading is dead — to which I say: Pull up a chair, friend. I have a story to tell.” Her story is that when the last independent new-book store in her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, closed, Patchett — explaining that she didn’t want to live in a town without a bookstore — joined with a couple of friends to open her own. With the help of some of her writer friends doing readings, Parnassus Books has been a dramatic success. “People still want books,” she declared. “I’ve got the numbers to prove it.”

              In the summer of 2019, Patchett got still more proof of that: Amazon announced that it would open up its own bookstore across the street from Parnassus.

               

              Viewpoint:  Bound Together 2020-02-25 09:00:00Z 0

              Club Innovation: Social Network

              Rotary Club of Downtown Franklin, Tennessee
               
              Chartered: 2017
               
              Original membership: 61
               
              Membership: 145
               
              Boom town: Franklin, Tennessee, was ranked the eighth-fastest growing community in the United States in 2017, the same year the Nashville suburb of 80,000 people added its fourth Rotary club. A network of old acquaintances — golf buddies and families who knew one another through their children’s sporting events — formed the nucleus of the Rotary Club of Downtown Franklin, devoted to cultivating friendship in a convivial, service-minded, and welcoming atmosphere.
               
              Club innovation: “Happy time” sessions, which run 30 minutes before evening meetings begin, allow for networking and encourage mingling. Appetizers and drinks mixed by club members who have been certified as servers offer a low-cost alternative to a full meal and keep dues to $400 a year.
              Club members Kyle Lo Porto (from left), C.J. Monte, Kathy Reynolds, and Lorrie Graves participate in a Habitat for Humanity project.
               
              For decades, the Rotary clubs of Franklin, Franklin At Breakfast, and Cool Springs have been a vital part of the fabric of the city. But many people who wanted to serve their community couldn’t make those clubs’ noon or morning meetings. So Lawrence Sullivan, a longtime noon club member, approached Mike Alday, who had dropped out of that club. “He knew there were people like me,” says Alday. “With my business, I couldn’t commit to the noon club.” The group of people Sullivan contacted already had some connection to one another. “We weren’t good friends, necessarily, but we all knew each other,” says Alday, who became charter president of the club. “We thought we’d have 40 people and move around to bars and restaurants in town.” But membership quickly more than doubled, growing to the point that tavern-hopping wouldn’t be feasible. Although the group now meets at the Williamson County Enrichment Center, a parks department facility, an open bar and hors d’oeuvres remain an integral part of the program.
               
              Tapping existing social networks led to a club with many couples joining together. Candida Cleve-Bannister, a longtime Rotary spouse whose work obligations prevented her from joining one of the daytime clubs, joined with her husband, Jerome Bannister. For Jerome, a past governor of District 6760 who had to leave the breakfast club because of a job change, the forming of the new club was fortuitous.
              Kathy Reynolds gets to work.
               
              “We try to keep our dues low, bearing in mind that a lot of our members are couples,” says Cleve-Bannister. “We’re a fun club. There’s no problem with somebody getting up and getting food or drink. We’re casual.” And because some committee work is undertaken during meetings, she notes, “we don’t burden our members with extra time outside of the meeting.”
               
              The club helps out at events including a chili cook-off held in conjunction with Pumpkinfest, a local institution with a nearly four-decade history. The club’s Jockeys & Juleps party netted about $100,000 in its first two years, with part of the proceeds going toward My Friend’s House, a transitional home for at-risk teenage boys. The Rotarians play a role in the boys’ lives through activities including bowling and “chef’s nights,” at which they all share a meal they have prepared together.
               
              A key ingredient in the club’s high level of project participation has been cooperation with other clubs. “All the clubs in town are supportive of each other,” says Alday. “At the end of the day, we’re all part of Rotary. We just meet at different times.”
               
              He adds: “When we do The Four-Way Test, we actually add a fifth element: We yell, ‘Cheers!’ The social aspect can’t be overlooked.”
              — BRAD WEBBER
              • Are you looking for more ideas on how your club can reinvent itself? Go to rotary.org/flexibility.
              • To share your ideas with us, email club.innovations@rotary.org.
              • This story originally appeared in the February 2020 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              Club Innovation: Social Network 2020-02-19 09:00:00Z 0



              How Do I Access and Change My Profile Information?

               

              This feature allows you to edit and update the information within your profile. You can change your email address, phone number, password, login name, and more. Your profile contains details such as your address and contact information, as well as personal information you choose to share with your fellow club members. 


              1. To access your profile for editing, you must go to your club homepage and login. Then, click on Member Area on the top right. 

              2. Along the top of the screen, you will see several blue tabs. Click on the My ClubRunner tab. 

              3. Next, click on the My Profile link on the grey menu bar below My ClubRunner.  

              4. You are now on the Member Profile screen. This screen contains your personal information, which may be shared with fellow members of your club. To add or update the information that appears click on the Edit button just above your personal information. 

               

              5. You can now enter your personal data into the fields listed or edit existing information.  

              Note: Fields marked in red are mandatory. If you try to click Save when a mandatory field is blank, you will receive an error message. 

               

              6. When you are finished editing your profile, click Save. There are Save buttons at the top and bottom of the Member Profile screen. Click Cancel if you do not wish to save your changes. 

              Tab Information

              There are 6 tabs on the member profile. Each one contains different information.

              Personal Tab

              On this page it displays personal information about the member. This is useful to see if the profile is up to date. If you want to edit any of this information click on the Edit button and once done click Save.

              • Profile Picture: This displays a picture of you. To learn how to add/update your picture, please click read the article titled How do I Change my Profile Photo?.
              • Member Details: This area displays the member's Title (Eg. Mr, Mrs, Dr, Rev), First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, Nickname (Eg. Dave, Mike, Bill), Suffix (Eg, Jr, Sr), Preferred Address, Preferred Phone, E-mail, Alternate E-mail, Gender, Date of Birth, Anniversary, Spouse/Partner First Name, Last Name, Nick Name, and Date of Birth.
              • Home: This area displays the member's Home address and Phone numbers.
              • Work: This area displays the member's Work Address, Position/Title, Phone number, Fax, and Website URL.
              • Custom Fields: This displays the fields that were created by the Club. These fields are used to gather additional information about the member. The data could be a date, flag, or field/text. For more information read the Custom Fields article

              Rotary/Organization Tab

              On this page it displays information about the Rotary and attendance. 

              Note: Some details on this tab are not able to be modified without additional access. Contact your Club/Organization for assistance with updating these profile details

              • Membership Details: This area shows the Club name, Rotary Member Number, Membership, Office, Sponsor, Membership Type, Classification, Date Joined Club, and Date Joined Rotary/Admission.
              • Member Designations: This displays the member's designations. For more information read the Member Designations article.
              • Club Attendance: Shows their current year to date attendance percentage, last year's year to date attendance percentage, and year to date attendance report.

              Biography Tab

              This page displays the biography of the member. If you want to edit any of this information click on the Edit button and once done click Save.

              • Public: This area can be view by anyone in the Club and District.
              • Vocational Description: This is for anyone to see in the future release of a Rotarian business directory.
              • Private Biography: This can only be viewed by your Club members, it cannot be view by the District or the public. 

              Commitments Tab

              This page displays the Club Events, Volunteer Tasks, Meeting Responsibilities, New Member Program, and Current Committees you are in.

              • Club Events: This displays the events you registered for. For more information read the EventPlanner and MyEventRunner articles.
              • Volunteer Tasks: This displays the volunteer list the member signed up for. For more information read the Volunteer article.
              • Note: This will display "Loading Volunteer Data..." for a few seconds as it loads.
              • Meeting Responsibilities: This displays the meeting responsibilities you have. For more information read the Meeting Responsibilities article.
              • New Member Program: This displays the activity you have in the New Member Program. For more information read the New Member Program article.
              • Current Committees: This displays the committees the member is in. For more information read the Committees article.

              Settings Tab

              On this page it displays the Access Level, Login Information, Member Roles, and Custom Email Signature. If you want to edit any of this information, click on the Edit button, and once done click Save.

              • Club Access Level: This is the level of access the member has to the Club. For more information read the Access Levels article.
              • Login Name: This is your login name, and you can modify it as you see fit. It must be unique value across all of ClubRunner.
              • Password: This allows you to update your own password. Note that you do need to know your current password. If you no longer know your password, this article should help: I cannot login to ClubRunner.
              • Member Roles: This displays if the member has read only access to MyEventRunner. 
              • Custom Email Signature: This displays the member's email signature.

              Privacy Tab

              This page shows the member's Communication Preferences, Search Privacy and Club's RI Integration Privacy (If you are a Rotary Club). If you want to edit any of this information click on the Edit button and once done click Save

              • Communication Preferences: The member can choose not to receive certain emails. For more information, read the Email Privacy article.
              • Search Privacy: These options allow you to control what information is available to members who are not in your club when they use features such as the District’s Member Search and view your Club in the ClubRunner Mobile app.

              Note: The ClubRunner mobile app stores cached data for offline use and when internet connectivity is limited. This means, changes made to your privacy settings may take time to update and display in the mobile app. The mobile application caches member data for 14 days.

              Note: Any individuals who are listed in their Club's Executives & Directors list will have their Name and Position listed in the Mobile app. All other privacy options will be respected.

              • RI Integration Privacy: Only Rotary Clubs have this option. This displays the Rotary International Integrations settings for the members. For more information, read the RI Integration Guide.

               
              How Do I Access and Change My Profile Information? 2020-02-19 09:00:00Z 0

              Now Accepting Applications for 2021 Rotary Peace Fellowships

               
              Each year, Rotary awards up to 130 fully funded fellowships for dedicated leaders from around the world to study at one of our peace centers.
               
              Click on Picture to Run Video
               
              Through academic training, practice, and global networking opportunities, the Rotary Peace Centers program develops the capacity of peace and development professionals or practitioners to become experienced and effective catalysts for peace. The fellowships cover tuition and fees, room and board, round-trip transportation, and all internship and field-study expenses.
               
              Since the program began in 2002, the Rotary Peace Centers have trained more than 1,300 fellows who now work in more than 115 countries. Many serve as leaders in governments, NGOs, the military, education, law enforcement, and international organizations like the United Nations and the World Bank.
               
              Our fellowships
               
              The Rotary Peace Fellowship is designed for leaders with work experience in peace and development. Our fellows are committed to community and international service and the pursuit of peace. Each year, The Rotary Foundation awards up to 50 fellowships for master’s degrees and 80 for certificate studies at premier universities.
               
              Choose the program that's right for you
               
              Master’s degree programs
               
              Accepted candidates study peace and development issues with research-informed teaching and a diverse student body. The programs last 15 to 24 months and include a two- to three-month field study, which participants design themselves.
               
              Professional development certificate program
               
              During the one-year program, experienced peace and development professionals with diverse backgrounds gain practical skills to promote peace within their communities and across the globe. Fellows complete field studies, and they also design and carry out a social change initiative.
               
              Master's degree programs
               
              Professional development certificate program
               
              Application timeline
               
              We are now accepting applications for the 2021-22 Rotary Peace Fellowship program.
              Candidates have until 31 May to submit applications to their district. Districts must submit endorsed applications to The Rotary Foundation by 1 July. Learn more about the endorsement process.
               
              Our approach
               
              We see peace not as an abstract concept but as a living, dynamic expression of human development. Peacebuilding is a cornerstone of our mission as a humanitarian service organization, and it is one of our six areas of focus — the channels of activity through which our members make their mark on the world. Our programs, grants and fellowships focus on creating environments where peace can be built and maintained. Rotary believes that if concerned citizens work together to create peace locally, lasting change can happen globally.
              Now Accepting Applications for 2021 Rotary Peace Fellowships 2020-02-04 09:00:00Z 0
              Cranium Cup 2020 2020-02-03 09:00:00Z 0

              4 Questions about Scale Grants

               

              with K.R. “Ravi” Ravindran

              Chair-elect, Trustees of The Rotary Foundation

              1. What are the key elements of programs of scale grants?

              This is a new type of grant intended to provide measurable and sustainable solutions to issues affecting many people in a large geographic area. Every year, The Rotary Foundation will award a $2 million grant to one project that aligns with one or more of Rotary’s areas of focus. The grant will support project activities for three to five years.

              These grants do not require an international Rotary partner. However, applicants are expected to work with partners outside Rotary, such as nongovernmental organizations, government entities, and private-sector institutions. These partners may assist Rotarians at any stage of program development, and we encourage them to contribute funding. While Rotary is required to have a leadership role, our partners must have “skin in the game.”

              Finally, proposals for this grant type must demonstrate that similar projects have been successfully implemented. In turn, it should be possible to replicate the grant-supported project in other communities with similar needs.

              2. Why did Rotary create this new grant type?

              We wanted to complement the existing grant types with one that would benefit a much larger community. Programs of scale grants challenge Rotarians to think big and to work with other organizations to find comprehensive solutions to large-scale issues. As we’ve learned from the PolioPlus program, if you want to make a significant impact, you need to have partners who are willing to jump in with you.

              For example, in Sri Lanka, we have been working on a project to eliminate cervical cancer. My club, the Rotary Club of Colombo, had set up a cancer detection center. We then partnered with the Rotary Club of Birmingham, Alabama, on a global grant that funded HPV (human papillomavirus) testing machines. In addition, we brought in the University of Alabama at Birmingham to train staff, a leading telecom company to fund the construction of a new facility, and the Sri Lankan government to cover the cost of vaccines. In 2018, the project ensured that 83 percent of all 10-year-old girls in the country were vaccinated.

              The power of Rotary is much greater when we partner with like-minded organizations. This project involves multiple partners at a national and international level that are working together to prevent disease on a massive scale. Programs of scale grants give Rotarians the opportunity to replicate achievements like this one.

              3. How does the application process work?

              Rotary clubs and districts are invited to submit a proposal for a fully developed program, including proof of concept, baseline data from a community assessment, and ongoing monitoring and evaluation plans. Proposals are due 1 March. Those with the strongest proposals will then be invited to submit an application by 30 June.

              Proposals and applications will be reviewed by a committee that includes members of The Rotary Foundation Cadre of Technical Advisers and other subject-matter and grants experts. The Trustees will then consider the recommendations the selection committee and will make the final award determination at their October meeting.

              4. How will we measure the success of these grants?

              The fundamental thing is that anything we do must benefit the community. Success will be measured in the ultimate impact of these grants on recipient communities. It will also be measured in Rotary’s ability to position itself as a leader in implementing solutions to long-standing development issues, especially in partnership with other organizations that represent the values and aspirations of Rotarians.

              — JOHN M. CUNNINGHAM

              • Interested in applying for a programs of scale grant? Go to my.rotary.org/programs-scale-grants.

              • Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa

              • This story originally appeared in the February 2020 issue of The Rotarian magazine.

              4 Questions about Scale Grants 2020-02-03 09:00:00Z 0
              Cranium Cup 2020 This Saturday! 2020-02-03 09:00:00Z 0
              Homeless Connect 2020-01-27 09:00:00Z 0

              Earl of Sandwiches

              Steve Carlson is a member of the Rotary Club of San Carlos, California.

              Image credit: Ian Tuttle

              “Sorry, can’t talk right now,” Steve Carlson announces to all within earshot, and there’s no need to ask why. He’s frantically mounding home-crafted charcuterie onto a large serving platter, pausing just long enough to wedge another plate of high-end goat cheese into a 10-cheese spread. Farther down the 8-foot table, he has already arranged helpings of venison and cherry terrine, Tuscan cured salmon, four varieties of sourdough bread, several chutneys, and what he calls “the finest Reuben sandwiches this side of the Danube.”

              Carlson, a member of the Rotary Club of San Carlos, California, has prepared nearly all the dishes in this sumptuous gourmet spread, including the pastrami (lots of it), a product of teamwork with a fellow Rotarian who smoked it for 16 hours. About 120 guests are mixing and mingling between bites at his home on a bright September afternoon. They have paid $80 to attend this annual bash, and many have donated more. They know the funds will go toward transforming a dilapidated earthen ditch high up in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco into a sturdy concrete-lined irrigation aqueduct. The project will allow the people in the remote village of Ait Daoud to feed a steady flow of water to their crops.

              In his 20s, as a Peace Corps volunteer, Carlson lived and worked in Ait Daoud, seven hours by car from Marrakech. He became conversant in the local dialect and developed a deep affection for the village and for the bighearted Berber culture that sustained it. “A wise elder, Si Abderahmen, told me, ‘Always pack a warm lunch for the road,’ ” he recalls. “He said, ‘I speak not of foodstuffs, but of generosity.’ When you hike to a distant village as a nomadic Berber, he said, your reputation will precede you. Expecting and trusting you to be generous in return, people will welcome you into their homes to share their food, fresh from the fire.”

              That lesson of reciprocity had profound meaning for Carlson as he matured, married his wife, Suzanne, became the father of two boys, and chose a career in intellectual property law. At a meeting with his family’s lawyer, who had Rotary plaques on his office wall, Carlson inquired about the organization and learned that it was a community of people who share his values.

              “A wise elder told me, ‘Always pack a warm lunch for the road.’”

              And he never lost his itch to repay the Ait Daoud residents for their kindness to him. “I wanted to do a water project for the village, so I organized our first Reubens party in 2016 to raise funds. Suddenly I had almost $20,000 — now what?” he says. “But when I calculated the cost of building a functional aqueduct, it was like a punch in the gut. That is where the true power of Rotary kicked in.”

              Carlson went to Bay Area clubs and to the District 5150 assembly to talk about the San Carlos club’s project in Morocco; he secured donations from more than a dozen clubs. With district designated funds and other contributions, they soon had $200,000.

              When Carlson and his family went to Ait Daoud in December 2016 to see for themselves what needed to be done, their visit spurred the government to send a crew to build the first third of the aqueduct.

              With Rotary support, construction of the next section of the aqueduct is underway. Inevitably there will be obstacles, but for a man who single-handedly turns out dozens of dishes for 100-plus guests, learns to speak Berber and Arabic, and persuades over a dozen clubs to help out with a project, creating an aqueduct out of a dirt ditch is duck soup.

              — STEPHEN YAFA

              • This story originally appeared in the February 2020 issue of The Rotarian magazine.

              Earl of Sandwiches 2020-01-27 09:00:00Z 0

              Bill Gates Announces Continued Fundraising Partnership With Rotary

              From: John Germ <polioplus@rotary.org>
              Date: January 22, 2020 at 9:13:59 AM AKST
              Subject: Bill Gates announces continued fundraising partnership with Rotary
              Reply-To: John Germ <polioplus@rotary.org>
              
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Dear Rotarian,

              I’m delighted to let you know that Rotary and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation just announced the extension of our fundraising partnership. The Gates Foundation will continue matching donations to Rotary’s PolioPlus program 2-1, up to $50 million every year.

              Share your commitment by showing this video from Bill Gates at your next club meeting or event and help Rotary and the Gates Foundation spread the word about our extended fundraising partnership. You can also share this news by forwarding this email to your Rotary network.

              Whether you’re a new Rotary member, or you’ve been fighting polio for decades—there’s a role for you to play in ending this disease. Visit endpolio.org to learn more and donate.

              Sincerely,

              John Germ
              Chair, End Polio Now Countdown to History Committee
              Rotary Foundation Trustee
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              ONE ROTARY CENTER
              1560 SHERMAN AVENUE
              EVANSTON, ILLINOIS 60201-3698 USA
              ROTARY.ORG
               
               
               
              Bill Gates Announces Continued Fundraising Partnership With Rotary 2020-01-22 09:00:00Z 0

              Homer Celebrates Life of Longtime Rotarian, Beloved Community Member, Gary Thomas

               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Gary Thomas
              April 11, 1951-Jan. 14, 2020
              Gary Thomas, 68, Homer’s public-spirited master of ceremonies, died in a sudden and unforeseeable accident Jan. 14, 2020, leaving a hole in the community where he was the affable auctioneer for every non-profit and good cause. 
               
              Gary was the town’s longest-serving volunteer firefighter, supervised the town’s annual health fair, and ran a business watching homes when their owners were away. He had served as general manager of the public radio station, publisher of the weekly newspaper, and guest pronouncer at countless school spelling bees. 
               
              He carried little fuzzy ducks in his pocket to give away in case somebody needed one.
               
              “He answered every phone call, day or night,” his family said. “Everyone knew they could call him any time and he would be there for them.” 
               
              Gary was born April 11, 1951 in Fargo, ND. He graduated from high school in Moline, IL, in 1969, and from St. Lawrence University in 1973. After several years working for John Deere, he moved to Alaska in 1979 with his first wife, Gail Radcliffe, and settled in Homer. His family said constant moving in his youth, to a different high school every year, prompted him to sink deep roots in the Homer community he found.
              He joined the Homer Volunteer Fire Department as soon as he arrived, eventually becoming a statewide fire investigator. In 1986, he drove a new lime-yellow fire truck from Florida to Homer. He also worked with Kachemak Emergency Services after the rural coverage area was added. His 40 years of volunteer service were the most ever by any firefighter in Homer.

               
              Gary also volunteered right away at Homer’s new public radio station, KBBI, where he became  known for his Friday afternoon “Moldy Oldies” show, and was swiftly elevated to general manager. He acted in shows for Pier One Theater. During the 1990s, he was business manager for Homer writer and radio personality Tom Bodett, and then was business manager and publisher of the Homer News from the late 1990s until 2005. 
              After 18 years, he sold his business, “Housewatch,” and most recently had a contract with the U.S. Postal Service. When he was not running the mail out to Fritz Creek, he enjoyed traveling to Africa and floating the Amazon and Colorado rivers.  

               
              As emcee, he hosted annual fundraisers for the Pratt Museum, the Kachemak Heritage Land Trust, Hospice of Homer, Kachemak Board of Realtors, South Peninsula Women’s Services, and the Dancing Bears of Anchorage, for whom he once enticed a bid of $400 for a quart of Spenard honey. He served that role as well at many private fundraisers for people in need.
               
              His long involvement with the Rotary Club led him to take on running the popular local health fair, providing services to more than 1,000 residents every year. Gary served on the local hospital advisory board and road service area board. He played a key role on the grants committee for the Homer Foundation.
               
              In addition to fuzzy ducks that quacked, he had a thing for two-dollar bills, lighthouses, and lions. 
               
              “He was an amazing grandpa, a big goofy kid at heart,” his family said. “He was also a great mediator, who could bring people together in a positive way. Brother Asaiah once said, ‘Brother Gary is the voice of reason.’”
               
              Gary is survived by his wife, Laura Patty, and daughter Jenny Dunne (and her husband Charlie Doherty); children Mica Thomas (and fiance Kelsey Ottley) and Mariah Greenwald (and husband Adam Greenwald); his grandchildren, Clayton and Anthony Greenwald; his first wife, Gail Radcliffe; his brother, Norman Thomas, and sister, Martha Twarkins (and husband Bill Twarkins); and nieces and nephews Steve Twarkins, Vanessa Twarkins, Jennifer Walters, and Chris Thomas.
               
              He was preceded in death by his parents, Bob and Loie Thomas.
               
              A memorial for Gary was held at Homer High School’s Mariner Theater on Jan. 19 with about 500 attending. Master of ceremonies was Tom Bodett, who returned to Homer for the occasion and professed himself flummoxed to have to serve in the role that should naturally have been filled by Gary Thomas. 
               
              In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Gary Thomas Memorial Donation Fund at Alaska USA Credit Union. Checks should be made out to Alaska USA. Gary’s family said the money will be distributed to good causes in the Homer area. 
               

               
              Homer Celebrates Life of Longtime Rotarian, Beloved Community Member, Gary Thomas 2020-01-20 09:00:00Z 0

              How to Tell Fact From Fiction and Trust the News Again

               
              by Kim Lisagor Bisheff           Illustrations by Joan Wong
               
              Journalist Dan Mac Guill was working at his home office in Maryland last August when he got a news tip from a colleague: A photo of a Democratic congresswoman was circulating on Twitter. It appeared to show her at a press conference amid a group of armed terrorists. She was smiling.
               
              The Twitter replies ranged from skepticism (“This is verifiable as a real photograph?”) to condemnation (“The enemy is here”) to something in between (“I blew it up. … If it is photoshop they did an amazing job”). Many comments were too hate-filled to bear repeating.
               
              The reactions caught Mac Guill’s attention right away. “If you see people who seem to genuinely believe that a sitting member of Congress is or has been a terrorist, then that’s worth pursuing,” he says.
               
              Mac Guill, who works for the fact-checking website Snopes, suspected that this was yet another digital misinformation attack against U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who has been a frequent target of online trolls since she became one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, in 2018. Just the previous week, in fact, Snopes had debunked a photo caption that falsely claimed that Omar had attended a “jihad academy.” The photo, which appears to show a woman in a headscarf holding a rifle, was taken before Omar was born. But that didn’t stop it from gaining traction on social media.
               
              Though Mac Guill was pretty sure the newer image was also a fake, he knew it would require research to settle the matter. “You can’t always make the assumption that what’s obvious to you is obvious to everybody else,” he says. “Especially if people have certain biases that they might not even be conscious of, they might look at that image and say, ‘Well, look at it; it’s clearly her, and she’s been caught.’ And then you have somebody else saying, ‘She’s a sitting member of Congress. There’s no way this is real.’ People approach this content from different starting points.”
              So he got to work.
              You can't always make the assumption that what's obvious to you is obvious to everybody else.”
               
              Ideas and memes like these can go viral very quickly, exacerbating the ideological divide between groups with opposing political viewpoints. As Republicans and Democrats increasingly consume news from partisan sources, an individual’s political affiliation has become a strong indicator of whom they trust and what information they identify as factual.
               
              Rotarians strive to abide by The Four-Way Test. So when we read something inflammatory, what guides our decision to believe it? Do we trust what we read because it is the truth? Because it’s fair to all concerned? Or because it validates our existing worldview? Rotarians have an obligation to set aside partisan assumptions in pursuit of truth and fairness. A good start would be to acknowledge that we are all susceptible to misinformation. (In fact, studies have shown that the older we are, the more likely we are to be duped.) And we can choose to start listening to the experts who have been trying for decades to help us sort manipulation from satire, opinion from fact, and fiction from truth.
              The history of debunking misinformation far predates this political era. Snopes has been at it for 25 years, since long before “fake news” was on the public’s radar. CEO David Mikkelson launched the website in 1995 to tackle urban legends. Some of those early myths seem harmless today — like the one about the Poltergeist curse, which claimed that several of the 1982 horror movie’s cast members had since died under suspicious circumstances, or the one that correlated Super Bowl wins with stock market performance. The intensity and frequency of misinformation spiked after 9/11, when the internet, which was itself just taking off, became flooded with conspiracies and hoaxes, and fact-checking became an increasingly serious endeavor.
               
              The next big bump came with the rise of social media. Facebook and Twitter enabled fake news to travel farther and faster, and fact-checkers struggled to keep up. Over the years, Snopes has been joined by new fact-checking organizations, including FactCheck.org, PolitiFact, and similar endeavors worldwide.
              In the months leading up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the misinformation circulating on social media had become intensely political and polarized. People on both sides of the political aisle had honed their social feeds to match their existing biases, and in doing so, they became prime targets for made-up posts that aimed to validate and reinforce those views.
               
              As journalists and academics began researching the phenomena that contributed to the spread of false information through social networks, stories emerged about Russian misinformation factories where hired trolls used fake social media identities to spread lies online. Reporters found hundreds of self-proclaimed “news” websites, based in the United States and abroad, that were deliberately publishing and spreading phony stories. The search term “fake news” started trending on Google. It has been a hot topic ever since — thanks in part to the fact that it is now often deployed to describe news someone doesn’t like, rather than stories that are objectively not true.
               
              Snopes is busy these days. The site now has a staff of 15, most of whom are experienced journalists, working in home offices spread across three U.S. time zones. They keep regular business hours and communicate virtually via Slack throughout the day. Because they understand the importance of transparency in establishing readers’ trust, they are open about their operations and editorial process.
               
              The “Transparency” page on the Snopes website details that process, along with the organization’s standards for sources. “We attempt to use non-partisan information and data sources (e.g., peer-reviewed journals, government agency statistics) as much as possible, and to alert readers that information and data from sources such as political advocacy organizations and partisan think tanks should be regarded with skepticism,” it says. “Any published sources (both paper and digital) that we quote, link to, use as background information for, or otherwise reference in our fact checks are listed in the Sources section at the foot of each fact check article.”
               
              Such transparency is consistent with the code of principles established by the International Fact-Checking Network, which maintains a list of 29 organizations that are in compliance. That list includes Snopes, whose website says it follows the network’s principles “because we think being transparent with readers is the coolest.”
               
              When fact-checkers come across a suspicious photograph like the one of Omar, Mac Guill says, their first move is to take a step back and get an overview of the claim. “What exactly is the question that we are being asked?” he says. Is it: “Is this a real photograph? Does it show what it appears to show? What exactly does the image consist of? What do I actually need in order to come to a conclusion?”
               
              Glancing at the photo, he noted that Omar was the only one smiling. “Without any fact-checking expertise, you can see that Omar is the only person in the room who is grinning ear to ear and appears to be very happy, whereas everyone else is looking very solemn or has their faces covered,” he says. “That is very clearly out of place. That doesn’t mean that it’s a fake, but it’s a clue.”
               
              One of Mac Guill’s editors took a screenshot of the image and used Google to do a reverse image search. That turned up a photo of Omar taken by an Associated Press photographer in Washington, D.C., as she was walking to a meeting in the Capitol on 15 November 2018. Omar’s head and facial expression were a perfect match. “That gave me a bit of a head start,” Mac Guill says. “It made it clear to me that this image consists of two separate photographs, at least, sewn together using software.”
               
              To establish the truth about the image, Mac Guill needed to find both originals, identify their sources, and gather enough information to put them into context. He took another screenshot of the suspicious photograph and did his own Google reverse image search. It didn’t take him long to find various images from a news conference with the same men sitting at the same table — without Omar. “You can fairly safely say at that stage, this is fairly solid evidence that her face was digitally added and superimposed on the original photograph, and it’s a fake.”
               
              To eliminate all doubt, he tracked the source image to the websites where it had been published, and he quickly figured out that the original was a Reuters photo from a 2008 press conference. A person whose head was almost completely obscured by a headscarf sat in the position where Omar’s face had been superimposed. “So there you’ve got it,” Mac Guill says.
               
              As fact-check detective work goes, this case was pretty straightforward, Mac Guill says. “Sometimes image searches can get complicated,” he says. If a suspicious image was a still shot taken from a video, for example, it can take hours to uncover the original source. “I personally really enjoy that part of it. There’s a sense of accomplishment when you’re able to trace something back to its origins.”
               
              When we see something that makes us feel anger or fear, or something that validates an existing bias, we tend to respond to it without thinking.
              The manipulated Omar photo is an example of what experts call “fauxtography,” which has been one of the most visited categories on Snopes over the past year, according to the site’s vice president of operations, Vinny Green.
               
              Another popular category is “junk news,” or phony stories that are designed to draw traffic by intentionally misleading readers. Malicious entrepreneurs learned long ago that they can generate website traffic by taking advantage of a human weakness: our tendency to react to information that triggers a strong emotional response. When we see something that makes us feel anger or fear, or something that validates an existing bias, we tend to respond to it without thinking. On social media, that means liking, sharing, “hearting,” angry-facing, retweeting — all before stopping to verify that the information we’re spreading is correct.
               
              As the tricksters who create fauxtography and junk news become more sophisticated, consumers are more easily duped. That’s why “deepfakes,” videos that have been manipulated to make individuals appear to be doing or saying things they did not actually do or say, are becoming a major concern among fact-checkers. Along the same lines are political quote memes, those boxes of text that contain quippy quotes attributed to politicians. They’re tantalizingly shareable — and quite often wrong.
               
              Political figures are common targets for all forms of misinformation, which is why Snopes has increased its focus on political content in recent years. While reader interest in political stories used to drop off between presidential elections, Green says, “politics has never left the tip of our culture’s tongue in the past five years.” As the 2020 election season heats up, the number of political hoaxes and the demand for political fact-checking are likely to increase accordingly.
               
              At Snopes, the process for fact-checking text-based content is similar to that for photos and videos. A staff member starts by trying to contact the source of the claim to ask for supporting documentation. They also contact individuals and organizations with direct knowledge of the subject. That reporting is backed up by research from news articles, journal articles, books, interview transcripts, and statistical sources, all of which are cited in the writer’s fact-checking story. At least one editor reviews the story and adds to the research as needed.
               
              Our main job: to learn how to consume media responsibly in this new media era.
               
              No matter how you define fake news or measure the political fallout, one major impact is clear: Its very existence has left readers disheartened and confused. A Pew Research Center study published in December 2016 found that 64 percent of adults said misinformation was causing “a great deal of confusion about the basic facts of current issues and events.” In a 2019 update, that number went up to 67 percent, and 68 percent of the Americans surveyed said that fake news has affected their confidence in government.
               
              A 2019 report by the Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy found that Americans have far less faith in their institutions — especially the media — than they did 50 years ago. It blames this “crisis of trust” on several factors, including the overwhelming number of information sources available online; the increasingly blurred line between news and opinion; declining news budgets; attacks by politicians on the media; and Americans’ inability to agree on what constitutes a fact.
               
              “‘Filter bubbles’ make it possible for people to live in ‘echo chambers,’ exposed primarily to the information and opinions that are in accord with their own,” the report says. “One result of this technique is to provide users with content that reinforces their pre-existing views while isolating them from alternative views, contributing to political polarization and a fragmentation of the body politic. In turn, increasing political polarization encourages people to remain isolated in ever-more-separate ideological silos, offline as well as online.”
               
              The problem is fixable, the report says, but it requires action by news organizations, tech companies — and us. Our main job: to learn how to consume media responsibly in this new media era. “My general advice to any news consumer or consumer of fact checks: Trust no one and nothing,” says Snopes managing editor Doreen Marchionni, a former Seattle Times editor.
               
              If a news story or image seems scary or outrageous, that’s a red flag. If you see an image that doesn’t contain a link, be suspicious. If someone shares a picture of a tweet that doesn’t link to the actual tweet, it may be a fake. If an outlet publishing a story doesn’t have a protocol for running corrections or retractions of erroneous information, it might not be a trustworthy source.
               
              “Start by looking for sound, primary data on the source of the stuff that you want to share,” Marchionni says. “See if you can find the original source of it.” Google unfamiliar stories and websites to see if they’ve been flagged as fakes. Use reverse image searches to find the earliest versions of suspicious images. Check independent, nonpartisan fact-checking websites for help with difficult cases.
               
              In the meantime, resist the urge to share. “It is your civic responsibility and your civic duty to do the right thing by your [fellow] citizens. In this context, that means don’t share bad stuff,” Marchionni says. “Don’t share outrageous headlines and links unless you yourself know them to be true. If you can’t suss out the truth of the thing, then, by all means, check our website.”
               
              But why should people trust Snopes? “Read up on our history. Look at the girth of our reporting across 25 years. Decide for yourself if you think we’re trustworthy,” Marchionni says. “I think we are, but basically the same rules apply when evaluating a potential meme by a white supremacist or evaluating a fact-checking organization that you look to in order to help you understand whether something’s true or not.”
               
              Ultimately, the responsibility falls on each of us as consumers and sharers of news. “Misinformation has always been out there, since the dawn of humanity. What is different right now is social media,” Marchionni says. “It’s the act of sharing bad information that is creating this crisis we’re in.”
               
              Kim Lisagor Bisheff worked as a fact-checker in the late 1990s, when “fact-checking” was still a politically neutral term. Over the past 20 years, she has reported for newspapers, magazines, books, and websites. Bisheff has taught journalism at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo since 2004. She teaches multimedia journalism and public affairs reporting and gives talks to campus and community groups on news literacy and fact-checking.
               
              • This story originally appeared in the February 2020 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
               
              How to stop fake news, in three easy steps
               
              1) Gut-check: Did the headline or image you just saw make you feel a strong emotion? Misinformation is designed to do just that. Before sharing, click the link and check it out. If you’re unsure about it, don’t share it or react to it.
               
              2) Fact-check: What is the original source of the information? Are any familiar news outlets publishing this story or photograph? Does a reverse image search turn up different sources for a suspicious image? What do independent, nonpartisan fact-checking sites like Snopes, PolitiFact, or FactCheck.org have to say?
               
              3) Read real news: News institutions like those we revered in the Watergate era are still producing top-quality journalism. Subscribe to a variety of reputable publications and get your information directly from those sources — not through social media.
              How to Tell Fact From Fiction and Trust the News Again KLB 2020-01-20 09:00:00Z 0

              Holger Knaack Sees Opportunities for Rotary to Change,Thrive

              Incoming RI President Announces 2020-21 Presidential Theme
              By Ryan Hyland
               
              Rotary International President-elect Holger Knaack is encouraging Rotarians to seize the many opportunities Rotary offers to enrich their lives and the communities they serve.
               
              Knaack, a member of the Rotary Club of Herzogtum Lauenburg-Mölln, Germany, revealed the 2020-21 presidential theme, Rotary Opens Opportunities, to incoming district governors at the Rotary International Assembly in San Diego, California, USA, on 20 January.
               
              Rotary isn’t just a club for people to join, but rather “an invitation to endless opportunities,” said Knaack, who becomes president on 1 July. He emphasized that Rotary creates pathways for members to improve their lives and the lives of those they help through service projects.
               
              “We believe that our acts of service, big and small, create opportunities for people who need our help,” Knaack said. He added that Rotary creates leadership opportunities and gives members the chance to travel the world to put their service ideas into action and make lifelong connections. “Everything we do opens another opportunity for someone, somewhere,” said Knaack.
               
               
              Changing for the future
               
              Knaack also urged members to embrace change so Rotary can expand and thrive. Rather than setting a specific target for increasing the number of members, Knaack said he’s asking clubs and districts to think about how to grow in a sustainable and organic way. He wants clubs to focus on keeping current members engaged and adding new members who are the right fit for their club.
               
              "We will capture this moment to grow Rotary, making it stronger, more adaptable, and even more aligned with our core values."
               
              Holger Knaack
              Rotary International President-elect
               
              “We need to stop thinking of new members as people we can mark down as statistics and then forget about,” Knaack said. “Every new member changes us a little bit. That person brings a new perspective, new experiences. We need to embrace this constant renewal. We will grow stronger as we learn from new members.”
               
              Knaack pointed to Rotary’s Action Plan as a compass that can guide clubs as they evolve. He recommended that every club have a strategic plan meeting at least once a year. At that meeting, clubs should ask where they want to be in five years and how they can bring more value to their members.
               
              Knaack also wants to see more women in leadership roles and see Rotaractors play an integral role in how new clubs are formed and run. He encouraged district leaders to create new club models and rethink what it means to be in Rotary, and allow young people to be the architects of these new clubs.
               
              “We have to be open to new approaches, and creating unique clubs for younger people is just part of the solution,” said Knaack. “Let Rotaractors decide what kind of Rotary experience works best for them. These young people are bright, energetic, and they get things done.”
               
              In stressing the need for Rotary members to embrace change, Knaack noted that time won’t slow down for Rotary: “We will not let rapid change defeat us. We will capture this moment to grow Rotary, making it stronger, more adaptable, and even more aligned with our core values.”
              Holger Knaack Sees Opportunities for Rotary to Change,Thrive 2020-01-20 09:00:00Z 0

              What's It Like To Visit Every National Park in the United States?

              Mikah Meyer
              Ambassadorial Scholar

               

              It seemed all but certain that I had blown it. After logging tens of thousands of miles in a cramped van with a solar-powered fridge that chilled things only on occasion, I wouldn’t achieve my goal. The pilot of the seaplane flying me into one of the most remote national parks in the United States, the Aniakchak National Monument & Preserve in Alaska, had just told me that, because of restricted visibility, he would have to scratch our planned landing on the crater lake below. Then he added, “Like we agreed, you’ll have to pay me full price whether we can touch down or not.”

              Two years before, at age 30, I had set off on an odyssey to visit all of our 419 national park sites on one continuous journey that would ultimately take three years and cover more than 75,000 miles. No one had done it before. From the U.S. Virgin Islands to the Badlands of South Dakota to Florida’s Dry Tortugas and beyond, I had traveled by sea, land, and air to visit every single park. I had survived on canned foods, endured blizzards and scorching heat, repaired flat tires and oil leaks, and been chased by security guards out of dozens of parking lots where I had hunkered down in my van for the night to save money. And now it looked like my name would go into the record books with an asterisk noting that, due to inclement weather, I had been shut out from visiting the Aniakchak crater — even though I had paid full price.

              “All right, one last look,” the pilot said, dropping into the thick soup to see if there was the slimmest chance this dense cumulus formation did not extend all the way down to the surface of the Aleutian mountain lake. I saw nothing but an all-encompassing blanket of gray; that vista perfectly mirrored my despondency. But just as the pilot throttled up to turn toward home, a sliver of sunlight appeared far beneath us; glowing like a beacon, it illuminated a bright expanse of water under the cloud cover. Both of us let out a loud cheer. Five minutes later, the seaplane made a smooth landing on Surprise Lake in a crater bowl formed 3,500 years ago. I felt as if I had been blessed by divine intervention.

              That sense of spiritual connection had been guiding me for a long time. I’m the son of a Lutheran pastor, so maybe it was to be expected. For sure it played a role in my current quest. My dad, who died at 58, loved road trips, and I undertook mine in large measure to honor his memory. In spirit he rode beside me on every leg of the journey. And his early passing confirmed to me that you can’t hold off on your dreams.

              If my father provided all the inspiration I needed, I still had to find the funds. As a student at the University of Memphis in Tennessee, I had received an Ambassadorial Scholarship, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Memphis Central, that enabled me to enroll in McGill University in Montreal to study voice training as a countertenor. I didn’t know at the time that the scholarship would, indirectly, provide the means for me to undertake my national parks venture.

              I more or less sang for my supper. In addition to money I had saved over a decade, I paid my way by giving recitals in churches and talking from the pulpit about my travel experiences. I shared my adventures and put out a hat.

              I talked about the time I was in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula and drove through an entanglement of tall bushes that blocked my view, then felt a sudden drop. When I looked out the side window, I discovered that the front wheels of my van were hanging off a cliff. I threw open the driver’s side door and my whole life flashed by. Fortunately, some people showed up and pulled me and the van to safety.

              And I related how at Dinosaur National Monument in northwestern Colorado — my favorite park — a wild goose, soon to be named George, joined our rafting group. He slept with us, partied with us, and flapped his way up a steep canyon hike with us. When we finally drove away, George honked and chased after the van.

              My visits to churches also provided me with a chance to speak candidly as a gay Christian. I was raised in conservative Nebraska, where I struggled as a teenager to own my sexual orientation. It was super hard to come out. You had to choose whether to be gay and not be a Christian, or be a Christian and stay in the closet. Now, two decades later, I had an opportunity to tell my story and to be received with genuine affection.

              From an early age, I had a strong desire to see the world. Rotary made that possible by seeding my journey. I’m asked often if I would do it all again. In a heartbeat, I answer. I was given a chance to follow my vision, embrace my true nature, and share both with a welcoming audience.

              As told to Stephen Yafa

              The LGBT Rotarians and Friends Rotary Fellowship is dedicated to creating an inclusive and welcoming community for LGBT+ people. 

              Read more extraordinary tales from
              ordinary Rotarians

              MORE STORIES

               

              • Illustration by Sébastien Thibault

              • This story originally appeared in the January 2020 issue of The Rotarianmagazine.

              What's It Like To Visit Every National Park in the United States? 2020-01-14 09:00:00Z 0

              What's it like to visit every national park in the United States?
              Visit every national park in the United States


              Mikah Meyer
              Ambassadorial Scholar

               

              It seemed all but certain that I had blown it. After logging tens of thousands of miles in a cramped van with a solar-powered fridge that chilled things only on occasion, I wouldn’t achieve my goal. The pilot of the seaplane flying me into one of the most remote national parks in the United States, the Aniakchak National Monument & Preserve in Alaska, had just told me that, because of restricted visibility, he would have to scratch our planned landing on the crater lake below. Then he added, “Like we agreed, you’ll have to pay me full price whether we can touch down or not.”

              Two years before, at age 30, I had set off on an odyssey to visit all of our 419 national park sites on one continuous journey that would ultimately take three years and cover more than 75,000 miles. No one had done it before. From the U.S. Virgin Islands to the Badlands of South Dakota to Florida’s Dry Tortugas and beyond, I had traveled by sea, land, and air to visit every single park. I had survived on canned foods, endured blizzards and scorching heat, repaired flat tires and oil leaks, and been chased by security guards out of dozens of parking lots where I had hunkered down in my van for the night to save money. And now it looked like my name would go into the record books with an asterisk noting that, due to inclement weather, I had been shut out from visiting the Aniakchak crater — even though I had paid full price.

              “All right, one last look,” the pilot said, dropping into the thick soup to see if there was the slimmest chance this dense cumulus formation did not extend all the way down to the surface of the Aleutian mountain lake. I saw nothing but an all-encompassing blanket of gray; that vista perfectly mirrored my despondency. But just as the pilot throttled up to turn toward home, a sliver of sunlight appeared far beneath us; glowing like a beacon, it illuminated a bright expanse of water under the cloud cover. Both of us let out a loud cheer. Five minutes later, the seaplane made a smooth landing on Surprise Lake in a crater bowl formed 3,500 years ago. I felt as if I had been blessed by divine intervention.

              That sense of spiritual connection had been guiding me for a long time. I’m the son of a Lutheran pastor, so maybe it was to be expected. For sure it played a role in my current quest. My dad, who died at 58, loved road trips, and I undertook mine in large measure to honor his memory. In spirit he rode beside me on every leg of the journey. And his early passing confirmed to me that you can’t hold off on your dreams.

              If my father provided all the inspiration I needed, I still had to find the funds. As a student at the University of Memphis in Tennessee, I had received an Ambassadorial Scholarship, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Memphis Central, that enabled me to enroll in McGill University in Montreal to study voice training as a countertenor. I didn’t know at the time that the scholarship would, indirectly, provide the means for me to undertake my national parks venture.

              I more or less sang for my supper. In addition to money I had saved over a decade, I paid my way by giving recitals in churches and talking from the pulpit about my travel experiences. I shared my adventures and put out a hat.

              I talked about the time I was in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula and drove through an entanglement of tall bushes that blocked my view, then felt a sudden drop. When I looked out the side window, I discovered that the front wheels of my van were hanging off a cliff. I threw open the driver’s side door and my whole life flashed by. Fortunately, some people showed up and pulled me and the van to safety.

              And I related how at Dinosaur National Monument in northwestern Colorado — my favorite park — a wild goose, soon to be named George, joined our rafting group. He slept with us, partied with us, and flapped his way up a steep canyon hike with us. When we finally drove away, George honked and chased after the van.

              My visits to churches also provided me with a chance to speak candidly as a gay Christian. I was raised in conservative Nebraska, where I struggled as a teenager to own my sexual orientation. It was super hard to come out. You had to choose whether to be gay and not be a Christian, or be a Christian and stay in the closet. Now, two decades later, I had an opportunity to tell my story and to be received with genuine affection.

              From an early age, I had a strong desire to see the world. Rotary made that possible by seeding my journey. I’m asked often if I would do it all again. In a heartbeat, I answer. I was given a chance to follow my vision, embrace my true nature, and share both with a welcoming audience.

              As told to Stephen Yafa

              The LGBT Rotarians and Friends Rotary Fellowship is dedicated to creating an inclusive and welcoming community for LGBT+ people. Learn more >

              Read more extraordinary tales from
              ordinary Rotarians

              MORE STORIES

               

              • Illustration by Sébastien Thibault

              • This story originally appeared in the January 2020 issue of The Rotarianmagazine.

              What's it like to visit every national park in the United States?Visit every national park in the United States 2020-01-11 09:00:00Z 0

              Thanks For Not Sharing

              Here’s a recommendation:
              Don’t saddle me with your favorite books
              by Joe Queenan
              Illustration by Richard Mia
              Few things in life are more feared than the book that comes highly recommended. Or the gifted book. Or the gifted book that you strongly suspect might be a regifted book.
               
              Sometimes a warning, sometimes a threat, a gifted or recommended book is an attempt to force you to participate in a pleasure you would prefer to avoid. It is a search for validation, affirmation, honor. It’s not enough that I like you. It’s not enough that I enjoy your company. It’s not enough that you’re the person I would want by my side if I got into a fistfight in a dark alley with 365 Oakland Raiders fans. You also want me to respect you. Or at least you want me to respect your taste in books. This is asking too much of another person. Far too much.
              Here is the basic problem. I like you. You seem to know a lot about trout fishing. Your thoughts about the inverted yield curve are jaw-droppingly perspicacious. I enjoy hearing you talk about that time you hitched a ride with Bo Diddley outside Macon. But I’m not interested in your book recommendations. Not now, not ever. In fact, I wish you had never told me that you liked books with names like Knee-Deep in the Dead or Scourge of the Saracen Scimitar or Let Us Now Praise Famous Yokels. Until then, things seemed to be going along swimmingly.
               
              Now you’ve got me worried.
               
              Tourists are warned to never study maps while walking around New York. It makes them look like “marks.” Something similar happens when you foolishly take a gander at other people’s book collections. Once the cormorant has spotted you, you have turned into dinner. I have made the mistake of picking up a book at a friend’s house — merely to test its weight — only to be told: “Go ahead, take it. I’m probably not going to get to it for a while.”
               
              Well, of course you’re not going to get to it for a while. It’s a 989-page biography of John Quincy Adams. And you will never have to read it because you just dumped your copy on me. You have vowed that you are not going to crack it open until I finish reading it, which you know is never going to happen because there will never be a time when I will say to myself: “Hold my calls; I’m going to finally hunker down with that John Quincy Adams biography.” Not even if I live to be 115. So you are off the hook for life.
               
              The recommended book is a deceptively cunning Rorschach test. It is an attempt to confirm that the quarry shares the same values as the predator. Giving people books they don’t want to read is not just an invasion of privacy: It’s a smack in the face. It’s punitive. It’s cruel. It is a socially acceptable form of sadism, the modern cultural equivalent of medieval hot pitch. I’m upset with you because you didn’t offer me your spare ticket to Hamilton on Broadway. So here’s the 1,200-page biography of Alexander Hamilton that inspired the musical. Enjoy!
               
              People love to give you the book that changed their life. The Little Prince. Dow 36,000. The Official Preppy Handbook. Cujo. Frankly, unless the book explains how to cure lower back pain, I’m not interested. I am not interested in the book about octogenarian decathlon participants or the one about how the invention of tea cozies changed the world, and I am definitely not interested in the book explaining what really happened to that doomed Mars rover. I have my own reading agenda, and it does not resemble yours.
               
              People are most likely to recommend books when the victim’s immune system is at its weakest. Hearing that you are laid up in bed with a torn meniscus or typhus, they pounce like uncharacteristically empathetic hyenas, armed with exotic chocolates, bouquets of gorgeous flowers, and potboilers by Dan Brown. They are well-meaning but annoying, not unlike Marie Antoinette, herself a reader of light novels. When confined for weeks to my bed of pain, my philosophy regarding get-well gifts is: Leave the cannoli, take the Kate Atkinson.
               
              The chronic recommender of books clings to an unyielding and implacable personal philosophy. There is something missing in your life. It can be fixed by reading this book. Please let me improve you. But most people don’t want to be improved. Not if it involves reading a book about the deep state. With only a few exceptions — the Bible, the Koran — nothing important in life can be fixed by reading a book. This is particularly true of books written by or about politicians, or morally regenerated white-collar criminals, or plucky defensemen for the Red Wings. It should not be necessary to keep reminding people of this.
               
              I enthusiastically accept book recommendations from only three people: my sister Eileen, my daughter, and my editor at The Rotarian.
              People who recommend books display a willful obtuseness and insensitivity toward their victims. They want you to like a particular book even though all the data available to them suggests that you will hate it. This is like offering an Ohio State Buckeye a book about Michigan football. It’s like inviting a vegan to dinner and handing her a heaping bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Why would you do that? Were you paying any attention to who I am? Did you not notice that I was reading a book about Anna Karenina, not a book by Anna Kendrick?
               
              Why is it that even on our deathbeds we are still thinking about the precious time we squandered reading the “classics” assigned to us in high school? The Scarlet Letter. Jude the Obscure. Death of a Salesman. Silas Marner. We hated these books, not just because they were unreadable, which they usually were, but because we were forced to read them. That’s what the compulsive book recommender is — your high school English teacher, Sister Regina Vindicta.
               
              What goes through the mind of the obsessive book giver? Taking the charitable view, people sometimes give you books because they honestly believe that if you want to understand what’s going on in the world, you need to read it. Incorrect. Not everyone is fascinated by the hidden structural causes of unemployment. Not everyone cares what Barry Manilow thinks about Bette Midler. Moreover, people don’t all read for the same reason. Some people read to get information. Others read to be reassured. Most people read to be diverted.
               
              I read because I like the way writers put words together, because language used well has actually changed my view of the world. Great Expectations is superhumanly inspiring to anyone growing up in a housing project. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a personal invitation to the fun house. A James Ellroy novel is like a 450-page tenor sax solo. What the obsessive book recommender fails to understand is: Not everybody likes the sax.
               
              I enthusiastically accept book recommendations from only three people: my sister Eileen, my daughter, and my editor at The Rotarian. Everyone else I ignore. Still, in a spirit of woefully misguided human kindness, every few years I will stack up the books I have been given or have had recommended to me and vow to spend the next three months reading them and clearing the decks forever.
               
              But I get only about 30 pages into the book about the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu before I give up. Then a few years later I try again. By then, another half-dozen books have been added to my reading list. The enterprise has become hopelessly Sisyphean. By the way, Sisyphus spent eternity futilely pushing a boulder up a hill. But he didn’t spend eternity writing about it. Otherwise, I would have to read that book, too.
              In my office I have a small pile of books I give to people when they ask me for something I think they might really enjoy: Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively, Darwin, Marx, Wagner by Jacques Barzun, Meeting Evil by Thomas Berger, A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr, Light Years by James Salter, The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene, The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico, and Travels With Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuściński. These are books I have read again and again, books that mean a lot to me, books that I honestly believe are as close to perfection as any human undertaking can get.
               
              Sometimes I give them to people and they seem reasonably appreciative. But most times I never hear from them again. On almost no occasion has anyone come back to me and begged for a second “desert island” book recommendation. That’s because they have, perhaps reluctantly, come to understand that these are books that I love, these are books that mean a lot to me, these are my desert island books.
               
              Go find your own desert island.
               
              Joe Queenan is a freelance writer based in Tarrytown, New York.
              • This story originally appeared in the January 2020 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              Thanks For Not Sharing 2020-01-08 09:00:00Z 0

              Selection of D5010 2022-2023 District Governor Designate

               

               
              Please help me welcome and congratulate Mike Ferris as the 2022-2023 District Governor Designate for D5010.
               
              Michael Ferris was inducted into Rotary in 2003 and is a member of the Anchorage South Rotary Club, where he served as Club President in 2015-2016.  Mike has completed the D5010 Leadership Academy and has served in a variety of  Club committees, including most recently as Membership, Foundation and Dictionary Project Co-Chair.  Beyond the club, Mike has served on several D5010 committees as Membership Committee Co-Chair, Public Image Committee and as Grants Co-Chair.
               
              Mike continues to serve his community as a coach for 20 years and an official for Pop Warner Youth Football (ages 7-9) and High School Wrestling.  He has been involved in The Resource Development Council, the Alaska Support Industrial Alliance, the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce and The Alaska State Chamber. Mike has also served as President of a local Toastmasters club.
               
              Mike has been a leader as early as High School, in both his personal and professional life. He has served as a deck boss at age 18 on his family’s commercial crab boat, the F/V SEABROOKE, fishing in the Bering Sea.  Later he captained the same vessel, generating some of the largest crab quotas in the fleet.  From 2000-2002 Mike led a team of Lithuanians at a refinery, moving product through ports in Lithuania and Latvia.
               
              Mike will strive to keep Rotary fresh, while preserving the true Fellowship behind Rotary, “Service Above Self”.  
               
              Sincerely,
              Andre' Layral
              D5010 Governor. 2019-2020
               
              Selection of D5010 2022-2023 District Governor Designate 2020-01-08 09:00:00Z 0

              The Dry Blue Eyes

              A dad laments putting the lack in lachrymosity
              by Jeff Ruby
              Illustration by Richard Mia
               
              I am on the couch watching E.T. with my young son when the sniffles hit. Soon, as if someone has pressed a button, my tears begin to fall, thick and fast. When E.T. flies off in his ship forever and John Williams’ music tugs and swells like some kind of sadistic woodwind tear-generator, I lose it completely. Sobbing. Gasping for air, for Pete’s sake.
               
              At some point, I realize my son has stopped watching the movie and is regarding me with a mixture of curiosity and horror. “Dad’s crying!” he hollers.
              Various family members come out of their rooms to gawk at the wet, heaving mess that Dad has become, but by this time I’ve begun to compose myself. My children know me as silly and embarrassing and even willfully dumb, but this is the first time they’ve seen me cry. Mortified, I vow it will be the last.
              I would not call myself the strong, silent type. I’m weak and loud, actually, overemotional and periodically prone to senseless outbursts. And yet: I do not cry in front of my children.
               
              At my beloved grandfather’s funeral a few years back, with my kids at my side, I didn’t squeeze out a single tear. During my Great Cancer Scare of 2017, I spent a brutal week imagining them growing up without a father yet showed little emotion, only a steely resolve. In both cases, any loss of control was scheduled in advance, when I had a good block of time alone and would not have to rejoin society until mental equilibrium had been restored. In other words, I bawled my eyes out in private. But there was some kind of public barrier that I couldn’t cross.
               
              This is patently ridiculous. I know that crying is normal for any human and is nothing to be ashamed of, regardless of gender or emotional IQ. I also know that it’s good for you. According to William Frey, a neurology professor at the University of Minnesota and one of the leading academics to study crying, tears contain adrenocorticotropin, an indicator of stress. That could mean that not crying only increases stress.
               
              Other men seem to have understood that intuitively. The Old Testament overflows with sensitive characters like Abraham, Joseph, and King David, all of whom blubber without shame. Even the manly Esau, when he learns that Jacob has stolen his birthright, whimpers as only a guy who loses to his brother could. (He also weeps when they reunite.) Never once is there a stigma to those tears. Overt expressions of grief and joy reside within the normal range of response to biblical situations. Crying makes these men relatable, sincere, trustworthy — perhaps even heroic.
               
              Or so suggests an anonymous 18th-century writer quoted in Tom Lutz’s 1999 book, Crying: The Natural and Cultural History of Tears: “Moral weeping is the sign of so noble a passion, that it may be questioned whether those are properly men, who never weep upon any occasion. They may pretend to be as heroical as they please, and pride themselves in a stoical insensibility; but this will never pass for virtue with the true judges of human nature.”
               
              When did this attitude change? Was it in the Victorian era, when views on masculinity and femininity were defined by each gender’s approach to emotion? Women were depicted as impossibly fragile time bombs prone to hot-flash hysteria and in constant danger of taking to their beds. The steady, sturdy gentlemen in their lives were expected to be disciplined, rational, and averse to tears. This meant that men were either (a) suddenly content to lead buttoned-up lives of taciturn rectitude or (b) suffering privately with consequences that came out in less emotionally healthy ways than simple tears. (See Jack the Ripper.)
               
              The stiff upper lip remained a fixture of Western male culture through much of the 20th century. For my stern immigrant great-grandfather and war-hero grandfather, tears were allowed only at the cemetery and, maybe, the altar. Then my father came along. A wartime baby raised by women, he grew up to be a gentle, hugging mushpot, strong and sensitive and ahead of his time in preaching the gospel of empathy. When I wrecked his car as a teenager and was hysterical with guilt, he shrugged and asked if I wanted to shoot some pool. “You’ve punished yourself enough,” he said. By the time of the 1972 release of Free to Be ... You and Me — a book and recording that challenged accepted gender roles and officially made it all right for an entire generation of boys to cry — he had been saying it for years.
               
              But here’s the weird thing: Only once do I remember my father crying, and that was because he missed my mom, who had been out of town for a week. It was one of those terrifying moments when it hits you that the people in charge are not really in control after all, and maybe Earth spins on an axis of chaos. I assumed that his crying represented the beginning of a breakdown of sorts and that things would never be the same. As it turned out, the moment was an aberration, a blip on the timeline. But this blip must have profoundly affected me, because I still insist on hiding within the same all-powerful Dad shell that sheltered my forefathers.
               
              It was one of those terrifying moments when it hits you that the people in charge are not really in control after all.
               
              What do my kids make of all this? They’re growing up in a world that appears to have split in two. Meghan Markle, now known as the Duchess of Sussex, adopted the masculine pose of the stiff upper lip as she adjusted to life in the royal spotlight. How did that work out? “I really tried,” she reports in a recently released documentary, “but I think that what that does internally is probably really damaging.”
               
              Meanwhile, a 2007 Penn State study by Stephanie Shields and Leah Warner suggested that crying in men can lead to a “positive evaluation” by other people. But as Shields explained, that favorable reaction can depend on the situation. When LeBron James sobbed uncontrollably on the court after finally bringing an NBA title to Cleveland in 2016, we understood: He had overcome a decade of criticism and heartbreak and ended 52 years of his hometown’s sports misery. Tears made sense.
               
              Contrast this with the story of Adam Morrison, an All-American forward for Gonzaga University who, as he began to realize his team was going to lose during the 2006 NCAA basketball tournament, openly wept in a nationally televised game. Cameras focused on his face, almost cruelly, as if judging this startling loss of decorum and forever solidifying his legacy. For some hoops fans, that’s all they remember about Morrison: “Oh yeah, the dude who cried on the court.” In sports, it seems tears are OK only when you’re a winner. Or when you indulge in what’s known as the “man cry,” a single tear that streams down a male’s face while he reveals no other emotion whatsoever. So finally we have a tactic that makes it OK for 50 percent of the population to weep, so long as it’s laconic.
               
              Back at home, as I navel-gaze about what this all means, my wife is matter-of-factly showcasing a full range of emotions for our offspring. This includes crying at everything from shaving commercials to photos of the family picking apples in 2013. That is strength and our children know it — and I’m pleased to say, all three of them cry constantly.
               
              As for me, I keep waiting for the moment when I overcome years of conditioning, when real, raw emotion — not the reflexive Pavlovian response triggered by a fictional animatronic alien and a manipulative film score — boils over, and I show my children all of myself. They’re waiting, too. It’s only a matter of time. During a recent weekend in Albuquerque, one in which three generations of Rubys sat in a field at 5 a.m. to watch hot air balloons launch into the endless Southwestern sky, I asked my father about this not-crying business. “Tears were never close to the surface for me then,” he said. “I suppose I showed my emotions in other ways.”
               
              But two days later, when he was saying goodbye at the airport, he pulled me in for one more hug and told me he loved me, and I saw his eyes welling up. He’s 77, so maybe there’s hope for me yet.
               
              Jeff Ruby has written about his daughter Hannah and his son, Max, for The Rotarian; his daughter Avi awaits her moment in the sun.
               
              • This story originally appeared in the January 2020 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              The Dry Blue Eyes 2019-12-18 09:00:00Z 0

              Our World:  A New Chapter
               

               
              Nancy Leonhardt is a member of the Rotary Club of West Little Rock, Arkansas
              Image credit: John David Pittman
               
              When Nancy Leonhardt was asked if she would serve as governor of District 6150, she said no. She had her hands full as the executive director of Adult Learning Alliance, a nonprofit that supports adult literacy councils across Arkansas. But leaders in the district asked again. “I decided I’d go to a higher authority,” she says with a laugh. “I went to the Learning Alliance board of directors, anticipating that they would say no. Well, my board let me down and said I should do it.”
               
              The ALA board members valued Rotary’s focus on literacy. They recognized the benefit of networking with Rotarians. And they figured that the leadership training Leonhardt would get would benefit their organization as well.
               
              Leonhardt had first learned about Rotary in the 1980s, when she was an urban planning consultant in her home state of California. Though women could not join at the time, she went to a number of meetings of the Rotary Club of Redlands as a guest of her boss, Patrick Meyer.
               
              Leonhardt left consulting and moved with her husband and two children to Wisconsin and later to Arkansas. While her kids were young, she worked part time at nonprofit organizations and volunteered with the PTA. But once her son was in college and her daughter was in high school, she decided it was time to go back to working full time. And it was time to join Rotary. That was in 2007.
               
              “I’d always had it in the back of my mind that if I ever went back to work, I’d like to get involved with Rotary,” Leonhardt says. “I guess I didn’t think I could get involved when I was an at-home mom. I know better now.”
               
              As district governor in 2017-18, she focused on literacy, adult literacy in particular, and made a point of talking about it whenever she visited clubs. Her work has had a measurable impact. “The ALA has a new literacy council being developed in the Jonesboro area, and it’s a Rotarian leading the charge,” she says. “More and more Rotary clubs in the district are supporting their local literacy councils. And because of my going to zone events and multidistrict events, more clubs around the state are aware of what I do.” The members of the ALA board were right: Leonhardt’s decision to become a district governor was fair to all concerned.
              — HANK SARTIN
              • This story originally appeared in the December 2019 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              Our World:  A New Chapter  2019-12-18 09:00:00Z 0

              People of Action Around the World

              Canada
              The Rotary Club of Langley, British Columbia, led the drive to construct an interpretive center on the grounds of a local arboretum. The 1,000-square-foot post-and-beam structure of red cedar, pine, and fir harvested in the province opened in late June. “There are dozens of nonprofit organizations in Langley that meet at people’s homes or whatnot,” says club member Allan Richmond. “We thought, why not have a building that any one of these nonprofits can use?” The club provided $190,000 for the project, which was matched by Langley Township. Local residents also contributed materials and labor.
               
              Trinidad and Tobago
              More than 100 high school students from across the Caribbean demonstrated their diplomatic savvy in a Model United Nations sponsored by the Rotary Club of Central Port of Spain. The two-day mock General Assembly debate, with the youths donning garb representative of their randomly chosen countries, centered on the global refugee crisis. Four attendees who had fled their native Venezuela to settle in Trinidad and Tobago participated, and though they represented Afghanistan and Guyana during the March debate, they drew on their experiences as refugees. “They had a lot of valuable perspectives to share,” says club member Abigail Edwards.
               
              Malawi
              A widow with five children, living in a 90-square-foot mud and brick room with a thatched roof, was offered a helping hand by a hardworking team from Habitat for Humanity that included four Rotarians and two of their spouses. In March, the volunteers constructed a three-room, 360-square-foot house. The Rotarians — Carey Beamesderfer, Doug Borrett, and David Driscoll of the Rotary Club of West El Paso, Texas, and Joann Navar of the Rotary Club of Anthony, New Mexico — are all on the board of directors of Habitat for Humanity El Paso.
               
              Habitat for Humanity says Malawi needs 21,000 new housing units over each of the next 10 years.
               
              Image credit: Courtesy of the Rotary Club of Llanidloes
               
              England and Wales have 2,500 miles of National Trails.
               
              United Kingdom
              An annual walk across Wales drew more than 200 wayfarers in June to hike more than 40 miles in one very long day. This year’s event raised more than $22,000 for organizations of the ramblers’ choosing. “There are many ways to raise money, but seldom does a charity event involve crossing a country in one day on foot,” says Paul Jones, a member of the Rotary Club of Llanidloes, which sponsors the event with the Rotary clubs of Newtown and Machynlleth. The three clubs supported the walkers with food and cheers along the well-marked route, which starts in the west near the coast in Machynlleth and goes through the hilly countryside of central Wales before finishing at the Anchor Inn pub just across the English border (walks of 26, 16, and 8 miles were also options).
               
              “Every year I meet people digging deep to finish what they’ve started,” says Jones, who carries out the duties of “back marker” – the person who brings up the rear of the group. “I’ve crossed the line with someone who didn’t finish the walk the previous year and had returned to set the record straight. From a 13-year-old to an elderly gentleman with tears in his eyes, every one of them is an inspiration, and they are the reason I return every year.”
               
              India
              When flooding brought on by heavy rainfall displaced more than 100,000 people in the plains of West Garo Hills in July, the Rotaract Club of NEHU (North-Eastern Hill University), Shillong, sprang into action. The Rotaractors collected donations from university faculty, staff, and students, as well as the Rotaract Club of Guwahati East. Five NEHU Rotaractors traveled about 180 miles to the hard-hit village of Haribhanga in a vehicle supplied by their sponsoring Rotary Club of Orchid City Shillong. There, they handed out packages with rice, dal, milk packets, cookies, soap, bleach, feminine hygiene products, and clothing directly to more than 200 households.
               
               
              • This story originally appeared in the December 2019 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
               
              People of Action Around the World 2019-12-11 09:00:00Z 0

              Our World: All Well and Good
               

              Image credit: Courtesy of the Rotaract Club of Adenta Central
               
              For residents of Kramokrom, a small village in Ghana, a lack of access to clean water meant they had to rely on digging shallow wells, harvesting rainwater, or sending children to fetch water from nearby communities, which meant they often missed, or were late for, school. The community also suffered from a high rate of waterborne diseases
              .
              So with help from residents, the Rotaract Club of Adenta Central built a mechanized borehole that was connected to an overhead reservoir and 10 taps to provide clean water to the community.
               
              The Water Is Life project was suggested by then-club member Husseini Abdullah, who lives in Kramokrom. Before proceeding with the project, however, the club wanted to be sure that access to clean water was a priority for residents. “We carried out a community needs assessment to find out what were the most pressing challenges in the community,” says Edem Agbenyo, who helped guide the project. “We wanted to be certain that a water project would address the problems observed.”
               
              After learning that residents wanted clean water, the club consulted with experts, including borehole companies, to determine the best site for the hole. Once they had dug, water samples were tested at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s Water Research Institute in Accra to make certain the water was safe to drink.
               
              The community had a high rate of waterborne diseases.
               
              The project took second place in the 2018 Commitment Awards, organized by the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy at the University of Erfurt in Germany and the Engagementpreis Foundation, which recognizes innovative and sustainable social projects. The award included $1,750 in project support.
               
              The club involved local residents in digging the well and installing the reservoir and taps to ensure that they would feel a sense of ownership. A water committee has been set up to maintain the water pump, and Rotaractors from the Adenta Central club will visit every three months to monitor the project and train the committee.
              Agbenyo says schoolchildren will now be able to focus on their studies. “Children will have more time to prepare for school because they no longer will have to boil water or filter it before usage,” he says.
              — ANNEMARIE MANNION
              • This story originally appeared in the December 2019 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
               
              Our World: All Well and Good  2019-12-11 09:00:00Z 0

              December 2019 Governor’s Message

              December 2019 Governor’s Message:

              The holiday season is a joyful time to be with family and friends.  It is also a time to reflect and be grateful for all that we have as Rotarians when others locally and globally have so little.  Today, December 3rd is Giving Tuesday and my best hope is that all Rotarians in Alaska will remember to give generously to the Rotary Foundation.  The Rotary Foundation has earned the highest possible rating from independent evaluator Charity Navigators for the past twelve years.  When the Rotary Foundation partners with others your donation is increased and has greater impact. The Rotary Foundation tackles head on some of the world’s most difficult problems, delivering sustainable and long lasting results. Rotarians are able to use a vast network and resources of the Rotary Foundation to take action locally and globally.  Our members can donate funds that support the Rotary Peace Centers that trains Peace Fellows in the skills of Peace Building and Conflict Resolution.

              I have completed 33 of 38 Rotary Club visits, and this week I’ll be making visits to three clubs in Fairbanks.  Next week I’ll be wrapping up my club visits, my own Fairbanks Sunrisers Rotary Club the final stop of this tremendous journey that began on July 1-5 in Ketchikan. Having visited 38 clubs has allowed me to meet many dedicated Rotarians who serve their club and serve others locally and globally.  I’ve seen first hand the many projects and fundraisers clubs in our Rotary District 5010 do.  Rotarians are making a difference here in Alaska.  Above all else, I’ve met new Rotarian friends and learned of club successes, club challenges and club plans for the future.  Rotarians care deeply about their clubs and take seriously the work they do to make the world a better place.

              In the past few weeks I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with D5010 Rotary Youth Exchange.  DGN Cheryl, DGE Joe and I met with RYE Chair Jeff Johnson (Palmer Club) and Deputy Chair to get caught up on all things youth exchange.  At this meeting we talked about the implementation of the new RYE application and screening interview process implemented in 2019 for selection of 2020 Outbound students.  We also discussed the D5010 West Coast Tour, specifically the purpose and benefits of the tour.  A consensus decision was made to cancel the tour in 2020, replacing it with something smaller in Alaska in 2020 providing time to have a more collaborative process to design the purpose and benefits of any outside tour sponsored by D5010.  We also spent time talking about Youth Protection and how important it is that all our various volunteers and host families know what to do when a student may face unwelcome behaviors, including sexual harassment.  The following week I attended a planning session with the RYE team, who also participated in Awareness Training about harassment and abuse. Club YEO’s will receive similar training at Winter Orientation.

              The D5010 Conference Planning Committee is in full swing planning the 2020 Peace Forum and District Conference to be held April 30 to May 3, 2020 in Fairbanks.  A brief promo video is available on the RotaryDistrict5010 website. Please note: Full registration includes the Peace Forum on Thursday.  Currently registration is $375 for early bird registration now until the end of the year 12/31/2019.  After 12/31, registration will increase to $400 (includes the banquet). Otherwise the Peace Forum only is $50 and the Saturday DG banquet only is otherwise $75.   Friday and/or Saturday all day registration is $150 each (includes lunch).  Banquet separately is $75. Friday or Saturday lunch separately is $50.  Young leader, Rotaract, or anyone under 30 may register for the full conference for $100.  Note, Rotarian spouses should register as a Rotarian attendee.  A link to register for the conference can be found at:  https://www.crsadmin.com/EventPortal/Registrations/PublicFill/EventPublicFill.aspx?evtid=48e0d9a0-67db-4574-9867-b8c61179c09d

              I would like to encourage all Club Presidents to designate someone in their club to submit stories with pictures of recent club service projects, fundraising events, youth programs, etc., in the time period of July 2019 to the present.  We are looking for bite sized articles (3-4 paragraphs - what, when, where, who).  Send only a few pictures, but choose those pictures where Rotarians are having fun or a picture of Rotarians with the beneficiaries of the project. Please send your articles to Andre’ Layral for review.  You may submit the articles using the new D5010 Mobile APP (GoTo Latest News button, select Submit a News Story).  You may also e-mail to alayral.1920@gmail.com

              If you enjoy writing and would like to help serve as an editor to review and edit Club News stories for me, please contact me by calling 907-460-7786.  If you are web savvy and would like to be trained how to post these stories on our district ClubRunner website, please contact me.  We are not planning to send out a print or digital newsletter, instead we are encouraging members to utilize the D5010 Mobile APP by going to Social Media,  then use the D5010 website or D5010 Facebook buttons.  

              Sincerely,

              DG Andre’ Layral

              alayral.1920@gmail.com

              Cell 907-460-7786

              Upcoming Events or Deadlines:

              December 15, 2019 - Deadline to designate your club RYLA Chair and submit your RYLA Club Commitment Form (find it at https://rotarydistrict5010.org/Page/ryla).

              December 31, 2019 - Early District Conference Registration ends, goes up to $400 on 1/1/2020

                  https://www.crsadmin.com/EventPortal/Registrations/PublicFill/EventPublicFill.aspx?evtid=48e0d9a0-67db-4574-9867-b8c61179c09d

              February 1, 2020 - 9:00-4:00 PM

              D5010 Team Training Assembly (aka., District Leadership Meeting) in Anchorage

              March 5-8, 2020. RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) in Homer

                  https://rotarydistrict5010.org/Page/ryla 

              April 30, 2020 - D5010 Peace Forum - Fairbanks Westmark Hotel

                  (open to Rotarians, Young Leaders and other interested community members)

              May 1-3 - D5010 District Conference - Fairbanks Westmark Hotel

              June 6-10, 2020 - Rotary International Conference - Honolulu Hawaii

               

              December 2019 Governor’s Message 2019-12-04 09:00:00Z 0
              RYLA 2019 Announcement 2019-12-04 09:00:00Z 0

              Bringing Up Daddy

               
              What to expect when the parent becomes the parented
               
              By Paul Engleman
               
              Illustration by Richard Mia
               
              Twenty or so years ago, I wrote a short-lived weekly column in the Chicago Sun-Times called Diary of a Dad Housewife. At the time, we had a four-year-old and a two-year-old, and although the topic, parenting, was ripe for dispensing advice, I did little of that, knowing that I didn’t yet have much wisdom to share. Instead, I focused on relating the circumstances that pave the path to wisdom — emergency diaper changing in sketchy gas station bathrooms, avoiding injury to your hands or ego during car seat installation, making sure you dress yourself at least half as neatly as your kids, lest someone suspect you’re a kidnapper.
               
              In 27 years of being a parent, I’ve found only one universal truth about raising kids: All parents have the same goal — that their children grow up to be independent human beings. We may wish for them to be happy, healthy, and successful, but the only thing we are fundamentally responsible for is guiding a fragile, totally dependent newborn to the land of adulthood. Assuming that the journey has not been detoured by health problems, at some point they are on their own. Although you’ll always be the parent, the need to act like one will eventually diminish, and at some point, you might be the one who needs parenting yourself.
               
              Waist-deep in our 60s, my wife, Barb, and I now find ourselves in that tricky transition phase between being a parent and being parented. It’s a phase that’s already underway by the time you notice. It begins situationally, in subtle ways. Take driving, for example. After our kids got their licenses, they volunteered to drive anytime we were going anywhere. Now they are still likely to insist on driving — no longer because they are eager to do it, but because they believe they are better drivers than we are. And they’re probably right.
               
              For several years now, when we’ve gone to a restaurant, one of the kids has been likely to reach for the check. This started as a tentative, symbolic gesture, but now sometimes they actually mean it. The day is approaching when they’ll be better able to afford it than my wife and I — which I hope will be a reflection of how well they’re doing and not how poorly we are.
               
              These days, one of our kids calls every other day or so. More often than not, their purpose is more to check up on us than to let us know what’s going on with them. Living in the same city means they regularly visit our house, where they take charge of any heavy lifting that needs to be done. But they still almost always bring their laundry. Adult kids lugging their laundry home may be a trite notion, but it has value as an example of the changing relationship from both angles. It signifies a continuation of their dependence, even if prompted more by convenience than by need, and it also allows them to check up on the parents without being too obvious about it.
               
              One of the things I’m mindful about is not repeating some of the behaviors of my parents, my father in particular. Years ago, when my wife and I would visit them in New Jersey, my father would insist on driving an hour to pick us up at Newark International Airport, which is at the confluence of a half-dozen highways totaling about 60 lanes, many configured like a roller coaster, with traffic moving at about the speed of that carnival ride. Eventually, Barb was just as insistent — in private with me — that she wasn’t making the trip again unless we rented a car. She was willing to indulge my father’s need to feel helpful, but she drew a double yellow line when it meant putting our lives at risk. My father did not take the news well.
               
              How smoothly this transition goes depends on how willing you are to step up, if you are the kid, or how willing you are to step aside, if you’re the parent. We probably erred on the coddling side as parents, me especially, and that may account for why our kids still turn to us for guidance on matters that they are perfectly capable of figuring out for themselves. But we have become more careful about offering unsolicited advice. This is a lesson Barb has had to learn while engaging with our older son. They both work at small nonprofit organizations, so they occupy some common professional turf. Initially, when they compared notes, he would welcome the wisdom she was eager to offer; nowadays, he’s more likely to be the one making the suggestions. It’s her turn to do the listening.
               
              “Transitions go more smoothly if there is already good communication,” says Sally Strosahl, who has been a marriage and family therapist in the Chicago suburbs for four decades and has three adult children and two grandsons. Strosahl is the author of Loving Your Marriage in Retirement: Keep the Music Playing, a book that draws on her personal as well as professional experience and includes contributions from her husband, Tom Johnson, a retired newspaper editor. “Coming to terms with the effects of aging is an ongoing task for all of us,” Strosahl says. “Getting older is not a choice. But how we choose to feel about it — and deal with it — is a choice.”
               
              Strosahl recommends dealing with it by keeping a sense of humor and approaching aging in a lighthearted way. “Tom and I laugh with each other about our senior moments, and we deliberately do that with our children,” she says. “We want them to know that we’re open to being teased about it.”
              In Strosahl’s view, this helps to clear the path ahead for truthful communication when issues of serious consequence present themselves. “We set the stage for being able to say, ‘I need your help,’” she says. “Our children do begin to take over more as we become more impaired, yet we can still be the leader by allowing ourselves to be vulnerable and by seeing our vulnerability not as weakness but as truth. Aging gracefully is about acceptance and choosing to save our energies for what can bring actual results.”
               
              Technology is one obvious, if clichéd, area in which vulnerability can show up early and often. Our kids are likely to be more facile than we are, and this can lead to frustration on our part and impatience on theirs. When these situations arise, I think it’s useful to have some defensive ammunition ready, like reminders of who showed them how to use a turntable or taught them to parallel park.
               
              Forgetfulness and hearing loss are two all-too-familiar signs of senescence. Keeping a sense of humor can have some value here too. As a friend of mine likes to say, “Is it my age or is it the weed?” But memory loss should not be taken lightly when it’s an early warning signal of dementia, often accompanied by confusion about time and place or difficulty performing familiar tasks. I can deflect our kids’ observations about my hearing decline by attributing it to a long history of rock concerts, but soon I will have to face the music, as Strosahl and Johnson did recently.
               
              “We had both noticed that we were having difficulty hearing each other, but neither of us wanted to admit that we were losing our hearing,” she says. “Our daughter finally sat us down and did a mini-intervention requesting that we get our hearing checked. We decided to do it on Valentine’s Day as a gift to each other. And we discovered that hearing aids do help! I’m sure our children had spoken about it, and we had all joked about it, but we needed the final callout.”
               
              One major development that can complicate and enrich relationships is the arrival of grandchildren. Strosahl calls grandparenting “a dance of balance and boundaries,” noting that “the baby boom has become the grand-parent boom,” with many of us taking on the role of babysitter and some serving as primary caregivers to the next generation. Johnson points to the irony that, as a family therapist, his wife is often called upon to offer guidance on child rearing, but when it comes to their own grandchildren, they follow the recommendation of a friend: Do not give any advice unless it’s asked for.
               
              That seems like a good tip for most of our interactions on the road to role reversal. Strosahl adds some deeper wisdom with an alliterative lift: “Let love lead.”
               
              Paul Engleman is a Chicago-based freelancer and a frequent contributor to The Rotarian.
               
              • This story originally appeared in the December 2019 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              Bringing Up Daddy 2019-12-02 09:00:00Z 0

              A Grand (and Great-Grand) Tradition

              Proud your parents were Rotarians? Some Rotary families go back five generations.
               
                                                            By Kevin Cook                                       Illustrations by Greg Clarke
               
              Paul Harris and his wife, Jean, never had children. They saw Rotary as their extended family; he spoke of each nation as having a place in “the world’s family.” Since 1905, Rotarians have carried that message all over the globe, starting in their own homes.
               
              “Growing up, I heard stories of two legendary men — my great-grandfather and Paul Harris,” says Luanne Arredondo, whose great-grandfather Ezequiel Cabeza De Baca became the second governor of New Mexico in 1917. “He was a member of the Rotary Club of Albuquerque. Twenty years later, his son — my grandfather — joined. I remember our trips across the border to Juarez, where my family helped with an orphanage and built houses for the poor. My father, another proud Rotarian, used to tell me that Paul Harris would be proud of our family. He would say, ‘Luanne, women are not allowed in Rotary, but someday they will be.’”
               
              Today Mama Lu, as everyone calls her, is governor of District 5300 and a founder of California’s newly chartered Rotary Club of Greater San Gabriel Valley. She’s one of many third-, fourth-, and even fifth-generation Rotarians whose family stories are as old as Harris’ Rotary pin and as fresh as this year’s newly inducted members.
              Fourth-generation Rotarian Craig Horrocks, governor-elect of District 9920 in Oceania, has a copy of Harris’ 1928 autobiography, The Founder of Rotary, inscribed to his great-grandfather, Sir George Fowlds. After meeting Harris on a trip to the United States in 1920, Fowlds sailed home to Auckland, New Zealand, full of the spirit of service and fellowship and in the hopes of founding the first Rotary club in the Southern Hemisphere. The Australians beat him to the punch, chartering the Rotary Club of Melbourne in April 1921. Fowlds’ consolation prize was a copy of Harris’ book with a warm inscription: To Honorable George, whose devotion to Rotary has been one of the highlights of the movement. Sincerely Yours, Paul, Apr 3 ’28.
              Dave Stillwagon of Ohio is a fourth-generation Rotarian — and the fourth in a line of Rotary Club of Youngstown presidents dating back to 1927. “My great-grandfather joined that year and later served as president,” Stillwagon says. “My grandfather followed him into Rotary — he had no choice, really, since our patriarch wouldn’t let him marry my grandmother unless he joined.”
               
              Today, Stillwagon brings Rotary principles to his work as CEO of Youngstown’s Community Corrections Association, a nonprofit that helps people who have been convicted of crimes make the transition to productive lives in northeastern Ohio — a career he considers “an extension of Rotary. It’s about changing the world for the better.” His firm employs cognitive therapy to help those it serves “unlearn criminal behaviors, to see their lives as a chance to make better choices.” And it’s working: Less than 23 percent of his clients wind up back in prison within three years, a rate that’s significantly lower than the national average.
               
              “I’m a firm believer that we’re put on this earth for a reason,” he says. “Service to others is part of that reason.”
               
              Like Stillwagon and countless others whose families have carried Rotary membership through multiple generations, Magozaemon “Mago” Takano XVIII believes his family’s traditions and those of the organization make a good match. “My father taught me that the values of our business are similar to those of Rotary,” says Takano, a past governor of Japan’s District 2620 and a member of the Rotary Club of Kofu, a city of about 200,000 in the shadow of Mount Fuji. His family, which started out by selling salt, has helped drive growth in Kofu since 1568. (When the Kofu region ran out of salt in the 16th century, the first Magozaemon helped save the day.)
               
              Takano remembers the first time he saw a faded black-and-white photo of a meeting of the Kofu Rotary club, where his grandfather was a charter member. “In the picture, my grandfather was wearing a Rotary pin, and I started thinking about why he chose to join,” he says. Upon becoming a member himself, he found the answer in its combination of altruism and networking. “The Four-Way Test my father taught me drove home the core values of service, fellowship, diversity, integrity, and leadership,” he says. “At the same time, a young professional like me got to interact with business and local leaders I might never meet otherwise.”
               
              Takano’s son Yasuto recently followed his forefathers’ example and became a fourth-generation member of the Kofu club, which celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2020. “The Four-Way Test will be just as important to his generation,” Takano says. “One difference may be that my son has even more opportunities through the growing global network of Rotary. I hope he’ll feel as proud to be a Rotarian as his ancestors have been.”
               
              As Rotary enters the 2020s, more Rotarians are finding themselves part of a multigenerational demographic boomlet.
               
              Ann Parker, a member of the Rotary Club of Iowa City, is a fifth-generation Rotarian — or ninth-generation, depending on how you figure it, with four Rotarians on one side of the family and five on the other. Fellow Midwesterner Mary Shackleton is a fourth-generation Rotarian who left Indiana for the Rotary Club of Metro New York City, where social events include concerts in Central Park and trips to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her parents, “Shack” and Wilma, are past presidents of the Rotary Club of Attica-Williamsport, Indiana, and after serving as an assistant governor of District 7230 at the same time Wilma served in the same role in District 6560, Mary is now governor-elect of her district.
               
              Natalie Bailey of the Rotary Club of Coronado, California — whose mother, Suzanne Popp, was that club’s first female president — is yet another fourth-generation Rotarian. And at 26, Bailey is also the founding president of the Rotaract Club of Coronado, chartered in February. “I’ve got photos of my first Rotary meeting, when I was five days old,” she says. “I was the newborn baby receiving my first Paul Harris Award, donated on my behalf by Paul Plumb, the same man who inducted me into Rotary last year.” Rotarians her age, she says, “want to give back just as much as anyone else, but we don’t have as much time” as older members, “or, more to the point, money. A lot of the service Rotarians provide is writing big checks, which is generous and very impactful, but the younger generation doesn’t have so much money to contribute on top of expensive lunch meetings and annual dues. So the Rotaract club I started came up with fundraisers that were fun social and networking events — a trivia night and a bar crawl — and they were huge successes.”
              In 2013, Jamshyd Vazifdar joined the Rotary Club of Bombay, whose members are so tradition-minded they never changed their name to the Rotary Club of Mumbai. His great-grandfather Nowroji Vazifdar joined the Bombay club in 1950 and was followed by his son, Jamshed, and grandson (Jamshyd’s father), Nowroze, who has been a member since 1994.
               
              Then there’s Nicholas Hafey, whose great-grandfather and grandfather were Rotarians in Australia, and whose father, Phil Hafey, is governor of District 9650. Nicholas was inducted as a member of the Rotary Club of Laurieton last year.
               
              Eamon Wheeler followed his great-grandfather, grandmother (Ingrid Brown, 2009-10 governor of District 7930), and mother into the Rotary Club of Rockport, Massachusetts, last year at age 17 because his friends were too busy to help him start an Interact club. He proved his mettle by enduring his district’s annual polar plunge to raise money for polio eradication in 2018; the plunge is held in February off the icy Atlantic coast near Boston.
               
              A Grand (and Great-Grand) Tradition 2019-12-02 09:00:00Z 0
              Anesha  "Duffy" Murnane is Missing!  Please Help Find Her! 2019-11-21 09:00:00Z 0

              How Kindness Appreciates

              One gracious act can resonate for a lifetime
               
              By David Sarasohn
              Image credit: Richard Mia
               
              A long time ago, when I was eight or nine, my father had a risky surgery. These days, that particular procedure is pretty much an afternoon’s inconvenience, but back then it was a roll-the-dice long shot. I wasn’t old enough, or maybe smart enough, to understand how dangerous it was. And the adults around me, though never less than honest, saw no reason to lay out the odds to a nine-year-old.
               
              The day before the surgery, one of the doctors asked to see me. I went into his office cheerfully; at that age, just the idea of an adult wanting to talk to me made the occasion special. What he told me was very direct. There was a possibility, he explained, that the next afternoon I might be feeling very angry. If that happened, he said, I should come and be angry at him.
               
              I don’t remember his name. I don’t remember what he looked like. I have a sense that he was tall, though to a nine-year-old, a lot of people look tall. But I remember what he said, and many decades later, that memory still has the capacity to warm me.
               
              Kindness can do that.
               
              The doctor owed me nothing except his best efforts to keep my father alive. But he went out of his way to reach out to a small boy who didn’t even realize that an abyss could soon open up beneath his feet.
              We think of kindness as a way to ease our way through a day, to help us get to the other side of a situation. But an act of kindness can be much more than that. It can cast a light down decades and provide a warming feeling long after the occasion has grown cold. Gifts like that aren’t used up and forgotten; they’re remembered and cherished.
               
              One message of the Harry Potter books is that being deeply loved as a child can provide a kind of protection throughout your life. It gives you a sense of self-worth and confidence when you’re threatened by the forces of darkness, or even by a disappointing SAT score. Being the recipient of an act of kindness can have a similar effect: It not only reassures you of your own worthiness, but also provides a permanent belief that the world is not as dark a place as that registered letter from the IRS might suggest.
               
              There’s a reason we remember great kindnesses. It’s not that people are keeping accounts and preparing to repay them. In a transactional world, a luminous kindness is a combination of the act and the time, and that produces something beyond evaluation. Trying to repay it is like calculating the price of Versailles as an Airbnb.
               
              The inability to figure out an exchange rate, a way to have the same impact on a giver’s life that he had on yours, has spurred the concept of paying it forward. If you can’t repay the person who lives permanently in your appreciation, you can at least adjust your balance sheet with the universe — and maybe plant yourself enduringly in someone else’s memory.
               
              A decade after my father had that surgery, I was at college when I received a late-night phone call telling me that he had died unexpectedly. Numbly, I asked a friend with a car if he would drive me to the train station the next day. Instead, he immediately drove me the 2½ hours home, dropped me off, and in the middle of the night turned around and headed back to school. I don’t remember what we talked about on the road. I vaguely imagine that I tried to keep things relatively light, both not to burden my friend and to shove the fact of my father’s death into a far corner of my mind to think about later. But I know that on every mile, I was conscious that my friend was bestowing on me a great kindness, even a blessing.
               
              I haven’t seen my friend in decades. He may have forgotten the whole episode, although I certainly haven’t. After all, his kindness to me reached not only to that occasion, but to all the times since when I’ve been nourished by remembering it. It’s a debt, and a dividend, built on massive emotional compound interest.
              The kindnesses that stay with you, the ones that light your life for years to come, don’t involve the bestowing of stuff. Material generosity, the giving of things, is admirable, but our appreciation may last no longer than the stuff itself. A meal or a sweater or even a watch carries an expiration date; someone putting himself forward for you at a key moment stays with you as long as you yourself deal with other people. In the long-term database we each carry around, there are more entries filed under “Kindness, Deeply Remembered Acts Of” than most of us imagine
              .
              In 1970, after James Baker’s wife died of cancer, George H.W. Bush suggested that his fellow tennis club member might find some distraction in helping out on Bush’s Senate campaign. Baker was reluctant; he noted that for one thing, he, like most people in Texas at the time, was a Democrat. Oh, said Bush, he didn’t care about that. He just hated to see Baker looking so sad all the time.
               
              Bush’s reaching out to a friend led to Baker’s eventually becoming White House chief of staff, secretary of the treasury, and secretary of state. It didn’t work out badly for Bush, either. And 48 years later, in his eulogy at Bush’s state funeral, Baker quoted the former president as saying, “When a friend is hurting, show that you care,” and “Be kind to people.”
               
              Very late one night, a long time ago, a sudden problem developed with my wife’s pregnancy. As we bolted for the hospital, I called a neighbor to say we would be dropping off our three-year-old. I wouldn’t say it was a request, because the possibility of our neighbor declining never occurred to me — nor, I’m certain, to her. The individual who caused my wife such great discomfort on that occasion is now 30 years old. But that night, and that phone call, doesn’t seem nearly that long ago. I see my neighbor frequently, and always with a sense of a bond between us much deeper than our having each other’s house keys for emergencies.
              Kindness is more than an action. It’s a power, even a superpower. It empowers the receiver, giving him something that can strengthen him years later, after the original circumstances have faded like old election predictions. It also empowers the giver, because making a positive impact on someone’s life is the most powerful ability imaginable, much stronger than Superman’s X-ray vision.
               
              In God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Kurt Vonnegut’s hero works out a baptismal speech for his neighbor’s newborn twins: “Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter.  It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies —: ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.’”
               
              And if you are, the glow can last those hundred years.
               
              David Sarasohn, a longtime columnist for The Oregonian in Portland, has written for the New York Times and the Washington Post. He has published three books, including Waiting for Lewis and Clark: The Bicentennial and the Changing West.
               
              • This story originally appeared in the November 2019 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              How Kindness Appreciates 2019-11-20 09:00:00Z 0

              The Rotarian Conversation: Henrietta Fore

              Connecting 1.8 billion young people with education and jobs is a tall order. UNICEF’s executive director is calling on Rotarians for ideas
               
              Henrietta Fore is leading UNICEF at a historic time. There are 1.8 billion young people on the planet between the ages of 10 and 24 — the largest generation of youth the world has ever seen — and they are concentrated in the developing world, where many face poverty, violence, and a dearth of educational opportunities.
              Fore outlines some statistics: 200 million adolescents around the world are not in school; 6 in 10 children do not meet the minimum proficiency levels in reading and math. “Some call this a ticking time bomb,” she says. But she is optimistic, championing a new initiative that aims to turn that potential demographic crisis into an opportunity. It’s called Generation Unlimited.
               
              “Our goal is very straightforward,” Fore said in a 2018 TED Talk. “We want every young person in school, learning, training, or age-appropriate employment by the year 2030.” To meet this target, UNICEF partnered with other organizations to create Generation Unlimited to let the private sector, governments, nonprofits, and academia share ideas and solicit funding to expand ideas that work. The World Bank has pledged $1 billion toward the effort, and now Fore is calling on Rotarians, Rotaractors, and Interactors to share their own ideas.
               
              Fore also brings bold thinking to UNICEF’s effort to eradicate polio in partnership with Rotary, the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “We need to do that last mile; we need to finish the job,” she says. Her approach in the hardest-to-reach areas involves a plan to invest $50 million to integrate more comprehensive health care into polio eradication efforts as an incentive for parents to bring their children to be vaccinated.
               
              With a background at the helm of her family’s manufacturing and investment firm, Holsman International, Fore became director of the U.S. Mint in 2001. There she modernized the manufacturing process, gaining the attention of then-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who tapped her to serve as undersecretary of state for management, a notoriously difficult job that involved managing 267 embassies and consulates and 7,200 employees around the world. Later, she spent two years at USAID, where she was the first female director.
               
              When asked what skills are needed to lead such complex institutions, Fore says: “Sometimes we think that organizations are remote creations. But they’re not. They’re filled with people, and I feel so strongly that people are our most important asset. So if you think of an organization as being a gathering of people who care passionately about a subject, then you’ll probably connect with that organizational culture.” Fore spoke with contributing editor Vanessa Glavinskas from her office in New York City.

              THE ROTARIAN: Looking back on your career, what experiences helped prepare you to lead UNICEF?
               
              FORE: Like many Rotarians, I have run a business, my family business. It teaches you to think about what value you are getting for your investments and whether you should invest in one area or another, a new product, a new service. There’s never enough money or enough people to help, but you have to listen to your customers. Now that I have the chance to serve the United Nations, that experience helps me to realize that listening to people around the world is very important and to think about how public-private partnerships can improve the world.
               
              TR: What has been a memorable experience for you at UNICEF?
               
              FORE: One of my first trips in this role was to South Sudan in January 2018. We met with a number of mothers who had walked for hours to bring their children to a clinic. The children were malnourished, and the mothers were able to stay there with them for a week to get their children nourishment. But they did not have a way to change the problems they faced at home, which meant they would be back again in several months. It’s a humanitarian need, but also a longer-term development need. In short-term crises, there are also longer-term development needs that we must address so that people can be self-sufficient.
               
              TR: When you spoke at Rotary’s International Assembly in January, what did you challenge Rotarians to do?
               
              FORE: Well, first and most important, a very deep and heartfelt thank-you to all the Rotarians who have raised funds and raised awareness about polio. There would not be the enormous success of the polio programs without Rotary. But it’s no time for complacency. We need to finish the job.
              I’m looking at an integrative approach: In addition to getting the polio vaccine, parents also want to get their children looked at for other health problems and to get nourishment for their child. That’s a big incentive. If we can get more health services integrated into polio eradication efforts, it will be a very important way for us to reach out in poor communities, particularly in Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan, where the virus is still endemic. [Read more about what Rotary is already doing to meet other health needs through PolioPlus in “The Plus in PolioPlus,” in our October issue.]
               
              TR: You recently proposed a $50 million initiative to do just that. Will you start by focusing on specific regions?
               
              FORE: Yes, Afghanistan is the first place we will target, Pakistan is No. 2, and Nigeria No. 3. Within those countries, there are very specific geographic areas that need this help. They tend to be rural villages. They tend to be led by elders who are not part of the government or the general federal system. We do not have medical clinics in these villages; no one does. So if we can come in even with a mobile unit that could help give the vaccinations and do some of the basic health checks, word would spread, and parents would bring in children, and that’s what we want. We want them voluntarily coming to us.
               
              TR: What’s your specific aim with this campaign? Have you seen this approach have a positive impact?
               
              FORE: The initiative aims to help improve the overall health and well-being of children as well as increase polio vaccination coverage in these communities.
              Aiming for polio eradication means every child must be vaccinated, and polio workers must reach every village no matter what. Many of the highest polio-risk areas visited by health workers often are also the most underserved, and the initiative seeks to ensure the delivery of a package of basic services that is more than just the “two drops.” It is a bit early to provide examples of impact, as the integrated package of services began rolling out only a few months back. However, we strongly believe that it will contribute to wider vaccine acceptance. This initiative was born out of the experience, faced by polio workers, of angry and often desperate mothers and fathers in underserved areas demanding basic services for their children beyond the polio vaccine.
               
              TR: Is the health infrastructure you’re improving permanent, such as adding a hospital? Or is it more often bringing in short-term health services?
               
              FORE: The package of services depends on the need in the community. For example, in some districts in Kandahar and Helmand provinces in Afghanistan, we are constructing water supply networks to deliver safe drinking water and a sewerage system. In other districts, we are expanding nutrition services to treat severe acute malnutrition among children and providing health services for mothers. In southern Pakistan, we are renovating and equipping a labor room at a community health center while also expanding maternal health and nutrition services in several districts. The initiative is also investing in opening informal education centers in certain areas in Pakistan with high numbers of out-of-school children.
               
              TR: You also are a champion of a new initiative called Generation Unlimited. Can you describe that?
               
              FORE: Right now, 10 million young people around the world turn 18 every month. That’s how many need a job. We know that we are not creating 10 million new jobs each month.
              In many African countries, the average age is 20. African heads of state are asking for help modernizing their secondary school systems. They want to link that with vocational skills. So UNICEF and our partners have outlined four areas that we know we will need help with. One is basic foundational education. Every child should be able to read, write, and be numerate. In the world today, 6 out of 10 young people do not meet the basic levels of literacy or numeracy. The second is that young people need to have some basic life skills: They need language skills, to be able to communicate, and they need financial skills in order to be entrepreneurs. The third area is occupational training. And fourth, they are all asking for digital skills. So we are hoping that the world can stand up for these young people, that there can be a movement to educate and connect them to future livelihoods.
               
              TR: How can Rotarians help?
               
              FORE: We need mentors. We need people who can offer apprenticeships, internships, and job shadowing. If there ever were absolutely a perfectly placed group for this, it would be Rotarians. Rotarians are community leaders and could lead initiatives that allow young people to job-shadow out of local high schools. If Rotarians could do mentoring remotely to young people in other countries, it would be a game-changer for them.
              Young people are also asking for work-study programs, because many do not have the economic freedom to pay school fees and buy books and food. Giving them a way to earn a little money after school would be a powerful way to help them.
               
              TR: Who is UNICEF working with on this initiative?
               
              FORE: Generation Unlimited is hosted by UNICEF and has more than 60 partners, such as the World Bank, which will invest $1 billion to support young people’s transition to work, and the government of Ireland, which contributed €1 million to help unlock the potential of young people.
               
              TR: How do the challenges this generation faces differ from what previous generations have experienced?
               
              FORE: Artificial intelligence and technology are changing the face of work. Klaus Schwab, of the World Economic Forum, talks about a fourth industrial revolution. A job that our parents had, or that we have, won’t be there for many young people. We have not done a good job of modernizing school systems to teach the skills young people will need to adapt to a world that connects machines and technologies with humans. That’s one piece. The second piece is the size of this generation. Ten million jobs a month is a great challenge for the world, so we are going to have to help young people move into mass entrepreneurship.
               
              TR: Are there any other opportunities for Rotarians to work with UNICEF?
               
              FORE: The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are ambitious, and to reach them by 2030, we are looking for innovations and accelerators. Those could be businesses that have products, services, or platforms that could help accelerate the way we reach those goals.
              For example, I was just reading in the newspaper about a hand-held ultrasound device that has a cord attached to an ultrasound receptor. You can put it on the stomach of a woman who is pregnant to see how a baby is doing. You could put it on the knee of an injured young man. You could use it on the chest of a baby to see if there is pneumonia.
              Are there innovations out there that Rotarians have seen or invented? We would like to hear from them to see if there’s a way that we could use those ideas somewhere in the world. Reach out to my colleagues on our Global Cause Partnerships team at gcp@unicefusa.org.
               
              TR: What do you hope to achieve during your tenure at UNICEF?
               
              FORE: First, I would love to find more ways to interweave humanitarian assistance and development assistance. To plant the seeds of longer-term development when responding to a humanitarian crisis — that’s what a water system or an education system gives you. You need it the first day of a crisis, and you need it years later. I was in Mozambique during the flooding from Cyclone Idai, and the first thing that went out was the water system. Without clean water, cholera takes hold, and children particularly begin to sicken, and you lose them. I would like to plant the seeds of a longer-term solution. Rather than just flying in bottled water, work on the municipal water system.
              The second area I would like to see changed is primary health care. If we could give primary health care — community health care — to the families of the world, that would be very powerful. In Afghanistan, for example, many rural communities had no access to basic services such as vaccinations, sick child care, and antenatal screening. With the support of Japan and Korea, UNICEF supported the delivery of primary care services to almost 1 million women, children, and newborns last year, through 70 mobile health teams linked to and supplied by local community health services. It is a great example of how we can combine investment with the expertise and local reach of governments and partners — not only to provide temporary relief, but to begin building systems that can last.
              The third area is this idea of new innovations. I know that if the private sector joins with the public sector, this world could be much improved. We often just don’t know quite how to work with each other. But right now, during my tenure at UNICEF, I want Rotarians to know the doors are wide open. We need all of the ideas and technology and brains of the private world to meet our development goals.
              The fourth is Generation Unlimited. It is absolutely the calling of our time to help young people, and if we get it right, our world will be a better place.
              And, of course, I would love to eradicate polio on my watch. Rotary has been so magnificent, and I would love to do my share.
               
              • Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa
              • This story originally appeared in the November 2019 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              The Rotarian Conversation: Henrietta Fore 2019-11-20 09:00:00Z 0

              The Price of Polio

              Meet five Rotarians who understand the disease’s long-term consequences
               
              as told to Vanessa Glavinskas                  photography by Frank Ishman
               
              When you go to your Rotary club meeting this week, look around at your fellow members and think about this: In North America, anyone younger than 70 likely doesn’t remember a time before the polio vaccine. Those under 40 were born after polio was no longer endemic in the United States. And among your club’s youngest members, the very word “polio” probably conjures a bygone age when children regularly died of diseases like measles, smallpox, or whooping cough. Now, however, we know that measles is staging a comeback. Tuberculosis, which might bring to mind 19th-century sanitariums, is gaining greater resistance to treatment. Until a disease is really gone, eradicated, extirpated from the planet, it will always be looking for ways to come back, for breaches in our defenses.
               
              We’ve come very far in the 64 years since the introduction of Jonas Salk’s vaccine — and especially in the 40 years since Rotary decided to take on polio. Every day it gets easier to forget why it’s so critical that we eradicate this disease. Most of us don’t see polio in our daily lives. Whole generations have never experienced its terrifying power.
               
              We let our guard down when we think that polio is a disease that happens only in faraway places, or that almost eradicated is good enough. But if we stop and remember what it was like when polio was everywhere and people felt powerless against it, we know that if we don’t finish the fight, we’ll soon be back where we started.
               
              In the following segments, five Rotarians share their experiences with polio. Thanks to their willingness to recount painful memories, we know that we must keep fighting until polio is gone forever.

              Ann Wade
              Rotary Club of New Tampa, Florida
              I felt like I was entering another world. Beds with paralyzed children lined every wall. I was put into a big room. There were rows and rows of children, probably about 50 children, and three or four nurses to care for us. I was seven when I was transferred to Hope Haven children’s hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, where I spent four months learning how to walk again.
               
              I missed my mother so much. When she would visit, I’d ask her why she couldn’t come more often. But parents were only allowed to visit on Wednesdays and Sundays. I still don’t know why. I’d cry myself to sleep every night. The nurses used to get so mad at me. They’d say I was too old to cry.
              I spent Thanksgiving, Christmas, and my birthday in that hospital. At first, I was bedridden. Polio had affected my legs, and I couldn’t walk. When I got the virus, I had extreme pain all over my body and a high fever. I couldn’t stand up. That was very scary.
               
              My parents took me to the doctor on a Saturday morning; he examined me and immediately sent me to an isolation ward. I had my own room there, but only the nurses could be with me. There was a balcony that extended around the building, and each room had a window. There were two chairs on the balcony outside every room, and that’s where parents would sit and talk to their child, through the window. No one was allowed into my room, and I was not allowed out.
               
              Once my fever broke and I wasn’t contagious anymore, I was moved to Hope Haven to learn to walk again. The therapies were painful. They would put hot, wet wool towels on my legs and then exercise the muscles. The nurses would also massage my legs with oil. Sometimes they’d use these electrical shock-type things to shock the muscles into use. They would take all of us to therapy once or twice per day. In between, teachers came in and we had school. They’d roll my bed to a huge room, and the teachers would be in there teaching. It was the beginning of second grade for me.
               
              Once I started walking, I was released from the hospital, but I didn’t return to my old school until third grade. After I left the hospital, I tried to put it out of my mind. Then the vaccine was released, and everyone went to get it. It was being given at a school on a Sunday afternoon. They called it Sabin Sunday, after Albert Sabin, who invented the oral vaccine, and I remember standing in a really long line, thinking, “Do I really need to do this? I’ve already had polio.” But my mother was adamant that my brother and I get vaccinated.
               
              Since then, I’ve done most everything I wanted to do in life. I became a teacher. I married a wonderful guy 53 years ago who is also in Rotary. I have three children and 10 grandchildren. Not many people know I had polio, except that one of my legs is smaller than the other and I have a slight limp. About 12 years ago, I fell and broke the hip in my bad leg. After surgery, I was able to learn to walk again, so now I can say I’ve learned to walk three times.
               
              This year, I’m president of my Rotary club. I’m eager to make eradicating polio a priority and to raise money for End Polio Now. Until now, I haven’t told many people my story, but if it can help the eradication effort, it seems like a good time to start.

              Carl Chinnery
              Rotary Club of Lee’s Summit, Missouri
               
              There were five children in my family, all boys. In 1942, every one of us got polio. My oldest brother, George, died. My middle brother spent months in an iron lung. I was so young that I don’t remember having the virus, but I grew up with its effects on our family all around me. George’s photograph sat on our fireplace mantel. He had been afraid of the dark, so my parents plugged in a nightlight next to it.
               
              But as time went on, few people even knew I had had the disease. In 1999, I was appointed PolioPlus chair for my district. That’s when I asked my mother to tell me about our family’s experience with polio. At first, she said she couldn’t talk about it. It was too painful. But a few weeks later, she surprised me with a letter. I’m sharing it now in the hope that our story will help my fellow Rotarians understand why we must continue to fight this disease until it’s eradicated.
               
              It must have been August 7, 1942, when Bill came in and announced he had “poliomyalitus.” I didn’t know where he had heard of such a thing, but I said, “If you have poliomyelitis, you go straight up to bed and stay there” … and he did! He really did feel bad! Then George became ill. I called Dr. Eldridge, our pediatrician. On the night of August 11, George couldn’t swallow his medication. It came back through his nose. I called the doctor again and he came right over. (Dad was on the road.) Dr. Eldridge took George and me to old General Hospital. (No other hospital in Kansas City would accept us.) They took George, but they wouldn’t let me stay. I went home and called Dad. He started home immediately, drove all night, and went to the hospital about 4 a.m., but they wouldn’t let him in either. At about 7 a.m. the hospital called us and said George was dying. When we arrived, George was already gone.
               
              By that time, Richard, Larry, and Carl had also become sick, and when I got home from the hospital, Richard was much worse and we rushed him to the hospital. When we marched in, I informed them I was staying … I had lost one child and I was staying, no matter what! Dad and I took turns so Richard always had one of us there. One of Dad’s aunts had come to help us and stayed with Bill, Larry, and Carl.
              Dad sent someone to take me to the funeral home to see George. When I got back to the hospital, Richard wasn’t doing well, and in the night, I saw his skin sink into his chest. All I could see were bones covered with skin, drawn tight. I ran as fast as I could down the hall, calling the intern. We ran back and this man picked Richard up and plunked him into an iron lung. His lungs had collapsed.
               
              When we went home, we had to start the “Kenny” treatments. We had to tear wool blankets into strips and put them in boiling water, run them through a tight wringer, and place them on each child for so many minutes, and then off for so many minutes, then on, etc. Dad put a hot plate in an upstairs bathroom to boil the water. He put an old wringer over the tub with stacks of wool strips handy. Bill was on his way to recovery, but Richard, Larry, and Carl were the sick ones now. Dad hired nurses to help during the day, and my dear mother drove from California to help. People came from everywhere to give us hope and offer to help, but they couldn’t come in the house.
               
              When the boys were well enough, we had to start therapy, compliments of the March of Dimes. I took my children and another lady in leg braces and her little boy three times a week. Richard has one leg a little shorter than the other. Carl’s chest didn’t fill out. Bill had many problems. And, of course, we have one little boy angel in heaven.
               
              Jim Ferguson
              Rotary Club of Bluefield, West Virginia
               
              My mother was in her 30s when she contracted polio. I don’t remember her having the disease, but I do remember her coming home with a cast on her left foot after she’d had a corrective surgery. I was about four years old, and I remember her getting out the drill to make holes in the legs of a kitchen chair so she could screw casters into it. She sat in it and rolled herself around our kitchen while she cooked, rather than hobble on her crutch.
               
              The surgeon had put a plate in her foot in an attempt to straighten it, but it didn’t work, and it left her in pain. Doctors wanted to amputate her foot, but she refused. These were the days before the Americans With Disabilities Act. Nothing was accessible. She would struggle on one crutch up and down the stairs to our apartment, down the street to the store, up the steps to get on public transportation. I only saw her ask for help if she really needed it. I really don’t know how she managed to raise nine of us children. Before she got polio, she was raising my older siblings during the Great Depression and while my father was away fighting in World War II.
              We all grew up here in Bluefield, West Virginia. In the 1950s, people were afraid of polio and the atomic bomb. A nearby town, Wytheville, had more cases of polio per capita than any other place in the country. People would keep their windows closed and hold their breath just to drive through Wytheville. Everyone was terrified because they didn’t understand how the virus was being transmitted. City workers sprayed insecticide all over the trees and houses in case insects carried polio. All public places were closed — movie theaters, pools. Kids were quarantined at home. There’s still a museum in Wytheville that documents its polio epidemic.
               
              I joined Rotary when I found out about their work to eradicate polio, because I thought it would be a way to make my mother proud. She died of lung cancer at age 56, though she never smoked. I wasn’t interested in networking; I joined Rotary to help immunize children against polio, and in 2011, I traveled to India to do that. We went to a little town between the Ganges River and Nepal where we immunized about 45 children who had been missed by previous vaccination campaigns. While there, I met a 16-year-old girl who had crawled her entire life because of polio. She was getting fitted for leg braces so she could take her first steps at age 16. I still get emotional thinking about her.
               
              After that trip, I became an advocate for PolioPlus. I gave presentations across our district, raised money, and served as our district’s PolioPlus chair. I didn’t have any of those aspirations when I joined, but I can be very driven, like my mother: Even though polio left her physically damaged, it never took her spirit.
              The Price of Polio 2019-11-06 09:00:00Z 0

              Wow Factor

              The women virtually float down the runway at the “Fall into Fabulous” fashion show. As they smile and twirl, Secily Wilson sits in the back, relishing her role as fairy godmother.
               
              Secily Wilson is a member of the Rotary Club of Lake Buena Vista, Florida
              Image credit: Gregg McGough
               
              “When you see before-and-after shots of these women, you can feel the empowerment,” she says. “They’re like, ‘I got this.’” They aren’t models, and their stylish clothes and makeup aren’t the main point of the event. The women are graduates of a six-month program that aims to lift them out of challenging life situations, whether as a result of domestic violence, a bad relationship, or a financial catastrophe.
               
              The nonprofit Wilson founded, called WOW, or Women Overcoming with Willpower, provides a range of sessions that include mental health counseling, job interview preparation, and résumé-writing advice. Since she founded WOW in 2012, the organization has benefited nearly 1,000 women and children through the empowerment program.
               
              In the women she helps, Wilson also sees herself.
               
              Not long ago, she was a well-known local TV news anchor dreaming of a big-time network job. But that was before she had a stroke, on air, just before her 40th birthday. It was the first of a series of misfortunes that hit the mother of two: She was laid off. Her marriage broke up. Her home was foreclosed on. Then she had a second minor stroke.
               
              At the Fall into Fabulous fashion show, volunteers on the “glam squad” assist the women in the program with hairstyling, makeup, and wardrobe.
              Image credit: Nancy Jo Brown
               
              “Why me?” she remembers thinking. “I lived very silently in this pit of depression and despair, thinking my life was over.” Eventually, a friend told her: “Snap out of it, girlfriend. Enough of this pity party.”
               
              A “trained survivor” and “closet party planner,” Wilson set out to teach resilience to others who were in similar situations but lacked the advantages she had. She rallied friends and sponsors to organize the first fashion show and luncheon, but soon realized she needed to offer more. WOW is now a registered 501(c)(3) organization that serves 15 to 20 women a year, assisted by a range of corporate and other supporters.
               
              One of them is the Rotary Club of Lake Buena Vista, near Disney World (read more about this club). Wilson had joined the club because she was drawn by the organization’s dedication to community service.
               
              The club supports WOW through donations, says Greg Gorski, 2018-19 club president. Members also help coach the women in the program in job search and financial management skills, and volunteer at WOW events like the fashion show.
               
              Program participant Yvonne Hoffman before her session with the glam squad (inset) and after, at the event.
              Image credit: 106 Foto
               
              The nonprofit has supported women as they bought their own homes, returned to college, and established savings accounts for the first time.
               
              Yvonne Hoffman recalls her first day in the program, when Wilson asked each attendee to name five positive things about herself. Hoffman couldn’t come up with even one and broke down in tears. She and her two teenage daughters were just coming out of a bad domestic situation.
               
              She says Wilson jumped in and quickly cited two things — her pretty smile and the fact that she had shown up to start anew. Today, Hoffman is happy, newly remarried, and working a higher-paying home health care job after going back to school.
               
              “Secily was there when I needed her more than I ever needed someone in my life,” Hoffman says. “I think it’s because she’s got this ability to have such empathy. She’s been there.”
              — HUGH DELLIOS
              • This story originally appeared in the October 2019 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              Wow Factor 2019-11-06 09:00:00Z 0

              2019 Great Potato Race

              The Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club Great Potato Race
               
              The idea for a potato competition came from a Rotarian in New Zealand who visited Alaska.
               
              We started out with the concept of growing potatoes in a black garbage bag.  Each contestant got a bag, two seed potatoes and some soil.   They were to nurse these potatoes, adding soil and water as needed.
               
              2012.   Charlie Welles was the big winner, with the biggest potato at 15.05 oz. and total weight of 8.3 lb. Charlie introduced a more competitive concept – the surrogate grower.  Running a close second was Clyde Boyer with a 14.95 oz. potato and 7.2 lb. total weight.
               
              2013.   The competition opened up to allow a Rotarian to grow the potatoes as seemed best for them.  We had two varieties:   Kueka Gold and Shepody.  Records are missing for yield in 2013.
               
              2014.   The big potato winner was Aurora with a beauty weighing in at 17.5 oz. Close behind were Will at 13.4 oz. and Vivian at 12.14 oz.  Vivian also walked away with total weight honors with 5.5 lb., followed by Clyde at 5.30 lb. and Paul at 5.00 lb.
               
              2015.  A new crop of competitors emerges:   Seaton, Peters and Zak.   Biggest potato went to Marvin Peters with 1lb-11.25oz. Paul Seaton came in second at 1lb-8.30oz.Brian Zak was a close third with 1lb-7.0oz.  Total weight went to the same guys; Paul Seaton in first with 24.8 lb., Marv Peters with 22.8 lb. and Bryan Zak with 13.3 lb.  The Food Pantry received 109 lbs. of potatoes.
               
              2016   This may be the first year we had seed potatoes donated by Oceanside Farms.  We had Red Gold and French Fingerlings.  Marv Peters and Charlie Franz were slugging it out.  Marv took top honors in all categories with 51.75 total weight and the largest Red Gold – a monster at 25.15 oz.  Charlie was the king of French Fingerlings, 45 lbs. total and the largest one at 14.6 oz.   We kind of lost control of the allocation of seed potatoes this year and Charlie wound up with only French Fingerlings.
               
              2017.   Marv Peters walked away with all honors with 9.1 lbs. of Magic Mollie’s and 16.0 lbs. of French Fingerlings.  Charlie Franz came in second with his 8 lbs. of Magic Mollies but ceded 2nd to Mike Cline in the French Fingerlings with 15.5 lbs.   The Food Pantry received 131.93 lbs.
               
              2018.  Marv Peters was top dog with a total of 83 lbs., 36.5 reds and 46.5 whites.  Charley Franz was credited with 2nd place but would have narrowly captured 2nd but for an error made when unlabeled bags potatoes were assigned to “Mystery Man”.   The error was not noted until Charley returned from vacation.   Tom Early was third place winner in all categories.  The Food Pantry received 347.6 lbs. of potatoes.
               
              2019.  This year Charlie made sure to be at the weigh-in with an eagle eye.  Appropriately, he walked away with all honors:  70.5 lbs. of whites (Green Mountain) and 42.5 pounds of reds (Rkubinta).  Marv Peters had a total of 69.5 lbs. and Paul Seaton moved back up into the winners circle with 66 lbs. total.  The Food Pantry received a record 381 lbs.
               
              This years weigh-off was at the Forrest Residence.  Included in the spectators were Donna and Don from Oceanside Farms, along with contestants, and families.  Burgers by Tina and Gayle, plus delicious dishes by everyone.  What a blast!
               
               
               
               
               
              Overall Winner Charlie, with his EXTRA HEAVY Potatoes!
              2019 Great Potato Race 2019-11-05 09:00:00Z 0

              Club Innovation:  Among Friends

              Rotary Club of Wiarton, Ontario
               
              Chartered: 1938
              Original membership: 18
              Membership: 33
               
              Building bonds: In Wiarton, gateway to the bucolic Bruce Peninsula between Georgian Bay and Lake Huron in Ontario, a dedicated Rotary club shoulders an outsize responsibility. With fewer than three dozen members, the Rotary Club of Wiarton has installed playground equipment, benches, and a wooden boardwalk, all while supporting a robust Rotary Youth Exchange program, polio eradication, and projects in Africa and Mexico. It also stages several major annual events. How? By summoning the exponential force of friendship.
               
              Club innovation: To involve more people in club meetings and events, the members came up with a creative solution. Wiarton’s Friends initiative, inaugurated in 2016, appeals to people who share Rotary’s values but cannot commit to full membership, allowing them to attend as many as 10 club meetings a year while helping at fundraisers and other projects. The goal of the program, which has nine participants, is to provide a path toward regular membership.
               
              Club members at a Canada-themed trivia night.
               
              During an event for club presidents-elect at the 2018 Rotary International Convention in Toronto, Mike McMillan, then incoming president of the Wiarton club, stepped up to the microphone to raise the issue of how Rotary could expand its base. “We are in an area of generally blue-collar industries: tourism, retail, a national park,” McMillan recalls saying. “I asked, ‘How do we attract nonprofessionals, or rather professionals of a different sort?’ ” Other presidents-elect from all over the world told him that they faced a similar predicament. McMillan already had one possible solution.
               
              Two years earlier, the Wiarton club had launched the Friends program to engage people in the community with limited time and money. “So many young people, in particular, can’t commit to a full-time membership,” says McMillan. “Particularly in an area like ours, to pay $80 a month for meals is beyond their budgets if they have young kids. It’s important to come up with other ways to keep people involved. Our community is small and not particularly wealthy.”
               
              The club’s Amazing Race competition is a popular fundraiser and community event.
               
              The club members help organize the four-day Village Fair every summer and run a Trivia Night that attracts more than 150 contestants. Maple Magic — held at Regal Point Elk Farm, which is owned by club member Eric Robinson and his wife, Dale — lures thousands of visitors. Events like that, McMillan notes, “require feet on the ground.”
               
              One go-to volunteer, Jimi Avon, a retired musician who spends winters in Mexico, draws energy from the drive of the Rotarians. “I’m ready to be at all these events. For me, it’s a positive thing,” Avon says of his status as a Friend. “At the level I’m at, I’m happy and I don’t have quite the responsibility.” Also among the Friends are a hospice manager, a woman who operates a landscaping business and garden shop with her Rotarian husband, and four retirees.
               
              And for one Friend, the program has been a pathway back to membership. Richard Bouillon had left the club in 1996 because of demands of business and family life. He tested the waters again as a Friend. “I’m not sure if I should be called an ‘old new member’ or a ‘new old member.’ I spent a year as a Friend before rejoining the club in 2018,” Bouillon says. Now he is fully committed, having worked the Village Fair and traveled to Honduras to help build a school through a Rotary-sponsored project. But it might not have happened without a gentle reintroduction. “The Friends program was one of the things that brought me back,” he says.
              — BRAD WEBBER
              • Are you looking for more ideas on how your club can reinvent itself? Go to rotary.org/flexibility.
               
              • To share your ideas with us, email club.innovations@rotary.org.
               
              • This story originally appeared in the October 2019 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
               
              Club Innovation:  Among Friends 2019-10-17 08:00:00Z 0

              District Governor Visit 2019

              October 2 and 3 we were visited by District Governor Andre' Layral and Assistant District Governor Lori Draper visited Homer and the Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club.   October 2nd, we held a potluck at Dian and Clancy's, then on October 3rd they visited our Board of Directors and General Membership Meetings.  Below are some pictures from those events.
               

               
               
               
               
               
               
              District Governor Visit 2019 2019-10-16 08:00:00Z 0

              Small Change

              A story of superstition and a sea turtle named Piggy Bank
               
              By Victor Fleming
               
               
              Image credit: Richard Mia
               
              What can you say about a 25-year-old female who died? That she lived near the Gulf of Thailand in a small province called Chon Buri. That she had a life expectancy of another 50 years or so. That she weighed 130 pounds and was a really good swimmer — especially in the pond she knew as home. That she seemed to have an inordinate love of money — so much so that those who knew her nicknamed her “Piggy Bank.” That her death, in March 2017, was predictable and preventable.
              Piggy Bank, you see, was a green sea turtle, a member of an endangered species. Sea turtles, by the way, are featured on the logo for the 2020 Rotary International Convention in Honolulu. And what fascinating creatures they are.
               
              “Sea turtles travel far and wide, riding currents across the open ocean,” reads a description on the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s website. “Females return to the same beach each year, using magnetic clues as a map back home.” Mother turtles lay their eggs on the beach, then cover them with a sandy quilt before returning to the sea. After hatching a couple of months later, the newborns dash to the water to escape being eaten by predators.
               
              Unlike their kin found in rivers and creeks, sea turtles cannot retract their limbs into their shells. Over the millennia, sea turtles’ forelegs developed into “flipper-shaped blades, which help them ‘fly’ through the water” at speeds of up to 15 knots, or about 17 miles per hour, as they use their hind legs as rudders. In lieu of teeth, sea turtles have sharp beaks to help tear apart their food, which they wash down with sea water, using special glands near their eyes to desalinize it. This process makes them appear to be crying.
               
              This seems apt. The natural habitat of sea turtles — and, thus, their very survival on the planet — is in peril. Among the threats are pollution, poachers, and residential and commercial development along the shorelines where the turtles nest. These creatures are often also accidentally caught by fishermen, although the fishing industry has developed some nets with “trap doors” to allow turtles to escape.
               
              Scientists believe that, as oceans warm and sea levels rise, the basic tasks of finding food, mating, and nesting will become increasingly difficult for sea turtles. One problem is that females are born from eggs that are warmer; males result from cooler eggs. Ponder what this could bode for the species’ future on a warming globe.
              Regrettably, sea turtles cannot distinguish between what is digestible and what is not. This was Piggy Bank’s downfall — coupled with the penchant of her human admirers for practicing a common superstitious ritual.
               
              This turtle was given her nickname (“Omsin” in Thai) because people — human beings, we — knew that when coins were thrown into the pond, Piggy Bank would swim to them. And eat them. Or swallow them whole, rather. And she did that over and over. How could the humans — how could we — not have seen what was bound to come of this?
               
              What can you say about people who throw money into bodies of water?
               
              In Thailand, turtles are a symbol of longevity. Somehow related to this archetypal concept is a superstition: “If you throw coins into waters where turtles swim, you’ll live longer.”
               
              Throwing coins into water for what you could call selfish reasons (such as making a wish) goes beyond Thailand and its customs. The practice started in ancient times, when water was often undrinkable. When potable water could be found, it was deemed a gift from the gods. People figured those gods would appreciate a little something in return. So they would toss a little money into the fountain, spring, or well.
               
              When tossing in a coin, a person might say a little prayer, ask for something, make a wish. In 1876 when British archaeologist John Clayton excavated Coventina’s Well — a spring in a basin that was about 2.5 meters square, in England’s Northumberland County — 16,000 Roman coins were recovered. I cannot but wonder how many of the people who contributed to that cache felt lucky after their tosses. Or believed that their wishes had been granted.
               
              In early 2017, folks began to notice that Piggy Bank was having difficulty swimming. National Public Radio reported that her shell had cracked. That couldn’t be good. Rescuers got her to a team of veterinarians. During seven hours of surgery, 915 coins, foreign and domestic, were removed from the swimmer’s stomach. Piggy Bank’s condition and recovery were chronicled on social media. Shortly after the operation, the patient was said to be stronger, brighter, happier.
               
              But a few days later, Piggy Bank took a turn for the worse. One report cited a “gaping space” where the coins had been. The total weight of these coins was 11 pounds. As for the space they filled, imagine a roll of quarters containing 40 coins — it’s about an inch in diameter and about 2 3/4 inches long. Now, imagine 22 rolls and visualize the space required by such a collection. Piggy Bank’s intestines got tangled up in the void created by the removal of this small fortune. The result was an infection. The infection was made worse by the toxicity from the old coins. Piggy Bank became depressed and irritable, a bad sign. She was obviously in a great deal of pain and distress. Rushed to intensive care on 19 March 2017, she slipped into a coma and died.
               
              Something about this story resonates in my soul. Or perhaps in my psyche. OK, in my brain, then. The symbolism, the pure metaphor of it all, simply cannot be overstated. Forget about The Lobster, the 2015 dystopian movie in which humans who cannot find mates are turned into the animals of their choosing. We are the green sea turtles. The green sea turtles are us. I am Piggy Bank!
               
              In fairy tales, mythology, and dreams, money often symbolizes energy, power, prestige. How odd it is that, even in small doses, we humans regularly deploy it in such a way that it does us no good. And does others harm.
               
              I frequently pass by a multi-tiered fountain at one of the landmarks in my city. It’s always cluttered with pennies, along with a few nickels, dimes, and quarters. This fountain probably attracts as many visitors as Coventina did in its heyday. Each time I’m there, it occurs to me that I ought to reread the littering statute. I’m fairly certain that there’s no exception for money thrown into public waters.
               
              Tongue in cheek, I brought that up one day in conversation with a person of authority at this establishment. Her response included a smile and an eye-roll. I dare not repeat her full reply. Suffice it to say that it is someone’s job to clean out that money regularly.
               
              Oh, well. At least there are no turtles in this fountain.
               
              Victor Fleming, a member of the Rotary Club of Little Rock, Arkansas, is a District Court judge and, since 2006, the author of this magazine’s crossword puzzle.
               
              • This story originally appeared in the October 2019 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              Small Change 2019-10-10 08:00:00Z 0

              Four Questions About Our Strategy to End Polio

              with John Sever
              International PolioPlus Committee Vice Chair
               
              Why do we need a new strategy?
              The Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s (GPEI’s) previous strategic plan was from 2013 to 2018. We achieved many important things: Wild poliovirus type 2 was declared eradicated in 2015; wild poliovirus type 3 was last seen in 2012, giving us high confidence that it’s no longer circulating; no wild poliovirus has been detected outside Afghanistan and Pakistan since 2016. But the clear factor in creating the new Polio Endgame Strategy 2019-2023 is that we have not yet achieved complete eradication.
               
              The new plan has three goals. The first goal is eradication. Second, integration — collaboration with other public health actors beyond the GPEI to strengthen health systems to help achieve and sustain eradication. Then, certification and containment — we have to prove through surveillance that we have interrupted the transmission of the poliovirus, and we have to be able to show that the virus in laboratories either has been destroyed or is appropriately contained.
               
              The GPEI’s five-year budget to execute this is $4.2 billion. Why does it cost so much?
              Every year, we have to vaccinate more than 450 million children in up to 50 countries to prevent the spread of polio from the endemic areas. In addition to the children in Pakistan and Afghanistan, we are immunizing children all over Africa and Asia. So we have to have a lot of people out there to help immunize, and that costs money. We have to have the vaccine, and that costs money. And we have to maintain and pay for sizable quantities of vaccine in case of an outbreak, and that costs money. Then we have to investigate about 100,000 cases of paralysis each year to rule out polio. We have to continue surveillance — looking for cases of polio to be sure we are not missing cases in certain areas. We need to test sewage samples in 34 countries to ensure that the poliovirus is not circulating undetected. And all of those things cost money. It’s a significant expense every year to maintain that level of performance.
               
              What strategies are in this plan?
              One key element is establishing a regional hub for Afghanistan and Pakistan to consolidate our efforts and increase technical support. We’re also focusing on mobile and hard-to-reach children — children who are crossing borders, riding on trains, and coming out of areas where our access has been restricted. We are developing rapid-response teams and surge capacity so if the virus is detected, our response can be swift and intense. We’re working with other actors such as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to help strengthen immunization systems. And we’re delivering additional services such as clean water, nutrition, health, and sanitation, because often the local people say we’re always coming back to immunize against polio, but what about their other problems?
               
              What can Rotarians do to ensure that the plan is successful?
              The No. 1 thing is to continue to support the program. We have a $3.27 billion funding gap. We will need Rotarians to make direct donations as well as to advocate with their governments and other groups for their support so that we can continue to do all of the immunizations and surveillance we’ve been talking about. Rotarians in countries where active polio eradication efforts are underway need to continue helping with these efforts and immunizing children. They need to keep advocating with their governments to continue to support polio eradication.
               
              • Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa
               
              • This story originally appeared in the October 2019 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              Four Questions About Our Strategy to End Polio 2019-10-10 08:00:00Z 0
              2019 Rotary Health Fair November 2, 2019 2019-10-02 08:00:00Z 0

              Project Fair Forges Strong Friendships

              In 2004, a few years after Vasanth Prabhu joined the Rotary Club of Central Chester County (Lionville) in Pennsylvania, a flyer caught his attention. It was for a Rotary project fair, the first to be held in Quito, the capital of Ecuador.
               

              The long-term collaboration between clubs began in Quito, Ecuador.

              Image credit: F11photo

              At the time, Prabhu was in charge of international projects for the club. So far, it had participated in two projects in India, where he had grown up, but the club wanted to expand its work to other countries. Prabhu had never been to Ecuador, or to a project fair. But the event intrigued him. There he could meet Rotarians who belonged to 40 clubs in Ecuador, some of them in remote parts of that country. At the fair, they would lay out their projects in a buffet of ideas to make communities across Ecuador better off with Rotary Foundation grants and help from international partners.

               
              But something else stirred in Prabhu when he saw the flyer. As an avid reader of National Geographic as a teen, he had seen pictures of Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands and read about Charles Darwin’s historic visit there. Ever since, Prabhu had dreamed of seeing them. One of the post-fair trips organized for visiting Rotarians was to the Galápagos. Now he had a chance to realize his dream.
               
              Galo Alfonso Betancourt Criollo (from left), Vasanth Prabhu, Juan Prinz, and Rene Romero Solano discuss plans at a project fair in Ecuador.
              Courtesy of Vasanth Prabhu
               
              In a conference room at the Hilton in Quito, as Prabhu strolled among the booths and looked over the projects, he met Juan Prinz, a member of the Rotary Club of Quito. Prabhu, who doesn’t speak Spanish, was happy to find Prinz, who speaks Spanish as well as English and German. “He offered to translate for me, and we talked about different clubs and their projects,” Prabhu says. “After that, we became really good friends.”
               
              Prinz, who had been born in Argentina, first became aware of Rotary while working for a German company in Singapore in 1974. Later the company relocated him to Venezuela and finally, in 1983, to Ecuador, where he has lived and been a Rotarian ever since.
               
              “One thing that interested me about Vasanth was that he wanted to make connections to clubs in the smaller cities that were not assisted by international partners, like the Rotary clubs of Morona-Macas and Puyo, which are in the Amazon River basin region of Ecuador,” Prinz says.
               
              Prabhu explains: “Being in charge of the international projects, I realized that clubs in small towns don’t get much help with projects in their areas because they don’t know many people and they don’t have enough money. So our club decided we did not want to partner with big clubs, but instead with small clubs.”
               
              Projects the Central Chester County club has collaborated on include buying a school bus.
              Courtesy of Vasanth Prabhu
               
              As Prabhu looked over the projects, his curiosity was sparked by a booth with information about a high school in Macas, on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, that didn’t have a computer lab. This led to a project partnership for the Central Chester County club. In a later visit, the partnering clubs also supplied computer equipment for a school in Bahia de Caraquez, on the coast.
               
              In 2005, Prabhu was back, and he and Prinz traveled around the country. “He took me everywhere in Ecuador,” Prabhu says. “I have circled Ecuador maybe 10 times. Each time I go there, I visit different project sites and the Rotarians there.” They went to the city of Puyo, where two schools and a community center needed computers and other equipment, which the Central Chester County club helped provide. The club also helped pay for heart surgery for children in Quito.
               
              The years went on, and so did the club’s work in different parts of Ecuador. One year, the Central Chester County club partnered with the Morona-Macas club to equip a mobile medical van to travel through rural areas, treating general medical problems out of one side and dental problems out of the other. The van has seen tens of thousands of patients since 2008.
               
              Projects the Central Chester County club has collaborated on include providing eye exams.
              Courtesy of Vasanth Prabhu
               
              Another time, the club partnered with the Puyo club to purchase a bus to transport children with disabilities to school. The Rotarians also supplied a virtual medical library to medical students, dialysis machines for people with kidney failure, and biodigesters to purify wastewater. So far the Central Chester County club has partnered on 16 grant-supported projects in Ecuador and has plans for more.
               
              The Ecuador Project Fair now is in its 16th year. Since 2004 the number of Foundation grants in Ecuador has increased, and so has the number of clubs participating in grant-supported projects, creating links with clubs abroad like the Rotary Club of Central Chester County. Prabhu has come back to all but one of those project fairs, though a few things have changed since he and Prinz first met. Project fairs have become more popular globally. Some, like those in West Africa and Central America, have become well established, while others, like the one in East Africa, are in their early stages. The fairs have helped to increase the flow of funds (and the success of projects) around the world, but some of the benefits can’t be measured in dollars.
               
              “The successes we had in Ecuador opened up our hearts to go to other countries,” says Prabhu. “As we moved along, we became more understanding and tolerant of other cultural norms. We became better citizens of the world.”
               
              To date, the Central Chester County club has done more than 120 projects in more than a dozen countries. But the most important benefit may be the hardest to quantify. “We developed a very good friendship,” says Prinz of Prabhu. “That’s why I think the project fair is so important. One of the main points of its success is the personal understanding between Rotarians. At the project fair, the contacts that our international partners get usually turn into friendships.”
              — FRANK BURES
               
              • This story originally appeared in the October 2019 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              Project Fair Forges Strong Friendships 2019-10-02 08:00:00Z 0

              Ben Walter's Park Playground is Going UP!

              The City with the help of Dutch Boy is installing the playset our club purchased.  The monies came from the proceeds of the Cranium Cup held in 2018, as well as a matching grant from the District and a donation from McDonald's
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Some Newer Pictures from Milli!  Nice!
               
               
              Ben Walter's Park Playground is Going UP! 2019-09-26 08:00:00Z 0

              The Plus in PolioPlus

              We’re doing so much more than eradicating polio
               
                                          By Vanessa Glavinskas                        Photography by Andrew Esiebo
               
              Musa Muhammed Ali, a farmer in Borno state, Nigeria, has had to deal with the many ways polio has affected his life. For instance, he used to have to pay for transportation when he needed to buy feed for his animals. But after receiving a hand-operated tricycle funded through Rotary’s PolioPlus grants, Ali (pictured above) can now spend that money on other necessities. His life was changed by the “plus” in PolioPlus.
               
              When we talk about PolioPlus, we know we are eradicating polio, but do we realize how many added benefits the program brings? The “plus” is something else that is provided as a part of the polio eradication campaign. It might be a hand-operated tricycle or access to water. It might be additional medical treatment, bed nets, or soap. A 2010 study estimates that vitamin A drops given to children at the same time as the polio vaccine have prevented 1.25 million deaths by decreasing susceptibility to infectious diseases.
               
              In these pages, we take you to Nigeria, which could soon be declared free of wild poliovirus, to show you some of the many ways the polio eradication campaign is improving lives.

               
              Preventing disease

              Polio vaccination campaigns are difficult to carry out in northern Nigeria, where the Boko Haram insurgency has displaced millions of people, leading to malnutrition and spikes in disease. When security allows, health workers diligently work to bring the polio vaccine and other health services to every child, including going tent to tent in camps for displaced people. The health workers pictured here are in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno, where the insurgency began 10 years ago.
               
              The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), of which Rotary is a spearheading partner, funds 91 percent of all immunization staff in the World Health Organization’s Africa region. These staff members are key figures in the fight against polio — and other diseases: 85 percent give half their time to immunization, surveillance, and outbreak response for other initiatives. For example, health workers in Borno use the polio surveillance system, which detects new cases of polio and determines where and how they originated, to find people with symptoms of yellow fever. During a 2018 yellow fever outbreak, this was one of many strategies that resulted in the vaccination of 8 million people. And during an outbreak of Ebola in Nigeria in 2014, health workers prevented that disease from spreading beyond 19 reported cases by using methods developed for the polio eradication campaign to find anyone who might have come in contact with an infected person.
               
               
              Children protected from polio still face other illnesses, and in Borno, malaria kills more people than all other diseases combined. Worldwide, a child dies of malaria every two minutes. To prevent its spread, insecticide-treated bed nets — such as the one Hurera Idris is pictured installing in her home — are often distributed for free during polio immunization events. In 2017, the World Health Organization, one of Rotary’s partners in the GPEI, organized a campaign to deliver antimalarial medicines to children in Borno using polio eradication staff and infrastructure. It was the first time that antimalarial medicines were delivered on a large scale alongside the polio vaccine, and the effort reached 1.2 million children.
               
              Rotary and its partners also distribute soap and organize health camps to treat other conditions. “The pluses vary from one area to another. Depending on the environment and what is seen as a need, we try to bridge the gap,” says Tunji Funsho, chair of Rotary’s Nigeria PolioPlus Committee. “Part of the reason you get rejections when you immunize children is that we’ve been doing this for so long. In our part of the world, people look at things that are free and persistent with suspicion. When they know something else is coming, reluctant families will bring their children out to have them immunized.”
               
               
              Rotarians’ contributions to PolioPlus help fund planning by technical experts, large-scale communication efforts to make people aware of the benefits of vaccinations, and support for volunteers who go door to door.
               
              Volunteer community mobilizers are a critical part of vaccination campaigns in Nigeria’s hardest-to-reach communities. The volunteers are selected and trained by UNICEF, one of Rotary’s partners in the GPEI, and then deployed in the community or displaced persons camp where they live. They take advantage of the time they spend connecting with community members about polio to talk about other strategies to improve their families’ health. Fatima Umar, the volunteer pictured here, is educating Hadiza Zanna about health topics such as hygiene and maternal health, in addition to why polio vaccination is so important.
               
              Nigerian Rotarians have been at the forefront of raising support for Rotary’s polio efforts. For example, Sir Emeka Offor, a member of the Rotary Club of Abuja Ministers Hill, and his foundation collaborated with Rotary and UNICEF to produce an audiobook called Yes to Health, No to Polio that health workers use.

               
              Providing clean water

              Addressing a critical long-term need such as access to clean water helps build relationships and trust with community members. Within camps for displaced people, vaccinators are sometimes met with frustration. “People say, ‘We don’t have water, and you’re giving us polio drops,’” Tunji Funsho explains. Rotary and its partners responded by funding 31 solar-powered boreholes to provide clean water in northern Nigeria, and the effort is ongoing. At left, women and children collect water from a borehole in the Madinatu settlement, where about 5,000 displaced people live.
               
              Supplying clean water to vulnerable communities is a priority of the PolioPlus program not only in Nigeria, but also in Afghanistan and Pakistan — the only other remaining polio-endemic nations, or countries where transmission of the virus has never been interrupted. “Giving water is noble work also,” says Aziz Memon, chair of Rotary’s Pakistan PolioPlus Committee.
               
               
              Access to safe drinking water is also an important aspect of the GPEI’s endgame strategy, which encourages efforts that “ensure populations reached for polio campaigns are also able to access much-needed basic services, such as clean water, sanitation, and nutrition.” The poliovirus spreads through human waste, so making sure people aren’t drinking or bathing in contaminated water is critical to eradicating the disease. Bunmi Lagunju, the PolioPlus project coordinator in Nigeria, says that installing the boreholes has also helped prevent the spread of cholera and other diseases in the displaced persons camps.
               
              Communities with a reliable source of clean water enjoy a reduced rate of disease and a better quality of life. “When we came [to the camp], there was no borehole. We had to go to the nearby block factory to get water, and this was difficult because the factory only gave us limited amounts of water,” says Jumai Alhassan (pictured at bottom left bathing her baby). “We are thankful for people who provided us with the water.”

               
              Creating jobs

              Polio left Isiaku Musa Maaji disabled, with few ways to make a living. At age 24, he learned to build hand-operated tricycles designed to provide mobility for disabled adults and children, and later started his own business assembling them. His first break came, he says, when a local government placed a trial order. It was impressed with his product, and the orders continued. Rotary’s Nigeria PolioPlus Committee recently ordered 150 tricycles from Maaji to distribute to polio survivors and others with mobility problems. The relationship he has built with local Rotarians has motivated him to take part in door-to-door polio vaccination campaigns.
              “It is not easy to be physically challenged,” he says. “I go out to educate other people on the importance of polio vaccine because I don’t want any other person to fall victim to polio.”
               
               
              Aliyu Issah feels lucky; he’s able to support himself running a small convenience store. He knows other polio survivors who have attended skills training programs but lack the money to start a business and are forced to beg on the street. However, the GPEI provides a job that’s uniquely suited to polio survivors: educating others about the effects of the disease.
               
              “Some of my friends who used to be street beggars now run their own small business with money they earn from working on the door-to-door immunization campaign,” Issah says.

               
               
              Improving health care

              In Maiduguri, Falmata Mustapha rides a hand-operated tricycle donated to her by Rotary’s Nigeria PolioPlus Committee. She is joined by several health workers for a door-to-door immunization campaign, bringing polio drops to areas without basic health care. UNICEF data show that polio survivors like Mustapha have a remarkable success rate persuading reluctant parents to vaccinate their children — on average, survivors convince seven of every 10 parents they talk to. In places where misinformation and rumors have left people hesitant to vaccinate, the survivors’ role in the final phase of the eradication effort is critical.
               
              “Since working with the team, I have seen an increase in immunization compliance in the community,” Mustapha says. “I am well-regarded in the community because of my work, and I am happy about this.”
               
              Eighteen million people around the world who would have died or been paralyzed are alive and walking because of the polio eradication campaign. Health workers and volunteers supported by PolioPlus grants have built an infrastructure for delivering health care and collecting data that, in many parts of the world, didn’t exist before. It’s already being used to improve overall health care and to fight other diseases, proving that the legacy of PolioPlus is more than eradicating a deadly disease from the planet — it’s also building a stronger health system that provides better access to lifesaving interventions for the world’s most vulnerable children.

              • This story originally appeared in the October 2019 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              The Plus in PolioPlus 2019-09-26 08:00:00Z 0

              Guatemala Literacy Project

              From: "Jim Hunt PDG—Guatemala Literacy Project" <info@guatemalaliteracy.org>
              Date: September 11, 2019 at 7:00:12 AM AKDT
              To: "Donald Keller" <Donkone1999@yahoo.com>
              Subject: Many hands needed to fight against poverty in Guatemala
              Reply-To: joe@guatemalaliteracy.org
               
              We need Rotarians to join service trips to Guatemala. 
               
              Guatemala Literacy Project (GLP)
               
              Dear Donald,
              My name is Jim Hunt and I am a past District Governor and member of the Rotary Club of Ohio Pathways (D-6600). Joe Berninger, founder of the Guatemala Literacy Project (GLP), and I are organizing Rotary service trips to Guatemala and we are looking for interested Rotarians.                                                 
              The GLP is the largest grassroots, multi-club, multi-district effort in the Rotary world not directed by RI itself and—according to former RI President Ian Riseley—the “gold standard” of Rotary projects. Over 600 Rotary clubs from 8 countries have participated in the GLP since its inception in 1996. GLP Textbook, Computer, Teacher Training, and Youth Development programs currently serve more than 50,000 impoverished children.
              And we need Rotarians to join the following service trips to Guatemala:
              • Feb 1-9, 2020
              • Feb 18-23, 2020
              • July 12-18, 2020
              • July 21-26, 2020
              These trips offer a variety of experiences: some are longer or shorter; some more hands-on; yet all give you the opportunity to serve as a meaningful part of Rotary’s work fighting poverty in Guatemala. Please visit the project’s website for more details.
              Could you also share this opportunity with members of your club?
              If you have any questions, you can email Joe at joe@guatemalaliteracy.org.
              Yours in Rotary Service,
              Jim Hunt, PDG 
              Rotary Club of Ohio Pathways (D-6600)
              Joe Berninger
              Guatemala Literacy Project (GLP) 
              Rotary Club of Ohio Pathways (D-6600)
              www.guatemalaliteracy.org
               
               
              P.S. Check out this heartwarming blog post about other Rotarians in action!
               
               
              Guatemala Literacy Project (GLP)  
              Rotary eClub of Ohio Pathways
              2300 Montana Avenue, Suite 301
              Cincinnati, OH 45211
              (513) 661-7000
               
               
               
              Guatemala Literacy Project 2019-09-18 08:00:00Z 0

              Cub Innovation:  Tokyo Rise

              Rotary Club of Tokyo Hiroo, Japan
              Tokyo Hiroo members Nikolaus Boltze (from left), Ai Ito, Yoko Hattori, and Alain Wacziarg at Zōjō-ji, a historic Buddhist temple in Tokyo.
              Image credit: Irwin Wong
               
              Even by the standards of Tokyo, one of the world’s great culinary cities, the spread on Yoko Hattori’s dining room table is impressive. On this evening in May, the 2018-19 governor of District 2750 has prepared rolls of maki sushi, filled with fresh crab and cucumber, and golden brown pockets of inari tofu rice. There are deep red slices of seared katsuo tuna and a plate of melt-in-your-mouth braised pork belly, or kakuni, simmered for hours in soy sauce, sake, and ginger.
               
              There are non-Japanese delicacies too: The dinner, after all, is for members of Hattori’s Rotary Club of Tokyo Hiroo, who hail from six countries on four continents. Alain Wacziarg, a Parisian who has lived in Tokyo for 45 years, has brought a loaf of pain de campagne and authentic Camembert. There’s even guacamole. “Hattori-san made it,” says Pablo Puga, the club’s lone Mexican, using the Japanese honorific title for his hostess.
               
              If this dinner feels more festive than a typical Rotary gathering, there’s good reason. Several times a year, the club breaks from its regular Thursday lunchtime schedule and holds a less formal evening meeting at a member’s home. This also happens to be the first time the club has met in Japan’s new imperial era: On 1 May, the 59-year-old Naruhito succeeded his father, Akihito, to become Japan’s 126th emperor, marking the end of the 30-year Heisei era and beginning the era of Reiwa, or “beautiful harmony.” The transition came with an unprecedented 10-day national holiday.
               
              Tokyo Hiroo, Japan’s only bilingual club, prides itself on being different. While most Rotarians in Japan are older men, the youngest of this club’s 30 members is 33, and about half of them are women. Meetings are conducted in Japanese and English, and most members can speak both.
               
              Chartered in 2001, the Rotary Club of Tokyo Hiroo was the result of a push by Wacziarg and other expatriate Rotarians to start an English-speaking club in the Japanese capital. It was named after Tokyo’s Hiroo district, an upmarket neighborhood of condominiums, boutiques, and embassies where many of its members resided.
               
              Today, the club meets in nearby Roppongi, a neighborhood that’s home to multinational corporations, luxury retailers, and some of Tokyo’s most famous nightlife. Its regular meeting venue, the Roppongi Hills Club, is on the 51st floor of a Tokyo landmark: the 54-story Mori Tower, which boasts a rooftop observation deck that offers a 360-degree view of the world’s largest metropolitan area. On a clear day, you can even see the distant peak of Japan’s tallest mountain, Fuji.
               
              Japan's only bilingual club prides itself on being different.
               
              Because of its international connections, Tokyo Hiroo is particularly well positioned for global service. For more than a decade, the club has led a project in Kenya that began when Dennis Awori, Kenya’s former ambassador to Japan, was a member of the Hiroo club. Since then, working with the Rotary Club of Nairobi-East, where Awori is now a member, and several other Japanese clubs, Tokyo Hiroo has supported the construction of more than 30 wells across Kenya. The wells are drilled using a 19th-century Japanese technique known as kazusa-bori that a small group of people can carry out using locally available materials. “These wells are perfect for rural areas, because they don’t require electricity,” says Michiko Mitarai, who traveled to Kenya with a group of Tokyo Hiroo members in 2013. The project has received two Rotary Foundation grants.
               
              The club also supports causes closer to home. It sponsors an Interact club at the Canadian International School Tokyo and every few years hosts a foreign university student through a Rotary Yoneyama Memorial Foundation scholarship (Umekichi Yoneyama was the man who brought Rotary to Japan in 1920). Because club members are fluent in English, they’re important assets for District 2750, which includes non-Japanese-speaking clubs from the Pacific states of Palau and Micronesia and the U.S. territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Members host students selected by clubs there to visit Japan on exchanges.
               
              Nikolaus Boltze, the 2019-20 club president, is a German who has lived in Japan for two decades; he says Tokyo Hiroo’s greatest strength is the diversity of its members. In a way, this is also its greatest challenge: Many foreign members come to Tokyo on temporary assignments, he says, which means turnover is high. But despite the challenges, the club is growing: According to Boltze, membership has increased by 50 percent in recent years and remains steady as the club looks forward to a busy year. Next July and August, during the 2020 Olympics, the club plans to host meetings and events to welcome foreign Rotarians who come to Japan for the games. At the end of that year, it will celebrate its 20th anniversary.
               
              On this particular evening, though, discussions of all that can wait. As the wine continues to flow and a cheesecake makes the rounds, business has largely given way to socializing, which continues late into the Tokyo night.
              — JONATHAN W. ROSEN
               
              • This story originally appeared in the September 2019 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              Cub Innovation:  Tokyo Rise 2019-09-17 08:00:00Z 0

              Turtle Power

              Hawaii’s green sea turtles, also known as honu, are a symbol of good luck, wisdom, and longevity. In Hawaiian legends, honu figure as messengers, protectors, and guides. The turtles, which appear in ancient petroglyphs as well as in modern iconography throughout the Hawaiian Islands, are also the inspiration for the official logo of the Rotary International Convention in Honolulu, taking place from 6 to 10 June.
               
              Image credit: Shutterstock.com
              In Hawaii, snorkelers often encounter these graceful giants — adult turtles often weigh more than 300 pounds — as they use their long, winglike front legs to propel themselves through the water. The best places to see green sea turtles include Hanauma Bay, just a half-hour by car from Honolulu, and Laniakea Beach, on Oahu’s north shore.
               
              At Hanauma Bay, you might see the turtles swimming in the shallow water near the reefs. At Laniakea Beach, the turtles come up onto the beach to sun themselves. Be sure to give them their space; for the protection of this endangered species, it is illegal to touch or disturb them. But seeing green sea turtles sunning themselves or swimming offshore is an unforgettable experience for visitors to Hawaii.
              — HANK SARTIN
              • Don’t miss the 2020 Rotary Convention in Honolulu. Register at riconvention.org by 15 December to save.
               
              • This story originally appeared in the September 2019 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              Turtle Power 2019-09-17 08:00:00Z 0

              Four Questions About Family-Friendly Service Projects

               

               

              with Steven Boe

              President-elect, Rotary Club of Silverdale, Washington

              1. Making Rotary family-friendly is one of Rotary President Mark Daniel Maloney’s priorities this year. What has been your club’s approach?

              Several of our members have young kids, including me — I have a five-year-old and a seven-year-old — and many have grandkids. Our annual fundraiser is the Silverdale Rotary Duck Race, where we drop 18,000 rubber ducks into the bay and they race to the finish line. Through sponsorships and ticket sales, we raise $70,000 and upward a year. Several Rotarians bring their kids to help tag the ducks ahead of time, sell tickets, or do cleanup afterward. That prompted us to start coming up with ideas for projects that were specifically designed for kids and parents to work on together. That’s how our project for families got started.

              2. What’s the project all about?

              The project allows parents to lead by example and build the next generation of Rotarians. People often say they want to get involved in volunteering, but they don’t know what to do or where to start. Our website (kidsofaction.com) offers a list of kid-friendly ideas — everything from walking dogs at the animal shelter to stuffing bags of supplies for homeless teens. Families can do those things together. Our club has always been open to kids at events, but our project helps the family members feel like they’re part of Rotary, rather than guests. Now we’re working with organizations in our community to have a day of volunteering designed for parents and kids.

              3. Did your kids inspire this project?

              They have been the inspiration since the beginning. Last June, I created a comic book for our duck race — a small coloring book that kids could color while they were at the event. The characters were based on my kids. I realized a lot of kids might want to help others, but they don’t exactly know how. We have to teach them. That was the big moment. Now we’re in the middle of creating an animated commercial to help promote our project. My kids love Rotary. They like coming to the Rotary events and they steal all of my Rotary pins! One of the reasons I joined Rotary was to set an example of service for my kids. My five-year-old daughter was asking me about some homeless people she had seen. When I explained that they had nowhere to live, she said, “We should do something.” I told her that’s why I joined Rotary. I reminded her of the time she helped stuff bags of supplies for homeless teens at one of our meetings. She had a very big smile on her face when she realized that she had already been helping them. And that put a big smile on mine.

              4. How are you connecting with parents, especially those who aren’t members of Rotary?

              Rotary connects to the community, and we want the community to connect with us as well. For those who aren’t already committed to Rotary, it might seem difficult to come to a Rotary meeting — especially for parents, both in terms of money and time. But maybe they can come on a weekend to volunteer on a project, or we can call them when there’s an event. The next step is getting them into a pattern of service, not just the one-time thing. And that’s where Rotary comes in. The next time they see that park, that cleanup project, those people who were helped, that holiday event, or whatever it is, Rotary will be on their radar.

              — JOSEPH DERR

              • Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa

              • This story originally appeared in the September 2019 issue of The Rotarian magazine.

              Four Questions About Family-Friendly Service Projects 2019-09-11 08:00:00Z 0

              Our International Committee in Action

              Our Club's International Committee decided to contribute funds, $500, to assist with this Rotary Dental clinic in South Africa.  Attached is information about the Clinic.  Our connection with the RC of Knysna is that Clyde and I took a Rotary organized and led tour of South Africa a few years ago and we stayed in contact with the Rotarians from the Knysna Club who were the tour guides/leaders. 

               

              I'll be working on the transfer of payment details within the next few days.

              I thought it would be good to keep club members informed of another good project we are helping to fund.

              Vivian

              Our International Committee in Action 2019-09-11 08:00:00Z 0

              Coral Reef Revival

              Image credit: Rotaract club of University of Moratuwa
               
              The beautiful coral reefs along Sri Lanka’s coastlines have long attracted tourists. But the coral reefs, once filled with brilliantly colored fish and other species, have been dying. Coral bleaching due to warmer ocean temperatures, along with excessive fishing, sand mining, and polluted waters, has heavily damaged these living systems.
               
              The Rotaract Club of University of Moratuwa recently completed a three-year project to replenish the corals. Project Zooxanthellae — named for the type of algae that lives on the surface of corals and nourishes them — involved Sri Lankan Navy divers placing 10 steel-framed structures underwater several hundred yards from shore. The divers then attached about 60 finger-size branches of live coral to each of the six-sided, 5-foot-high frames, which look like industrial jungle gyms. The coral polyps secrete the protective exoskeletal material that forms a reef. In four to five years, new reefs will have formed around the frames. The frames will eventually rust away, leaving a healthy reef.
               
              “We wanted to do something to save the coral and help tourism,” says Rotaractor Paveen Perera. “This project will help people in those coastal areas who earn a living through the tourism industry.”
               
              The project came about in 2016 after Sahan Jayawardana, the club’s environment director at the time, heard a lecture on coral reefs by Nalin Rathnayake, an oceanography expert from the Department of Earth Resources Engineering at the University of Moratuwa. A similar reef seeding project had been done successfully in the Maldives.
               
              The location of the future reef was determined by the National Aquatic Resources Research & Development Agency, which conducted a survey looking for optimal growing conditions. The structures were designed and made by Siam City Cement (Lanka) Ltd., in collaboration with Rathnayake.
              The coral pieces came from a nearby site, and it took about a year to get permission to harvest them, explains club member Natasha Kularatne, who helped oversee the project. Over the course of a week, the structures were placed in the waters off Jungle Beach, Rumassala, a major tourist area, and the corals were attached.
               
              So far, the project has been successful, and this year the club was recognized with a Rotaract Outstanding Project Award for the South Asia region. “The Navy went on a dive and took photos, and it shows growth,” says Perera. “They are doing well.”
               
              — ANNE STEIN
              This story originally appeared in the September 2019 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              Coral Reef Revival 2019-09-11 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Disaster Relief

              Trouble viewing this email? View Online
               
               
               
               

              You can help with a gift to our Disaster Response Fund


              Disasters can devastate a community, leaving people in urgent need of medical care, housing, and other services. Following a natural disaster like Hurricane Dorian, your contribution ensures that we can deliver supplies, provide health care, and support rebuilding efforts. By making a donation today, you can help Rotarians respond swiftly and effectively, bringing hope to those whose lives have been affected by disaster.

              Your gift will be combined with that of other Rotarians to provide disaster recovery and support rebuilding efforts where the need is greatest so that, together, we can continue Doing Good in the World.

              Sincerely,
              The Rotary Foundation
               
               
               
              Facebook
              Twitter
              Twitter
              Vimeo
              Instagram
              YouTube
               
              ONE ROTARY CENTER
              1560 SHERMAN AVENUE
              EVANSTON, ILLINOIS 60201-3698 USA
              ROTARY.ORG
              Trouble viewing this email? View Online
               
               
               
               
               
              Rotary Disaster Relief 2019-09-05 08:00:00Z 0

              20th Annual BBQ

              Hello all attendees of the 20th annual Labor Day (weekend) BBQ at the Gordon’s in Halibut Cove! Can you believe this is the 20th BBQ they have sponsored!

              FYI there were 25 from the Homer side of the Bay who attended and 9 who decided not to attend. No doubt the weather forecast played a part in the lower count! Fortunately the NOAA forecast did not hold true!

              I hope everyone had an enjoyable time, I certainly did!! If I Did not get around to talking with you it was not intentional 😀, seemed like the afternoon flew by. Every time I attend one of our functions I learn something new about the Homer Rotary history (both clubs) and at other levels as well, i.e. Speaking with Carolyn Jones, former District Governor and former Rotary International Trustee!

              A HUGE Thank You to Mike, Shelli, and everyone else who helped us get there and made it such a pleasant and enjoyable gathering.

              Thank you

              ~Yours in Rotary~

              Don Keller

              Boarding the AR in Homer

              Ready to Go!

              Got a Bit Bouncy Going Over!

              Halibut Cove

              Halibut Cove

              Halibut Cove

              We're There!

              Now, a Little Climb

              Up!

              To Fantastic Views

              Looking Back at More Up!

               

              And Berries!

              Made It!  And It is Really Worth the Climb!

              Fantastic Food!  Gardens Raided, Cookbooks Perused, Skills Dusted Off!  Wow!

              How About This View of Halibut Cove From the Deck!

               

              Places to Explore

              Beautiful Scentery

               

               

              Berries to Chase (Pic)!

              Lots of Friends, Old and New, to Visit With (Unfortunately No Pictures Submitted).

               

               

              Unfortunately Even the Best of Days Must Come to an End

              The Cove Says Goodbye

               

              The AR Coming to Pick Us Up

              And Homer We Go

              On the Way a Humpback Whale Visits Us

              And a Good Time Was Had by All!

              20th Annual BBQ 2019-09-03 08:00:00Z 0

              School Supplies Still Needed for Backpacks

              Per my announcement at yesterday's meeting, the Community Service Committee did donate $200.00 towards the back to school supplies, however, Delta Kappa Gamma spent over $600.00 and have run out of key needs.   They need the following: 

              colored pencils

              big glue sticks 

              #2 pencils

              wide lined notebook paper (be sure it is 3 hole punched) 

              composition books

              wide rule spiral notebooks

              lead for mechanical pencils

              If you are able to get any of these, please bring them to the meeting on Thursday and I will deliver them to the ladies who manage the program.

              Thanks so much for your help.

              Milli Martin

              Community Service Committee

              School Supplies Still Needed for Backpacks 2019-09-03 08:00:00Z 0

              September District Governor's Letter

              DG Andre's Message - September 2019

              As the Labor Day weekend comes to a close, I reflect on the first two months into this Rotary year.   Two issues immediately come to mind:  Economic uncertainty for our state and the many summer wildfires that continue to impact so many communities in Alaska.  With recent budget vetos, Alaskans have faced uncertainty for much of the summer and are now adapting to a new economic reality as we look to the future of Alaska.  And while this summer was one of the warmest on record, many Alaskans were (and continue to be) impacted by smoke, water emergencies, changed travel plans and worries about their property.

              With Hurricane Dorian devastating the Bahamas in the past 24 hours and threatening parts of the east coast, my thoughts are with the many citizens who have lost loved ones and property, but are now safe from this historic storm. Look for an e-mail from Rotary with details. Whether you want to help Past RI President Barry's home country or donate to one of the southern states that are awaiting the storm, there are a number of ways Rotarians can donate to the Hurricane Dorian relief fund. 

              A hallmark of Rotary is providing service to community, helping others less fortunate and implementing projects that improve the quality of life for our communities.  There is no shortage of future opportunities for Rotary clubs in Alaska to step up and make a local impact to help seniors, the homeless, youth servicing organizations and community organizations at their greatest time of need.  How we as Rotarians and Rotary clubs respond will speak volumes about what we care about and who we are as Rotarians.

              Since July, my Rotary journey has taken me to Ketchikan, Eagle River, Anchorage, Kodiak, Kenai, Soldotna and most recently Nome.  These club visits have allowed me to meet dedicated Rotarians (#PeopleOfAction) both young and old, who embody Rotary’s enduring values.  I've had opportunity to see current and past club projects and participate in lively and fun club meetings, fundraisers, parades and social events.  I even got to throw out opening pitches at a Glacier Pilot game and Alaska Goldpanners game.

              As part of my club visits, I have been sharing my Rotary story, the Rotary vision of RI and goals established by 2019-2020 President Mark Maloney.  I’m also sharing details of several D5010 initiatives and projects for our district that are intended to strengthen clubs so they can be more effective in achieving their goals.

              Congratulations Keith Green, President of the Rotary Club of Anchorage and Marti Buscaglia and Louise Russell for the newly formed Rotary Satellite Club of Anchorage ECO, Alaska.  If you would like to learn more about the club, their meeting format, please contact (marti.b@alaskaecorotary.org).

              Our District membership on July 1st, after losing our two Whitehorse clubs, was 1653 members.  On August 31st (at the conclusion of Rotary Membership Month) was 1670, so we are up 17 new members in our first two month.  Congratulations to all our clubs that have increased membership since July 1, 2019.  Our district goal of 5% net gain in membership (82 new members) in 2019-2020 is off to a good start.

              As we head into September you’ll begin to hear more about future district efforts to provide Rotary education and training about Rotary and roles of club officers.  I’ve asked our AG’s to talk with club presidents about the education and training needs of their clubs, so we can personalize the training needs by region.  This year we will be offering some regional training assemblies and also some online education sessions as an effort to help Rotarians new and old learn more about Rotary - it’s values, programs and resources.  We will start with offering a training session, hopefully in September, for club Public Image officers, a pre-requisite for taking advantage of the $200 stipends being offered to clubs in support of their club PI efforts.

              In August we launched the new D5010 Mobile APP.  All 1600+ district Rotarians can download the APP from the Apple iOS store (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rotary-district-5010/id1474291618?ls=1) and/or the Google Play store (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.rotarydistrict5010.app).

              Currently five clubs are piloting the club version of this APP, and soon it will be offered to all other clubs in the district for $100 each.  Clubs interested in using the club APP will be asked to provide the name of a member of their club who we will train in how to enter club information into the APP.  

              Using the new D5010 mobile APP, there are a couple features for members to use for sharing stories about their club (Open the APP, under Latest News button the feature is called Submit a News Story) Please provide copy ready content and images and submit. Stories that are shared will be put into ClubRunner, and you’ll find these as well in the APP under Latest NEWS or on the D5010 Facebook page (under Social Media button in the APP).

              To share ideas (or any other feedback) with D5010 leadership (Open the APP, under Share Ideas button, select Send your Feedback, complete and submit).

              Clubs should be planning now to celebrate World Polio Day on Thursday, October 24, 2019. In a separate e-mail you will receive information on how to participate and celebrate this important day.  We encourage clubs to work with local media outlets to promote this important event. I’ll also forward the most recent Polio Plus Institute PowerPoint, which clubs are encouraged to share in early October. I have issued a challenge to all club presidents in D5010 to have 100% of their members donate $25 minimum to Polio Plus in October so we can match the district donation made earlier this year.  This will raise an additional $35,000 towards that match. I have suggested each club include the $25 Polio Plus donation as part of their quarterly or monthly member dues invoice in October. 

              Finally, I have received several requests from other Rotary districts about having a Friendship with D5010.  This is a reciprocal Rotary program, funded entirely by the individuals who participate, involving 4-6 couples visiting Alaska for 7-10 days, then 4-6 individuals/couples from D5010 visiting their district the following year. As a host district, housing, meals and sightseeing is provided by Rotary host families.  Travel and personal spending is provided by the guests. If you have interest in helping to organize the planning for a group visit here in 2019-2020 or 2020-2021, please let me or DGE Joe Kashi know.  Generally this involves visiting one community in Alaska, but may also involve attending another community or the D5010 district conference.

              Sincerely,

              Andre’ Layral

              District Governor 2019-2020

              Cell 907-460-7786

              September District Governor's Letter 2019-09-03 08:00:00Z 0

              Transportation To Gordon's in Halibut Cove Sunday, September 1

               

              The Halibut Cove BBQ is fast approaching! At this time we have 34 planning to attend! In addition to the AR which is Stillpoint Lodge's boat (23) passengers we have Steve Yoshida and Paul Seaton's boats. we are needing both of  the boats to get everyone over and back. Steve has room for several people more. Paul Seaton has room for 4, his boat is a large 23 foot open set net skiff so if you are traveling with Paul and Tina dress appropriately! Contact Paul at 299-3434 or email at < pkseaton@gmail.com >.

              A reminder to bring a Dish to share ,as well as any beverage that you may want for yourself or to share. Last year those who were on the Stillpoint Lodge boat were encouraged to Tip the staff as we disembarked. The same would be appreciated this year. We are very fortunate to have them donate their time and vessel. Without them we would be looking at the expense of water taxi's which would likely decrease attendance! 

              The Stillpoint Lodge's boat will be loading at RAMP 1, planning to leave at 1pm

              Our new Exchange Student, Euna, will be attending, it has been brought to my attention that some one on one conversation would be appreciated as she continues to adjust to her new life and our language. She is still adjusting to larger groups.

              ~Yours In Rotary~

              Don Keller 
              Transportation To Gordon's in Halibut Cove Sunday, September 1 2019-08-28 08:00:00Z 0

              Report From International Committee

              This is information from the global grant project to which our Club’s International committee contributed $500.  
              Seems to be a great project.  
              The report comes from Mary in Ketchikan who coordinated the contributions from Alaskan clubs. 
              Vivian
               
              ---------- Forwarded message ---------
              From: Mary Kowalczyk <cliffdwelling@kpunet.net>
              Date: Tue, Aug 20, 2019 at 11:40 AM
              Subject: Fwd: Healing Little Egyptian Hearts - with gracious thanks for GG contributions
              To: stuart <stuart@krbd.org>, Vivian Finlay <vivianfinlay@gmail.com
               
              Dear All,
               
              Recently I received this the below and attached information, but I haven't had a good opportunity to forward this update to everyone concerning their GG contribution to this 2018-2019 international project.  Please share this with your club members.  It is pretty exciting to see the accomplishments so far.  Also, a big thank you to District for the match with our 4 clubs.
               
              Have a great rest of the summer!
              Mary

              From: "Rob Raylman" <robraylman.goli@gmail.com>
              To: "Mary Kowalczyk" <cliffdwelling@kpunet.net>
              Cc: "brenda giftoflife" <brenda.giftoflife@gmail.com>
              Sent: Wednesday, July 31, 2019 1:36:47 PM
              Subject: Healing Little Egyptian Hearts
               
              Hello Mary:
               
              Hoping this finds you well
               
              Our Rotary Global Grant to sponsor the healing of 64 Little Egyptian Hearts has begun….
               
              19 precious children have been operated on by Dr. Hesham Shawkey (a Rotarian) at Cairo University Hospital…we have 45 more children to help under this grant….
               
              Please see attached a pictorial report highlighting the 19 children who have received their Gift of Life!!!
               
              Thank you for being part of our Global Network of 29 organizations and 1 individual who came together with The Rotary Foundation to answer the prayers of Egyptian children and their parents….in Connecting the World  we have Made A Difference in the lives of many!!!!
               
              Rob Raylman
              CEO 
              Gift of Life International
              (845) 546-2104
              robraylman.goli@gmail.com
              www.giftoflifeinternational.org
               
               
               
              Report From International Committee 2019-08-28 08:00:00Z 0

              Letter From Vladimir Donskoy

               Dear   Clyde & Vivian, Ted & Gloria
               Dear All

               Let  me  tell you that my student Maria Kupchinskaia  has  safely arrived
               back home after an eventful month of her "Watch & Learn" internship in
               your part of the world.

               She  gave  me  the names  of  the many Rotarians and non-Rotarians
               to   express  her   and   our   heartfelt   gratitude    to   you for
               your  time,   efforts and willingness to share your   culture,  including  business  culture.

               Especially  she  is  grateful  to  Clyde & Vivian who coordinated her
              internship   activities  and her first host family;  many thanks go
              to Ted and Gloria for the coordination of her visit to  Anchorage
              and for taking drastic  measures when she suddenly fell ill.

              Maria  warmly  mentioned the names of Sue Clardy, her "angel guardian"
              as    she  put  it.

              Regrettably, she does not have  the e-mail addresses for
              all   who  have  made  her  experience  in  Alaska  most  meaningful,
              productive  and enjoyable. Warmest regards   and  a big thank you  to Andrew Peter, Steve and
              Noko,   Maynard,   Kathy  Grimes,  Bill  P. Jay, Arthur Sose(Sp.), the
              Clynes, and many others.

              Unfortunately, I have been  unable to touch base with Maria as she has
              acted   as  a caregiver for her dying grandfather and grandmother with
              Alzheimer. Hence a delay in communication.

              Within a week the reports of all ten interns, including Maria's ,  will be posted on the
               school's site (www.buk.irk.ru) for us  to see what has been accomplished
               due   to  the  wonderful  hospitality  of  Rotarians  and  non-Rotarians  in
               Australia, Canada and the U.S.

              With  renewed thanks for all  your generous gestures  that are very much appreciated.

              Vladimir Donskoy
              PDG/Professor Emeritus
              Irkutsk State University
              1996-2019 Watch & Learn Intern Program
              Coordinator

              Letter From Vladimir Donskoy 2019-08-28 08:00:00Z 0
              A Cosmic Hamlet by the Sea,Volume 2 2019-08-22 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotarian Rides Again

              On his way from his home in California to the Rotary International Convention in Hamburg, Germany, Edwin Velarde took an unusual detour.
              Edwin Velarde is a member of the Rotary Club of Westlake Village, California
              Image credit: Samuel Zuder
               
              In an effort to raise awareness of diabetes, Velarde, 57, rode a bicycle for the last leg of his trip, cycling 525 miles from London to Hamburg. After making stops along the way to visit Rotary clubs and talk about the impact of diabetes, he arrived on 31 May after 13 days of riding. He spoke to clubs in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany.
               
              This was not the first time Velarde, a board member of the Rotarian Action Group for Diabetes, had cycled to a convention. “I thought I could create awareness by riding to conventions,” says Velarde, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 29. He biked from Busan to Seoul, Korea, in 2016, from Chicago to Atlanta in 2017, and from Rotary headquarters in Evanston, Illinois, to Toronto in 2018. This year, the journey had added meaning; Velarde dedicated this ride to his son Davis Edwin Velarde, who died at 22 of lymphoma in April.
               
              Diabetes is a chronic illness that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce insulin (type 1) or when the body cannot effectively use insulin (type 2). When diabetes is not controlled, it can result in severe damage to the eyes, kidneys, and nerves and can double a person’s risk of heart attack and stroke.
               
              The World Health Organization estimates that the number of people with diabetes rose from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014.
              Several years ago, when Velarde was feeling fatigued and depressed about his illness, a friend gave him a bike. He took it out for a spin.
              “That ride woke me up to the fact that I was not fit,” he recalls. “I realized I wanted to become a cyclist, and not just someone who rides a bike.”
              Velarde’s goal is to rally support among Rotarians to find a cure for diabetes, and to spread the word that a healthy lifestyle can help people who have type 2 diabetes better control the illness.
               
              “We have what it takes to conquer the diabetes epidemic,” he says. “Imagine the 422 million people we could help.”
              — ANNEMARIE MANNION
              • This story originally appeared in the September 2019 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              Rotarian Rides Again AMM 2019-08-20 08:00:00Z 0

              Book Smarts

              If you want to get serious about reading, time is not your friend. Here are some suggestions for making each book count.
               
              Story by Joe Queenan               Illustrations by Joey Guidone
               
              I have read more than 7,000 books, but not all of them were a good use of my time. I had to learn the hard way that certain habits are wasteful or even destructive. As a young person, I frittered away too much time reading trash, dross, and drivel. Now that I am in the autumn of my years, I almost never read a book that might not in some way elevate me. Life is a zero-sum game: Every bad book you read takes the place of a good book. And no matter what your age, the meter is running.
               
              Sooner or later, most of us reach a point in life where we realize that we are not going to make all of our dreams come true. We are never going to learn French, never going to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, never going to buy a stock like Amazon when it’s trading at four bucks a share. We will never have a 29-inch waist, never look good in leather pants, never learn to play the piano. These are the hard facts of life and we simply have to accept them.
               
              But there are certain things we can control. And for those of us to whom reading books is like eating or breathing, there comes a time when we need to run the numbers. I read X number of books a year. I expect to live Y more years. Maybe Z, if I can get that cholesterol under control. So the question is: Do I have enough time to read all the books I want to read (X times Y) before the Big Sayonara? And if not, what adjustments should I make?
               
              Text Messages
              Three writers, each a lover of language, explore expedient strategies for reading, the labyrinths of lexicography, and the subtle pleasures of rereading — and re-rereading — a favorite book.
               
              If you want to get serious about reading, time is not your friend. Here are some suggestions for making each book count.
               
              A longtime lexicographer reveals the rebarbative precision by which dictionaries are made and celebrates the unruly evolution of the English language.
               
              Rereading an old favorite at different stages in life is a chance to discover new things in the text and in ourselves.
               
              Here are a few thoughts on the subject:
              Beware of recommended books. Books tell us an awful lot about the person recommending them, and sometimes we would be better off not having this information. If you are a thoughtful, well-read person, you will regard a suggestion that you try out Clive Cussler or V.C. Andrews or anything with Special Ops in the title as an insult. If you have read masterpieces such as The Guns of August and A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, you will regard the suggestion that you sample something along the lines of The Day They Shot McKinley or The Plot to Kill Tippecanoe — and Tyler Too! as an affront to your intellect.
               
              Get rid of unwanted gifts quickly. Gimmicky books that fit the template of A Short History of Wheat or Hook, Line, and Sinker: Ways of the Wily Halibut or Why Rutherford B. Hayes Still Matters may have started out as harmless Christmas gifts, but the longer they sit on the shelf, the more they start to resemble taunts, dares, perhaps even smacks in the face. For this reason, you should never be afraid to ditch a book you have no intention of reading. Donate it to the library or a nursing home or leave it on a park bench. Using an unwanted book as insulation in a drafty crawl space is not an unacceptable suggestion.
               
              But do not regift it: If the book is so dull, cute, or slight that you have no intention of reading it, it’s not fair to place that burden on another person’s shoulders. People can tell when a book has been regifted; it has the smell of death about it. And it often has the words The Untold Story in the title.
              Don’t climb all the mountains at once. When we start college, finally emancipated from those dreary, politically correct high school reading lists, many of us devour the classics in quick succession. War and Peace. Pride and Prejudice. Crime and Punishment. We are like children who have broken into the larder — and at first glance the larder seems inexhaustible.
               
              The larder is not inexhaustible. Yes, there are plenty of mountains in the world, but there are a finite number of Everests. If you polish off Homer and Jane Austen too early in life, you will wish that you had kept a few titles in reserve for your autumnal years. Hadji Murat isn’t in the same class as Anna Karenina. This Side of Paradise is no Great Gatsby. Troilus and Cressida is a joke compared with Romeo and Juliet. If you use up Middlemarch too quickly, you’re going to be stuck with Daniel Deronda. And Adam Bede. Close, but no cigar.
               
              Avoid inspiring books by the professionally inspirational. A friend of mine once said that he read Tolstoy because he seemed like the kind of guy who could help you solve some of life’s problems. You could say the same thing about Plato, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jane Austen. You cannot say the same thing about most guys named Guy. If you are looking for inspiration, try Great Expectations. Or the Bible. And if you absolutely must read these sorts of faux-chummy books, try to hold the carnage down. Just as no one really needs more than one Gipsy Kings or Chieftains record, no one really needs to read more than one book by Jimmy Carter or Deepak Chopra. You get the idea pretty quick.
               
              Learn to speed-read. This is an effective technique for quickly disposing of books you have to read for work, books your loved ones gave you, or amateurish, self-published memoirs by close friends. Remember: Mysteries and thrillers do not need to be read word by word. Nor do books about Ironman triathlons.
               
              If you’re going to read trash, read higher-class trash. These days, when I read mysteries, they have to be really good ones, usually set in Scandinavia or Laos or Japan, where the exotic settings alone add value to the reading experience. Mysteries about trailer trash out in the sticks won’t cut it anymore.
               
              Read the article, not the book. An awful lot of nonfiction books start out as mildly interesting newspaper or magazine articles before morphing into something totally out of scale to their actual importance. Search Google for the essay that inspired the book and read that. This is particularly true of books written about “mentoring” or “building team loyalty.” It’s all padding. And it’s all ghostwritten.
               
              Reading is a deeply personal affair. Meaning that no matter how much you may love The Little Prince or Fight Club or Dune, you cannot make other people like it.
               
              Read the first two chapters and skip the rest. Writing is a form of marketing: Authors show off their top-quality merchandise first. In most nonfiction books, everything of interest is jammed into the first two chapters; the rest is filler.
               
              Avoid books written by politicians. For starters, the pols didn’t write them; some industrious hack ghosted them. And on the rare occasions when they did actually write them, you’ll end up wishing some enterprising hack had ghosted them. These books are all the same: America needs to get back to its roots; why, when I was a boy, you didn’t need to lock your doors; yup, that feisty girl I met walking across campus back in 1973 is now my wife; hey, whatever happened to class? The obvious exceptions to this rule are books written by Winston Churchill, Marcus Aurelius, Niccolò Machiavelli, or any of the Founding Fathers. One other thing: Never read a book by someone who lost his last election. Read the book by the person who beat him.
               
              Avoid rock star autobiographies. The template never varies: I was born dirt-poor; I could never measure up to my father’s expectations; I triumphed over seemingly insurmountable adversity; drugs brought me to death’s door; I was saved by the love of a good woman. The lone exception to this rule about avoiding rock star autobiographies is Keith Richards’ Life. Then again, Keith was always the exception.
               
              Avoid anthologies. They always contain Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” or Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” and they always make us think we are back in high school.
               
              Recognize that not all reading pleasures can be shared. I have friends who will swear up and down that Frederick Exley’s A Fan’s Notes is the greatest sports book ever written. This, for the record, is like being the tallest office building in Duluth. Which in and of itself doesn’t make the building special.
               
              No, reading is a deeply personal affair. Meaning that no matter how much you may love The Little Prince or Fight Club or Dune, you cannot make other people like it. My son assures me that spending my entire life without reading any science fiction or fantasy is to deliberately deny myself some of life’s greatest pleasures. For 68 years, I have been more than willing to take that risk. As the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t read The Chronicles of Narnia.
               
              Seek out tiny classics. If you’re never going to get to The Portrait of a Lady, make do with Washington Square. If you’re never going to get to the daunting, six-volume History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, settle for the abridged version. If you can’t get to Dostoyevsky, settle for Chekhov.
               
              Read three how-to books in your entire life, then call it quits. For my money, you still can’t beat trusty old classics like Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, Charles Goren’s Point Count Bidding in Contract Bridge, and, of course, Caesar’s The Gallic War.
               
              When purchasing used books, check to make sure that no one wrote in them. Nothing wrecks Macbeth more than coming across marginalia like: “Boy, talk about sexist behavior!” or “She is such a head case!” People who write in books are having conversations with themselves. These are conversations you do not want to join.
              Avoid self-help books with a number in the title. As in: Seven Steps to Serenity, The First Nine People You Meet in Purgatory, Twelve — No, Make That Thirteen — Steps to a Slimmer You. Books like this are a form of PowerPoint; the authors make lists because they can make lists. These books are built around the premise that success or happiness requires doing more than one thing. Wrong. Success is built around doing one thing. Stop eating Twinkies. Stop smoking. Stop being lazy. Stop being mean to your kids. Stop reading dumb self-help books.
               
              Be careful what you reread. People often say that if you have a wonderful meal at a restaurant, you shouldn’t go back because the second visit will be a disappointment. The same is often true of books. Some books — Kidnapped, Emma, The Sun Also Rises — hold up no matter how many times we read them. Some books are brutal disappointments when we return to them. Siddhartha and The Prophet probably seemed wise and knowing when you were 18. Try them at your peril when you’re 58.
               
              Occasionally, very occasionally, read a bad book. Reading bad books helps you articulate what you like or dislike about a particular author. Moreover, the occasional Lee Child thriller is a good form of inexpensive psychotherapy. Feeling vulnerable, distracted, overmatched, ineffective? Spend a few hours with Jack Reacher or James Bond. They’ll show you how to cut through the red tape.
               
              Read books in an age-appropriate fashion. Death of a Salesman will make no sense to a pimply 16-year-old. It will make sense only to an adult who has carried the burden of a job for a few decades. Catch-22 and The Catcher in the Rye are great books to read when you are a snarling, impudent youngster; if you don’t read them until you are middle-aged, they will seem flippant and immature. For the record, Wuthering Heights will probably make no sense to you or anyone else no matter how old you are when you finally get around to reading it.
              One final thought: Waiting until later in life to read a classic is not necessarily a bad idea. I didn’t get to Don Quixote until I was 51. I was 53 before I finally cracked open Jane Eyre. In each case, the experience was enthralling: I turned off the phone, refused to answer the doorbell, immersed myself in the incontestably sublime. Proving that a pleasure delayed is not a pleasure denied.
               
              Joe Queenan is a freelance writer based in Tarrytown, New York. He wrote about the joy of procrastination in the February issue.
               
              • This story originally appeared in the September 2019 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              Book Smarts 2019-08-20 08:00:00Z 0

              Shekhar Mehta of India Selected to be 2021-22 Rotary International President

              Shekhar Mehta, of the Rotary Club of Calcutta-Mahanagar, West Bengal, India, is the selection of the Nominating Committee for President of Rotary International for 2021-22. He will be declared the president-nominee on 1 October if no challenging candidates have been suggested.

              Mehta acknowledges that current membership trends are a challenge and says that membership development should be Rotary’s highest priority. He believes that focusing on regional plans, successfully transitioning Rotaractors into Rotary clubs, and increasing diversity and female members could yield a 5 percent net growth in membership each year.

              “A major brainstorming is needed to find effective solutions suited to different areas of the world,” says Mehta. He adds that regional ethos and culture have to be taken into account to find localized solutions, as “one size does not fit all.” He believes Rotary can extend to new geographical areas and countries.

              As a strong proponent of Rotary’s strategic plan, Mehta says he will encourage clubs to use action plans and reinforce the core values of Rotary.

              Mehta says Rotary needs to become more contemporary and adaptable by focusing on partnerships with governments and corporations, expanding partnerships with organizations that specialize in Rotary’s areas of focus, and investing in technology.

              Mehta, an accountant, is chair of the Skyline Group, a real estate development company he founded. He is also a director of Operation Eyesight Universal (India), a Canada-based organization.

              Mehta has been actively involved in disaster response and is a trustee of ShelterBox, UK. After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, he helped build nearly 500 homes for families affected by the disaster.

              Mehta pioneered a program that has performed more than 1,500 life-changing heart surgeries in South Asia. He is also the architect of the TEACH Program, which promotes literacy throughout India and has reached thousands of schools.

              A Rotary member since 1984, Mehta has served Rotary as director, member or chair of several committees, zone coordinator, training leader, member of The Rotary Foundation Cadre of Technical Advisers, and district governor. He is also the chair of Rotary Foundation (India).

              Mehta has received Rotary’s Service Above Self Award and The Rotary Foundation’s Citation for Meritorious Service and Distinguished Service Awards.

              He and his wife, Rashi, are Major Donors and members of the Bequest Society.

              To learn more about Mehta, read his interview and vision statement outlining his goals for Rotary.

              The members of the Nominating Committee for the 2021-22 President of Rotary International are: Mikael Ahlberg, Ölands Södra, Sweden; Bernhard Baumgartner, Kitzbühel, Austria; Gerson Gonçalves, Londrina-Norte, Pr., Brazil; Serge Gouteyron, Valenciennes-Denain aérodrome, Nord, France; Mary Beth Growney Selene, Madison West Towne-Middleton, Wisconsin, USA; Allan O. Jagger, Halifax, W. Yorks., England; Masahiro Kuroda, Hachinohe South, Aomori, Japan; Hsiu-Ming (Frederick) Lin, Taipei Tungteh, Taiwan; Larry A. Lunsford (secretary), Kansas City-Plaza, Missouri, USA; Anne L. Matthews (chair), Columbia East, South Carolina, USA; Ekkehart Pandel, Bückeburg, Germany; P. T. Prabhakar, Madras Central, Tamil Nadu, India; José Antonio Salazar Cruz, Bogotá Occidente, Cund., Colombia; M.K. Panduranga Setty, Bangalore, Karnataka, India; Steven A. Snyder, Auburn, California, USA; Yoshimasa Watanabe, Kojima, Okayama, Japan; and SangKoo Yun, Sae Hanyang, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

              Shekhar Mehta, of the Rotary Club of Calcutta-Mahanagar, West Bengal, India, is the selection of the Nominating Committee for President of Rotary International for 2021-22. He will be declared the president-nominee on 1 October if no challenging candidates have been suggested.

              Mehta acknowledges that current membership trends are a challenge and says that membership development should be Rotary’s highest priority. He believes that focusing on regional plans, successfully transitioning Rotaractors into Rotary clubs, and increasing diversity and female members could yield a 5 percent net growth in membership each year.

              “A major brainstorming is needed to find effective solutions suited to different areas of the world,” says Mehta. He adds that regional ethos and culture have to be taken into account to find localized solutions, as “one size does not fit all.” He believes Rotary can extend to new geographical areas and countries.

              As a strong proponent of Rotary’s strategic plan, Mehta says he will encourage clubs to use action plans and reinforce the core values of Rotary.

              Mehta says Rotary needs to become more contemporary and adaptable by focusing on partnerships with governments and corporations, expanding partnerships with organizations that specialize in Rotary’s areas of focus, and investing in technology.

              Mehta, an accountant, is chair of the Skyline Group, a real estate development company he founded. He is also a director of Operation Eyesight Universal (India), a Canada-based organization.

               

              Shekhar Mehta of India Selected to be 2021-22 Rotary International President 2019-08-14 08:00:00Z 0
              Our Newest Paul Harris Fellowship Member 2019-08-14 08:00:00Z 0

              Don't Play it Again, Dad

              A father changes his tune after
              a game of musical shares
               
              By Jeff Ruby
               
              "At the most crucial time of my daughter’s social and mental development, I had made it all about myself."
              Illustration by Richard Mia
               
              When my daughter was an infant, her sleepy-time playlist did not involve Mozart or Raffi. No Baby Einstein for Baby Hannah. She listened to Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits’ notoriously creepy 1983 LP. On repeat. All night.
               
              If you aren’t familiar with Swordfishtrombones, it’s basically 40 minutes of cockeyed tales from an underground world populated with freaks and misfits, herky-jerky howling and whispering accompanied by angry trombones and rusty marimbas being played in a bathtub. It sounds like steam oozing from a sewer grate outside a pawn shop at 2 a.m. Unless you want your offspring to grow up to be a boxcar-hopping grifter, Swordfishtrombones may be the absolute worst album to play in a baby’s nursery. 
               
              “What the hell is she listening to in there?” my wife asked while slipping back into bed after a 3 a.m. feeding.
              “The 11th-best album of the 1980s, according to Pitchfork,” I mumbled. Then I rolled over.
               
              This, my friends, is what happens when a grumpy failed hipster has children. I cared not a whit whether Tom Waits was developmentally appropriate — or what twisted dreams were unspooling in my daughter’s evolving brain. I just knew I didn’t want her brand-new neural connections clogged with Kidz Bop and anthropomorphic dinosaurs singing B-I-N-G-O. No, sir. My tyke would listen to music about real life. Loss. Longing. Sailors on shore leave drinking forties of Mickey’s Big Mouth and shooting pool with dwarfs.
               
              A closeted music geek, I spent much of my awkward young life standing in the back of sweaty music venues making sure I had on the right T-shirt, the right sneakers, and the right beer in my hand, tapping my foot but keeping a safe, ironic distance from it all, even if my heart was beating so hard I could feel it pushing against my chest. Only in the privacy of my home could I show genuine love for the music. But I married a woman who has no musical opinions whatsoever beyond turn it down! so in Hannah I was ecstatic to have someone with whom I could share my passion. The fact that this someone was not yet potty-trained, or even ambulatory, barely occurred to me.
               
              By the time my daughter was four, I had her on a steady diet of Johnny Cash, Yo La Tengo, and Stevie Wonder (circa 1972-76, of course). By five, she was singing along with the Clash. The day she requested Bob Dylan’s original 1963 version of “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” from her car seat, I knew I had done my part. 
               
              Of course, it all came crashing down. When Hannah was six, I happened upon a story in the satirical online newspaper The Onion. Its headline: “Cool Dad Raising Daughter on Media That Will Put Her Entirely Out of Touch with Her Generation.” The accompanying photo shows a father watching proudly as his daughter pulls a Talking Heads record from its sleeve, while she gives the impression she would be more comfortable at a Taylor Swift concert. The father looked a little like me. And the girl was a dead ringer for Hannah.
               
              It was a punch in the jaw. At the most crucial time of my daughter’s social and mental development, I had made it all about myself. Call it snobbery, call it the fragile male ego run amok; I was guilty of both. I had lied for years, to myself, to my wife, to anyone else who would listen, that I was helping to mold a human being who would grow up to be sharp and literate, fluent in what I called “the classics” — when all I really wanted was to create a perfect Frankenstein monster of pop culture references. A mini-me, but more hip.
               
              There’s a possible biological explanation for my actions. “From the beginning, we tempt [our children] into imitation of us and long for what may be life’s most profound compliment: their choosing to live according to our own system of values,” writes Andrew Solomon in Far From the Tree, his 2012 book about families adjusting to children with disabilities and differences. Then Solomon twists the knife in further: “Though many of us take pride in how different we are from our parents, we are endlessly sad at how different our children are from us.” This may clarify why, 30 years after running as fast as possible from the Bach cantatas my father was always humming, I was force-feeding my daughter Ramones albums.
               
              On its face, this is entirely rational. What is parenting, after all, but an attempt to instill values in your progeny that will live on once your time is up in this world? A desperate stab at immortality — the ultimate ego trip.
               
              But without a moral code to impart, what’s the point? Once I got past the most basic principles (be nice! work hard! um ... help people?), it became clear that I didn’t have much left to offer. The rest of my knowledge was trivia. Values are one thing; making sure a kindergartner knows the difference between Lennon songs and McCartney songs — and demanding that she care desperately which is which — is another completely. Worse, most of my input for my daughter seemed to revolve around being “cool,” which in my middle age I had managed to forget was a constant burden that suffocated my teen years.
               
              So I backed off. Or tried to, anyway.
               
              OK, so Marvin Gaye might happen to be in the CD player when Hannah got in the car, or Elvis Costello on the turntable when she popped into my office. If she asked what was playing, I would tell her. When she gave a song a thumbs-down or, worse, expressed indifference, I felt strangely wounded, and when she went her own way and inevitably developed her own interests, my stunted heart broke. Not because I had to let go of my daughter, but because she would be shaped by influences that were not my own. Influences I perceived as inferior.
               
              Hannah is 14 now, and we’ve both grown up considerably. She’s smart, anxious, and sarcastic, a terrific writer and a mezzo-soprano in the Chicago Children’s Choir. She has good friends and good sense and is always searching. And I stayed out of her face while she found her own offbeat diversions: episodes of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix; the infinite minutiae of Greek mythology; the joys of online animatics, which I didn’t even know was a thing, by an obscure Polish artist. Best of all, she’s eager to share them all with me.
               
              Last September, I took my daughter to her first concert. It was by Dodie Clark, a waifish British chanteuse whose aching vulnerability has made her something of a sage to quirky teenage girls. I had heard Hannah talk about Clark’s 1.8 million YouTube followers and was naturally suspicious — but also flattered that she was willing to have me there. Plus, she needed a ride.
               
              The concert blew me away. Clark’s lilting performance was raw and endearing, every lyric conveying unironic, life-affirming messages I had forgotten existed. Social anxiety? Totally normal. Worried no one will ever love you? It’s OK. Sexually confused? Join the club.
               
              The crowd — young, enthusiastic, and unjudgey — included girls and boys of all ages, shapes, sizes, colors, and orientations, each of them dressed how they wanted, singing how they wanted, laughing and crying and losing themselves in the music in a way I had never been able to with someone watching. Hannah could not stop smiling. And I cried. Because at 14, my daughter had learned how to be comfortable in her skin in a way that I never could.
               
              Hannah’s own peculiar music play-list today includes everything from lo-fi pop to Croatian choral music. And yes, she has managed to enfold Queen and the Beatles into the mix. “I don’t mind when you recommend a song you like,” she said recently. “I like your taste in music.” This may mark the first time in history that a child has said that to her parent. And, as it turns out, I like her taste too.
               
              • In our March issue, Jeff Ruby, the chief contributing dining critic for Chicago magazine, explained how his son Max got his name.
               
              • This story originally appeared in the August 2019 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
              Don't Play it Again, Dad 2019-08-06 08:00:00Z 0

              IMPORTANT!  IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT!

              EMAIL SCAM        EMAIL SCAM        EMAIL SCAM           EMAIL SCAM       EMAIL SCAM
               
              Message From DG Andre'
               

              Several Rotary members have notified me in the past few minutes that they have received suspicious e-mail(s) that appears to originate be from Amazon, or Chase.

              This certainly looks like a Phishing attempt from a scammer, using Past District Governor Michelle O'Brien's e-mail account, and the signature line says Rotary District 5010.

              The e-mails appear to be hacked from Constant Contact, or appear to imply so.

              Please do not open the link.  These e-mails are not from D5010 or Michelle O'Brien, despite what they say.

              Sincerely,

              Andre' Layral

              D5010 District Governor

              2019-2020

               
              FYI  I recieved the scam email just prior to receiving the above email.  They are trying to convince people that it is connected to Rotary.  In the past when I've recieved one of these, it is often followed by similar but different emails trying to get you to give them info, etc.  Please be careful.
               
              Craig
              IMPORTANT!  IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT! 2019-07-31 08:00:00Z 0

              August 2019 District Governor Message to Members

               
              July 2019 is now behind us, all our clubs have inducted new officers, sponsored a few new members, held a few meetings, come together in fellowship, conducted a fundraiser or participated in a service project that has benefitted the community.  If you are like me, you have enjoyed the warm summer months, perhaps gone camping, fishing, hiking or enjoyed a barbecue or two. A reality of life in Alaska is that we are all beginning to think about our plans for the Fall.
               
              I’ve had the privilege of visiting clubs and their projects in Ketchikan, e-Club of Alaska International, Eagle River, and the new Alaska ECO Satellite Rotary club.  Ive felt firsthand the spirit and pride of Ketchikan and Eagle River Rotary clubs and their communities as they conducted their annual Rotary Duck Race fundraisers while expanding my vocabulary with words like, “duck butts” and “quacker sackers”. I’ve thrown out opening pitches at Anchorage Glacier Pilots and Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks baseball games. 
               
              Serving as District Governor enables me to learn about the many ways that Rotary Connects people, communities and the World.  The many projects I've seen thus far address a variety of community needs while positively impacting many lives.  These local projects are possible because of district grants that are funded by member contributions to the Annual Fund.  Half the donations each year come back to our Rotary District in the form of District Designated Funds that fund both local and global projects.  
               
              D5010 funded 22 District Grants this year that were submitted by clubs.  We currently have several clubs participating in Global Grants in 2019-2020 with one or more partner districts, and all Alaska clubs have pledged to support our D5010 Global grant effort with D9141 to provide 1000 two seater desks in schools in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria, where currently students sit on dirt floors as they learn.
               
              I've asked all club presidents to align their club goals based upon the Rotary Presidential Citation.  The goals in the citation support RI’s strategic priorities.  Club achievements toward their citation award are automatically verified through Rotary Club Central.  Therefore, I’m asking that all presidents take time to reacquaint themselves with the citation requirements and align their club goals with the citation requirements (900en19-20_theme_citation_brochure.pdf).  This year, there are also criteria for our Rotaract Clubs and Interact Clubs.
               
              August is Membership and Extension Month in the Rotary world.  Making an impact in Rotary starts with our members.  Rotarians make the world a better place, so impact begins with every member making a commitment to serve their club, their community, bring new members into Rotary and contributing to the Rotary Foundation.  Rotary provides a way to connect our communities, opportunity to network with others who share Rotary values, share ideas and build strong and lasting relationships.  The global community of Rotarians begins with membership.  Rotary is very much a family and this year we must do better making Rotary possible and within reach to young leaders.  Part of this means making Rotary more family oriented for young leaders.  I am asking clubs to have a conversation with young leaders in their club about steps their club can take to establish reasonable expectations for busy young leaders.
               
              Finally,  I am pleased to announce the new D5010 Mobile APP is now available FREE in the Apple store and Google Play store.  A separate e-mail will contain details about finding and downloading the APP. Only members of D5010 may download the APP.  The APP has many features that will put Rotary at your fingertips, including a calendar of events, latest Rotary news, a Directory of clubs, Resources for Presidents, Clubs and new Rotarians with a great section on Rotary ABC’s and how to engage with Rotary.  The APP links to a number of Facebook pages, including D5010, and there are links to Submit a news story, another to share ideas and provide feedback to district leaders. A number of volunteer leadership roles and opportunities are still available, so please check out the descriptors of our many committees.
              Enjoy the remainder of the summer!
               
              Sincerely,
               
              Andre’ Layral
              D5010 District Governor
              2019-2020
               
              Cell 907-460-7786
               
               
               
               
               
              August 2019 District Governor Message to Members 2019-07-30 08:00:00Z 0

              Class Project

              Nestled in the hills of Guatemala City, Colonia Trinidad is a neighborhood at odds with itself. “It’s a well-off area with huge apartments and lots of construction,” says Mónica Davila. “But we also have areas that are home to a lot of poor people.”

              Davila is president of the Rotary Club of Guatemala Vista Hermosa Uwara, a satellite of the Rotary Club of Guatemala Vista Hermosa. While volunteering at a shelter for orphans, members of the Vista Hermosa Uwara club learned about Escuela Republica de Alemania, a school in Colonia Trinidad attended by 150 children between ages seven and 13. Some of the students live at the shelter, including some who lost family members when the Fuego volcano erupted in 2018 and killed at least 190 people. All of the school’s students live in poverty.

              The school building was in bad shape, with rotting wood and problems with the roof, and had few of the resources needed for education. “Most of our club members live close to that school,” Davila says, and after seeing the conditions under which kids in their neighborhood were trying to learn, the members of the Uwara club knew what had to be done.

              Nestled in the hills of Guatemala City, Colonia Trinidad is a neighborhood at odds with itself. “It’s a well-off area with huge apartments and lots of construction,” says Mónica Davila. “But we also have areas that are home to a lot of poor people.”

              Davila is president of the Rotary Club of Guatemala Vista Hermosa Uwara, a satellite of the Rotary Club of Guatemala Vista Hermosa. While volunteering at a shelter for orphans, members of the Vista Hermosa Uwara club learned about Escuela Republica de Alemania, a school in Colonia Trinidad attended by 150 children between ages seven and 13. Some of the students live at the shelter, including some who lost family members when the Fuego volcano erupted in 2018 and killed at least 190 people. All of the school’s students live in poverty.

              The school building was in bad shape, with rotting wood and problems with the roof, and had few of the resources needed for education. “Most of our club members live close to that school,” Davila says, and after seeing the conditions under which kids in their neighborhood were trying to learn, the members of the Uwara club knew what had to be done.

              “We are trying to make a model school at Republica de Alemania,” she says.

              In a three-month fundraising drive, the Uwara club members raised $1,000 and got additional support from District 4250 (Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras). In May 2018, they installed 100 new desks in classrooms. In February 2019, they set up a computer lab using donated equipment from a local call center.

              “We are trying to make a model school at Republica de Alemania.”

              The Uwara club has more plans for the school, including replacing the remaining classroom desks, fixing the roof, and stocking a library.

              The work of the Uwara volunteers has inspired parents at the school to pool their own funds to help pay for some renovations.

              María Valladares, a new member of the Uwara club, says her experiences at Republica de Alemania have confirmed to her how important becoming a Rotarian was. “I joined this club because the members are dedicated to education and helping children,” she says.

              The Uwara volunteers see what a difference they’re making whenever they come back to the school. In February 2019, when they arrived to build the computer lab, the students were excited to show off how well they had taken care of their desks. “They said, ‘Can you come and see our desks? We have papers in them!’” Davila says. 

              —  FRITZ LENNEMAN

              • This story originally appeared in the August 2019 issue of The Rotarian magazine.

              Class Project 2019-07-30 08:00:00Z 0

              The Rotarian Conversation:  Jonathan Quick

               

              When it comes to addressing epidemics, the public health expert says we have the solutions. We simply have to embrace them

              Jonathan Quick thinks on a grand scale. His book The End of Epidemics: The Looming Threat to Humanity and How to Stop It argues that we can end not just one particular epidemic, but all epidemics. He lays out a seven-point call to action (e.g., “Invest wisely, save lives”; “Active prevention, constant readiness”) to prevent the inevitable outbreaks of diseases from growing into epidemics that kill thousands or even millions. The scale of his ambition is matched only by the scale of the problem and the price tag on his proposed solution: Quick calls for an investment of $7.5 billion annually for the next 20 years in prevention, but he points out that a severe pandemic — when an epidemic goes global, something made more likely by our interconnected world — could cost the global economy up to $2.5 trillion. 

              When it comes to public health and disease prevention, Quick knows what he’s talking about. He earned his M.D. at Duke University and spent 10 years at the World Health Organization, working with local governments on access to medicine, particularly AIDS medications, in Pakistan and Kenya. During his time in Kenya, he was a member of the Rotary Club of Nairobi-South and was involved in the club’s polio vaccination efforts. When he returned to the United States in 2004, he led Management Sciences for Health, a nonprofit focused on helping governments develop effective health systems management.

              Quick decided to write The End of Epidemics in 2014 during an Ebola outbreak in West Africa. He viewed with alarm the failure of governments, nongovernmental organizations, and affected populations to learn the lessons of recent epidemic outbreaks. “Based on what I’d seen with AIDS, with SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome] in 2003, with Ebola, I asked myself where we would be in three years,” he recalls. “And my sense was we’d be just as vulnerable because we tend to go through a cycle of panic and neglect. I fear we’re going to leave my daughters’ generation a world that’s in more danger of pandemics if we don’t really get a good, solid, persistent response.” Senior editor Hank Sartin spoke with Quick about the factors that make for robust public health infrastructure, how engaged individuals have made a difference, what we should be focused on now, and the recent measles outbreak.

              THE ROTARIAN: Since your book came out, we’ve faced a serious measles outbreak. What happened? And does this temper your optimism about the end of epidemics?

              QUICK: The recent measles outbreaks in the United States and around the world are no surprise to those of us who have been tracking the rise of the vaccine resistance movement and the resulting global decline in measles immunization in many countries. This is a surmountable setback, but it must be confronted with utmost urgency.

              The decade of the 2010s has seen an alarming decline in measles immunization. Between 2010 and 2017, more than 20 million children worldwide missed their first measles vaccination.

              The global rise in vaccine rejection has been driven largely by a discredited and retracted 1998 article in a prestigious medical journal. The purported link between measles vaccine and childhood autism has been repeatedly disproven in rigorous scientific studies. As important, we now know much more about the real causes of autism, which include a combination of genetic and environmental factors, both prenatal and postnatal.

              Our greatest challenge is not the microbes. Our greatest challenge today is combating the disinformation and underlying distrust of science that lead to vaccine rejection. The first step is to strengthen epidemic literacy, including vaccine literacy, from primary to graduate school and in continued public education. The second step is to acknowledge and respond to sincere concerns about past vaccine safety issues and to ensure the safety of new vaccines. The third, and most daunting, step is to develop local, national, and international vaccine acceptance efforts capable of turning around a well-organized global anti-vaccine community that has a simple, emotive message — “measles vaccine causes autism” — is highly effective on social media, and has enlisted stars and political leaders.

              TR: You argue in the book that we need to move into prevention mode when it comes to epidemic diseases. But every time we’ve faced a previous epidemic, we have gone through a cycle of funding during the crisis and then defunding after. Is there any reason to think we will support a prevention strategy now?

              QUICK: We had the combination of Ebola in 2014 and then the Zika virus in 2015. Coming so soon after Ebola, the Zika outbreak focused public attention on epidemics. And then in 2018, we had 80,000 flu deaths in the U.S. That accelerated the research on the flu vaccine. We have something new, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, dedicated to developing new vaccines. We have more funding put in the right places, and we also have much greater attention to building good public health systems. The global public health community put the SARS virus back in the box in 2003. We did that without a vaccine because of good public health: Go find the cases, isolate them, get their contacts, and stop it that way. The innovation, the funding, and the work on systems — those are the reasons I think it is possible.

              TR: You write a lot about the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Why was that out-break so serious?

               

              The Rotarian Conversation:  Jonathan Quick 2019-07-30 08:00:00Z 0

              Fighting Poverty on a Small Scale

               A collaboration between Rotary and Heifer continues to produce big results, helping small farms provide healthier, locally-sourced food
               
              By Arnold R. Grahl                               Visuals by Miriam Doan
               
              In the fall of 2015, volunteers from Rotary and Heifer International came together to build hoop houses for a few farmers working small lots in Arkansas, USA. The afternoon outing was part of a larger project that is still reaping benefits four years later, supporting small-scale agriculture in the region and increasing access to locally-grown food.
               
              Heifer has been using the small-scale agriculture model for decades to alleviate hunger and fight poverty around the world. The approach has the added benefits of being environmentally friendly and offering healthier food options.
               
              That mission dovetails with Rotary’s mission to grow local economies and improve health. So it’s not surprising the two groups have teamed up on a number of occasions in the past 30 years to improve communities by helping families escape poverty. Several Heifer employees are or have been members of the Rotary Club of Little Rock, Arkansas, USA, the city where Heifer has its headquarters.
               
              “Our values line up very well,” says Ardyth Neill, a member of the Little Rock club and president of the Heifer Foundation. “With Rotary, it’s Service Above Self and helping to serve others. Heifer has been working with farmers to be accountable, pass on their gifts, train other farmers, and work together in community. It’s learning to share and care, basic things that work well together.”
               
              Sustainability
              In the United States and other developed nations, a lot of food production is controlled by large industrial operations, which produce cheaper food by focusing on a single crop and using specialized equipment to cut labor costs.
               
              But according to research into sustainable agriculture, this food model has downsides, including a reliance on commercial fertilizers, heavy pesticides, and other chemicals that can harm the environment.
               
              The trend has also contributed to the failure of smaller family farms, increasing the poverty rates in places like rural Arkansas. 
              Nationwide distribution networks have also resulted in food deserts in urban areas, particularly in the U.S., England, and Australia, where poor neighborhoods have little access to fresh produce and instead rely on less nutritious fast foods and packaged products.
               
              Small-scale sustainable agriculture, on the other hand, tends to keep things local. The money you spend on food stays in your community and helps your neighbor. Farmers maximize land use by planting multiple crops that replenish the soil and reduce the need for fertilizers and pesticides.
               
              And fruits and vegetables grown closer to home keep more of their nutrients.
               
              Consumers are increasingly aware of these health benefits, fueling the market for local produce.
               
              “There’s a phenomenon going on, really nationwide, about people becoming more and more concerned and thoughtful about where their food comes from,” says Sharon Vogelpohl, a past president of the Little Rock Rotary club and a volunteer on the project.
               
              In Heifer’s back yard
              Before teaming up with Rotary on the project, Heifer USA conducted a study that found considerable untapped demand for locally grown produce. The study calculated that Arkansas spends more than $7 billion  a year on food, with about $6.3 billion of that coming from outside Arkansas.
              Heifer set up a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) network — a food subscription service in which consumers buy produce in advance at a fixed price, guaranteeing farmers a market for their crop regardless of how weather or other factors may affect their output.
               
              Rotary members used their extensive contacts to find buyers for the CSA shares, and offered business and planning advice to the farmers. Heifer provided training in sustainable practices and taught its philosophy of accountability, sharing, passing on training, and self-reliance.
              Through its first five years, the number of shares sold grew from 150 the first year to more than 400 a year.
               
              The New South Produce Cooperative became a largely independent cooperative in 2016, and in 2017 expanded to wholesale markets. Now, Heifer USA is transitioning oversight of the program to one of its funding partners, 275 Food Project, smoothing the path for expansion into the Memphis area.
               
              "We’ve always viewed our role as being an incubator of this project,” says Annie Bergman, Global Communications Director for Heifer. “This will allow growth across the border and provide more support for the farmers. We will still offer training and funds when needed."
               
              Farming around the world
              The tools of small-scale sustainable agriculture look different around the world, but the principles are the same. Noel Mace, Heifer International’s program manager for Africa, explains that cooperatives play a crucial role in bringing together groups of farmers — many with both livestock and crops — and connecting them to markets.
               
              “We are now developing more of a market-driven approach,” says Mace. “Historically, Heifer has spent a lot of time on how to bring poor farmers to a subsistence level where they can feed their families. But our mission is to end hunger and poverty, not to lessen it. Poverty is a big challenge without connecting to markets.”
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Volunteers from the Rotary Club of Little Rock, Arkansas, USA, and Heifer built a high tunnel for Joe Carr
              .
              “So the question,” he continues, “is not just how do we make sure you are not hungry, but how do we move you beyond a family-level production to participating with others in a market” that creates income and increases livelihood?
               
              Africa has a strong dairy program, so much of Heifer’s work there flows out of milk. Tight groups of 15 to 20 farmers join with other groups in cooperatives that then have enough scale to access chilling plants and, ultimately, processing plants. The farmers then look to diversify further by using their milk co-op to sell avocados, lettuce, tomatoes, and other produce.
               
              “If I am a consumer, I now can go to the co-op and buy milk, but also buy fresh fruits and greens, and I know it will have the same level of quality,” says Mace. “It’s really about marketing a brand, something I can rely on and know they will have when I go there.”
               
              Spreading success
              Back in Arkansas, Ben Wihebrink of Heifer USA says the larger vision is to encourage others to copy their model. In addition to building support for the cooperative in Memphis, pilot efforts have been launched in northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas Delta.
               
              “There is an infinite demand across the (American) South specifically for local foods and organic foods,” says Wihebrink. “And as long as there is consumer interest, there is opportunity to help farmers in many places struggling to make a living.”
               
              Joe Carr, recipient of one of the hoop houses, has been farming since he left his job at Whirlpool in 1987. He started a farmer’s market in 2003 that has grown to more than 60 vendors. The co-op and high tunnel (as it’s also called) have allowed him to increase his income.
               
              "The beauty of the high tunnel is it gives you the quality you need for public demand,” he says. “Choy, kale, broccoli, carrots, and lettuce will all go through the winter. With the proper crop management, you can harvest all winter long."
               
               
              Help Rotary Help Farmers
               
              Fighting Poverty on a Small Scale 2019-07-25 08:00:00Z 0
              Leadership Academy Application -- Due August 1, 2019 2019-07-24 08:00:00Z 0

              District Leadership Academy

              District Leadership Academy
               
              District 5010 logo
               
               
               
               
              Greetings Fellow D5010 Rotarians!

              My name is Jodi Stuart, your District Leadership Academy Dean for the 2019-20 course year! I’m excited to work along with you as your Dean. I believe strongly that being prepared with knowledge is the best way to be of service to my Club. I had been my Club’s Secretary for 6 years before I started the process of becoming a District Leadership Academy graduate. I wish I had done it sooner! The information provided through the Academy is helpful as well as the relationships made with other Clubs and Rotarians. I encourage everyone that is thinking of being in a position of leadership to participate in the Academy. The Academy provides knowledge and resources while instilling an additional level of enthusiasm for the work that we do as Rotarians. I recommend getting a team together for every Club in the District to attend! 

              So, who should take the District Leadership Academy? Presidents-elect, Presidents Nominee, Past Presidents, Assistant Governors, District Committee Chairs, as well as all club officers and directors and those who aspire to serve as leaders at the club or district level, are encouraged to enroll in the District Leadership Academy (DLA) program. The DLA is an 8 month series of courses in Communications, Membership, Public Image, Youth Services, RI Organization, and The Rotary Foundation. All courses are taught online using Moodle. You can find the website at www.district5010leadershipacademy.org Each course is taught by an experienced Rotarian with extensive knowledge in their specific course topic. There are times throughout the courses to catch up if you fall behind as well! 

              Since District 5110 (the Academy founding district) began the program 19 years ago, 12 Rotary districts have adopted the DLA to train their club and district leaders. In all, these districts have graduated more than 1400 Rotarians. Our District 5010 Leadership Academy training will provide our Rotarians with the broadest Rotary background possible, thereby enabling them to be the effective leaders that our clubs and district will need to grow and strengthen Rotary. All interested Rotarians are encouraged to learn more about the DLA and enroll for the Class of 2020. Download DLA information enrollment documents from our District Leadership Academy link on the D5010 website.

              So, look around your Club and ask yourself, do I know what could make my Club the best Club it can be? If you do, come share your knowledge with the District Leadership Academy. If you don’t, come get some knowledge from the District Leadership Academy! Overall, I want to invite all of you that aren’t graduates of the program to join us. There is limited space, so make sure to get your application in early!
               
              I look forward to a great year!
               
              Jodi Stuart
              Soldotna Rotary Club
              District Leadership Academy Dean
              District Leadership Academy 2019-07-24 08:00:00Z 0

              District Leadership Academy--Course Schedule

              September 1-30: Dynamic Leadership and Communication

              The basics of leadership in a diverse organization are very useful in being a successful Rotarian. Students will register for their account on My Rotary at Rotary.Org. This account will be used to become familiar with and learn how to navigate the Rotary International (RI) and District 5010 web site as well as the various RI Social Media sites. In addition, best in class Leadership tips and traits will be referenced to help all learn how to lead diverse committees and grow strong, effective clubs under the new Council on Legislation changes.

              October 1-31: Growing Vibrant Clubs

              Rotary's Be a Vibrant Club leadership plan challenges members to revitalize their clubs and better engage new and established members. We use these fresh ideas and cover the new membership models, sharing of recruitment and retention ideas, and extension. All of Rotary’s latest membership resources are used, as well as tools to help students analyze their club’s membership over the previous years.

              November 1-30: Tell Rotary’s Story – Public Image

              Promoting Rotary to the general public can be as simple as wearing your Rotary pin or as elaborate as organizing an integrated marketing campaign. By increasing the public's understanding of Rotary, we're strengthening our ability to make an impact in communities around the world.

              The course covers RI’s Public Relations policies and the importance of developing Rotary’s Public Image. Students will be given examples of the successful use of Public Relations to promote the work of their club and will survey their club's PR status. Learning to tell Rotary’s story and your own club story will help attract energetic new members and bring attention and support to worthwhile club projects

              December – A catch-up month

              January 1-31: Youth Services

              The youngest generation in the family of Rotary take action in their communities, develop their leadership and professional skills, and have fun - many are participants in Rotary’s youth and young adult programs: Interact, Rotaract, Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA), and Rotary Youth Exchange. Others are service-minded young people involved in Rotary club and district activities. During this month’s course, you will review your Club’s various Youth Services programs, identify needed enhancements and consider new ideas to help formalize a final plan.

              February 1-28 - RI Organization

              Rotary International is the global association of Rotary Clubs. Our 1.2 million members are the heart of our service efforts and share a dedication to the ideal of Service Above Self. This course covers the organizational structure of Rotary at the club, district, and international level. You will learn how to propose changes to our rules and discuss the process for the latest Council on Legislation that is transforming Rotary into a forward-looking organization.

              At the club level, you will bring all the above plans together to form an ongoing structure and process for your club.

              The Rotary Foundation (TRF)

              Part 1 - March 1-21
              Part 2 - March 22 - Apr. 20

              The Rotary Foundation is a nonprofit corporation(US 501(c)(3)) that promotes world understanding through humanitarian service as well as educational and cultural exchanges. The final course in the Academy program covers TRF. Due to the many components of TRF, the course covers seven weeks and is taught in two parts.

              Part 1 covers PolioPlus, the various educational programs of TRF, the Six Areas of Focus, the club and district MOU’s and the various ways of giving to the Foundation.

              Part 2 covers the new Grant Model, project sustainability, District Grants and Global Grants

              In addition to discussions, students will prepare and submit a District Grant based on a project of their own choosing (preferably one that their club will be submitting to the district).

              The Finale - Graduation!

              All students finishing the year’s courses will meet to discuss the year and their experience. All will be recognized before the entire Conference attendees to receive their certificate, special pin, and vest with the DLA logo. Future Leaders of Rotary - go forth and share your passion for and commitment to enhancing communities and improving lives across the globe.

              District Leadership Academy--Course Schedule 2019-07-24 08:00:00Z 0

              The Grief That Does Not Speak

              While dining with an old friend, an acclaimed Chicago author witnesses the enduring repercussions of violence

              By Illustrations by

              Not long ago, over lunch at a restaurant, I asked Pharoah Rivers how much he remembered from a murder he witnessed 21 years ago. I’d written about Pharoah in my first book, There Are No Children Here, but the event I wanted to talk about happened after its publication, on a summer evening in Chicago in 1998. It’s at the restaurant that I come to realize how much that incident remains a part of Pharoah. “I can’t get it out of my mind,” he says.

              The incident occurred on 19 August of that year. My wife, daughter, and I were visiting my parents in upstate New York when I received a phone call near midnight. The voice on the other end sounded familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. “It’s Anne Chambers,” she said. Anne was a Chicago violent crimes detective whom I knew. She told me she was calling from the kitchen in my family’s home in Oak Park, a suburb bordering Chicago. She told me that Pharoah was there with her, and that he may have been involved in a murder. My legs buckled. I sat down to catch my breath.

              At the time Pharoah, who had grown up in one of Chicago’s housing projects, had been living with me since he was 12 — a two-week stay that turned into six years. He had recently been accepted at Southern Illinois University and had decided not to visit New York with us during this summer trip because he wanted to get ready for classes that began the following week. And then I got this call.

              I knew Anne from my time reporting There Are No Children Here. Here’s what she told me in that short midnight phone call: Pharoah had taken a taxi from our house to his mother’s home on the West Side, and when the cab pulled up, two young men pulled Pharoah out of the backseat and then jumped in. One of them held a pistol to the cabbie’s head, demanding his money. The cabbie must have panicked, and when he pressed down on the accelerator, one of the assailants shot him in the back. Anne told me that some detectives suspected Pharoah might have set up the driver. Fortunately, she knew him from her time in the projects and knew that he wasn’t that type of kid. I told her that I, too, couldn’t fathom Pharoah pulling such a stunt.

              By the next morning, Anne and her colleagues had determined that in fact Pharoah knew nothing of the robbery. His sister had seen much of what transpired and could identify the assailants. For my part, I tried to reach Pharoah. This was before cell phones. His mother said he was out, but she wasn’t sure where. I tried calling regularly throughout the day. Both my wife and I were concerned. He’d just seen someone murdered. It wasn’t the first time, I knew, but I also imagined how disorienting it must be. Morning came and went. As did the afternoon. Finally that evening I reached him at our house.

              Where have you been? I asked.

              Shopping.

              Shopping?

              At Marshall Field’s. For school.

              Shopping? I was incredulous.

              Yeah.

              Pharoah, how are you doing?

              OK. Why?

              Why? You just saw someone murdered.

              I’m OK. I got to go. I need to get packed for school.

              I hung up, shaking my head. I was dumbfounded — and angry. How could he not be grieving? How could he not be upset? Shopping? I told my wife that if it was me, I’d be curled up on our couch in a fetal position. I thought to myself, something must be terribly wrong with Pharoah. How can you not feel? How can you not cry? How can you not express gratitude for not getting killed yourself? Pharoah gets yanked out of the backseat of a taxi by two men with a pistol and then watches as they shoot and kill someone he’s just shared time with. Something, I thought, was off. Out of kilter. And for the longest time I thought Pharoah was without heart, that he’d become hardened, if not numb, to the violence around him. This of course is the mistake we all make, thinking that somehow one can get accustomed to it.

               

               

              The Grief That Does Not Speak 2019-07-18 08:00:00Z 0

              Apply to serve on a 2020-21 Rotary committeeApply to serve on a 2020-21 Rotary committeeApply to Serve on a 2020-21 Rotary Committee

              Would you like to contribute further to Rotary by serving on a committee? Each of Rotary's committees, made up of Rotarians and Rotaractors from around the world, works with the organization's leadership to ensure efficiency and promote the goals and priorities of the strategic plan.

              The following committees are searching for qualified candidates for openings in 2020-21. All committees correspond via email, teleconference, or webinars as needed, and some involve at least one mandatory in-person meeting per year. Most committee business is conducted in English.

              To be considered for committee membership or recommend someone for an appointment, visit .

              Applicants must be registered on My Rotary at and ensure that their includes current contact details.

              The application deadline is 12 August.

              Communications committee

              Function: Advises the Board on communication with key audiences

              Prerequisites: Professional background and experience in a communications-related field

              Commitment: One three-year term; multiple conference calls; annual meeting in Evanston

              Finance committee

              Function: Advises the Board on Rotary's finances, including budgets, investment policy, and sustainability measures

              Prerequisites: Professional background in a finance-related field; nonprofit experience preferred. Candidates should have experience at the club and district level in financial matters.

              Commitment: One three-year term; two meetings a year in Evanston

              Leadership development and training committee

              Function: Advises the Board on Rotary's leadership training program for Rotarians, clubs, and districts, with a special emphasis on training for district governors

              Prerequisites: Must have significant training or education experience with a preference for leadership development

              Commitment: One three-year term; annual meeting in Evanston

               

              Apply to serve on a 2020-21 Rotary committeeApply to serve on a 2020-21 Rotary committeeApply to Serve on a 2020-21 Rotary Committee 2019-07-18 08:00:00Z 0

              The Wheel Deal

              This 92-year-old Rotary club was once the place to see and be seen. But its numbers had dwindled. So one member took a unique approach to wooing new recruits, starting with the town’s civic leaders. Anyone need a badge polished?

              By Illustrations by

              The mayor gave me a funny look. "You want to do what?"

              "Fill some potholes, sir. I want to prove our Rotary club isn’t just talk."

              Mayor David Narkewicz and I sat in his office at City Hall in Northampton, Massachusetts, near a portrait of one of his predecessors, Calvin Coolidge. I told him I might also be good at stabbing litter with one of those spiked poles. I swore not to wound any of his constituents.

              "It’s a nice gesture, but it’s really not necessary," he said. His phone was ringing; he had a meeting to get to. But I wasn’t quitting yet. For once I wasn’t fighting City Hall, but trying to butter it up.

              "If you give me something to do,” I explained, “you’ll have one more reason to send a city representative to our Rotary meetings. We both win."

              He shook my hand. "Let me get back to you."

              I belong to a small club in Northampton, a busy college town with a population of 28,000-plus. It was once home to a thriving Rotary club with 92 members: doctors, lawyers, bank presidents, even the owner of Northampton Cutlery, which supplied the U.S. Army with knives.

              But over time the club lost members and influence. The mayor gives an annual talk at one of our Monday meetings, but he isn’t a member. Neither are the local bank presidents, partly because locally owned banks are becoming extinct — eaten up by global banks. Today our members include a bank manager, a couple of lawyers, and a chiropractor, but Rotary meetings — once held at the luxurious Hotel Northampton — were no longer the see-and-be-seen events they used to be.

              Phil Sullivan, a six-time club president and a Rotarian for 45 of his 74 years, remembers when all of Northampton’s civic leaders were members. "But times changed," Sullivan says. "We got older. I was the youngest one at the meetings when I began attending with my father in 1967, and when I turned 67 in 2011, I was still one of the youngest!"

              Today our 92-year-old club has 30 members, up from its all-time low of 19. "It starts with one meeting," Sullivan says. "First, you have to get people in the room. Maybe they join, maybe not, maybe they tell their friends. One way or another, you give them a taste of Rotary and take it from there."

              Thanks to Sullivan, our meetings definitely taste better than they used to. After years of steam-table lunches elsewhere, Sullivan moved meetings to a high-end Italian restaurant. Spoleto wasn’t open for lunch, and owner Claudio Guerra couldn’t begin to feed 20 or 30 Rotarians for the $20 per person the club had to spend. But he and Sullivan worked it out: The restaurant now opens early on Mondays exclusively for the Rotary club, with a limited menu that makes it affordable for both sides: a salad, a dessert, and a choice among four entrees, including one of the better chunks of salmon you’ll get this side of Boston. Holding meetings at Spoleto has boosted attendance and membership.

              After Mayor Narkewicz, Police Chief Jody Kasper was next on my list. A Northampton cop since 1998, she has been the department’s chief — the first woman to hold that role — since 2015. We talked about the challenges a chief faces in a town like ours: the opioid epidemic; keeping officers from bolting to the state police for better pay; occasional sexism. Kasper said she enjoyed speaking to our club a few months ago and hoped we would support her department by liking its Facebook page, praising officers who do good deeds, maybe send a letter of support.

              The Wheel Deal 2019-07-17 08:00:00Z 0

              2019-2020 D5010 Governor's Message -- Rotary Connects the World

              Over the past week, Alaska Rotary clubs have come together to celebrate the service of current club officers and welcome incoming club officers for a new Rotary year. Besides being a great fellowship event, it is a hopeful time, providing opportunity for every Rotarian to renew their commitment to their Rotary club and the enduring ideals that make Rotary the world leader of humanitarian service organizations. This planned succession of officers keeps Rotary strong, brings new ideas, engages our members, and makes Rotary unique.

              On behalf of all Rotarians in D5010, I would like to thank outgoing 2018-2019 District Governor Diane Fejes for her dedication, commitment and leadership of our Rotary District.  In her outgoing letter to district Rotarians, Diane recapped the many accomplishments in her year as Governor, an impressive number of accomplishments.  Most of all I am grateful to Diane as a friend, mentor and leader whom I’ve had the privilege to work closely with for the last two years.  Diane is truly an exceptional Rotarian and she set a high bar as I begin my year on July 1st as 2019-2020 District Governor. Thank you Diane for Being the Inspiration for D5010 Rotarians.

              I also would like to acknowledge the many Rotarians who have served our Rotary District, and the 38 presidents who served their clubs in 2018-2019.  In February, in Seattle, I first met all thirty eight President-Elects for 2019-2020, and also two Rotaract PE’s. This is a fun group of club leaders, and I was immediately impressed with the degree of fellowship shown, and the range of their talents and interests.   This gives me great hope for a great year in 2019-2020.

              As I began preparing two years ago for my year as your Governor, RI has asked us to focus on a number of priorities. RI President Mark Maloney has asked us to Grow Rotary, become more effective in Telling Our Rotary Story, Make Rotary more Family Friendly and help Rotary finish the job of Eradicating Polio in the world through donations to Polio Plus.  You’ll hear more about these as we get into the new Rotary year.

              I proposed four District initiatives, intended to move our Rotary district forward in 2019-2020.  These are being funded with D5010 Excess Reserve funds, have been vetted by the Excess Reserve Committee, and recently approved by the Finance Committee:

              • Provide stipends for young leaders to participate in the 2020 District Conference,  Zone Conference and International Conference.  
              • Provide stipends for travel to clubs who commit funds to International projects and would like to send a Rotarian to experience the project firsthand. 
              • Provide training to club Public Image Chairs and make $200 available to every club in the district to implement a club Public Image strategy.  
              • Implement regional Rotary education and training events in several areas (eliminating the annual Training Assembly connected to the district conference) to better prepare club leaders.  Part of this strategy will be to train Resource Leaders (Membership, Public Image, Foundation and Grants), in all five regions of our district, to help us implement this education and training. DGE Joe Kashi and the above committee chairs will help me implement this.

              Lastly, DG Diane recently led an effort to complete updates to our district website so it is more user friendly for non-Rotarians and easier to find information. I’m pleased to announce that we will also be rolling out a district Mobile APP (targeting August 1st) which will link to the D5010 website, while providing an opportunity to more efficiently communicate with members in our district.  Provided at no cost to all D5010 Rotarians, members will have access to information, resources, district calendar at their fingertips (on their favorite mobile device - phone or tablet), and be able to share ideas, receive notifications, get alerts, get involved, contribute stories, post Rotary events, and find D5010 clubs/meeting times.  Clubs will have the opportunity to use the APP for their club (with a full suite of features), for a $100 annual fee, matched by D5010.

              The Rotary Theme for 2019-2020 is Rotary Connects the World. I invite each of you to connect in fellowship and engage in Rotary, locally and around the world, to help share Rotary’s story as we Grow Rotary in D5010.

              Sincerely,

              Andre’ Layral

              2019-2020 D5010 Governor

               

              Rosie Roppel

              2019-2020 Lt. Governor

              2019-2020 AG’s:  Bill Wright (Interior area),  Mike Bridges (Anchorage area), Lori Draper (Peninsula area), Brenda Shelden (Mat-Su area), Sharon Bergman (Southeast area).

              Dean McVey (Treasurer), Jodi Stuart (Secretary), Brad Gamble (Foundation), Lindsay Knight (Membership), Sharon Burns (Public Image)

              2019-2020 D5010 Governor's Message -- Rotary Connects the World 2019-07-11 08:00:00Z 0

              She's Here!!  Update!

              Approximately 18 People attended a Very informal gathering in the loft at Alice's July 10.  Appetizers and pizza were available.  Maria (Masha) was introduced to Rotarians and friends by Sue Clardy and members of the Sunshine Committee.  Many thanks to all who helped Masha feel welcomed and those who organized the gathering!!
               
              Masha has already been Kayaking, Snorkeling, and swimming with Sue Clardy and Vivian!  Look at those smiles!
               
               
              She's Here!!  Update! cmkf 2019-07-09 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Garden--Wow!

              Rotary Garden! Lorna, Denice and Susie met today to finish up weeding and mulch. Stop by and enjoy! 💜
              Rotary Garden--Wow! 2019-06-26 08:00:00Z 0

              2019-20 RI President Announces His Presidential Theme

              By Arnold R. Grahl              Photos by Alyce Henson
               
              Rotary International President-elect Mark Daniel Maloney explained his vision for building a stronger Rotary, calling on leaders to expand connections to their communities and to embrace innovative membership models.
              RI President-elect Mark Daniel Maloney announces the 2019-20 presidential theme, Rotary Connects the World, to incoming district governors in San Diego, California, USA.
               
              Maloney, a member of the Rotary Club of Decatur, Alabama, USA, unveiled the 2019-20 presidential theme, Rotary Connects the World, to incoming district governors at Rotary’s annual training event, the International Assembly, in San Diego, California, USA, on Monday.
               
              “The first emphasis is to grow Rotary — to grow our service, to grow the impact of our projects, but most importantly, to grow our membership so that we can achieve more,” Maloney said.
               
              Maloney believes that connection is at the heart of the Rotary experience.
               
              “(Rotary) allows us to connect with each other, in deep and meaningful ways, across our differences,” Maloney said. “It connects us to people we would never otherwise have met, who are more like us than we ever could have known. It connects us to our communities, to professional opportunities, and to the people who need our help.”
               
              Maloney also called on every Rotary and Rotaract club to identify segments of their community not represented in their club by creating a membership committee with diverse members.
                
              “Through Rotary, we connect to the incredible diversity of humanity on a truly unique footing, forging deep and lasting ties in pursuit of a common goal,” he added. “In this ever more divided world, Rotary connects us all.”
               
              Maloney urged leaders to offer alternative meeting experiences and service opportunities to make it easier for busy professionals and people with many family obligations to serve in leadership roles.
               
              “We need to foster a culture where Rotary does not compete with the family, but rather complements it,” Maloney said. “That means taking real, practical steps to change the existing culture: being realistic in our expectations, considerate in our scheduling, and welcoming of children at Rotary events on every level.”
               
              Maloney said many of the barriers that prevent people from serving as leaders in Rotary are based on expectations that are no longer relevant.
              “It is time to adapt, to change our culture, and to convey the message that you can be a great district governor without visiting every club individually, and a great president without doing everything yourself.”
              Relationship with the United Nations
              During 2019-20, Rotary will host a series of presidential conferences around the world, focusing on Rotary’s relationship with the United Nations and the UN’s sustainable development goals that many Rotary service projects support. More information will be available in July.
               
              In 2020, the United Nations will celebrate the 75th anniversary of its charter and its mission of promoting peace. Rotary was one of 42 organizations the United States invited to serve as consultants to its delegation at the 1945 San Francisco conference, which led to the UN’s charter. For decades, Rotary has worked alongside the United Nations to address humanitarian issues around the world. Today, Rotary holds the highest consultative status that the UN offers to nongovernmental organizations.
               
              “Rotary shares the United Nations’ enduring commitment to a healthier, more peaceful, and more sustainable world,” Maloney said. “And Rotary offers something no other organization can match: an existing infrastructure that allows people from all over the world to connect in a spirit of service and peace and take meaningful action toward that goal.” 
              2019-20 RI President Announces His Presidential Theme 2019-06-26 08:00:00Z 0

              Value of Rotary Volunteering

              A special report prepared for Rotary International by the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies estimated the value of Rotary member volunteer hours at $850 million a year.
               
              Cosmos Segbefia, a member of the Rotary Club of Sekondi-Takoradi, and Derrick Ababio Kwarteng, of Global Communities, assist with the construction of a borehole in the Western Region of Ghana in 2018. A report by Johns Hopkins University prepared for Rotary International estimated that Rotary members provide about 47 million hours of volunteer effort a year at an estimated value of $850 million.
               
              That Rotary members log a lot of volunteer hours should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the organization. But a new report just released by Johns Hopkins University provides a powerful look at the impact of all those volunteer hours.
               
              The special report prepared for Rotary International by the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies found that Rotary members had volunteered a total of 5.8 million hours within a four-week survey period. Extrapolating those results over an entire year, the report gave a conservative estimate of nearly 47 million hours of volunteer effort generated by Rotary members in a typical year.
               
              The report then analyzed the economic impact of all those hours and estimated the value conservatively at $850 million a year, if communities had to pay for the services that Rotary volunteers provide.
               
              Rotary, with the help of Johns Hopkins University, is the first global service organization to conduct an empirical analysis of its volunteer’s impact using an internationally sanctioned definition of volunteer work. The authors of the report noted in their conclusion that at each stop, the analysis had chosen the most conservative estimates.
               
              “This makes the results reported here all the more remarkable,” the authors noted. “Translated into economic terms, Rotary is annually generating a scale of social and economic problem-solving effort that is worth nearly nine times more than it costs the organization to produce.”
               
              Rotary General Secretary John Hewko said the figure doesn't even include the in-kind contributions and the money that Rotary clubs and the Rotary Foundation raise every year. In addition, the figure doesn’t include the volunteer work of the many relatives and friends of Rotary that members often involve in a project, or that of members of Rotaract, Interact, or the Community Corps, that would easily double the estimate of Rotary’s economic impact.
              Value of Rotary Volunteering 2019-06-26 08:00:00Z 0

              Table Maintenance at Water Trail Pavillion

              Time for a little maintenance on the tables at the Water Trail Pavilion

               

              Replacing worn planks

               

              Rotary providing the labor to paint the tables with paint from City of Homer

               

              Just about done Bernie, Thanks.

              Table Maintenance at Water Trail Pavillion 2019-06-26 08:00:00Z 0

              A New Rotary Club for Alaska

               
               Subject: New Alaska Eco Rotary Club - focus on the environment -
               
               Date: June 21, 2019 at 10:52:52 AM AKDT
               
               To: "Bernie Griffard" <griffbfgak@gmail.com>
               
               Reply-To: "Diane Fejes" <ndfejes.rotary@gmail.com>
               
               
              Dear Bernie,
              Soon to be PDG Diane:)  is helping to spread the Good news!  A new kind of Rotary is coming to Alaska.  Please join us in welcoming Alaska Eco Rotary Club. 
               
              Rotary is where neighbors, friends, and problem-solvers share ideas, join leaders, and take action to create lasting change.  No challenge is too big for us.  For more than 110 years, we've bridged cultures and connected continents to champion peace, fight illiteracy and poverty, promote clean water and sanitation, and fight disease.
              With fewer meetings than traditional Rotary clubs, a focus on projects not fundraising, and low annual dues, Alaska Eco Rotary club brings a fresh new perspective to Rotary in Alaska.  The club will focus on eco awareness in our great state.  Below are the mission and vision of the club. 
               
               Mission: to become a resource to the community in preserving and enhancing our region's natural beauty and resources through hands-on service projects and educational programs.  
               
               Vision:  A focus on service (not fundraising) in order to attract a non-traditional Rotary club member and become a strong and sustainable Rotary addition throughout Alaska.  
               
              The original plan calls for meetings twice monthly, one hopefully to be a project, and annual dues of $160.00
              We will be hosting informational meetings for interested prospective members in the next few weeks. 
              If you are interested in a Make-Up meeting, or know someone who would like to join the club, please email  marti.b@alaskaecorotary.org  or text or call (907)268-9391.
               
              And, please help spread the word throughout your organization, look for potential projects and enjoy the wonderful summer weather in our beautiful country.  Thank you!
                
              Marti Buscaglia
               
               P: 907.268-9391 |
               
              "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle."
                                                 Philo of Alexandria
               
              A New Rotary Club for Alaska 2019-06-26 08:00:00Z 0

              Guatemala Literacy Project

               
              Guatemala Literacy Project (GLP)
               
               
               
               
              Dear Bernard,
              My name is Jim Hunt, and I am a past District Governor and member of the Rotary Club of Ohio Pathways (D-6600). Joe Berninger, founder of the Guatemala Literacy Project (GLP), and I are organizing Rotary service trips to Guatemala and we are looking for interested Rotarians.                                                 
              The GLP is the largest grassroots, multi-club, multi-district effort in the Rotary world not directed by RI itself—the “gold standard” of Rotary projects, according to former RI President Ian Riseley. Over 600 Rotary clubs from 8 countries have participated in the GLP since its inception in 1996. GLP Textbook, Computer, Teacher Training, and Youth Development programs currently serve more than 50,000 impoverished children.
              We need Rotarians to join the following service trips to Guatemala:
              • July 21-27, 2019 
              • July 30-Aug 4, 2019
              • Nov 14-17, 2019
              • Feb 1-9, 2020
              • Feb 18-23, 2020
              • July 12-18, 2020
              • July 21-26, 2020
              These trips offer a variety of experiences: Some are longer or shorter; some more “hands on”—and all of them give you the opportunity to be a meaningful part of Rotary’s work fighting poverty in Guatemala. Please visit the project’s website for more details.
              Could you share this opportunity with members of your club?
              If you have any questions, you can email me at info@guatemalaliteracy.org.
              Yours in Rotary Service,
              Jim Hunt, PDG 
              Rotary Club of Ohio Pathways (D-6600)
              Joe Berninger
              Guatemala Literacy Project (GLP) 
              Rotary Club of Ohio Pathways (D-6600)
              www.guatemalaliteracy.org
               
              Guatemala Literacy Project (GLP)  
              Rotary eClub of Ohio Pathways
              2300 Montana Avenue, Suite 301
              Cincinnati, OH 45211
              (513) 661-7000
              Guatemala Literacy Project 2019-06-19 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Announces US$100 Million to Eradicate Polio

              EVANSTON, Ill. (June 10, 2019) — Rotary is giving US$100 million in grants to support the global effort to end polio, a vaccine-preventable disease that once paralyzed hundreds of thousands of children each year.
               
              The funding comes as Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) address the final—and most pressing—challenges to ending poliovirus transmission, and as Nigeria approaches three years without any reported cases of wild poliovirus, bringing the Africa region closer to polio-free status.
               
              “We have the wild poliovirus cornered in the smallest geographic area in history, and now there are just two countries that continue to report cases of the wild virus,” said Michael K. McGovern, chair of Rotary’s International PolioPlus Committee. “As we work with our partners to apply innovative new strategies to reach more children, and embrace lessons learned thus far, Rotary is doubling down on our commitment to end polio for good. I’m optimistic that the end of polio is within our grasp, but we must remain vigilant in rallying global political and financial support as we push towards a polio-free world.”
               
              While there were only 33 cases of wild poliovirus reported in 2018, the last mile of eradication has proven to be the most difficult. Barriers to eradication--like weak health systems, insecurity, and mobile and remote populations--must be overcome. As long as a single child has polio, all children are at risk, which underscores the need for continued funding and commitment to eradication.
               
              To support polio eradication efforts in endemic countries, Rotary is allocating half the funds it announced today to: Afghanistan ($16.3 million), Nigeria ($10.2 million), and Pakistan ($25.2million). Additional funding will support efforts to keep vulnerable countries polio-free:
               
              • Chad ($102,395)
              • Democratic Republic of the Congo ($9.5 million)
              • Ethiopia ($2.6 million)
              • Iraq ($6 million)
              • Kenya ($6.3 million)
              • Mali ($1.2 million)
              • Somalia ($1.4 million)
              • South Sudan ($1.2 million)
              • Syria ($1.7 million)
              • Yemen ($2.1 million)
              •  
              The World Health Organization (WHO) will receive $1.3 million to conduct research, and will also receive support for surveillance activities in its Africa ($10.9 million) and Eastern Mediterranean ($4 million) Regions.
               
              Rotary has committed to raising $50 million a year to be matched 2-to-1 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, amounting to $150 million for polio eradication annually. Rotary has contributed more than $1.9 billion to fight the disease, including matching funds from the Gates Foundation, and countless volunteer hours since launching its polio eradication program, PolioPlus, in 1985. In 1988, Rotary became a spearheading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Gates Foundation later joined. Since the initiative launched, the incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99.9 percent, from about 350,000 cases in 1988 to 33 cases of wild poliovirus in 2018.
               
              About Rotary
               
              Rotary brings together a global network of volunteer leaders dedicated to tackling the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges. We connect 1.2 million members from more than 35,000 Rotary clubs in almost every country in the world. Their service improves lives both locally and internationally, from helping those in need in their own communities to working toward a polio-free world. Visit Rotary.org and endpolio.org for more about Rotary and its efforts to eradicate polio.
               
              Contact: Audrey Carl,     audrey.carl@rotary.org,     847-866-3424
              Rotary Announces US$100 Million to Eradicate Polio 2019-06-11 08:00:00Z 0

              mytaxi Donates Proceeds From Rides to Rotary

              HAMBURG, Germany (31 May 2019) — To multiply the impact of the 25,000 Rotary members expected to attend the service organization’s international convention 1-5 June, mytaxi will donate all proceeds from rides to and from the Hamburg Messe - beginning today until 5 June – to Rotary efforts that improve lives.

              “Along with being one of our main event sponsors, we are grateful for mytaxi commitment to support Rotary club efforts to transform lives and communities for the better,” said Barry Rassin, Rotary International president.

              Each year, Rotary members invest hundreds of millions of euros and countless volunteer hours to promote health, peace and prosperity in communities across the globe. mytaxi contribution will support:

              • A bee pasture project developed by the Rotary Club of Ahrensburg to help the dwindling bee and butterfly populations to flourish;
              • Emotions Training for Autism, developed by Rotaract Germany, to support those with autism spectrum disorder thrive in their personal and professional lives; and
              • HANWASH, a collaborative initiative led by Rotary clubs in Haiti, The Bahamas, The Cayman Islands, The British Virgin Islands, The Rotary Foundation, DINEPA and others, to bring clean water to Haiti.

              “We take pride in knowing that our donation will go toward improving our environment, economy and wellbeing,” said Eckart Diepenhorst, CEO of mytaxi. “With the leadership of Rotary clubs, we know that our contribution will result in lasting, positive change.”

              About Rotary: Rotary brings together a global network of volunteer leaders dedicated to tackling the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges. Rotary connects 1.2 million members of more than 35,000 Rotary clubs in over 200 countries and geographical areas. Their work improves lives at both the local and international levels, from those in need in their own communities to working toward a polio-free world. Germany’s 56,000 members and 1,100 clubs are taking action to make the world a better place at home and abroad.

              About mytaxi: mytaxi was founded in June 2009 and was the world’s first taxi app that established a direct connection between a passenger and a taxi driver. With 14 million passengers and more than 100,000 drivers, mytaxi is the leading taxi e-hailing app in Europe. Since February 2019, mytaxi is part of the FREE NOW group, the ride-hailing joint venture of BMW and Daimler. Within 2019, mytaxi will rebrand to FREE NOW. mytaxi today works with 700 employees in 26 offices and is available in around 100 European cities. Eckart Diepenhorst is the CEO of mytaxi. More information is available at: www.mytaxi.com 

              Contacts:

              Philipp Krüger: +49 (0)40 533 08878, P.Krueger@johnwarning.de 
              Tamira Mühlhausen: +49 (0)40 533 088 87, T.Muehlhausen@johnwarning.de

              mytaxi Donates Proceeds From Rides to Rotary 2019-06-11 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Peace Scholar Visits Homer

              Late last Friday I received word from Rosie Roppel, ADG from Ketchikan, that a Rotary Peace Scholar and retired High Court Judge, Roshan Dalvi, from India was heading to Homer to walk the Homer Spit.  She wondered if we could help Ms. Dalvi in her Quest. I, of course, said "Sure!" and waited for an itinerary.  Unfortunately, the first email didn't come through, and it wasn't until a resend on Monday that the Peace Scholar was already in Homer!  
               
              When I met Roshan Dalvi, I was immediately impressed.  She really hadn't been expecting anyone to show her around but accepted my offer and we headed out on a quick tour.  Ms. Dalvi was interested in everything, and extremely friendly and easy to talk with.  A quick trip up East Hill to give her an idea what the Homer area looked like, especially the Spit that she came all those thousands of miles to walk and explore, then up to the overlook on Bay Crest where Mt. Iliamna was in full glory, as were Mt. Augustine and Mt. Douglas!  The sun came out just for her!  Our next stop was to City Hall to meet with City Manager and Rotarian Katie Koester, who is a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar.  The conversation was mostly over my head, but the City Manager and the retired Judge seemed to have pretty good handle on solving the worlds problems.  Now to get the world's leaders to listen to them!
               
              I had to depart and Van Hawkins joined Ms. Dalvi on her Spit Walk.
               
              Roshan Dalvi with the Homer Spit and Kachemak Bay behind her.
               
              Rt. to Lft.  Roshan Dalvi, Katie Koester, and Craig Forrest
              Rotary Peace Scholar Visits Homer 2019-06-05 08:00:00Z 0

              Rain Trust

              Elias Thomas
               
              Rotary Club of Sanford-Springvale, Maine
               
              In 2012, Elias Thomas was in Rajasthan, India, visiting a site that two years before had been dusty and barren but now was lush and green. “Waterfowl had moved in to make it their habitat,” he recalls. “I heard engines pumping water up the hills to irrigate garden beds on terraces. As far as I could see, everything was green.” The transformation was the result of a catchment dam, which collects rainwater during the monsoon season and holds it in reserve for the dry season.
              Michael D. Wilson
              The dam had been built in 2010 by Thomas and other Rotarians from his club and the Rotary Club of Delhi Megapolis, with the support of a water conservation trust in India. It was the first of 10 such dams they have built together. “I first went to India in 2001 to participate in National Immunization Days. We thought the time would be more valuable if we incorporated a service project,” says Thomas.
               
              A local rural development foundation identifies ideal locations near villages and farms where the dams can be built, taking advantage of dry riverbeds formed during previous monsoon seasons. “We dam it up and force it to create a reservoir — that’s a water catchment dam,” says Thomas, a past governor of District 7780 (parts of Maine and New Hampshire).
               
              Local workers use machinery to dig huge trenches, and then the Rotarians spend four to five days building the foundation and walls by hand. Local laborers finish the project. The dams allow farmers to employ gravity-fed irrigation, help raise the water table, and recharge wells.
               
              Last year, U.S. Senator Susan Collins of Maine recognized Thomas on the Senate floor, reading a tribute to his four decades of work as a Rotary volunteer. But he isn’t resting on his laurels; in February, he led a group of volunteers back to Rajasthan to build another dam.
               
              This new dam will benefit more than 11,000 people. “Farmers can grow three crops instead of one. The first is for subsistence, the second will feed cattle, and the third can be sold,” Thomas says. “So what they make from selling the crop can be used to buy goods and services from others, and there’s a ripple effect.”
              — Anne Stein
               
              Rain Trust 2019-05-30 08:00:00Z 0

              5 Questions About District Grants

              with Margie Horning
              District 5960 (parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin) grants team leader
               
              1. How have you seen district grants help members become more engaged?
              Participating in district grants gives Rotarians a sense of ownership and the knowledge that they made a difference in someone’s life. It also energizes people to donate to The Rotary Foundation and to become involved. A few years ago, there was a club in my district that hardly participated in giving to the Foundation and didn’t do any district grants. Then they applied for a district grant for a food shelf in their rural community. Within a year of seeing how their funds doubled because of the grant, nine members had become Paul Harris Fellows. They had a sense of pride, and they’ve gone on to be involved with other service projects.
               
              2. Are district grants more often used for local or international projects?
              Generally speaking, more district grant projects are local than international. For example, in our district, seven of our 25 district grants in 2017-18 were used for international projects. Currently, seven of our 18 projects are in foreign countries, including Guatemala, India, Nigeria, Togo, and Uganda.
               
              3. How do district grants help clubs foster relationships with the community?
              District grants can be like building blocks; they can allow clubs to start small and then go larger with their projects. There are always needs in your community. Even if it’s a $1,000 or $2,000 grant, get going on it. It doesn’t have to be a multimillion-dollar project to begin with.
               
              4. What’s the most creative use of local district grants that you’ve seen?
              Clubs have gone far beyond the park bench or dictionary project. They’re working with their communities, asking how they can help, and thinking bigger. One club, working closely with its local school district to come up with projects, provided equipment and software for an industry certification. It will help students get jobs in manufacturing or, if they go on to higher education, will count toward their coursework.
               
              5. What are some misconceptions about district grants?
              People say, “I could never do that; it’s too hard.” Our district has mentors who will help walk clubs through the process. It may seem like a lot of work, but that grant money allows you to apply your club’s extra funds to another project you want to work on. Apply for the grant, and if it’s too big a project for just your club, the district grants team can help you connect with other clubs.
              — Diana Schoberg
               
              5 Questions About District Grants 2019-05-30 08:00:00Z 0

              Great Gatsby Fundraiser

               
              A close up of a logoDescription automatically generated
               
              Dear Friend,
              On Saturday, June 29th the Great Gatsby fundraiser will be held by the Susitna Rotary Club & D5010 Rotary E-Club at Settler’s Bay Golf Course.  This is the third year for this joint fundraiser that benefits the Kids Kupboard meal program in Big Lake and the Water Safety programs for kids (Kids Don’t Float life jacket stations & Josh the Otter educational programs teaching kids to float).  The direct impact to our local community is tremendous with over 3,000 meals served to kids in the past year; and students from Glacier View to Talkeetna being taught water safety.
              Please see attached flyer for event details & tickets.
              We invite you to sponsor the Great Gatsby event where you will have a roaring good time AND make a difference in young lives!
               
              $500 Flapper sponsor:  company logo proudly displayed on the event banner and announced at event by emcee.
              $1,000 Jitterbug sponsor:  company logo proudly displayed on PSA’s, event banner and announced during the event by emcee.  Includes 1 complementary ticket for two ($250 value).
              $2,500 All That Jazz sponsor:  company logo proudly displayed on PSA’s, event banner and announced during the event by emcee.  Includes 1 reserved table for 8 ($1,000 value).
               
              For questions or to purchase sponsorship, please contact Cheryl Metiva (clmetiva@gmail.com or cell #907-315-9920).
               
              In friendship & Rotary service,
              Rosa & Floyd Shilanski, D5010 E-Club
              Cheryl & Marty Metiva, Susitna Rotary Club
               
              A person in a suit and tieDescription automatically generated
              Great Gatsby Fundraiser 2019-05-30 08:00:00Z 0
              2019 Russian Open World Visitors 2019-05-22 08:00:00Z 0

              Rebels With a Cause

              Rotary Club of Evening Downtown Boston, Massachusetts
               
              On the night the Rotary Club of Evening Downtown Boston was chartered in 2010, co-founder Scott Lush called it a “100-year-old startup.” He and two co-founders had respectfully broken off from another club because, he says, “we felt the existing model did not have mass appeal.” They wanted their new club to be a test model for Rotary — a place where they could experiment with the club experience while retaining Rotary’s commitment to fellowship and service. They envisioned a vibrant club that showcased stimulating speakers, focused on members’ needs, and welcomed everyone, no matter who they were or why they had come.
               
              Evening Downtown Boston Rotarians Scott Lush (from left), Hélène Vincent, Samantha Drivas, Jim Hogan, and Jennifer Smith at Boston’s Old State House.
              Photo by Ian MacLellan
               
              Fast-forward nine years to a cold winter evening in a private room at a popular Boston pub. Every seat is taken and there are visitors at all the tables: friends, strangers, Rotaractors, a Rotarian from Brazil, the assistant governor of the district. Nearly half of the 40 people present are not members of Rotary.  
               
              The room buzzes as everyone socializes over sliders and drinks. People come in, fill out name tags, give hugs, and join conversations. There is an informal rule for club meetings: No one should be standing alone. With so many visitors, members’ socializing exclusively with other members is gently frowned upon — that’s what the club’s members-only events are for. The monthly meetings are a way to introduce the club to, and a chance for members to meet, new people. 
               
              In the beginning, the club tinkered with just about all the aspects of the Rotary experience. In addition to the monthly evening meetings, it holds members-only social events once a month — recent ones have included hiking, bowling, trivia nights, and ski trips — as well as volunteer events once or twice a month. Those have included serving meals at food kitchens and tutoring adults for their high school equivalency test.
               
              The board members continue to come up with innovative approaches. But they don’t only try new things; sometimes they go back to tradition. The co-founders had promised, for instance, that they would never do happy bucks at meetings, but they eventually reversed course because new members liked the idea (with a twist: They accept electronic payment via the Venmo app). 
               
              The board members also use technology to help make decisions. Based on click-through metrics, they discovered that they get the best bang for their marketing dollars from Facebook. On their website, they offer a $10 off coupon for the first meeting (visitors usually pay $20). They also promote their meetings on Eventbrite and use an email marketing platform, Mailchimp, to manage member communications. They even test different versions of their welcome email for new members to see which subject lines prompt a higher “open rate.” The constant influx of new members helps keep that innovation going. 
               
              Members also do some old-fashioned marketing by “outing” themselves as Rotarians and talking openly about Rotary at work and with friends. A few years ago, the club gave out Rotary mugs and encouraged members to use them at work, hoping to create opportunities to talk up the club. 
               
              Many of the club’s 40 members have walked in the door with a connection to Rotary through a family member, boss, or friend. President Jennifer Smith is a transfer from a Connecticut club. Membership Chair Jim Hogan’s parents are Rotarians in Vermont. Past President Hélène Vincent’s grandfather and father are Rotarians, in France and Rhode Island, respectively. “My dad was shocked when I told him I joined Rotary. I think he thought it wasn’t cool, but I always thought my dad was cool,” Vincent says. 
               
              Samantha Drivas was in Interact and participated in Rotary Youth Leadership Awards. Her grandfather, like Vincent’s, was a Rotarian, and she remembers helping him sell Christmas trees as a club fundraiser. “I wanted to be a Rotarian from age five,” she remembers. 
               
               
              Club leaders know that to compete for members’ attention in a city that has an abundance of cultural activities, they need to offer a consistently positive and uplifting experience. Meetings are casual but efficient, and the emphasis is still on excellent speakers, who have included former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis and Doug Rauch, the former president of Trader Joe’s and now co-CEO of Conscious Capitalism. 
               
              Smith opens meetings with a short welcome that she practices at home. “I always try to tell a story or make people laugh,” she says. “I want it to be fun and I want people to walk away with something interesting.” This effort is not lost on those who attend. “You leave with a good feeling,” says David Hart, assistant governor of District 7930 (parts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire) and a member of the Rotary Club of Malden, Massachusetts. Then he leans in and lowers his voice: “When I recruit people, I love to send them to this club.”
               
              Lush says the club is “the opposite of Facebook. On Facebook, you can have a million shallow friends. Here you have to show up and work together. We are the antidote to digital life. We are helping people get back what Facebook took away, and helping Rotary find a new formula.”
              — Susie Ma
              • Read more stories from The Rotarian
              Rebels With a Cause 2019-05-15 08:00:00Z 0

              Secondhand Treasures Book Sale Raises $95,000
               

              When five trucks arrived at a secondary school in the city of Venlo in the Netherlands, members of the Rotary Club of Venlo-Maas en Peel were ready.
               
              About 10,000 book and record aficionados attended the sale.
              Photo courtesy of the Rotary Club of Venlo-Maas en Peel
               
              The trucks were filled with items to be sold at the club’s 33rd annual book and record sale. The seven-day event in early January raised $95,000 that will go toward projects that improve the lives of children in Brazil, Malawi, Peru, and Sri Lanka.
               
              In partnership with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, the club mustered about 200 volunteers, including people who are not Rotary members, who made sure the event went off without a hitch. About 10,000 book and record aficionados from throughout the Netherlands, and from other countries including Germany and Belgium, attended the sale and took home 60,000 books and 15,000 records.
               
              The club members work throughout the year to organize the fair. The club has drop-off points for book and record donations, and volunteers sort through them twice a week.
               
              The items are categorized by genre, and a coordinator responsible for each category makes the final decision on what will be included in the sale. Most books sell for between 50 cents and $2.50, but those that are new or special can cost between $3 and $50.
               
              Sometimes the club receives a donation of something unique. A few years ago, a dossier of documents related to the history of the city of Papendrecht brought in $8,000. The oldest of the documents, which the city bought, dated to 1328.
               
              “The city of Papendrecht organized a special exhibition with these documents,” says club member Peter Elbers, noting that the documents contained previously unknown information about the city’s history.
               
              After 33 years, Elbers has some tips on how to organize a successful book and record fair. Most important, he says, is to plan from the start to make it an annual event.
              “Don’t try to organize such a fair only once,” he says. “When people recognize the quality of what you are selling, they will come back.”
               
              A reliable volunteer workforce is also a must. Club member Jaap Verhofstad brought his children to help set up and break down the fair. “My children have had a few hours of fun helping out at the fair during the sale,” he says. “Our 11-year-old twins are too young for the heavy work — but in a few years we will have two more strong men.”
              — Annemarie Mannion
              • Read more stories from The Rotarian
               
               
              Secondhand Treasures Book Sale Raises $95,000  2019-05-15 08:00:00Z 0

              Optimism Has Gone Out of Style,

              a best-selling author argues, but he thinks the world is in better shape than ever
               
              If you watch the news, you could be forgiven for believing the world is on the brink of collapse. In the current media environment, that message is in heavy rotation, and it gets heavier all the time. In 2017, 59 percent of Americans said this was “the lowest point in U.S. history that they can remember.” To many, it seems obvious that the present is far worse than the past.
               
              But Gregg Easterbrook has some news for them: The facts don’t support that conclusion. In his new book, It’s Better Than It Looks: Reasons for Optimism in an Age of Fear, he argues that the developed world is mired in “declinism” — the belief that things are getting worse all the time — when the opposite is true. In almost every area — the environment, the economy, education, health — Easterbrook says conditions are improving thanks to government policies and the efforts of organizations such as Rotary to find solutions to the problems we face. 
               
              Why is this so hard to believe? Some of the reasons are psychological, some are economic, some are cultural. But the misperception matters, because pessimism can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. To solve problems, we must believe they can be solved. 
              Image by Viktor Miller Gausa
              Easterbrook is the author of 11 books, including the best-selling The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse, which examined why our standard of living and our sense of well-being have not risen in tandem. Easterbrook is a contributing editor at The Atlantic and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He spoke with frequent contributor Frank Bures from his home in Washington, D.C.
               
              Q: What gave you the idea for this book?
              A: The Progress Paradox was about what’s subjective — how we feel about our current moment. Things are mainly good, yet people don’t feel happy about them. That was the big question of that book. But I was left thinking, OK, things are mainly good. Why are things mainly good? What caused that to happen? Maybe some of it was just luck, but it can’t all be luck.
              In It’s Better Than It Looks, I show that most of the improvement of society is the result of policy choices, by both institutions and individuals, that worked. Not only do people not generally understand that, but they believe the reverse. They think that everything that’s been tried has failed. But the facts are that the United States and Western Europe have never been in better condition. Most, although of course not all, of the world has never been in better condition.
               
              Q: You trace the rise of declinism in your book and suggest that it accelerated in the early 2000s, when social media took off. 
              A: The trend of thinking that things are worse than they are was already in progress before Facebook was turned on. But social media has accelerated that trend and made it worse. I’m not saying social media was the only reason. It was one of many. But it amplified a trend that was already in progress.
               
              Q: Why do we want to believe that things are going downhill?
              A: One reason is that we’ve been trained by schools and colleges to think that everything is bad and that anybody who’s telling you anything good must be a Pollyanna or an apologist. He must be secretly in the pay of the super-rich. Americans have been trained to a specific type of selection bias to only see negative news and not positive news.
              Another factor is that government controls an ever-larger share of the GDP. When my parents were growing up in the 1920s and 1930s, government controlled hardly any of the GDP. There was a lot wrong with this arrangement. There was no Medicare or Medicaid, no federal housing assistance, almost no federal help for transportation, less federal funding for education. It’s good that we have those things now. 
              Today, in the United States, government controls [through direct spending on goods and services and transfer payments such as Social Security, subsidies, and financial aid] 41 percent of the GDP. In the United Kingdom, it’s 48 percent. In some Scandinavian nations, it’s more than half. Increasingly our lives are tied to government benefits, which isn’t necessarily bad; the expansion of the entitlement state resolved a lot of the structural problems of poverty and destitution. But it also drilled into our heads the words “woe is me.” If you want something from the political system, you claim to be the victim of some injustice. You claim that the world is in terrible condition and that the only possible solution is for government to give you a special benefit. It gives us a huge incentive to claim that things are worse than they are. And the political parties have responded to that.
               
              Q: So the belief that the world is getting worse isn’t just the province of the left or the right?
              A: You can find it on both the left and right. But there are also many people who have what I call “abundance denial.” Most Americans now live better, in the material sense, than any generation of the past. Anybody who tells you he or she would rather live in the 19th century either is lying or has no idea what 19th-century life was like. Almost everybody today lives better than any generation in the past, but they don’t want to admit it. They want to deny it. People say, “It’s so terrible, I don’t live as well as my parents did.” Check your parents at the same age [as you are now], and see what their material living standards were — what their education level was, what their longevity was at that point in life, et cetera — and see whether you’re actually not living as well as your parents did.
               
              Q: What are some of the things that are getting better?
              A: Practically everything. Take the last 30 years: Criminal violence has been declining steadily. It peaked in the early 1990s and has declined since then. The number and the intensity of wars in the world have gone down. Many forms of pollution are in decline everywhere in the world. The big exception is climate change. 
              The current Western generation is the most educated generation in the history of our planet. And education is rising everywhere. India, for example, is a very well-educated country. Not a century ago, almost everyone in India was illiterate. Now, a majority of people have received a pretty good education. 
              Disease rates are declining in almost every nation in the world, including the big killers: cancer, heart disease, and stroke. Longevity is rising everywhere. We’ve had a little bit of sputter in American statistics because of painkiller abuse. That’s a big concern and a huge problem. But in general, longevity is increasing almost everywhere in the world. It’s been increasing for a century and a half. 
              Material living standards are increasing. Buying power is increasing. In the United States and Western Europe, the level of income received by the middle class clearly has been stalled for the past 30 years or so, but buying power has continued to increase at 3 percent per year.
              Those are the big trends. It’s hard to think of any underlying trend in the Western world that’s negative. And the same goes for most of the underlying trends, although sadly not all, in the larger world. 
               
              Q: Are you even optimistic about climate change? 
              A: I am. It would be wrong to say it will be easy to correct climate change. But I think it can be done, and I think it will end up costing a lot less than people think. Inequality is a much tougher nut to crack. In a free society, you want freedom of opportunity, but it’s hard to imagine equality of outcomes and retain that freedom. I’m much more optimistic about climate change than inequality. But I don’t think we should give up on inequality.
               
              Q: You also say that climate change might be less apocalyptic than we think.
              A: I think an apocalyptic outcome is very unlikely. If you look at the range of possibilities for climate change, there’s a tiny chance it will be apocalyptic. There’s also a tiny chance it will be beneficial. The more likely outcome for climate change is that it will gradually cause social problems like higher disease rates in the equatorial countries. But I think those problems could be avoided. It won’t be easy. It’s just more practical than people think. Greenhouse gases are fundamentally an air pollution problem, and the last two big air pollution problems — smog and acid rain — both were solved much more quickly and cheaply than anybody predicted. If society gets serious about greenhouse gases, we’ll address it faster and more cheaply than people think, too. 
               
              Q: What would you say to people who have a feeling of dread about the future?
              A: If you look at all of the predictions of doom in the past, none of them have ever come true. It’s not that a few of them came true. None of them came true. Population growth was supposed to destroy us in the 1960s. Fifty years ago, it was commonly predicted that there would be mass starvation, hundreds of millions or even billions of people starving to death. Now the global population is double what it was, and malnutrition is at the lowest level ever. Runaway, unstoppable diseases were supposed to cause millions, or billions, of people to die. But they’ve never been observed in society, and they’ve never been observed in nature. So far as we know, there has never been a runaway disease, and the likelihood is that there never will be a runaway disease. The biosphere is elaborately designed to resist all forms of runaway effects. That plants, mammals, and people are here is proof the diseases don’t win.
              We were supposed to run out of oil. We were supposed to run out of ferrous metals. We were supposed to run out of rare earth materials. We were supposed to run out of natural gas. Not only have none of those things happened, but we now have significantly more of all those resources than when people predicted they were about to run out. A hundred years ago, everybody thought we were about to run out of coal. 
              In general, one should be skeptical of sweeping statements, but I don’t think this statement is too sweeping: No predicted apocalypse has ever occurred. So it’s possible that predictions of doom that swirl around climate change could come true, but it’s not likely.
               
              Q: You make a great case for the fact that things are slowly and steadily getting better. Aren’t you afraid that people might see that as a reason to sit back and do nothing?
              A: Often when you say things are getting better, pundits and politicians say, “Oh, that leads to complacency!” That is not what I am saying. I am simply saying that things are getting better. The success of past reforms is the reason to support reforms for the future. Nobody expects me, or you, or any one individual to change the world. But we do expect each individual to influence the things that he or she is able to influence. Support reform programs. As a voter, when you have a choice, choose the optimistic candidate.   
               
              Q: How do you define optimism?
              A: Optimism is not being a Polly-anna. That’s what people say to try to discredit it. Pessimists believe that problems cannot be fixed. Optimists believe that problems can be fixed. Optimism is a hopeful point of view. You can be a cynical optimist. You can be an optimist and be furiously angry about all the things that are wrong with the world, which I am. But if you’re an optimist, you think those things can be fixed. In my book, I quote the economic historian Deirdre McCloskey, who says that throughout history, the pessimists were almost always wrong and the optimists were almost always right.
               
              Q: That sounds good, but it is hard for people to trust that optimism, given that the news we consume about the world is so insistently negative.
              A: If you, or me, or anybody wants to make a choice to be negative about life, you can do that, but it is important to remember it is a choice. Being a declinist is not something that’s imposed on you by factual understanding of events. It is your choice. But if you make that choice, the improvement of the world becomes a lot less likely.
               
              Q: Rotarians are fundamentally optimistic; they believe problems can be solved. How do you think polio eradication fits into this mindset?
              A: That’s a great example. People said eradicating polio was impossible, and we now know it is possible. Today people say that eradicating malaria is impossible. That’s because we haven’t yet figured out how to do it. That’s all.
               
              People who make the optimistic choice — not to deny the problems but to believe they can be fixed — make the world better. 
               
              • Read more stories from The Rotarian.
              Optimism Has Gone Out of Style, 2019-05-07 08:00:00Z 0

              Sushil Gupta Resigns as RI President-Nominee

               

              Sushil Gupta

              My Fellow Rotarians,

              It is with a heavy heart that I announce my resignation as the president-nominee of Rotary International. While it was my dream to serve as your president, my health prevents me from giving my absolute best to you and the office of the president at this time. I believe Rotary deserves nothing less than that from those elected to represent this great organization of ours.

              I have made this difficult decision after much soul searching and conferring with my family. This is not only a disappointment for us, but I am also keenly aware that this will be a disappointment for many Rotarians in India who were so proud to see someone from our country again named as president. I know that this is what is best for Rotary International.

              I have been a Rotarian for more than 40 years and it has given me everything I could ask for. I can think of no higher honor than to have been selected by the Nominating Committee as president of Rotary for the 2020-21 Rotary year. I will continue to proudly serve as a Rotary member and pursue some major initiatives that I wanted to accomplish during my year as president, because I know that we are poised to achieve more great things in the future.

              I wish nothing but the best to the candidate who succeeds me as president and thank you all for the support and encouragement you have shown me in the past year.

              -Sushil Gupta

              26-Apr-2019
              Sushil Gupta Resigns as RI President-Nominee 2019-05-07 08:00:00Z 0

              Presidential Citation

              Congratulations to all members of the Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay. Due to your selfless efforts throughout the Club year, we were awarded the 2018-2019 Presidential Citation-Gold Distinction. Of all the Clubs in District 5010, less than ten received this recognition. Give yourself a pat on the back—you deserve it!!

              Presidential Citation 2019-05-07 08:00:00Z 0

              Putting Civility Back Into Civil Discourse

                        By David Sarasohn                   Illustrations by Joan Wong
               
              The woman sitting at the end of the carefully arranged tables looks as though she would rather be someplace else — maybe at her real estate agency, maybe just with people she knows, people who see the world the way she does. But a friend asked her to come here, and she agreed, and she will carry out her role.
               
              “It’s not my notion of a family,” she says firmly, her chin set as she explains the burden of holding conservative views in a liberal town. “It’s my truth of a family. I don’t want my views to be considered hate speech. But I don’t want to celebrate things that I don’t celebrate.”
               
              At least half the people sitting around the table disagree with her. But none of them show it, not by a snort, or an impassioned interruption, or even a rolled eyeball.
              It’s almost as if she’s in a place, and a moment, where people actually talk to each other — and listen to each other.
               
               
              She, and the other people in the room, are in a workshop of Better Angels, a growing movement built around the idea that red and blue Americans can meet and talk for a day without name-calling or Twitter-blasting one another — and that the custom could spread. In a church activities center in a suburb of Portland, Oregon, seven people from each side of the ever-widening divide — all of them white, most of them old enough to remember the time before the internet ate politics — get together, work through a set of carefully arranged exercises, and discover that they can talk politics without sounding like a cable news network.
               
              Since its inception in 2016, Better Angels has held hundreds of workshops around the United States, from daylong events to 2½-hour training sessions, to help people cultivate the vanishing skill of listening.
               
              This morning in Oregon, people start out wary about the venture, so wary that a visiting writer is instructed not to quote anyone by name. Wearing red- or blue-rimmed name tags and sitting in alternating red and blue seats, participants offer opening statements that sound discouraged yet determinedly hopeful. Their concerns cross party lines.
               
              “I’m really worried about our country, about the way we’re separated more and more,” says someone wearing a red tag.
               
              “A lot of my friends are really quick to cut off anyone who objects to them,” admits a blue sitting nearby.
               
              “I’m really tired of the vitriol,” says a neighbor, sounding indeed tired of it. “Something is terribly wrong in this country.”
               
              In the course of the day, they will talk, separately and together, about the stereotypes each side holds about the other — and how those stereotypes might contain a kernel of truth. They will devise questions to ask the other side, and answer the questions from across the line. 
               
              From the front of the room, one of the moderators, Linda Scher, assures the group that nobody is there to persuade anyone else, and cautions that participants should be careful with body language. It seems that these days Americans have trouble not only talking to each other, but even sitting near each other inoffensively.
              The hope, explains Dan Sockle, the other moderator, is to end with “more introspection, more humility.” 
               
              Sockle got here partly by way of Rotary; he’s a member of the Rotary Club of Three Creeks Vancouver, Washington. He thinks the idea of Better Angels fits rather neatly with The Four-Way Test.
               
              Sockle spent 22 years in the military, bouncing around Germany, Italy, Korea, and southwest Asia. He came back to the United States for a government job in Washington state, but left again to work with a military program in Iraq, partly because his son was stationed there. 
               
              Sockle noticed that Iraqi politics had some similarities to what he had seen back in the United States. “If everybody’s screaming, who’s listening?” he asks in a speech he often gives. 
               
              Returning stateside, he came to rest — although “rest” isn’t really a word that comes to mind where Dan Sockle is concerned — back in Washington state, just across the Columbia River from Portland. He joined the Three Creeks Rotary club as a charter member and became active in Peacebuilders, an effort of the Rotarian Action Group for Peace, speaking to clubs in the West and Hawaii.
               
              In the spring of 2018, he came across Better Angels, a project dedicated to producing less screaming and more listening. The name comes from Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address, when, looking at an onrushing civil war, the president expressed his faith that “the better angels of our nature” would one day bring Americans together again. After four years of war and massive casualties, they did.
               
              Sort of.
               
              Sockle is a man of lengthy answers and big enthusiasms who sweeps other people up in them. For this session of Better Angels, his fourth, he has invited the president of his Rotary club; a former district governor; and his own son. The week after this event, he’ll drive 200 miles to a Better Angels training event in Grants Pass, a southern Oregon town situated, geographically and politically, at the other end of the state.
               
               
              Expressing his enthusiasm for Better Angels, Sockle points to his eye, which is swollen for medical reasons but does look a bit like the result of a heated discussion about the proper definition of family.
               
              “Here’s what you’re getting if you stay polarized,” he declares with mock warning.
               
              In the day’s first Better Angels exercise, the reds and blues separate, which helps reassure those uneasy about interacting with people whose outlook is so clearly wrong. The goal is to think about stereotypes, and one stereotype is already reinforced: The blue team is almost all women, the red side heavily male.
              Asked what image the other side has of them, and what might be its kernel of truth, the blue team members quickly fill up their whiteboard. They think that reds believe blues are unpatriotic, have anti-family values, are obsessed with political correctness, and are driven to tax, spend, overregulate, and grab everyone’s guns. But the blues see themselves as believing in inclusion and respectful language, and don’t think that America is necessarily better than anyplace else.
               
              The reds have some trouble choosing from all the negative images they think blues have of them. While they see themselves as just more practical and cautious, they eventually agree that the other side considers them racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, intolerant, and anti-environment. Somehow, they go back out to talk to the blues anyway.
               
              The contrast might explain why, especially in Portland, it can be harder to recruit reds than blues for Better Angels events. 
               
              “The stereotypes about reds are so much more harmful,” says Scher, who works as a family mediator. While blues may be considered as too soft or as wanting to throw money at problems, she says, “the red stereotype is that you’re a terrible person.”
               
              On the other hand, Sockle reports that in ruby-red Grants Pass, “blues are a little more reluctant” than reds to come to a Better Angels event. In general, when invited to encounter the other side, “people fear an ambush.”
               
              In the second exercise, the Fishbowl, the two sides take turns sitting in the center of the room while surrounded by the other side. After agreeing that the media exaggerates differences and emphasizes extremes — even today, no political difference is so wide that it can’t be bridged by dislike of the media — both sides voice their beliefs and fears, and now have less anticipation of being attacked.
               
              “I have a son who won’t have a family because of concerns about the environment,” says one of the women on the blue side.
               
              Explains a man from the other side: “It’s good to be skeptical about policies and change. Republicans put more emphasis on who we are and how we got here.”
               
              Gradually, the two groups get comfortable enough to admit to some discomfort with their own side.
               
              “The Democratic Party has moved away from what it should be,” confesses one of its adherents.
               
              A red then concedes that his Republicans have moved away from Abraham Lincoln, from the Dwight Eisenhower who created the interstate highways, from Teddy Roosevelt and conservation.
               
              By the last exercise, when people from the two sides come together in small groups to ask each other questions, certainty on both sides seems a lot wobblier than it was in the morning.
               
              “A lot of liberals equate conservatism with racism and sexism, and that’s not OK,” admits a blue participant. “We keep ourselves so isolated.” Another notes, “I live in a completely blue bubble.”
               
              A red tells a cluster of blues: “There are no easy answers to any of these things. Even when I phrase my positions, they sound so lame.”
               
              For the program, it’s a gain when each side says such things. And another gain when the other side listens.
               
              At the Better Angels workshop, Nelson Holmberg wears a red-rimmed ID tag. He’s representing the Republican side, but he’s also representing something else.
              “Applying The Four-Way Test to the idea of having a civil conversation is really appropriate,” he explains. “Being able to be part of both Rotary and Better Angels is incredibly valuable.”
               
               
              Holmberg is president of the Rotary Club of Three Creeks — which, he notes proudly, has completed more than 25 service projects in only 2½ years of existence. Sockle, the club’s Peacebuilders chairman, has brought Holmberg today, but it doesn’t appear that Holmberg took a lot of persuading.
               
              “I’m super-excited that there is this organization to address our politics,” says Holmberg. He was particularly taken with the first part of the daylong Better Angels program, identifying stereotypes and finding the kernel of truth. “The Four-Way Test really speaks to the idea that we all need to do what we did in that exercise.”
              The same idea is bubbling up through other Rotary clubs. In November 2017, after reading an article about the work that Better Angels was doing, the Rotary Club of St. Paul Sunrise got in touch with Bill Doherty, a professor of family social science at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and a co-founder of the new organization.
              The club invited Doherty to speak about Better Angels at its annual Community Forum in 2018, stirring such enthusiasm that the District 5960 Ethics Team, in conjunction with Better Angels, hosted three skills training sessions for other clubs in the district, training 100 Rotarians. One of the other clubs reported that “members couldn’t stop talking about it,” says Ellen Luepker, a St. Paul Sunrise member and co-chair of the Community Forum organizing committee. 
               
              “Doherty kept pointing to The Four-Way Test, saying, ‘This is in your DNA,’” recalls St. Paul Sunrise member Ed Marek, who will be governor of District 5960 (parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin) in 2020-21. “It comes down to being respectful.”
               
              The impact wasn’t just political, reports Luepker: “One person says she feels better in family conversations.”
               
              Such communications gains might also be recognizable to someone sitting in on the Oregon session.
               
              “I’m loving what I’m hearing,” says Mike Caruso, a past governor of District 5100 (parts of Oregon and Washington), after listening to the Oregon reds and blues exchange stereotypes. “I’m very excited about what this could be.”
               
              At the end of the long day’s exercises in Oregon, reds and blues regather in the big central room to talk about what they might do next. The coordinators write down the participants’ “action plans” on big white sheets of paper, to be sent back to national Better Angels headquarters. Compared with the attitudes they brought in this morning, the participants now sound more open, less resistant.
               
              The new plans may sound modest, but seven hours earlier, they might not have been heard at all.
               
              “I make a commitment to you guys that when my fellow Republicans say Democrats are socialists who want to take our guns, I will say that’s not true,” declares the woman who had been firm about the behaviors she didn’t want to celebrate.
               
              A blue woman promises, “I will challenge my more liberal friends.”
               
              Many of the ideas are about everyday life, a sign that the experience can get very personal
              .
              “I’m looking forward to talking to my brother,” says a participant. “We’ll see what happens.”
               
              One blue vows, on the topic of avoiding occasions of anger and misinformation, “I’m going to stay off Facebook, except for kitten and puppy posts.”
               
              Another pledges, “I’m going to be writing handwritten notes to my representatives about education, the environment, and civil discourse.”
               
              Nobody seems to consider it a wasted day. “The program sells itself,” says Sockle — who’s working hard to sell it, especially to fellow Rotarians — “once you get people in the door.”
               
              And nobody has to be persuaded about the stakes involved.
              “I’m taking away a faith that we can promote civil discourse,” says a participant, “as if our country depended on it.”
               
              • David Sarasohn, a longtime columnist for The Oregonian in Portland, has written for the New York Times and the Washington Post. He has published three books including Waiting for Lewis and Clark: The Bicentennial and the Changing West. Read more stories from The Rotarian.
              Putting Civility Back Into Civil Discourse 2019-05-01 08:00:00Z 0

              The Four-Way Test in a Post-Truth Era

                      By Joseph Epstein                Illustrations by Davide Bonazzi
               
              I only recently learned of The Four-Way Test, one of Rotary’s central principles. It is of special interest in the current day, when truth — or, more precisely, truthfulness — seems to be losing its prestige in public life.  
               
              Examples are not difficult to find. A current member of the U.S. Senate claimed to have fought in Vietnam, which he didn’t, a major lie that seems not to have impeded his being re-elected to his Senate seat or to his continuing to make severe moral judgments about political opponents. Our current president, with his taste for braggadocio and hyperbole, would appear to operate outside the normal bounds of accuracy and precision of statement that once upon a time used to demark truth. Everywhere you turn, the first of the Four Ways — “Is it the truth?” — would seem more and more in danger of going by the boards.  
               
               
              Poet Marianne Moore believed that “verbal felicity is the fruit of ardor, of diligence, and of refusing to be false.” Refusing to be false is a simple yet somehow majestic phrase that recalls the Houyhnhnms in Gulliver’s Travels, those intelligent horses who had no word for “lie” but fell back on “the thing that was not.” 
               
              Saying “the thing that was not” has become a minor specialty, almost a profession. What else is “spin” — that word much revered by politicians, public relations experts, and others for whom truth is often a serious inconvenience — but twisting the truth in a manner that favors one’s own position, needs, or motives of the moment? 
              Then there is the new use of the word “narrative.” Narrative once meant, simply, “a spoken or written account of connected events; a story.” In recent years it has come to mean little more than “my version” of events. Narrative, as historian Wilfred M. McClay has written, “provides a way of talking neutrally about [events] while distancing ourselves from a consideration of their truth.” Nowadays, several movie stars as well as a Supreme Court justice have laid claim to, or been accused of, “changing the narrative.” In an article in Vanity Fair, Monica Lewinsky writes that she intends to “take back my narrative and give a purpose to my past” — which, after all these years, she, as much as anyone, may be justified in doing.
               
              And let us not forget the contemporary notion of “reinventing” oneself, as if people could easily shed their personality, their character, all that has gone before in their life, by changing jobs, neighborhoods, spouses. I myself have always liked the saying, in contravention of the notion of reinventing oneself, “Anywhere you go, there you are.”
               
              Spin, the new use of narrative, and the notion of reinventing oneself are all subsets of relativism. Relativism is the doctrine that holds that, outside mathematics and certain physical laws, there are no central truths, only contending versions of what passes for truth. Under relativism, one opinion may not be as well-informed as another, but no one point of view, religion, or philosophy holds the monopoly on truth. It’s all, so to say, relative, dependent on a person’s time, background, or position in life. Truth? For the relativists, who play a major role in contemporary higher education, the word carries little weight, has no real authority. All the more reason, of course, for those of us who believe in the truth to defend it, which, surely, is one of the chief intentions behind The Four-Way Test. 
               
               
              The Second Way — “Is it fair to all concerned?” — is of course inextricably lashed to the First Way. Truth may be difficult, trying, painful, and much else, but if it is unfair it isn’t quite truth. For truth is impartial, disinterested, by its very nature without favoritism — and hence fair. If you are unfair in your judgments or pronouncements, you are, ipso facto, being less than truthful, and if you are truthful you are, again ipso facto, fair. The two, truth and fairness, do not so much follow, one after or from the other, but travel, like well-trained horses, in tandem. A third horse, making a troika, is to ask, “Have I succeeded in treating my subject with the complexity it deserves?”
               
              Often when we think we are being truthful, we are being less than fair. This seems especially so in politics. Politics has never provided fruitful ground for truth; quite the reverse. No single group is perhaps less noted for consistent truthfulness than politicians. The reason for this is that politics does not seem to allow for neutrality; in politics people are regularly asked — “forced” may be closer to it — to choose sides. Once they do, their version of truth takes on a coloration that is likely to preclude fairness to people with politics different from their own. 
               
              Truth and fairness are most elusive where passions are engaged, and few things engage the passions more readily than politics. Left/right, liberal/conservative, Democrat/Republican, each side in the political debate encapsulates a version of virtue: If you’re of the left, then the virtue of social justice is central to your beliefs; if you’re of the right, then that of liberty is central. The reason arguments about politics can get to the shouting stage quicker than arguments on just about any other subject is that they are really arguments about competing ideas of virtue. Attack my politics and you attack my virtue. 
               
              What, then, is to be done? One thing to do is keep in mind the aspirational impulse behind the Third and Fourth Ways. You’re likely to build goodwill and better friendships, to be beneficial to all concerned only if, even as political passions swirl about, you keep your eye on the goals of truth and fairness. Easier said, of course, than done. Yet I wonder if the reason our country is so divided, our politics so divisive, is that the spirit behind The Four-Way Test has largely been abandoned by the nation at large. 
               
              Building goodwill and better friendships has in history proven more difficult than being beneficial to all. Think of the great historical heroes of truth: Socrates, Galileo, Giordano Bruno, among others. These were men whose truths did not find easy acceptance in their time — Socrates was forced to suicide, Galileo silenced by the church, Bruno hung upside down and burned by the Roman Inquisition — but whose thought has since been recognized as being at the heart of Western philosophy and science. 
               
              Few people at any time are equipped to be truth seekers of the kind and magnitude of Socrates, Galileo, and Bruno. The best most of us can hope for, in Marianne Moore’s phrase, is “refusing to be false.” Bishop George Berkeley, the 18th-century Irish philosopher, wrote, “Few men think; yet all have opinions.” To be able to distinguish thought from opinion, no easy task, is perhaps a first step on the way to truth and fairness. A second step may well be cultivating a certain detachment that allows people to get outside themselves to view truth apart from their own personal interest. 
               
              In his masterwork, The World as Will and Representation, 19th-century philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, taking up the concept of the sublime, describes what he calls “the sublime character”: 
               
              Such a character will accordingly con-sider men in a purely objective way, and not according to the relations they might have to his will. For example, he will observe their faults, and even their hatred and injustice to himself, without being thereby stirred to hatred on his own part. He will contemplate their happiness without feeling envy, recognize their good qualities without desiring closer association with them, perceive the beauty of women without hankering after them. His personal happiness or unhappiness will not violently affect him. ... For, in the course of his own life and in its misfortunes, he will look less at his own individual lot than at the lot of mankind as a whole, and accordingly will conduct himself in this respect rather as a knower than as a sufferer. 
               
              When it comes to The Four-Way Test, Schopenhauer, this darkest of philosophers and a profound pessimist, would have made a good Rotarian. 
               
              • Joseph Epstein’s most recent book, Charm: The Elusive Enchantment, was published in October by Lyons Press. Read more stories from The Rotarian.
              The Four-Way Test in a Post-Truth Era 2019-05-01 08:00:00Z 0

              Altruist Relief Kitchen

               
               

              This is a "news" item for the Club and for the bulletin.

              The International Committee approved a $500 donation to the Altruist Relief Kitchen (ARK), a not for profit organization that provides emergency relief to people in natural disasters and to refugees at the USA border.  The founder of this organization is Lucas Wilcox who was the guest of Clyde and Vivian at Rotary on the 11th. 

               

              Lucas Wilcox will be a speaker at our club meeting on May 2.   Lucas will not solicit funds because his presentations are not about fund raising.  He is interested in sharing what his organization is doing and he wants to get feedback, advice and learn from others' expertise to improve his organization and the services he delivers.  It seems as though the ARK is following four of Rotary's areas of focus:

              • Peace and conflict prevention/resolution 
              • Disease prevention and treatment 
              • Water and sanitation 
              • Maternal and child health
              Read more about ARK at < https://www.altruistrelief.org/ > or on FaceBook at < https://www.facebook.com/altruistrelief/ >
              Altruist Relief Kitchen 2019-04-17 08:00:00Z 0

              The Hustler

              Column: A would-be hustler learns to appreciate the game despite the odds
               
              By Kevin Cook
               
              My Tuesday nights used to be relaxing. I’d open a beer, watch a ballgame, do a crossword if I was feeling adventurous. Then my wife came home with news.  
              “José runs a pool league on Tuesdays,” she said. “I told him you’re great at pool. Want to check it out?”
               
              There were some good ballgames on that night. But, I thought, maybe it was time for something more challenging. Something new. 
               
              There’s nothing more cinematic than walking into a poolroom. When I went to the bar that hosts the league, I heard the balls clacking and saw the players leaning over the emerald-green tables, calling their shots.
               
              “Five in the corner.” Down went the orange ball.
               
              “Ten off the 12.” Clack clack and the 12 fell in. 
               
               
              I found my team captain watching the action from a barstool. Phil, a sleepy-eyed psychology professor at Smith College, thanked me for signing up. I told him I hadn’t played since college, 40 years ago. “I thought I’d just watch —”
               
              “You’re up.”
               
              My opponent shook my hand. “I’m Doyle.” He racked the balls, drew back his custom-made cue, and bang — sent them flying all over the table. Two balls fell into pockets. Doyle made two more before it was my turn.
               
              The game was eight ball, the most popular form of pool. Picking a stick from a rack on the wall, I chalked the tip. It seemed like the thing a league player would do. I made an easy shot but left the cue ball in the wrong place. The rules say your shot must strike one of your own balls first, and I was literally behind the eight ball. Another rule of eight ball is that you have to call your shot. Good players do so with confidence, but I was guessing. “Ten in the side?” 
               
              I banked the cue ball off the 10, which rolled into the pocket. Doyle was impressed. He whistled and said, “Phil, you brought a ringer!” 
               
              Phil called it a highlight-reel shot. Unfortunately, that was my whole highlight reel. Still, Phil said, I’d had a good showing, losing a close one. “You’ll get ’em next week.” 
               
              But I didn’t. Week after week, I lost. There were sharks in the league who could beat me on their worst day, but the tuna and mackerel ate me up too. I liked the guys on my team: Phil and another professor, Jamie, who could beat everybody except an elderly player who looked like Sigmund Freud (“When I play him, I get a complex”), and Eric, a burly bartender. But I was letting them down. 
               
              One night Phil told me I had an easy assignment: thin, bearded Zeke, who knocked in two of my balls but won when I sank the eight ball by mistake.
               
              “Think positive,” said Phil, the psych professor. “We’ll get ’em next week.” But we didn’t. Thanks largely to me, we sank into last place. I started dreading Tuesdays — the consolation handshakes and the long walk home. When my wife asked how it was going, I told her I quit. 
               
              Thirty-five million Americans play recreational pool. Many of them are baby boomers like me, who remember when pool was cool. We wanted to be like Paul Newman as Fast Eddie Felson in The Hustler, going up against Minnesota Fats. 
               
              To play a sport is to be part of its history, and pool has great history. Minnesota Fats, played by Jackie Gleason in the movie, was a real barnstorming hustler who once hit a shot while the pool-hall floor, unable to hold his weight, collapsed under him. Fats made the shot while plunging through the floor to the bar below, where he dusted himself off and ordered a drink.
               
              But as anyone who has tried it knows, pool’s harder than it looks in movies. One advantage today’s players have is that you can learn a lot online. You’ll find experts demonstrating every sort of shot on YouTube. One of the best tactics is easy: By angling your cue downward you can apply backspin, making the cue ball stop or back up.
               
              After watching the experts, I wanted to try out a few new shots. Why not? Even a quitter can rent a table. 
               
              It wasn’t glamorous, racking and re-racking balls, practicing alone, but it was interesting. Sixteen balls on a table the size of a queen bed make for more angles than a computer can calculate, but an afternoon of practice gave me new looks at them. Bank shots began making angular sense. I saw why you don’t want to hit the cue ball harder than necessary and how sidespin adds or subtracts to its angle off a rail.
               
              There’s one question the experts haven’t solved: What’s the best way to break? Six hundred years after the game evolved from croquet in 15th-century France, with green cloth on the table to evoke the grass of croquet courts, there’s still no consensus. Some players hit the cue ball with overspin. Some smash it into one side of the racked balls. Some make it hop in the air on contact with the racked balls. 
               
              Trying every sort of break I’d seen on YouTube, I wondered if I’d quit too soon. Maybe I should be more like Elaine. One of only two women in the league, Elaine was petite enough to put her at a disadvantage on the break. She couldn’t smash the ball as hard as most of the guys, but she didn’t give up. She’d played me twice and won both times.
               
              Life seems to speed up every year, and the faster it gets, the more quick fixes it offers. But maybe there’s still something to be said for stick-to-itiveness. As Minnesota Fats used to say, “If something’s hard, most folks won’t even try. That’s my edge on them.” 
               
              Fast Eddie Felson didn’t quit. He came back 25 years later in "The Color of Money," the sequel to "The Hustler." Paul Newman was 61 at the time — my age now. He yanked a house cue off the rack and took on Tom Cruise. Fast Eddie’s only concession to age was a new pair of eyeglasses. Maybe I could win a game or two with a little more practice and a trip to the optometrist. 
               
              So I gave the pool league another week. What did I have to lose but a little more self-esteem? Maybe there are more important things. Competition. Camaraderie. A challenge.  
               
              That week I faced José, hottest stick in the league. “Your break,” he said.
               
              I reared back and tried to bash ’em on the nose. To my surprise, the seven ball fell in. That made me solids, aiming for balls one through six, and what do you know — the five and six were perched next to pockets. I bagged those two bunnies and then, by sheer accident, the cue ball rolled to a spot between two more of my solids. I tapped them in, putting backspin on the cue ball. The yellow one ball beckoned from a far corner. 
               
              “Ace in the corner,” I said. And knocked it in. José tapped the butt of his cue on the floor — a pool player’s applause. I had a chance to run the table. 
              The eight ball hugged the rail 80 inches away, a tough shot. Lining it up, giving myself about a 10 percent chance, I decided to stay in the league.
               
              • Kevin Cook’s new book is "Ten Innings at Wrigley: The Wildest Ballgame Ever, with Baseball on the Brink." Read more stories from The Rotarian.
               
              The Hustler 2019-04-17 08:00:00Z 0
              A Day In Homer With Some Exchange Students 2019-04-17 08:00:00Z 0

              Diabetes--Prevention and Detection

              Are you in danger of getting Diabetes?  Do you want to know more about preventing diabetes, or perhaps keeping yourself from getting diabetes?  Check out the posters below.  A program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks is looking for volunteers to take part in a study to help prevent diabetes.  Please check out the posters below, and if you are interested, please contact Leslie Shallcross and take part in the program.
               
              Diabetes--Prevention and Detection 2019-04-16 08:00:00Z 0

              Type A Retirees

              They want a productive second act, but not everyone wants to be written into the script
              By Joe Queenan
               
              Shortly before my good friend T.J. decided to retire from his high-powered job, I suggested that we collaborate on a play. T.J., who had abandoned a career as an actor and playwright 30 years earlier, almost immediately sent me an engaging one-act play called Alms. I quickly got to work writing jokes and rearranging scenes, and within a month we had the play ready to go.
               
              Before we could schedule a public reading of Alms, T.J. sent me a second play. Because I am still an active member of the workforce, I could not immediately give it the attention it deserved. By the time I started to work up a head of steam, T.J. had sent me the first 40 pages of a third play about two brothers divided by their opposing political beliefs. And he was already sketching out a fourth collaboration. 
               
              It is a basic principle of warfare that you must never fight a war on more than one front. I learned this too late, as did Napoleon. And so I soon found myself facing the same situation as Bonaparte at Waterloo — so preoccupied with the English army directly in front of me that I never noticed the Prussian army sneaking in from the side. Because T.J., who was not even officially retired yet, was not the only Type A person I knew. I have a number of friends who have recently retired, and none of them is going gentle into that good night. They are attacking retirement with all the passion with which they had attacked their careers. And they expect me to help them do it.
               
              Was I free for breakfast? Lunch? Dinner? Could I go to the Army-Air Force game up at West Point? How about the New York Knicks developmental league game in White Plains? They had an extra ticket for La Traviata. They had an extra ticket for La Bohème. They had an extra ticket for everything.
               
              Alas, these outings were not innocuous social get-togethers, but heavy-duty work sessions. While we were at the game or the film or the opera, they would spring the trap. Could I give a speech at an event they were organizing? Could I read a memoir they had just written? Any chance of my pitching in and helping with their foundation that helps teach ex-cons marketable skills?
               
              Or consider this. My best friend, Rob, retired from the IRS in his late 50s. That left him with a lot of time on his hands. He filled it in various ways: estate planning, helping a sick friend sell his house, the usual. Then one day, thanks to Facebook, he found out that he was living not 15 minutes away from the lead guitarist in the garage band we had played in 43 years earlier while growing up in Philly. Feelers were put out and the bass player from the band was run to earth, and soon the Phase Shift Network had a joyous reunion. At first we merely got together to play “Sunshine of Your Love” and talk about the good old days before Billy Joel showed up on the scene and ruined life as we know it. But then we got a drummer off Craigslist. And then things got serious. And then we started playing all the time. 
               
              Unfortunately, those guys all live in or around Philadelphia, while I live 120 miles away. I found myself flying up and down the dreaded Jersey Turnpike every fourth Sunday, playing “Hey Joe” with a band consisting of the retired, the semi-retired, and the soon-to-be retired. Fortunate son? I think not.
               
              Last year we hired a hall and held a concert for a hundred of our friends. It was great fun. But after that, exhausted by all the travel, I suggested to Rob that we scale back the live music for a while and write a musical together. Rob quickly sent me 30 jaunty, exquisitely crafted songs. All we needed now was a script — which I could easily bang out if I weren’t already writing four full-length plays with T.J.
               
              In olden days, people did not retire. They simply died. This made it impossible to write a musical. But as life expectancies lengthened, people began to live a long time after retirement. That first wave of retirees knew what to do once their race was run. They fished. They knitted. They read Master and Commander novels. They traveled. And they did all this at a relaxed pace. They did not overcommit. They did not overschedule. They chilled.
               
              The first wave of the retirees among my own acquaintance fit into this laid-back, reassuringly generic mold. They packed in their jobs selling computers and moved to Hawaii, sending me an annual postcard telling me how much fun they were having golfing. Or playing tennis. That was fine with me, as I loathe both sports. And as I had no desire to learn Portuguese, or visit those amazing waterfalls in Argentina, or get a master’s degree in theology, their retirement activities did not make me envious. 
               
              But then the second wave of retirees arrived. These were not laid-back old geezers happy to play bridge and drift down the Rhône in a houseboat and learn Introductory Sanskrit to help stave off Alzheimer’s. These were Type A retirees. They had seized life by the throat when they were working, and they were going to seize it by the throat now that they were retired. They were going to serve on the board of their local health clinic. They were going to chair fundraisers for the public schools. They were going to get things built, bills passed, politicians elected.
               
              Once retired, Type A people — accustomed to delegating responsibility to others — must cast about for someone new to task with demanding chores. In my circle of friends, because I am self-employed and therefore appear to have lots of time on my hands, that someone is me. 
               
              I am not a Type A person. I am not a 24/7 kind of guy. I do not take it to the limit one more time. I don’t even take it to the limit the first time. I am not the kind of person who gets things done yesterday. I get them done when I feel like it. Often I do not get them done at all.
               
              But because I am now hemmed in by high-energy retirees, I have been plunged into a vicariously stressful Type A life. I am writing introduc-tions to books. I am listening to self-recorded compact discs. I am reading family histories, self-published astrological guides, novels involving hipster werewolves masquerading as hedge fund managers. It is quite, quite laborious. 
               
              If retirees would embrace their traditional role and sit on the porch whittling or making quilts, the rest of us could breathe easy. But because so many of them fall into the Type A category, the rest of us find ourselves struggling to keep up. 
               
              That’s why we need to cajole our Type A friends into doing things that will get them all tuckered out so they’ll leave us alone. That’s where golf comes in. Despite its negligible merits as a sport, golf performs a positive societal function because it takes four or five hours to finish 18 holes. Five hours spent playing golf is five hours that can’t be spent asking other people to read your self-published book of haiku. That’s why I never disparage the game in front of my retired friends. 
               
              Nor do I ever discourage people from taking a year off to hike the Appalachian Trail or live on a houseboat in Tierra del Fuego. Take two years, guys. Take 10. For similar reasons, I never talk down bridge. I never make fun of people for playing bingo or attending supper club productions of Pal Joey. If retirees want to jump into the Winnebago and visit all 50 state capitals, to them I say, “Godspeed.” I even encourage them to visit every baseball stadium while they’re at it, or go to England and spend a month in the room where Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland, or visit the house where the lead singer from the Small Faces grew up. To deal with the coming onslaught of Type A retirees, the rest of us need to encourage them to sign up for Danish classes, join the Peace Corps, replace the roof on every abandoned house in the South Bronx, or go on long, long, long trips to Nepal. Otherwise, we’ll never have a minute’s peace. 
               
              • Joe Queenan is a freelance writer based in Tarrytown, New York.                             Read more stories from The Rotarian.
              Type A Retirees 2019-04-10 08:00:00Z 0

              7 Questions About Polio
               

              Why the last mile is so important 
                    with Michael K. McGovern
                             International PolioPlus Committee Chair
               
              1. There were more cases of wild poliovirus in 2018 than in 2017. Should we be discouraged?  
              No, not at all. We’ve always expected the number of cases to fluctuate somewhat as we get closer to zero. We’ve gone four straight years with fewer than 100 cases per year. That’s an indicator of great progress. With dedication from governments and Rotarians in areas still affected by polio, we’ll get there. 
                
              2. Why is it so difficult to eradicate a disease like polio?
              Remember that even in the United States, where the polio vaccine was readily available, it still took 20 years to become polio-free. And the areas we are working in now don’t have health systems that are as well-developed as in the United States. 
               
              3. What challenges are you seeing now?
              We have been working intensely in the endemic countries — Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan — for a number of years, and some of the citizens in those countries are getting concerned that we are spending money on polio eradication when they have so many other needs. There’s some resistance to keep on receiving immunizations for polio, and polio alone. Our challenge is to find ways to provide other services to the citizens and children so we still have the parental support we need — to provide the “plus” in PolioPlus. 
               
              4. What role does armed conflict play in those areas?
              It makes the logistics of immunization far more difficult. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative partnership is not only dealing with governments — we’re dealing with anti-government elements as well. While we’ve worked to gain everyone’s trust and support, we’ve had areas that were inaccessible to immunization teams for months and sometimes years at a time. 
               
              5. Do immunization teams know when they miss children? Or are there children they don’t even know about?
              I think we have a good handle now on knowing when and where we’re missing children. The challenge is to keep reducing the number we miss. In Nigeria, we have done a lot of work since we were surprised by the discovery of several polio cases in Borno state in 2016, two years after the country had last seen a polio case. We now know through GPS mapping where the children are, and we are working with authorities there to make sure all children receive the polio vaccine.
               
              6. Where are we seeing successes?
              We haven’t had any cases of wild poliovirus anywhere in the world in nearly five years except in the three endemic countries. And in Nigeria, it’s been almost three years since we had any wild poliovirus cases, and those occurred in a small area of the country.
               
              7. What’s the most important thing Rotarians should know?
              I’ve been extremely impressed with the dedication and persistence of Rotarians in Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. They are working hard to make sure polio is eradicated. It’s pretty amazing what they do in those countries.
              Rotarians should continue to be optimistic and to support eradication. We also need Rotarians to bring the need for continued funding to the attention of their government leaders. We can’t lose sight of the goal.
              — Diana Schoberg
              • Read more stories from The Rotarian
              Top of Form
               
              7 Questions About Polio  2019-04-10 08:00:00Z 0

              News and a Request From the International Committee

              The Club's International Committee is asking your help filling out this schedule by giving them ideas, and making commitments to host, hold a social event, help with a volunteer activity, take Maria on a fun event, and/or provide a job experience for her.

              Please contact Clyde, Sue, or Vivian for information or to assist.

               
              Maria Kupchinskaya – Russian Intern – July 5-19, 2019 for RC of Homer-Kachemak Bay
              Tentative intern experiences, cultural, volunteer, and social events, plus hosts
               
              Work opportunities   (Check on Ulmer's, NOMAR, Chamber, South Peninsula Hospital, City of Homer - Katie Koester and Rick Abboud – city planning, Harbor, water and sewer utilities, Peony farms, Kachemak Heritage Land Trust)
              ---------------------
              All day options:
              Save U More, Mark Hemstreet.
              Optometrist business, Andrew Peter
              Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies, Beth Trowbridge
              Ist National Bank, Cinda Martin? Needs permission
              Coal Point, Craig will ask
               
              Half day or less
              Van Hawkins and Clark Cripps – Financial advising/consulting, etc.
              Charlie Franz?
               
              Volunteer options:  Food Pantry, AKF&G, Kachemak Advocates of Recycling, Farmer’s market,  
              Host options: Van Hawkins, Andrew Peter, Vivian and Clyde
              Fun options:  Minus tide on July 6.7.8; Send her on CACS tour to Peterson Bay?; Hiking? Boat cruise, Fishing, Dinner with Rotarians, Farmer’s market,
              News and a Request From the International Committee 2019-04-03 08:00:00Z 0

              Climate Change

              How Rotarians are already fighting climate change
               
              By Diana Schoberg
               
              Rotarians are doers. Show them a problem and they look for solutions. But a global problem such as climate change might seem daunting to even the most resourceful Rotary member. 
               
              Our climate change series
               
              Rotarians understand that the whole world is their backyard. They can see the effects of climate change in communities they care about, and they haven’t waited to take action. They’re tackling the problem the way they always do: coming up with projects, using their connections to change policy — and planning for the future.
              Read our series to see:
              Break that complex problem down into smaller pieces, however, and you find there are many things Rotarians can do — and are already doing, with help from The Rotary Foundation. 
               
              A coalition of researchers and scientists led by environmentalist and writer Paul Hawken mathematically modeled the climatic and economic impact of potential solutions to learn which ones would yield the best results for people and the planet. The list, compiled in a 2017 book called "Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming," included some surprising possibilities, such as educating girls, promoting family planning, and assisting farmers. As it happens, all of those align with Rotary’s areas of focus. 
               
              Drawdown researchers ranked solutions from 1 to 80 based on their potential to avert or reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We looked at those rankings alongside global grant projects to see how Rotarians are already helping to fight climate change.
              Photo by Brounat
               
              Family planning
              Drawdown ranking: 7
               
              In lower-income countries, the Drawdown authors write, 214 million women who want more control over their pregnancies lack access to contraception, which leads to about 74 million unintended pregnancies each year. Giving women the health care they want and need also benefits the planet, reducing population growth as well as greenhouse gas emissions. 
               
              Pregnant women who gave interviews to Rotarians in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, said that family planning was their top priority — a sentiment echoed by their families and doctors.
               
              This led the Rotary clubs of Finot, Ethiopia, and Darmstadt, Germany, to develop a global grant project that trained skilled birth attendants and midwives in three health centers to provide family planning counseling. Medical staff also conducted home-based counseling for 1,500 women and organized a one-day family planning workshop for 90 women who were receiving obstetric care.
              Photo by Ijeab
               
              Girls’ education
              Drawdown ranking: 6
               
              A woman with no schooling has four or five more children than a woman with 12 years of schooling, which means that educating girls will have a huge impact on population growth.
               
              While the regions of the world with growing populations are often the ones with the lowest per capita carbon emissions, reducing fertility rates will still have massive benefits — not only for the planet but also in reducing intergenerational poverty. And, the Drawdown authors note, one study found that educating girls is the single most important factor in reducing vulnerability to natural disasters, which occur more frequently with the extreme weather events associated with climate change. 
              In Bosnia-Herzegovina, about 90 percent of Roma women are illiterate and less than 15 percent of Roma children go to school, leaving them vulnerable to human trafficking, among other things.
               
              The Rotary clubs of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Denver, Colorado, partnered with a local nonprofit on a global grant project that mentored 80 families with at-risk girls. Twenty students from the University of Bosnia volunteered as mentors, and 15 Roma girls enrolled in school as part of the effort. Organizers estimate that at least 1,000 parents, teachers, and girls in 20 communities learned about the importance of gender equality in education through printed materials and workshops.
              Regenerative agriculture
              Drawdown ranking: 11
               
              Regenerative agriculture practices include avoiding the use of plows to keep from disturbing the soil; planting a diverse array of cover crops; and limiting or abstaining from pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. These methods boost the amount of organic matter — carbon — in the soil, improving its health and that of the plants growing in it.
               
              According to the Drawdown authors, regenerative agriculture increases organic matter in the soil between 4 percent and 7 percent over 10 years, representing an additional 25 tons to 60 tons of carbon stored in the ground per acre. That reduces the need for fertilizer — which means regenerative agriculture can help cut carbon in the atmosphere while increasing farmers’ production. 
               
              Forty people from Meihua village, Taiwan, were trained in organic farming techniques through a global grant project of the Rotary clubs of Taipei Lungmen, Taiwan, and Patumwan, Thailand.
               
              The effort, carried out in partnership with the Organic Farming Association of Taiwan, included creating a training facility and providing internships at organic farms. Organizers expected that growing without pesticides would lower farming costs and that selling organic vegetables at a premium price would improve villagers’ earnings.
              Photo by Elena11
               
              Reduced food waste
              Drawdown ranking: 3
               
              One-third of the fruits and vegetables, meat, and other food the world produces never gets eaten. Instead, it rots unharvested in fields, spoils in storage, or sits forgotten in the back of the refrigerator, only to end up in the garbage.
               
              The production of uneaten food squanders resources such as energy, land, and fertilizer. In landfills, food waste generates methane, a greenhouse gas. From start to finish, uneaten food is responsible for releasing the equivalent of 4.4 million gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, the Drawdown authors write.
              Centroabastos, a food wholesaler in Bucaramanga, Colombia, generates about 20 tons of organic solid waste per day. The Rotary clubs of Bucaramanga Nuevo Milenio, Colombia, and Woodland Hills, California, are working with the company’s nonprofit arm to set up a center that will use the surplus produce to provide training in safe food handling and processing. The project is expected to reduce food waste by 15 percent while creating employment opportunities.
               
              Climate Change 2019-04-03 08:00:00Z 0

              An Opportunity to Ease Travel and Help Rotary

              Here’s an opportunity for you to help Rotary District 5010 and get some added benefits for yourself anytime you travel on Alaska Airlines.

              About EasyBiz

              EasyBiz addresses the unique needs of busy travelers with rewards and tools to save you time and money.

              Enjoy all of the benefits of flying Alaska Airlines when you book your travel using EasyBiz. They guarantee it. Get extra perks yourself while helping Rotary District 5010.

              Earn more miles

              As a participating EasyBiz® organization, Rotary District 5010 earns 1 Mileage Plan™ mile for every dollar you spend on base fares. These miles are accrued by our Rotary district on top of the miles that are earned by you on your own personal Mileage Plan™ accounts. Everybody wins!

              24-hour reservation holds

              Alaska’s EasyBiz® service provides time for you to confirm itineraries before you buy. All reservations made through EasyBiz® can be held for 24 hours before you pay for them.

              Just remember your tickets must be reserved and purchased through our EasyBiz® portal at EasyBiz.alaskaair.com.  And, you'll always find the lowest airfares for flights at www.Easybiz.alaskaair.com.

              To enroll, just let our travel advisor, David Berg (David@VikingTrvl.net), know that you’re interested and he will send you an invitation link.  All he needs is your name and email address.

              Once confirmed, you’ll have access to the District EasyBiz account for all your future travel purchases.

              Sorry, If you’re already an EasyBiz user with another group, this option is not available to you :(

              Thanks!

               

              Andre’ Layral

              DGE 2019-2020

              An Opportunity to Ease Travel and Help Rotary 2019-03-26 08:00:00Z 0

              Profile: A Vine Idea

               
              Heidi Kühn

              Rotary Club of San Francisco
               
              Heidi Kühn arrived in Utsunomiya, Japan, in 1975, a few months after the end of the Vietnam War. She was a Rotary Youth Exchange student, and what she saw and experienced in Japan led her to reflect on the post-World War II reconciliation between that country and her native United States. “The idea of former enemies bridging borders for peace left an impression in my heart,” she says.
              Heidi Kühn, of the Rotary Club of San Francisco, founded a nonprofit called Roots of Peace to remove land mines and revive farmland.
              Photo by Ian Tuttle
               
              More than 20 years later, Kühn had become a successful television journalist. She was asked by the Commonwealth Club of California, a well-known public affairs forum, to host an event featuring Jerry White, a land mine survivor who had escorted Princess Diana on her last humanitarian mission in 1997. It was a short time after the death of Diana, whose efforts to ban land mines had inspired Kühn. “That night, I made a prophetic toast,” she recalls. “‘May the world go from mines to vines.’”
              Kühn decided to act on those words and founded a nonprofit called Roots of Peace that has worked to remove hundreds of thousands of land mines and other unexploded ordnance from farmland and replace them with productive fields, such as orchards and vineyards.
               
              In Afghanistan, the organization has helped restore fields in the Shomali Plain north of Kabul, which had been a thriving agricultural region until the Taliban burned vineyards, cut down fruit trees, and laid land mines. Since 2003, Roots of Peace has connected growers with supermarket chains in India. 
               
              Roots of Peace is also partnering with the Rotary clubs of San Francisco and Bangkok Klongtoey, Thailand, which received a $197,000 global grant from The Rotary Foundation to remove land mines and plant black pepper vines and taro in Vietnam’s Quang Tri province, and help farmers market the high-value crop.
               
              Kühn and her husband and Roots of Peace partner, Gary Kühn, visited Afghanistan in 2018 to see the fruits of their labor. They flew out of Afghanistan on a cargo plane carrying the harvest. 
               
              “To me, that was the greatest inspiration, the greatest moment in my life, to know that we can turn dreams into reality,” Kühn says. “Not just for ourselves, but for countless farmers and families around the world.” 
              — Nikki Kallio
              • Read more stories from The Rotarian
              Profile: A Vine Idea 2019-03-26 08:00:00Z 0

              Fluid Approach to Water

              How Rotary has changed to help people get clean water for longer than just a few years
               
              By Ryan Hyland
               
              The lack of access to clean water, sanitation facilities, and hygiene resources is one of the world’s biggest health problems — and one of the hardest to solve.
              Rotary has worked for decades to provide people with clean water by digging wells, laying pipes, providing filters, and installing sinks and toilets. But the biggest challenge has come after the hardware is installed. Too often, projects succeeded at first but eventually failed.
               
              Across all kinds of organizations, the cumulative cost of failed water systems in sub-Saharan Africa alone is estimated at $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion, according to data compiled by the consulting firm Improve International.
              Rotary projects used to focus on building wells, but Rotary started to focused on hygiene education projects, which have a greater impact.
              Rotary International
               
              Rusted water pumps and dilapidated sanitation facilities are familiar sights in parts of Africa, South America, and South Asia — monuments to service projects that proved unsustainable. A 2013 review by independent contractor Aguaconsult cited these kinds of issues in projects Rotary carried out, and the review included a focus on sustainability to help plan more effective projects.
               
              That’s one factor in why Rotary has shifted its focus over the past several years to emphasize education, collaboration, and sustainability.
              With Rotary Foundation global grants, a dedicated Rotarian Action Group, and a partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Rotary’s water, sanitation, and hygiene, or WASH, programs are achieving greater, longer-lasting change.
               
              “All Rotary water and sanitation projects are full of heart and well-intentioned, but many of them didn’t always meet the actual demands of the community,” says F. Ronald Denham, a founding member and chair emeritus of the Water and Sanitation Rotarian Action Group. The group, formed in 2007, stresses a needs-based approach and sustainability in projects.
               
              In the past, equipment and facilities were usually installed properly and received well, but the local ownership, education, and sustainability were sometimes lacking. Communities often did not receive enough support to manage the projects independently for the long term.
               
              One obstacle to sustainability: the ongoing human involvement that’s required.
               
              Rotary members, by their nature, are volunteers. “Like everyone else, Rotarians have priorities like work and family,” says Denham, who has worked with clubs on water, sanitation, and hygiene issues for more than 30 years and led projects in Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, and Uganda.
               
              Speaking of the Rotary members who work to make improvements in their own communities, he says, “It’s difficult for host clubs, for instance, to manage WASH projects long-term,” especially if the projects have complex technical components. “We’re extremely dedicated, but we need help. Reaching out is essential to our success.”
               
              Community engagement, community ownership
               
              That success now increasingly depends on collaborations with organizations that provide complementary resources, funding, technology, contacts, knowledge of a culture, and other expertise.
              Rotary members work with local experts to make sure projects fit a local need and are sustainable. Educators Mark Adu-Anning, left, and John Kwame Antwi work with engineer Jonathan Nkrumah, center, Rotary member Vera Allotey, and Atekyem Chief Nana Dorman II on a sanitation projects in Ghana.
              Photo by Awurra Adwoa Kye
               
              “Clubs need to better engage with the community, its leaders, and professional organizations,” Denham says. “More important, we need to understand the needs of the community. We can’t assume or guess what’s in their best interest.”
               
              The Rotary Foundation has learned over time that community engagement is crucial to making long-term change. It now requires clubs that apply for grants for some projects in other countries to show that local residents have helped develop the project plan.
               
              The community should play a part in choosing which problems to address, thinking of the resources it has available, finding solutions, and making a long-term maintenance plan.
               
              No project is successful, Denham says, unless the local community ultimately can run it.
               
              In 2010, his club, the Rotary Club of Toronto Eglinton, Ontario, Canada, became the lead international partner in a water and sanitation program in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya, where clean water is scarce.
               
              When initial groundwater tests revealed high levels of fluoride, the sponsor clubs changed their plan to dig shallow boreholes. Given what they learned, rainwater collection was a safer approach.
               
              The Rotary Club of Nakuru, Kenya, the local host club, now provides materials and teaches families how to build their own 10,000-liter tanks. Each family is responsible for the labor and maintenance. With a $50 investment, a family can collect enough water to get through the dry season.
               
              To date, the project has funded the construction of more than 3,000 tanks, bringing clean water to about 28,000 people. Family members no longer have to walk several miles per day to collect water, a task that often fell to women and children.
               
              As owners of the tanks, women are empowered to reimagine how their households work. And with the help of microloans they get through the Rotary clubs, mothers are running small businesses and generating income instead of fetching water.
               
              “With ownership comes liberation, not just for the mothers but for their children, who now have the time to attend school,” Denham explains.
               
              Teaching WASH
               
              It takes more than installing sanitation facilities for a WASH project to succeed in the long term. It’s also important to cultivate healthy habits. Good hygiene practices can reduce diseases such as cholera, dysentery, and pneumonia by nearly 50 percent. Washing hands with soap can save lives.
              More than 4.5 billion people live without a safe toilet, the U.N. says. A lack of toilets leads to disease and also keeps some girls from going to school. In Ghana, Rotary and USAID projects at schools are leading to fewer days missed due to illness or menstruation.
              Photo by Awurra Adwoa Kye
               
              The Rotary Club of Box Hill Central, Victoria, Australia, facilitates Operation Toilets, a program that builds toilets and delivers WASH education to schools in developing countries including India and Ethiopia. The group constructs separate facilities for boys and girls to ensure privacy, and Rotary members teach students how to wash their hands with soap. Workers at each school are instructed in how to maintain the facilities.
               
              The program works with the advocacy group We Can’t Wait, which raises awareness of WASH needs and promotes education to the community. Since the project launched in 2015, nearly 90 schools and more than 96,000 students have directly benefited from the program.
               
              In another example of successful WASH education, the Rotary Club of Puchong Centennial, Malaysia, partners with Interact and Rotaract clubs in the Philippines to teach at several schools in Lampara, Philippines. The groups invited several speakers to instruct students about oral hygiene, hand washing, and the importance of frequent bathing. After each presentation, students were given kits that included toothbrushes, shampoo, soap, combs, and other toiletries.
               
              Fluid Approach to Water 2019-03-26 08:00:00Z 0

              Climate Change

              Is there hope for indigenous Alaskans?
              By Mary Robinson
               
              For more than 2,000 years, the Yupik people have hunted and fished in the icy wilds of Alaska’s western coast, digging holes through the frozen sea to catch salmon and stickleback and communicating to one another in an ancient lexicon that includes dozens of ways to describe ice. Passed down from generation to generation, this linguistic adaptation has helped the Yupik to navigate safely as hunters, using specific terminology to describe the ice’s thickness and reliability. But with the advance of climate change, common Yupik words such as tagneghneq — used to describe dark, dense ice — are becoming obsolete as Alaska’s melting permafrost turns the once solid landscape into a mushy, sodden waste.
               
              Our climate change series
               
              Rotarians understand that the whole world is their backyard. They can see the effects of climate change in communities they care about, and they haven’t waited to take action. They’re tackling the problem the way they always do: coming up with projects, using their connections to change policy — and planning for the future.
              Read our series to see:
              Recent scientific data confirm that the Arctic is warming twice as fast as any other place on the planet, with the average winter temperature having risen 6.3 degrees Celsius over the past 50 years. Alaska’s soaring temperatures are caused by a perfect storm of confluence. When solar radiation hits snow and ice, most of it is reflected back into space. But as warming global temperatures encourage ice to melt, the exposed land absorbs the radiation, prompting yet more ice to melt. Now the people of Alaska — 85 percent of whom live along the coast — are among the first Americans to feel the effects of climate change as the ground beneath them melts and gives way.
               
              Life in Alaska is defined by the cold, by the land, and by the people’s relationship to the sea. To fish and to hunt is to live and breathe, and the rapid melting of the ice is causing many indigenous Alaskans to question their cultural identity. Nobody knows this crisis more viscerally than Patricia Cochran, who has been working with communities across Alaska and the Arctic for 30 years to help them deal with the ravages of climate change. Cochran is executive director of the Alaska Native Science Commission, but she is also a native Alaskan and Inupiat, born and raised in the coastal town of Nome. Cochran grew up in a traditional Inupiat home, setting out across the tundra for fish camp every year and scrambling along the rocky coast with her siblings in the late-summer months, foraging for berries and herbs.
              “It has taken science a very long time to catch up to what our communities have been saying for decades,” says Cochran. “For at least the last 40 or 50 years, our communities have noticed the subtlest of changes happening in the environment around them. We were seeing the signs of climate change long before researchers and scientists started using those words. Climate change is more than just a discussion for us. It is a reality. It is something that we live with and face every single day — and have for decades.”
               
              As a child growing up in Nome, Cochran remembers the snow lying thick on the ground most of the year, and the sea — a single block of ice — stretching far toward the horizon late into the summer months. The winters were long and brutal, the summers exceedingly brief.
               
              But over time, the winters began to arrive later and to rush prematurely into spring. Now, when Cochran visits her childhood home, the vast expanse of ice is gone, replaced by an open, glistening sea. “We have had to build a seawall in Nome because the sea ice that used to sit in front of our villages is no longer there,” she says. “That ice used to keep us safe. We have had so much rain that our fish will not dry on our fish racks. We have had such warm weather throughout the summer that berries have ripened twice in the season. Most worrying, the changing ice conditions have caused extreme erosion, flooding, and permafrost degradation across the entire community.”
               
              Permafrost, the permanently frozen sublayer of soil that has anchored Alaska for thousands of years, provides a foundation for homes, schools, and roads, and it keeps the rising sea at bay. But mounting temperatures throughout the Arctic are causing this prehistoric underpinning to melt, turning the soil soggy and releasing more carbon dioxide into the air. As the cycle continues and the warming earth buckles and bends, the houses of Alaska’s indigenous people topple into the sea. As the dwindling permafrost exposes the soil and the offshore ice that normally buffers the villages from storms decreases, the sea advances, eating away at the land. In the late summer, increasingly fierce storms, the results of climatic shifts, batter the coast, eroding the topsoil until it crumbles into the sea.
              Photo courtesy of "Glacier Exit," a film by Raphael Rogers, Kristin Rogers, and Paul Rennick.
               
              Combining scientific expertise with her innate traditional knowledge, Coch-ran works to help communities across Alaska that are relocating. For years, the tiny village of Shishmaref, located on a barrier island 5 miles from the Alaskan mainland north of the Bering Strait, has been steadily yielding its shores — and buildings — to the frigid sea. When residents voted in August 2016 to leave their land, it was estimated they would need about $200 million to relocate homes and infrastructure to the new site and to build new roads, utilities, schools, and a barge landing. It is a staggering amount for a community of just under 600 residents, against which the state has offered merely $8 million.
               
              About 400 miles south, the even smaller village of Newtok has been sliding toward the Ninglick River for years by up to 70 feet a year. Residents decided to trade their coastal land for a more secure swath on a nearby island, at an estimated cost of $130 million. While villagers plan their new homes and infrastructure, they still need to live where they are, maintain their daily rhythms, keep their children in school, and continue their ancient way of life hunting for moose, seals, and fish. Some residents fear that their centuries-old culture and identity will suffer if they move. “For communities who have been there for thousands of years, it’s a difficult decision to leave everything,” says Cochran. “It’s not only the physical exhaustion, but the mental exhaustion and trauma that come along with all those things.”
               
              Cochran is redoubling her efforts on what she and her organization can do to help indigenous Alaskans with community-based initiatives, research, and action. She frames climate change as a human rights issue, expanding the dialogue beyond emissions and mitigation to incorporate the language of justice and humanity. As a self-professed “elder in training,” she encourages young people to take part in her climate-justice journey, so that they too can learn the tools to live a sustainable life in their native communities.
               
              “I see that as my most important responsibility and honor,” Cochran says, “to pass on that information and knowledge to the young people who must live with the disastrous situation that we have left them in.” Across the one- or two-room schools that dot the vast Alaskan coastline, new climate programs are being introduced to teach young children the myriad ways to talk about the weather — and to describe snow and ice — in their native languages. It is a way to keep endangered words such as tagneghneq alive, and to help those children navigate a safer future.
               
              While she works to help indigenous people affected by climate change, Cochran takes inspiration from one of her own elders, her beloved mother, who passed away some years ago at the age of 96. As a child, Cochran’s mother watched as a flu epidemic wiped out her entire family except for her father. Bereft and traumatized, she was removed from her village when she was eight and sent to a boarding school, where she would remain until she was 18. “She lost her language, she lost her culture,” says Cochran, who remembers her mother as an eternal optimist and an indomitable spirit. “She fought the rest of her life to make sure that her eight children had what it would take to survive.”
               
              Keeping her mother in mind gives Cochran the focus that she needs — and it helps imbue her message with hope. Knowing about her mother’s experience “really makes me understand that we can deal with anything,” she says. “We have always been resilient, adaptive, creative, amazing people, which has helped see us through the darkest of times in the past. That resilience, that spirit, will help us in the times yet to come.” 
              • This story was adapted from "Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future" by Mary Robinson, with Caitríona Palmer (2018). Used by permission of Bloomsbury Publishing. Mary Robinson was president of Ireland from 1990 to 1997 and was a United Nations special envoy for climate change. 
              Climate Change 2019-03-20 08:00:00Z 0

              Minutes of Regular Club Meeting, March 14, 2019

              Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay
              Minutes of the Regular Club Meeting, March 14, 2019
               
              Meeting was called to order at the Best Western Bidarka Inn at 12:11 PM by President Bernie Griffard.
              Board Members Present: President Bernie Griffard, Vice President Van Hawkins, President Elect Don Keller, Treasurer Read Dunn, Secretary Charlie Franz, Director Dennis Weidler and Director Gary Thomas.
              Board Members Absent:  Director Lisa Roberts.
              Club Members Present:  (24) Rick Abboud, Clyde Boyer, David Brann, Sue Clardy, Clark Cripps, Tom Early, Vivian Finlay, Craig Forrest, Vince Greear, Marianne Gross, Maynard Gross, James Hornaday, Doug Johnson, Ronnie Leach, Cinda Martin, Milli Martin, Marie McCarty, John Mouw, Marvin Peters, Susie Quinn, Paul Seaton, Bryan Zak and Karen Zak.
              Quorum:  A quorum was established with a total of 33 club members (55%) present.
              Action Item:
                        President Griffard introduced the action item for the meeting:  Consideration of an amendment to the Club Bylaws to establish a Finance Committee.
              Add to Article 9 Committees:
              The Finance Committee - This committee shall assist with the development,
              implementation, monitoring and modification of the budget.  The committee is authorized to make budget modifications up to 10% of the board approved committee budgets.  The Finance Committee shall consist of the President, Past President, President Elect and Treasurer.
                        The proposed amendment was provided to the membership via e-mail on February 26, 2019 in compliance with the bylaws requirement for amendments that notice be provided at least 10 days in advance of the requested approval.
              Dennis Weidler moved and Don Keller seconded approval of the amendment.  Approved – unanimous by voice vote.  A written vote in support of the amendment was also received from Jan Knutson.
              There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 12:19 PM.
              Respectfully submitted by Charlie Franz, Secretary
              Minutes of Regular Club Meeting, March 14, 2019 2019-03-19 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Breakfast Meeting

              At least 15 members and prospective members met at the Duncan House Saturday morning for food, fun, and fellowship.  
               
               
               
              Rotary Breakfast Meeting 2019-03-19 08:00:00Z 0

              Letter From Mary Kupchinskaia

              Dear Clyde and Vivian

              My name is Mary, a fourth-year student at Irkutsk State University, Baikal International Business School. (Professor Donskoy’s student). Thank you very much for your willingness to host me and put together my internship.

              I am looking forward to some valuable international experience in management, marketing, and finance. I'm also interested in logistics, foreign languages, leadership, and American culture. Therefore, project management is one of the areas that I am interested in. At this time, I work on my research on reducing inventory costs in our local trade company. Involvement in a wide variety of volunteering and community service projects through Rotary will give me the boost I need to advance my business career.

              In addition to School, I work with a language school where I teach English to young kids. I would love to visit a school where American students study Russian and tell them a little bit about Russia.

              I also love to bike, swim and dive. My father is a diving instructor, so we often go diving together. We dive both in summer and winter on Lake Baikal, which, as you know, is the deepest freshwater lake in the world.

              I’d like to tell you a little about my family as well. In addition to being a diving instructor, my father has a PhD in Biology and works as an ichthyologist, and is the director of the Lake Baikal Museum. The museum provides educational programming, conducts scientific researches, and puts on exhibitions about Lake Baikal.

              My mother works at Irkutsk State University, and my sister has a master’s degree and works as a HR Manager.

              My family also loves to travel.

              Sincerely,

              Mary 

              Letter From Mary Kupchinskaia 2019-03-14 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary District 5010 Call For Resolutions 2019

              (Issued January 30, 2019)
               
              Rotary District 5010
               
              Call for Resolutions
              for
              Consideration at the District Conference
               
              (May 3 - 5, Anchorage)
               
              Introduction
               
              Each Rotary year, individual clubs in good standing and the Council of Governors have the opportunity to recommend changes to the District 5010 Manual of Procedure thereby ensuring that their contents are current and support the District’s needs.
               
              Resolutions, which present a firm decision to do or not to do something, fulfill three purposes: recognition, amendments to the District 5010 Manual of Procedure, and general purpose District 5010 resolutions, thus:
               
              1.            Resolution of Recognition
               
              Yearly, resolutions are submitted recognizing, acknowledging and thanking certain groups and/or individuals for service to Rotary District 5010 during the Rotary year.
              The Administration Chair submits these resolutions.
               
              2.            Resolution for Amendment
               
              Yearly, clubs or the Council on Governors may submit for consideration Resolutions for Amendment that purport to correct or delete existing District 5010 Manual of Procedure language or add language to existing text.
               
              3.            Resolution of General Purpose
               
              Yearly, clubs may submit for consideration Resolutions of General Purpose that inform, persuade, or convey a goal.  Such resolutions may result from an RI directive, e.g. nominating an individual to serve on a Rotary committee.
               
               
               
              4.          Council on Legislation and Resolutions
               
              Annually, clubs or the Council on Governors may submit resolutions for consideration by Rotary International’s Council on Resolutions, while every three years, clubs or the Council on Governors may submit legislation which amends Rotary International’s governance documents at the Council on Legislation.
               
              Examples of 1 to 3 are attached. Specific information will be provided soon about Council on Resolutions submissions by Jane Little (Homer Downtown), District 5010’s Council on Legislation representative.
               
              Resolution Process
              Prior to submitting a Resolution for consideration, a club’s board of directors must first submit their resolution in the proper format, signed by both the club president and secretary, after approval by a vote of members at a regular club meeting.  The resolution is sent via email by the deadline set out below to the District Governor, with a copy to the Administration Chair.
               
              Once received, the District Governor, in conjunction with the Manual of Procedure Review Committee, will determine whether or not the proposed resolution conflicts with RI’s Constitution, By-Laws or Manual of Procedure, and request the submitter, as necessary, to make changes.  If not, the resolution will be sent on to the Administration Chair which will prepare the resolutions for distribution by the District Governor and to the president of each club and all Past District Governors.  These resolutions will be voted up or down or amended at the Annual Business Meeting.
               
              Should you any questions please contact Don Poulton at 907-863-2268 or poulton@mtaonline.net.  It is hoped that having questions answered during resolution preparation will be helpful.
               
              Deadline
               
              Email resolutions to District Governor Diane Fejes at ndfejes@gmail.com, with a copy to Administration Chair Don Poulton at  poulton@mtaonline.net by March 15, 2019.
               
              Emergency Resolutions
               
              Proposed resolutions may be submitted after the deadline and considered during the Annual Business Meeting if two thirds of the club presidents in attendance consider that its consideration is necessary for the District’s needs (District 5010 Manual of Procedure Article XIII.)
               
              Resolution Format
               
              The attached templates set out the information needed and prescribed format for resolutions. If suggesting a modification to the 2018 D5010 Manual of Procedure, underline any language to be added or [bracket] language to be deleted.  A General Resolution Format is attached for your use in preparing your resolution(s).
               
              Please submit your resolution(s) in Word.  Each resolution will be displayed on a video screen and discussed during the Annual Business Meeting.  Any agreed to changes will be so noted in Word’s “track changes” for all to see. They will then be attached to the Annual Business Meeting minutes and included in the Manual of Procedure.
               
              District Manual of Procedure and By Laws
               
              The current Manual of Procedure and Corporate By Laws can be found on the District Home Page under “Documents” and “Quick Links” at D5010 Information and Administration, respectively.
               
              Contact
               
              Questions or comments?  Please contact Don Poulton, Administration Chair, at 907-863-2268 (call or text) or poulton@mtaonline.net.
               
              Attachments
               
              General Resolution Format
              Resolutions of Recognition – Example
              Resolution of Amendment – Example
              Resolution of General Purpose - Example
               
               
               
              General Resolution Format
               
               
              Introductory Comments
               
              Title:
               
              Summary Description:
               
              Purpose/Objective:
              Insert a statement of purpose and effect not to exceed 300 words in order for the proposal to be considered. This statement should identify the issue or problem that the proposed resolution seeks to address and explain how the proposal addresses or resolves the problem or issue.
               
              Impact (positive/negative/neutral) including monetary impact:
               
              ___________________________________________________________________________________
               
              ___________________________________________________________________________________
               
              This resolution shall have an effective date of __________________________
               
               
              District 5010 Manual of Procedure
               
              A Resolution of Recognition
               
              Or
               
              A Resolution to Amend District 5010 Manual of Procedure
               
              Or
               
              A Resolution of General Purpose
               
              Resolution No. _____________________
               
              Resolution on ______
               
              Whereas…;
               
              Whereas…;
               
              Whereas, this Resolution was adopted at a regular meeting of Rotary Club of _______ or at a meeting of the Council of Governors  on _______; and
               
               
               
              Now, therefore, be it resolved that…
               
              The Resolution language (if necessary).
               
               
               
              NOW THEREFORE, in accordance with Article XIII of Rotary District 5010 Manual of Procedure it is resolved that the RI District 5010 Manual of Procedure be amended as follows:
              ARTICLE ___– _______ Section ___ [Text]
               
              Except as set forth in this Resolution/Amendment, the District 5010 Manual of Procedures shall remain in full force and effect.
               
              The Rotary Club of _________/Council on Governors
               
              __________________________                                             ___________________________
              President/Chair                                                                          Secretary
               
              Adopted during the Annual Business Meeting held during the District Conference in Anchorage, Alaska on May _____, 2019.
               
                                                                                                                                                                                  
              Conference Secretary                                                              Date
               
               
               
               
              Rotary District 5010 Call For Resolutions 2019 2019-03-13 08:00:00Z 0

              Whitehorse Clubs Request District Change

               

              The two Whitehorse, Yukon clubs (Rotary Club of Whitehorse & Rotary Club of Whitehorse Rendezvous) have voted upon and requested that they be re- districted from District 5010 into District 5370 (the neighboring Rotary District of northern Alberta, Northwest Territories and northeast BC). The request is that this take place as of July 1, 2019, waiving the 2-year waiting period. Accomplishing this redistricting would also require a minor boundary change to provide that the Yukon Territory be moved from D. 5010 to D. 5370. In order for this move to be effective 1 July 2019, all Rotary Clubs in District 5010 have 30 days (starting March 1, 2019) to comment. Please see the attached documents from the Whitehorse Clubs and DG Diane Fejes for background and details.
               
              Unfortunately I was unable to print the letter from DG Diane Fejes.
              Whitehorse Clubs Request District Change 2019-03-07 09:00:00Z 0

              Groups and People Who Helped With Ben Walters Park Skating Recognized

               

              Here are some of the volunteers that helped make the Ben Walters Park skating party happen.

              1 Renee Krause, super help at the Homer City Clerks office.
               
              2  Ingrid Harald, Counselor at Homer Flex School and Women’s hockey team, Chair at Parks and Recreation Commission.
               
              3 Three students from Homer Flex School.
               
              The Manager at Homer McDonald's receives Certificate of thanks from President Bernie.
               
              5 Pat Irwin.
               
              6 Matt Steffy and staff at Homer Parks, City.
               
              7  Homer Chamber of Commerce.
               
              8  Lisa played a key role arranging for parking.
               
              9 Devony provided sit skates for folks to try out and brought some of her friends.
               
              10  Robert Archibald, helper all around, makes it happen.
              Groups and People Who Helped With Ben Walters Park Skating Recognized 2019-03-06 09:00:00Z 0

              The Russians ARE Coming!

              The Russians are really coming to Homer this year. After a couple of false starts, the Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay will be hosting a Russian delegation 17-21 May 2019. This visit is a program of the Open World Leadership Center, an independent government agency of the United States Congress, who sponsors and funds the Open World program. Open World brings emerging leaders from mostly Eurasian countries to the United States in order to give them firsthand exposure to the American system of participatory democracy and free enterprise.

              The visiting group consists of five delegates, one facilitator, one professional interpreter, and a Rotary International Open World staff member. The hosting theme for their visit is Regional Economic Development: Fishing Industry and Tourism.

              The delegation will arrive in Homer on 17 May 2019 and depart for Anchorage the afternoon of 21 May 2019.

              We need Host Families for all eight visitors. This is a great experience, so please look at your calendars and take this opportunity to show our visitors real Homer hospitality.

              Over the next weeks I will be developing the visit itinerary. Any suggestions you may have will be welcome. 

               

              Thank you,

              Bernie
              The Russians ARE Coming! 2019-03-06 09:00:00Z 0

              Turning Teens Away From Crime

              Rotary clubs in Canada invest in the PACT program, an urban peace initiative that aims to break the cycle of youth crime
               
              By Ryan Hyland                                              Produced by Andrew Chudzinski
               
              Akeem Stephenson wanted to go to jail. He believed it was the only way he could free himself from a life of crime — a life he desperately wanted to change. 
               
              After being arrested for a fourth time more than 10 years ago, for aggravated robbery, the teenager in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, was set to go to prison. But the judge saw something in Stephenson that suggested that he could redeem himself. So he gave Stephenson a choice: participate in an 18-month youth program, or serve the six-month sentence. 
               
               
              Akeem Stephenson used the PACT program to turn his life around and launch his music career
               
              For Stephenson, the choice was clear. He decided to transform his life through the PACT Urban Peace Program.
               
              PACT, which stands for Participation, Acknowledgement, Commitment, and Transformation, is a Toronto-based, award-winning charity supported by Rotary clubs in Canada. It works with at-risk young people and those who have committed crimes to change their direction in life. Entrepreneur and Toronto Rotary member David Lockett co-founded the program more than 20 years ago. 
               
              The intensive, step-by-step program aims to break the cycle of poverty and criminal behavior. Its goal is to determine what the participants need and develop strategies “to put them on a positive path in their life, so they can enrich not only their own lives, but their community,” says Lockett, a member of the Rotary E-Club of Social Innovators D7090. 
               
              Lockett says PACT builds peace in urban communities. “It’s all about looking at the impact of violence and criminal behavior, and understanding the dynamics of the problem, and creating highly effective solutions to make investments for at-risk youth at an early stage,” he says. “It’s really quite simple. If you want to help at-risk youth, you really have to understand the simple needs they have.”
               
              He acknowledges that young people who commit crimes should be held accountable, and for many of them, that includes serving jail time. But for some, those he says come from “squalid and deplorable backgrounds” with very little parental guidance, PACT is a resource that can change their lives and reduce the likelihood that they will commit more crimes. 
               
              The organization works with the judicial system to identify repeat offenders ages 12-19 who may benefit from the program. After a young adult is convicted of a crime, the judge or judicial official refers them to PACT as part of a probation order. 
               
               
              Judges in Canada see how the PACT program can reduce youth crime and help offenders stay out of the judicial system. 
               
              Central to PACT’s success is its LifePlan Coaching program, an intense intervention system that pairs a participant with a certified life coach. The two meet each week for 12-18 months to set goals in six key areas: education, employment, health, relationships, contributing to the community, and staying out of the criminal justice system. Life coaching is a conversational process that provides structure and acknowledgement, builds capacity and self-awareness, and fosters self-directed learning and action. This ultimately helps the young person get from where they are to where they want to be in the future. 
               
              PACT’s LifePlan Coaching differs from the traditional model of therapy or counseling in that it does not focus on the person’s past but rather concentrates on the present and future, says Lockett. The innovative program boasts a 65 percent success rate, with success meaning that the young person completes the program without re-offending. 
               
              It was the relationship with his life coach that gave Stephenson the insight and confidence to reshape his future. “The PACT program will change your mindset,” he says. “They’ll give you the blueprint, but it’s up to you to run with it.”
               
              Stephenson has since obtained his high school equivalency certificate and has been working at a call center. He also honed his passion for music through PACT’s Life & Job Skills Community Service Programs, in which participants learn through practical exposure to activities like music and film production, cooking, gardening, and entrepreneurship. 
               
              Rotary brings compassion
              To date, nearly 30 clubs in the Toronto area have supported PACT, many with annual commitments of $3,600 or more to fund the program, according to Lockett. 
               
               
              PACT participants can hone their skills and passions through the program's Life & Job Skills Community Service Programs, which gives them practical exposure to activities like music, film production, cooking, gardening, and entrepreneurship.
               
              But Rotary clubs are also playing a more in-depth role in PACT. The two organizations created the PACT/Rotary Youth Mentoring Program, which allows members to connect directly with participants. 
               
              Liz Bosma-Donovan, a social worker and member of the Rotary Club of Wellington in Ontario, is the first Rotary ambassador to PACT. She works with Rotary clubs to find members who are willing to become mentors. 
               
              “After learning about PACT and working with David [Lockett] on projects, I saw there was a missing opportunity for Rotary to create a more meaningful connection,” says Bosma-Donovan. “We want to enhance their sense of belonging, to make them feel more a part of the community. Rotary is uniquely positioned in the community to bring about these connections.”
               
              For instance, members can help a PACT participant find volunteer opportunities, get a driver’s license, or secure job interviews. 
              “Our members are caring and compassionate,” says Bosma-Donovan. “Those things are crucial to bring about change and to rebuild their lives.” 
               
              • 225
              the number of young offenders PACT has coached since 2006 
              • 65%
              of youths coached did not re-offend
              • $3,600
              PACT's cost to coach one youth offender 
              • $120,000
              the average annual cost of keeping just one inmate in prison
               
              Turning Teens Away From Crime 2019-02-27 09:00:00Z 0

              Proposed Amendment to By-Laws

              The below amendment to the club bylaws creating a Finance Committee and establishing its membership and authority has been approved by the Board of Directors.

              The amendment is provided for your information in advance of a vote as required by Section 15 of the Club's Bylaws regarding amendments.

              To comply with the bylaws requirement of at least 10 days notice of a proposed amendment, you will be asked to vote on this amendment at the regular club meeting on March 14, 2019.

               
              Proposed amendment to the Bylaws to address the membership and authority of the Finance Committee.
               
              Add to Article 9 Committees:
               
              • The Finance Committee - This committee shall assist with the development,
              implementation, monitoring and modification of the budget.  The committee is authorized to make budget modifications up to 10% of the board approved committee budgets.  The Finance Committee shall consist of the President, Past President, President Elect and Treasurer.
               
              Proposed Amendment to By-Laws 2019-02-27 09:00:00Z 0

              Council on Legislation Meeting #2

              This is a reminder that the second of three meetings to discuss the Council on Legislation Proposed Enactments will be held online on Go To Meeting by your District 5010 Council Representative, Jane Little.  If you have any questions, email Jane at rotaryjane@yahoo.com.

              If you would like to participate, first review the proposed enactments at: https://my.rotary.org/en/document/proposed-legislation-2019-council-legislation

              Then follow the instructions below and join the meeting on Thursday, February 28th from 2:00 to 3:00pm.

               

              COUNCIL ON LEGISLATION MEETING #2
                     Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019; 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM AKST

               

              Please join Go To Meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.
              https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/600852237

              You can also dial in using your phone.
              (For supported devices, tap a one-touch number below to join instantly.)

              United States: +1 (571) 317-3129
              - One-touch: tel:+15713173129,,600852237

              Access Code: 600-852-237
               
              More phone numbers:
              (For supported devices, tap a one-touch number below to join instantly.)

              Canada: +1 (647) 497-9391
              - One-touch: tel:+16474979391,,600852237

                                  ***********************

               

              Council on Legislation Meeting #2 2019-02-27 09:00:00Z 0

              Announcements: May 14, 2020

               From the Desk of President Don

              FROM PRESIDENT DON

              This Thursday speaker will be Michelle from Redfish. It will be nice to get an update on masks and PPE supplies. Thank you to all Rotarians who have been making masks for our community. I am encouraged at times to see the increasing number of people wearing them!

              Apologies about the Tuesday night social invite not getting out! We will do one more next Tuesday night 7 PM and realizing that the weather is getting more and more summer like this may be our last social unless we have a reasonable attendance.

              I believe we are still in need of several committee budgets before Lori will be set for next year please take care of it if you have not.

              My understanding from our DG Andre’ that there will be fewer District Zoom meetings and for those of you looking forward to this Thursday’s meeting with Paul Chapelle, he has not yet committed to that timeslot. I would encourage you to check out his website,  < peace revolution.com >, as I’m finding it very innovative and enlightening.

              Thank you to the work parties that have been cleaning up the library garden and the crew that worked to clear debris from the Fishing Hole cement walkway. I would like to recognize those who contributed their time and effort at this Thursday’s noon meeting!

              Our Scholarship Committee awarded three scholarships of $1000 each to three of our high school seniors. The awards event was Tuesday evening at 6:30 PM. It was a recorded event and you should be able to be seen on HHS website. Congratulations to Skyler Bond, Colby Marion and Rio Shemet Pitcher. I am proud to be a member of Rotary which consistently supports the youth in this community, as we see through the Youth Exchange program and our involvement with RYLA, especially this year thanks to Beth Trowbridge and her committee in the sponsorship of the district conference and these scholarships!

              Not to forget all the Milli and her committee do as well.

              I hope everyone will continue to take the necessary precautions following CDC and local guidelines. observe social distancing ,and the wearing of masks. It will be an interesting time as we are slowly re-opening the State, but let’s not become complacent!

              Be safe!

              ~Yours in Rotary ~

              Don Keller

              Proud President of the Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay

               
               
               

              Greeter and Invocator for This Thursday 

              Greeter:  Currently Suspended

              Invocator: 

               

              2019-2020 Speaker Spreadsheet

               

              Announcements

               

               

               
               

               

              Winston needs some work!  He has done some helpful labor for us, but with college canceled and only on line classes, he has plenty of time! He comes highly recommended!!

              Vivian 

              (907) 435-3903

              Announcements: May 14, 2020 Craig Forrest 2019-02-25 09:00:00Z 0

              Reminder

              This is a friendly reminder to register for this year's District Conference in beautiful and lively downtown Anchorage!  Time is ticking and it’s only a short three months away!  You don’t want to miss out on an inspiring and motivational District Conference, packed full with great fellowship, amazing speakers, and tons of fun! 
               
              We are excited to announce Carl-Wilhelm Stenhammar, 2005-2006 RI President, will be speaking and joining us for this year’s conference!  Carl-Wilhelm, a Rotarian since 1974 immediately became involved in all levels of Rotary and has held numerous positions at the club, district, and international levels. He began international service to Rotary in 1991 with an appointment to the Youth Service Committee, has been a member of the Audit and Operations Review Committee of RI,  member of the Polio Eradication Advocacy Task Force. To read more about Mr. Stenhammar, click on his full bio HERE.
               
               
              image
               
               
              To register, click HERE or on the following link: 
               
               
              To check out the Conference page, become an amazing and appreciated sponsor of the event, as well as find information on hotel and airline discounts, click HERE, or on the following link: 
               
               
              The Conference is the perfect venue to network, reconnect with friends, and find inspiration for continuing service and community leaders as we report on the district, including its successes and challenges. We will have local and international speakers giving information on topics relevant to our district members. Check out their bios here! SPEAKER BIOS
               
              Friday, May 3rd, will be the highly attended and favorite Dinner in the Home event.  If you live in Anchorage, be sure to sign up to host dinner!  If you are coming from out of town, consider being hosted by a local Rotarian and enjoy this fellowship opportunity.
               
              Saturday, May 4th, the Governor’s Banquet will be a time to remember as we enjoy one another’s company and fellowship, topped off with dancing the night away with the Ken Peltier Band!
               
              We want to extend a big thank you to the following sponsors who have committed to helping make this district conference a success:
              • Anchorage Distillery
              • Advanced Oncology Associates and The Alaska Cyberknife Center
              • Anchorage East Rotary Club
              • Alaska Enterprise Solutions
              • Anchorage Women's Clinic
              • CSG, Inc Attoneys at Law
              • Diane Fejes
              • Glacier Edge Maintenance
              • Helping Hands for Nepal
              • Kashi Law Offices
              • The Julie Erickson Team with Janelle & Co
              • Moose Marble Madness
              • Morgan Stanley
              • Spawn Ideas
              • Sitka Rotary Club
              • Susitna Rotary Club
              • Thomas Head & Greisen CPA Firm
              • Wasilla Noon Rotary Club
              We are looking forward to seeing you in Anchorage!
               
              Teri Lindseth and Denise Kipke
              District Conference Co-Chairs
               
              Reminder 2019-02-20 09:00:00Z 0

              Peacemaker

              David Ives
              Rotary Club of Rhinebeck, New York
               
              David Ives was a 16-year-old in rural Ohio in 1967 when he embarked on a trip that changed his life. With his parents, Ives visited church missions in South America, where he saw people living in shelters made of corn stalks or tin cans, and in homes with no furniture other than a mattress on the floor. He saw rivers that were used as both sewers and sources of drinking water. “That’s the touchstone I can never get rid of,” he says, “the feeling that I had when I saw poverty for the first time.”
               
              David Ives
              Photo by Peter Ross
               
              Ives turned that experience into a career dedicated to peace and the eradication of poverty. As a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica, he was a nutrition educator, helping people plant gardens to feed themselves during difficult economic times. While there, he tried unsuccessfully to save the life of a child whose lungs were filled with worms as a result of drinking dirty water. “She’s on my mind a lot,” he says.
               
              Ives is a former Rotary Peace Forum coordinator, an adviser to the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, and the executive director emeritus of Quinnipiac University’s Albert Schweitzer Institute, which conducts programs based on Schweitzer’s philosophy of reverence for life to bring about a more civil and ethical society characterized by respect, responsibility, compassion, and service. He has organized Rotary peace conferences around the globe which feature world leaders such as former Costa Rican President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Óscar Arias Sánchez. At one of those peace conferences, in Côte d’Ivoire, Ives — himself a polio survivor — helped administer the polio vaccine to children in local communities.
               
              With his fellow Rhinebeck Rotarians, Ives helps raise money for U.S. high school students to visit Costa Rica and carry out humanitarian projects in conjunction with Earth University, which teaches students from Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America how to work for socioeconomic and environmental change. 
               
              Though now living with Parkinson’s disease, Ives, who turns 68 this month, shows no signs of slowing down his peace efforts — particularly where Rotary is concerned. “I’ve been extremely impressed with the power of Rotarians to be a force for peace,” he says. “We have great potential to do even more.”
               
                                                                                                                                                                                              Anne Ford
              • Read more stories from The Rotarian
               
               
              Peacemaker 2019-02-20 09:00:00Z 0

              Possible Speaker in April

              Received the following e-mail offering a presentation in April.
               

              Interest in presenting to your club on April 4, 2019

              Leslie Shallcross <lashallcross@alaska.edu>

              1:54 PM (3 hours ago)
               
              to me
              Dear Homer Kachemak-Bay Rotary Club,
              I am inquiring about the possibility of presenting to your club on April 4th.  I am a University of Alaska Fairbanks professor and dietitian who works with health promotion disease prevention programs in Alaska.  I am trying to get the word out about diabetes risks and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's National Diabetes Prevention Program.  The Alaska DHSS Diabetes Prevention and Control Program has grant funding to offer the Diabetes Prevention Program on the Kenai Peninsula for free during the next several years and I want to make sure that everyone at-risk can take advantage of this opportunity.  
               
              I have scheduled a talk with another group in Homer on April 2 and would be pleased to stay and present to your organization on the 4th.  Let me know if this is possible.   
               
              Best regards,
               
              Leslie Shallcross, MS, RDN, LDN

              Associate Professor of Extension - Health, Home and Family Development
              UAF School of Natural Resources and Cooperative Extension 
              Physical Address:1000 University Avenue, Room 109, Fairbanks, AK 99709
              Mailing Address: P.O. Box 758155, Fairbanks, AK 99775-8155 
              (907) 474-2426 office; (907) 242-6138 mobile
              907-474-6885 fax
               
              Possible Speaker in April 2019-02-20 09:00:00Z 0

              Ben Walters Park Ice Skating Party 2019

              Many thanks to Dave Brann and his cohorts from the City Parks & Recreation and FLEX for putting together a great Rotary co-sponsored Community Ice Skating event at Ben Walters Park on Friday, February 15. The weather was perfect and all attendees from all age groups had a great time

               
              Those kids had a ball!
              Ben Walters Park Ice Skating Party 2019 2019-02-20 09:00:00Z 0

              Rondy Rotary Beer Festival

              If you are headed to Anchorage this weekend, take time to stop in at the Anchorage East Rotary’s second annual Rondy Rotary Beer Festival. It is held at the Alaska Center for Performing Arts, Saturday, February 16 from 3:00 to 7:00 PM.

              Rondy Rotary Beer Festival 2019-02-13 09:00:00Z 0

              Cranium Cup 2019 Contest

               

              Thanks to all who made our second annual Cranium Cup a success. Emcee Charlie Franz kept our enthusiastic participants on their toes and made sure we finished on time. For the second year, the Homer Medical Clinic team, headed by Dr. Bill “Tom Brady” Bell took home the coveted Cranium Cup trophy. Next time you visit the clinic look for it!

               

               

               

               

               
              Cranium Cup 2019 Contest 2019-02-13 09:00:00Z 0

              COUNCIL ON LEGISLATION MEETING #1

               
               
              The first of three meetings to discuss the Council on Legislation Proposed Enactments will be held online on Go To Meeting by your District 5010 Council Representative, Jane Little.  If you have any questions, email Jane at rotaryjane@yahoo.com.
               
              If you would like to participate, first review the proposed enactments at: https://my.rotary.org/en/document/proposed-legislation-2019-council-legislation
               
              Then follow the instructions below and join the meeting on Friday, February 15th from 2:00 to 3:00pm.
               
              COUNCIL ON LEGISLATION MEETING #1
              Friday, Feb. 15, 2019; 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM AKST
               
              Please join the Go To Meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone:
               
               
              You can also dial in using your phone.
              (For supported devices, tap a one-touch number below to join instantly.)
              United States: +1 (786) 358-5410
              - One-touch: tel:+17863585410,,601054165
               
              Access Code: 601-054-165
               
              More phone numbers:
              (For supported devices, tap a one-touch number below to join instantly.)
               
              This email was automatically generated by ClubRunner on behalf of Rotary District 5010. Unsubscribe
              COUNCIL ON LEGISLATION MEETING #1 2019-02-13 09:00:00Z 0

              Five Reasons You Should Use the Rotary Brand Center

              It’s now easier than ever to strengthen Rotary’s image in your community with the materials and resources available in the Rotary Brand Center.

              Launched earlier this month, the Brand Center offers a simple and intuitive way to customize your club logo, create a marketing brochure, or give your newsletter a fresh look. You’ll also find guidelines and answers to frequently asked questions as well as information about why telling our story is important.

              “The Brand Center enables everybody to play an active role in promoting Rotary to the world,” says Alan Buddendeck, general manager and chief communication officer for Rotary International.

              “What’s exciting is that the site has been designed in cooperation with Rotary members worldwide, which is critically important to the user experience,” Buddendeck says.

              Here are five reasons you should use the Brand Center:

              1. You can create your own club and district logos featuring Rotary’s masterbrand signature and see your edits in real time.
              2. You can develop professional-looking PowerPoint presentations, press releases, and newsletters that incorporate Rotary’s visual identity. Templates can be customized as much -- or as little -- as you want.
              3. You can find guidelines for using Rotary’s logos and answers to frequently asked questions about our new visual identity. For instance, did you know that your member pin remains unchanged? Or that free fonts are available along with the commercially licensed options?
              4. You can upload and store the materials and logos you create for future use by creating a basket. Use the Quick Share function to email your basket and share your new materials with members.
              5. You can download broadcast-quality public service announcements, videos, and images to help tell Rotary’s story. Choose from a variety of topics to illustrate including Join Leaders, Exchange Ideas, and Take Action -- our three organizing principles.

              “With the new Brand Center, anyone can use the tools and templates to create logos and documents that reflect a unified look, yet are personalized to the club or district,” says Elizabeth Smith Yeats, incoming governor of District 6400, which includes parts of Ontario, Canada, and Michigan, USA. “And they can achieve first-class results without hiring a designer or purchasing expensive software.”

              Sign in or register to your My Rotary account to discover all the Brand Center has to offer.

              Five Reasons You Should Use the Rotary Brand Center 2019-02-12 09:00:00Z 0

              What Would It Take to Make Your Club Irresistible?

              That is the question that Louisa Horne, a trainer in District 7820, asks leaders to think about when she runs her version of the presidents-elect training seminar (PETS) in the spring. When she was asked to be a district trainer three years ago, Horne knew she wanted to reshape what she called “drill and kill” sessions that revolved around information participants needed to learn.

              “Instead, we leveraged the talents of some highly skilled trainers we happened to have among our members,” says the incoming district governor. “We got people who were adult educators who understood how facilitation should be done and were able to create a very different approach to developing our leaders.”

              Rotary members should be thinking about what they can do to make their clubs more interesting to potential members. Good service projects is one way. Rotarians in Tanzania, above, operate a project helping people with albinism become financially independent. 

              Photo by Miriam Doan

              Horne recruited Doug Logan, a past governor, to help. They named their seminars “Training for Leaders of Clubs” (TLC) to stress the changes they made and persuade those who might not want to attend another seminar to give it a try. They later led a breakout session at the 2018 Toronto convention and have also brought their workshop to others outside of their district.

              Strategic doing

              The core idea is to get people thinking strategically about what they need to do to make their clubs more attractive to members.

              “Decline in membership is not the problem. It is a symptom,” says Logan. “So rather than rushing to develop recruitment strategies, we want people to start thinking, ‘OK, what else is really happening here?’”

              Logan and Horne recruit facilitators with a background in management consulting or adult education. They use a variety of tools to encourage “strategic doing.” Participants are asked to create a list of what they’ll do in the next 30 days to help achieve their clubs’ goals and decide how they will evaluate their completed tasks. They then make a list of what they’ll do 30 days after that to keep making a difference.

              Succession

              The seminars also stress succession planning and courageous leadership.

              “This is not just for presidents and secretaries. This is for all leaders and aspiring leaders,” says Horne. “You can’t think of it in terms of ‘my year.’ Most clubs need to have a longer-term plan for what they want to accomplish and how they want to have an impact. Those strategic conversations need to involve people who can give it continuity.”

              By shifting responsibility from a single person to a team, Horne says, clubs can make a role less consuming and more appealing. Horne plans to exemplify this approach to her clubs by using the title “chair of the district leadership team” in place of “district governor.”

              “We expect our club or district leaders to be all things to all people, and that just doesn’t work,” Horne says. “It has to be a team, and there have to be very simple tools that people can use effectively with some basic training.”

              What Would It Take to Make Your Club Irresistible? 2019-02-12 09:00:00Z 0

              Virus Hunter

              Female surveillance officer for WHO pushes through gender-related obstacles to help end polio in Pakistan
               
              By Ryan Hyland
              Dr. Ujala Nayyar dreams, both figuratively and literally, about a world that is free from polio. Nayyar, the World Health Organization's surveillance officer in Pakistan’s Punjab province, says she often imagines the outcome of her work in her sleep.
               
              In her waking life, she leads a team of health workers who crisscross Punjab to hunt down every potential incidence of poliovirus, testing sewage and investigating any reports of paralysis that might be polio. Pakistan is one of just two countries that continue to report cases of polio caused by the wild virus. 
               
               
              Dr. Ujala Nayyar, surveillance officer for WHO, talks about polio eradication efforts in Pakistan. 
               
              In addition to the challenges of polio surveillance, Nayyar faces substantial gender-related barriers that, at times, hinder her team's ability to count cases and take environmental samples. From households to security checkpoints, she encounters resistance from men. But her tactic is to push past the barriers with a balance of sensitivity and assertiveness.  
               
              "I'm not very polite," Nayyar said with a chuckle during an interview at Rotary's World Polio Day last year in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. "We don't have time to be stopped. Ending polio is urgent and time-sensitive."
               
              Women are critical in the fight against polio, Nayyar says. About 56 percent of frontline workers in Pakistan are women. More than 70 percent of mothers in Pakistan prefer to have women vaccinate their children. 
               
              That hasn't stopped families from slamming doors in health workers' faces, though. When polio is detected in a community, teams have to make repeated visits to each home to ensure that every child is protected by the vaccine. Multiple vaccinations add to the skepticism and anger that some parents express. It's an attitude that Nayyar and other health workers deal with daily. 
               
              "You can't react negatively in those situations. It's important to listen. Our female workers are the best at that," says Nayyar. 
              With polio on the verge of eradication, surveillance activities, which, Nayyar calls the "back of polio eradication", have never been more important. 
               
              • 56%  of front-line workers in Pakistan are female
              • 90% of front-line workers in Nigeria are female
              Q: What exactly does polio surveillance involve?
              A: There are two types of surveillance systems. One is surveillance of cases of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP), and the second is environmental surveillance. The surveillance process continues after eradication. 
               
              Q: How are you made aware of potential polio cases?
              A: There’s a network of reporting sites. They include all the medical facilities, the government, and the hospitals, plus informal health care providers and community leaders. The level of awareness is so high, and our community education has worked so well, that sometimes the parents call us directly.
               
              Q: What happens if evidence of poliovirus is found?
              Dr. Ujala Nayyar, the surveillance officer for the World Health Organization in Punjab, Pakistan, navigates through barriers to hunt down cases of polio. 
              Monika Lozinska/Rotary International
               
              A: In response to cases in humans as well as cases detected in the environment, we implement three rounds of supplementary immunization campaigns. The scope of our response depends on the epidemiology and our risk assessment. We look at the drainage systems. Some systems are filtered, but there are also areas that have open drains. We have maps of the sewer systems. We either cover the specific drainage areas or we do an expanded response in a larger area.
               
              Q: What are the special challenges in Pakistan?
              A: We have mobile populations that are at high risk, and we have special health camps for these populations. Routine vaccination is every child’s right, but because of poverty and lack of education, many of these people are not accessing these services. 
               
              Q: How do you convince people who are skeptical about the polio vaccine?
              A: We have community mobilizers who tell people about the benefits of the vaccine. We have made it this far in the program only because of these frontline workers. One issue we are facing right now is that people are tired of vaccination. If a positive environmental sample has been found in the vicinity, then we have to go back three times within a very short time period. Every month you go to their doorstep, you knock on the door. There are times when people throw garbage. It has happened to me. But we do not react. We have to tolerate their anger; we have to listen.
               
              Q: What role does Rotary play in what you do?
              A: Whenever I need anything, I call on Rotary. Umbrellas for the teams? Call Rotary. Train tickets? Call Rotary. It's the longest-running eradication program in the history of public health, but still the support of Rotary is there. 
              Virus Hunter 2019-02-07 09:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Dictionary Day

              Subject: Rotary Dictionary Day!
               
              Dear Milli and Homer – Kachemak Bay Rotary Club members,
               
              Thank you so very much for inspiring our third grade students and giving each of them a dictionary. Our students love their new dictionaries and had a great time looking through them for the first time in our library! We have included a few pictures from your visit. Thank you so very much from West Homer Elementary and Fireweed Academy!
               
              West Homer Elementary Librarians,
              Lisa Whip and Cheryl Illg
               
               
              Rotary Dictionary Day 2019-02-07 09:00:00Z 0

              Russian  Business Intern to Visit Soon!

              As you know, we have a Russian University student who will be in Alaska for the month of July, 2019, as part of the University of Irkutsk Business school's internship program.  I am attaching Maria's photo, information about the program from the Director, PDG Vladimir Donskoy, and Maria's goals and resume.
               
              When we return from Mexico, in late February, we need to begin the process of recruiting Rotarians who are willing for Maria to job shadow at their places of work.  We are working with the RC of Anchorage South to host Maria for the last half of the month, so our Club will need to host and find businesses for Maria for July 1-15.  Maria's visa was approved by the US government which apparently is a major achievement!  Our Rotary Club's activities, social events, and cultural experiences sound as important as the business shadowing/learning in this program.
               
              Thank you very much.
              Vivian and Clyde

               
              Russian  Business Intern to Visit Soon! 2019-02-07 09:00:00Z 0

              How to Become a Rotary Peace Fellow

              By Keri B. Lynch
               
              In 2011, Kiran Singh Sirah turned 35 — “halfway through our life’s journey,” he says, citing Dante’s Divine Comedy. The UK native had been living in Edinburgh and Glasgow for a decade, working on a variety of cultural endeavors. “I felt I had done everything I needed to do and learn in Scotland. It was time to take my experiences and move them to the next level.” 
               
              That’s when Sirah heard about the Rotary Peace Fellowship. Since the program began in 2002, more than 1,200 peace fellows have received fully funded scholarships to study at one of six peace centers at universities around the world. With help from Rotarians in Scotland, Sirah eventually landed one of those scholarships and headed to North Carolina, where he earned a master’s degree in folklore studies and a graduate certificate in international peace and conflict resolution. 
              Kiran Singh Sirah, center, marches for peace. Learn why Kiran Singh Sirah believes spinning tales can foster world peace.  
              Photo by Johnson City Press
               
              “It felt like a chance at a second life,” he says. “Here was an opportunity to harness new skills, explore new ideas, and get the academic and theoretical knowledge I needed to advance my peacebuilding work.” 
               
              So how does someone become a Rotary Peace Fellow? And how does a district nominate a potential fellow? Follow the steps laid out below.
               
               
              Step 1: Determine which of the two fellowship programs offered by Rotary best suits your goals and circumstances.
              The master’s degree program requires at least three years of relevant full-time work experience and lasts 15 to 24 months, including an applied field experience of two to three months between the first and second academic year. The program is offered at five Rotary Peace Centers based at six universities. Fellows accepted into the program must study at a center outside their home country. The universities are:
               
              • Duke University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States
              • International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan
              • University of Bradford, Bradford, England
              • University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
              • Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
              Aimed at candidates with at least five years of relevant full-time work experience, the professional development certificate program provides an intensive three-month program in peace and development that includes two to three weeks of field study. It is offered by the Rotary Peace Center at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. Residents of any country, including Thailand, may attend the Chulalongkorn peace center.
               
              The Rotary Foundation annually awards up to 50 fellowships in each of the two programs. The fellowship covers tuition and fees, room and board, round-trip transportation, and all research and field study expenses.
               
              Step 2: Review eligibility requirements and application guidelines.
              The fellowship application can be found beginning in early February at the peace fellowship page at Rotary.org. It includes an online tool that helps prospective candidates determine whether they are eligible for a fellowship and whether they meet the basic requirements related to education, language skills, and work experience. (For instance, candidates must be proficient in English since all coursework is conducted in that language. See step 4.) Rotary employees, members of Rotary clubs, and the children and grandchildren of club members are ineligible for fellowships.
               
              Fellowships are designed for people with professional experience related to peacebuilding or international development. Candidates must have strong leadership skills and a clear commitment to peace, though what that looks like may vary widely and could include, for instance, work in environmental issues, education and literacy, women’s rights, journalism, public health, or disease prevention.
               
              Step 3: Thoroughly research the curriculum at each peace center.
              “Each peace center has a different personality,” says Summer Lewis, a Kansas native who studied at the University of Queensland from 2011 to 2012. “UQ was rigorous academically. It’s a master’s in the political science department, so it is heavy on theory versus practice.” 
               
              "Duke-UNC was suggested to me by the Rotarian committee in Scotland that helped pull my application together,” Sirah says. “I looked into the program and realized they had one of the best folklore studies programs in the United States, if not the world. I also liked the interdisciplinary nature of the program.”
               
              Candidates are asked to rank the peace centers in order of preference. For Chance Kalolokesya of Malawi, who will graduate in 2020, this was the easiest part of the application process. “I knew what academic program I wanted to study and what kind of career I was anticipating,” he says. “Not every Rotary Peace Center offers the same kind of program, and that’s why I chose the University of Bradford,” which has the largest department of peace studies in the world.
               
              Step 4: Candidates for the master’s degree program should obtain their academic transcripts and test scores.
              Candidates for the certificate program will not need these materials, but, like the master’s candidates, they will want to update their résumés, gather two letters of recommendation, and craft the required essays. All these materials must be submitted through the online application in English. 
               
              When editing her résumé, Zimbabwe’s Chenai Kadungure, who received her master’s degree from the University of North Carolina in 2018, took special care to outline the role of peace in her life. “I had someone help me navigate where my passion for peace was in my résumé,” she says. “I discovered that, without realizing it, my entire career had been in peace. Don’t underestimate each of the little things you do and have done.”
               
              As you write your essay, find a theme that tells your story. “If you’ve done work in a variety of areas that may appear to be diverse, figure out a thread that connects all those jobs and projects,” Lewis says. “Show how they relate to each other, how they build on each other, and how they all led you to where you are today. Do so in a way that tells your story rather than regurgitating your résumé.”
               
              For letters of recommendation, a candidate should choose references who can provide concrete examples of his or her academic, professional, and volunteer achievements, while also describing how the candidate would be a good fit for the peace fellowship program.
               
              TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) and IELTS (International English Language Testing System) scores are required for all non-native English speakers applying to the master’s program. GRE (Graduate Record Exam) scores are required for the master’s program at UNC and highly recommended at Duke.
               
              "Register early for the required exams,” says Kadungure. “The number of individuals who can take the test on a particular date may be limited in your area, so contact the testing center in your country as soon as possible.”
               
              Step 5: Contact your Rotary district, which will consider your application for endorsement, and request an interview.  
              Usually the best way to contact a district is through your local Rotary club; go to Rotary.org and use the Rotary Club Finder to locate clubs in your area. Districts review applications and choose the candidates they wish to endorse.
               
              "Districts can endorse as many candidates as they wish,” says Sarah Cunningham, senior marketing programs specialist for the Rotary Peace Centers. “There is no charge to districts to apply, nor do they incur any costs if any of their candidates are selected for a fellowship.”
               
              Candidates who have trouble connecting with a Rotary club or district should contact Rotary Peace Center staff no later than 15 May. Districts that need help with the process should also contact staff. All questions and inquiries can be sent to rotarypeacecenters@rotary.org. “If your district feels inundated by a large number of applications, reach out to us,” Cunningham says. “We can help connect candidates with districts elsewhere that could review and possibly endorse those applications.”
              As Kadungure discovered, “finding a club or district to sponsor you can be challenging if you live in an area with fewer Rotarians. Don’t hesitate to reach out to the peace center staff if you’re struggling to make that connection.”
               
              Step 6: Submit your completed application to your Rotary district no later than 31 May.
              Begin to prepare for your interview by getting to know all about Rotary. “During your interview, demonstrate that you identify with Rotary’s specific values,” Lewis says. “Talk about how your work ties into the Foundation’s six areas of focus and make it clear how your work aligns with Rotary’s, and how you can then help Rotary advance its work and impact in the world.”
               
              Step 7: District representatives interview candidates.
              Among other things, the interview can help determine if a candidate is ready for the program. “I recommend that if at first you don’t succeed, sharpen your application, goals, and plans, and apply again,” says Lewis, who applied twice before being accepted.   
               
              "In the most recent round of applications, 30 percent of finalists had applied previously and not been accepted, and then were accepted this year,” Cunningham says. “So determination pays off.”
               
              Step 8: Districts must submit endorsed applications by 1 July.
              Each year, between July and October, the Rotary Peace Centers Committee, composed of appointed Rotarians and university representatives, screens endorsed and qualified applications and selects fellowship finalists. Districts and their candidates are notified of the results by November.
               
              Step 9: Selected peace fellows apply to their universities.
              Being chosen for a fellowship does not guarantee admission to the university. Candidates must apply for admission to their designated universities and meet all admission requirements. Carefully review the admission requirements to ensure that you’re prepared. It is recommended that candidates wait to be notified of their selection to the fellowship before applying for university admission. At Duke-UNC, fellows enroll either in the master’s program in international development policy at Duke or in master’s programs under various relevant departments and schools at UNC.
               
              Looking to the future
              All Rotary clubs and districts can support the peace fellowship program by recruiting and endorsing candidates. In fact, some districts take the initiative and, with an eye toward the future, build a pool of prospective candidates who might qualify for a fellowship in another year or two.
               
              In 2018, to assist clubs and districts, the peace center staff added new training sessions and resources online. This year the staff will begin a campaign to increase participation in the endorsement process at the district level. The goal is to have a peace fellowship subcommittee chair appointed in each district by 2020, which should strengthen the peace fellowship program and advance Rotary’s peacebuilding efforts. 
               
              "The program and course of study helped me refine my ideas, validate my past life and work experiences, and acquire the academic credentials I needed to build the networks to do my work,” Sirah says. “It has given me more than 1,200 peace fellows and 1.2 million Rotarians to build partnerships and projects with — and it gave me an international family, the people I spent two intense years living and studying with. Our time together created a binding force we can use to take on some of the world’s most pressing challenges.” 
               
              • A freelance writer and editor, Keri B. Lynch also works with Rotary International as a PR consultant.
              How to Become a Rotary Peace Fellow 2019-01-30 09:00:00Z 0

              RYLA 2019 -- Juneau, Alaska

              It's that time of year again!  I need your help to spread the word about RYLA and to pass on information to Sophomores and/or Juniors that you think would be good candidates to participate in RYLA.

              This year RYLA is March 7-10th and is in Juneau.

              The application and a FAQs sheet is attached to this email and we need to have applications submitted by Feb. 1.

              RYLA is a great leadership building experience and networking opportunity for youth.  Please help get the word out!

              Thanks!

              Beth
               
               
              RYLA 2019 -- Juneau, Alaska 2019-01-30 09:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Member Helps Close Missing Persons Cases

              Todd Matthews’ first missing-persons case had a family connection: “Tent Girl,” a woman whose remains, wrapped in a tarp, had been found by Wilbur Riddle near Georgetown, Kentucky, in 1968. About 20 years later, Riddle’s son-in-law, Matthews, a factory worker with no detective training, started digging into what records he could find. In 1998, an online classified ad finally led him to uncover the woman’s identity: Barbara Ann Hackmann Taylor, who was 24 when she went missing.

              Today, Matthews, a member of the Rotary Club of Livingston, Tennessee, is director of communications at the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NamUs. Funded by the National Institute of Justice, which is part of the U.S. Department of Justice, NamUs collects information about unsolved cases from local law enforcement into a single, searchable database. 

              Todd Matthews, a member of the Rotary Club of Livingston, Tennessee.

              Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa

              Q: What made you want to find the identity of Tent Girl?

              A: My brother and sister passed away as infants. We visited their graves. But Tent Girl’s siblings, her parents, and her children couldn’t visit her grave because they didn’t know where she was. 

              Q: How did you go from amateur investigator to working for NamUs?

              A: At the time of the Tent Girl case, there were a lot of groups that would gather online to study serial killers or unidentified and missing-persons cases. And we were solving cases! There was a lot of low-hanging fruit, because Chicago didn’t know what was happening in Detroit; they weren’t sharing information. By demonstrating that we were sharing this information, I was able to help develop NamUs.

              Q: How does the database work?

              A: The public is effective in using data to solve these cases, so NamUs is intended for the public to see. But law enforcement can go deeper. The public will see photographs, brief descriptions, where a person was last known to be or where a body was found. Law enforcement can see the actual fingerprint card if it exists, the dental records if they’re available, where the DNA is stored in a database. The system is even capable of suggesting possible matches based on geography, chronology, physical characteristics. The system can actually develop investigative leads.

              Q: How many missing and unidentified people are in the NamUs database?

              A: Our database has more than 14,000 missing persons. We have over 12,000 unidentified bodies. That doesn’t include cases we have had some resolution on. Thousands of cases have been impacted by NamUs. For families, missing is worse than dead. That’s what I’d like people to know. You can’t grieve; you can’t move on. 

              Q: In 2017, your home state of Tennessee passed legislation requiring law enforcement to enter missing-persons information into NamUs. Three other states have passed similar measures. How does this help your mission?

              A: In Tennessee, we have held public events to educate families and friends of missing persons about the database. That means we don’t have to go one-on-one to tell people, “Here’s NamUs, and here’s what it does.” But there are 46 other states that need to pass this kind of law. A number of states are interested, but it’s going to take influential people like Rotary members to push it through. That can change things dramatically. — Fritz Lenneman

              • Read more stories from The Rotarian

              Rotary Member Helps Close Missing Persons Cases 2019-01-30 09:00:00Z 0
              Cranium Cup 2019-01-30 09:00:00Z 0

              Three Reasons to Strengthen Rotary's Image

              131008_jones
              By Jennifer Jones, a member of the RI Communications Committee
              Over the past two years, Rotary has undertaken an unprecedented amount of research to study the effectiveness of how we communicate with each other and also to look at perceptions about the organization from the community at large.
               
              What’s likely not surprising is that we determined we have all of the strengths necessary for greatness in our second century of service. However, when we looked at awareness about our organization in the greater public arena, they quite simply don’t know about us. It is very easy to ask the question – how can this be true?
               
              Global research shows that when asked – four in 10 people have never heard of us, another four know us in name only, and the remaining two only have some familiarity, which is often colored by misconceptions. How can we attract and engage new members and partners when they don’t know who we are?
              Personally, I think that in order to keep Rotary relevant and enticing for the next 100 years, we need to be innovative, forward thinking, and adaptable to ensure that the rest of the world views us the way we view ourselves. Here’s what I like most about the Strengthening Rotary initiative:
               
              1. It helps us explain who we are, what we do, and why we matter.
              Through this process, we have introduced a new framework to help Rotarians better define who we are when asked the inevitable question – what is Rotary? We Join Leaders – Exchange Ideas and Take Action. Of course each Rotarian’s story is different but if we could highlight the common ground, it begins to form a compelling call to action. We are leaders who act responsibly and take action to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges. When we are all singing off the same song sheet our message is amplified and it becomes much easier to engage people in Rotary.
               
              2. It helps us present a strong, unified image to the public
              For so long we did our good work quietly and not for recognition. While this was noble it made it difficult for people to understand the good work of Rotarians. Now that “telling our story” has become a priority, we need to make sure that we have a united voice.
              An exciting new visual identity kit and guidelines have been launched and they provide tools for individuals, clubs, and districts to create a look that begins to introduce continuity across the globe. Of course, there remains room for personal creativity but a unified look and feel will propel Rotary into a very bright future. Everyone will know who we are, what we do and why it matters!
              If you’ve visited rotary.org within the past few months, you’ve probably noticed evidence of this initiative in the form of simpler, more action-oriented words and visuals. I am also so heartened to see the materials that Rotarians are creating with these new tools. They are stunning and I have heard from countless Rotarians that they love the fresh new look and feel.
               
              3. It will help us attract new members and supporters
              Strengthening Rotary is essential to Rotary’s future. As we share our story in a more clear and compelling way, like-minded people are going to want to be part of our great organization. This really is one of our best membership opportunities. In the end, if we can elevate awareness and attract and engage new members and partners, our good work will spread and “doing good in the world” will not only remain our organizational compass but it will help us soar to new heights.
               
              Three Reasons to Strengthen Rotary's Image 2019-01-23 09:00:00Z 0

              After the Storm

              A year after Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico, local Rotary members continue to rebuild homes and lives
              By Vanessa Glavinskas                                       Photos by Alyce Henson
               
              Eladio Montalvo faced a stark choice: risk drowning in his one-story home or climb through a window into the house next door. It was under construction but had a second floor where he could escape the rising floodwaters. He boosted his dog through and scrambled in after him. The two huddled inside an upstairs bathroom for 22 hours while Hurricane Maria raged over Puerto Rico. With 155 mph winds and torrential rains, Maria was the strongest hurricane to hit the island in more than 80 years.  
               
              After the storm, Montalvo went out to see what was left of the home he had lived in since 1958. The walls were standing, but the water inside had risen chest-high. Everything was destroyed. Without any family nearby, he had nowhere to go. He moved into his car. 
              “But after the storm came the calm,” he says. “Good people came.”
               
              Rivera greets Eladio Montalvo, who was forced to live in his car before the Mayagüez club helped him rebuild his home.
               
              Faustino Rivera pats Montalvo affectionately on the shoulder. It’s September 2018, a year since Hurricane Maria, and Rivera and several other members of the Rotary Club of Mayagüez have stopped by to visit. Montalvo lives in a fishing town called El Maní outside the city of Mayagüez on the island’s west coast. He invites his guests inside to see the progress he has made adding a shower to his bathroom. There’s a pile of tiles that he plans to lay soon, and he has started painting the walls a light shade of blue. The home is neatly but sparsely furnished: a bed, a TV, and a few plastic bins, including one labeled camisas that has shirts and shorts tucked inside.
              “He’s become my friend,” says Rotarian Orlando Carlo, who checks in on Montalvo almost every week.
               
              The Mayagüez club paid $4,200 for the materials Montalvo used to add a second story to his home. Made of concrete, outfitted with hurricane shutters, and built high enough off the ground to avoid flooding, the new addition contains a small kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom. Montalvo did much of the work himself, calling on friends and neighbors skilled in construction when he needed help. 
               
              To find people like Montalvo who needed help but didn’t qualify for reconstruction aid from the U.S. government’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Mayagüez club members worked with community leaders and screened each family. “We are trying to help those who really need help,” Carlo explains. “Those who can’t get it from anyone else.”
               
              By the time Carlo met him, Montalvo had been living in his car for nearly six months. A local church leader introduced the two, hoping Rotarians could help Montalvo find permanent housing. “I could tell immediately that he was severely dehydrated from staying out in the sun and sleeping in his car,” Carlo says. “He seemed stunned and needed guidance on how to start rebuilding. We assured him we were there to help him.”
               
              After the hurricane, Carlo was also living alone. His wife had gone to stay in Florida while he remained behind to run his construction business. But the lack of electricity and reliable communication meant his work projects were stalled, so he mostly spent his days volunteering. “It gave me a lot of time to help,” he says. His home survived the storm, but the shortage of gasoline meant he had to plan his trips carefully. He rationed bottled water and food, eating what he calls a “hurricane diet” of canned pasta or sausage and rice.
               
              “We didn’t have power back until the end of October,” says Christa von Hillebrandt-Andrade, president of the Mayagüez club. “We could use one bucket of water per day. My teenage daughter learned that water is the No. 1 thing you need. She could live without electricity and even without her cellphone, but not without water.”
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Antonio Morales spreads a message of hope and resilience to at-risk youth through theater. His project, Teatro Por Amor, is now supported by a Rotary global grant.  “I like coming here because it’s an escape from my life,” says 16-year-old Annie, above left. Student Kelvin Tirado, right, sits next to actress Anoushka Medina, who runs the Santurce Teatro Por Amor group.
               
              Mayagüez is home to 75,000 people and to the island’s second-oldest Rotary club after San Juan. In the past, the club carried out smaller projects, but the massive devastation caused by Maria motivated members to do more to help their neighbors, especially the very poor.
              “I’ve been a Rotarian for 40 years, and I’ve never seen so much help come from other Rotary clubs,” Carlo says. After Hurricane Maria, clubs across the United States wired the Rotary Club of Mayagüez about $50,000 directly; more than half of that money came from the Rotary Club of La Jolla Golden Triangle in California and a group of clubs in New York. As club treasurer, Rivera keeps track of every receipt and sends updates back to the donor clubs. A year after Maria, the club had helped 22 families repair their homes, mostly replacing roofs that were blown off by the hurricane.
               
              Scanning the horizon from a hillside neighborhood nicknamed Felices Días — “Happy Days” — Carlo points out a less-than-happy sight: the many blue FEMA tarps that still stand in for permanent roofs. “There is still a lot of need here. This is not over,” he says. “But we are willing to continue to help as long as it takes.”
              And for Montalvo’s part, he has remained optimistic in spite of all he went through. “Hurricane Maria gave me more than she took,” he says.
               
              Rebuilding spirits: Addressing mental health
               
              When Ken McGrath became president of the Rotary Club of San Juan in July 2017, he thought his most arduous task would be planning the celebration of the club’s centennial in 2018. Three months after he took office, Hurricane Maria hit. 
               
              “While Maria was a major disaster,” McGrath says, “it had the beneficial effect of invigorating our club to show those in need the real meaning of Rotary.”
              By the time he was able to get an internet connection and check his email, McGrath had received 200 messages from clubs around the world offering to help. Rotarians in Puerto Rico started distributing food and water every Saturday. Working with other clubs, they coordinated the distribution of 300,000 pouches of baby food. They even put dog food out for animals that had been left behind.
               
              Once the immediate needs were under control, they started to think about long-term relief.
               
              San Juan club members distribute mattresses in Villa Santo.
              Photo by Gerry Cumpiano
               
              “So much of the damage isn’t only to the infrastructure; it’s to the spirit,” says John Richardson, a member of the San Juan club and a past district governor. To address mental health after the hurricane, fellow member Bob Bolte suggested the club do something unconventional: apply for a grant to support youth theater.
               
              Bolte had met Antonio Morales in 1995 when the San Juan club installed a library in the housing project where Morales grew up. He was impressed to see that Morales, who was just 14 at the time, was running a theater group for other kids living in his tough neighborhood.
               
              “Theater saved my life,” says Morales, now a 37-year-old actor and director. “My father was a drug lord. My mother was a victim of domestic violence.”
              Even though his father had forbidden him to pursue acting, Morales persuaded his mother to secretly take him to an audition at the public performing arts school. “Everything I learned at school, I brought back to the projects,” he says.
               
              Eventually his theater group became an unlikely alternative to gangs in his neighborhood. “When boys reach a certain age, it’s very easy for them to join the drug gangs,” Morales says. “We told them, ‘Come join our club, not them.’ Even the leaders of the gangs supported me. They didn’t want their little brothers to follow in their footsteps.”
               
              After the hurricane, Morales, who now runs the San Juan Drama Company and stars in a TV series called No Me Compares, started visiting housing projects with other actors to spread a message of hope and resilience to young people. “People were desperate. They were bored. They were depressed,” he says. “We decided to go into these communities to give love. We didn’t have aid kits, food, or water to give — but we had our theater experience. So we said, ‘Let’s go and make these people happy.’” With schools closed and the power out, teens turned out in droves.
              When Bolte learned what Morales was doing, he suggested Rotary could help. “These theater groups provide almost a second family to a lot of the kids,” Bolte says. “I wanted to help him do this on a wider scale, across multiple neighborhoods.” A $99,700 global grant has allowed Morales to expand the project to four theater groups so far and to pay a stipend to the facilitators of each group. Funding for the grant came from Bob Murray, a former San Juan club member who now lives in Arizona, where he’s a member of the Rotary Club of Scottsdale. In December 2017, Murray gave $1 million to The Rotary Foundation for the recovery effort.
               
               
              After the Storm 2019-01-23 09:00:00Z 0

              Downsize Now. Your Children Will Thank You Later

              By Paul Engleman
               
              Last May, my 86-year-old mother-in-law moved from the Wisconsin farm where she had lived for 40 years to a smaller house 15 miles away. With help from seven children and 11 grandchildren, she has accumulated more stuff over her lifetime than she (or they) could ever use, and so during the week leading up to moving day, family members made a dozen round trips in minivans and SUVs, transporting small items — lamps, dishes, knickknacks, plants, wall hangings, her thimble collection, along with a profusion of canned goods  — to her new home.
               
              Illustration by Richard Mia
               
              About halfway through the process, my older son whispered, “Please, don’t let this happen to you and Mom.” Someday, it will fall to him and his brother to help move us. And so — although we have no imminent plans to move — the word “downsize” has crept into our vocabulary. 
               
              As the 65-mile marker begins to fade in my rearview mirror, I had better get started — you know, while I’m still young. Gazing around my basement office at the walls of magazines and books, at the boxes and cabinets filled with outdated computers, monitors, keyboards, and cables, and at the 10 file drawers stuffed with paper, I realize that I should have started sooner. Like maybe 21 years ago, before we moved into this house. 
               
              I’m not sure where to begin. There are enough books on decluttering to fill that big old bookcase you’ve been meaning to get rid of. And if you search the internet for “declutter,” your screen will be instantly cluttered with links to sites filled with tips. But should I be reading about decluttering when I could be using that time to actually do it? Clearly, I need help.
               
              I start with the current world champion of decluttering: Marie Kondo, author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, who was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2015. Her approach to decluttering is a six-step process that relies on asking yourself whether a possession “sparks joy” when you hold it. If not, you should thank it and send it packing. 
               
               
              I don’t doubt that Kondo has helped millions of people get their houses and lives in order. But few of my possessions spark joy — not even my last novel, probably because I know there are two cases of unsold copies lurking beneath the basement stairs. 
               
              I make my way to MakeSpace, a website that calls itself “your closet in the cloud” and offers a page with “15 actionable tips” from six certified professional organizers. 
              For parting with sentimental items, one of those pros suggests taking a picture and “writing a short story about its history and significance.” But in my case, those sentimental items include a dozen unpublished short stories that I thought were pretty good, even if a jury of editors unanimously disagreed. Upon closer examination, I discover that the MakeSpace business model is mostly about shifting clutter: “We’ll pick up your stuff, store it in our secure storage facility, and create an online photo catalog of it so you never forget what you have in storage.” 
               
              I decide to consult my neighbor Therese Garrity, one of the most organized people I know. A real estate appraiser and the mother of seven children, she has had to confront clutter on a scale few of us can fathom. She is an ardent devotee of the “FlyLady,” Marla Cilley, a blogger who launched an online support group to help people counter household CHAOS (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome) in 2001. 
               
              “I couldn’t keep up with stuff; I felt like our house was always a mess,” Therese says. “I liked FlyLady because she didn’t come off like she was perfect; I could relate to that.” By following the basic FlyLady flight plan of setting a timer for 15 minutes every day and picking up items with two bags — one for trash, one for things to be donated — she was pleasantly surprised by how much progress she made. 
               
              I like the fact that Therese doesn’t proselytize. “Whatever you do has to work for you,” she says. 
               
              But what I’m doing isn’t working, maybe because I’m basically doing nothing. So I turn to another friend, who recently downsized, for advice. 
               
              Tom Wolfe and his wife, Barb Wallace, have been a comedy-writing team for several decades. Like me, they work from home, they have two kids who have graduated from college, and, as writers, they rely on deadlines for motivation. My own wife, Barb, says that the lack of an impending deadline is our biggest obstacle to getting started. 
               
              “It’s not decluttering; it’s a purge,” Tom says, noting that the process of selling their house and moving “took about six months and seemed like a full-time job.” It included two garage sales and multiple trips to recycling facilities and outlet stores of charitable organizations. “I have a Puritan streak — I hate to waste stuff,” he says. “But I actually started wondering if the carbon footprint of driving things all over cancels out the benefit of trying to be environmentally responsible.” 
               
               
              During their purge, Tom established a two-year rule: “If you haven’t used or worn something in two years, get rid of it. If it has value, sell it or donate it. If it doesn’t, throw it out.” Along the way, he made a discovery that makes me optimistic about finding the motivation to get started. “There’s a great sense of relief not being surrounded by stuff,” he says. “It’s a very freeing feeling. And I think it’s a great gift you can give your kids, to have your stuff in order.” 
               
              In passing, Therese and Tom both make reference to a book that came out last year: The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter. The author is a Swedish artist and grandmother named Margareta Magnusson. 
               
              The guiding principle behind Swedish Death Cleaning is that you should try to keep things the way you would want someone to find them when you die. Now that makes sense to me. It has a responsible ring to it. Although it may sound morbid, when it comes right down to it, facing up to our mortality is what it’s all about. 
              “If I die — check that, when I die — I don’t want our kids to be burdened with our stuff,” Tom says. 
               
              My sentiments exactly. So I’m adapting advice from both of my volunteer consultants. I’m trimming the 15 minutes a day to 10 and extending the statute of limitations on unused items to three years. And I’m setting a personal goal: reducing my file drawers from 10 to eight by spring. I’m going to get started right away, as soon as I get back from Costco. We need to pick up a few things. 
               
              • Paul Engleman is a frequent contributor to The Rotarian.
              Downsize Now. Your Children Will Thank You Later 2019-01-15 09:00:00Z 0

              Obituary

              We will miss you Fredrica!  R.I.P. dear friend!

               

              image

              Marjorie Frederica Hall

              Oct. 14, 1924 – Dec. 8, 2018

              Marjorie Frederica “Rica” Hall, 94, died on Dec. 8, 2018. she passed quietly in her sleep, the family wrote.

              Rica was born in Whittier, California on Oct. 14, 1924 to Frederick Herbert Bahler and Nellie Marjorie Bahler (Sharpe).

              She was the eldest of three daughters. Rica was raised an educated in Southern California, earning a master’s degree in education and later a master’s in art history from California State University Long Beach. While attending college she married Stanley Dale Jennings, with whom she had three children: Donals, Marjorie and Richard.

              She taught elementary school in Southern California for 35 years before retiring to Bow, Washington with her second husband, Billy F. Hall, who preceded her in death in 1984.

              In 1999, Rica moved from Bow, Washington to Homer, Alaska to share in the life of her youngest son, Richard, and his family.

              Rica enjoyed painting, and she loved music, having played the piano, organ, accordion and glockenspiel. She knitted, crocheted, quilted and was a welcoming hostess She also made and decorated cakes and chocolate candies.

              Rica was an active member of the community wherever she lived. Her community involvement included the American Associated of University Women, Rotary, Patrons of the Pratt, Soroptimist and Skagit Art Association. She was a woman of faith who read her Bible regularly, attended services and participated in church activities.

              She is survived by her sisters, Lois Caro and Shirley Nelson; brother-in-law Robert Nelson; children, Donald F. Jennings and his wife Diane, Marjorie A. Lorant, Richard D. Jennings and his wife Rosemary; and six grandchildren, Scott Jennings, Todd Jennings, Weylin Lorant, Rhiannon Elliot, Rhonwen Jennings and Rhoslyn Anderson.

              She will be greatly missed.

              There will be a memorial service at 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019 at Faith Lutheran Church of Homer, at 1000 Soundview Ave., Homer, AK 99603.

               

              If you need information or have questions please call 907-399-1226

              Obituary Homer Downtown 2019-01-15 09:00:00Z 0

              Five Reasons You Should Use the Rotary Brand Center

              It’s now easier than ever to strengthen Rotary’s image in your community with the materials and resources available in the Rotary Brand Center.

              Launched earlier this month, the Brand Center offers a simple and intuitive way to customize your club logo, create a marketing brochure, or give your newsletter a fresh look. You’ll also find guidelines and answers to frequently asked questions as well as information about why telling our story is important.

              “The Brand Center enables everybody to play an active role in promoting Rotary to the world,” says Alan Buddendeck, general manager and chief communication officer for Rotary International.

              “What’s exciting is that the site has been designed in cooperation with Rotary members worldwide, which is critically important to the user experience,” Buddendeck says.

              Here are five reasons you should use the Brand Center:

              1. You can create your own club and district logos featuring Rotary’s masterbrand signature and see your edits in real time.
              2. You can develop professional-looking PowerPoint presentations, press releases, and newsletters that incorporate Rotary’s visual identity. Templates can be customized as much -- or as little -- as you want.
              3. You can find guidelines for using Rotary’s logos and answers to frequently asked questions about our new visual identity. For instance, did you know that your member pin remains unchanged? Or that free fonts are available along with the commercially licensed options?
              4. You can upload and store the materials and logos you create for future use by creating a basket. Use the Quick Share function to email your basket and share your new materials with members.
              5. You can download broadcast-quality public service announcements, videos, and images to help tell Rotary’s story. Choose from a variety of topics to illustrate including Join Leaders, Exchange Ideas, and Take Action -- our three organizing principles.

              “With the new Brand Center, anyone can use the tools and templates to create logos and documents that reflect a unified look, yet are personalized to the club or district,” says Elizabeth Smith Yeats, incoming governor of District 6400, which includes parts of Ontario, Canada, and Michigan, USA. “And they can achieve first-class results without hiring a designer or purchasing expensive software.”

              Sign in or register to your My Rotary account to discover all the Brand Center has to offer.

              Five Reasons You Should Use the Rotary Brand Center 2019-01-15 09:00:00Z 0

              D5010 Leadership Team Training Seminar and Strategic Planning Update

              Location:     Chariot Group 
                                    3120 Denali St., Suite #1
                                    Anchorage, AK
              Times:          8:30 AM Check-in Registration
                                    Meeting starts at 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM
                                    Break for Lunch at Noon - 1:00 PM
               
              Cost:             Registration cost is $35 (covers lunch and snacks throughout the day)
               
              This meeting is intended for current and future district leaders, and District Leadership Academy participants. Club Presidents and PE's are welcome and encouraged to register, and any other interested D5010 Rotarians may attend as well.
               
              AGENDA:      
              • DG Diane will provide an update on the health of D5010 Rotary. 
              • DGE Andre' Layral will speak briefly on the 2019-2020 Rotary Theme, RI Global Priorities and DGE Andre's vision and his goals for D5010 in 2019-2020.  Andre' will introduce key members of his team for 2019-2020.
              • There will be updates provided by Committee Chairs for Foundation, Grants, Membership, Public Image, and other key district committees.   
              • There will be brief reports provided about Rotary Youth Protection efforts, Rotary Youth Exchange, D5010 Crisis Response and Communication, Excess Reserve Fund Projects implemented this year. 
              • A D5010 Strategic Plan progress report will be given, with discussion time set aside for updating the strategies and activities related to the plan. 
              • A 2018-2019 Budget update will be given and the proposed 2019-2020 Budget will be introduced.
               
              Please note: There are two GoToMeetings scheduled, Morning and Afternoon.
               
              AM District Leadership Team Training and Strategic Planning Review 
              Sat, Feb 2, 2019 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM AKST 

              Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone. 

              https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/378937485 

              You can also dial in using your phone. 

              United States: +1 (646) 749-3129   Access Code: 378-937-485 

              If in Canada: +1 (647) 497-9391 

              PM District Leadership Team Training and Strategic Planning Review
              Sat, Feb 2, 2019 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM AKST 

              Please join the meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone. 

              https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/375289701 

              You can also dial in using your phone. 

              United States: +1 (571) 317-3129   Access Code: 375-289-701 

              If in Canada: +1 (647) 497-9391

              D5010 Leadership Team Training Seminar and Strategic Planning Update 2019-01-15 09:00:00Z 0

              Be the Inspiration

                                                                                                                                                          
              Themes for the Upcoming months
                           January is Vocational Service Month
                February is Peace and Conflict Prevention/Resolution Month
               
                           
               
              Vocational Service focuses on:
              • Adherence to and promotion of the highest ethical standards in all occupations, including fair treatment of employers, employees, associates, competitors, and the public.
              • The recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations, not just those that are pursued by Rotarians.
              • The contribution of your vocational talents to solving the problems of society and meeting the needs of the community.
              Our 4-Way test has been the foundation upon which we build our credibility as members of Rotary and our communities. I have heard numerous times from Rotarians that they use the 4 way test whenever they are confronted with a difficult issue or problem. 
               
              More than ever – the World needs Rotary and the ethical standards by which we live.
               
              This also covers our Global Grants projects and Vocational Training Teams.  I’m happy to announce that we have several approved Global Grants projects:
              • Belize School Sanitation Project 2018:
                • Thank you Rotary Club of Fairbanks - President Tammy Randolph, Mike and Peggy Pollen and Wayne Clark
              • Making Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) History-Vocational Training Team
                • Thank you Michael Jeffery, Marilyn Pierce-Bulger, Karl Schroeder, Ted Trueblood and Rotary Club of Anchorage International -President Debra Mason
              Look for more to come on our Global Grants…..
              And remember to Be the Inspiration to those in your businesses, the school children you read to,  the scholarship recipients you help on their way and those around you.
               
              District Governor Diane
              January 1, 2019
               
                                                  
               
               
               
               
               
               
                         
              Be the Inspiration 2019-01-15 09:00:00Z 0
              Rotary  People of Action Overview 2019-01-10 09:00:00Z 0

              Fresh Faces

              Rotary Club of Aruba
              Chartered
              : 1938
              Original membership: 22
              Membership: 50
               
              Home port: World-class dive sites, pristine beaches, and unique volcanic features make this Caribbean island a popular vacation spot, but “One Happy Island” is more than just a slogan for the tourism industry, say the members of the Rotary Club of Aruba. The Rotarians bring smiles to their fellow citizens, particularly the elderly and young children, when they need help, and the club’s annual street fair is a beloved island tradition.
              Club innovation: The Rotary Club of Aruba is demonstrating how a club can engage Rotaractors to keep them in the Rotary family. Rotaractors regularly attend Rotary meetings, they participate in Rotary club projects — and use their technological savvy to promote them — and they are encouraged to become Rotarians. All this has brought the club new members, ideas, and perspectives.
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/club_innovation_2.jpg?itok=g-iwTwEz
              The Rotary, Rotaract, and Interact clubs come together to clean up Bachelor’s Beach.
              Oranjestad, Aruba’s capital, hosts one of the Caribbean’s most celebrated carnival seasons, but locals also mark their calendars for the Rotary club’s annual fiesta, a street fair and lottery that typically generates about $250,000. “I grew up with it,” says Shelby Maduro, the club’s 33-year-old secretary. While the club’s identity among islanders is linked to the festival, many in the community perceived the club to be an exclusive bastion of business leaders, most of them men. But perceptions are changing, and Maduro is one of seven former Rotaractors — all of them women — who have recently joined the club. (Maduro joined in 2016 while still a Rotaractor.)
              Several years ago, the club decided to allow Rotaractors who were still building their careers to join. “When you’re 30, you probably don’t have a managerial position yet,” Maduro notes. She credits Club President Edsel Lopez, who happens to be her supervisor at the accounting firm Grant Thornton, with opening the door to membership. “Several of his employees are or were Rotaractors, including myself,” she says. 
              Strong connections in the business community have led to successful projects that support the island’s residents. A golf tournament that raises about $70,000 augments the funds from the club’s fiesta to support Centro Kibrahacha, a facility for senior citizens; Sonrisa, which assists people with disabilities; and the YMCA. Rotarians serve on the boards of all three organizations, which also benefit from the participation of Interact and Rotaract volunteers. 
              Other hands-on initiatives include an End Polio Now walk and a beach cleanup alongside Rotaractors and Interactors, and routine maintenance of Rotary-built playgrounds on the island. In 2017, the club delivered bottled water to St. Martin after Hurricane Irma.
              The involvement of Rotaractors has been critical to the success of club efforts, Maduro says, noting that the heightened use of social media helps to let “people know what’s happening, and to let them know where the money is being spent.”
              Every Rotaract club member is expected to attend at least two Rotary club meetings annually, and Rotarians reciprocate. Rotarians, says Maduro, “are really interested in what Rotaract is doing, and they are interested in the people. So you get to know them on a personal level.”
              And Rotaractors have infused the Rotary club with fresh talent, she adds. “The flavor of the club has changed a little with the narrowing of the age gap between Rotaractors and Rotarians.”
              — Brad Webber
              • What is your club doing to reinvent itself? Email club.innovations@rotary.org. Read more stories from The Rotarian.
              Fresh Faces 2019-01-09 09:00:00Z 0

              Strengthening the Rotary Story

              In 2011, Rotary launched an initiative to strengthen our image, expand public understanding of what we do, and engage and inspire current and prospective members, donors, and partners.
               
              As part of that effort, we established an internal definition of our brand, confirming Rotary as the organization that joins leaders from all continents, cultures, and occupations, who exchange ideas on solving some of the world’s toughest problems, and then take action to bring lasting change to communities around the world.
               
              Rotarians have been working hard to tell the story of our impact in their communities. Thanks to their efforts, our public awareness levels globally have grown from 60 percent in 2012 to 75 percent in 2015.
               
              But there’s still work to be done.
               
              Our most recent research tells us that the public still doesn’t have a true understanding of what Rotary stands for, how we’re different, why we matter, or the impact we make. They don’t know what we do in local communities or what role we’ve played in the effort to end polio. And nearly 60 percent of those surveyed said they were unaware that a Rotary club exists in their own community.
               
              As our next step in the brand strengthening initiative, we’re introducing our latest global public image campaign: People of Action. This campaign brings the Rotary story to life in a way that narrows the gap between public awareness and understanding.
               
              The People of Action campaign communicates the essence of Rotary and reflects our values, such as:
               
              • We build lifelong relationships.
              • We honor our commitments.
              • We connect diverse perspectives.
              • We apply our leadership and expertise to solve social issues.

              It tells our story in our own voice, which is:
               
              • Smart — we are insightful and discerning.
              • Compassionate — we tackle community challenges with empathy and understanding.
              • Persevering — we find lasting solutions to systemic problems.
              • Inspiring — we encourage others to take action, conveying hope, enthusiasm, and passion.

              As a Rotarian, you’re also a brand ambassador. You can tell the story of Rotary and how we are people of action in communities worldwide.
               
              To spread this narrative in a clear, consistent, and compelling way, we developed People of Action campaign materials in the Brand Center: print, digital, and outdoor advertisements, as well as videos and other marketing resources. We want to ensure that all Rotarians can support our effort to enhance awareness and understanding of Rotary.
               
              Our story hasn’t changed. But how we share it with the world is vital to our future. Through a unified Rotary image and a clear, compelling voice, we are enhancing our legacy as one of the most respected organizations in the world.
               
              Want to help tell the Rotary story? Read our Messaging Guide.
              Strengthening the Rotary Story 2019-01-02 09:00:00Z 0

              Fly Around the World Alone

              Ravi Bansal
              Rotary Club of Buffalo, New York

              Some years ago, my sister-in-law died of cancer. I wanted to find a way to raise awareness of the disease and to raise money for the charity hospital in my hometown, so I got the idea to fly around the world. It was an extremely ambitious plan for me, something like climbing Mount Everest — except that more than 4,000 people have climbed Everest, and more than 500 people have gone to space. But only 126 people have flown around the world solo, and I’m the only person of Indian origin to do so.  

              Ready to take flight? Chart your course with the International Fellowship of Flying Rotarians at iffr.org.

               

              Part of the reason it’s so hard is logistical. I flew more than 26,000 miles in six weeks, and I had to acquire numerous documents for each trip, customs clearances, and insurance. If you have a problem with a single-engine plane and you’re flying over land, you can usually land safely on a road or a field. But when you fly around the world, 70 percent of the time you’re flying over water. 

              The scariest part of my trip was flying over the northern Atlantic, from Labrador, Canada, to Greenland. It was my first time over the ocean, and almost immediately my GPS went out. I later found out that this often happens at higher latitudes. But when I first lost the signal, I got extremely scared. When I looked down, all I could see were icebergs — millions of icebergs. I thought, “Where am I? Where do I go?” My GPS was out for no more than two minutes, but I can tell you: Those two minutes felt like two years. 

              As a businessman, I had been to many countries. But I had never been to Greenland. When I finally got there, I could see these huge mountains of ice and that tiny runway, and it was the most beautiful moment of the trip. 

              Another sight that I’ll never forget is flying from the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia over to Alaska. You fly over the Aleutian Islands, and there are hundreds of them. They are part of the so-called Ring of Fire, because of all the volcanoes. You’ve never seen so many volcanoes! Most of them are dormant. But many are active, and you never know when they might erupt. When you fly in a commercial airplane, you’re up at 35,000 feet, so you can’t see them. But I was flying at 10,000 feet and some of these volcanoes were just a couple of thousand feet below me. It was unbelievable. I’ve never been to space, so I don’t know how an astronaut feels when he or she looks down upon the earth. But for me, the journey showed me how just how beautiful, and how fragile, the geography of our planet is. 

              There is so much technology available to pilots today. I had a satellite tracking device that plotted my position, so all my family and friends could find out where I was. During most of my flights, I spent the first hour texting people on the ground to let them know how I was doing and to check on the weather and make sure officials at the next airport knew I was coming. 

              Before I flew out of Kamchatka, I had my logistics support person in Russia arrange to ship two barrels of special aviation fuel to the airport. After I fueled my plane, a ground official there suggested I check the dates on the barrels. It turned out the fuel had expired three years before. He recommended that I drain it from the plane. But I didn’t know when I might be able to get another barrel, and the fuel looked good to me. I decided to take off anyway. The man made me sign a liability waiver. For a second I thought, “Oh my God. What am I doing?” But you have to take some chances — without being foolish, of course. I knew, for instance, that I was going to have to circle the plane for 10 minutes to get high enough to clear the volcano next to the airport, so I had a chance to make sure the fuel was OK. 

              When I first mentioned flying around the world, my wife did not want me to do it. My kids did not want me to do it. My son wouldn’t even make a website for me. He said, “Dad, I won’t do it, because I don’t want you to go!” But once they saw that I was going to do it anyway, they became a part of the team. It’s something I’d been dreaming about for years. Now, it’s been a year since I finished my flight. I don’t have a desire to do it again at the moment. I’m almost 70 years old. But I’m in pretty good shape, so you never know.

              — As told to Steve Almond

              Fly Around the World Alone 2019-01-02 09:00:00Z 0

              Strengthening the Rotary Story
               

              In 2011, Rotary launched an initiative to strengthen our image, expand public understanding of what we do, and engage and inspire current and prospective members, donors, and partners.
              As part of that effort, we established an internal definition of our brand, confirming Rotary as the organization that joins leaders from all continents, cultures, and occupations, who exchange ideas on solving some of the world’s toughest problems, and then take action to bring lasting change to communities around the world.
              Rotarians have been working hard to tell the story of our impact in their communities. Thanks to their efforts, our public awareness levels globally have grown from 60 percent in 2012 to 75 percent in 2015.
              But there’s still work to be done.
              Our most recent research tells us that the public still doesn’t have a true understanding of what Rotary stands for, how we’re different, why we matter, or the impact we make. They don’t know what we do in local communities or what role we’ve played in the effort to end polio. And nearly 60 percent of those surveyed said they were unaware that a Rotary club exists in their own community.
              As our next step in the brand strengthening initiative, we’re introducing our latest global public image campaign: People of Action. This campaign brings the Rotary story to life in a way that narrows the gap between public awareness and understanding.
              The People of Action campaign communicates the essence of Rotary and reflects our values, such as:
              • We build lifelong relationships.
              • We honor our commitments.
              • We connect diverse perspectives.
              • We apply our leadership and expertise to solve social issues.

              It tells our story in our own voice, which is:
              • Smart — we are insightful and discerning.
              • Compassionate — we tackle community challenges with empathy and understanding.
              • Persevering — we find lasting solutions to systemic problems.
              • Inspiring — we encourage others to take action, conveying hope, enthusiasm, and passion.

              As a Rotarian, you’re also a brand ambassador. You can tell the story of Rotary and how we are people of action in communities worldwide.
              To spread this narrative in a clear, consistent, and compelling way, we developed People of Action campaign materials in the Brand Center: print, digital, and outdoor advertisements, as well as videos and other marketing resources. We want to ensure that all Rotarians can support our effort to enhance awareness and understanding of Rotary.
              Our story hasn’t changed. But how we share it with the world is vital to our future. Through a unified Rotary image and a clear, compelling voice, we are enhancing our legacy as one of the most respected organizations in the world.
              Want to help tell the Rotary story? Read our Messaging Guide.
              Strengthening the Rotary Story  2018-12-20 09:00:00Z 0

              District 5010 DG-Nominee 2021-2022 Rotary Year

              From 

              N. Diane Fejes

              Governor 2018-19,

              District 5010 - Alaska/Yukon

               

              On December 15, 2018, the D. 5010 Nominating Committee nominated Cheryl Metiva, Rotary Club of Susitna to serve as D. 5010 Governor in FY 2021-2022.

              Five Rotary clubs in the district had also suggested a candidate for consideration for this position:  Rotary Clubs Anchorage South, Fairbanks, Kodiak Morning, Palmer and Wasilla Sunrise.  Anyone of these 5 clubs has the right to challenge the decision of the nominating committee through a resolution adopted by the club and to propose as a challenging candidate the candidate previously suggested by the club.  Such resolution must be filed with Governor Fejes no later than December 31, 2018.  If no challenge is received by that date, then Rotarian Cheryl Metiva will be the duly nominated governor of D. 5010 for FY 2021-2022.

              Should a challenging resolution be submitted, additional concurring challenging resolutions must be received from at least 10 other clubs or 20% of the clubs in the district in existence for at least one year if the challenging resolution is to be deemed valid.  Receipt of the required number of concurring challenging resolutions will result in an election to be described further should the need arise.  See R.I. ByLaws Article 14.

               

               

              District 5010 DG-Nominee 2021-2022 Rotary Year 2018-12-20 09:00:00Z 0

              Rotary District Conference 2019

              image
               
              Dear Rotarians,
               
              Remember to register for this year's District Conference by December 31st to receive your early bird discount!  You don’t want to miss out on an inspiring and motivational District Conference, packed full with great fellowship, amazing speakers, and tons of fun!
               
              The Conference is the perfect venue to network, reconnect with friends, and find inspiration for continuing service and community leaders as we report on the district, including its successes and challenges. We will have local and international speakers giving information on topics relevant to our district members. Check out their bios here! SPEAKER BIOS
               
              Friday, May 3rd, will be the highly attended and favorite Dinner in the Home event.  If you live in Anchorage, be sure to sign up to host dinner!  If you are coming from out of town, consider being hosted by a local Rotarian and enjoy this fellowship opportunity.
               
              Saturday, May 4th, the Captain Cook’s chefs will dazzle our pallets during the Governor’s Banquet, where we will finish the night off dancing and singing with the Ken Peltier Band!
               
              To register, click here! REGISTER
               
              To check out the Conference page, become an amazing and appreciated sponsor of the event, as well as find information on hotel discounts ($150/night!), click here!  ROTARY DISTRICT 5010 CONFERENCE
               
              Alaska Airlines has generously provided a discount for attendees traveling to the conference – use meeting fare code ECMC187.
               
              We are looking forward to seeing you in Anchorage!
               
              Teri Lindseth and Denise Kipke
              District Conference Co-chairs
               
               
               
              Rotary District Conference 2019 2018-12-19 09:00:00Z 0

              Winston Heads Home--Claudia Discovers Snowshoeing

              After a four hour delay, our exchange student Winston departed Homer bound for his home in Nigeria. There were lots of tears shed at the airport as he developed many friends during his stay.

              I went snowshoeing with Claudia and the visiting Exchange students on Friday.  Thank you Beth for the snowshoes and the venue! I wish you all could have shared in the joy of watching Claudia playing in the snow.  In her area of Spain she never has seen snow like this.  She is a delightful young lady and I hope that each of you will take the time to interact with her and include her in an activity of yours.  She is participating in a short ice skating exhibition tomorrow at 3:15PM at the ice arena.

               

              Merry Christmas,

              Boyd

              After a four hour delay, our exchange student Winston departed Homer bound for his home in Nigeria. There were lots of tears shed at the airport as he developed many friends during his stay.

               

              I went snowshoeing with Claudia and the visiting Exchange students on Friday.  Thank you Beth for the snowshoes and the venue! I wish you all could have shared in the joy of watching Claudia playing in the snow.  In her area of Spain she never has seen snow like this.  She is a delightful young lady and I hope that each of you will take the time to interact with her and include her in an activity of yours.  She is participating in a short ice skating exhibition tomorrow at 3:15PM at the ice arena.

               

              Merry Christmas,

              Boyd

               
              Winston Heads Home--Claudia Discovers Snowshoeing 2018-12-19 09:00:00Z 0

              Holiday Party 2018

               
              Some pictures of the 2018 Holiday Party.  Great company and Fantastic food!
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Holiday Party 2018 2018-12-13 09:00:00Z 0

              ClubRunner Policy

              At the last board meeting, the use of the Club Runner communication system was discussed.  A policy regarding use of the system was subsequently approved and is attached for your information.

               

              A copy of the policy is also available in the "Documents" section of Club Runner under "Club Policies."

               
              CLUBRUNNER USE POLICY
               
              Club Runner is primarily a Rotary communication tool.  Our membership does not desire to be innundated with Community information available from multiple other sources.  However, there will be situations where Community information deemed key to our membership and our community mission will need to be expeditiously provided to our members.  With approval of the President, Club Runner may be used to accomplish this task.
              ClubRunner Policy 2018-12-13 09:00:00Z 0

              2018 Laptops for Foster Youth Drive Underway

              Could this be a project for Homer-Kachemak  Bay Rotary?
               
              Alaska House Majority Coalition logoREPRESENTATIVE LES GARA
               
              (907) 465-2647 (888) 465-2647
              www.replesgara.com
              rep.les.gara@akleg.gov
              CONTACT: Mike Mason (907) 444-0889
               
              FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
              December 10, 2018
               
              2018 Laptops for Foster Youth Holiday Drive Underway
              Laptops Help Foster Youth Succeed in School and Life; Donations Now Accepted
              Anchorage – Today, Representative Les Gara (D-Anchorage) and Amanda Metivier, a founder of Facing Foster Care in Alaska, are launching a holiday drive to collect laptops for foster youth in Alaska. Since the start of the Laptops for Foster Youth program, over 1,000 foster youth and recent foster care alumni have received laptop computers to use for school, college, job training, and to stay in touch with important people in their lives. Rep. Gara and Metivier, who are both former foster youth, jointly started the Laptops for Foster Youth program in 2010 to help youth through community volunteerism without state funding or the passage of legislation.
              "Foster youth deal with the kind of upheaval that can cause lifetime damage and take youth off a track to success. Our goal is to help keep youth on the right track to success," said Rep. Gara.
               
               
              A group of people standing in front of a storeDescription automatically generated

              “Youth matched with a laptop have a greater chance at success in their education because it helps them stay on track in school. I have seen foster youth succeed and graduate thanks in part to the laptop they received through this program,” said Metivier.
              This effort to get laptops into the hands of needy foster youth has come a long way. In the early years, the program accepted used laptops, but many of those computers were out of date and unusable. Today, the program matches new laptops with foster youth. Organizers prefer donations of Chromebook computers, which are lighter and come in many brands. The Laptops for Foster Youth program succeeds through a mix of individual donors, especially at the holidays when many people are looking for ways to give, and larger Alaska donors who help on an annual basis.
              Facing Foster Care in Alaska, which is a non-profit organization run by foster youth and alumni, provides peer support, training to state caseworkers, and advocates statewide on best foster care practices. The organization can obtain discounts on larger purchases, so tax-deductible monetary donations are the most efficient way to help.
              Donations to the Laptops for Foster Youth program can be made online at www.ffcalaska.org. Please donate what you can afford. Donations do not have to equal the exact cost of a laptop, which normally cost around $200 each. If you can't donate that amount, donated funds will be pooled together to purchase laptops.
              Those who wish to donate a laptop(s), rather than donating funds, should contact Facing Foster Care in Alaska at (907) 230-8237 by text, or email info@ffcalaska.org so that you can discuss the basic features needed on a donated computer.
              Rep. Gara's office is limited by state ethics law to providing information on how to help support the Laptops for Foster Youth Program. His office cannot accept funds. However, Rep. Gara, on his own time, has been allowed to help find individual donors and larger funders. Additionally, the law allows Rep. Gara to distribute information to the public to promote the effort.
              For more information, please contact Rep. Les Gara at (907) 250-0106 or Amanda Metivier at (907) 230-8237.
              ###
               
              2018 Laptops for Foster Youth Drive Underway 2018-12-12 09:00:00Z 0

              Donations Needed for Haven House Christmas Stocking Stuffers

              Poppy Benson's High School Girl Scout troop is sewing big Christmas stockings for kids at haven House (they have been doing this for a number of years) and are looking for donations of items to stuff them with.  They will be sewing 15 total stockings - but don't need 15 of anything - all the stockings do not need to be the same.

              They could use gloves, socks, scarves, little things to pass the time like small puzzles or games that would fit in a stocking, sudoko books, any kind of stocking stuffer stuff. 

              A few things from Rotary would help. 

              I will have a box at the meeting on Thursday so if you want to bring anything - please do!  They will be sewing the stockings on Sunday.

              This photo is from last year's stocking sewing event!

              Donations Needed for Haven House Christmas Stocking Stuffers 2018-12-12 09:00:00Z 0

              2019 Rotary Scholarships Application Time

              2019 Spring Rotary Scholarships are available.  Please read and pass on the information below to anyone who qualifies for this Scholarship!  Final date for application is January 7, 2019
               
              2019 Rotary Scholarships Application Time 2018-12-04 09:00:00Z 0

              Herring Curtains Spawn a Recovery

              Under the waters of British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast, along docks in the seaside community of Madeira Park, a population is quietly expanding.
               
              Hand-sewn curtains, supplied by Rotarians, provide a crucial spawning environment for herring, which are a primary food source for salmon and marine mammals in the Salish Sea.
               
              Rotarians prepare curtains on the docks.
              Photo by Rotary Club of Pender Harbour (Madeira Park)
               
              “This was formerly a thriving fishing community for both commercial and recreational fishers. Over the decades, the herring stocks have diminished substantially,” says Lorraine Wareham, publicity chair for the Rotary Club of Pender Harbour (Madeira Park), which is about a 40-minute ferry ride northwest of Vancouver. 
              The project builds on the work of the Squamish Streamkeepers Society, which in 2005 found “orange goop” covering a creosote-treated piling under the docks at Squamish Terminals, says Jonn Matsen, herring recovery coordinator for the conservation group. “We suspected that the goop was dead herring [eggs],” he says.
              In the winter and early spring, schools of herring gather along the coast. Females search out spawning locations, preferring smooth surfaces such as eelgrass, kelp, or wood, but unfortunately often choose dock pilings coated with creosote, a chemical wood preservative.
              The conservationists decided to wrap the pilings at the terminals with a nontoxic material that keeps the noxious creosote from leaching through and provides a surface on which the herring can lay eggs. The herring bounced back, and with them came increased sightings of humpback whales, dolphins, and orcas which had been rare for years. 
              After a Rotary club meeting where the Streamkeepers talked about their success, Pender Harbour Rotarians launched their own project in 2010. Rather than wrapping pilings, the club decided to hang curtains made of landscape fabric alongside docks. The fabric was provided by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the government department responsible for managing the country’s water resources, and local fishermen donated the floats and lead lines needed to keep the curtains hanging vertically in the water. 
              “In November 2010, I made a couple of test curtains with my wife’s sewing machine one weekend when she was away,” says club member Jon Paine.
               
              Pacific herring form schools that remain together for years. 
              Photo by Rotary Club of Pender Harbour (Madeira Park)
               
              The next month, the club made a dozen more curtains at a local art studio. Rotarians and other community members cut the landscape fabric, and Paine’s wife, Susan, sewed on the lead lines and floats. Local residents offered their docks.
              The curtains go into the water in late February in anticipation of the spawn. (“The first year I was a little too enthusiastic and had some of our club members out in a torrential downpour to place curtains in the water on Christmas Eve,” Paine says.) The club monitors the curtains weekly to ensure that they hang properly and stay clean for the arrival of the herring. If algae accumulate, the curtains must be brushed off so the surface stays smooth.
              The 4-foot-wide fabric is placed in the water in 20- and 40-foot sections, several hundred linear feet of curtains in all. The curtains stay in the water for six to eight weeks. After the eggs hatch, the curtains are pulled, cleaned, and stored for the next year.
              “The creosote in the dock pilings killed the eggs, and we’ve had a declining amount of eelgrass in shallow waters and rocks where herring usually laid their eggs,” says club member Glen Bonderud. “We’re just trying to reverse Mother Nature a bit.”
              Male herring fertilize the eggs with clouds of sperm, “turning the sea into a milky blue haze that can be spotted from the air,” Paine says. “A large herring spawn is a raucous affair with squawking seagulls, diving birds, seals, and other marine mammals in for a feast.”
               
              The tiny black dots in these herring eggs, sitting on a dime, are the developing eyes of the fish.
              Photo by Rotary Club of Pender Harbour (Madeira Park)
               
              The eggs start as tiny opaque spheres, about 1/16th of an inch in diameter, Paine says. Viable fertilized eggs will be clear and have a visible sign of life after about two weeks, and within three weeks the eggs are ready to hatch. Juvenile salmon feed on the newly hatched herring.
              The number of herring and eggs observed by the Pender Harbour club varies annually, but in a high-return year, eggs are several layers deep, Paine says.  
              “We’ve had success at some places, and other places, nothing,” Bonderud says. “The herring just won’t listen to us.”
              The Pender Harbour club’s 25 members represent about 1 percent of the population of year-round residents in the community, which is popular with retirees as well as tourists. The club has participated in other sea-related projects, including donating CA$10,000 toward a new marine research station. 
              The herring curtain project resonates all the way up the food chain in the Salish Sea. The Chinook salmon population there plunged by 60 percent between 1984 and 2010, leading to government efforts to rebuild it. The herring population decline has received less attention from the government, making local interventions such as the herring curtains crucial. 
              While the success of the herring project is difficult to quantify, “one of the main benefits has been public awareness of how essential the health of our marine environment is to all of us,” Paine says.
              The project has caught on in other communities, including Egmont to the north and Sechelt to the southeast, as well as Victoria on Vancouver Island, Bonderud says.
              “It’s been a topic of conversation for years,” he says. “This is a darn good project, and if we succeed just a little bit, it will help.”
              —Nikki Kallio
              • Read more stories from The Rotarian
              Herring Curtains Spawn a Recovery 2018-12-04 09:00:00Z 0

              How Rotarians Can Assist in the Alaskan Earthquake Recovery

              The below email from DG Diane Fejes outlines how Rotarians can assist in the Alaskan earthquake recovery. Her goal is to ensure that donations from Alaska Rotarians go to assist Alaskans.

               
              From: "N. Diane Fejes" <ndfejes@gmail.com>
              Subject: FW: earthquake help for victims
              Date: December 3, 2018 at 12:43:51 AKST
               
               
              To all Presidents and AGs:
               
              Here is the latest on how to help out the Earthquake victims. These organizations are helping out in  Anchorage, Palmer, Wasilla and Eagle River where some damage was extensive.
               
              Please share with your club members. 
               
              Since many buildings are still not safe to enter the physical help for re-shelving etc. will be on hold until we can get in and help.
              School is out for the week so kids without a typical place to go and who need food during the day – Beans Café is looking into this – stay tuned.
              The best way for now is to give cash to organizations who have the structure in place to disperse where needed most.  Rather than Rotary being the go-between here are the main organizations available to receive funds.
               
              https://alaska.salvationarmy.org/                      - see their Earthquake button
              https://www.redcross.org/local/alaska.html      Red Cross – general donation site
              https://www.beanscafe.org/                               - Beans Café – helping those who need immediate food.
              https://www.foodbanks.net/state/ak.html      - Food Bank – building is physically down for now but will need food to restock and give out  
              https://myhousematsu.org/   -                           - MyHouse in  Wasilla helps out homeless teens and young people.  
               
              For those in close proximity to the damage we’ll keep you informed as to when we can physically get into buildings to help those in need of re-shelving items or re-stocking inventory or keeping businesses open. 
               
              Thank you all.  
               
              Diane
               
              N. Diane Fejes
              907-230-7941
              District Governor 2018-19
              Rotary International District 5010 Alaska-Yukon 
              How Rotarians Can Assist in the Alaskan Earthquake Recovery 2018-12-04 09:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Cares for Kids Event

              Here's a fun and 'hands-on'  opportunity for Rotarians to participate in a special holiday season event for foster children and foster parents in the Anchorage area.   The event, as described in the attached flyer, has been created on Rotary Cares for Kids Alaska & Yukon Facebook page.  Like the page and get updates on the event,    Our participation is a great way to show Rotary Cares for Kids!

              Please be there at 5 pm. Volunteers are needed to help Santa with photos, wrapping presents, serving food, and hanging out with the children while their foster parents are "shopping for gifts". 

              If you are unable to attend and would like to donate a gift, please chose one that has a value of approximately $25. Gift Cards at Wal- Mart, Target, Kohl's, Barnes and Nobel and ITunes are popular as are lap blankets, Bath and Body Works items and popular teen books and movies. Gifts can be delivered to any Alaska Club in Anchorage.

              Hope you can join us to demonstrate the impact of Rotary and Rotarians!

              Rotary Cares for Kids Event 2018-12-04 09:00:00Z 0



              Dana Suskind: Talk to Your Baby Early and Often

              Dana Suskind’s mantra is written on a whiteboard in her office at the University of Chicago. She developed the easy-to-remember shorthand for parents to remind them of the importance of spoken language and warm interactions during a child’s first three years of life: Tune in, talk more, take turns. The “three T’s,” for short.

              Suskind’s work in early childhood development started in the operating room. As a surgeon at the university’s Comer Children’s Hospital, she pioneered a cochlear implant program that allowed deaf children to hear for the first time. Yet some children with an implant never learned to speak, even though they could hear. Often, those were children from poorer families. 

               

              Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa

              That led Suskind to wonder, what is the key to a child’s brain development? The short answer is language, and lots of it. The words a child hears in those first three years nourish the brain. She also made a surprising discovery: It isn’t only deaf children who struggle academically because of a lack of exposure to language in the early years — hearing children who aren’t exposed to enough words also lag behind.  

              In 2015, Suskind wrote a book called Thirty Million Words, a reference to the gap in the number of words children from affluent families hear in their first three years, as opposed to children from low-income families. While the exact number may be debated, the science is clear: Affluent children hear millions more words by age three, and that can offer lifelong advantages. 

              “Learning starts on the first day of life, not the first day of school,” Suskind says. That idea is the foundation of the TMW Center for Early Learning & Public Health, which Suskind founded to educate parents on the science of brain development and the powerful role that caregivers play.  

               “If we make healthy early brain development our north star, everything else falls into place,” she says. By “everything else,” she means less poverty, better academic outcomes, improved school readiness, even better “soft skills” such as impulse control and resilience. All of it starts with conversation, she told contributing editor Vanessa Glavinskas at Suskind’s Chicago office.  

              Q: You wrote Thirty Million Words in 2015 to explain the importance of the words a child hears in its first three years. What has happened since your book came out?

              A: The book set the foundation for the idea that it’s language, and parent-child interaction in the first three years of life, that builds a child’s brain. Thirty Million Words evolved into the TMW Center for Early Learning & Public Health. We asked, how do we get all parents from all backgrounds to understand the importance of the first three years of life? We are taking what I like to call a public health approach to early learning.  

              Q: What do you mean by a public health approach? 

              A: It means thinking about the importance of language in the same way we think about car seats, about “back to sleep” for sudden infant death syndrome, about not smoking around children. Our program meets parents where they are in their child’s first three years of life. For example, we developed a program that is combined with the universal newborn hearing screening. The idea is that every parent, when their child gets that hearing test, should understand why. It’s not simply to see if your child is born deaf; it’s because language is the food for the developing brain.

              Q: How do you hope to help parents?

              A: Here in Illinois, 76 percent of kids going into kindergarten aren’t ready. Our education system starts too late. The science shows that parents are children’s first and most important teachers, but we have no system to support parents in that. Now, some people say it’s just intuitive to love and nurture your children. Yes, but that’s different from understanding the brain science. We’ve got to share with families the science behind how babies’ brains develop and how powerful parents are in influencing that.

              Q: You’re a surgeon specializing in cochlear implants. How did you end up focusing on helping all children, rather than only deaf children?

              A: Often, the difference in outcomes among my patients was divided along socioeconomic lines. Children from poorer homes had poorer outcomes. I realized that what was going on in my patient population mirrored the larger population. That’s what took this project from my patients, children with hearing loss, to all children.

               

               

              Dana Suskind: Talk to Your Baby Early and Often 2018-11-29 09:00:00Z 0

              Homer Rotary Health Fair 2018

               
               
               
               
              Here are some statistics for the 2018 Homer Rotary Health Fair:

              794  = Total number of Pre-Draws - Blood Tests before the 2018 Fair

              197  = Blood Draws at the Fair

              991  =  Total number of patients that had their blood drawn in 2018

              1,100  = Total number of people through the door at the Fair

              75 = Number of exhibits

              182 = Number of volunteers manning the exhibits

              185 = Flu shots administered

              68  = Hearing tests administered

              84 = Vision Tests administered

              87 = Professional Medical Consultations (Interpreting blood test results) 

              278 = SPARC passes given out to people picking up their blood test results

              What a great day for Wellness in Homer! And now some pictures of the Health Fair courtesy of Maynard!
               
               
               
               
               
               
               

               
               

               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Homer Rotary Health Fair 2018 2018-11-28 09:00:00Z 0

              The Rotary Foundation Inducted into University of Oxford’s Chancellor’s Court of Benefactors

              The Rotary Foundation has been welcomed into the University of Oxford’s Chancellor’s Court of Benefactors for its continuous support of the university.
               
              +
              Mr. Michael Webb, Trustee of The Rotary Foundation and CCB representative, with The Rt Hon Lord Patten of Barnes, CH, Chancellor of the University of Oxford,
              Photo by John Cairns
              Since 1949, The Foundation has provided scholarships to more than 200 Oxford scholars including a former American ambassador to the United Kingdom, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and investigative reporter with the New York Times, and a Director & Senior Fellow at the Ansari Africa Centre.
              “The university is enormously grateful to The Rotary Foundation for their support of graduate scholarships at Oxford,” said Professor Louise Richardson, Vice-Chancellor, University of Oxford. “For almost 70 years, this support has enabled students from around the world to benefit from all that Oxford has to offer.”
              Membership of the Court of Benefactors is conferred by the Chancellor on those who have been outstandingly generous towards the university. Members may be individuals, or nominated representatives of companies and trusts.
              Michael Webb, trustee of The Rotary Foundation, accepted membership on behalf of the Foundation on 11th October at a ceremony in Oxford.
              “The Rotary Foundation is honoured to receive this designation and I am humbled to accept on its behalf,” said Mr Webb. “The Foundation has fostered international interaction and understanding through academic scholars at Oxford for decades, and we will continue our efforts to help develop the world’s future leaders through academic support at this prestigious university.”
              The Rotary Foundation is Rotary’s only charity, established over 100 years ago to support Rotary International in its mission to achieve world understanding and peace through international humanitarian, educational and cultural exchange programmes.
              Ms. Vanessa Picker, Rotary Scholar in 2016-17; Mr. Michael Webb, Mrs. Alison Webb; and Mr. Mark Loong, Rotary Scholar in 2017-18, outside the Divinity School, University of Oxford
              Photo by John Cairns
              It also provides funding for Rotary projects across the world. More than $277 million (approximately £212 million) has been awarded over the past four years through The Rotary Foundation to support clean water and sanitation, education, prevent and treat diseases, save mothers and children and grow local economies.
              The Chancellor’s Court of Benefactors celebrates and recognises Oxford’s most outstanding friends and supporters. Founded in 1990 by the late Lord Jenkins, the former Labour Chancellor and Home Secretary, today there are more than 250 members from around the globe whose significant contributions have assisted Oxford in being the world leading institution that it is today.
              The Rotary Foundation joins a prestigious list of members including, Thomson Reuters Foundation, The Skoll Foundation and others on the Chancellor’s Court of Benefactors.
              About Rotary Rotary brings together a global network of volunteer leaders dedicated to tackling the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges. Rotary connects 1.2 million members of more than 35,000 Rotary clubs in over 200 countries and geographical areas. Their work improves lives at both the local and international levels, from helping families in need in their own communities to working toward a polio-free world.
              About Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland is a territorial unit of Rotary International, with 1,750 clubs and over 45,000 members, all using their time and talents to make a difference in communities at home and internationally through volunteering and humanitarian service. Rotary is open to anyone aged 18 and over looking to network, get involved with community projects and activities and have fun in the process.
              Website: www.rotarygbi.org, Facebook: /RotaryinGBI, Twitter: @RotaryGBI
              Contact 
              Dave King, editor@rotarygbi.org, Mobile: 07918 838680
              The Rotary Foundation Inducted into University of Oxford’s Chancellor’s Court of Benefactors 2018-11-14 09:00:00Z 0

              World Polio Day Lauds Historic Partnership, Success

              Rotary and GPEI have put polio on the brink of global eradication
               
              By Ryan Hyland                     Photos by Monika  Lozinska
               
              After 30 years of bold action, historic achievements, and sometimes discouraging setbacks, Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) have nearly brought polio to an end. 
               
              This groundbreaking public-private partnership and its innovative strategies were celebrated Wednesday during Rotary’s 6th annual World Polio Day event, held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia
              Dr. Ujala Nayyar, left, a WHO surveillance officer in Pakistan, discussed with Alex Witt about how thorough tracking of the wild polio virus will help eradicate the disease. 
              Audience members at the 2018 World Polio Day event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
              Hundreds gathered to celebrate World Polio Day at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
              1.  
              Cable journalists Ashleigh Banfield, right, host of HLN’s “Crime and Justice,” and Alex Witt, host of “MSNBC Live With Alex Witt,” moderated Rotary’s 6th annual World Polio Day on 24 October in Philadelphia, USA. 
               
              Hundreds of people attended in person, including representatives of all five GPEI partners, and thousands more worldwide watched it live online. Cable news journalists Ashleigh Banfield, host of HLN’s “Crime and Justice,” and Alex Witt, host of “MSNBC’s “Weekends Live With Alex Witt,” moderated the event. 
              Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair Ron Burton began the program by noting that Philadelphia is where Rotary announced, at its international convention in 1988, that it doubled its fundraising goal of $120 million and raised $247 million.
               
              The moment showed Rotary’s strength as an organization capable of tackling the challenge of ending the disease globally and spearheading one of the most ambitious public health initiatives in history, the GPEI. The other partners of the GPEI are the World Health Organization, UNICEF, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
               
              “We knew then that the war against polio would be long, and it would have its challenges,” Burton said. “But we knew then, as we do now, that we could do it. Thirty years ago, I was proud to be part of the organization that took on the job, and the promise, of eradicating polio.
              Since its formation, the GPEI has trained and mobilized millions of volunteers and health workers, gained access to homes not reached by other health initiatives to immunize children, brought health interventions to underserved communities, and standardized timely global monitoring for polio cases and poliovirus, a process also known as surveillance. 
               
              The results have been monumental. Thirty years ago, the paralyzing disease affected 350,000 children in one year. Because of massive vaccination campaigns around the world, cases have dropped more than 99.9 percent, to only 20 reported so far this year. Polio, which was endemic in 125 countries in 1988, now remains so in just three: Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. More than 2.5 billion children have been vaccinated, and more than $14 billion has been invested in the fight to eradicate the disease worldwide. 
               
              Lea Hegg, senior program officer of the vaccine delivery team at the Gates Foundation, gave an update on polio around the world. Despite tremendous progress, challenges remain before we can claim victory, she said in a video interview with Mark Wright, news host at an NBC television station in Seattle, Washington, USA. 
              “The fact is in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where we are still seeing cases, we have tremendous challenges that we’re facing: conflict and insecurity,” Hegg said. “We have to come up with new ways to solve those problems.”
              Polio survivor John Nanni, PolioPlus chair for District 7630, attends Rotary's 6th annual World Polio Day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. 
               
              She praised the brave polio workers who go to insecure areas to vaccinate children and also noted the importance of vaccination sites at transit posts outside these areas. 
               
              Hegg added, “We still have the tools, we have the persistence, and we’re still really confident that we’ll get there.”
               
              In a question-and-answer session with Witt, Dr. Ujala Nayyar, a WHO surveillance officer in Punjab, Pakistan, discussed the importance of tracking the ever-circulating virus. Nayyar said that health workers need to be a step ahead of the poliovirus to interrupt its transmission. She also noted that Pakistan has the world’s largest network for environmental surveillance of polio. 
               
              “It’s a tough job. We have a network of government, private doctors plus informal health care providers, plus community mobilizers,” Nayyar said. “We are very confident on one thing — that we are detecting every polio case.” 
               
              Speakers also included award-winning chef, author, and polio survivor Ina Pinkney, who talked about her experience with the disease.  Jeffrey Kluger, senior editor at Time magazine, spoke about his recent experience traveling to Nigeria with Rotary to report on polio eradication.
               
              Entertainment included a sneak peek from Rotary’s documentary “Drop to Zero” and a showing of its latest virtual reality film, “Two Drops of Patience.” 
              Banfield highlighted several End Polio Now activities that clubs organized to raise awareness of polio and funds for eradication efforts, including a rally in Delhi, India, where 2,000 members drove cars or bikes decorated with informational flags and stickers through the city. In Egypt, Rotary members hosted an End Polio Festival, which included a road race, a blood drive, and a concert that attracted thousands. 
               
              Rotary has contributed more than $1.8 billion to polio eradication since it started its PolioPlus program in 1985. The effort got a boost in August when Rotary announced it would provide an additional $96.5 million in grants to increase immunizations and surveillance.  Most of the funds were allocated to the three countries where polio remains endemic; Afghanistan ($22.9 million), Nigeria ($16.1 million), and Pakistan ($21.7 million). The rest was spread across 12 countries in Africa that are vulnerable to polio. 
               
              Rotary has also committed to raising $50 million a year over a three-year period for eradication activities. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will match up to that amount 2-to-1, which could bring the total as high as $450 million. 
              World Polio Day Lauds Historic Partnership, Success 2018-11-06 09:00:00Z 0

              See Jane Run Follow-up

              Hello, my fellow District 5010 Rotarians!

              I’m happy to report that I finished my 100th marathon successfully.  I ran the Detroit Free Press Marathon on Sunday, 10/21/18, in just under 4 hours (and even placed third in my age group)!

               

              My polio fundraiser will continue for another week.  Please consider giving if you haven’t already!  We’ve currently raised over $5,400, which of course will be tripled by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  Thank you to everyone who’s participated!

               

              Ways to give (type in your browser, or link from attached updated PDF):

              • Ideas.rotary.org, and search for “marathon”, or
              • endpolio.org/donate and please email me (100toendpolio@gmail.com) so I can track your donation, or
              • Write a check to “The Rotary Foundation” and mail to: College Rotary, PO Box 73010, Fairbanks, AK 99707, or
              • Hand cash to Jane!  smiley

               

              A donation of any amount is greatly appreciated!  Thank you all so much.

               

              In Rotary,

              Jane Lanford

              President, College Rotary

              Fairbanks, Alaska
              See Jane Run Follow-up 2018-10-31 08:00:00Z 0

              Health Fair Schedule

              Attached is the schedule for the health fair on Friday and Saturday. Please look it over and make sure you are still available to cover your tasks. If something has changed and you are unable let me know. I can be reached at 299 6428.

              Thanks!

              -Van Hawkins
               
                2018 Friday Fair Set Up                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                         
                               Friday November 2 - SET UP
              1:00 Gym Mats                                 Tables to loading dock 1:00 or earlier
                          Paula K                                                  Don Keller
                          Summer McGuire                                Rick Abboud
                          Xander K                                               Winston Ajakaye
                          Claudia Tocca                                       Mark Hemstreet
                          Isabel K                                              
               
              2:00
              Gym layout Leader                          Commons Layout Leader
                          Bernie G                                             Beth Trowbridge
               
              Table/Chair set up                            Gym Partitions
                          Jim Hornaday                                     Dave Brann
                          Glenn Seaman                                    Daniel Carter
                          Charlie Franz
                          Sue Clardy                              Electrical
                          Denice Clyne                                      Tom Early
                          Paula K                                                 Winston A.
                          Summer McGuire                  
                          Xander K                                Sound System
                          Claudia Tocca                                     Dennis Weilder
                          Isabel K                                   Banner and Signs
                          Davida Johnson                                  Erik Niebehr
               
              4:00 Set Up Complete
                         
                                                                         
              5:30 -6: 30
                          Exhibitor Set Up
               
               
               
                                                     Fair Day Tasks
               
              SATURDAY --   Clean Up 1 p.m.   -  EVERYONE STAYS TO HELP  
               
               
              Registration      Milli Martin                        Blood Line- Gary Thomas
                          Carol Swartz                                                   Boyd Walker  
                          Jim Hornaday
                          Mary Ann Gross
                          Kathy Hill       
                                                          
               
              FORMS CHECK                                                      DEPOSITS
              Beth Trowbridge                                                         Denice Cline
              Boyd Walker                                                                Read Dunn
              Katie Koester
               
              Muffins/Set up/Cleanup Food-
              Mark and Kathy Hemstreet/ SPH Auxiliary
               
              Exhibitor lounge area
                          Lisa Robert
                          Marie McCarty
              Rotary Booth                                                                         Statistics  
                          Maynard Gross                                                           Will Files
                          Bernie Griffard                                                           Daniel Carter
                                                                                                                Davida Johnson
               
              Screening- Vision                                                                  Sandwich Signs                                            
              Marv Peters                                                                             Glenn Seaman                                                          
              Glenn Seaman                                               
               
              Door Prize                
              7:15 8:00 Bernie G                 8-10 Vivian F             10-12 Daniel Carter & Davida Johnson
              12-1 Rick Abboud
               
              Front Door Count                                                                
              7:15-8:00 Rick Abboud          8-10 Clark Cripps       10-12 Bernie G.          12-1 Vivian F
               
              Fair Floaters
                          Charlie Franz
                          Maynard Gross
                          Bernie Griffard  
              Health Fair Schedule 2018-10-31 08:00:00Z 0

              Our Club

               
              Multiplier effect          
              Rotary Club of Vancouver Yaletown, British Columbia
               
              At first glance, everything about the Rotary Club of Vancouver Yaletown seems modest: its meeting space (a cozy conference room in the lobby of a downtown high-rise); its roster (11 members at the start of this Rotary year); even its short list of past presidents (several of whom have held the office more than once in the club’s 10-year history).
              Rotary Club of Vancouver Yaletown members Lejla Uzicanin (from left), Neil Mort, and Rebecca Donnelly.  
               
              But Yaletown’s achievements are disproportionate to its size. The secret to the club’s success? Every member is an active member. 
              “We’re a small club, but we do great things,” says Neil Mort, who is in his second term as club president. “They call us ‘the little club that could.’”
               
              Indeed, the calendar that Mort projects onto the wall during a recent meeting is packed with activities: fellowship and service opportunities; networking, fundraising, and outreach events; and a celebration of the club’s first decade. 
               
              Yaletown Rotary was founded in 2008 by Rotarians who wanted a structure that was more economical and convenient than their traditional clubs. They meet for one hour right after work, with no meal, and plan social activities and patronize local businesses together. 
               
              The club is a favorite of out-of-town Rotarians. “We have visitors all the time because of our location,” says Jane LePorte, club secretary and youth services director. The Yaletown neighborhood sits at the southern end of Vancouver’s downtown business corridor, about a mile from where the cruise ships dock at Canada Place. High-rise buildings tower above street-level boutiques and sidewalk cafés. Restaurant menus reflect the city’s many cultures. A few blocks from the club’s meeting place, water taxis zip back and forth across the False Creek waterway to the Granville Island Public Market. A popular bike path parallels the park-lined shore. 
               
              As members joke around and discuss plans for their 10th anniversary party — which, it appears, will likely include either polka dancing or the use of a club member’s recently acquired karaoke machine — it’s clear that this isn’t just a Rotary meeting; it’s a gathering of friends. 
               
              The club’s outgoing nature is reflected on its active social media accounts. Its Instagram page has more than 600 followers, and members recently used Facebook to launch a fundraising campaign called the Every Drop of Talent Challenge, which called on supporters to post a video of themselves performing their talent, then tag three friends to do the same or to make a donation. 
               
              Another tip for small clubs? The Yaletown Rotarians piggyback on other groups’ outreach events, such as a Canada Day celebration put on by the Rotary Club of Lionsgate, which drew more than 20,000 attendees to a park in North Vancouver, a town across the harbor from Vancouver. Yaletown Rotary hosted a booth that featured a small pool filled with dirty water. “People came by and said, ‘What’s that?’” says Karen McDiarmid, membership chair and two-time past president. “We said, ‘Do you want to drink this water, or do you want to drink clean water?’ Then we’d get a conversation started.” 
               
              The Yaletown club’s focus on clean water came after hearing a presentation on rainwater collection last year. The club decided to partner with the Rotary Club of Hurlingham-Nairobi on a project that aims to bring fresh water to four rural schools in Kenya via a rooftop collection system. 
               
              “There’s a desperate need for water there,” Mort says. “They simply don’t have a water source that’s close by and sustainable.” During the dry season, children sometimes have to walk up to 20 kilometers per day to fill a 5-gallon bucket with water of questionable quality. “That’s all they do all day,” he says. “They don’t go to school.” 
               
              At the Canada Day event, a volunteer face painter and a stack of coloring pages kept kids busy while their parents learned about the project. The back of each coloring page featured information and a link to the club’s fundraising page. “We decided as a group to commit to the project,” says Mort, who traveled to Kenya for a site visit last year. Other members are promoting the project on social media.
               
              There are challenges to being a small club, but there are also advantages. Unlike some clubs that have time for only a few members each week to share their news and contribute “happy dollars,” at Yaletown meetings, every member shares a happy thought each week and drops some coins in a can. 
              When everyone is engaged, a little can go a very long way.
               
              – Kim Lisagor
               
              • Read more stories from The Rotarian
              Our Club 2018-10-30 08:00:00Z 0

              Nothing Wasted

               “I called them and said, ‘It’s toilets — that’s what I’m supposed to do!’” Jasmine Burton
               
              In 2014, the winning entry in the largest undergraduate invention competition in the United States was a toilet — and a Rotary Scholar led the group that designed it. After incorporating improvements based on user feedback, the SafiChoo — which means “clean toilet” in Kiswahili — is now improving people’s lives in Kenya.
              Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa
               
              The portable plastic toilet that took both first place and the People’s Choice Award at Georgia Tech’s InVenture competition was developed by Jasmine Burton and her team. “Conceptually, it was not necessarily the sexiest thing,” Burton says. But this simple idea is a big one.
               
              Burton is the founder of Wish for WASH, an organization that seeks innovative solutions to global sanitation problems. For World Toilet Day on 19 November, Burton wants to help people understand the importance of sanitation in developing nations.
               
              Q: What inspired you to focus on sanitation?
               
              A: In my freshman year at Georgia Tech, I went to a women’s leadership conference and learned that nearly half the world’s population doesn’t have access to safe and hygienic toilets. This is a particular burden on women and girls. It made me angry to hear that when girls reach puberty, they drop out of school because their schools don’t have toilets. So I wanted to do something about it through my product design degree. I’ve always had a sense of service: Both of my parents are ex-military; my mom is a surgeon. It all culminated in the moment when I called them and said, “It’s toilets — that’s what I’m supposed to do!”
               
              Q: How was the SafiChoo developed?
               
              A: The SafiChoo toilet came out of an interdisciplinary project at Georgia Tech that is a kind of lab where engineers and designers make real products to solve real problems. It was a great opportunity to work with an organization called Sanivation, which turns human waste and other materials into briquettes that are a clean-burning alternative to charcoal. They were looking for a toilet that would make the waste easier to process. They also needed a design that could be used in a refugee camp in Kenya where there are no toilets at all. That was the design problem we were given.
               
              Q: How has SafiChoo developed since then?
               
              A: Our concept has changed a lot, which is what happens when you move from theory to practice. Within four weeks, we had to go from a prototype to shipping 10 toilets from Atlanta to the refugee camp. Once we got to Kenya, we had a series of testers, primarily from the South Sudanese and Somali refugee communities. 
              Talking about sanitation can be awkward. How do you get feedback that’s genuine, and how do you start conversations about how we can improve the design? We worked with female translators and with female-headed households to open up dialogue. These women reminded us that some people wash rather than wipe. We lowered the toilet height and made the front of the toilet seat slope downward so that both washers and wipers can effectively and efficiently do their business. 
               
              Q: For World Toilet Day, what message do you want to convey?
               
              A: It’s incredibly important to have more female voices. Women are often disproportionately affected by the lack of sanitation, whether it’s because of social stigmas around hygiene, the expectations to be clean during menstruation, or unsafe practices that lead to infertility – things that are uncomfortable to talk about.
               
              — Nikki Kallio
              • Read more stories from The Rotarian
              Nothing Wasted 2018-10-30 08:00:00Z 0

              The Future of Peace

              In its work with the United Nations and other international organizations, the Rotary Representative Network advances a century-old tradition of fostering global harmony

              By Illustrations by

              In October 1991, after a 26-year career with the U.S. Foreign Service, T. Patrick Killough delivered a speech before the Rotary Club of Black Mountain in western North Carolina. The speech’s title captured his provocative premise: “The United Nations: Made in USA by Rotarians.”

              To support that assertion, Killough marshaled an array of historical facts. He noted that Cordell Hull — President Franklin Roosevelt’s secretary of state, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and the “father of the United Nations” — and several other key players in the creation of the UN had Rotary connections. What’s more, Rotarians had organized the 1942 conference in London that inspired the creation of UNESCO and, as early as 1943, had advocated for a “central world organization.” Rotary had also published and distributed pamphlets, papers, and books to educate its members about, and tacitly encourage their support of, the fledgling United Nations. 

              “The UN is, beyond question, a thoroughly American, a thoroughly Rotarian product from beginning to end,” Killough concluded. “The United Nations is our own child.”

              A member of the Black Mountain club until his death in 2014, Killough dated Rotary’s involvement with global peacebuilding to 1939. But this commitment to peace is almost as old as Rotary itself. In 1914, as war broke out in Europe, Chesley Perry, acknowledged today as Rotary’s first general secretary, wrote, “Let Rotary make International Peace and Good Will its mission as an international organization.” And in 1921 at its 12th annual convention, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Rotary vowed “to aid in the advancement of international peace” when it amended the objects, or goals, of the organization. 

              Nearly a century later, Peter Kyle believes that pledge could provide the foundation for Rotary’s future. “Rotary’s peace program has the potential to have a great legacy,” he says. 

              Kyle is in a position to make that vision a reality. Since 1 July, he has been dean of the Rotary Representative Network, a group of Rotarians from diverse backgrounds who represent Rotary at the United Nations and other international organizations. (For the names of the 28 representatives and their assignments, see page 49.) The network dates to 1991, when the RI Board approved a plan that included securing the highest possible consultative status for Rotary with the UN’s Economic and Social Council, which it accomplished in 1993. 

              By developing connections within specific organizations, the representatives help Rotary succeed at its ambitious endeavors around the world — chief among them the eradication of polio. Its success in fighting this disease has earned Rotary tremendous credibility and sway in the arena of international problem-solving. Kyle has a strategic perspective on that. “We often complain that the world doesn’t know about Rotary’s role in eradicating polio,” he says. “The whole world doesn’t need to know. Policymakers and international organizations — they need to know. Our relationship with key senior policymakers at the United Nations and other global organizations was important for polio advocacy. I intend to maintain and deepen and expand those relationships.”

              In April 1945, representatives of 50 nations gathered in San Francisco to finalize and approve the UN Charter. The United States invited 42 nongovernmental organizations to participate in the conference in an official consultative capacity.

              Rotary was instrumental in ... creating the United Nations.


              the first dean of the Rotary Representative Network

              Rotary’s 11 U.S. consultants were led by RI President Richard H. Wells, but the organization’s presence extended further. O.D.A. Oberg of the Rotary Club of Sydney, who attended the conference as a consultant to Australia’s group of representatives, reported in The Rotarian that “27 Rotarians are here as delegates or technical advisors, and five of them are chairmen of their delegations.” Many other Rotary members attended in an unofficial capacity.

              “There being few UN staff at that time,” wrote David C. Forward in A Century of Service: The Story of Rotary International, “[Rotarians] guided agendas, performed translations, suggested wording for resolutions, and helped resolve disputes between delegates.” Edwin H. Futa, the first dean of the Rotary Representative Network, is even more emphatic about the organization’s impact on the conference. “Rotary,” he says, “was instrumental in helping to formulate the original documents creating the United Nations.” 

              The Future of Peace 2018-10-24 08:00:00Z 0

              War and Remembrance

              By Geoffrey Johnson
               
              1914–15
              “Whereas war is universally recognized as a bloody weapon handed down from a dark past … [Rotary should] lend its influence to the maintenance of peace among the nations of the world without recourse to war.” 
              An illustration shows the Lusitania sinking off the coast of Ireland.
               
              So resolved the nearly 1,300 Rotarians who gathered at Houston’s Municipal Auditorium in June 1914 for the fifth annual convention of the International Association of Rotary Clubs. The Rotarian published the entire 183-word resolution in its August issue. But by then, the dominoes had fallen. On 28 June, two days after the convention adjourned, a 19-year-old Bosnian Serb named Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, in Sarajevo. On 4 August, Germany invaded Belgium, and within weeks, Germany and its ally, Austria-Hungary, were at war with France, Great Britain, Russia, and Serbia. The lamps had gone out all over Europe.
               
              Buffered by the Atlantic Ocean, U.S. Rotarians were at first only indirectly affected by the war. At the Houston convention, a Texas Rotarian named R.C. Duff captured the mood that would prevail throughout the American branch of the organization for at least another year. Duff delivered a paean to business — “honorable, energetic, wealth producing commerce, trade and industry” — as “the panacea to war.” In the October issue of The Rotarian, L.D. Hicks, a founding member of the Rotary Club of Atlanta, introduced a catchphrase: “Don’t talk war, talk business.” 
               
              In their hands-off stance, these Rotarians mirrored President Woodrow Wilson, who on 4 August had issued a proclamation of neutrality. “The United States must be neutral in fact, as well as in name,” he said two weeks later in a message to Congress. “We must be impartial in thought, as well as action.” U.S. Rotarians anticipated that the distant perch from which they observed the “slaughter of humanity” fit them for a special role. “Let us, as Americans, do what we can,” pleaded the Rotary Club of Minneapolis. “We must not take sides. We cannot interfere. But we can give to the voice of peace a volume that will penetrate the confusion of the most impassioned battle.”
               
              Calls for Rotary to serve as peace advocates came from outside the organization as well. In a September speech to the Rotary Club of Houston, writer and publisher Elbert Hubbard deemed Rotary “the greatest business organization in the world” and urged it “to lend its powerful influence toward universal peace.”
              In 1914, Hubbard enjoyed a fame surpassed by few other Americans. With his shaggy mane, broad Stetson, baggy overcoat, and flowing cravat, he cut a distinctive figure, and he backed up his celebrity with prodigious output that included lively monthly magazines — most notably, The Philistine, his “periodical of protest” — and wares produced at Roycroft, his arts and crafts community near Buffalo, New York.
               
              On 7 May 1915, Hubbard and his wife, Alice, were aboard the Lusitania near the coast of Ireland when a German torpedo ripped through the ship’s bow. The Lusitania sank within minutes. The Hubbards were among the nearly 1,200 dead — as was William Mitchelhill, a 44-year-old seed wholesaler from St. Joseph, Missouri, whose Rotary club memorialized him as “a man of unequaled personality, particularly known for his friendship, charity and love for his fellow men.”
               
              The sinking of the Lusitania brought the war home to Americans. Frank Higgins captured that changing mood when he spoke at the sixth Rotary Convention, held in San Francisco in July 1915. One of Rotary’s vice presidents, Higgins was also president of the Rotary Club of Victoria, British Columbia. As part of the British Empire, Canada had already been at war for nearly a year. The world, Higgins lamented, beneath its “veneer of culture, education and refinement,” remained as brutally base as ever. “This is borne out,” he said, “by the fact that the bloodiest war that the world has ever seen is going on today, where men are killing one another as the savages did in the dark ages.”
               
              Higgins feared that “the doctrine of peace and goodwill to all men will remain an aerial nothing” — unless “some uplifting force is injected into the world.” Rotary, he believed, was “that spirit, that force … ever swelling in volume and increasing in strength.”  
               
              1916
              Despite evolving perspectives, those not fighting on the front lines struggled to comprehend the conflict. A Rotarian from England, visiting a strategic bridge in Edinburgh, marveled that “the sight of sentries, barbed wire and loopholed sand bag protections brought the war much nearer than we realise it in Manchester, as also did the inspiring sight of the (Royal Navy’s) fleet” anchored in the Firth of Forth.
              American pacifists (including Jane Addams, third from left) travel to an international conference.
               
              On 1 July, in northwest France along the Somme River, British troops stormed the entrenched German army. By day’s end, they had suffered 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 soldiers dead from their wounds. Winston Churchill called it “the greatest loss and slaughter sustained in a single day in the whole history of the British Army.”
               
              Fighting continued along the Somme for another 140 days, engaging about 3.5 million men from 25 countries. By mid-November, when winter weather brought fighting to a halt, British forces, which included troops from Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, and Scotland, had suffered about 420,000 casualties; the German army sustained at least 430,000, and France, 204,000. The maddeningly snail-paced nature of the fighting meant the daily advance or retreat of armies was often calculated in inches and feet and yards.
              In November 1916, readers of The Rotarian got an unexpected glimpse into the trenches along the Somme. Weeks earlier, George Brigden, a future president of the Rotary Club of Toronto, had received a letter from a Canadian lieutenant named F.G. Diver. Dated 11 September, it began: “You will no doubt be quite surprised to receive a letter from me but I felt that I wanted in some way to show my appreciation to you for putting me into the Rotary Club and to let you know that even in the front line trenches away over here in France that I have felt its influence.”
               
              Diver went on to explain that, while in England with a Canadian division formed in Ontario, he had been “one of the lucky” officers ordered to proceed immediately to France, where he joined the 87th Battalion, a Montreal unit known as the Canadian Grenadier Guards. Not knowing any of the officers, he had found it “pretty hard ... to break in to their little circle.” During a lull in the fighting, he stepped into another officer’s dugout “to have a smoke and incidentally see if he had anything on the hip, as it gets mighty chilly around here between four and five in the morning.”
               
              That other officer turned out to be Major H. LeRoy Shaw, a founding member and former president of the Rotary Club of Montreal. What’s more, as Diver learned, two other officers in the 87th were also Rotarians: Majors Irving P. Rexford and John N. Lewis. “From that night on,” explained Diver, “it has made quite some difference for me, for, altho I am not yet one of their happy little family, I am a whole lot nearer than I would have been if it had not been for good old Rotary.”
              Before signing off “Yours Rotarily,” Diver described the “great life” in the trenches. “Live like so many rats in the earth and, like rats, never change your clothes. ... But with all the inconveniences there is something that makes you glad you came.”
               
              A little after noon on 21 October, during fighting east of the Ancre River, a tributary of the Somme, the Canadian Grenadier Guards seized a German position called Regina Trench. Leading his platoon, Diver died in the attack.
               
              Four weeks later and less than a mile north from where Diver had fallen, Lewis met the same fate. Born in Tennessee in 1874 and a graduate of the universities of Chicago and Heidelberg, Lewis had worked for a Chicago newspaper before moving on to become editor of the Montreal Star. Second in command, behind Shaw, of the 87th’s No. 1 Company, he had won the Distinguished Service Order for his heroism in the attack on Regina Trench. A little before dawn on 18 November, as a driving rain turned to snow, the Grenadier Guards climbed from flooded trenches and slogged under enemy fire across a muddy no man’s land to yet another German bulwark, this one called Desire Trench. By 8 a.m., the Guards had captured the position, and Lewis was dying, or perhaps already dead.
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Rotarian and star vaudevillian Harry Lauder and his son, John.
               
              His obituary in the Star noted that Lewis, a founder of the local Boys’ Club, had, in both Chicago and Montreal, contributed generously “to charitable organizations having the care and upliftment of children as their special concern.” In Lewis’ memory, the Montreal Rotary club raised $10,000 to erect a building at the Shawbridge Boys’ Farm in Quebec with a brass plaque inscribed, “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (Home to 30 boys, the two-story brick Lewis Memorial Cottage stood until the 1960s.) As for Shaw and Rexford, they survived the war and returned to Montreal, Shaw to pursue his prewar insurance career (and his passion for curling) and Rexford to assume the presidency of the club, where, in 1929, he led a successful campaign to raise more than $250,000 for the Boys’ Home Fund.
               
              The year closed with one more Rotary-related death as the son of Harry Lauder fell in France. A pawky Scotsman — the modifier, often affixed to his name, connotes someone who is humorously tricky or sly — the elder Lauder cultivated an instantly identifiable public persona, which in his case entailed wearing a kilt and tam-o’-shanter, smoking a short clay pipe, and wielding a gnarled cromach, or walking stick. A singer, songwriter, and comedian, he packed vaudeville theaters in Britain, Australia, Canada, and the United States and sold, by his own estimate, a million or more records. During the first two decades of the 20th century, he was the highest-paid performer in the world.
               
               
              War and Remembrance 2018-10-22 08:00:00Z 0

              Fake Email and Social Media Accounts Target Rotary Members in New Scam

              In case you believe that they won't hit people like us, I have already received 3 of these messages.  Please be careful.
               
              From: Rick Kick <fraudreport@rotary.org>
              Subject: Fake email and social media accounts target Rotary members in new scam
              Date: October 19, 2018 at 14:05:41 AKDT
              Reply-To: Rick Kick <fraudreport@rotary.org>
               
              Rotary.org
               

              Dear Rotarian,

              Rotary recently learned that scammers have created multiple communication and social media accounts that impersonate RI President Barry Rassin, RI President-elect Mark Maloney, General Secretary John Hewko and perhaps other Rotary leaders. The communication accounts include or involve email, WhatsApp and Viber.  The social media accounts have been on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

              These are not authentic Rotary communications. They are phishing and spoofing attempts to obtain money and personal information.  The perpetrators may attempt to convince Rotary members to send funds to support alleged Rotary causes.

              Rotary monitors for and responds to these attempts as part of an ongoing effort to keep member, program participant, and staff data safe. We also work with LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp to remove imposter accounts.

              Neither President Rassin’s, President-elect Maloney’s, nor General Secretary Hewko’s authentic accounts have been compromised.

              Rotary members should continue to exercise caution:
              • Disregard any suspicious message that offers money, requests money, or asks for your personal information.
              • Avoid opening attachments or following links in suspicious messages.
              • Pay close attention to the details of the email address and signature block to verify the sender.
              If you receive what you believe to be a suspicious message from the president, general secretary, or another Rotary leader, please forward it to fraudreport@rotary.org and then delete it immediately.

              Regards,
              Rick Kick 
              Chief Information Officer, RI 

              CC: Rotary club presidents and secretaries
              Fake Email and Social Media Accounts Target Rotary Members in New Scam 2018-10-22 08:00:00Z 0
              Even More of What Rotary Exchange Students Do! 2018-10-17 08:00:00Z 0

              Fighting Modern Slavery

              An estimated 40.3 million people around the world live in slavery involving either sexual exploitation or forced labor. A new partnership with Freedom United is giving Rotarians a chance to do something to stop it.
               
              By Arnold R. Grahl
              Dave McCleary was volunteering at a youth conference in 2012 when a young woman named Melissa explained how she had ended up in the sex trade.
              She was living in a nice suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, USA, when a young man knocked on her door and offered her a job as a model. The man turned out to be a pimp, who lured her into prostitution through a combination of drugs, threats, and coercion.
              “She was from my town, and was living in an apartment where my wife used to live before we got married,” remembers McCleary, a member of the Rotary Club of Roswell. “After the presentation, a member of my club gave her a big hug. I asked how he knew her, and he said she used to babysit his kids when she was 12. That’s when I realized this wasn’t someone else’s problem. This is happening all around us.”
              McCleary is now co-chair of the Rotarian Action Group Against Slavery, which has been coordinating Rotary clubs’ efforts to fight slavery since 2013. A big challenge for the group has been motivating clubs to act. The immense scale of the problem can be daunting. 
              The Global Slavery Index estimates that, worldwide, 40.3 million people are subject to some form of slavery: bonded labor, forced labor, child slavery, sex trafficking, or forced marriage. 
              “I think many people ask, ‘What can I do? What impact can my small club possibly have?’” McCleary says.
              One answer could come from the group’s recent partnership with Freedom United, a nonprofit organization that has mobilized millions of partners, activists, and advocates through online campaigns to convince governments and companies to end slavery. 
              Through Freedom United’s website, Rotary clubs of any size can sign up to form “freedom rings,” which raise community awareness of slavery while sharing information with one another through an online platform. Freedom United helps the club plan a two-hour community event by arranging speakers that can include experts, survivors, and representatives of local nonprofits that are already fighting modern slavery. At the end of the event, people are invited to join the ring. The core team this creates then selects yearly projects to commit to.
              “These rings are inspired out of a Rotary club but also pull from the larger community,” says Joe Schmidt, CEO of Freedom United. “We have a series of things they can choose to do. We ask them to keep it pretty simple and laser-focused on one particular project.” 
              Schmidt, who advises Delta Airlines on its anti-trafficking strategy, met McCleary through Delta’s involvement with Georgia Rotarians, including during the 2017 Rotary Convention in Atlanta.
               
              1. https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_800/public/freedom5.jpeg?itok=0Mr45lDK
              Rotary and community members gather for an education and engagement event called a Freedom Forum in Raleigh, North Carolina, to learn more about fighting modern slavery.
               
              1. https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_800/public/freedom3.jpg?itok=wS1ZP_L3
              Freedom United Executive Director Joanna Ewart-James and Advocacy Assistant Miriam Karmali hand out fliers at a flower show being held in London discussing the link between modern slavery and the sponsor of the flower show.
               
              1.   
              Rotary and community members gather for an education and engagement event called a Freedom Forum in Raleigh, North Carolina, to learn more about fighting modern slavery.
               
               “Dave and I started to talk, and we recognized that there are maybe 200 to 400 groups just in the U.S. working on modern slavery topics. However, they are all disjointed with no common platform,” Schmidt says. “It sparked in us a connection between Freedom United’s interest in taking our massive online community down to the grassroots level and Rotary’s ability to provide hundreds of groups all over the world who would be foot soldiers in this fight.”
              According to Schmidt, a ring in Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA, is planning an annual gala fundraiser, and one in Raleigh, North Carolina, is working on a walk/run to raise awareness. Another ring is organizing a “red sand project,” where volunteers sprinkle red sand in the cracks of city streets to represent all the people in the world who are enslaved. 
              Ian Rumbles, president-elect of the Rotary Club of Clayton, North Carolina, heard Schmidt speak at his district conference in April. His club is in the beginning stages of forming a ring.
              “What resonated with me was hearing about the amount of domestic slavery and the number of people forced to work in farm fields in my own state,” says Rumbles. “The fact that people in our country were modern slaves made me think that I can only imagine the amount of slavery around the world.”
              Schmidt says Rotary’s experience with polio eradication makes it a perfect partner for this fight.
              Rotary’s patience in committing to a cause and its track record with polio have shown that Rotarians are willing to take mature, committed action toward long-term global change, even if it doesn’t give immediate gratifying results.
               
               
              Joe Schmidt
              CEO of Freedom United
               
              “Rotary’s patience in committing to a cause and its track record with polio have shown that Rotarians are willing to take mature, committed action toward long-term global change, even if it doesn’t give immediate gratifying results,” he says. “That’s the thing missing in the fight against modern slavery: large organizations who are willing to step into this thing for the long haul and eradicate slavery once and for all.”
               
              Rotary clubs have been supporting anti-slavery organizations for over a decade. In one of the larger efforts, 14 Rotary clubs led by the Rotary Club of Dunbar, Lothian, Scotland, opened a vocational training center for trafficking survivors in Kalimpong, India, in 2015. The project was funded in part by a Rotary Foundation grant. The group plans to add  a home for women and girls freed from slavery. 
              McCleary is hoping that the partnership with Freedom United will better lead to more. 
              “The great thing about Rotary is that even though we are international, we are community-based,” he adds. “So if there’s a need in a community, we have Rotary clubs there to make it happen.”
              Fighting Modern Slavery 2018-10-09 08:00:00Z 0
              See Jane Run! 2018-10-02 08:00:00Z 0

              Teaching to Save Babies

              Two Rotarian pediatricians – one in Ethiopia and the other in California – connected to save babies’ lives with the help of a vocational training team
              By Arnold R. Grahl
              Karin Davies had just finished teaching a group of Ethiopian health care providers a life-saving technique for newborn babies when a third-year obstetric resident came rushing up.
               
              “It really works,” he said. The night before, he had delivered an infant who was born limp and not breathing. After several unsuccessful attempts to stimulate the baby’s breathing, he used a technique, known as positive pressure ventilation, that he had learned only the day before. Within minutes, the baby was screaming. 
              We saw the power of vocational training right before our eyes.
              Karin Davies 
              retired pediatrician, Rotary member
               
              “We saw the power of vocational training right before our eyes,” recalls Davies, a retired pediatrician who led four vocational training team trips to Gondar, Ethiopia, between February 2015 and June 2017. The team, funded by a $107,000 Rotary Foundation global grant, trained 73 health care providers who now teach classes for midwives, nurses, and medical students on resuscitation techniques and post-recitation care for newborns. 
              The training team project was designed with the help of members of the Rotary Club of Gondar Fasiledes, in particular 2013-14 Club President Abiyot Tegegne, to address a critical shortage of hospital personnel trained in lifesaving skills. In Ethiopia in 2012, only 10 percent of births were attended by someone trained in newborn resuscitation.
               
              Davies, a member of the Rotary Club of Del Mar, California, marshaled resources and connected key players to establish a curriculum for neonatal care at the University of Gondar’s College of Medicine and Health Sciences which is helping reduce Ethiopia’s infant mortality rate.
               
              Davies was five years old in 1952 when her father helped establish a college in Jimma, Ethiopia, as part of the Point Four Program, a forerunner to USAID. The family spent two years in Ethiopia. Sitting at the kitchen table of her home in San Diego, Davies sifts through old photos and recalls what it was like to grow up there. She recounts how her mother, a nurse, was pressed into service as the primary health care provider for the college’s seven faculty members and their families, its 80 students, and eventually the entire community.
               
              “No one else was there to do it,” Davies says. “My mother would go out and take care of the surrounding villagers when they asked for help, and I would go with her. That is how I developed my interest in medicine.”
              1.     
              Karin Davies, second from left, watches as Ethiopian instructors-in-training practice at a skill station. 
              2.
              Pat Bromberger, second from right, leads a demonstration in neonatal resuscitation at a skill station. 
              3.    
               
              Instructors-in-training learn how to administer oxygen to a newborn.
              4.     
              A class of new instructors with their certificates showing they have completed the neonatal resuscitation training and can now teach the skills to other midwives and nursing students at the University.
              5.    
              Three chairs of the pediatric department at Gondar University Hospital, from left Kassahun Belachew, Mahlet, and Zemene Tigabu.
              6.      
              Elisa Imonti shows the Ethiopian nurses how to program the incubators.
               
               
              Teaching to Save Babies 2018-09-30 08:00:00Z 0

              Our World:  October 2018

              Open hearts

              Elaine Case and Bill Wiktor
              International Travel and Hosting Fellowship

              Elaine Case was president-elect of the Rotary Club of Rochester Risers, Minnesota, and her husband, Bill Wiktor, held the same position in the Rotary Club of Rochester when the couple went to São Paulo for the Rotary International Convention in 2015. At the House of Friendship, they learned about the International Travel and Hosting Fellowship, which connects Rotarians who host other Rotarians visiting their area.

              “We travel quite a bit,” says Wiktor, “and we thought, ‘Oh, this is going to be nice. We will open up our home to people coming to Rochester, and we can visit others around the world.’” 

              Because Rochester is the home of the Mayo Clinic, Case and Wiktor thought they could be particularly helpful to any Rotarians who came to their city for treatment at the renowned medical center.

              For a few years, the couple participated in the fellowship, connecting with fellow Rotarians on their own travels, but they didn’t hear from anyone looking for a place to stay in Rochester. Then in January 2018, they got an email from Cindy Goodman, a member of the Rotary Club of La Jolla, California, who was coming to Mayo for open heart surgery.

              Case and Wiktor immediately offered their help and their home. “I asked, ‘Are you sure you want to do this? This could be more than you bargained for,’” Goodman says. “And they said, ‘No, we would like to make this our Rotary mission, to help families who come to Mayo for diagnosis or treatment or surgery.’” 

              Goodman’s daughter, Whitney, stayed with the couple for a week while her mother was in the hospital. “They could not have been more hospitable and welcoming,” says Goodman. 

              The couple visited Goodman in the hospital and did their best to make both mother and daughter feel at home. They stand ready to host Rotarians in similar situations.

              “I just cannot say enough good things,” Goodman says. “They were like a second family.” 

              – Frank Bures

              Read more stories from The Rotarian

              Our World: October 2018 2018-09-26 08:00:00Z 0
              2018 Homer Health Fair 2018-09-26 08:00:00Z 0

              Great Potato Contest 2018

               
               
              The potatoes have been harvested (for the most part), weighed, and delivered to the Homer Community Food Pantry.
              A few photos and a data spreadsheet are attached.
               
              Pounds of Whites
              1st  Place           Marv            36.5 lbs
              2nd Place           Mr. X           22.2 lbs
              3rd Place            Tom            18.0 lbs
               
              Pounds of Reds
              1st Place            Marv            46.5 lbs
              2nd Place          Charlie         44.3 lbs
              3rd Place           Tom              21.5 lbs
               
              Total of Reds and Whites
              1st Place            Marv             83.0 lbs
              2nd Place          Charlie          53.6 lbs
              3rd Place           Tom              39.5 lbs
               
              Largest White
              1st Place             Mr. X             1.51 lbs
              2nd Place           Marv              1.30 lbs
              3rd Place            Bernie           1.20 lbs
               
              Largest Red
              1st Place             Charlie          1.84 lbs
              2nd Place           Tom               1.69 lbs
              3rd Place            Mr. X              1.34 lbs
               
              (At this time, Mr. X has not been  identified)
               
               
               
               
              Great Potato Contest 2018 2018-09-26 08:00:00Z 0

              Some More of the Things an Exchange Student Does

              Winston has been able to travel in and around Alaska.  Here are some of his pictures.
               
              Juneau, Capital City of Alaska
               
               
              With Alaska's Lieutenant-Governor, Byron Mallott
               
              Mendanhall Glacier
               
               
              Bear Viewing with Boyd
               
               
               
               
               
              Alaska's North Slope
               
               
               
              Some More of the Things an Exchange Student Does 2018-09-19 08:00:00Z 0

              Ich bin ein Hamburger

              Drop anchor in Germany’s gateway to the world, where it’s easy to feel like a local
               
              By Jenny Llakmani                                    Photos by Samuel Zuder
              Walking through Hamburg’s main train station on our first day in the city, my husband, Anton, spots a man sitting in a tiny bar enjoying a beer and a smoke. His peculiar garb – black corduroy jacket, vest, and bell-bottom pants, along with a battered top hat – gives him away. He’s one of Germany’s Wandergesellen, a journeyman carpenter who, in a tradition that dates to the Middle Ages, travels the world for two or three years carrying only a change of clothes, a few euros, and his skills.
               
              Like us, he’s just another visitor to Hamburg. A real person in a real city – a city, as we come to realize, that’s the coolest place we never knew we wanted to visit.
              The wavy roofline of Hamburg’s newest landmark, the Elbphilharmonie, breaks above the historic brick warehouses of the Speicherstadt district.
               
              In an age when every destination seems to be making itself over to please tourists, Hamburg steadfastly chooses to please itself. Undeniably authentic, the city greets visitors with a friendly ahoy! and then goes about its business – and business is the business of Hamburg – leaving you to enjoy its many charms.
               
              Situated on the Elbe River, the city’s pathway to the North Sea, Hamburg – which will host the 2019 Rotary International Convention – is the third-largest port in Europe, a thriving hub of global trade. Across the river from the colossal harbor is the inviting downtown, with bridges and canals that locals claim outnumber those of Amsterdam and Venice and a picturesque lake that serves as the city’s playground. As befits a Marktplatz for the world’s goods, shopping abounds, as do options for entertainment. On Saturday nights, people of all ages converge on the Reeperbahn, the once notorious red-light district where, in the early 1960s, the Beatles became the Beatles. And jutting out into the river like a ship at full sail is the new Elbphilharmonie (the Elbphi for short), a brick and glass concert hall whose dramatic exterior and finely tuned interior proclaim Hamburg’s intent to establish a serious performance heritage rivaling anything the continent might offer.
               
              All of this in a city that’s compact and easy to navigate on foot, by bike, on public transit, and – maybe even especially – by boat.
              Getting to know Hamburg’s waterways is key to understanding what makes the city tick. Holger Knaack, co-chair of the convention’s Host Organization Committee and a past governor of District 1940, puts it succinctly: “Hamburg is water, everywhere.” Even the Ham in Hamburg comes from an Old Saxon word meaning “marshland.”
               
              The aqueous heart of this maritime city is the Alster, a lake created 800 years ago by damming a small river. It’s divided into two parts: the Binnenalster, or Inner Alster, and the larger Außenalster, or Outer Alster. The Elbe, meanwhile, is the city’s pulsing lifeline: Though Hamburg lies 65 miles from the North Sea, here at the city’s center the river and its canals still rise and fall with the tides.
               
              Along the Jungfernstieg, a stepped terrace that runs along the Inner Alster, Hamburg’s wealthy merchants once promenaded with their unmarried daughters. It’s still a chic showcase of the city’s inhabitants. Anton and I grab a table at one of the open-air cafés and watch the red-and-white tour boats that dock here before heading out to explore the Outer Alster, the city’s canals, and the Elbe. 
               
              We opt to take the footpath around the Outer Alster. People are fishing, sunbathing, reading, walking dogs, biking, and boating. With no private motorboats allowed, says Andreas von Möller, a Hamburg native whose roots here go back for generations, “sailing on the lake is a dream.” Von Möller, a past governor of District 1890, serves as Knaack’s fellow HOC chair.
               
              A little more than 4 miles around, the lakeshore is dotted with cafés and restaurants. At the Alsterperle, a self-service café housed in a former public toilet – far more appealing than it sounds – we pull out our map to plot our next move. The lady sharing our table asks where we’re from. We’ve hardly begun to reply when another café-goer appears at our side and asks, “Did you say you’re from Chicago? I love Chicago!” Our new friends have tips for us in the nearby neighborhood of St. Georg: The bar on top of Le Méridien hotel, we learn, has the best view of the Alster, while the terrace at the Hotel George is a fantastic place to enjoy the sunset. With friends like that, who needs a map?
               
              Though defined by its waterways, Hamburg was forged by fire. Two major conflagrations – the first in 1842, the second ignited by Allied air raids during World War II – devastated the city, leaving few traces of its medieval origins. The first fire broke out on the Deichstrasse, a short street built on a 13th-century dike; despite that, the street today contains the only cluster of buildings in the old Hamburg style of architecture. One of them, Deichstrasse 25, houses a restaurant called Zum Brandanfang, which means “the place where the fire started”; on the other side of the Old Town, there’s a street called Brandsende, or Fire’s End.  
               
              Be our guest
              Moin, moin is the traditional Hamburg way of saying hello, and the city’s Rotarians are eager to greet you. The Hamburg Host Organization Committee (HOC), chaired by Andreas von Möller and Holger Knaack, has planned cultural events for every night of the convention to show you the many sides of Hamburg and introduce you to local Rotarians. To learn more and buy tickets, visit ric2019.rotary.de/en.
               
              Saturday  
              Hamburg Rotarians will host a welcome party for 2,000 convention goers in the historic Hamburg Chamber of Commerce building in the heart of the city.   
              Sunday
              The renowned National Youth Ballet, whose general director, John Neumeier, is celebrating both his 80th birthday and his 46th season with the State Opera of Hamburg ballet company next year, will perform for convention goers. (Balletomanes, take note: The 45th Hamburg Ballet Days begins shortly after the convention ends, on 16 June.)
               
              Monday 
              The HOC has reserved Hamburg’s show-stopping new landmark, the Elbphilharmonie, for two performances of classical music. Celebrated for its architecture as well as its acoustics, the building also offers breathtaking views of the city and its harbor.
               
              Tuesday
              Local clubs will organize host hospitality events. Experience German Gastfreundschaft!
               
              Public events  
              The HOC is also planning several free public events, including a 14-day bicycle tour that will take some 200 riders from Austria through Germany to Hamburg. Each day, the group will stop for an event to raise awareness of polio. Rotarians from around Hamburg can join the ride for the final 20 kilometers, arriving at the Rathaus (city hall) on the morning of Saturday, 1 June. Riders need to register in advance, but everyone is welcome to come to the Rathaus square to celebrate the end of the ride. One of the city’s major thoroughfares, meanwhile, will feature booths presenting Rotary’s six areas of focus to the public.
              The destruction wrought by war was on a different scale. During 10 days of bombing in July 1943, at least 40,000 people died as entire neighborhoods were obliterated. To better understand what occurred, we visit the St. Nikolai memorial. The tallest of Hamburg’s five major churches, St. Nikolai remains in its bombed-out state as a memorial to all victims of war. Its crypt houses a small but powerful museum whose account of the air raids provides perspective on the experiences not only of the people of Hamburg, but of the bomber crews themselves.
              As we walk through the city, another reminder of World War II is at our feet: Stolpersteine, or “stumbling stones.” These brass plates are fitted in among the cobblestones in front of buildings where Jewish people, Roma, gays, dissidents, and other victims of the Nazis last lived. Each plate is engraved with the name of an individual and, in most cases, the years when he or she was born, was deported to a concentration camp, and died. Conceived in 1996 by Berlin artist Gunter Demnig, the stones are now found in cities throughout Europe.
               
              From the Deichstrasse, we walk down a narrow alleyway to the canal behind the historic row of merchant houses. Here, goods originating in ports around the world were delivered by boat and stored on the lower floor of a house; the second floor traditionally featured offices and a large reception space for clients, while the family occupied the upper floors. Canals also define the nearby district called the Speicherstadt, where the narrow waterways between tall brick warehouses, or Speicher, conjure a Northern Germany-meets-Venice vibe.
               
              The 19th-century uniformity of the Speicherstadt yields to the modern sensibility of the adjacent HafenCity. When finished in 2030, this riverside development project – which features shops, restaurants, apartments, and offices housed in a mix of older buildings and new ones designed by Renzo Piano, Rem Koolhaas, Philippe Starck, among others – will almost double the size of the city center.
               
              The architectural highlight of HafenCity is already in place: the two-year-old, 26-story Elbphilharmonie concert hall. (None of Hamburg’s buildings rise taller than the city’s principal church steeples.) The building’s base, a repurposed brick warehouse, gives way in dramatic fashion to a glass superstructure that evokes soaring waves. Its midlevel terrace commands contrasting perspectives that capture the city’s ethos: in one direction, a view of the Elbe and the giant cranes lining the immense port, which occupies 17,500 acres of land and water on the opposite side of the river; and in the other direction, the city proper, with its Rathaus (city hall) and the spires of Saints Nikolai, Michaelis, Petri, Jacobi, and Katharinen.  
               ‘Hamburg is a very special city, a very open city, and one of the most modern cities in Germany, both architecturally and in mindset,” says Knaack. This cosmopolitan outlook is a consequence of 800 years of history as a free port – and as not merely a city, but an independent city-state. The city’s official name, Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg – the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg – recalls Hamburg’s membership in the Hanseatic League, a confederation of northern European cities that dominated trade on the North and Baltic seas from about 1200 to 1500. 
               “We live from the port,” von Möller adds. “That’s where Hamburg breathes. It’s a gateway to the world.”
               
               To truly appreciate Hamburg, see it from the water. Tour boats cruise Lake Alster, the Elbe River, and the city’s many canals. Or set your own course by renting a paddle boat, sailboat, canoe, or kayak.
               
              For a close encounter with the towering cargo ships, Knaack and von Möller recommend one of the harbor cruises that depart from the Landungsbrücke, a floating dock in the St. Pauli neighborhood. The boat takes us downriver as far as the suburb of Övelgönne, where hillside villas overlook a popular beach. We pass the U-434, a Russian submarine that has been converted into a museum, and the Altona Fischmarkt. Heading back upriver, we encounter vessels in drydock and watch as massive ships are loaded with as many as 20,000 containers. Finally, we glide past the Rickmer Rickmers, another museum ship, before turning around under the Elbphi and steaming back to the dock.
               
              In St. Pauli, the Reeperbahn – a long thoroughfare where rope-makers once stretched out their hemp – has been home to sailors’ watering holes for well over a century; in 1848 the district had 19 legal brothels. Since the Beatles lived here in the early ’60s, playing nightly gigs in the Kaiserkeller and the Star Club, it has become much more respectable.
               
               “My wife and I are regulars on Saturday night on the Reeperbahn. We go to the theaters,” says Andreas Wende, the marketing chair for the HOC and a member of the Rotary Club of Ahrensburg. “It’s typical for young people ages about 20 to 40 to go to the Reeperbahn on Friday and Saturday evenings. They go out at 10 or 11 on Saturday night, party until 5 or 6 a.m., then go to the Fischmarkt on Sunday morning” – a sort of hard day’s night in reverse.
               
              Hamburg’s efficient public transit system is another great way to see the city’s sights; passes will be included in the registration for the Hamburg convention. “You’ll have access to trams, ferries, everything,” says John Blount, convention chair. 
               
              A city that prides itself as a global gateway – and that is home to the first Rotary club in Germany – Hamburg is an ideal place to bring together Rotarians from around the world. The convention’s theme, Capture the Moment, “is about the power and potential and force Rotary has in your life and in the world,” says Blount. “We want to capture where we are and what we can do – the possibilities of Rotary as an organization and in our clubs. We want you to be there to experience that.”
               
              The Messe, the city’s convention center, is centrally located – about a 10-minute walk from the major convention hotels, and easily accessible by public transit. Several distinct neighborhoods filled with restaurants, cafés, shops, and parks are nearby: the bohemian Karolinenviertel; the sumptuous Rotherbaum; the historically Jewish Grindel, now the leafy university quarter; and the hip Schanzenviertel, which should be an irresistible draw to young Rotarians and Rotaractors.
               
              Back in the Altstadt (Old Town), the Mönckebergstrasse, which runs roughly from the main train station to the Rathaus, is the city’s major shopping thoroughfare. Haute boutiques line the arcades of the Neustadt, and more than 100 shops and restaurants fill the five floors of the Europa Passage. And that’s just a taste of Hamburg’s offerings, which we’ve only begun to explore when our five-day stay concludes.
              As Anton and I head out of town, already plotting to return, we finally figure out Hamburg’s allure. Hamburgers, as its citizens are known, have created a city designed for their own enjoyment – though they happily share the pleasures of their museums and parks, their theaters, restaurants, and cafés, with visitors.
               
              Come 1 June 2019, I recommend you do just that.
              Ich bin ein Hamburger 2018-09-13 08:00:00Z 0

              Community Development Through Public Art

              Rotary District Governor -Nominee Joe Kashi (kashi@alaska.net) has asked for assistance in identifying local artists who might be interested in working with the Rotary Club of Soldotna. As an artist or maybe you know someone who would like the opportunity to display their work. Please see below.

               

              Community Development Through Public Art 2018-09-13 08:00:00Z 0

              Some of the Things an Exchange Student Does

              Our Exchange Student, Claudia from Spain and her host family, joined Craig on ARCTICA for the 2018 Homer Yacht Club Fireweed Cup September 1st.  Results of the race are not in yet, but ARCTICA did cross the finish line second in a hard fought race.  Here are some pictures of the day.
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Some of the Things an Exchange Student Does 2018-09-05 08:00:00Z 0

              Friends and Family

              Rotary Club of Maidenhead Bridge, Berkshire, England
              Chartered: 2012
              Original membership: 25
              Current membership: 48 
              Club innovation:
               
              Biweekly meetings at a local coffee shop have an air of informality and flexibility along with an emphasis on being family-friendly, with members often bringing their children. They even give the kids roles to play in club meetings, helping nurture the next generation of Rotarians. In keeping with the family-friendly focus, club members serve as marshals at local festivities that are a hallmark of this fun-loving town.
               
              A bridge to the future:
              When it was built in the 1830s, the Maidenhead Railway Bridge, which connects communities across the Thames River, was declared a marvel of engineering. The Rotary Club of Maidenhead Bridge, formed to accommodate the schedules of young professionals and parents with young children, also engineers connections across the community, cultures, and generations. Members emphasize hands-on service and routinely log about 2,000 cumulative volunteer hours each year. They set aside at least as much time for play.
              Diabetes testing with nonprofit Silver Star.
               
              Several charter members of the Rotary Club of Maidenhead Bridge had been members of the Rotaract Club of Maidenhead. “We hit 30 and we asked ourselves, ‘What are we going to do now?’ ” says Lisa Hunter, charter president of the Rotary club. “We started talking about what we wanted Rotary to be for us. The main club in town met at lunchtime, and for those of us with careers and young children, it didn’t really work. And we needed to be family-friendly so that members could bring little ‘members’ along.” 
               
              Hunter’s daughter, Chloe, 7, has been attending meetings since she was born. Like the 10 or so children who usually show up, “she is very much in tune with helping other people,” Hunter says. “As they get older we’ve given them jobs to do,” including handing out birthday cards and helping with announcements. “They also help us drum up sales at community events. It’s quite something. They are future salespeople.” 
               
              A signature community initiative has heightened the club’s exposure and forged bonds with other local groups. “There are a lot of charities that are starting up and need support,” Hunter says, such as the Thames Valley Adventure Playground, which caters to children with physical and learning disabilities, and Family Friends, an organization that aids people who are facing hardship.
               
              Club members used their business know-how to help Foodshare, a nonprofit providing food and assistance to those in need, expand operations and reduce waste by better organizing its shelves. “Several of their members are regular – and popular – volunteers at our food bank and have organized regular collections of shopper donations from a local supermarket,” says Lester Tanner, a trustee of Foodshare Maidenhead. “It’s good to know that there is another organization with so much goodwill and capability that we can call on.”
               
              While doing serious work in the community, the club has a flair for the irreverent, says Hunter. Every year, as a fundraiser for The Rotary Foundation, the club organizes a 24-hour event featuring 24 challenges that members have to tackle. “We’ll start at 8 a.m. on a Saturday and go to 8 a.m. Sunday. There’s quite a lot of physical activities and some mental ones. Origami at 3 a.m. is probably one of the most difficult I’ve ever done,” she says. 
              “One lovely byproduct of the event was the team building, getting to know fellow members better and having fun at the same time.”
              The amusements are part of the club design. “I think it’s the flexibility of our meetings that has fostered growth,” Hunter says. “Don’t be scared or put off by change. Rotary can be what we want it to be.”   — Brad Webber
               
              • What is your club doing to reinvent itself?   Email club.innovations@rotary.org.
               
              Read more stories from The Rotarian.
              Friends and Family 2018-09-05 08:00:00Z 0

              Invitation to Join a Medical Mission in Burma/Myanmar

              To Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club,

               

              I just received this email from the Doctor who organized previous medical/health fair missions in Burma/Myanmar.  Perhaps someone else in the Club may be interested in participating in the upcoming one in January.  The deadline to apply is September 15!

               

              Thanks,

              Vivian

               

              Hi  Steve, Noko, Jane & Vivian
              Here are the pictures of our Mrauk Oo Charity Clinic. With contributions from myself and donors, we are able to provide salaries of 3-4 rotating weekend doctors, 1 physician assistant (on weekdays), 1 nurse, 1 clerk / cleaner to serve the poor & sick people.
              Our 5th annual medical mission will be on January 14-18, 2019. You are most welcome to join us. The last registration date is September 15, 2018.
              Thanks for your continuous support.

              Eddie
               
              Invitation to Join a Medical Mission in Burma/Myanmar 2018-09-05 08:00:00Z 0

              Labor Day at the Gordon's

              Wow! 
               Picnic at the Gordon's!!
                FUN! 
              Great Food!  Wonderful Company! 
              Incredible Weather!  Berries Galore!  
              Check out the Pictures!
               
              And a FANTASTIC Time Was Had By All!
              Labor Day at the Gordon's 2018-09-05 08:00:00Z 0

              Ben Walters Park Updates

              Rotary Club Works to Upgrade Ben Walters Park
              Ben Walters Park is located in a prime spot adjacent to McDonald’s Restaurant and bordering Beluga Lake floatplane base.  The Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club adopted the park several years ago and is working to make the park safer and more user-friendly.  Rotary hosted a “Cranium Cup” trivia night at Alice’s Champaign Palace during Winter Carnival weekend in February with proceeds dedicated to upgrade the city’s parks.  These proceeds were doubled with an award of a Rotary District Grant plus a generous donation by McDonald’s. 
              The club has repainted the restrooms, built benches, cleared brush to create more open space, and constructed new picnic tables.  Additional work is planned to brush out more areas and add new playground equipment from available funds.       Submitted to Homer News
               

              Kathy Hill, Bernie, Dave Brann and I cleared some brush several Saturday's ago - can't remember the exact date.  Clyde and Vivian, Charlie Wells, Maynard Gross, Dave Brann and I painted the restrooms earlier this summer.  We still have more brush that needs to be cut to open up more of the area towards the lake and around the large trees at the top of the park.  Rotary purchased the materials and built two picnic tables using the plans provided by the city.

               

              We are getting information from several vendors suggested by the City for playground equipment.  This equipment which is public playground acceptable is very expensive and practically all of it is made in the Midwest.  So shipping is a major expense.  In addition to the $2,000 from the Cranium Cup, the matching $2,000 from a District Grant, McDonald's promised us an additional $1,500.  

               
              Kathy hard at work!
               

              New tables at Ben Walters Park
              Ben Walters Park Updates 2018-08-29 08:00:00Z 0

              Warm Welcomes

              Rotary Club of Whistler Millennium, British Columbia  
              We’re dangling 1,400 feet above a forested valley. It’s a sea of green: no cars, no buildings, just uninterrupted forest bordered by snowcapped mountains. It’s a breathtaking view, and to get it, we’ve boarded a gondola that glides between the peaks of Whistler and Blackcomb mountains. The Peak 2 Peak gondola, the first lift to join two side-by-side mountains, holds two Guinness World Records, for height and for length between spans.
               Rotary Club of Whistler Millennium members Jack Carlson, from left, Shannon Kirkwood, and Lyn Stroshin.
               
              Whistler Blackcomb offers more skiable acres than any other resort in North America. The terrain is vast and varied – though much of it is steep – and the snow is reliable. Since its construction in the 1960s, the resort has attracted skiers and snowboarders from around the world; in 2010, it hosted the Winter Olympics. In the summer, more visitors arrive to hike, bike, kayak, fish, and rock climb. 
              “This is our backyard,” says Shannon Kirkwood. 
              Kirkwood is president of the Rotary Club of Whistler Millennium. The club was founded in 2000 when a few members of the Rotary Club of Whistler, which meets at 7:15 a.m., decided to start a lunch club. Kirkwood, one of 13 women in the 23-member club, says she joined for a sense of community in a town where not only the tourists but many of the residents are transient. Many live and work in Whistler for a season, then move on. Only about 12,000 people actually call Whistler home. 
              Seasonal work brought club member Liz Peacock to Whistler from Newcastle, England, in 2010. Like many others, she and her husband planned to stay and work for a year. But Whistler felt like home. Peacock has put her degree in art history to work managing the art gallery at the Fairmont Hotel; her husband found work first as a chef and later as a carpenter. Their one-year-old son, Larry, is a bona fide Whistler native. He’s also a born Rotarian, regularly attending meetings with his mom. 
              The club meets at the Pan Pacific Whistler Mountainside hotel at 12:15 p.m. Thursdays. Larry, who has just learned to walk, toddles down the hall toward the members as they arrive. Peacock patiently chases after him again and again. “He’s the greeter,” she says with a smile. 
              Today, 10 people are on hand for a talk by Tom Smith, the District 5040 membership chair. He’s there to help them assess their club and offer ideas on increasing membership. He notes that the club has an impressive age range: There are as many members in their 30s as in their 70s. Given the club’s small size and baby Larry running around, the meeting feels almost like a family gathering. 
              The setting is so idyllic, even the view from the conference room window is impressive. A visitor might wonder, what kind of service project could a luxury resort town like Whistler possibly need from Rotary?
              Member Patrick McCurdy says one of the club’s most important projects is to help the town’s seasonal workers acclimate to a new and unfamiliar country. The club hosts a pancake breakfast every November, when new seasonal workers arrive, as part of the Whistler Community Services Society’s “Welcome Week.” Everyone gathers at the local fire station to learn about the area, their rights as tenants, local laws, and how to get help if needed. “Many seasonal workers are young people from other countries,” McCurdy says. “This might be their first time abroad.” The workshops help prepare them for life in Canada and give them tools to stay safe. 
              Club members also work to keep the area beautiful, doing things like clearing underbrush to prevent forest fires. “We don’t have a lot of money, but we like to get our hands dirty,” says club member Mary Ann Collishaw. 
              With the wonders of the natural world at their doorstep, club members make outdoor sports a part of daily life. A quick survey reveals that they enjoy everything from sailing to snowboarding. So it makes sense that their annual fundraiser is a 10-kilometer run/walk called the Brandywine Boogie. Kirkwood says that last year they raised about $6,000, which they used to sponsor a Youth Exchange student and to support a local cycling association that builds and maintains the trails used for the run. The club also supports the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, and it recently sent three students to a weekend RYLA event. 
              As members finish their lunch (either a Cobb salad or a ham and cheese sandwich), a piggy bank makes the rounds. This being Canada, the bank is actually in the shape of a bear. Each person adds a dollar or more and shares a bit of news. A visiting Rotarian, Roz, from Guernsey thanks the club for welcoming her. And member Jens Ronneberger highlights one of the simple joys of living here: “I went skiing on Monday,” he says. –Vanessa Glavinskas
              • Read more stories from The Rotarian
              Warm Welcomes 2018-08-27 08:00:00Z 0

              Our Clubs

              4 questions about holding a World Polio Day event

               

              with Mary Van Hout  Past governor of District 6250 (parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin)

              1. How did your district celebrate World Polio Day last year?

              Our state Capitol in Madison [Wisconsin] has a square around it, and it is a popular place for people to rally for a cause. About 75 Rotarians from our district met on the steps of the Capitol at 4 p.m. on 24 October. At that time of day, there are a lot of people coming and going on the square. We had short presentations from our district governor and other club leaders and members to provide some information and some inspiration, and then we marched around the square holding banners that said End Polio Now. We ended up at a local establishment for a beer and a bite to eat.

              The unfortunate part was that the weather that day was really awful. Not only was it really cold, it was extremely windy. It was a nasty day. And that diminished the size of our crowd significantly. The weather can play such an important part in turnout.

              2. What was your goal?

              Tell us about your World Polio Day event

              How will your club celebrate World Polio Day? Will you hold a rally, sponsor a run, have a booth at a farmers market, or host a music festival? Rotary has an event planning guide with ideas to get you started. It includes details about how to use virtual reality during your World Polio Day celebration to show people in your community the impact that Rotary has had in the fight to end the disease. Find the guide, sample press releases, social media graphics, and more at endpolio.org/worldpolioday, then tell us what you’re planning at endpolio.org/promote-your-event. Your event may end up featured on the World Polio Day livestream or in other End Polio Now promotions.

              Part of the focus was to be seen. We have a brief window to firmly attach Rotary’s name to the eradication effort. This was all about awareness that there is polio in the world and that Rotary has been working so hard to do something about it. We wanted to provide information to non-Rotarians about it. We did outreach with the governor of Wisconsin and the mayor of Madison, and we received proclamations from them citing the day as World Polio Day. We also advertised on television and on the radio, so even if people could not be at the rally, they heard about Rotary’s work with polio through the media.

               Another goal was helping district Rotarians understand our polio eradication efforts. In the months between the initiation of this project in late August through World Polio Day, there was lots of communication to district Rotarians, such as through our assistant governor groups, direct emails to area club presidents, our district newsletter, and presentations at local Rotary clubs to encourage their awareness and attendance. 

              3. What tips do you have for Rotarians planning their events?

              Start early! In retrospect, I wish we had planned for a big-name speaker, but we ran out of time. Communicate frequently with clubs and club members.

              4. What is your district doing this year?

              There is a committee planning a “Pints for Polio” event. They’re working to have local bars and restaurants around the district share proceeds from the sale of a pint of beer or other beverage toward polio eradication. Their goal is to be in lots of small communities so that the awareness about ending polio is broader based, which I think is a fabulous idea.

              • Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa. Read more stories from The Rotarian

              Our Clubs 2018-08-27 08:00:00Z 0

              Travel As a Force For Peace

              Take a trip outside your comfort zone and come back with a broader perspective
               
              By Rick Steves                                              Illustrations by Jean-Manuel Duvivier
              It was 1969, I was 14 years old, and one night my dad came home and said, “Son, we’re going to Norway to see the relatives.” I thought, “Stupid idea.” 
               
              A few days after arriving, I was sitting on the carpet with my cousins in Bergen watching Neil Armstrong on TV as he took “et lite skritt for et menneske ... one giant leap for mankind.” It occurred to me that this was more than an American celebration. It was a human one.
               
              Without my realizing it, travel was broadening my perspective. While reinforcing how thankful I was to be an American, it was also making me a better citizen of the planet. It was shaping the 14-year-old me to be a force for peace and an advocate for the importance of travel. 
               
              Since 1975, I’ve spent four months a year in Europe. I’m a travel teacher. And for the first decade of my career, my focus was budget tips. I wrote Europe Through the Back Door, which taught travelers how to get a good meal affordably, how to find a charming local guesthouse, how to pack light, and how to enjoy the sights. Then I became interested in teaching people about the art and history of Europe. I wrote Europe 101 to encourage travelers to connect with culture in a deeper register. 
               
               
              But since 9/11, I’ve realized that my mission is about more than saving money or visiting museums. Travel can also be a force for peace – but that depends upon how you travel and where. If you travel thoughtfully, travel can become a political act. Ever since that epiphany, my goal has been to inspire and equip Americans to come home from their travels with the most valuable souvenir: empathy for the other 96 percent of humanity. And that teaching led me to write Travel as a Political Act.
               
              These days, rather than wish one another “bon voyage,” we say, “Have a safe trip.” As a nation, it seems we’re gripped with fear. But in my travels, I’ve learned that fear is for people who don’t get out much, and that the flip side of fear is understanding. We gain that understanding when we travel. We appreciate the importance of building bridges rather than walls. 
               
              For that reason, I have a crazy fantasy: What if all countries contributed to a fund that provided high school graduates with an all-expenses-paid, three-week international trip? 
               
              Yes, I know this sounds silly. But it could be the single most practical investment the world could make for peace. Because if that happened, each of those young people would forever be more mindful of the love and joy and humanity that fill our world beyond their own borders. Imagine if you had to have a passport and travel abroad before you could vote. The political landscape of the United States – or of any other country – would be much different, and the whole world would be better off for it. Rotary’s Youth Exchange program and Peace Fellowships are a great model for this.
               
              Thomas Jefferson wrote that travel makes a person wiser, but less happy. Muhammad said, “Don’t tell me how educated you are. Tell me how much you have traveled.” I say travel is a great way to get to know the extended human family.
              For an illustration of that idea, take a walk with me through an obscure-to-the-world but central-to-itself village in central Turkey called Güzelyurt. I was a special guest at a wedding there. The entire community had gathered. Calling the party to order, the oldest couple looked happily at the young bride and groom and shared a local blessing: “May you grow old together on one pillow.” 
              Leaving the party, I walked down the street. The town struck me as cluttered, with ugly unfinished concrete buildings bristling with rusty reinforcement bars. While I love the Turks, I couldn’t help but think, “Why can’t these people get their act together and just finish these buildings?” That was before I learned that in Turkey, there’s an ethic among parents – even poor ones – that you leave your children with a house. Historically, Turks have been reluctant to store money in banks, because it tends to disappear through inflation. So instead, they invest it, bit by bit, into constructing a building. Every time they get a hundred bucks together, they put it into that ever-growing house. They leave the rebar exposed until they have another hundred bucks, when they make another wall, put in a window, frame in another door … and add more rebar. Now, when I look at that rusty rebar, I remember that Turks say, “Rebar holds the family together,” and it seems much prettier to me.
               
              At the edge of Güzelyurt, I came upon a little boy playing a flute. Just as in biblical times, it was carved from an eagle bone. I listened. And I heard another eagle-bone flute, coming from over the hill, where his dad was tending sheep. As they have for centuries, the boy stays home with the mom and plays the eagle-bone flute. The dad tends the flock and plays his flute, too, so the entire family knows that all is well.
              I hiked up the shepherd’s hill and sat looking out over the town. On a higher hill, just beyond the simple tin roof of a mosque, I saw the letters G Ü Z E L Y U R T spelled out in white rocks. Listening to the timeless sounds of the community, I thought how there are countless Güzelyurts, scattered across every country on earth. Each is humble, yet filled with rich traditions, proud people, and its own village-centric view of our world. Güzelyurt means “beautiful land.” While few visitors would consider it particularly beautiful, that’s how the people who call it home see it. They would live nowhere else. For them, it truly is a güzel yurt. 
               
              Our world is full of joy, love, equally valuable lives, and Güzelyurts. And when we travel and meet the people who live in those places, we are forever changed. 
               
              I love Turkey. And Italy. And India. There are so many places that beckon, it’s hard to choose. My travel tip is to visit a place – whatever place – that’s just beyond your comfort zone. A place that wouldn’t normally make the top of your list. Travel to challenge yourself: Find similarities and differences with your own country, and make connections with the people you meet. 
               
              Worried about refugees? Visit Germany, which has taken in over a million of them since 2015. Concerned about Muslims? Visit Turkey or Morocco or Bosnia. Wonder why Israelis and Palestinians can’t get along? Visit the Holy Land. Think undocumented immigrants are causing problems? Visit Mexico beyond the resorts. Think our taxes are too high? Visit Scandinavia. Threatened by communism? Visit Cuba. One of the great joys of travel is the rich insights you gain by talking with people you would otherwise not have met. 
               
              I prefer to travel in a way that forces me to really learn about other corners of our world. In fact, I like to visit lands – such as Iran, Cuba, and Palestine – where I can get to know people who are supposed to be our enemies. When we travel to these places, we humanize each other: They get to know us, and we get to know them. And that makes it tougher for their propaganda to demonize us, and tougher for our propaganda to demonize them.
              I believe that if you’re going to bomb a place, you should know its people first. Even if military force is justified, it should hurt when you kill someone. So, a few years ago, I went to Iran.
              I traveled there on a mission: to produce a public television special that would help build better understanding between our countries. Rather than focus on the Iranian government’s offenses – its alleged funding of terrorists, threats to Israel, and nuclear ambitions – my goal was to connect with Iran’s people and culture. 
               
              What I experienced in Iran was a revelation. Of course, I saw (and filmed) hateful anti-U.S. and anti-Israel propaganda. But what struck me most was how kind and welcoming the Iranian people were to me as an individual. Iranians consider visitors to be a gift from God, and treat them that way. Routinely I would look up from my note-taking and see Iranians gathered and wanting to talk. They were fascinated that I was an American and curious to better understand me. I found it ironic that, in a country I was told hated me, my nationality was a real plus everywhere I went.
               
              One of my most revealing interactions came in, of all places, a Tehran traffic jam. As we struggled to drive along a congested street, our driver suddenly declared, “Death to traffic.” Startled (and expecting to hear “death to Israel” or “death to America”), I asked him to explain. He said, “Here in Iran, when something frustrates us and we have no control over it, this is what we say: ‘Death to traffic. Death to … whatever.’”
               
              This caused me to think differently about one of the biggest concerns many Americans have about Iranians: their penchant for declaring “death to” this and “death to” that. Did our driver literally want to kill all those drivers that were in our way? Of course not. He speaks English poorly and was merely attempting to translate the word “damn”: “Damn this traffic jam!” If we say, “Damn those teenagers,” do we really want them to die and burn in hell for eternity? Of course not. Just turn down the music.
               
              When we travel – whether to some part of the “axis of evil” or just to a place where people yodel when they’re happy, or fight bulls to impress girls, or can’t possibly serve breakfast until today’s croissants arrive – we enrich our lives and better understand our place on this planet. We undercut groups whose agenda is to manipulate us by sowing fear, hatred, and mistrust. People-to-people connections help us learn that we can disagree and still coexist peacefully.
               
              Another place I’ve traveled to find inspiration for peace in this complicated world is the Holy Land. Where bodies of water converge, you get riptides that mean more fish – and more danger. Where tectonic plates rub together, you get glorious mountains – and devastating earthquakes. And where great cultures meet and mingle, you get more interesting cuisine – and interethnic strife. In places like this, I make a point to practice “dual narrative” travel: hearing perspectives from both sides of thorny issues. If you travel thoughtfully, with an open mind and without an agenda, listening to both narratives helps you gain empathy for a wide range of people and perspectives. In short, you learn.
               
              I had a powerful week in Israel, working with top-notch Israeli tour guides and getting to know people from all walks of life – from falafel vendors in Jerusalem, to young urbanites in Tel Aviv, to settlers living in newly built, supermodern, planned Israeli communities on Palestinian land. 
               
              And then I had a powerful week in Palestine, working with top-notch Palestinian tour guides and getting to know female university students in Ramallah, Palestinian Christians who run a school in Bethlehem, and Arab refugees who have spent a generation living in a 20,000-person refugee camp just outside Nablus.
               
              While I had wonderful opportunities to get to know both Israelis and Palestinians, sadly, I never had a chance to be with both at the same time. Walking a soot-blemished stretch of the barrier separating Israeli and Palestinian lands, I saw graffiti murals honoring bomb-throwing Palestinians – considered freedom fighters on one side of that wall and terrorists on the other. I sensed that the younger generation on both sides wanted to connect. But because of this barrier, there is literally no common ground where people from opposite sides can come together. Walls may be necessary at times, but they represent a diplomatic failure.
               
              There’s a little turnout on the Palestine side of the wall where travelers can conveniently change from a Palestinian car to an Israeli one. When I left Palestine, my Israeli driver was there, waiting for my Palestinian driver to drop me off. While I barely knew either of these men, I’ll never forget their handshake in the shadow of an Israeli watchtower. 
               
              These men were both beautiful, caring people, trapped in a problem much bigger than either of them. In the exchange, I was little more than a suitcase shuttling from one back seat to the other. I watched as they quietly shook hands, looked into each other’s eyes, and said a solemn and heartfelt “shalom.” And I thought, “With all these good people on both sides, there has got to be a solution – and a big part of it will be regular people building not walls, but bridges.”
               
              The examples in this article are a few of the many ways that you can consider political realities in your travels and embrace travel as a force for peace. But travel makes a difference only if you act – that is, if you do something positive with your broadened perspective once you return home. While each of us may have different wattage in our bulbs, we can all bring light to our communities: by voting as if our world depended on it, by donating time or money to worthwhile causes, by seeking out balanced journalism, by promoting sustainability, by confronting problems cooperatively, and by getting out and interacting with the world. That’s how I make travel a political act. And that’s why I close each of my TV shows with my cry for peace – a simple wish that we Americans “keep on travelin’.” 
               
              Rick Steves writes travel guidebooks, hosts the public television series Rick Steves’ Europe, and, with his 100 colleagues at Rick Steves’ Europe, organizes and leads bus tours throughout Europe. He has partnered with the Rotary Club of Edmonds, Washington, to provide a 24-unit apartment building used by the YWCA in a collaborative effort to support homeless mothers and their children. Rick’s newest book is the revised third edition of Travel as a Political Act.
               
              Read more stories from The Rotarian.
              Travel As a Force For Peace 2018-08-22 08:00:00Z 0

              Sponsorship Opportunities at 2019 District Conference

              The 2019 District Conference will be held at the Captain Cook Hotel, Anchorage, May 3-5, 2019. District has published a list of Conference Sponsorship opportunities.  Please see them below.  Jess Gutzwiler from Anchorage South is in charge of sponsors for this years district conference. 
               
              Sponsorship Opportunities at 2019 District Conference 2018-08-22 08:00:00Z 0

              McKenzy is Off to Belgium

               
               
              McKenzy with Exchange Students and Friends at Homer Airport prior to departure.
               
              And Off to Belgium!
              McKenzy is Off to Belgium 2018-08-22 08:00:00Z 0

              Claudia Fernandez Toca

              Claudia (pronounced cloud-e-uh) Fernandez Toca  from Spain is our inbound exchange student
              for the coming year.  She arrived at 3AM on August 4 after the plane she was aboard was diverted to Vancouver and delayed due to a mechanical.  To avoid customs issues, the passengers were sequestered in a room for 7 hours--with pizza.  In spite of all that, she greeted me with a hug and a smile.  The following week I had the pleasure of joining Claudia, Winston and Summer at the Fall Orientation with all of the other inbound students from around the state.  She will be joining us this evening at the garden party, and I have been told she is cooking something special to share with us.  Her first host family is the Kulhanek family.  Please welcome her as a part of our Rotary family as well.  You can reach her at 907 435-7257 if you would like to include her in a family activity.   Her host family is the Kulhaneks, so please contact Paula at 907 399-3329 to make sure they have no family plans.
              Claudia Fernandez Toca Boyd Walker 2018-08-17 08:00:00Z 0

              DG Kayaks With Exchange Students

              `DG Diane Fejes took time from her busy schedule to kayak with our newly arrived inbound exchange students. 21 students from 20 countries around the world arrived in Anchorage on August 3 to participate in a weeklong orientation. One of the activities was kayaking (planned) in the rain (unplanned). Even a  downpour could not dampen the spirits of these enthusiastic young ambassadors and our DG. 
              DG Kayaks With Exchange Students Boyd Walker 2018-08-14 08:00:00Z 0

              Could YOU Be the Next RI President?

              What it takes to be a leader in Rotary

              By Vanessa Glavinskas          Illustrations by Zulema Williams

               

              RI President Barry Rassin says he learned more about leadership from Rotary than he did pursuing his MBA – or even as president of the hospital he ran for years. “It takes more skill to lead volunteers,” he insists. “It’s harder than leading employees.” Rotary also gave Rassin the opportunity to practice public speaking. “When I started in Rotary, I couldn’t make a speech to save my life,” he says – a remarkable admission from a man who is clearly comfortable addressing large crowds today.

              There are other benefits to assuming a leadership position at Rotary. The organization’s leaders gain access to world-class training that prepares them for their roles. As they ascend the ranks, they also expand their networks to include accomplished professionals from around the world. 

              A new generation of good leaders is essential to Rotary’s future. They help guide the organization, contribute their professional expertise, and build goodwill with other leaders while working toward a common goal: helping Rotarians create sustainable, positive change. 

               

              Thinking of taking on a leadership role? Read on to learn more about different positions available within Rotary and the myths – here debunked – often associated with them.

               

              Club president

               

              Club presidents plan and lead club meetings, set goals, encourage communication between club and district committees, review expenditures, participate in decisions, and motivate club members. They also collaborate with the district governor and assistant governor. Any member in good standing is eligible to become club president, though most presidents have already served their clubs as a committee chair or in some other leadership role.

               

              MYTH: It’s all on you.

               

              “People think they have to be good at everything to be club president,” says Conor Gee, who was president of the Rotary Club of Chicago in 2017-18. “But you’re building a team around you. You learn what you’re good at and what you’re not good at, and you can rely on others to fill the gaps.”

               

              Gee says he has seen candidates shy away from the office, fearful that they lack adequate administrative ability or some other talent. Instead, he says, look at this as an opportunity to improve those skills. He adds that other candidates worry that they don’t know enough about Rotary, such as the ins and outs of securing a global grant. “You don’t have to be a Rotary expert,” Gee says. “You can rely on your district leaders to train you. You just have to lead the club and tie everything together.”

               

               “The strongest presidents that I have seen in our club are the ones who bring leadership to the club and board, but don’t do all the work themselves,” says Mary Ann Collishaw, who has served two terms as president of the Rotary Club of Whistler Millennium, British Columbia. “Instead, they inspire club members to work hard.”

              Collishaw, who works at Whistler’s tourism bureau, notes that her experiences as club president improved her professional skills. “I have learned and practiced leadership, organization, time management, delegation, and more through Rotary,” she says. In addition, “my employer sees the value in having the community connection through Rotary.”

              Gee notes that the most important thing a club president should have is a clear vision of how he or she wants to move the club forward. “You don’t have to be a perfect president to be a good one,” he says.

               

              District governor

               

              District governors are an important part of Rotary’s leadership structure. Governors, together with a team of assistant governors and district committees, support, strengthen, and motivate clubs. They also organize training and plan the district conference and other events. Nominees for district governor must have been Rotarians for at least seven years and have served as a club president.

               

              MYTH: It’s impossible to work full time and serve as district governor.

               

              “There are lots and lots of people who were not retired when serving as DG, including me,” says 2017-18 RI President Ian H.S. Riseley. “It’s vital we stop this misconception.”

               

              Riseley, who ran an accounting firm while he was governor of District 9810, worries that misunderstandings about the role discourage too many people from even considering it. “Anything you do that you really enjoy does tend to take over your life a little bit,” he concedes. He suggests leaders ask for support to make juggling the responsibilities easier. “You are part of a family in Rotary,” he says. “We need to encourage people and offer assistance when they put their hand up and want to do the job.”

               

              Because visiting clubs is arguably the most time-consuming part of being district governor, Rotary allows multiclub visits. “There are several districts around the world that believe the district governor is mandated to visit all the clubs,” says 2016-17 RI President John F. Germ. “That potentially weeds out younger people who wouldn’t have the time to get that done.” He points out that gathering members of several clubs for everyone to meet the governor at once can save time and offer opportunities for fellowship.

              Sherri Muniz, a Rotarian from San Antonio, Texas, who was a district governor in 2011-12, says that even though she decided to scale back her business selling model cars and trains during her term as governor, her business actually grew that year. The added responsibilities forced her to work more efficiently, focus only on her best customers, and handle more requests remotely, which ultimately benefited her business. “I put Rotary first for a year, and it paid me back twofold,” she says.

               

              RI director

               

              Rotary’s Board of Directors establishes policy for Rotary International and provides guidance to clubs. Past district governors are eligible to serve on the Board, but at least three years must have elapsed since the end of their term as governor. Candidates must have attended two Rotary institutes and a Rotary convention in the previous three years. Each director serves for two years.

               

              MYTH: Directors are appointed by the RI president.

               

              Every director on the RI Board is nominated by one of Rotary’s 34 zones. Regional nominating committees interview candidates and select the one they want to represent them. Clubs then formally elect the directors at Rotary’s international convention.

               

              In 2017, Ian Riseley did appoint a task force of eight past district governors – evenly split between men and women, and all of them in their 40s or younger – to advise the Board during his year as president.

               

              People think they have to be good at everything to be club president. But you’re building a team around you. You learn what you’re good at and what you’re not good at, and you can rely on others to fill the gaps.

              Conor Gee

              President of the Rotary Club of Chicago in 2017-18

              “Most Board members are in their 60s, if not older,” Riseley says. “We have to be conscious of the fact that there are many Rotarians much younger than that.” By offering younger leaders, and more women, the opportunity to weigh in on issues facing the Board, Riseley aimed to diversify the perspectives the Board considered when making decisions. The task force advised on topics such as how to encourage young professionals to join clubs and assume leadership positions in Rotary.

              RI President Rassin has opted to keep an advisory panel this year; he says it will play an especially important role because no women are serving on the 2018-19 Board of Directors, which disappoints him. Rassin suggests that Rotarians with similar concerns talk to their zone nominating committees. He also encourages clubs to nurture female leaders at the club and district levels. “That’s where our leaders come from,” he says.

              Regional leaders

              Rotary’s regional leaders use their skills to support and strengthen clubs, focus and increase Rotary’s humanitarian service, and enhance and heighten Rotary’s public image. They also serve as trainers and facilitators at Rotary institutes, governors-elect training seminars, regional and zone seminars, district training, and other events. Regional leaders are appointed by the RI president or The Rotary Foundation trustee chair and serve a three-year term.

              Could YOU Be the Next RI President? 2018-08-08 08:00:00Z 0

              A Quarantine on Killing

              An epidemiologist who helped stem the spread of cholera and AIDS in Africa, Gary Slutkin has a new – and successful – strategy to stop the contagion of violence: Treat it like a disease

              Twenty-three years ago, Gary Slutkin moved to Chicago to take a break. A doctor trained in infectious diseases, he had spent his career battling tuberculosis in San Francisco and cholera in refugee camps across Africa. Working with the World Health Organization, he played a key role in reversing the AIDS epidemic in Uganda. But he had also spent more than a decade surrounded by suffering and death. “I was exhausted,” he says. 

              Gary Slutkin

              Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa

              In 1995, when he was 44, Slutkin left Africa and his job with WHO and moved back to the United States to recharge. Yet the headlines kept him from winding down: Violence dominated the news. “All across the country, I saw that violence was an issue in the same way that cholera or diarrheal disease had been an issue in Bangladesh or AIDS was in Uganda,” he says. So he began to research violence the same way he had investigated the causes and patterns of disease as an epidemiologist.

              Last September, Slutkin discussed his findings while speaking about “Peace in the Age of Uncertainty,” the first installment in a three-part Pathways to Peace Series sponsored by Rotary International and the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy.

               “Looking at violence,” he explained, “we can see through maps and charts and graphs that it behaves exactly like all other epidemic issues.” And like other contagions, violence tended to cluster, with one event leading to another. “How does that happen?” he asked. “It’s because of exposure. That was the insight I came to years ago. What was the greatest predictor of violence? The answer: a preceding act of violence.” What’s more, he insisted, if violence is predictable, it can be “interrupted.”

              With that in mind, Slutkin began investigating new ways to treat violence. He started an initiative originally called the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention; in 2000, it implemented its first program – CeaseFire – in a violence-plagued Chicago neighborhood. Known since 2012 as Cure Violence, it’s based at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where Slutkin is a professor at the School of Public Health. 

              The Cure Violence model employs three components used to reverse any epidemic: interrupt transmission; reduce risk; change community norms. Cure Violence outreach workers prevent violence by counseling people exposed to violence in their home or community. These “violence interrupters” work with high-risk individuals to discourage them from acting out violently.

              Where implemented, the Cure Violence model typically reduces violence by 41 to 73 percent in the first year. In 2011, a film called The Interrupters documented the success of the program, and today its impact is felt worldwide. “We have a global effort to reduce violence through partnerships in multiple regions, in particular Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East,” as well as in 25 U.S. cities, Slutkin says.

               “Public health has been responsible for some of the greatest accomplishments in human history,” he says. “It’s gotten rid of multiple diseases like plague and leprosy and smallpox. Polio is on its way out. Violence is next.”

              Slutkin spoke with contributing editor Vanessa Glavinskas about his pioneering methodology, behavior change, ineffective punitive remedies, and ways Rotarians can lend a hand in the fight to cure violence.

              Q: How does the Cure Violence model work?

              A: All epidemics are managed from the inside out. They’re not managed by outside forces; they’re managed from the inside. The health sector guides and trains in the specific methods for how to detect, how to interrupt, how to persuade, how to change behavior, how to document work, and how to change local strategies when things aren’t working. Epidemics are managed through a partnership between community groups, health departments, and other services. It works over and over again.

              Managing disease is something Rotarians are familiar with because of polio eradication. To vaccinate children, health workers go door to door in the communities and talk to parents about the importance of the vaccine. The most important thing that these health workers have is trust. 

              Cholera was managed this way when I was working in Somalia. We used Vietnamese and Cambodian outreach workers to reach Vietnamese and Cambodian tuberculosis patients and their families. This is the way it really works. But the U.S. is in a punitive mode about a lot of things that are health problems. 

              Rotarians are committed to promoting peace around the world. To implement the Cure Violence health model, someone from the community needs to take the lead. You can start by registering for a Cure Violence webinar for new communities at cureviolence.org/webinar.

              Q: Why doesn’t punishment work? 

              A: Behavior is not formed, maintained, or changed by punishment. It’s formed by modeling and copying. It’s maintained by social norms. People care more about what their friends think than what some authority is telling them. Belonging is not just a nice thing; it’s a way to survive. This whole carrot and stick idea doesn’t even work for donkeys. It’s very primitive thinking.

              Q: What are you doing to change the way the public thinks about violence?

              A: The public still has an ideological and punitive lens on what is really a scientific, epidemic health problem. We’re training health workers to speak up. Right now violence is being explained by a punitive sector. We need to stop using scary words like “criminal” and “gang” – all these demonizing terms – and begin to use words from the health sector like “behavior,” “transmissible,” “interruption,” and “outreach.” I think public perception will change if the language changes.

              Q: How do you get people to look at violence as a public health issue? 

              A: Arguing against an existing narrative doesn’t work. Science tells us this too. The brain is wired for people to stick to their ideas. But the good news is that everyone has an understanding of health, and even if they don’t know exactly what public health does, they understand contagion. They understand that epidemics can be reversed. If we continue to talk in that way, everyone has a space in their brain for a new set of ideas. Then you have to develop the ability to look at the person – not just the person in the hospital, but the person who did the violent act as a person who’s been exposed to violence many times. The brain picks up [violent tendencies] just the way the lungs pick up flu or the intestines pick up cholera. We need to be exposed to the scientific idea that the person who’s being violent is reacting to exposure. 

               

              A Quarantine on Killing 2018-08-08 08:00:00Z 0

              Winston's Superfantastic Nigerian Dinner Updated!

              If you missed Winston's Super Fantastic Delectable Delights Nigerian Dinner, you blew it!  Cassava, Chicken with Rice, Potatoes and Nigerian Salmon, Bread, Plantains, and I don't know the names of anything else were fantastic, and to tell the truth, not like anything else I've ever had before.  I wasn't able to eat the Potato and Salmon dish, but Winston gave me some for my wife Gayle, and that earned me extra hugs from her!! 
               
              Over 30 people attended, plus a kitchen crew and a vivacious serving staff (outbound exchange students and friends) along with a movie about ShelterBoxes, and the great food made it a night to remember.  Plus $1000 was raised--sufficient for a ShelterBox!  Wow, what a fantastic group effort!!
               
              No automatic alt text available.
               
               
              Image may contain: 1 person, standing and indoor
              Chef Winston and one of his assistants.
               
              Image may contain: 1 person, indoor
              MacKenzy and Winston getting ready to be ready!
               
              Image may contain: 2 people, people sitting, indoor and food
              Fantastic crew plating the dinners.
               
              Image may contain: food
              Quite a meal!
              Winston's Superfantastic Nigerian Dinner Updated! 2018-08-01 08:00:00Z 0

              A Reason to Smile

                 

              Since 1993, Rotarians in Chile and the United States have teamed up to provide life-altering reconstructive surgeries

               

              By Diana Schoberg                                   Photos by Daniela Prado Sarasúa

               

              Ricardo Román was shopping with his wife at a department store in Chile in 2012 when a woman in her early 20s approached him. He didn’t recognize her, he confesses through an interpreter, but there were two good reasons: He had last seen her more than a decade earlier – and her smile had changed drastically.

               1.      Surgeons Lena Pinillos, left, and James Lehman, talk with a father about his child.

              2.    

              The team evaluated 250 potential patients; the team selected patients based on need and the complexity of each surgery.

              3.     A mother finishes paperwork for her son's surgery.

              4.      Lehman wears fanciful scrubs to get the kids to smile.

              5.      Preparing for surgery.

              6.      An anxious father waits on the floor in a hospital corridor; with so many surgeries, there are often more people than chairs. 

              7.      Cleft lip and palate have a hereditary component, but their precise cause is unclear.

               

               

              A Reason to Smile 2018-07-24 08:00:00Z 0
              Some Highlights of the July 19, 2018 Meeting 2018-07-24 08:00:00Z 0

              Winston Ajakaye's Nigerian Dinner

              Come on out and Devour Deliciously Delectable  Delicacies Delivered by our own Rotary Exchange Student, Winston Ajakaye from Nigeria, who will tempt us with Nigerian Foods on Saturday, July 28th at the Homer United Methodist Church at 6:00 PM.  Those who have been able to sample his cuisine at previous dinners say that we are in for a real treat!
               
              It would be a HUGE help if those who plan to attend contact Winston at (907) 756-3747 or < winstonajakaye@gmail.com > to let him know that they plan to attend.  As many of the ingredients are not exactly standard fare in Homer, Alaska it is necessary that he purchase them in advance, it would be a huge help if those who plan to attend RSVP.  You can register through the Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club Website at < www.homerrotary.org > and "clicking" on the July 28th on the Calendar.  Follow the links for Nigerian Dinner to the Registration Page.   This Dinner is open to all Rotarians, their guests, and the general public.
               
              Proceeds will be used to purchase ShelterBoxes and to aid in disaster relief.  See You There!
              Winston Ajakaye's Nigerian Dinner 2018-07-24 08:00:00Z 0

              Notice From RI Director

              Notice from the RI Director
               

              View this email in your browser
              PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH YOUR DISTRICT AND CLUB MEMBERS!

               
              From: Director Jeffry Cadorette
               
              Hello Everyone,
              We all get many, many, emails from Rotary and on Rotary related topics. I’m respectfully requesting you give your attention to this one. Our topic is the upcoming event planned from September 20-22 in Montreal.
               
              Formerly known as the Zone Institute, we have renamed it the Zone Conference. So, what’s the same, and what’s different. The Institute was originally designed to motivate, inspire, and educate past, current and incoming district governors. That has not changed. We want and need as many past governors in attendance because we know there is a critical mass of that talent and leadership that can make an event magical. The pledge of the entire planning team is that the event will be worthy of your time and resources.
               
              What has changed. Historically attendance at a Zone Institute was restricted to those in the Governor line. If that wasn’t you, you weren’t allowed to register for the entire event. What we know though, and there are examples repeated over and over again, is that club and district Rotarians who have been able to interact with District Governors (past, present, and future) they get inspired by them and become more engaged in our organization. They get more involved. They aspire to higher levels of leadership, some of them even getting on the Governor track. (Our organization and our Zones need more of that engagement NOW)
               
              We decided to facilitate that process and open up Montreal to ALL Rotarians. We want to facilitate and be a catalyst for that engagement between our Governors (and their knowledge, leadership skills, and commitment) and club and district Rotarians. The goal is that it will be meaningful for all. The goal is that the event will speak to all who attend.
               
              Go to https://portal.clubrunner.ca/50077/sitepage/2018-montreal-conference
              Take a look at the program.
              Share the link with Rotarians in your club and in your area. (please)
              Register! (please)
              Come and enjoy the wonderful city of Montreal.
              Come and renew old friendships, and create new ones.
              Mingle with RI President Barry Rassin and his wife Esther and other Rotary leaders from around North America.
              Participate in the facilitated discussion group breakouts. Share your knowledge. Glean new morsels to take back home with you.
              Be inspired by world class speakers.
               
              On behalf of the entire Montreal planning team, we look forward to being with you in September. We appreciate you.
              Thanks for your consideration. Reach out to me personally with any questions.

              jeffrycadorette@gmail.com


               
              Jeffry
              RI Director, 2018-20  

              Notice From RI Director 2018-07-24 08:00:00Z 0

              Our World

              Mother of Invention
              Ann Moore is a nurse who was an early volunteer with the Peace Corps. She’s also an inventor – recognized by the Wall Street Journal as one of the nation’s most influential – whose best-known product is the Snugli, a contraption that lets parents carry their infants against their chests or backs. Moore is quick to acknowledge that the Snugli was inspired by an age-old practice of mothers in Togo.
              “Anything that we can do to get babies and parents closer together to contribute to trust and bonding is so important for emotional health,” says Moore, who along with her husband, Mike, is a member of the Rotary Club of Evergreen, Colorado. 

              Ann Moore poses with the Snugli in the 1960s and in the 2000s with a Weego, which improved on the Snugli’s design.
               
               
              In 1962, Moore was teaching pediatric nursing at Columbia University’s Babies Hospital in New York. The chief residents at the hospital were organizing the first Peace Corps team to go to Togo and recruited her to join. “I was so excited. I thought, ‘The more we can get Americans out into other cultures, the healthier we’ll be as a country,’” she says.
              On the first day of training, which took place at Howard University in Washington, D.C., she met another volunteer, Mike Moore. “He was my French teacher,” she says. “I was from a farm in Ohio – we didn’t speak much French there.”
              Six weeks later, they were engaged, and they married two weeks after that. They went to Togo, where Ann was part of a medical team working in preventive medicine and hygiene. She recalls visiting crowded marketplaces in Togo and never hearing a baby cry. The reason the infants were so content, she realized, was that they were being held close to their mothers – either being breast-fed or carried securely on the mother’s back – by means of a fabric sling. 
              “When we came back from our Peace Corps assignment in 1964, I was very pregnant,” Moore says. “About a month later, our baby was born and I wanted to carry her the way we had observed with the Togolese mothers.”
              The alignment of Moore’s professional work in pediatrics and her personal experience resulted in her most famous invention. She enlisted her mother to help fashion what later became the Snugli, a sort of pouch with leg holes, padding, and adjustable straps. Friends who saw Moore carrying her infant daughter in it immediately wanted one, and then their friends wanted one, and the idea took off.
              The Snugli was revolutionary in the mid-1960s, when breast-feeding was just gaining recognition among child-rearing experts as important for nutrition as well as for mother-child bonding. Columbia University conducted a study that found that babies carried in Snuglis exhibited longer eye contact, better language skills, and more emotional security. Low-birth-weight babies also gained weight faster.
              The Moores sold the Snugli in 1985. Around the same time, a respiratory therapist asked Moore if she could make something that would allow patients to carry oxygen tanks, and that led to Air Lift, a company that makes soft-sided carriers for oxygen canisters and high-tech instruments. Their oxygen-cylinder backpack helps people who are dependent on supplemental oxygen to be more active. Moore continued to develop related products, including carrying cases for other medical gear.
              In the 1990s, Moore developed a baby carrier called the Weego that featured more adjustable straps and other refinements on her original idea. 
              Moore says her dedication to making a positive impact in the world can be traced to her childhood on that farm in Ohio, where she was raised in the Dunkard Brethren Church, a group similar to Mennonites in that they dress plainly, live simply, and don’t use certain modern devices. (Her parents were eventually excommunicated for using a radio.)
              In high school and college, Moore had her first international experiences, working through the related Church of the Brethren. “I worked in two international camps, one in Morocco and one in Germany, where kids come from all over the world and work together,” she says. “So those influences instilled this wonderful feeling of how we’re all interconnected on this earth.”
              The Moores joined the Evergreen Rotary Club after Mike approached the club for a grant related to a singing group they belong to. “Within a week they asked him to join Rotary,” Ann says. “Both of us thought Rotary was a kind of old-white-guys thing, and then when we learned about it, it was like an exciting extension of our Peace Corps work – there was so much international emphasis.” 
              The couple have been active in seeking to connect Rotarians with returning Peace Corps volunteers. “It is such a natural continuation of a Peace Corps volunteer’s experience once they return to get involved, especially in the international part of Rotary,” Moore says. 
              And Rotary has brought them full circle. “About six or seven years ago we went with Rotary to Ghana to do polio vaccination,” Moore recalls. “We drove to Togo, to the village where we were in the Peace Corps. It was a beautiful experience to go back.”
              And she continues to hear from people grateful for the Snugli. “At an International Women’s Day lunch recently, a woman thanked me for the Snugli. Years ago, she had gone to China to pick up her adopted baby from an orphanage, and she carried this new baby in her Snugli for two weeks continuously. That baby is now a teenager and is returning to China to visit and work in that orphanage this summer. Isn’t that terrific?”
              — Nikki Kallio
              • Read more stories from The Rotarian
              Our World Nikki Kallio 2018-07-16 08:00:00Z 0

              Club Innovation

               E-club of nomads builds connections

              Club Innovation: Spread out across thousands of square miles in the eastern states of Australia, Rotarians fire up laptops, tablets, and smartphones and log on to weekly club meetings from their RVs using a teleconferencing app. Members map routes for the jamborees, service projects, and fundraising they plan to do with their club and with the clubs they’ll visit on their journeys.

              Campers roll with Rotary: Every day, about 135,000 recreational vehicles roll down Australia’s highways. For Rotarians who have answered the call of the open road, the vagabond nature of an RV lifestyle can conflict with the duties of traditional clubs. For them, the Rotary E-Club of Australia Nomads, a concept hatched in mid-2014 by members of the Rotary Club of Jindalee in Queensland, builds connections for service and fellowship.

              After the death of his wife in 2011, “I decided to buy a large touring RV,” a 22-footer, says Wayne Kemmis, a past president of two Rotary clubs in New South Wales. As he pondered whether Rotary could fit into his new lifestyle, a notice in Rotary Down Under magazine about a new club caught his eye, and Kemmis signed on as a charter member of the E-Club of Australia Nomads. (The group stresses that members need not be Australian, just driven to service; one member of the Nomads is an American.) “Most members spend a fair amount of time traveling,” notes Kemmis, a retired newspaper manager.

              Rotary E-Club of Australia NomadsChartered: 2015 Original membership: 26 Membership: 40  

               

              Geoff St Clair, past president of a club in Lockyer Valley, Queensland, had left Rotary to take up the traveling life when the new club came along. “I was a Rotarian for seven years but left for four years until returning with the Nomads in June 2014, when it was a satellite club,” he says. He rejoined Rotary with his wife, Lorelle, a new recruit, because “the club would allow you to continue traveling but still uphold the ideals of Rotary.” For several months each year, the retired educators roam Australia in their 19-foot trailer with their dog, Josie, a Maltese mix.

              Wherever the club members may be, a constant is the Wednesday evening session to chart progress on trips and projects. “The theme of our meetings is having fun,” says Kemmis. “Members come online with their glass of wine or other beverage. They wear casual clothing. Two members usually come in their pajamas. There are no dress regulations.” 

              St Clair notes the challenges of developing service opportunities for people who may reside hundreds or thousands of miles from one another. Other obstacles are maintaining a sense of togetherness across distance and teaching computer skills to older members, he says.

              Twice-annual musters, some lasting a week, kindle conviviality and rev up good deeds: During their most recent social gathering over four days at Bribie Island, Queensland, club members planted more than 400 trees to stabilize dunes. 

              The Nomads adapt their fundraising to their lifestyle. Many club members do crafts such as knitting and crocheting on the road, and when the club holds gatherings, they set up a booth and sell items to the public. And every March they hold a crafts exposition with workshops, speakers, and shopping. The proceeds from these efforts benefit various charities, such as the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Lending manpower to Rotary-sponsored fun runs, concerts, regattas, and festivals across eastern Australia is the peripatetic club’s hallmark. Last September, it assisted the Rotary Club of Carindale with the Brisbane billycart championships. (The event, with engineless carts racing downhill, is similar to American soapbox derbies.) 

              “Clubs appreciate us as we often assist them in their projects,” says St Clair, harking to the club motto, Helping Hands Across the Land. —Brad Webber

              What is your club doing to reinvent itself? Email club.innovations@rotary.org.

              • Read more stories from The Rotarian

              Club Innovation 2018-07-16 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Recognizes Prime Minister Trudeau for Canada’s Commitment to Ending Polio

              TORONTO (June 27, 2018) — In acknowledgment of his government’s efforts to achieve a polio-free world, Rotary today presented Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with its Polio Eradication Champion Award at its 109th annual international convention.

              Justin Trudeau accepts Rotary's Polio Eradication Champion Award from RI President Ian H.S. Riseley. See more coverage of the convention

               

              Canada has been a champion in the fight to eradicate polio since 1986, when it became the first government to formally fund global polio immunization efforts. Canada has provided over CAD $750 million in support of a polio-free world, including a $100 million pledge to global eradication in 2017. Earlier this month, Canada, as host of the G7 summit, was joined by G7 leaders in affirming a commitment to polio eradication.

              “Prime Minister Trudeau has committed Canada to remain a strong partner until polio is completely eradicated,” said Rotary International President Ian H.S. Riseley. “With the unwavering support of the Prime Minister and the Canadian government and their strong assistance with continued vaccination efforts, I’m confident we will rid the world of polio.”

              Later this week, Rotary will announce nearly $50.12 million in support for global polio eradication efforts in countries where polio is a threat. Since 1988, Rotary has contributed more than $2.3 billion and countless volunteer hours in the fight to end polio, with Rotary clubs in Canada donating more than $66.6 million towards polio eradication. Rotary members throughout Canada travel regularly to polio-threatened countries to vaccinate children in mass immunization campaigns.

              To help create awareness and support for the global effort to protect all children from polio, Rotary’s international convention will feature two virtual reality videos that will immerse viewers into the lives of those still impacted by the disease, and what it will take to eradicate it worldwide. Download the Rotary VR app in Google Play or the Apple App Store to view “I Dream of an Empty Ward." 

              Polio eradication has been Rotary’s top priority since 1985. In 1988, Rotary became a leading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, along with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and later, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Since the initiative launched, the incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99.9 percent, from about 350,000 cases in 1988 to just 22 confirmed cases in two countries in 2017. 

              About Rotary: Rotary brings together a global network of community leaders dedicated to tackling the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges. We connect 1.2 million members from more than 35,000 Rotary clubs in almost every country in the world. Their service improves lives both locally and internationally, from helping those in need in their own communities to working toward a polio-free world. Toronto’s first Rotary convention took place 94 years ago, with subsequent conventions in 1942, 1964 and 1983. 

              About the Polio Eradication Champion Award: Rotary established the award in 1995 to honor individuals who have made significant contributions to the global eradication effort. Prime Minister Trudeau is the third Canadian Prime Minister to receive the award, joining Prime Ministers Jean Chrétien and Stephen Harper. Past recipients also include Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan; Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany; Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Muhammadu Buhari, President of Nigeria; Nevin Mimica, European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development; and Ban Ki-moon, former UN secretary-general. 

              For more information, contact: 

              Amanda Federchuk:  +1 (416) 355-7410, Amanda.Federchuk@ketchum.com 

              Chanele Williams: +1 (847) 866-3466, Chanele.Williams@rotary.org

              Rotary Recognizes Prime Minister Trudeau for Canada’s Commitment to Ending Polio 2018-07-10 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Partners with Habitat for Humanity

               

              EVANSTON, IL (October 2, 2017) — More than 1 billion people around the world live in inadequate housing according to the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements. Through a partnership between Rotary and Habitat for Humanity, more will have access to safe and affordable housing across the globe.

              The partnership will facilitate collaboration between local Rotary clubs and local Habitat for Humanity organizations, enabling Habitat to extend their volunteer pool by tapping into Rotary’s 1.2 million members in 200 countries and regions.

              “Habitat’s aim to bring people together to build homes, communities and hope aligns perfectly with Rotary’s commitment to make positive, lasting change in communities around the world,” said Rotary General Secretary John Hewko. “With Habitat’s expertise and the power of Rotary’s volunteer network, we will help build the foundation for stronger communities.”

              “The values of our organizations are so closely aligned, and the desire to help others runs deep for both groups. That makes us such a perfect match,” said Habitat for Humanity International CEO Jonathan T.M. Reckford. “So many Rotarians have worked alongside Habitat and the knowledge, experiences and connections that are so strong in local Rotary clubs will make them valuable Habitat partners in many communities worldwide.”

              Rotary members develop and implement sustainable projects that fight disease, promote peace, provide clean water, support education, save mothers and children and grow local economies. These projects are supported by more than $200 million awarded through Rotary’s grants programs.

              Habitat for Humanity joins a list of Rotary service partners including, the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, Peace Corps, Dollywood Foundation, the Global FoodBanking Network and Youth Service America (YSA).

              About Rotary

              Rotary brings together a global network of volunteer leaders dedicated to tackling the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges. Rotary connects 1.2 million members of more than 35,000 Rotary clubs in over 200 countries and geographical areas. Their work improves lives at both the local and international levels, from helping families in need in their own communities to working toward a polio-free world.

              About Habitat for Humanity

              Driven by the vision that everyone needs a decent place to live, Habitat for Humanity began in 1976 as a grassroots effort on a community farm in southern Georgia. The Christian housing organization has since grown to become a leading global nonprofit working in more than 1,300 communities throughout the U.S. and in more than 70 countries. Families and individuals in need of a hand up partner with Habitat for Humanity to build or improve a place they can call home. Habitat homeowners help build their own homes alongside volunteers and pay an affordable mortgage. Through financial support, volunteering or adding a voice to support affordable housing, everyone can help families achieve the strength, stability and self-reliance they need to build better lives for themselves. Through shelter, we empower. To learn more, visit habitat.org.

              Rotary contact: Chanele Williams 847-866-3466 chanele.williams@rotary.org

              Habitat for Humanity contact: Laura Layton 404-420-3615 newsroom@habitat.org

              Rotary Partners with Habitat for Humanity 2018-07-09 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Club of Soldotna Community and Economic Development Forum

              I would like to personally invite all Homer - Kachemak Bay Rotary Club members,  and other business and community leaders, to the Rotary Club of Soldotna's second community and economic development forum at the Soldotna Library on July 23, 2018, starting at 9 am.  

               

              This is a no-charge invitation-only event and a catered lunch will be provided to attendees.

               

              Please forward this Email promptly to all of your club members.  We very much hope that your club and its members will participate.

               

              This year's forum will focus very specifically upon identifying underutilized economic resources of all types, matching them with community priorities, then identifying new business opportunities to exploit those underutilized resources and build a stronger local community and economy.  

               

              The intent is to use a well-proven, community-based process to  find new economic opportunities that work for that particular  community by bringing together the wisdom and knowledge of business and community leaders, initially in a brainstorming sort of session and then with more rigorous economic analysis.  The success of this approach depends upon strong participation by business and community leaders.

               

              This process has been used successfully through the US West to help diversity local economies.  I have attached a recent article in The Western Planner journal that discusses the ASAP process and Western counties  where it has been used successfully.

               

              The workshop leader will be Professor Don Albrecht of Utah State University, a leading US authority on economic re-development in the rural US west and the author of the leading book on the topic, "Rethinking Rural".

               

              At the 2017 forum, attendees strongly urged that Soldotna Rotary Club continue the process due to Rotary's non-partisan, non-advocacy community service orientation.

               

              I hope that you can attend and bring along your key staff members and encourage other business and community leaders to attend.  If you have any questions, please give me a  call on my cell, 398-0480 or Email me at kashi@alaska.net   

               

              Yours very truly

               

              Joe Kashi

              Rotary Club of Soldotna Community and Economic Development Forum 2018-07-09 08:00:00Z 0

              Our World

              Solid structure

              Erin O’Loughlin

              Rotary Club of Holly Springs, North Carolina

              In a growing number of schools in the United States, children with autism are placed in classrooms with the general student population. The practice, known as mainstreaming, is intended to better integrate children with autism into society. However, they often don’t get the support they need to succeed, says Rotarian Erin O’Loughlin.

              “If we’re not providing them with accommodations, how are they supposed to integrate?” asks O’Loughlin, whose 13-year-old son, Marcus, has autism. “We need to provide an atmosphere in which people with autism are within the community, but getting the support they require.”

              Erin O’Loughlin, Rotary Club of Holly Springs, North Carolina  

              Photo by Justin Cook

              One place that provides such support is 3 Irish Jewels Farm, which O’Loughlin created six years ago with her husband, Colm (the organization’s name refers to the couple’s three children). The nonprofit provides services for people with autism as well as their families and operates out of a space in a commercial district of Holly Springs, running programs for children and teens. Eventually, O’Loughlin hopes to set up a residential program in a farm setting where adults with autism can live and work. 

              Many schools in the Holly Springs area run year-round, with nine weeks of instruction alternating with three weeks of vacation. This schedule is particularly tough for children with autism, who often thrive on routine. So 3 Irish Jewels created Camp Bluebird, where children from kindergarten through eighth grade can participate in a structured vacation program that teaches skills such as tying shoes, using utensils, sitting still, playing board games, and socializing with other children. 

              O’Loughlin had been a Rotarian before moving to North Carolina. When Tim Beck, a member of the Rotary Club of Holly Springs, heard her speak at a fundraising event for 3 Irish Jewels Farm, he recalls, “I immediately thought, ‘We have to have her come talk to the club.’” He asked her if she would be interested in giving a presentation. “She said right on the spot, ‘Actually, I’d like to join.’” 

              She became a member of the Holly Springs club in December. “Her passion made me think she was right for Rotary,” Beck says. “We know Erin is going to dedicate the same energy to our projects.

              – Anne Ford

              • Read more stories from The Rotarian

              Our World 2018-07-04 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Alumni Global Service Award
               

              Former senior U.S. diplomat who worked in Peru, Venezuela, and Cuba receives 2017-18 Rotary Alumni Global Service Award

                

              By Arnold R. Grahl                          Photos by Alyce Henson

               

              A career diplomat who served as the U.S. government’s highest ranking representative in Cuba has received the 2017-18 Rotary Alumni Global Service Award.

               

              John Caulfield served as a diplomat for more than 40 years, in nine countries on four continents, fostering international understanding and the protection of human rights. He has displayed a life-long commitment to community development, education, disease prevention, and other causes that Rotary also pursues.

              RI President Ian H.S. Riseley, left, and RI Trustee Chair Paul Netzel, right, present John Caulfield, a career diplomat, with the  2017-18 Rotary Alumni Global Service Award Tuesday at Rotary’s Convention in Toronto.

               

              As a 1973-74 Ambassadorial Scholar sponsored by the Rotary Club of Moorestown, New Jersey, USA, Caulfield studied at the Universidade Católica do Salvador in Brazil. During his studies, he attended Rotary club meetings and began to consider a career in diplomacy, as learning Portuguese exposed him to a new culture. 

               

              “When we participate in an experience such as a Rotary fellowship, we end up learning as much about ourselves, and our own countries, as we do about our hosts,” Caulfield said in his acceptance remarks Tuesday at Rotary’s Convention in Toronto. 

              “After being an unofficial representative of my country abroad," he said, "it occurred to me that I would enjoy being an official representative."

               

              The Rotary Alumni Global Service Award celebrates alumni whose service activities and professional achievements exemplify the Rotary ideal of Service Above Self. The award was first presented in 1995 and has honored policymakers, ambassadors, educators, and humanitarians.

              Caulfield’s assignments repeatedly placed him where diplomatic relations were tense. As chief of the United States Interests Section in Havana, he negotiated agreements on immigration, environmental protection, and cultural affairs that prepared the two countries for the re-establishment of diplomatic relations in 2014.

               

              Before that, in 2008, as deputy chief of mission in Caracas, Venezuela, he took charge after then-President Hugo Chavez expelled the U.S. ambassador. Caulfield guided the embassy through a tense period, maintaining communications with governments, factions opposed to the government, and businesses.

               

              As consul general in London, England, in 2005, he supervised services for the world’s largest American expatriate community, as well as overseeing U.S. visa services. As deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Peru in 2002, he supported Peru’s return to democracy and economic growth after years of terrorism. He led the embassy for a year after the unexpected death of the ambassador.

               

              Caulfield has received many other awards during his career, including a Presidential Meritorious Service Award, the U.S. Department of State’s Distinguished Service Award, and the Secretary of State’s Award for Innovation in the Use of Technology. Caulfield also supports Carmen & Rey’s Kids, a private organization in Cuba that assists children with cancer.

               

              Recently retired, Caulfield is now a frequent speaker at conferences, universities, and civic clubs. He also consults with companies that seek to expand into the Cuban market. 

               

              Caulfield said that interviewing thousands of people traveling to the United States early in his career helped him learn about the economies of the countries where he was assigned. He learned that it’s important for small businesses to broaden their perspectives and understand how they can participate in the world market.

              “Throughout the world, I have seen firsthand how Rotarians support each other in business, and support their communities,” he said.

               

              Caulfield said Rotary has a strong presence in all the countries he was assigned to except the most recent, Cuba. But the country is changing quickly, and he sees possibilities expanding there.

               “My hope, and expectation, is that within a few years, there will be an opportunity to re-establish Rotary in Cuba,” he said.

               

               • Rotarians, alumni, and Rotary program participants can nominate an alumnus for the 2018-19 award from 1 July to 15 September

               

              Rotary Alumni Global Service Award  2018-07-04 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Meeting Meal Prices

              Re:  Rotary Meal Prices
               
              Fellow Rotarians,
                          Past Presidents Tom Early and Gary Thomas met with Doug Johnson (Bidarka Inn Owner) and the Bidarka Inn Management Team, to discuss Rotary lunch meal prices. 
               
              Past:  
                          The Bidarka Inn has generously allowed us to use the upstairs dining room for our luncheon meetings, at no charge.  They have provided a self-serve lunch for whoever wanted it, for $13 per lunch.
                          Then some Rotarians wanted to buy just coffee and a dessert.  The Bidarka agreed to offer dessert and coffee for $6.50.
                          Then some Rotarians wanted to buy just a salad for $6.50. We tried that for a while.
                          Then some Rotarians wanted to fill a large plate with salad and only pay $6.50.  We allowed that for a few months, but finally, the Bidarka Inn said that was not OK.
                          So we switched to a large plate for $13.00, or a small plate for $6.50 regardless of what you put on it.  We tried that for about a month.  That arrangement has failed the Four Way Test, since some Rotarians were loading up a small plate with tons of food and making a second trip for refills.
               
              Present:
                          Doug (Owner) and Francis (Bidarka Inn Front Desk Manager), Tom and Gary discussed the Bidarka Inn situation.  Doug stated that the Bidarka Inn loses money on every Rotary Luncheon.  There are not enough meals sold to cover the cost of the cook and the helper, not to mention the cost of the food, and fixed overhead.  It was pointed out that every other group (Chamber of Commerce, Realtors, etc.) that uses that dining room for luncheon meetings pays $15.00 per lunch. (We only pay $13).  No other group is allowed to buy partial portions at reduced prices.  The arrangement to offer a cup of coffee and a desert for ½ price - has grown beyond its original intent.
               
              Future:
                          The Rotary Board and the Bidarka Inn have agreed that the best way to move forward is to keep the lunch price the same ($13), but eliminate the ½ price option.  Salad has become as expensive as full meal options for the Bidarka to purchase and offer.  The overhead is the same and the purchased raw food items are almost the same.  Lunch, whether it is the full course meal with a salad, or just a salad, will be $13.00.  If you just want soup and a salad, it is $13.00.  If you just want desert, it is $13.00.  Basically, if you use a plate or bowl of any size, it is called a lunch and it is $13.00.  Coffee will be free and available to anyone. 
                          This new program becomes effective as of July 1st.  This new program will allow the price to remain the same at $13.00, and eliminates the management of ½ punches and odd change at the lunch front desk.
                          Thank you for your cooperation.
              Rotary Meeting Meal Prices 2018-06-26 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary International Committees

              Rotarians appointed to committees by the Rotary International president help ensure clubs and districts perform efficiently. All RI committees promote the priorities and goals of Rotary’s strategic plan.

              Apply for committee openings in 2018-19 (deadline 11 August)

              Learn more about the committees and the application process

              2018 International Assembly Committee

              This committee assists the president-elect in planning the International Assembly and ensures effective and consistent training of incoming governors. 

              Chair

              Barry Rassin


              2018 Toronto Convention

              This committee assists the 2017-18 president in planning the Rotary International Convention.

              Chair

              Gordon R. McInally


              2018 Toronto Convention Promotion

              This committee assists the 2017-18 president in promoting attendance at the Rotary International Convention in accordance with RI policies governing conventions.

              Chair

              Bryn Styles


              2019 Hamburg Convention

              This committee assists the 2018-19 president in planning the Rotary International Convention.

              Chair

              John T. Blount


              Audit

              This committee reviews and reports to the Board on RI and Rotary Foundation financial reports, the external audit, system of internal control, internal audit, and other related matters.

              Chair

              Michael Colasurdo


              Communications

              This committee guides and advises the Board on effective ways to communicate what Rotary is and what we do, to Rotarians, clubs and districts, and the public. Rotary’s communication tools include printed publications, websites and social media, and multimedia materials.

              Chair

              Bradford R. Howard


              Constitution and Bylaws

              This committee serves as counsel to the Board on all matters related to Rotary’s constitutional documents and legislative procedures.

              Chair

              Adrienne J. Bzura


              Districting

              This committee recommends any needed adjustments of district boundaries to the Board.

              Chair

              Karen K. Wentz


              Election Review

              This committee reviews cases involving complaints or disputes over an election to any RI office, such as charges of canvassing, campaigning, or electioneering, and any related matters.

              Chair

              Peter L. Offer


              Finance

              This committee advises the Board on all RI finances. It recommends the annual budget and five-year financial forecast, reviews financial statement activity, monitors revenues and expenses, recommends investment policies, and monitors the performance of investment managers.

              Chair

              Steven A. Snyder


              Global Networking Groups

              This committee guides and advises the Board on Rotarian Action Groups, and Rotary Fellowships, and on strategies for promoting vocational service. It also assists Global Networking Groups with applications for official status.

              Chair

              Robert L. Hall


              Joint Committee on Partnerships

              This committee advises the Board and The Rotary Foundation Trustees on partnership and sponsorship matters.

              Chair

              John C. Matthews


              Joint Young Leaders and Alumni Engagement

              This committee advises the Board and The Rotary Foundation Trustees on building loyalty and encouraging ongoing connections to Rotary with our current Rotary program participants, Rotary alumni, and other youths and young professionals.

              Chair

              Ann-Britt Åsebol


              Leadership Development and Training

              This committee guides and advises the Board on Rotary’s leadership training program for Rotary members, clubs, and districts, with special emphasis on district governor training.

              Chair

              Jennifer A. Scott


              Member Benefits

              This committee assists in the implementation and promotion of the member benefits initiative, Rotary Global Rewards.

              Chair

              David J. Harilela


              Membership

              This committee guides and advises the Board on membership development, retention, and education. It considers developing programs to recruit members, educate and retain members, and encourage the formation of new Rotary clubs in countries that already have clubs.

              Chair

              Larry A. Lunsford


              Operations Review

              This committee advises the Board by reviewing the effectiveness and efficiency of operations, administrative procedures, standards of conduct, and other operational and financial matters.

              Chair

              Frank N. Goldberg


              Rotaract and Interact

              This committee advises the Board on the Rotaract and Interact programs, and reviews issues and suggestions related to these programs. Under the direction of the president, the committee plans and develops program content for the Rotaract Preconvention.

              Co-chairs

              Tommie Buscemi
              Laura Sophie Verdegaal


              Strategic Planning

              This committee develops, recommends, and updates a strategic plan for consideration by the Board and The Rotary Foundation Trustees.

              Chair

              Stephanie A. Urchick


              Youth Exchange

              This committee advises the Board on the Rotary Youth Exchange program. Under the president’s direction, the committee plans and develops program content for the Youth Exchange Officers Preconvention.

              Chair

              Bruce I. Goldsen

              Rotary International Committees 2018-06-26 08:00:00Z 0

              School for Skeptics

              In the internet age, literacy means distinguishing between fact and fiction

              By  Illustrations by

              When the BBC offered a quiz titled “Can You Spot the Fake Stories?” I was confident that I would do well. With a master’s degree in journalism, I thought falling for “fake news” only happened to other people. But I was fooled four times on the seven-question quiz.  

              I’m not the only one who has trouble with this. Even the digitally savvy generation now growing up has a difficult time distinguishing credible content from fake stories. In 2015, Stanford University launched an 18-month study of students in middle school, high school, and college across several states to find out how well they were able to evaluate the information they consume online. 

              New literacy funding initiative: Have you heard about the new Basic Education and Literacy Major Gifts Initiative? Chaired by Past RI Vice President Anne Matthews, the initiative has a fundraising goal of $25 million over three to five years. Gifts may be donated through directed contributions or by establishing endowments that may benefit a particular geographic area or district. The funds will support educational projects such as teacher training programs, vocational training teams, integration of technology into instructional programs, and adult literacy programs. For more information, email AOF.campaigns@rotary.org.  

               

              Nearly 8,000 students took part in the study, and the results showed that they were easily duped. Many middle schoolers couldn’t tell the difference between a news story and an ad. College students weren’t able to distinguish a mainstream source from a group promoting a certain point of view. Students often decided if something was credible just by how polished the website looked. The study highlighted a fundamental problem: Today’s students are struggling to differentiate fact from fiction online.

              “We’re living in the most overwhelming information landscape in human history,” says Peter Adams, a senior vice president for the News Literacy Project, a nonprofit that aims to add information literacy to middle and high school classrooms across the United States. “It’s confusing because people are consuming information in an aggregated stream, and social media gives things uniformity. A post from a conspiracy theory blog looks the same as a post from the Washington Post.”

              To help students learn how to evaluate and verify information, the News Literacy Project launched a virtual classroom called Checkology. One part of the web-based tool allows teachers to present students with news reports, tweets, and other social media posts. The students must determine whether they are credible by looking for a variety of “red flags.”

              Jodi Mahoney found Checkology last summer while researching ways to educate her students about fake news. Now she uses it in her classroom, where she teaches students about technology, from email etiquette to basic coding.

               

              Are students in your community news literate? The Center for News Literacy and the News Literacy Project offer lessons that teachers can integrate into existing curricula. Free resources from the Center for News Literacy can be found at drc.centerfornewsliteracy.org. The News Literacy Project’s virtual classroom is at checkology.org. In New York, Washington, D.C., Houston, and Chicago, the News Literacy Project also offers the opportunity to bring in journalists to teach part of its curriculum.  “If a Rotary club in one of those markets wants to sponsor a more substantive engagement at a school, reach out to us,” says Peter Adams of the News Literacy Project. Contact them at info@thenewsliteracyproject.org. Michael Spikes encourages Rotary members to visit newsliteracy.org, where they can also request a speaker from the Center for News Literacy.  

              School for Skeptics 2018-06-26 08:00:00Z 0

              Call Me Barry

              Rotary’s new president, Barry Rassin, strikes a perfect balance between Bahamian bonhomie and decisive leadership
               
              By Diana Schoberg                                      Photos by Alyce Henson  
               
              Several miles off the shoreline of Nassau, Barry Rassin, the 2018-19 president of Rotary International, balances in the bow of the bobbing Rat Bat. There are no colossal cruise ships out here, no noisy Jet Skis, only the occasional passing pleasure boat and the sound of water lapping against the hull. In the turquoise sea below, giant turtles glide across the ocean floor.
               
              “To me,” Rassin says, “the sea is freedom, it’s peacefulness. When I’m out on the water, everything fades away. You feel like you’re at one with the world and nothing could go wrong.”
              Barry Rassin enjoys some time on the water with his good friends Felix Stubbs, left, and Wade Christie.
              A few minutes ago it was drizzling, but now the weak December sun struggles to peek through. The Rat Bat sways suddenly in the wake of a passing vessel. Unfazed, Rassin stands perfectly poised, staring toward a patch of blue sky floating on the horizon.
               
              Late in the afternoon of 12 January 2010, Rassin and his wife, Esther, were at home in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake rocked Haiti, 550 miles away. Shortly thereafter, Rassin got a call from Errol Alberga in Jamaica. At the time, Alberga was the governor of District 7020, which encompasses the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Haiti, as well as several other island nations in the West Indies.
               
              Alberga told Rassin – a former governor of the district and president of the renowned Doctors Hospital in Nassau – about the earthquake and asked him to lead Rotary’s relief efforts. Rassin spent the rest of the evening pacing around his living room as he called other Rotary leaders in the region. In a corner of the room, a television broadcast images of Haiti in ruins – and then, scrolling across the bottom of the screen, came the emergency warning that caught Rassin’s eye: A tsunami might be headed for the Bahamas, a seismic sea wave so formidable it had the potential to wash over the entire country.
               
              Rassin and his wife walked out onto their second-floor balcony and waited. “At night, if you look out toward the ocean, all you see is lights, stretching down to the edge of the water, and then everything turns black,” Rassin recalled in a powerful speech he delivered in January at the International Assembly in San Diego. “I looked at where the lights ended and the black began, and I waited for the blackness to come toward us and swallow the light.”
               
              Barry Rassin at his home office in Nassau, Bahamas.
               
              Fortunately, the tsunami failed to materialize, and Rassin got back to work. Over the next few days and weeks, as Richard McCombe, another past district governor, headed Rotary’s day-to-day response, Rassin coordinated long-term recovery efforts funded by donations from Rotarians around the world to The Rotary Foundation. He created a 132-page spreadsheet to track each detail: how much money was available, how much had been spent, which Rotary club was in charge of which initiative. “At the district conference the year after the earthquake, Barry went through the dollars for every single project,” says Lindsey Cancino, past president of the Rotary Club of East Nassau, Rassin’s club. “It matched to the penny what was in the [disaster recovery] account. I was mesmerized.”
               
              In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, Rassin worked with Claude Surena, a Haitian doctor and Rotarian who had turned his home outside Port-au-Prince into a makeshift shelter and hospital. There, Surena provided care for more than 100 displaced people. Elsewhere on the island, tens of thousands were dead and tens of thousands more injured. In nightly calls to Rassin and his team, Surena – who, at the behest of René Préval, then president of Haiti, would later oversee the recovery of the nation’s private and public health sectors – detailed the medicine and other supplies he urgently needed. And then, each morning, a private plane flew from Nassau packed with the necessary goods.
               
              Rassin decided to tag along on one flight. On the four-hour journey, flying low over the ocean, he gazed out at the limitless blue of the sky and an azure sea dotted with green tropical islands. “It just looked like paradise,” Rassin said in his speech. “And then we came in over Haiti.”
              On the ground below, he saw buckled roads, collapsed houses, and entire neighborhoods turned to rubble. Unable to land in Port-au-Prince, the plane touched down on a grassy strip outside the capital. After unloading its cargo, the plane headed for home. “In a couple of minutes, we were out over the water,” Rassin recalled in his speech, “looking down on that same gorgeous view. Haiti disappeared behind us, the Bahamas lay in front of us, and there we were, in between.
              With his wife, Esther, Rassin mingles with fellow members of the Rotary Club of East Nassau.
               
              "And looking down at that water, out at that horizon, I realized that there was no line, no boundary between there and here, between them and us, between the suffering we had escaped and someone else hadn’t. It could just as easily have been the Bahamas. It could just as easily have been us.”
               
              Barry Rassin always felt he was supposed to go into medicine. It was his heritage. His father, Meyer, a notoriously brusque orthopedic surgeon, had arrived in the Bahamas from England during World War II to oversee the medical care of the Royal Air Force troops there. Except for some submarine activity, the Bahamas was outside the theater of war. Nassau’s Oakes and Windsor fields provided flight training for would-be RAF pilots destined to return to the fighting over Europe.
              With little in the way of military medicine to occupy him, Dr. Rassin spent time ministering to local residents, including treating people with leprosy who had been exiled from society. This work endeared him to the populace. After the war, he returned to England, but in 1947, a few weeks after the birth of his son Barry, Rassin père returned with his family to Nassau to work in the government hospital. In 1955, he and his wife, Rosetta, a surgical nurse, opened Rassin Hospital to better serve their patients.
               
              Barry was 10 when his father had him watch his first cesarean section. (“That kind of freaked me out,” he says today.) This was his introduction to the family profession. His older brother, David, would earn a PhD, specializing in pharmacology, and devote himself to researching the properties of breast milk.
              As for Barry, he enrolled as a pre-med student at Long Island University outside New York City – and flunked out after two years. “I don’t know whether it was too hard for me or I just had no interest,” he explains. “I was never a good academic. Teachers always said I never applied myself.”
              Rassin returned to Nassau and worked menial jobs at the British Colonial Hotel. He started at the front desk – “That was not me” – but was soon relegated to microfilming and delivering office supplies. After a year, Rassin realized he had to make a decision: He could either spend the rest of his life working at the hotel and living at home with his parents, or he could go back to school. 
              Barry Rassin converses with Charles Diggiss, who took over as hospital president when Rassin retired. 
              In 1967, he moved to Miami, enrolled in community college, and took whatever classes struck his fancy. He wanted to figure out what suited him best. “Two days in accounting and I said, ‘This is me,’” he recalls. “It was just so easy. It came to me.”
              He transitioned into a business program, improved his grades, and transferred to the University of Miami, where he earned a degree in accounting – with honors. Later, he received his MBA in health and hospital administration from the University of Florida.
               
              Back in the Bahamas, following several prosperous decades, Rassin Hospital had undergone a decline. After the Bahamas won its independence in 1973, a lot of British expats, including many of the hospital’s patients, left the country. That’s when Rassin, with several years of health administration under his belt (primarily at Miami’s Mount Sinai Medical Center), returned to Nassau once again, with his first wife and their kids, Pascale, Michele, and Anthony. His goal was to bring the best in modern medicine to the country – and he planned to do it at a transformed Rassin Hospital.
               
              Charles Diggiss, today the president of Doctors Hospital (as the reinvented facility came to be known), covered emergency room shifts there in the late 1980s, when he was a surgical resident at the public hospital. “Barry was running a hospital that was one block away from the public hospital,” Diggiss says. “He had the courage to take that on. There was no promise of success, but every guarantee that this was going to be frustrating, every guarantee that the physicians were going to be skeptical.”
               
              Looking back, Rassin recounts the challenges he confronted: “It was a battle with my parents. It was a battle with the doctors. It was a battle with my wife.” All that pressure caused the demise of his first marriage, he says. But the friends he made through Rotary steeled his resolve to persevere. “It gave me the support from a group of citizens of the Bahamas who said there was really a need to do this.”
              Several years earlier, Rassin was working for American Medicorp in Hollywood, Florida, when a doctor asked him to join Rotary. Rassin declined. “In my mind, he was at least 70,” he explains. “I was 30. People say new members aren’t joining because we don’t ask. It’s not just the ask. I was asked. I didn’t want to join.”
               
              The East Nassau club recently helped clean up a community center for teenagers with HIV/AIDS.
               
              He changed his mind about Rotary when he moved to Nassau and met John Robertson at a fundraiser for the East Nassau club. Robertson was helping out, and Rassin’s daughters, Pascale and Michele, were participating. The two men chatted, and at the end of the conversation, Rassin accepted Robertson’s invitation to lunch at Rotary. Seven years later, in 1987, he was the club’s president. Michele, the club’s first female member, would take the helm in 2009.
               
              Rassin’s rise through the ranks of Rotary coincided with the culmination of his plan to transform Rassin Hospital. In 1986, he worked with a consortium of doctors to buy the hospital from Meyer Rassin and create the newly christened Doctors Hospital. In 1993, under Rassin’s direction, it completed an $8.5 million expansion, and today it’s considered one of the Caribbean’s leading hospitals.
               
              As all this transpired, Rassin’s personal life changed as well when he met and, in 1990, married Esther Knowles. A successful banker, Esther dived into her husband’s life at Rotary. When he was district governor in 1991-92, she accompanied him on a six-month odyssey to every club in every country in the district. Their mutual respect and partnership are evident when you see them together. “Esther has always kept me grounded,” Rassin says. “As soon as she thinks that my ego is kicking in, she makes sure she kicks it back out. After any speech, if Esther was there, I always ask her how it was. She’s the only one who I know will tell me the truth.” 
               
              Rassin retired as the hospital’s president in 2016, though he continues to serve on its board of directors. In retrospect, the long struggle to make his dream a reality was worth it. “You’ve got to take risks in this life,” he insists. “That’s what we’re here to do: not to follow the same old path, but to take out your machete, cut away the bush, and create a new way. People here weren’t getting good health care. They needed it badly.” 
               
              “One of the most appreciable things about his journey is watching how he committed himself wholly and fully to Doctors Hospital while maintaining his involvement in Rotary,” says Charles Sealy, who met Rassin through Rotary and succeeded him as the hospital’s CEO. “To see how someone can balance the two – except I don’t think the word is ‘balance,’ because he was wholly committed to each of them.”
               
              At the hospital, as in Rotary, people recognize Rassin as both a visionary and a detail-oriented administrator. They also salute him as a valuable mentor. “He’s good at identifying leadership talent,” says Felix Stubbs, a board member at Doctors who credits Rassin with creating the opportunities that led to Stubbs’ own stint as District 7020 governor. “When he sees someone with skills that he thinks could be advantageous to Rotary, he makes sure to pull that person along. That’s exactly what he did at Doctors Hospital. He identified good young leaders and pulled them up – and then he was able to retire and dedicate his time to Rotary.”
               
              Barry Rassin helps Rotarians and Rotaractors plant mangrove trees at Bonefish Pond National Park on the southern coast of New Providence Island in the Bahamas.
               
              As befits an island organization, the Rotary Club of East Nassau meets inside a wood-paneled room at a yacht club. Pictures of sailboats bedeck the walls. Sir Durward Knowles, who, until his death in February, reigned as the world’s oldest living Olympian (bronze and gold medals in sailing in 1956 and 1964, respectively), was an active member.
               
              In many ways, it’s the ideal 21st-century Rotary club: Sixty percent of its members are younger than 50, and one member is a dual Rotarian/Rotaractor. At a meeting in October, there were so many women in leadership positions that a man didn’t come to the lectern for the first half-hour. One order of business: handing out attendance awards. Rassin receives one for 30 years of perfect attendance. Since joining in 1980, he has missed only one meeting. 
               
              Though Rotary has been central to Rassin’s life for nearly 40 years, it was never his goal to become president of Rotary International. He was loath to even put his name up for consideration. But, he explains, “the Bahamas and the Caribbean have never had a president, and Rotarians there felt I should put my name in and represent them. I realized that they want to feel part of Rotary, and I was in a position where it was possible. So for them, I thought I should do it.”
               
              Sam F. Owori, a member of the Rotary Club of Kampala, Uganda, was nominated in 2016 to serve as Rotary’s 2018-19 president. After he died unexpectedly of complications from surgery in July 2017, Rassin was selected to take his place.
              Among the first people Rassin called was John Smarge, a past Rotary International director from Florida who had served as Owori’s aide. Rassin asked Smarge to serve as his aide too. “One of his first sentences was, ‘I want Sam’s memory to continue, and I want you to help me do that,’” Smarge recalls. “Barry was uniquely qualified to come in at this time. He will allow Sam’s memory to shine brightly.”
               
               
              Call Me Barry 2018-06-21 08:00:00Z 0

              Ben Walters Park Cleanup-with New Pictures

               
               
               
              Tom painting the trim at the restroom at Ben Walters Park.
               
              Maynard painting the restrooms at Ben Walters Park.
               
              Charles racking and Maynard painting
               
              Vivian rolls on the paint!
               
              Ben Walters Park Cleanup-with New Pictures 2018-06-13 08:00:00Z 0

              Winners of the 2018 Rotarian Photo Contest

              From more than 1,100 entries, our 2018 photo contest winners rise to the top

              Reviewing this year’s submissions, we saw photos that capture big scenes of celebration and small moments of connection. We saw images of Rotarians as people of action, working together to make our world better. And we saw breathtaking views of nature. Our judge, Stephanie Sinclair, reviewed the images without any identifying information, with the unexpected result that two people each have two photographs on the following pages. In addition to the winners and honorable mentions in this issue, you’ll see more photos from the contest in The Rotarian throughout the coming year.

              First place

              Photographer: Anthony Riggio
              Rotary Club of Westport, Connecticut
              Location: Rabat, Morocco

              Sinclair: I am drawn to this photo’s beautiful repetitive geometric shapes and vibrant colors. The eye moves from the door frame throughout the many textures to the subject, the markings on his hat, and the background of the image. The muted tones echo the subtlety of the many layers in the image.

              Second place

              Photographer: Santosh Kale
              Rotary Club of Shirol, India
              Location: Pandharpur, India

              Sinclair: This image offers a compassionate and relatable view of women in India. Their varied expressions of joy and amusement emphasize their shared humanity. The black and white works to focus the viewer on their expressions rather than the environment in which the women live.

              Third place

              Photographer: Maureen McGettigan
              Rotary Club of Valley of the Moon (Santa Rosa), California
              Location: Bagan, Myanmar

              Sinclair: This elegant, classically shot photograph is reminiscent of National Geographic images that focus on magical light and landscapes. The painterly quality of the light makes the image seem timeless, and the combination of the temple in the background, the trees in the foreground, and the person working a plow gives the image a spiritual quality.

              Honorable mentions

              Photographer: Salvatore Alibrio
              Rotary Club of Palazzolo Acreide Valle dell’Anapo, Italy
              Location: Palazzolo Acreide, Italy

              Sinclair: The distance from the color explosion works perfectly within the frame. Most photographers would have tried to be as close as possible, but the distance provides a needed perspective while communicatingto the viewer more information about the event with the surrounding architecture and crowd.

              Photographer: Jose Antonio Valdes
              Rotary Club of Guatemala Sur, Guatemala
              Location: Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala

              Sinclair: This is a very classically framed portrait, given a slight twist on the expected by the elder’s very relaxed body position. The boy’s expression also makes the image distinctive and fascinating.

              Photographer: Carlo Antonio Romero
              Rotary Club of Cagayan de Oro, Philippines
              Location: Calgary, Alberta

              Sinclair: Beautiful landscape with technicolor light. The wide-angle perspective, not normally my favorite in landscapes, makes the viewer feel transported into the experience of being there.

              Photographer: Jose Antonio Valdes
              Rotary Club of Guatemala Sur, Guatemala
              Location: Santa Catarina Pinula, Guatemala

              Sinclair: The use of black and white transforms the harsh light into highlights and shadows that emphasize the composition. The cowboy hats in the foreground make a perfect frame for the race.

              Photographer: Hipolito Busgano
              Rotary Club of West Cagayan de Oro, Philippines
              Location: Bali, Indonesia

              Sinclair: This joyful image could have placed in the top three had the person on the far left not been looking at the camera. That said, it evokes a lot of emotion and deserves an honorable mention.

              Photographer: Thomas Bundschuh
              Rotary Club of Wien, Austria
              Location: Sermathang, Nepal

              Sinclair: The soft light on this image makes it seem more like a painting than a photograph. While I wish there were more separation between the two female subjects, the painterly quality echoed by the girl’s serene expression still works.

              Photographer: Santosh Kale
              Rotary Club of Shirol, India
              Location: Pattan Kodoli, India

              Sinclair: This is a powerful image in that it makes the viewer ask more questions about the event being photographed. The goal of a great photograph isn’t always to answer every question, but to entice the viewer to learn more.

              Winners of the 2018 Rotarian Photo Contest 2018-06-13 08:00:00Z 0

              Full Exposure
               

              Stephanie Sinclair’s photography is just one of the ways she advocates for the rights of girls

               

              Photos by Stephanie Sinclair                                       Story by Julie Bain

               

              Stephanie Sinclair was way ahead of the #MeToo movement. After 9/11, she wanted to tell the stories of people who had survived their world being torn apart. While covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the photojournalist found her passion when she learned about young girls being forced into marriage. After nearly a decade of photographing these girls, she published “Too Young to Wed” in National Geographic in 2011. In 2012, Sinclair formed a nonprofit, also known as Too Young to Wed, dedicated to protecting girls’ rights and ending child marriage. 

              While she maintains a busy schedule on other photo projects, documenting subjects such as life on a circus train and the care of elephants in India, she always returns to the stories of girls and young women who are vulnerable to exploitation. She has done more than accrue numerous awards for her photos; she has also raised money to help girls who have escaped their captors restart their education, learn new skills, and regain their self-esteem.

              In addition, Sinclair created a foundation to provide scholarships and teach photography, giving girls a way to tell their stories and begin to change the world. Her foundation helped support and educate the young women she photographed for her acclaimed 2017 New York Times story, “Child, Bride, Mother: Nigeria.” In February, two of those girls shared their harrowing stories with U.S. lawmakers and United Nations officials. 

              On a snowy late-winter afternoon in Peekskill, New York, while one of her two children was fighting a fever, Sinclair spoke with frequent contributor Julie Bain and did something she rarely does: talk about her own life, her photographic vision, and how she found her true calling.

              1.     

              Two Yemeni child brides stand alongside their husbands. Tehani, left, married when she was 6 and her husband, Majed, was 25.

              2.    

              At age 10, Nujood Ali divorced her husband, a man three times her age. The case led Yemen's parliament to consider setting a minimum marriage age.

              3.    

              Maya, 8, and Kishore, 13, pose for a wedding photo in India, where, despite legislation forbidding child marriage, the custom continues.

              4.      

              In Afghanistan, Ghulam, 11, had dreamed of becoming a teacher, but when she was engaged to marry Faiz, 40, she was forced to drop out of school. 

              5.      

              Baby, 17, and Claude Seibureh, 48, of Freetown, Sierra Leone, were married during the Ebola crisis.

               

              Q: There has been a lot of discussion about women and sexual harassment and abuse in the United States. As someone who has covered these issues in other parts of the world, what’s your take on this moment?

               

              A: I tend to be an optimist, and there’s no question that change is happening in our country with the #MeToo movement. It is very clear that women have had it. Some very difficult conversations are happening in every industry about how women are valued, but there are still limitations. We have many women in politics now, but we need many, many more. Ability is not the issue here – there’s no reason that women can’t compete on the highest levels with men in any category if they so choose. Their biggest challenge is the way they’re perceived.

              I hope the progress we’re making in this country makes its way to places in the world where girls are the most vulnerable. As someone put it to me today, “It’s like #MeToo to the power of 14.” I’m proud to be helping to fight this battle.

               

              Q: Are more women entering the photojournalism field, which was heavily skewed toward men when you started?

               

              A: Yes, but it continues to be male-dominated. That is inevitably going to change, though. There are now more female photojournalism students than male photojournalism students, so we’re seeing that tide start to shift. Still, doing certain kinds of photojournalism requires significant sacrifices. It is very demanding of your time, there’s a lot of travel, and it’s not very conducive to raising a family.

               

              Full Exposure  2018-06-13 08:00:00Z 0

              Homer Downtown Club Update

              Do a make-up at the Homer Downtown Club or just enjoy their meeting!
              Homer Downtown 
               
                
                
                
               

               

               

               

              Hope to see you there.

               

              Waiting for Information on February and further meetings. 

               

              Downtown Rotary is in "summer rotation" 

              If you need information or have questions please call 907-399-1226

               

              *************************************************

                 
              Homer Downtown Club Update 2018-06-07 08:00:00Z 0

              First Among Equals

              Rotary Club of Chicago

              Editor's note: We’ll be visiting clubs around the world to highlight the diversity of the Rotary experience. This is the first in a monthly series.

              It’s noon on Tuesday, and a waiter at Chicago’s Union League Club is wondering if Cheryl McIntyre plans to eat lunch. “When I was president, I’d get so nervous about speaking in front of everyone that I’d barely touch my food,” she says. 

              McIntyre was president of the Rotary Club of Chicago, also known as Rotary One, in 2015-16. That year, she changed the format of the meetings to allow more time for members to talk with visitors. She wanted people to feel welcome, she says, as though they were guests in someone’s home. The club gets its fair share of visitors – as the first Rotary club, established in 1905 and home to founder Paul Harris, it’s a must-stop for Rotarians from out of town.

              Rotary Club of Chicago President Conor Gee, left, with 2015-16 President Cheryl McIntyre, club Secretary Marga Hewko, and President-Elect Khaled Akkawi outside the Union League Club.

               

              As a hearty lunch of turkey, mashed potatoes, and roasted vegetables is served – it’s Thanksgiving week – Khaled Akkawi steps up to the podium. “This is my first time leading a meeting, so things will go as planned, right?” he jokes, a slight accent giving away his Jordanian roots. The club’s president-elect, he’s filling in for Conor Gee, who is in Geneva this week to attend Rotary Day at the United Nations. (At 32, Gee is one of the youngest people ever to serve as this club’s president.) 

              Akkawi introduces the guests: two prospective members and five visiting Rotarians. One visitor, Alice Atemo, says she hopes to partner with the club on a water project in her home country of Kenya, where she runs a school for 900 orphaned children. 

              Rajendran Sabanayagam and his daughter Priya are in town for a steel conference. He’s a member of the Rotary Club of Madras, India, and his daughter is part of a spinoff club created for younger professionals called Madras Next Generation. A couple from La Jolla, California, round out the visiting Rotarians. 

              Akkawi then shares a quote he heard on the radio: “It’s so much easier to build a child than to rebuild an adult.” It made him think, he says, about the club’s signature project, Job1, a partnership with Chicago Public Schools that provides training and summer internships to high school students. As part of the program, the club sponsors job readiness training programs, puts together a job fair, and awards scholarships to graduating seniors. Rotarians also mentor the students in the program.

              The club established its own foundation in 1938; it manages more than $3 million in assets and disburses between $200,000 and $250,000 every year, Gee says. Through the foundation, the club has funded rehabilitation services for disabled children, a clean-water project in Haiti, scholarships, and polio eradication. 

              Situated in Chicago’s Loop, the historic Union League Club is a social, civic, and community hub for the city. It is sometimes referred to as the city’s “other Art Institute” for its large collection of paintings and other works. Although the focus is primarily on American artists – the nearly 800 pieces include works by Grant Wood and John James Audubon – one of the highlights is an 1872 painting by Claude Monet called Apple Trees in Blossom. 

              Established in 1905 and home to founder Paul Harris, the Rotary Club of Chicago is a must-stop for Rotarians from out of town.

              Club members gather for lunch every Tuesday in a ballroom lit by gilded chandeliers. Today, attendance is a bit lighter than usual because many of the 136 members went to an event over the weekend – a send-off for a fire truck and an ambulance for emergency responders in Jalisco, Mexico. Rotary One sponsored the donation together with the Rotary Club of Chicago Little Village; new member George Rabiela, a retired fire captain, helped organize the donation.

              At the president’s table, nearly everyone is a guest. Akkawi splits his time chatting with a lawyer considering joining the club and today’s speaker, Jonny Imerman, a cancer survivor who established a support network that connects cancer patients with survivors. 

               

              First Among Equals 2018-06-07 08:00:00Z 0
              Security Challenges and Options for Peace on the Korean Peninsula 2018-06-07 08:00:00Z 0

              President-Elect Needed

              The Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay is in need of a motivated individual who will assume the position of 2018-2019 President-Elect (PE) in preparation for serving as the President for the 2019-2020 Club Year. As PE, this dynamic Rotarian will also serve as the 2018-2019 Club year membership chair. 

               

              To insure our continued membership growth and increased support for the community,  it is essential that the PE position be filled as soon as possible.

              Thank you for stepping up and accepting the Rotary challenge.

              President-Elect Needed 2018-06-06 08:00:00Z 0

              Winston's Fundraisers POSTPONED

              Winston's Shelter Box & West Coast Trip Fundraisers. 

               

              POSTPONED

               

               

              ShelterBox is an international disaster relief charity that provides temporary shelter and life saving supplies to families displaced by natural disasters.

               

              The fundraiser will be a series of Nigerian meals and a showcase of Nigerian cultures.  It is going to be like Nigeria in Homer!

              Winston's Fundraisers POSTPONED 2018-05-30 08:00:00Z 0

              A Non-Rotarian Walks the (Long) Walk

              For more than two decades, Judy Colaneri has guided hikers along ancient pilgrimage routes that crisscross the European countryside. During those journeys, the American-born Colaneri, who splits her time between Spain and the United States, has heard hundreds of stories from those who’ve walked the trails beside her. 

              Rotarians from five clubs in California went on an 8-day hiking trip.

              Courtesy of Rotary Club of La Jolla Golden Triangle

              Krishna and Bonnie Arora, members of the Rotary Club of La Jolla Golden Triangle, California, US, have trekked with Colaneri almost a dozen times, and what they told her about Rotary on those journeys made a big impression.

              “They’re always talking about their club’s work in Peru or India or Pakistan or Mexico, and I thought, ‘They are such good people,’” says Colaneri, who runs a tour company called Spanish Steps. “I’m at a point in my life where I’m still working so much and don’t have time to do what they do as Rotarians, so I called Krishna and Bonnie one day and asked how I could participate. I wanted to do something to help them.”

              Colaneri came up with the idea of leading a trip of Rotarians and donating all profits, and the services of two of her guides and herself, to the Rotary Club of La Jolla Golden Triangle. Club members embraced the opportunity. “We put an item about the trip in the district newsletter, and other Rotarians signed up. We decided we’d pick some projects and ask for donations,” says La Jolla Golden Triangle member Linda Stouffer-Wallis.

              On 31 March 2017, 12 California Rotarians from five clubs set off on an eight-day hiking trip, following the last 100 kilometers of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail leading to the Spanish holy city of Santiago de Compostela. The fundraiser brought in more than $23,000 from Colaneri’s company and nearly $5,500 in donations collected by the Rotary hikers. 

              “For Judy to give all of her profits from the trip to us, as well as volunteering herself and two guides, was extraordinary,” says Stouffer-Wallis, who walked with husband Steve Wallis. A few years earlier she had hiked a portion of the trail through France. 

              “The beauty of this trail seeps into your soul,” says Stouffer-Wallis, a banker, who coordinated the fundraising and distribution to club projects. “It’s a deep experience. If you’re open and ready for it, the walk does some transformative healing.” (A number of books and movies have documented the power of the trail, including The Way, a 2010 film starring Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez.)

              Walking guides Francesco Corsi, left, Virginio Corsi, and Judy Colaneri.

              Courtesy of Rotary Club of La Jolla Golden Triangle

              La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotarian Wayne Davis and his son Steve, a member of the Rotary Club of Escondido After Five, also went on the journey. “I’d heard about the walk for a long time and signed up mainly because of a book I’d read about it, To the Field of the Stars,” says the elder Davis, a San Diego architect. 

              “I love historical elements of geography, and I was taking in everything around me, from the weather to the old path, the historical buildings and stone farmhouses, the people – it was all very inspiring to me in terms of history and knowing it was a path that had been walked on for hundreds of years.”

              It was also a great shared experience for father and son. “We talked about things we wouldn’t normally talk about because we got to spend a week together, day and night. It was a real bonding experience for us,” Wayne says.

               

              A Non-Rotarian Walks the (Long) Walk 2018-05-30 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Wins Award

              Rotary wins Best Nonprofit Act for its polio eradication work 

              By

              Rotary’s commitment to eradicating polio worldwide won Best Nonprofit Act in the Hero Awards of the One Billion Acts of Peace campaign, an international global citizens’ movement to tackle the world’s most important issues. 

              A Rotary vaccination team immunizes children against polio at a railway station in Karachi, Pakistan. 

              Khaula Jamil

              The campaign is an initiative of PeaceJam Foundation and is led by 14 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Rigoberta Menchú Tum, with the ambitious goal of inspiring a billion acts of peace by 2020. 

              Each year, the campaign picks two finalists in each of six categories for their work to make a measurable impact in one of the 10 areas considered most important by the Nobel laureates. Winners are chosen by people from around the world. 

              Rotary and Mercy Corps were the two finalists in the Best Nonprofit Act category. Rotary and the five other winners will be recognized at a ceremony on  June in Monaco. Betty Williams, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 for her advocacy for peace in Northern Ireland, will present the award. 

              Rotary Wins Award 2018-05-30 08:00:00Z 0

              Alaska's Governor Walker Visits Homer Rotary

              Last week (May 17th) Alaska's Governor Walker visited Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary, gave us some insights on how Alaska is doing at this time and answered a number of questions posed to him by members. One of the highlights of the visit was when our exchange student got to meet and talk with the governor.
               
              Alaska's Governor Bill Walker Addresses Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary
               
              Acting President Tom Presents Governor Walker with His Speaker's Certificate
               
              Winston and Governor Walker
               
               
              Alaska's Governor Walker Visits Homer Rotary 2018-05-23 08:00:00Z 0

              Freedom of Speech

              Rotary Youth Exchange inspired CEO to create low-cost speech device

              As a Rotary Youth Exchange student in Ecuador seven years ago, Mary Elizabeth McCulloch volunteered at an orphanage that was home to both adults and children with disabilities. She noticed that those who had trouble speaking – mainly because of cerebral palsy – were seated alone by the windows, and for the most part no one communicated with them. 

              Today, at age 26, McCulloch is founder and CEO of ProjectVive, a social enterprise company that has developed a low-cost device called the Voz Box, which allows people who have difficulty speaking to express themselves. The product launches this year in the United States and Ecuador.

               

              “We are empowering people with disabilities by giving them a voice,” says Mary Elizabeth McCulloch.  

               

              Q: What did your experience in the orphanage inspire you to do?

              A: After I returned to the United States and started at Penn State (graduating in 2016 with a degree in biomedical engineering), I began working on a low-cost speech generation device that would work in low-income and resource-constrained settings. I worked on it all through college, on evenings and weekends. Along the way, people joined my team, ProjectVive, to develop the Voz Box.

              Q: How does the technology work? 

              A: Our technology is for people with low motor control, who can’t tap a finger on an iPad or keyboard. We have different interfaces: a glove that works when someone flexes a finger; a watch that senses motion so the wearer can raise their arm to click; or glasses that detect blinking. These work with an application called CoughDrop AAC, which has grids of letters, words, and icons the user “points to” with the interface devices. Our devices can also control other applications, so the user can go to YouTube or Facebook, chat with friends, or look for jobs. 

              Q: Who will this technology help?

              A: Worldwide, there are 4.6 million people who can’t speak because of ALS or cerebral palsy. Too many people think that if they can’t contribute, it’s because they have nothing to contribute. But these disabilities aren’t reflections of cognitive ability or potential. We are empowering people with disabilities by giving them a voice and the ability to live out their life goals. 

              Q: What would the world look like if people with disabilities had a bigger role? 

              A: There are a lot of big societal problems facing the world today, and this is an untapped population of global problem solvers. Research shows that someone who has experienced adversity is more apt to make decisions to help others, to have empathy and sympathy. They are natural problem solvers. 

              Q: When will the product be available?

              A: The launches are in May in the United States and in June in Ecuador. We won’t be exporting from the United States; we are helping local people make and maintain the devices, and training users’ family members and caretakers to take care of them. And we’ll make sure the devices are in the users’ indigenous language, as well as Spanish and English. We are looking for our next pilot countries to launch ProjectVive and give more people with disabilities a voice. 

              — Anne Stein

              • Read more stories from The Rotarian

              Freedom of Speech 2018-05-23 08:00:00Z 0

              Curve Your Enthusiasm

              The joy of steering your interests toward something completely different

              By

              “When was the last time you did something for the first time? When was the first time you did something for the last time?” Those questions are tacked to the wall of my office. I have, at certain times in my life, received odd bits of wisdom; they all end up on the wall. A cartoon acquired at my first job depicts a sign on a muddy road warning: “Choose your rut carefully. You’ll be in it for the next 18 miles.” My editor had given it to me. When I would complain about a certain task, he would say: “How you deal with boredom may be the most defining of character traits.”

              That became one of my core principles: One should always be on a learning curve. It helped that my job demanded discovery. As a writer, I explored new topics every month. The rut I chose lasted 40 years. 

              To be on the learning curve you must be willing to be a beginner again, to wrestle with skills not entirely under your control.

              Illustration by Dave Cutler

              And then it disappeared.

              I thought I was prepared. I had the notion that before you retire, you should have three passions on call, three irons in the fire, to fill the sudden abundance of time. I decided to devote more effort to photography; to reread One Hundred Years of Solitude and every mystery by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler; and to learn the guitar riff or the first 10 bars of every Beatles song. (OK, maybe just the ones in the key of E.) 

              I soon discovered the flaw behind to-do lists. When the list is accomplished, you hit a “now what?” moment. I had simply spent more time indulging existing talents and interests. And none of those goals took me out of the house, involved other people, or kept me connected. I was no longer taking risks.

              The learning curve, I realized, should lead somewhere.

              A friend who took up online dating apparently mixed up his likes and dislikes in his profile. It took him months to notice that the women he was meeting were drawing him into activities he had previously avoided – and that he was enjoying himself. 

              Something similar happened to me. My likes had brought me this far in life, but what did I know? I met a woman who loved jazz. Before then, I owned maybe three albums of music without words. A year later, my listening now includes Anat Cohen on clarinet, Wes Montgomery and Bobby Broom on jazz guitar, Wynton Marsalis. I sat in the balcony of Chicago’s Orchestra Hall and watched 77-year-old McCoy Tyner grab handfuls of heaven on the piano, delivering an entire lifetime in a single evening. I discovered the American songbook, came to appreciate the phrasing, the power of a single word. Nina Simone. Billie Holiday. The continuing education changed my map of Chicago, my hometown. I discovered the Green Mill, a jazz club that had been a speakeasy in Al Capone’s era. 

              The learning curve should lead you out of the house.

              I am not a foodie, but in the past year I have eaten at 35 restaurants that were not Cross-Rhodes, the Greek place that was the go-to choice for my kids for 20 years. All in the company of friends, old or new. Ted Fishman, author of Shock of Gray, a book on aging, pointed out that people who adopted the Mediterranean diet, hoping to live longer, were missing the point. In those cultures, breakfast, coffee, lunch, wine, and dinner all happen in the company of other people. Conversation is as important as the nature of calories consumed. Visit a café in Rome: What you notice first is that no one is talking on a phone. They are lost in face-to-face conversations.

              The experts recommend learning a musical instrument but say that practicing something you already know doesn’t count. I was a child of the folk scare of the ’60s, so I play acoustic guitar. But I seldom ventured above the fifth fret, and I never bent a note. I belonged to the “learn three chords, play 10,000 songs” school. Suddenly my hands were attempting jazz chords (learn 10,000 chords, play three songs). My hands sometimes cramp up in a Dr. Strangelove spasm. A concerned friend asked, “What’s that?” I responded, “Oh, a D augmented 9th or maybe a G13.”

              I have a friend who decided, out of the blue, to learn stand-up bass. He mastered the instrument, formed a jazz quartet with a killer vocalist, and now plays at clubs and galleries around Chicago. 

              I met a woman who, after working as an emergency room physician for decades, developed a passion for tango. She takes lessons three nights a week. She travels to tango festivals and has gone to Argentina to work with legendary dancers. She owns multiple pairs of shoes with heels cut to different heights to perfectly match her partners. And you thought golf was equipment-intensive.

              A friend asked one day if I would be interested in an afternoon listening to Israeli voices, people telling stories about their experiences on a kibbutz, about attending school, about finding love on the streets of Jerusalem. Why not? One story haunted me for weeks. What was going on? I usually forget the plot of a movie by the time I validate parking. 

              I discovered that Chicago is home to a major storytelling community, one you can find in a bar or on a stage every night of the week. This, too, changed my map of the city. I have attended Moth “story slams” from the South Side to the North Shore, sat in intimate Irish pubs being moved to laughter or tears or heartache by the sound of human voices. 

              Find a microphone. Tell your story. This campfire has been burning for millennia. It is human connection in its purest form, the exact opposite of what often happens in social media.

              Curve Your Enthusiasm 2018-05-16 08:00:00Z 0
              2018 Homer High Rotary Scholarship Recipients 2018-05-16 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Youth Leadership Awards -- 2018

              Beth spent an amazing 4+ days with 4 outstanding students at RYLA in Whitehorse.  They were easy to travel with, insightful and respectful, engaged and inspired.  Thank you for allowing me to have this experience!  Thanks to the Downtown Club for their partnership allowing us to bring more students to RYLA.  They plan to share their experience with us on May 24th at the Club Assembly.  For MANY more pictures of RYLA 2018 go to Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary at < www.facebook.com/ >

              Rotary Youth Leadership Awards -- 2018 2018-05-09 08:00:00Z 0

              Bright Lights, Big Heart

              For 95 years, the Rotary Club of Las Vegas has helped build a city that transcends showgirls, celebrities, and slot machines
               
              By Kevin Cook
               
              Two weeks before Christmas, Santa Claus hangs a left on Tropicana Avenue and drives toward a mall, shielding his eyes from the desert sun. He passes a cactus festooned with holiday lights and, as he walks into J.C. Penney, shouts, “Ho, ho, ho!” to children rubbing their hands together for warmth. The temperature? A frigid 55 degrees.
               
              Dressed in shirtsleeves and a battery-powered Santa hat that flops back and forth on his head, Old St. Nick bears an uncanny resemblance to Jim Hunt, an insurance executive who runs the annual Santa Clothes program for the Rotary Club of Las Vegas. Each year the program sponsors shopping sprees for underprivileged children. Hunt built the program from 35 grade school students in 1996 to 365 today.
               
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/OpenerFinal_clean_RC0139.jpg?itok=mVvvePjm
               Fremont Street, aka Glitter Gulch, 1952
              Photo by Edward N. Edstrom
               
              Inside Penney’s, scores of excited children fan out through the aisles. “Happy shopping!” exclaims Santa Jim as the kids run out of sight.
              Each child has a guide to help find the right coat or shoes. Jennifer, 17, helps a first-grader try on an Avengers T-shirt. “It’s so fun being on the grown-up side of things,” Jennifer says, beaming. Ten years ago she was a Santa Clothes kid herself, picking out shoes, jeans, and a blanket decorated with teddy bears. “I’ve still got the blanket. Now I want to help kids who need it like I did.”
               
              Club President Michael Gordon stands by a cash register. Each kid has a $200 spending limit. “We want them all to get as close to the limit as possible,” he says. “It’s a bit of a crapshoot to see who comes close without going over.” And if anyone goes over $200? “Well, we pay it.” 
              A sturdy fellow with black hair and a stubbly goatee, Gordon speaks with a slight South African accent. He came to Las Vegas as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in 2006. “I couldn’t believe my good fortune, but didn’t know what to expect in Nevada,” he says. “No one in my family had ever been to the States. But people said it got cold in America, so I came prepared.” He walked out of McCarran International Airport wearing a winter parka. 
              The parka hung in a closet while Gordon earned a Ph.D. in public affairs at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). He’s now director of strategic initiatives and research at the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance, working to speed the city’s growth. “It’s an exciting time for Las Vegas,” he says. “We’ve got the Raiders moving here from Oakland in 2020. There’s the Hyperloop, a high-speed train that might get people here from Los Angeles in half an hour. We’ve got a new WNBA team, the Aces; the beginnings of a driverless bus system; a new bar where robots serve drinks; and plans for Interstate 11, which could one day go all the way to Seattle.”
               
              Gordon laughs. Civic pride is in his blood – as is Rotary. His father, George, is president of the Rotary Club of Bellville, South Africa. “Father-and-son presidents 10,000 miles apart,” Gordon says. “That’s probably a first. We compare notes, but there’s no rivalry.” 
               
              George Gordon is proud of his son’s achievements. “Michael’s club has 137 members to our 26,” he explains via email. “We don’t have the finances to pursue as many major projects, but we do what we can. And of course I look forward to visiting his club in Las Vegas.” 
               
              Who wouldn’t? The club is pretty much like any other – except for the prime rib at meetings, casino chips in the End Polio Now piggy bank, celebrity visitors, and pirate ships outside the holiday party. And topping all that: the club’s ambitions. 
               
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_1200/public/snv002549.jpg?itok=9GGmi6bC
              The First State Bank and Kuhn’s Mercantile in 1905, the year Las Vegas was founded.
              Photo from Elbert Edwards Collection/University of Nevada, Las Vegas
               
              Eighteen businessmen founded the Rotary Club of Las Vegas in 1923. They included founding President Les Saunders, manager of the local Chamber of Commerce, as well as two bankers, two haberdashers, a butcher, a doctor, a pharmacist, an auto dealer, the town’s only dentist, and several Union Pacific railroad executives. “They were the men who built this city as a community, not just a gambling mecca,” says Michael Green, an associate professor of history at UNLV.  “A real city needs bankers and businessmen, not just casinos.”
               
              In those days, Las Vegas was a busy if sparsely populated (2,304 residents) railroad crossing. But after 1931, when Nevada legalized gambling and construction began on the Hoover Dam, the town gradually morphed into Sin City, the country’s capital of legal vice and quickie divorces. During the 1950s, with the construction of nearly a dozen hotel-casinos on the Strip, it boomed like the atomic bombs the military tested in the desert 65 miles northwest of town. By 1960, the population had grown to 64,405. Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack yukked it up at the Sands, soon followed by Elvis Presley, who put the viva in Las Vegas.
               
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/pho008055.jpg?itok=Vir-csjH
              Cy Wengert, in hat, a charter member and president of the Rotary Club of Las Vegas.
              Photo from Wengert Family Collection/University of Nevada, Las Vegas
               
              Through it all, casino operators and business leaders, some of them Rotary members, worked together. One Rotarian’s off-hours tasks included carrying bags of silver dollars from casinos to a mob boss. When there were too many bags to fit in his car, he switched to a limo, then to a truck. Another Rotarian dreaded meetings because the club fined members who got their names in the paper – and he had been indicted for skimming casino cash. (A bum rap, his lawyer said.)
               
              “Gaming was legal,” says Green. “A businessman didn’t need to know where a client got his money. One thing that meant was that mob money not only paid for much of the city, it served many good ends. You might go to someone like Bugsy Siegel and say, ‘We’re raising money for a great cause. We need free use of your ballroom and $3,000.’ That’s in everyone’s interest.”
               
              The Las Vegas Rotary Club met in showrooms at the Stardust, Harrah’s, and the Desert Inn. Fines for being late or forgetting your Rotary pin started at $100. “Everything’s bigger in Vegas,” says Bob Werner, a longtime florist whom the stars called whenever they needed a floral horseshoe or a car full of roses. “It’s a good florist town,” he reminisces. “Diana Ross naturally needs more flowers in her dressing room than Céline Dion, and Céline needs more than Diana. I did OK. Now I enjoy going to meetings at the best club in the world.”
              “I think it helps that we’ve got a chip on our shoulder,” says Randy Campanale, one of a dozen past presidents who play active roles in the club. “When people call us Sin City, it makes us want to prove we’ve got good people here.”
               
              Last fall, a gunman perched in the Mandalay Bay hotel killed 58 people and wounded 422. Within hours, Gordon was phoning the past presidents, men and women he relies on as trusted advisers. He had one question: “What can we do?” The club arranged to pay for needy victims’ funerals.
               
              It was only the latest of its many causes, which include food and blood drives, tuition grants, and awards for exemplary soldiers at Nellis and Creech air force bases, key employers in Clark County. Gordon also wants to bring in a Junior Achievement BizTown, a kid-size city where grade school students play everything from chief financial officer to mayor to intrepid reporter.  
              1.      https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/pho008056_0.jpg?itok=uLirmDoc
              Rotarians in cowboy hats celebrate Helldorado Week, 1938.
              Photo from Wengert Family Collection/University of Nevada, Las Vegas
               
              2.      https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/Screen%20Shot%202018-01-27%20at%203.14.19%20PM.jpg?itok=FhJyrXfn
              The 1940 Christmas party.
              Photo from K.O. Knudson Collection/University of Nevada, Las Vegas
               
              3.      https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/Screen%20Shot%202018-01-27%20at%203.10.40%20PM.jpg?itok=Ji4aE_fS
               Auctioning town lots in 1905, the year the city was founded.
              Photo from Ferron-Bracken Collection/University of Nevada, Las Vegas
               
              These days the club meets on Thursdays at Lawry’s the Prime Rib on Howard Hughes Parkway. Members pay $30 for lunch. Over the years they’ve heard speeches from show business celebrities – such as Debbie Reynolds and Louie Anderson – as well as Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, and her husband, former mayor (and mob lawyer) Oscar Goodman; boxing promoter Bob Arum; and Jerry “Tark the Shark” Tarkanian, the towel-chewing basketball coach of UNLV’s NCAA champion Runnin’ Rebels. With an annual budget of almost $500,000 and a local foundation fund that spins off more than $50,000 a year in interest, the club has resources few can match. And the money’s legit: Las Vegas, perennially one of America’s fastest-growing cities, got respectable long ago. 
               
              “I love what they’re doing here,” says District 5300 Governor Raghada Khoury. “They’ve got a club for new members, the 25 Club, that gets them off to a flying start.” (In Vegas, new arrivals spend two years in the 25 Club, proving they’re Rotary ready, before graduating to full membership.) “They’ve got Rotaract, Interact, even Kideract for grade-schoolers. They’ve got a car show, foundation giving, PolioPlus, on and on. Smaller clubs don’t have the resources to do all that, but any club could pick one of these projects and do it well.”
               
              As it did with Jennifer, the 17-year-old Santa Clothes guide, Rotary made an early and indelible impression on Khoury. She remembers a Rotary program that brought books to children in Yonkers, New York. “I was one of those kids,” she says. “I became an avid reader thanks to those books.” As an adult, she got off to a rough start at a Rotary club in Southern California: “We were the first district ever to admit women – and the men wouldn’t talk to me!”
               
              She decided to quit Rotary, but the club president urged her to give it another try. “I threw myself into it,” says Khoury, who rose to president and finally district governor. Since last year she has put 28,000 miles on her car, driving from club to club in California and Nevada, promoting causes such as satellite clubs that meet twice a month. “I’m for ideas that can increase retention of the members we’ve got and bring new ones in,” she says. “My message is: Don’t just show up at meetings. Roll up your sleeves and be a real Rotarian.”  
               
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/Kids1.JPG?itok=-e7xXZso
              The 2017 Santa Clothes shopping spree.
              Photo from Las Vegas Rotary Club
               
              From the Santa Clothes event, Club President Gordon drives to a football field on the UNLV campus. The 300-plus kids have finished their shopping sprees and are running races with the university’s track team, hitting Wiffle balls with its baseball players, knocking down foam tackling dummies with football players, and doing jumping jacks with Runnin’ Rebels cheerleaders. 
               
              “This is life-changing for them,” says Katie Decker, who runs three elementary schools with busy Kideract programs. (Gordon calls her “Rotary’s favorite principal.”) Decker’s students learn The Four-Way Test, which is painted on her schools’ walls. Once a year, the Kideract kids attend a club luncheon in their honor. “We let them run the meeting,” says Gordon, who last year stepped aside for a Kideractor half his size. 
               
              Gordon’s next stop is the local PBS station, KLVX, where Past President Tom Axtell helped build the state’s only interactive library for deaf and blind children. Another of Axtell’s projects was higher-tech, and it has assumed an even greater significance since the October shootings. “We digitized the blueprints of all the school buildings in Las Vegas, as well as contact info for thousands of school employees, students, and parents,” Axtell explains. “If there’s a lockdown due to a terrorist event or any sort of disaster, we embed all that data in our TV signal. Viewers can’t see it on the screen, but emergency responders get it instantly.”
               
              From the TV station, Gordon heads to the city’s sprawling Salvation Army complex. Maj. Randy Kinnamon shows off recent shipments of wheelchairs and food the club has donated. Gordon shakes hands with a once-homeless chef named Jeremy – his specialty is braised short ribs – who now prepares more than 1,000 Rotary-subsidized meals a day.
               
              And then it’s back to the Strip, where pirate ships circle the social event of the year.
               
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/pho008487.jpg?itok=_w7JbHFn
              President David Welles and 1976 Rotary high school scholarship winners.
              Photo from the North Las Vegas Library Collection/University of Nevada, Las Vegas
               
              The ballroom at the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino features a deejay, balloons, giant snowflakes projected on the walls, and a theater-size movie screen showing photos from past Santa Clothes sprees. The club’s holiday party owes its youthful vibe to more than the kids on the screen. Jimmelle Siarot, a mother of three who works the front desk at the Flamingo, greets attorney Anna Karabachev, 28. They came up from the 25 Club with entrepreneur Erik Astramecki, 27, who moonlights as a mixed martial arts fighter.
               
              Not long ago, Astramecki provided one of the only-in-Vegas scenes the club is known for. “The whole Rotary club,” he recalls, “came to my first big fight,” which was staged within the eight-sided fighting cage at the Cannery Hotel & Casino. Prefight, as Astramecki psyched himself up inside the Octagon (as the fighting cage is called), the national anthem began – and then the PA system conked out. “Total silence,” says the pugilist, “till the Rotarians picked up the song. Pretty soon we’re all singing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ a cappella.” 
               
              Gordon enters the Treasure Island ballroom to scattered applause. Dressed in a kilt to honor his Scottish ancestry, he smiles and bows as some club members sing “Happy Birthday to You.” The aging president, as he calls himself, turned 40 today. “There’s a lot to celebrate,” Gordon says, posing for pictures with his wife, Amanda. 
              “We’re expecting,” Amanda adds. District Governor Khoury pins a button on the expectant mother’s waistband. It reads “Future Rotarian.”   
               
              From the stage, Gordon introduces Jackie Thornhill, who is slated to be president in 2019-20. Then he assesses the biggest fine of the year: $9,500 to a member who had gotten engaged and gotten his name in the paper. Of course, the club’s famously high fines are all for show: Offenders usually bargain their way down to $5 or $10. 
               
              After a dinner of shrimp, steak, and cake, the deejay cranks up the music. Michael Gagnon, wine buyer at the MGM Grand, dances with private investigator Arleen Sirois. Several other members pull Gordon to the dance floor. He resists at first. Fifteen hours into his workday, he looks tired. But the room is thumping as Bruno Mars belts out “Uptown Funk.” After a moment the burly, kilted Gordon throws his hands in the air. He spins and boogies for all he’s worth – no hip-shaking Elvis, but not bad for a zealous urban planner and indefatigable Rotary dad-to-be. 
               
              -- Kevin Cook is a frequent contributor to The Rotarian. His latest book is Electric October
               
              • Read more stories from The Rotarian
              Bright Lights, Big Heart 2018-05-09 08:00:00Z 0
              Homer Middle School Needs Help!! 2018-05-01 08:00:00Z 0

              Neuro-Logic

              How your brain is keeping you from changing your mind

              By By Joe Queenan                                                       Illustrations by Guy Billout

              A few years ago, when I was suffering from severe back pain, I consulted a local chiropractor, a practitioner of a medical technique I do not actually believe in. After several predictably fruitless visits, she asked me to lie on a long, vibrating bed that would help me relax by putting my body in harmony with the vibrations of the planet.

              “That won’t work with me,” I told her, gathering up my things. “I’m from Philadelphia.”

              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/Billout_imageFINAL_black%20head_Rotarian.jpg?itok=1aiAn_pS

              As an alumnus of the Quaker City working class, I held on to my disdain for all things esoteric and mystical and Eastern – yoga, tai chi, transcendental meditation, chutney – for many years until my back pain got so severe that I finally broke down and saw an acupuncturist. I would never have dreamed of doing this were it not for the intervention of a friend, a man as conservative and straitlaced as they come, who handed me Dr. Lee’s card, recommending him most highly.

              “Wait a minute,” I objected. “Guys like you don’t believe in stuff like acupuncture.”

              “If your back hurts enough, you’ll believe in anything,” he replied.

              The treatment worked; for me, it was a miraculous cure. I am not exaggerating by saying that acupuncture saved my life. This got me to thinking about how hard it is to get a person to change his mind about something unless some sort of personal crisis erupts. 

              My list of entrenched beliefs is short but inflexible. I would never change my religion or political affiliation, even when I disagree with the church or the party, and it is impossible to get me to change my views about music. I have disliked Vivaldi – Renaissance Muzak – the Grateful Dead, and smooth jazz for more than four decades, and when a friend took me to see Kenny Chesney and Lady Antebellum, begging me to give contemporary country a fair hearing, I came out hating the genre more than when I went in – something I would not have thought possible.

              I loathe beets, kale, cauliflower, clog dancing, Middlemarch, Civil War re-enactors, Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffett, the Dallas Cowboys, folk music, marzipan, and the New York Yankees, and nothing short of divine intervention is going to change my mind about any of them. 

              Most people I know have similar, though perhaps less vehement, attitudes toward one thing or another. My liberal friends could never be persuaded to vote Republican, and my conservative friends feel the same way about Democrats. I have breakfast every morning with a group of friends, including one who is quite conservative and another who is extremely liberal. They have locked horns on every major issue – guns, taxes, immigration, global warming, the designated hitter rule – every day for 15 years. Neither has ever persuaded the other to change his opinion about anything. 

              People who despise hip-hop, pro basketball, Cats, sushi, coconut water, NPR, or the opera are not going to change the way they feel about those things. The only way I could get most of my friends to listen to Wagner, eat scrapple, or rent a Steven Seagal movie would be if I could prove to them that doing so would cure lower back pain. With the scrapple, even that might not work.

              T.J. Elliott, longtime chief learning officer at the Educational Testing Service, scoffs at the notion that you can change people’s opinions by marshaling powerful, insuperable arguments. 

               

              Neuro-Logic 2018-05-01 08:00:00Z 0
               More - Winston at the Prom 2018-04-25 08:00:00Z 0

              Problems Solved

              How Jim Marggraff is inventing the way to a better future

               

              I’m in a conference room at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, to interview Jim Marggraff, but before I can even start, he launches into questions of his own: What’s the goal of this article? Who will read it? What do we want them to do with what they learn?

               

              This is the way the serial entrepreneur approaches everything from a talk with a reporter to the lack of map-reading skills in the United States to world peace. “I’m emphatically focused on what is the PTS – what is the problem to solve?” he says. “I ask that multiple times every day, because people typically aren’t clear on it.” 

              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_400/public/Jim%20Marggraff.jpg?itok=lrqOkS7Y

              Marggraff’s focus on problem-solving has made him an enormously successful inventor. His creations have included the Livescribe smart pen, which links handwritten notes with audio, and LeapFrog’s LeapPad, an electronic book that helps children learn to read and has had sales of more than $1 billion since it debuted in 1999. In October 2016, Google acquired Eyefluence, a virtual reality company he co-founded.

              After a year at Google, Marggraff “found the allure of a startup too great” and left the tech giant to become CEO of Rival Theory, a company that is developing artificial intelligence personas of world leaders and influencers that will give people access to their support and coaching.

               

              A member of the Rotary Club of Lamorinda Sunrise, Marggraff was the driving force behind Rotary’s virtual reality film One Small Act. The film follows a child whose world has been torn apart by conflict and traces the acts of kindness that make a difference in her life. Developed with Google, it debuted at the 2017 Rotary International Convention in Atlanta and can be viewed on Rotary’s VR app, which is available on iTunes and Google Play. 

               

              A desire to change the world underlies much of Marggraff’s work. “There is a thread that connects all of these technologies,” he says. “It deals with communication, understanding, learning, empathy.” His new book, How to Raise a Founder with Heart, is about raising kids with an entrepreneurial mindset. 

               

              Over breakfast, we talk about the future of virtual reality as a fundraising tool; where he gets his ideas; and how Rotary clubs can learn to think like an inventor.

               

              Q: You have spent two decades bringing together technology and humans. What has been the biggest challenge?

              A: With each of my inventions, I thought that after I presented an idea, it would be rapidly grasped and then easily accepted and adopted. I was surprised – although I no longer am – by the amount of time it takes for people to grasp the implication of a new technology, to understand its potential, and then to embrace it.

               

              Q: You’ve said that what motivates your work is making a difference in the world. Where does Rotary fit in?

              A: Each time I’d start another company, my neighbor would ask me to speak at his club. I spoke first about an interactive globe I’d invented, and then I spoke about the LeapPad, and then I came in and showed the Livescribe pen, and then, in 2011, I became a Rotary member. 

              I’d been an entrepreneur buried in my work so long, and I was looking for a means to give back. I wouldn’t have joined just a social club for businesses. It was Rotary’s commitment to doing local projects. As I began to hear about the global programs as well, I was more impressed and more interested.

               

              Q: Rotary is exploring virtual reality as a way for clubs and districts to share Rotary’s story. How do you explain VR to people unfamiliar with the technology? 

              A: Remember the old View-Master? You put this disc in, and it’s got a pair of images taken from slightly different angles, and it gives you a stereo view. VR is like a View-Master, but now the simplest way is to take your phone, put it in the little Google Cardboard box, and put some lenses in front of it. Instead of it just being a static image, it’s a movie. And instead of it just being a movie, you can look around and see 360 degrees. You see above you, below you, to the left and right. You’re inside the movie. 

               

              Q: How can a VR experience help people connect with each other?

              A: Here’s an example. Right now, you can connect virtually with 2 billion people on the planet with Google Hangouts or Skype. You can also pick up your phone and utter a phrase and within three seconds have it translated to virtually any language in the world. As we merge those technologies, you’ll be able to virtually sit in someone’s living room and talk to them as the language is translated. You will be able to connect with someone in Libya or Afghanistan or South Africa, and you’ll be able to share your feelings and thoughts. Suddenly, it’s not a remote person in a remote country. It’s an individual you can understand. 

              As the technology allows, I’m looking to see what framework we can create. First let’s connect Rotarians to Rotarians. Rotary is a global group, and we feel bonds with each other just because we’re Rotarians. Now let’s connect more personally.

              Then let’s reach beyond that and connect people outside of Rotary with Rotarians and then with others. And once this happens, it becomes more difficult for people to allow the leaders in their country to say, “Bomb them.”

               

              Q: Might we invent our way to peace? 

               

              View One Small Act and other virtual reality films on Rotary’s VR app, which is available for Android and Apple devices. Or stop by the Virtual Reality Zone in the House of Friendship at the 2018 Rotary International Convention in Toronto. 

              Use VR to share Rotary’s story at your club and district events. Watch for a new VR film in time for World Polio Day in October. Find out more at rotary.org/en/vr.

              Problems Solved 2018-04-25 08:00:00Z 0

              A Request for Help

              We need the club’s input in efforts to upgrade Ben Walters Park to make it safer and more enjoyable for the users.  A little park background and ideas our little committee have for upgrades follows.  Please look these over and offer any suggestions, improvements, and new ideas for this work.  We also need more members on our committee, so please let Dave Brann, Tom Early or Kathy Hill know if you are interested.  Being on this committee does not mean you are bound to a work party.  We will be soliciting members for help early summer, so please be willing to chip in some time for a better community (and the possibility for free coffee/drinks and snacks).
               
              The Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club and the City of Homer has an "Adopt a Park" agreement at Ben Walters Park since 2011 which states that our club is responsible for some of the maintenance and upgrades.  Our Rotary logo (brand) is visible in the park and the aging facilities and lack of playground equipment is sheds a poor light on Rotary in Homer. 
               
              The park is also beginning to be used for nefarious activities by the younger generation.  The upgrades we envision would enhance the quality and safer use of the park. The McDonald's franchise owner expressed enthusiasm to help support our work to upgrade this park because of the close proximity to their facility and potential customer use of the park.
               
              Our “Cranium Cup” trivia night this winter netted us approximately $2,000 with the stated proceeds going to Homer parks upgrades.  We plan to use these funds and a lot of Club "sweat equity" to complete many of the following projects.  Construct two to three picnic tables, sand and varnish existing benches and construct several new benches, brush and open some of the wooded area for better visibility and safety, refurbish/replace boundary posts, repaint the inside and outside of the public bathroom, and install lighting on the park grounds.  With the club money, a District 5010 matching grant, and some probable help from McDonald’s, we hope to purchase several new and fairly simple pieces of playground equipment to encourage more use by families.
              This will be a very visible Rotary project which will greatly benefit the community.
              A Request for Help 2018-04-25 08:00:00Z 0

              How to Start a Community Based Rotaract  Club

              Join us for an upcoming webinar, How to Start a Community-Based Rotaract Club
              Rotary President-elect Barry Rassin set a goal for Rotary to double Rotaract clubs around the world in 2018-19. So let’s get started! Join us for the webinar How to Start a Community-Based Rotaract Club on Wednesday, 9 May, at 12:00 Chicago time (UTC-5). Hear Rotary staff, members of community-based Rotaract clubs, and Rotarian sponsors explain why community-based clubs are a great option and how easy it is to start one. View the webinar time in your region and register.
              http://msgfocus.com/files/amf_highroad_solution/workspace_21/newsletter_images/blank.gif
              How to Start a Community Based Rotaract  Club 2018-04-25 08:00:00Z 0

              ROTARY - Notice of Business Meeting & Proposed Resolutions

              Dear District 5010 Rotarians:

               

              The annual business meeting for Rotary District 5010 will be held in Seward on Saturday, May 19, 2018.  For the 2018 conference, seven resolutions will be presented and voted upon at the annual business meeting along with nominations received for the (Zone) RI Director Nominating Committee. 

               

              With this communication, we notify clubs that submitted resolutions and the current financials reports are available for review on the district website, http://rotarydistrict5010.org under "Documents" on the right hand side.  Following is a direct link to the packet:

               

              https://clubrunner.blob.core.windows.net/00000050002/en-ca/files/homepage/resolutions-2018/2018-Resolution-Packet-D5010.pdf

               

              The 2016-17 financial report and the year-to-date 2017-18 financial report are also posted, and will be presented in detail at the business meeting.

               

              Substantive proposals to come before the electors at this year’s business meeting include:

              • Resolution 5, which establishes procedures in the District MOP for the expenditure of excess reserve funds (those that exceed 12 months of operating expenses), and
              • Resolutions 6 and 7, which are identical and propose revisions to the process for selecting the District Governor.

              Please review and discuss the proposed amendments in advance with your board and designated electors and be sure the electors come to the meeting prepared to efficiently conduct District business and represent your club’s position.  There will only be an hour allocated for the meeting on Saturday afternoon. If you have questions about these proposals, please contact the sponsors, as follows:

               

              Resolution 5 – District Excess Reserves Fund procedures: 

              Andre Layral, Fairbanks Sunrisers, alayral1920@gmail.com

               

              Resolutions 6 & 7 – Changes to DG Selection procedures: 

                          Alana Bergh, North Pole Rotary, alanabergh@gmail.com

                          Cheryl Metiva, President Susitna Club, clmetiva@gmail.com

               

              Please refer to Article XIII of the District Manual of Procedure for information about how resolutions are submitted and voted upon at the annual district conference (available on the district home page under “Documents”).  The resolutions will be effective July 1, 2018 unless otherwise noted. 

               

              We look forward to seeing you in Seward!  Please don't hesitate to contact me, DG Harry Kieling, or DGE Diane Fejes with questions by phone or email.

               

              Best regards,

               

              Ann

               

              Ann Metcalfe

              Administration Committee

              anngmet@gmail.com

              907-321-3686

              ROTARY - Notice of Business Meeting & Proposed Resolutions 2018-04-17 08:00:00Z 0

              Announcements:  April 12, 2018

              From the Desk of President Beth

              Thanks to Ed and Jan for a great month of music, art and unique and interesting presenters!  It was a lot of fun to mix things up and learn about and be exposed to new and different things!

              We are in need of a Treasurer for the 2018-19 year!  Please let me or Bernie know if you are interested in helping out the club in this way.  It would be ideal to have the opportunity to work with Susie for a couple of months to learn the system before taking over in July!

              Don't forget to sign up for the Guess Who's Coming to Dinner event on April 14th!  It's a fun way to enjoy getting to know the fellow Rotarians in our club!

              Please continue to bring toiletries to our Thursday meetings so we can package them up and give them to Haven House for distribution to residents.  These items that go into the welcome baskets they provide are so important as many may arrive with nothing.

               

              We need an Ad Hoc committee to work on coming up with a recommendation for how to use the money earned at the Cranium Cup event to enhance our community parks.  We would like to apply for a District grant - so our $2000 will be matched by $2000 and we will have $4000 to work with.  Members of the committee need to investigate needs and come up with a recommendation to present to the Club and Board by the end of March.  Contact Beth if you would like to help with this!

              Don't forget to register for the District Conference - held in Seward this year May 17-19!

              Ask Winston what's on his Alaskan "bucket list" and see if you can help him check something off! 

              Thanks!

              Beth

               

               

              Open World

              We are looking for eight host families for the 2-10 June 2018 Open World Russian Delegation Visit. At present we have two volunteers, so we still need six more hosts. Please contact President-Elect Bernie Griffard if you can assist. His phone is 717-319-2653; email griffbfgak@gmail.com.

              Announcements:  April 12, 2018 2018-04-11 08:00:00Z 0

              Proposed Guidelines for “Meet, Greet and Dine With Rotary Community Leaders” Fundraising Events

              Proposed guidelines for “Meet, Greet and Dine with Rotary Community leaders” fundraising events (March 2018)
               
              1.       Host invites “Community leader/celebrity Rotarian(s)” to a fundraising dinner and notes how many additional guests can be invited
              2.      Celebrity Rotarian and/or host invites additional guests – preferably people who are not Rotarians, who may learn about Rotary and may be interested in membership.
              3.      Each person who attends the dinner (except the host/s) contributes $30 for his/her meal and drinks
              4.      Money raised will fund education/training activities of Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay
              5.      Host and Celebrity Rotarian guest(s) select date and time of dinner
              6.      Host prepares the meal.  Other non-participating Rotarians may contribute food or drinks for the event.
              7.      Host and Celebrity together decide topics of conversation that may be discouraged. 
              8.      Rotarian hosts and Rotarian “celebrity guests” form the committee to distribute the funds raised.
               
               
              Rotarian Celebrities (not an inclusive list- just for examples):  Representative Paul Seaton, City Mayor Bryan and Karen Zak; City Manager, Katie Koester; KBC Director Carol Swartz; CACS Director, Beth Trowbridge; Hospital Public Relations Director, Derotha Ferraro; Save U More Manager, Mark Hemstreet; KHLT Director, Marie McCarthy; City Planner, Rick Abboud; Chamber Director, Debbie Speakman; etc.
               
               
              First Fundraiser dinner, hosted by Vivian Finlay and Clyde Boyer, with Mayor Bryan Zak, and City Manager, Katie Koester, as the honored Rotarian guests, held on March 3, 2018; four community guests attended.  $180 was donated by the guests; $30 by CTB; = $210.00.  Charlie Franz, Club Secretary, received this as scholarship to attend the District conference in Seward, in May 2018.
              Proposed Guidelines for “Meet, Greet and Dine With Rotary Community Leaders” Fundraising Events 2018-04-11 08:00:00Z 0

              Coffee Anyone?

              Our Club obtained a global grant to purchase and install a coffee roaster machine, and to train Mayan descendants in a remote mountain village in Guatemala to roast their own coffee.  The farmers' coffee is organically grown in the mountains under the rain forest canopy and is single source and delicious.

              The farmers are now able to roast their own coffee to international standards.  Earth Friendly Coffee Company purchases as much of their coffee as they can sell, and at better than fair trade prices.  The company is always looking for new customers.

              Many people in our Club used to purchase and drink the coffee before the farmers were roasting their own.  Our members will be pleased with the results of the coffee being sold now.

              http://www.earthfriendlycoffee.com

              We hope people will continue to support the farmers who we supported with this project.

              Coffee Anyone? 2018-04-11 08:00:00Z 0

              Club Innovation: New Membership Categories Attract New Members

              When membership dropped below 20, the Rotary Club of Central Ocean Toms River, New Jersey took a leap of faith by offering a radically different membership structure to retain and attract members. The risk has paid off with a membership increase of 61 percent in two years.

              When Mike Bucca took over as membership chair of the Rotary Club of Central Ocean in July 2015, he knew the club had a problem. Membership was down to 18 and dwindling. Bucca persuaded club leaders to look seriously at membership. 

              The Rotary Club of Central Ocean Toms River, New Jersey, is a diverse club with a nearly equal number of men and women ages 30 to 89. The club has a robust list of projects because members believe it is important to be directly involved in service. Members have tackled nine projects (and counting) during the 2017-18 Rotary year by breaking into smaller groups to work on multiple projects at the same time. Members in 2015: 18; Members in 2017: 29  

              Rotary Club of Central Ocean Toms River, New Jersey

              The club board held three membership summits where they discussed why people join Rotary and why they stay. The result was a proposal to dramatically alter the club's membership structure to attract new members by lowering the financial commitment. 

              “We want members to have a place in this club where they are contributing what they can – in time or finances,” Bucca explains. “It’s really worked.”

              The Rotary Club of Central Ocean still has standard and corporate memberships, in which a local corporation or business joins with a specified number of qualified employees serving as its designees. Members in both categories pay $399 in dues every six months. The club also offers three alternative types of membership. The first is an introductory membership. New members can join at the rate of $99 for the first six months and $199 for the second. After the first year of membership, they pay the standard rate.

              “When I joined, that was my biggest hesitation – the money,” says Bucca. “For $99 I would have joined the first time I was asked and not three years later.” 

              The second membership offering is a discount to family members of existing members paying the standard rate. Family members can join for $199 every six months, and that discount applies as long as another family member is paying the standard rate. 

              Again, Bucca drew from experience. “My wife and two other members’ wives wanted to join the club, but the family could not afford it. But half price made sense, so we gained three members.” 

              The third type is called a friendship membership. This is designed for members who are interested in helping the club and taking part in projects, but cannot commit to meetings. Friendship members pay $249 every six months.

              “People felt guilty about not coming to meetings. This eliminates that,” Bucca says. 

              The results are clearly in favor of the new system. Membership climbed from a low of 18 in 2015 to 29 in 2017. Many of the new members are in their 30s and many are women, says Bucca. “In 2013, I was the only member under 40; now we have seven. Our club was No. 1 in the district for the number of women who joined.” 

              Most importantly, the new members have invigorated the club. “Our club was dying; we were in trouble,” says Bucca. “We turned it around and are thriving.” –Susie Ma

              What is your club doing to reinvent itself? Email club.innovations@rotary.org.

              • Read more stories from The Rotarian

              Club Innovation: New Membership Categories Attract New Members 2018-04-10 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary.org Nominated for Prestigious Webby Awards — Help Us Win

              By Ryan Hyland

              Rotary.org has been nominated for a Webby Award from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which called Rotary.org “one of the five best sites in the world in its category.”

              Nominated in the association category, Rotary.org is competing with four others for the 22nd annual awards.

              Rotary International's revamped website has been chosen by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences as one of the best association websites in the world.

              “Nominees like Rotary are setting the standard for innovation and creativity on the Internet,” said Claire Graves, executive director of The Webby Awards. “It is an incredible achievement to be selected among the best.”

              The Webby Awards are the leading international honor for excellence on the internet. Rotary.org is competing for both a Webby Award, whose winners are selected by the academy, and the Webby People’s Voice Award, whose winners are chosen by public vote. 

              The academy judged websites on several criteria: content, structure and navigation, visual design, functionality, interactivity, innovation, and overall experience. 

              Help us win the People’s Voice Award. You can vote until 19 April. The winners of each category will be announced on 24 April in New York City. 

              The four other nominees for best association site are:

              ·       Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance

              ·       11th Macau Design Biennial

              ·       Trade Works for Us

              ·       Center for Court Innovation

              Visit the webbyawards.com for a full list of categories and nominations.

              Vote today!

              Rotary.org Nominated for Prestigious Webby Awards — Help Us Win 2018-04-10 08:00:00Z 0

              A Passion for Justice

              Bernice King on what it takes to reach across political and racial divides
               
              At the Rotary Presidential Peace Conference in Atlanta last June, Bernice King gave a rousing speech about the hard work of fostering peace. She challenged her audience – both those in the auditorium and Rotarians worldwide – to think anew about how they define peace and how they interact with the people they disagree with. “Every member of our world society, even our adversaries and opponents, is worthy of being looked upon with dignity,” she said.
              Addressing the current political moment in the United States, King noted how troubling it is that people are increasingly divided, with Republicans refusing to engage with Democrats and Democrats refusing to engage with Republicans. She called on people everywhere to reach across political divides.
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_400/public/Bernice%20King.jpg?itok=Ka1tEDDR
              Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa
               
              King spoke from deep experience. The youngest daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. – assassinated 50 years ago this month – she has embraced the family’s legacy of social activism. Today she is the CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. Founded in 1968 by her mother, Coretta Scott King, the King Center carries on the work of Bernice’s father by searching for solutions to poverty, racism, and violence.
              King’s career as a public speaker began in 1980 when she was 17 and, standing in for her mother, gave a speech on apartheid at the United Nations. After college, she earned graduate degrees in divinity and law, a combination that has shaped her vocation and her oratory, which evokes her father in both its style and its ambitions.
              As a law clerk in the juvenile court system of Georgia’s Fulton County, King saw the way many teens, already disadvantaged by society, faced a legal system based on retribution rather than rehabilitation. Since then, she has dedicated herself to inspiring young people and teaching them about Nonviolence 365, the King Center initiative that encourages people to emulate her father’s principles every day of the year. 
              Bernice King continues to speak out: at the White House and in South Africa; at universities, corporations, and the U.S. Department of Defense. How, she asks, can right-minded people hope to change hearts and minds when they insist on casting their opponents as the enemy? In her conversation with senior editor Hank Sartin, King suggested ways we might realize an answer to that vexing question.
               
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/AP_680409042.jpg?itok=M62cNSW3
              In 1968, five-year-old Bernice King walks with her mother and other family members in her father’s funeral procession.
              AP Photo
               
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/AP_8211051381.jpg?itok=b7se8kfa
              King speaks against apartheid at the UN as a teenager.
              Associated Press photo
               
              Q: How do you win someone over to your point of view when you are reaching out to someone whose actions and ideas you find hateful and wrong?
               
              A: Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice and not people. We must do something about injustice, but in the process of addressing injustice we always want to preserve a person’s humanity. The decisions and choices that people have made and the actions that they’ve taken may be hateful, wrong, and unjust, but at the end of the day they’re still a part of our human family. 
              The possibility of redemption is always available for individuals. When your mind-frame is geared toward that, then you go to work trying to find solutions that don’t denigrate and minimize a person. You go in seeking to understand first and then to be understood. Differences of ideology and opinion may not change. However, it’s our job to spend time trying to connect with and understand the other person. 
              Studies show that people don’t change cognitively; they change because of experience. When we say people are taught to hate, that teaching is also embedded in experience. People only change through a new and different experience. How are they going to get that experience? Those experiences only come from engagement; they come from encounters. So we must have courageous conversations between people of divergent perspectives. It’s not easy work, but it’s necessary work. It doesn’t mean when you leave those encounters that you will necessarily agree with people, but in the end you will develop a better respect for them and ensure that you always leave them with dignity.
               
              Q: In your work, that means talking with people who are avowed racists, for instance. How do you get someone to sit down with you to begin that conversation when we’re in such a divided world and our positions are so firmly fixed?
              President Barack Obama greets King in 2013 on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.
              Mark Wilson/Getty Images
               
              A: We have to disarm. We don’t wait for the other to disarm. If you’re still armed and on the defensive going into the conversation, then it’s kind of like the law of attraction: You attract what energy you emit. There’s a lot of internal work that has to take place within an individual. What has helped me is really getting to know Bernice. When I get to know myself, I’ve had to learn how to love Bernice in spite of the things that I cannot stand about Bernice and the things that I know need to change in me. If I can get to a place where I can embrace and love myself in spite of all of that, then I have the capacity to do it with other people. 
               
              Q: What have you learned from working with young people?
               
              A: I believe many young people have a very narrow focus. For them, nonviolence is the opposite of violence. But nonviolence really is a prescription to elevate you to a place where you start with understanding the human condition, the interconnectedness. Once young people open themselves up and are exposed to these ideas, they gain an entirely different perspective and can see how these ideas are very relevant and usable and livable. 
               
              Q: Why has racism proven so intractable?
               
              A: First of all, racism at its core creates the notion of privileged versus unprivileged, and people who are privileged have a very difficult time giving up that privilege. Also, we’ve had a lot of people confusing the real issue of racism. Racism is prejudice plus power. The power levels are critical when you talk about racism; otherwise all you have is prejudice. So we just have to keep biting at racism generation after generation. Certainly we have made some inroads, but the systemic part of it is so difficult to address. 
               
              Q: How can we change people who are prejudiced?
               
              A: It’s incumbent upon those of us who understand to be sensitive to that and think about how to help people navigate through their fears. Violence is the language of the unheard. We’ve got to think about where people feel unheard, feel that they are insignificant. We have to ask if that’s what they’re acting out of. I’m sure we would discover that in most cases that is true.
              It is irresponsible to leave people in their hate. Most people who are very hateful can’t see that they’re hateful, because that’s all they ever knew. As a part of the human race, we have a responsibility to not let people be stuck in that kind of hate. We can’t just cut them off. Most of them are redeemable. Some of them are not, but you won’t know until you engage them. There’s a black man named Daryl Davis in Baltimore, Maryland, who asked, “How can you hate me if you don’t know me?” He decided to start encountering and connecting with some of the Klan in his area. Twenty-five of them ended up denouncing the Klan, turning over their robes to him. One of them, a former grand wizard, is now doing a lot of work in the area of race relations. So people are redeemable. If you automatically assume they’re irredeemable, all you’re doing is leaving the potential for them to sow further seeds of prejudice and hatred. 
               
              Q: At the Rotary Presidential Peace Conference, you said, “We need to re-explore the definition of peace.” Then you quoted your father: “True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.” How do we act on that insight?
               
              A: Removing the immediate tension and the conflict is one thing, but getting to the root of what created that tension and conflict – and can continue to perpetuate it – is necessary. We need to redistribute power so that it is more equitable. In the work of peace, you don’t want people to just stop fighting. You want them to agree to a new covenant of how to live together with equitable circumstances. That means looking at how power is distributed and agreeing to come up with a strategy and a plan that creates equity among groups of people. It is what Daddy talked about: the revolution of values. We’ve got to reconsider how to embrace a different model of society.
               
              Q: What advice can you give Rotarians?
               
              A: First, I remind people that it is about focus. You have to identify where your passion lies and stay focused in that area. Daddy didn’t set out to change the world; he identified his passions. He was concerned, obviously, about segregation and the way people were treated in his race, and he wanted to see that change. But his calling was ministry, and so he opted to pastor. One thing led to another, and it catapulted him into a leadership role. But he was not seeking to be great; he was seeking to be faithful to the call in his life and the passion that he had. The key word is to focus – to focus in the area of your passion. 
               
              • Read more stories from The Rotarian
              A Passion for Justice 2018-04-04 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Brand News

               
               
               
               
               
                
              March 2018
               
               
               
              The People of Action campaign makes it easy to show your community what we can accomplish together. Get started today by using the campaign materials on all your digital channels. Here’s how:
              ·        Post #PeopleofAction stories and promote club projects and events on your social media channels. Encourage club members to repost them on their social media channels, too.
              ·        Share Rotary’s new video “What We See” on your club and district websites. Share or link to it on your social media channels.
               
              doctor
               
              People of Action campaign rocks the San Diego airport
              People of Action ads ran at the San Diego International Airport in California, USA, from 10 to 24 January, when many Rotarians traveled through it to attend Rotary’s International Assembly. The district there negotiated with the on-site advertising distributor to show 10-second video clips at 20 locations throughout the terminals. Find out how these California Rotarians reached nearly 800,000 people with the People of Action campaign.
               
               
                
              doctor
               
              5 steps to telling a People of Action story
              The new People of Action campaign helps you bring Rotary’s story to life by showing Rotary members as the people of action we are. Telling our People of Action stories in a meaningful, coordinated way builds the public’s understanding of who we are and what we do. It highlights the impact we make in our communities and around the world. Learn how to tell your People of Action story and help answer the question, “What is Rotary?”
               
                
               
              New People of Action materials on Brand Center
               
               
              Outdoor
              Use these outdoor billboards and transit shelter ads for outdoor advertising opportunities in your community.
               
               
               
               
              Video
              A 25-second version of the “What We See” video is now available. Work with your local TV station or video-editing facility to add five seconds that give your club’s information.
               
               
               
               
               
              Radio 
              Use the produced radio ads or work with your local radio station to record the ad and include your club’s contract information.
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Rotary International
              One Rotary Center, 1560 Sherman Ave., Evanston, IL 60201-3698, USA
                       
                
               
               
               
               
              Rotary Brand News 2018-03-28 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Cares For Kids

               

              District 5010 Rotarians!  We have a Mission that we need your support to accomplish! 

              What is the mission?  To provide comfort and promote self-worth at the very emotional and difficult time to Alaskan children who are transitioning thru foster care through our new district project, Rotary 5010 Cares for Kids. The goal is to ensure that no child is met with a garbage bag when moving into or around the childcare system by providing age appropriate backpacks with Rotary branded blankets, personal care and comfort items.

              Last year in the Mat-Su, South East Alaska and Nome areas alone, 945 children were Out of Home (OOH), 297 were removed from their home and 244 were discharged from Foster Care.  The average child faces two placement changes while in foster care.  While OCS Officers work hard to avoid this, some children are handed a garbage bag in which to place their belongings when they are removed from their home or relocated.  With Rotary 5010 Cares for Kids, backpacks with age appropriate items will be given to children being removed from their primary residence and duffle bags will be distributed to youth being moved between foster homes or when aging out of foster care. All bags will be distributed at the discretion of OCS.

              Our pilot project will include Mat-Su, South East Alaska, and Nome.  The Rotary 5010 Cares for Kids committee will work with State of Alaska Office of Children’s Services (OCS) field offices in our partner areas to determine need and establish a protocol for request and distribution. Even though we are starting with a pilot program with three areas, OCS will be able to make requests for the entire state and have access to the backpacks and duffle bags.  We want to make sure this is a sustainable program and want to get all the logistics figured out before we launch a statewide program. 

              We recognize that there may be many other needs and we encourage Rotary Clubs to get involved where they can.  Together, we can make a difference in the lives of these children.

               Watch our Rotary Cares for Kids Facebook page as well as the District 5010 Website for updates on the project and how you can get involved.

              If you would like to personally donate to the project, ARCS is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible. 

              Send checks to: 

              Rotary 5010 Cares for Kids

              c/o Anchorage Rotary Community Services (ARCS)

              205 E Dimond Blvd, 515

              Anchorage AK,   99515

              Together we are Making A Difference!

              Rotary Cares For Kids 2018-03-28 08:00:00Z 0

              Challenge:  1.2 Million Trees

              RI president says planting trees shows long-term commitment to the community 
               
              By Hank Sartin                 Photos by Alyce Henson
               
              Ian H.S. Riseley issued a challenge last year. He wanted Rotarians to plant 1.2 million trees – one for every Rotarian in the world – between 1 July 2017, when he took office as president of Rotary International, and Earth Day, 22 April 2018. Clubs around the world have embraced that challenge, and in his travels this year, Riseley himself has often been asked to pick up a shovel. 
               
              Q: Why tree-planting?
               
              A: Environmental issues have not featured highly on the radar of Rotary International in a corporate sense since 1990-91, when President Paulo Costa’s Preserve Planet Earth program inspired thousands of clubs to carry out environmental projects. I was keen to give Rotarians an incentive – and the opportunity – to show their concern for the environment. It’s important to me and it’s important to many other people. 
               
              As part of 2017-18 RI President Ian Riseley’s tree-planting initiative, members of the Rotary International Staff Society planted eight trees in a bird sanctuary in Evanston, Illinois, USA. 
               
              Why trees? Because anyone can do it, just about. If you can’t plant one yourself, you can still support tree-planting somewhere that needs it. From everything I’ve heard, people inside and outside Rotary have embraced this idea.
               
              Q: Why do you think this idea has inspired such enthusiasm?
               
              A: There’s something about planting a tree that speaks to people in a very primal way. It shows a long-term commitment to the community. Rotary does many wonderful community projects: We build playgrounds and clean up rubbish and many other things. But somehow, planting a tree captures the imagination. 
              I’ve seen many examples of communities getting involved. The government of Romania heard about the initiative and said, ‘We want to plant trees too, but we don’t have the personnel to plant them.’ The government offered to donate trees that Rotarians would plant all over the country. So Rotarians are planting a million trees there.
               
              Q: How do trees fit into Rotary’s areas of focus?
               
              A: In some way, planting trees speaks to all of the areas of focus. Research has shown that trees are good for economic and community development – they increase property values. Planting a tree promotes peace simply by giving people a place to sit in the shade and contemplate the world. Trees are good for disease prevention and treatment, because the world is a healthier place with more trees to produce oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide. You can make a case for trees relating to all our areas of focus. 
              There are parts of the world where deforestation has caused significant damage. It’s not within the bailiwick of Rotary to redress that; we just don’t have the capacity. But we’d like to demonstrate the importance of having trees in our communities and the difference that they make to us. 
               
              Q: The imagery of your presidential tie is the golden wattle, Australia’s national flower. Have you always been interested in plants?
               
              A: I’ve been interested in growing native Australian plants since before I was a teenager. My father was keen on propagating plants. When my wife, Juliet, and I bought our first house, I wanted to create a garden that mirrored what used to occur naturally in the area, with plants that are indigenous to that particular part of Australia. When I was thinking about my presidential tie, it was a no-brainer to incorporate the golden wattle. It’s very colorful. I know some Rotary presidential theme ties have been relatively sedate, and I wanted mine to be slightly out there. 
               
              Q: You’ve participated in many tree plantings this year. What have been some more memorable ones?
               
              A: In Iceland, we planted a tree in the Friendship Forest, Vinaskógur, where visiting dignitaries and heads of state have planted trees. Queen Elizabeth II planted a tree there. I’d just note that Rotary’s tree is planted just a little bit higher up the slope than hers. 
              An organization Rotary works with in South America wanted to plant a tree in Antofagasta, Chile, on the edge of the Atacama desert. I asked if it was practical to plant a tree in the desert. They showed me how they had set up a system to take water from the roof of their building when it rains. The tree can survive and thrive if they do it right. 
              In Northern California, a massive 100-year-old oak tree had come down, and Rotarians wanted to plant something in its place. The tree we planted is a small thing now, of course, just a meter high. People there were talking about the role that trees will have in the restoration of the area where they had the wildfires last year. A forester I spoke to told me that planting trees helps to stabilize the soil so it doesn’t wash away when it rains. It was a strong reminder of the many benefits of trees – not just converting carbon dioxide to oxygen, but also halting erosion, providing habitat for animals, and so many other things. 
              I’ve helped plant trees in Sardinia, in Latvia, in Australia. Everywhere I go, I get my hands dirty.
               
              Q: Your tree challenge officially ends on Earth Day, on the 22nd of this month. Do you hope that clubs will keep on planting trees?
               
              A: We want everyone to keep going. And it’s not just planting the tree. It’s nurturing the tree to ensure that it thrives. Planting a tree is a commitment to the future.
              Challenge:  1.2 Million Trees 2018-03-27 08:00:00Z 0

              What Happened at Club Assembly in March

              For those who missed Club Assembly in March, you missed a bunch of fun!!  Live music, wild partying, lots of people having fun talking with each other---the whole enchilada!!
               
              The party--meeting---started with LIVE MUSIC!!  Harp, guitar, and flute performed by Starlight  , including the invocation!  Then announcements, then Winston's report on his doings for the last few weeks. Then came BIRTHDAY CAKE, and Winston found out that the older you get, the harder it is to blow out all of the candles!  Cake for everyone!
               
              Starlight
               
               
               
              What Happened at Club Assembly in March 2018-03-27 08:00:00Z 0

              A Soldier in the War on Polio

               ‘There are many polio warriors in Rotary, ” RI President Ian H.S. Riseley remarked at a fundraising dinner for End Polio Now in January, addressing the 400 attendees who filled the banquet hall of a hotel just south of Denver. “But none are more loyal or dedicated than Grant Wilkins. … Together, with 1.2 million of his closest friends from around the world, and their partners, we are on the threshold of greatness.”
               
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/Intro_1.jpg?itok=ZbFaRXaX
              C. Grant Wilkins participates in a National Immunization Day in Côte d’Ivoire in 1998.
              Photo courtesy of C. Grant Wilkins
               
              C. Grant Wilkins, who sat at the table in the front row with his wife of over 50 years, Marlene, took the comments and the following ovation in stride. At 91, he walks with a slight stoop but still drives, travels, speaks, and maintains a busy schedule. He may not have universal recognition as a man who has helped save millions of lives, but he is. A member of the Rotary Club of Denver since 1969, he’s the first to say that it’s only through Rotary that anything like that could be done. “Rotary is the only way I’ve known of helping lots of people around the entire world,” he says. “We’ve saved millions of kids from polio. There’s no way I could even begin to do anything like that without being a member of this organization.” But Wilkins has been an important part of Rotary’s eradication efforts as well as many other Rotary initiatives. And his dedication begins with his own life story.
              In 1951, Wilkins was living in Denver with his wife, Diane, working his first job out of college. One day he started to feel ill and couldn’t keep food down. He went to the hospital. “They thought I had the flu,” he recalls. “Then they did a spinal tap, found the polio virus in my spinal fluid, and put me in the polio ward.” The virus had attacked his throat, paralyzing his vocal cords and making it impossible to swallow. The doctors performed an emergency tracheotomy. As Wilkins writes in his memoir, Two Drops that Changed the World, “polio would be the center of my young family’s life and totally change my wife’s life for the next 13 years.”
              Within two weeks, his fever broke, and Wilkins was moved from the isolation ward. Then, while Diane was visiting him at the hospital, she mentioned that she wasn’t feeling well. Doctors performed a spinal tap, and her diagnosis came back: polio. Within 24 hours she was almost totally paralyzed and placed in an iron lung, where she would stay for 2½ years until a portable respirator, a new invention at the time, allowed her to leave the hospital. Grant spent months learning to speak again.
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_400/public/Intro_4.jpg?itok=phCsANmE
              Grant and Diane at home
               
              Shari and Mark with their mother.
               
              In 1952, the year Jonas Salk began work on the first effective vaccine, some 58,000 people in the U.S. contracted polio, resulting in over 3,000 deaths and over 21,000 patients with some level of paralysis. In 1953, vaccination field trials began, and from 1955-57, incidence of the disease in the U.S. fell by 85 to 90 percent.
              This was too late for the Wilkinses, but they carried on after Diane’s illness. For the next 13 years, they raised their three children, building their life around keeping Diane’s respirator going. She learned to paint holding the brush in her mouth, taught their kids to love music, and impressed everyone with her will to survive. In 1964, she passed away at age 36.
              The family managed as well as they could. Soon, Wilkins grew close to an acquaintance, Marlene Siems, and in 1965 they married. A few years later, the kids were grown and gone, and Wilkins’ billboard business had been bought out under the federal Highway Beautification Act. So with an eye toward meeting people and helping others, in 1969 he joined the Rotary Club of Denver.
              “I was born into Rotary,” Wilkins says. “My dad was a member of Fort Worth’s Rotary Club when I was born in 1926.” Everywhere they moved – in Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, and finally Colorado – his father joined Rotary. 
              At first, Wilkins focused on local projects, such as one that partnered Rotarians with underprivileged children in the Denver public schools. In 1978, he was elected president of the club, and in 1981 he helped start the Artists of America exhibition, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Denver Rotary Foundation. Over the next two decades, the show and sale would raise $1.9 million for the Denver Rotary Foundation and would also benefit the Colorado History Museum.
              Then in 1985, RI President Carlos Canseco proposed that Rotary take on polio eradication. Given his history with the disease, Wilkins’ name was put forward to advise the program, which was called PolioPlus. “None of the senior leaders in Rotary had had polio themselves and/or had a wife that was totally paralyzed from it, so I was unique, ” he recalls. He became a key player in PolioPlus from its inception.
              As a result of the efforts of Rotary and its four partner organizations, polio is on the verge of being eradicated, with just 22 cases reported last year as of 31 January 2018, down from 350,000 in 1988. 
              Wilkins celebrates his 90th birthday with his extended family.
               
              But Wilkins has not limited himself to polio eradication. He helped establish the Russian Health Initiative, which hosts health fairs where people can be screened for a variety of medical conditions. 
              Wilkins was also a force behind Rotary’s focus on clean water. In 2003 he gave a talk at the American Water Works Association convention, where he learned that 6,000 children were dying each day from lack of clean water. 
              “I was chairman of the Health, Hunger, and Humanity task force for The Rotary Foundation worldwide that year,” he says. “So I went back and made water a task force of its own. We said that if every Rotary club would do one water project somewhere in the world, we could really change that. And already, we’ve got those deaths down to less than half. Instead of 6,000, it’s down below 3,000.”
              After Riseley spoke at the January event, Grant and Marlene were called up onstage to be presented with a surprise check representing donations to a special C. Grant Wilkins PolioPlus Fund, which had been set up by members of the Rotary Club of Denver. In just a few months, the fund had easily collected over $100,000, which was matched 2-to-1 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The check was signed “Friends of Grant.”
              “Every Rotarian is a soldier in the polio war,” Wilkins says, looking back on all this. “We have over 35,000 places in the world where we have troops on the ground. That’s why we’ve been able to get this far. And that’s very, very satisfying.”
              – Frank Bures
              • Read more stories from The Rotarian
              A Soldier in the War on Polio 2018-03-27 08:00:00Z 0

              Challenge:  1.2 Million Trees

               


               

              RI president says planting trees shows long-term commitment to the community 

              By Photos by

              Ian H.S. Riseley issued a challenge last year. He wanted Rotarians to plant 1.2 million trees – one for every Rotarian in the world – between 1 July 2017, when he took office as president of Rotary International, and Earth Day, 22 April 2018. Clubs around the world have embraced that challenge, and in his travels this year, Riseley himself has often been asked to pick up a shovel. 

              Q: Why tree-planting?

              A: Environmental issues have not featured highly on the radar of Rotary International in a corporate sense since 1990-91, when President Paulo Costa’s Preserve Planet Earth program inspired thousands of clubs to carry out environmental projects. I was keen to give Rotarians an incentive – and the opportunity – to show their concern for the environment. It’s important to me and it’s important to many other people. 

              As part of 2017-18 RI President Ian Riseley’s tree-planting initiative, members of the Rotary International Staff Society planted eight trees in a bird sanctuary in Evanston, Illinois, USA. 

               

              Why trees? Because anyone can do it, just about. If you can’t plant one yourself, you can still support tree-planting somewhere that needs it. From everything I’ve heard, people inside and outside Rotary have embraced this idea.

              Q: Why do you think this idea has inspired such enthusiasm?

              A: There’s something about planting a tree that speaks to people in a very primal way. It shows a long-term commitment to the community. Rotary does many wonderful community projects: We build playgrounds and clean up rubbish and many other things. But somehow, planting a tree captures the imagination. 

              I’ve seen many examples of communities getting involved. The government of Romania heard about the initiative and said, ‘We want to plant trees too, but we don’t have the personnel to plant them.’ The government offered to donate trees that Rotarians would plant all over the country. So Rotarians are planting a million trees there.

              Q: How do trees fit into Rotary’s areas of focus?

              A: In some way, planting trees speaks to all of the areas of focus. Research has shown that trees are good for economic and community development – they increase property values. Planting a tree promotes peace simply by giving people a place to sit in the shade and contemplate the world. Trees are good for disease prevention and treatment, because the world is a healthier place with more trees to produce oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide. You can make a case for trees relating to all our areas of focus. 

              There are parts of the world where deforestation has caused significant damage. It’s not within the bailiwick of Rotary to redress that; we just don’t have the capacity. But we’d like to demonstrate the importance of having trees in our communities and the difference that they make to us. 

              Q: The imagery of your presidential tie is the golden wattle, Australia’s national flower. Have you always been interested in plants?

              A: I’ve been interested in growing native Australian plants since before I was a teenager. My father was keen on propagating plants. When my wife, Juliet, and I bought our first house, I wanted to create a garden that mirrored what used to occur naturally in the area, with plants that are indigenous to that particular part of Australia. When I was thinking about my presidential tie, it was a no-brainer to incorporate the golden wattle. It’s very colorful. I know some Rotary presidential theme ties have been relatively sedate, and I wanted mine to be slightly out there. 

              Q: You’ve participated in many tree plantings this year. What have been some more memorable ones?

              A: In Iceland, we planted a tree in the Friendship Forest, Vinaskógur, where visiting dignitaries and heads of state have planted trees. Queen Elizabeth II planted a tree there. I’d just note that Rotary’s tree is planted just a little bit higher up the slope than hers. 

              An organization Rotary works with in South America wanted to plant a tree in Antofagasta, Chile, on the edge of the Atacama desert. I asked if it was practical to plant a tree in the desert. They showed me how they had set up a system to take water from the roof of their building when it rains. The tree can survive and thrive if they do it right. 

              In Northern California, a massive 100-year-old oak tree had come down, and Rotarians wanted to plant something in its place. The tree we planted is a small thing now, of course, just a meter high. People there were talking about the role that trees will have in the restoration of the area where they had the wildfires last year. A forester I spoke to told me that planting trees helps to stabilize the soil so it doesn’t wash away when it rains. It was a strong reminder of the many benefits of trees – not just converting carbon dioxide to oxygen, but also halting erosion, providing habitat for animals, and so many other things. 

              I’ve helped plant trees in Sardinia, in Latvia, in Australia. Everywhere I go, I get my hands dirty.

              Q: Your tree challenge officially ends on Earth Day, on the 22nd of this month. Do you hope that clubs will keep on planting trees?

              A: We want everyone to keep going. And it’s not just planting the tree. It’s nurturing the tree to ensure that it thrives. Planting a tree is a commitment to the future.

              Challenge:  1.2 Million Trees 2018-03-27 08:00:00Z 0

              Dispatches:

              Lending a helping paw to veterans

              When Gil Igleheart and Dick Mellinger heard that veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including many from their own generation, were being helped by service dogs, they knew they had to get involved. 

              Neither Igleheart nor Mellinger, both in their late 60s and at the time members of the Rotary Club of Cayucos-Seaside in California’s Central Coast, served in the military, but they had friends who had served and had come home troubled and scarred. 

              So in January 2016, they laid the foundation for the nonprofit organization known today as Pawsabilities for Veterans. 

              Although service dogs can help ease symptoms, they are not currently covered by health insurance in the United States. The Veterans Affairs Department provides service dogs for veterans with certain physical disabilities, but not for veterans with PTSD. The VA acknowledges that dog ownership can improve mood and reduce stress, but is waiting for reliable clinical research to confirm and detail the benefits of service dogs for veterans with mental health problems. In the meantime, the costs are paid by a patchwork of nonprofits such as Pawsabilities for Veterans.

              Pawsabilities for Veterans leaves the training and placement of the animals to another Central Coast organization, New Life K9s. This nonprofit trains dogs and then places them free of charge. In order to cover the expenses for each placement, it turns to groups such as Paws-abilities for Veterans.

              Nicole Hern and her team at New Life K9s train the dogs to wake their PTSD sufferers from nightmares and calm them when they are anxious. Hern says she can always tell when she is out with a veteran who becomes anxious: “They’re usually touching their dog a lot more, because that helps ease that anxiety.”

              –Katya Cengel

              • Read more stories from The Rotarian

              Dispatches: 2018-03-22 08:00:00Z 0

              Behind the Scenes--and More!

              Homer Alaska costume, fashion, & interior designer, Marie Walker,.....presentation at Homer Kachemak Bay Rotary on March 15, 2018.  Preceded by our own Jim and Maynard with a tune to prepare us for Saint Patrick's Day!
               
              Jim and Maynard lead us in song!
               
               
              Marie started us with a history of costuming, then went into how to (inexpensively) produce period and other costumes.  Really interesting!
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Pictures by Jan and Craig
              Behind the Scenes--and More! 2018-03-21 08:00:00Z 0

              Water for Classes

              Schools get help with clean water and hygiene

              An estimated 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation facilities that hygienically separate human excreta from human contact. Rotarian Alfredo Pérez knows the schools in Guatemala and neighboring countries can use all the help available in this area.

              The Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) in Schools Target Challenge focuses on providing clean water and sanitation systems, and equipping teachers to educate students on better hygiene practices.

              So, when Carlos Flores, then governor of District 4250 (Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras), asked Pérez in 2016 to get involved with the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) in Schools Target Challenge, he quickly accepted. As the name suggests, the pilot program focuses on providing clean water and sanitation systems, and equipping teachers to educate students on better hygiene practices.

              “The objective of the project is to develop good hygiene habits in children,” Pérez says. “By reducing absenteeism due to diseases that are acquired due to lack of water, sanitation, and hygiene in schools, we can increase their academic development. Training teachers to help children develop good hygiene habits is key.”

              Indeed, more than a year after the effort began, the Rotary Club of Valle de Guatemala, where Pérez is a member, has improved conditions for as many as 1,793 children from 10 schools in the town of Escuintla, about 40 miles south of Guatemala City, the capital. 

              Corporación Energías de Guatemala, an energy company, backed the project with a $62,000 grant. Pérez’s club and the Rotary Club of Escuintla worked with local public health officials and urban and rural planners. The project provided toilets, washing stations, and water tanks, and also supported training for teachers so that the facilities would be put to good use.

              This year, members of Pérez’s club have a budget of $30,000 for work at five more schools. 

              Pérez is giving talks around his country in hopes of recruiting more clubs to take up the challenge in their communities, and he’s seeking international partners to help expand the program.

              Educators tell Rotarians that fewer students now miss school because of gastrointestinal and respiratory illnesses, which sometimes spread by poor hand washing or lack of safe water.

              –Jenny Espino

              • Read more stories from The Rotarian

              Water for Classes 2018-03-14 08:00:00Z 0

              Meet and Greet Rotarians Dinner

              Our fundraiser/"meet and greet celebrity Rotarians" dinner last night was a success!

               

              We had 6 guests for a sit down Indian curry meal that we prepared.  The honored celebrity Rotarians were:  Mayor Bryan Zak and City Manager, Katie Koester.  Other guests were City Council member Donna, and Wayne Aderhold, and Parks, Rec...commission member, Ingrid Harrald, and George Overpeck.  Each guest contributed $30 to our Rotary club, and Clyde contributed an additional $30 for a total of $210.00.

              The funds raised are designated for a scholarship for a Rotarian who has not attended the District Conference/Assembly to attend the upcoming one in Seward in May, 2018.

              There are quite a few "celebrity" Rotarians in our club.  Our original idea was to encourage several people to consider hosting these "meet and greet" dinners and to raise funds for our club.  Rep. Paul Seaton and Tina have already said they are willing to attend one of these as guests of honor.   We now have a "template" we can share with other Rotarians who may be interested. 

              The dinner was both fun and interesting. We believe the guests had good opportunities to informally meet with our City leaders, and everyone contributed to great conversations.

              Here are some comments from Mayor Zak:  

                 
              As a Rotarian it allowed me to appreciate and learn more about other Rotarians and the other guests that had a high probability of becoming Rotarians. We did not focus solely or much on Rotary but instead we shared our personal experiences and professional experiences that allowed us to get to know and appreciate each other as members of our community. 

               

                  A small amount of fundraising value for the club with a high relationship value.

              I attach three photos!

              Vivian and Clyde

               

               
               
              Meet and Greet Rotarians Dinner Craig Forrest 2018-03-08 09:00:00Z 0

              The Talking Drum

              At our meeting of March 1, our inbound exchange student, Winston, presented the Club with two "Talking Drums", a gift from his father to our Club.
               
              Here is some information on the "Talking Drum".
               
               
               
               
               
              The Yoruba Talking Drum (Gangan)
               
              The talking drum is an hourglass-shaped drum from West Africa, whose pitch can be regulated to mimic the tone and prosody of human speech. It has two drumheads connected by leather tension cords, which allow the player to modulate the pitch of the drum by squeezing the cords between their arm and body.  A skilled player is able to play whole phrases.  Most talking drums sound like a human humming, depending on the way you play.
               
              Hourglass-shaped talking drums are some of the oldest instruments used by West African griots and their history can be traced back to the Yoruba people.  The Yoruba people of south western Nigeria and Benin have developed a highly sophisticated genre of griot music centering on the talking drum.
               
              How They “Talk”
               
              The pitch o the drum is varied to mimic the tone patterns of speech. This is done by varying the tension placed on the drumhead:  the opposing drum heads are connected by a common tension cord.  The waist of the drum is held between the player’s arm and ribs, so that when squeezed, the drumhead is tightened, producing a higher not than when it’s in its relaxed state; the pitch can be changed during a single beat, producing a warbling note.  The drum can thus capture the pitch, volume, and the rhythm of human speech, though not the qualities of vowels or consonants.  The use of talking drums as a form of communication was noticed by Europeans in the first half of the eighteenth century.  Detailed messages could be sent from one village to the next faster than could be carried by a person riding a horse.
               
              Examples
               
              The message “Come back home” might be translated by the drummers as: “Make your feet comeback the way they went, make your legs come back the way they went, plant your feet and your legs below, in the village which belongs to us”.
               
              Single words would be translated into phrases. For example, “moon” would be played as “the Moon looks towards Earth”, and “war” as “war which causes attention to ambushes”.
               
               
               
                                                                                                                                      Winston A. Ajakaye
                                                                                              District 9110, Nigeria
              The Talking Drum 2018-03-08 09:00:00Z 0

              Column:  Pets 

               How pet owners face end-of-life decisions 

              By

              One late night a few months ago, our little dog, Queenie, appeared to be nearing her last breath. She was shivering, moaning plaintively, and – most telling – refusing dog treats. My wife, Barb, wrapped her in a towel and we took turns petting her until we all nodded off.

              We were ready for this moment. Truth be told, we were almost looking forward to it. At the ripe old age of 16, Queenie had been on a downward spiral for quite some time, having lost her hearing – not that she ever did much listening – and much of her vision. There was a time when she could “go long” for a dog biscuit, catch it nonchalantly, and scamper back to the line of scrimmage, ready for the next play. These days, a treat gently tossed from a few feet away bounces off her nose and lands on the floor, where she has difficulty locating it. 

              Illustration by Dave Cutler

               

              Queenie is a puggle – a cross between a pug and a beagle, a so-called designer dog bred to combine the best traits of two breeds. In Queenie’s case, we’ve sometimes joked, the result may have been a blend of the worst. True to her contrarian character, she decided not to go gentle into that good night. The next day, she was back to her old self, as spry as any 16-year-old dog could hope to be. For her, this means snuffling and shuffling between her bed and the pantry door behind which treats are kept, with occasional stops at her food bowl in the hope that someone has filled it with something other than dry dog food, which she eschews.

              While Queenie considers her culinary options, Barb and I ponder that difficult question: How will we know when it’s time to say goodbye?

              “That is the question that everyone wants the answer to,” says Katie Hilst. It certainly is the question on the minds of most people who contact her. A veterinarian in Madison, Wisconsin, Hilst started out in 2007 offering home veterinary care and soon found that many of the pet owners she visited were facing the decision of whether to euthanize. That led her to establish Journeys Home, a service that specializes in providing at-home euthanasia for pets.

              To help her clients, Hilst developed a quality-of-life evaluation tool, an eight-point acrostic built on the word JOURNEYS that allows pet owners to calculate a numerical score based on their own observations. These include jumping or mobility (J), ouch or pain (O), and eating and drinking (E). The pet owner assigns a number from 1 to 10 for each topic; the scale includes examples to consider, such as “Your pet is refusing food and water ” (1 point) and “Your pet is eating and drinking normally ” (10 points).

               

              Column: Pets 2018-03-05 09:00:00Z 0

              Winston Ajakaye, Youth Exchange Ambassador from Nigeria

              In his short time here, Winston has participated in activities like skiing, ice skating and sledding---all impossible to do in his home country! 
              An essential part of his role as an ambassador is for him to share his culture with us and to learn about ours.  For that to happen we need to interact with him.  If you are doing something fun and would like to share it with Winston (or just want to get to know him), invite him along.  His phone number is 907 756-3747 and his email is kayeabiodun@gmail.com.  Winston will be moving to his second host family, Brian and Loreta Miller, next week.  I am very grateful for the support of our program by his first host family, Jon and Paula Kulhanek.  Without these amazing host families, our program would not exist.  Be sure and thank them when you see them.
              Winston Ajakaye, Youth Exchange Ambassador from Nigeria Boyd Walker 2018-03-01 09:00:00Z 0

              Nowhere to Turn

              As thousands of refugees streamed into Berlin, they strained the health care system. Rotarian and physician Pia Skarabis-Querfeld spent the last three years building a network of volunteer doctors to help those in need.

               

              By Rhea Wessel                                Produced by Andrew Chudzinski

               

              On the nightly news and around her city, Pia Skarabis-Querfeld saw the refugees arriving in Berlin after fleeing war, persecution, and poverty in their home countries.

               

              Wanting to help, she gathered a bag of clothes to donate and headed to a nearby gym filled with refugees.

               

              What began as a single act of charity eventually evolved into an all-encompassing volunteer project: Over the next three years, Skarabis-Querfeld would build and run a network that, at peak times, would include more than 100 volunteers helping thousands of refugees at community centers, tent camps, and other shelters across the city.

               

              Today, her nonprofit, Medizin Hilft  (Medicine Helps), continues to treat patients with nowhere else to turn.

               

              That day she went to the gym was a few days before Christmas 2014. Skarabis-Querfeld had been busy with work and preparing for the holidays. She was looking forward to a much-needed break, and she thought clothes for the refugees would be a kind gesture befitting the spirit of the season.

               

              When she arrived at the gymnasium to drop off her donation, Skarabis-Querfeld found sick children, most of them untreated because hospitals in the area were overrun. Helpers were not allowed to give out pain relievers or cough syrup due to legal constraints. All they could do was send people to the emergency room if they looked extremely ill.

               

              Seeing this, and knowing about the treacherous journeys the refugees had just made across land and sea, Skarabis-Querfeld, who is a medical doctor and Rotarian, returned that same afternoon with medical supplies and her husband, Uwe Querfeld, who is a professor of pediatrics and a Rotarian. 

               

              The couple spent most of that holiday treating patients in the gymnasium. 

              “The suffering of the people, their bitter fate, it wouldn’t let go of me,” says Skarabis-Querfeld.

              Nowhere to Turn 2018-02-28 09:00:00Z 0

              Shelterbox News

              Good Morning Fellow Rotarians,
               
              I just returned from the most amazing PETS training in Seattle. Please share this information with your clubs. I have had the privilege of meeting your incoming presidents so I will ask them about who they might like for their ShelterBox liaison. Please let them know if you are interested.
               
              Keep warm and continue being the inspiration for  Rotary

              latest news about ShelterBox's global work

              Bolivia

              Flooding
              Thousands of families have been left homeless after heavy rain caused severe flooding and landslides, which destroyed homes and livelihoods in Bolivia, at the start of February 2018.
              A month’s worth of rain fell in the space of 24 hours, forcing families to flee their homes and seek shelter in community centers or with host communities, and at least six people have died.
              We are on the ground meeting with trusted partners, to see how we can provide families with the tools they need to start rebuilding their homes.
               

              PHILIPPINES

              Flooding
              In late December, Tropical Storm Tembin brought devastation to the Philippines, arriving just days after Tropical Storm Kai-tak.
              The storm triggered mudslides and flooding, resulting in the deaths of more than 200 people, with dozens more still missing. More than 140,000 have been forced from their homes, staying in evacuation centers and with host families.
              A ShelterBox Response Team is on the ground carrying out needs assessments and initial distributions. We will be distributing a variety of aid items such as ShelterBox, ShelterKits, water carriers and solar lights to support those families that need our help the most.
               

              CARIBBEAN

              Hurricanes
              In early September, Category 5 Hurricane Irma caused devastation in the Caribbean. Less than two weeks later, Hurricane Maria made landfall, bringing with it a new wave of destruction.
              We have delivered aid across six countries, including St Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, the British Virgin Islands and Barbuda. In each country we tailored our aid to best support the needs of different communities.
              Our work continues with our partners in Dominica and Barbuda, where we are helping families to return home and begin the rebuilding process.
               

              BANGLADESH

              Rohingya Crisis
              More than 615,000 have now been forced across the Myanmar border into Bangladesh and thousands more continue to arrive each week. This is the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world.
              A majority of the displaced people are currently living in makeshift shelters of bamboo and thin plastic sheets, leaving them exposed to the elements.
              We will be supporting 4,000 families with blankets, tarpaulins, solar lights and water carriers. This vital aid allows them to collect clean drinking water, and safely move about in the camps at night.
              Flooding
              Since the Monsoon season started in June, Bangladesh has been severely hit by constant rain. At its worst, more than a third of the land was submerged.
              More than 70,000 homes have been completely destroyed and 500,000 are partially damaged. This destruction has forced 8 million people from their homes. The same extreme weather phenomenon has also affected large swathes of India, Nepal and Myanmar too.
              ShelterBox have been on the ground, working with the Bangladesh Red Cross and Rotary to help those who have lost everything in the catastrophic flooding.
              Aid has been distributed to 2,960 families which includes shelter kits, tarpaulins, blankets, mosquito nets and solar lights.
               

              SYRIA

              Conflict
              The conflict in Syria has now entered its seventh year. What started out as a peaceful protest in 2011 has since become the longest-lasting civil war on the planet.
              We’re working with our partners, Hand in Hand for Syria, ReliefAid and Bahar Organisation, to help those affected. The current focus is to distribute winter kits to provide shelter and warmth during the severe winter in this region.
              This winter aid includes blankets, school kits and tents, plus other essential aid items including kitchen sets and solar lights, giving families some sense of normality.
              In November, with the help from our partner ReliefAid we have distributed 1,400 winter ShelterKits to families inside Syria.
               
               
               

              IRAQ

              Conflict
              On July 10th, 2017 the Iraqi government declared that Mosul had finally been liberated after three years of Islamic State control.  However, the humanitarian situation is still dire in Iraq and the need for ShelterBox aid is as prevalent as ever.
              People are slowly returning to Mosul, but there is still a huge need for aid in and around the city, and a massive displacement of civilians throughout the whole country. Displaced families have struggled in the severe heat over the summer months, now they have to prepare for a long winter.
              With the help of our partners working in Iraq, in 2017 we have provided essential aid and shelter to more than 8,000 families.
               
               
               

              SOMALILAND

              Drought
              Severe drought in Somaliland has affected an estimated 766,000 people since November 2016, leading to the degrading of grazing land and displacement of families, forcing them to move large distances to seek fresh food for their animals.
              As the drought continues, we are working closely with our partner ActionAid to ensure that families have safe shelter throughout Somaliland. So far, we have supported 441 families with ShelterKits, including tarpaulins and kitchen sets.
              A team has deployed to begin the second distribution of aid that will support 1,000 families.
               

              LAKE CHAD BASIN CRISIS

              Conflict
              Since 2009, Boko Haram has been waging an insurgency in Northern Nigeria. The violence has since spread to the neighboring regions of Niger, Chad and Cameroon, affecting around 30 million people. Recent drought has created food insecurity and added another layer of need onto the existing crisis.
              Cameroon
              Our partner IEDA Relief has been distributing tents, tarpaulins, hygiene kits and other life-saving aid to the most vulnerable in Cameroon.
              In November, we successfully completed our first distribution of 1,032 hygiene kits for young women and teenagers affected by the crisis. These kits include personal and laundry soap, a bucket and sanitary towels.
              We are also working with IEDA Relief in the extreme north of Cameroon, where families who have escaped Boko Haram need our support. We are planning to build 100 emergency shelters to house 487 Cameroonians, which include students and pregnant women, whose home communities will not allow them to return.
              Chad
              In Chad we are partnering with the local aid agency ICAHD to support vulnerable families in Chad. So far, 456 semi-permanent shelters have been constructed and 500 kits of vital aid including blankets, buckets, solar lights, mosquito nets and ground sheets have been distributed to affected families. ShelterBox is now working on phase two of this project with the aim to support over 4,000 families.
              Niger
              Boko Haram attacks in the Kablewa camp led to massive population displacement in Niger. The camp was disbanded, affecting nearly 250,000 people – half of the families in Diffa.
              We worked with Plan International to provide emergency aid to those displaced. In total, we helped 896 families and we are now carrying out post distribution monitoring to ensure the aid we gave out had the impact needed and what we need to improve in our future work.
              Nigeria
              The conflict in Nigeria is now entering it’s ninth year and the devastating consequences continue to impact structures and the lives of 8.5 million vulnerable people. We are partnering with ACTED to support 765 new arrivals in two camps in the North of the country, by providing emergency shelters and non food items.
               
              Nancy Dodge
              Eagle River, Alaska 99577
              ShelterBox Ambassador
               
              ShelterBox USA | Pacific Northwest | e-Club Rotary District 5010
              e: ShelterBox: nhdodge@comcast.net | w: shelterboxusa.org Cell: 941 993-4335
              Providing shelter, warmth and dignity to disaster survivors worldwide.
               
              Shelterbox News 2018-02-28 09:00:00Z 0

              Rotaract: 50 Years of Changing Lives

              50 years ago, the first Rotaract club was formed to give young adults a place to connect and take action for good. Rotaract members from each decade share what the program was like and how it shaped their lives.

              By Arnold R. Grahl

               

              The year is 1968. 

              A wall divides East and West Berlin, as the Cold War rages on. The U.S. and the Soviet Union are locked in a space race, and Apollo 8 becomes the first manned spacecraft to orbit the moon, sending back pictures of Earth from deep space.  

                       

               

              And Rotary members in North Carolina, USA, charter the first Rotaract club, to provide young people opportunities for service.

               

              A half-century has passed since those first Rotaract clubs began inspiring young leaders to take action to improve their communities. The world has changed, as has the way Rotaract members connect with one another. But the underlying values of the program, and what attracts people to it, remain remarkably the same. 

               

              To celebrate Rotaract’s 50th anniversary, we asked former Rotaractors from six decades to share their experiences of the program and explain how it shaped their lives. 

               

              Here are their stories.

              1960s

               

              Geetha Jayaram, a pre-med student in Bangalore, India, became charter secretary of an early Rotaract club in 1968. Her father was an influential businessman in the city, and he and his friends believed the program was the perfect place for their college-age children.

               

              “They encouraged us to join as a group,” recalls Jayaram, who met her husband, Jay Kumar, the charter president, through the club. “We were all very happy to do it, because we were medical students, engineering students, and students of other vocations who got together and planned what projects we wanted to do. What enabled us to stick together was that on weekends we went around collecting funds for our projects and worked together.”

               

              Within a year, Rotaract was already so established in India that a district conference in 1969 drew thousands. Jayaram believes the program took off so fast there because the need for helping others was so evident.

               

              Geetha Jayaram, left, pictured at one of the health clinics she founded in India, was a charter secretary of a Rotaract club in 1968.

               

              “It was visible, tangible,” she says. “It was not something you thought about doing for somebody in some faraway country. It was right there in front of you.” 

               

              Rotary’s Four-Way Test, with its reference to “the truth,” also appealed to young people. 

               

              “We were post-independence children and Gandhi followers, and speaking the truth was a big thing in those days,” she says. 

               

              Jayaram says Rotaract benefited from Rotary’s reputation as a well-respected organization in India. People felt proud to belong to it. Participating in Rotary was a family activity, so many young people grew up experiencing Rotary events.

               

              “Every time we’d go to some picnic or concert or competition, there were always adults with children involved with all of the games and activities and food preparing,” Jayaram says. 

               

              After finishing her bachelor’s degree, Jayaram came to the United States to pursue advanced degrees in medicine. She joined a Rotary club in Maryland in 1997 and founded the Maanasi Clinic in Mugalur, Karnataka, India, to provide mental health services to indigent women there. A former recipient of a Rotary Grant for University Teachers, she was awarded the Rotary Global Alumni Service to Humanity Award in 2014-15.  She is an associate professor in the departments of psychiatry, public health, nursing, and the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.

               

              “I’m really proud I’m a Rotarian,” she says. “At Johns Hopkins, I always talk about my humanitarian work and how Rotary has enabled me to do so much with very little overhead. It’s hard to find that anywhere else.”

               

              1970s

               

              Lunar rovers explore the surface of the moon. Skylab begins orbiting the Earth. The Vietnam War comes to an end. In Sudan and Zaire, the first outbreak of the Ebola virus occurs. On the entertainment front, the movie Star Wars premieres. The first videocassette recorders enter the market, and Sony introduces the Walkman. Disco becomes popular.

               

              John Skerritt helped charter the Rotaract Club of Carlingford, New South Wales, Australia, in 1978, after reading a newspaper advertisement placed by local Rotarians wanting to start a Rotaract club.

               

              “That was the way you did it before the internet or cable TV,” Skerritt says. 

               

              The new club drew young people from many backgrounds. In Australia in the 1970s, Skerritt says, a significant number of teenagers left high school early to pursue a job in the trades, and fewer than today went on to college. And for economic reasons, many tended to live with their parents until they married or had established themselves in a career.

               

              The Rotaract Club of Ipswich, Queensland, Australia holds a car wash as a club fundraiser in the early 1970s. Rotaract drew young people from many backgrounds.

               

              “The area where we chartered was on the border of an affluent area, where most of the kids went on to college, but also an area that was more working class,” he recalls. “One of the exciting things about it was you actually got to meet people outside the social circles of your own suburb or high school.”

              Another interesting aspect, he says, is that the club functioned as matchmaker. “We had probably seven or eight couples get married,” says Skerritt. “We had a pretty even number of boys and girls. I wasn’t one of the seven, but I went to many of their weddings and served as best man in some.”

              In some ways, he contends, young people had more freedom then. He recalls two club fundraisers, one where Interact members sat on a platform on top of a pole for 100 hours, and another where the Rotaract members drove cars in a demolition derby. 

               

              “Can you imagine a club doing that now?” he asks.

               

              But it wasn’t all social. Members were also keenly interested in helping their community. “Bringing in speakers was a great way of exposing people to things, especially our members who’d had a more sheltered upbringing,” he says. “We had a speaker from a charity that looked after homeless people, and that was actually a great eye-opener. Many times we’d follow up with a fundraiser, like tossing burgers at the mall to raise money for the homeless.”

              One charity his club supported ended up having a big influence on his career. The organization helped people with hard-to-treat epilepsy who lived in a specialized care community. Skerritt went on to research seizure medications as part of his doctoral studies, and today he is therapeutic goods administrator in Australia’s Department of Health. 

              Rotaract: 50 Years of Changing Lives 2018-02-21 09:00:00Z 0

              Cranium Cup 2018

              It looks like Cranium Cup 2018 was a success!  Should have more information next week.
               
              Cranium Cup Participants at Alice's
               
              Congratulations 2018 Cranium Cup winners! The Mudville-9 Team from the Homer Medical Clinic!
              Cranium Cup 2018 2018-02-15 09:00:00Z 0

              Water Problems Around the World

              Aral Sea neighbors come together to resolve conflicts over a scarce resource

              Rotary is tackling one of the biggest environmental and political crises of the 21st century – water resources – and to do so, Rotarians are leveraging their ability to build connections.

              “The water crisis is one of the top three crises facing the globe, along with HIV/AIDS and malaria,” says Aaron Wolf, a professor of geosciences at Oregon State University and a water resources conflict resolution expert. “It’s not just waterborne illness and ecosystem degradation; water shortages exacerbate tensions in a lot of already very hostile parts of the world.”

              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_400/public/bbbaralsea_tmo_2001227_lrg.jpg?itok=-LnLv8Om

               

              Satellite images from 2001, top, and 2017 show the extent of recent shoreline changes on the Aral Sea. 

              NASA.GOV

              The Aral Sea basin in Central Asia is one such place. Changes in the basin have a far-reaching impact on Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. River diversion that began in the 1960s, when much of the region was part of the Soviet Union, has nearly desiccated the inland saltwater lake, once the fourth-largest lake in the world. Today, rusting ships lie beached on a desert contaminated by high salinity, and neighboring countries clash over the limited water resources they once shared.

              “Central Asia is a tough part of the world for hydropolitics,” Wolf says, “probably one of the most tense of anywhere in the world. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, a lot of the arrangements that had been internal suddenly became international, with all of the complexity and suspicions and tensions that go along with that.”

              In 2014 and again in 2016, Rotary Foundation global grants brought representatives from those nations together to help them navigate the delicate territory of diplomacy and transboundary conflict resolution. At the two symposiums, held in the Netherlands at the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, participants began to build connections and to communicate in a way that may help head off conflict and lead to more sustainable water use.

              Steve Brown, a past Rotary Foundation trustee and past president of the La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Club Foundation, learned about the Central Asian water crisis from leaders of the IHE Delft Institute, which has had a partnership with Rotary since 2012.

              Brown worked with U.S. embassies to bring in participants, mainly public-sector officials dealing with water, energy, or planning, for the first Central Asia Water Symposium. Sessions featured lecturers who study water conflict management, including Wolf.

              The goal of the first symposium was to help the representatives see the crisis through the perspective of their neighbors. Sessions included role-playing using a similar multinational water basin in another part of the world. For example, Wolf says, participants from upstream nations took on the roles of downstream representatives. Workshops also included discussions on conflict management and presentations on water issues.

              “So ideally, as they’re doing the training, they’re also having conversations around the issues that are contentious,” Wolf says. “But they’re doing it in the context of training rather that formal negotiation, so the conversation can be a little freer.”

              The initial symposium wasn’t intended to solve all of the political and environmental problems of the region; it was an effort to brainstorm and consider ways to approach the problems together.

              “For that kind of conversation, we had absolutely the right elements,” Wolf says. “And ideally, this is the kind of conversation that continues and moves forward.”

              Brown agrees. “I could see that meaningful relationships were being established and there was a lot of serious thought,” he says.

              For the second symposium, held in December 2016, Brown hoped to see two things accomplished: to continue the dialogue, and to bring in representatives from governments and organizations that allocate funds to international water-related issues, including the World Bank.

              “The problems are so large, they will take decades and probably billions of dollars to eventually resolve,” Brown says. “Rotary is here as more of a catalyst to move things forward.”

              The relationships and connections forged at the first symposium were deepened at the second one, Brown says. “On a personal level, friendships were created between people who work in their respective ministries in these different countries,” he says. “They can actually share ideas.”

              – Nikki Kallio

               • Read more stories from The Rotarian

              Water Problems Around the World 2018-02-14 09:00:00Z 0

              Homer Rotarians Deliver Dictionaries to 3rd Graders

              Hi, attached are photos taken on Wednesday, when Dennis, Bernie, Joan, Sherry and Bob and I delivered 87 dictionaries to the 3rd grade students of West Homer Elementary and Fireweed Academy.   The students are thrilled to receive this gift from Rotary and they are a huge help to them in their studies.   As one teacher told us last year. She only has one dictionary in her classroom, which means only one at most two students at a time can use it.  This way they have their own.   One of the students commented on seeing words above and below the one they looked up, not like what they get on a computer which only shows one word.   This is probably the most fun thing we do at Rotary all year.

               

              Milli

              Rotarians with 3rd Graders

              Sign Language from the Dictionaries!
              Britta with Dictionary
               
              Milli with Beau
               
              Homer Rotarians Bernie, Milli, Sherri, Joan, Dennis, and Bob
              Homer Rotarians Deliver Dictionaries to 3rd Graders 2018-02-06 09:00:00Z 0

              Healing Scars of War

              In the mountains of Poland, 26 children traumatized by violence get a chance to be kids again at Rotary camp

              By Iuliia Mendel                                                Produced by Monika Lozinska

              Beneath the emotional scars of living in a Ukrainian war zone, Mykyta Berlet flashes the same mischievousness of any other 12-year-old boy headed to camp.

              He wants to laugh, play pranks and on the last night of camp “we will cover everyone with toothpaste,” he says excitedly.

              Mykyta and 25 other Ukrainian youths headed to the resort town of Zakopane in the foothills of southern Poland are naturally focused on fun. But their two-week respite organized by Rotary members has a higher purpose: To help the children heal and cope with the trauma they may encounter when they go home.  

              Each camper has a parent or sibling killed or injured in the fighting in Ukraine. Psychologists at camp will guide them along the way during an itinerary that mixes escape and therapy.

              Olga Zmiyivska, a member of the Rotary Club of Kharkiv Multinational in Ukraine, has brought children to the camp for two years and has witnessed its impact.

              “After the trip, they are more willing to make contact and open their hearts,” she said.

              1.      

              Valeriia Salohub, 13, father killed

               

              2.      

              Mykhailo, 6, and Oleksandr, 8, Kruhlikov, father killed

               

              3.      

              Valeriia Tkachuk, 12, father injured

               

              4.      

              Andrii Tymkov, 12, father injured

               

              5.      

              Dariia Lebkovska, 11, father injured

               

              6.      

              Mykhailo, 8, and Zakharii Mazunov, 12, father killed

               

              7.    

              Dmytro Tkachuk, 11, father killed 

              8.      

              Viktoriia Babich, 11, and Khrystyna Treban, 13, fathers killed

               

              9.      

              Vladyslava Diachuk, 8, father injured

               

              10.

              Yurii Paskhalin, 12, and Vladyslav Tsepun, 12, fathers killed

               

              Ivan Bezruchak, 8, father killed, and Tymofii Zolotarov, 9, father injured

               

              12.

              Anastasiia Filonenko, 11, father killed

               

              War came into their homes

              Thousands have died and millions have been displaced by the fighting between pro-Russia rebels and the Ukrainian military in eastern Ukraine. 

              Growing up in the shadow of that nearly four-year conflict, most of the campers don’t remember a life without war. They tell unrealistic stories about battles and keep silent about real horrors. Some are guarded and hypervigilant. Others endure sleepless nights or nightmares. A few withdraw and emotionally shut down.

              In Zakopane, nestled in the scenic Tatra Mountains, Rotary members give the children a chance to heal in a peaceful setting. The children sleep in comfortable cabins along a pristine lake flanked by green, rolling hills.

              The program, called Vacation 2017 Zakopane: Well-Being for Ukrainian Kids, includes traditional camp activities and field trips along with support from mental health professionals. More than 100 children have attended over the past four years.

               

              Psychologist and art therapist Olha Hrytsenko helps children work through their grief at Vacation 2017 Zakopane: Well-Being for Ukrainian Kids.

               

              This year’s campers visited a mountain village to learn about local traditions, toured historic Krakow, and saw the castles, salt mines and hot springs of southern Poland. The routine activities are simple but powerful.

              Yuriy Paschalin and Vlad Tsepun, both 12, became close friends after their fathers were killed by snipers. The field trips helped both boys start to relax and act like typical, curious children.

              “This program allows these kids to stay kids and to live children’s emotions,” said psychologist and art therapist Olha Hrytsenko.

              “They will observe and absorb another culture, attitude, and language, (and) will be able to compare and make conclusions about what is good and what is bad. It will help them to find themselves.”

               

              Healing Scars of War 2018-02-06 09:00:00Z 0

              Proposed New Corporate Memberships

              The Board of Directors has approved the proposed Corporate memberships for Cook Inlet Keeper with the proposed  primary member to be Bob Shavelson. Proposed alternate members are Carly Wier and Marissa Wilson.

               

              For Kachemak Bay Title Agency Inc., the proposed primary member is  Lisa Roberts, and the proposed alternate member is Kathy Hemstreet.

              Please provide any comments, in writing,  NLT February 14, 2018. 

               

              If there are no objections by the membership, we plan to formally welcome them at the February 22, 2018 meeting.

              Proposed New Corporate Memberships 2018-02-06 09:00:00Z 0

              A Concerted Effort

              Column: Three days of peace and music as Rotarians convene at the United Nations

              By

              Walter Gyger is the very model of a modern UN diplomat. When I first meet him – in the lobby of the Intercontinental hotel in Geneva, Switzerland – he’s clad in gray trousers, a white shirt with a dark tie, a gray sweater vest, and a blue blazer. Silver haired and with a trim mustache, he speaks perfect English, albeit with a Continental accent. 

              If you called central casting and asked for someone ambassadorial, this is who they would send.

              See our coverage of Rotary Day at the U.N. 

              Illustration by Dave Cutler

              A distinguished veteran of the Swiss Foreign Service and Rotary’s primary representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Gyger has come to the Intercontinental to escort me and some of my colleagues to a fondue dinner at the Café du Commerce. After a mere two months as a senior editor at The Rotarian, I’ve traveled from Chicago to Geneva ostensibly to cover Rotary Day at the United Nations. In fact, the three days that I spend in Genève (as the Swiss call it) will introduce me to the vigorous and transformational spirit that imbues all things Rotary. Walter will serve as one of my guides on this revelatory journey. I mean no disrespect: Sooner or later, everyone calls him Walter.

              At the Café du Commerce – where our host is Genève International, a two-year-old Rotary club – about 50 people crowd four long communal tables. John Hewko, the general secretary of Rotary International and an honorary member of the Geneva club, is there, as is Ed Futa, the dean of the network of 30 Rotary representatives who work with the UN and other key international organizations.

              Of course they know Walter. Everybody knows Walter. He introduces me to a young Swiss woman named Karen Kienberger. Assisted by a Rotary scholarship, Karen (we’re all on a first-name basis here) is working toward her doctorate in marine biology. Specifically, she is studying jellyfish, and though enrolled at the University of Granada in Spain, she conducts her various experiments in Vienna at Tiergarten Schön-brunn, the world’s oldest zoo.

              Karen is representative of the smart, vibrant people who gravitate toward Walter. For instance, at the dinner I also meet Barbora Bruant Gulejova, one of the youngest members of the Geneva club who, with her PhD in thermonuclear fusion, works at CERN, the Geneva-based nuclear research facility that’s home to the world’s largest and most powerful particle collider. And then there’s Rebecca Tolstoy, the Swedish-born Australian Rotarian who leads Path of Hope, which crusades for global solutions to domestic violence and human trafficking.

              A Concerted Effort 2018-01-31 09:00:00Z 0

              RI Convention 2018--Toronto

              Convention: Toronto's music scene

              Toronto has a vibrant music scene that includes all types of venue, from stadiums to small bars, and features every musical genre. When you’re in town for the 2018 Rotary International Convention, from 23 to 27 June, take time to hear some live music. 

              The majestic Massey Hall hosts a mix of classical and contemporary music concerts. Massey Hall was home to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir until 1982, when they moved to the newly built Roy Thomson Hall. 

              On 28 June, just after the convention, Aretha Franklin is scheduled to appear at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts. It’s worth checking the Sony Centre schedule.

              The Horseshoe Tavern is the best-known small venue in the city. Since it opened in 1947, many famous faces have appeared on its stage early in their careers, including the Rolling Stones, the Police, and Willie Nelson. 

              Jazz enthusiasts will want to check out Jazz Bistro, where the music is accompanied by fine dining, and The Rex, a decades-old hotel, bar, and restaurant where you can hear jazz and blues. 

              Lovers of Latin music gather at the Lula Lounge to enjoy salsa bands while eating Latin fusion cuisine. Salsa instructors offer lessons on Friday and Saturday nights. – Randi Druzin

              Preregistration discount ends 31 March. Go to riconvention.org.

              • Read more stories from The Rotarian

              RI Convention 2018--Toronto 2018-01-31 09:00:00Z 0

              Rassin's 2018 presidential theme

              2018-19 RI President Barry Rassin wants Rotary members to Be the Inspiration
               
              By Hank Sartin                      Photos by Monika Lozinska
               
              Rotary International President-elect Barry Rassin laid out his vision for the future of the organization on Sunday, calling on leaders to work for a sustainable future and to inspire Rotarians and the community at large.
              Rassin, a member of the Rotary Club of East Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas, unveiled the 2018-19 presidential theme, Be the Inspiration, to incoming district governors at Rotary’s International Assembly in San Diego, California, USA. “I want you to inspire in your clubs, your Rotarians, that desire for something greater. The drive to do more, to be more, to create something that will live beyond each of us.”
               
              2018-19 RI President Barry Rassin announces his presidential theme, Be the Inspiration, at Rotary's International Assembly.
               
              Rassin stressed the power of Rotary’s new vision statement, “Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change — across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.” This describes the Rotary that leaders must help build, he said.
              To achieve this vision, the president-elect said, Rotarians must take care of the organization: “We are a membership organization first. And if we want to be able to serve, if we want to succeed in our goals — we have to take care of our members first.”
              Rassin asked the incoming district governors to “inspire the club presidents, and the Rotarians in your districts, to want to change. To want to do more. To want to reach their own potential. It’s your job to motivate them — and help them find their own way forward.”
              Progress on polio
              Rassin noted that one source of inspiration has been Rotary’s work to eradicate polio. He described the incredible progress made over the past three decades. In 1988, an estimated 350,000 people were paralyzed by the wild poliovirus; just 20 cases were reported in 2017 as of 27 December. “We are at an incredibly exciting time for polio eradication,” he said, “a point at which each new case of polio could very well be the last.”
              He emphasized that even when that last case of polio is recorded, the work won’t be finished. “Polio won’t be over, until the certifying commission says it’s over—when not one poliovirus has been found, in a river, in a sewer, or in a paralyzed child, for at least three years,” he said. “Until then, we have to keep doing everything we’re doing now.” He urged continued dedication to immunization and disease surveillance programs.
              Sustaining the environment
              Rotary has focused heavily on sustainability in its humanitarian work in recent years. Now, Rassin said, Rotarians must acknowledge some hard realities about pollution, environmental degradation, and climate change. He noted that 80 percent of his own country is within one meter of sea level. With sea levels projected to rise two meters by 2100, he said, “my country is going to be gone in 50 years, along with most of the islands in the Caribbean and coastal cities and low-lying areas all over the world.”
              Rassin urged leaders to look at all of Rotary’s service as part of a larger global system. He said that this means the incoming district governors must be an inspiration not only to clubs, but also to their communities. “We want the good we do to last. We want to make the world a better place. Not just here, not just for us, but everywhere, for everyone, for generations.”
               
               
              Rassin's 2018 presidential theme 2018-01-25 09:00:00Z 0

              Food For Teens Project Report

              Homer Community Food Pantry
              Food for Teens
              Year End Project Report
              January 22, 2018
               
              Last summer the Homer Community Food Pantry was awarded two grants; $1,000 from the Homer Kachemak Bay Rotary Club and $3,000 from Wells Fargo Bank for the purpose of funding a pilot project to provide food for teens that were facing the challenges of homelessness, neglect and poverty in the area.  Our organization partnered with the FLEX school in order to reach the at-risk teens and through the efforts of Ingrid Harrald, a counselor at FLEX, we were able to put together a program that would support 15-18 at-risk students on a weekly basis in addition to providing ingredients for cooking programs developed by Ingrid.
               
              Each week, a supply of canned goods, pasta, oatmeal and peanut butter is delivered to the FLEX School  in bulk and distributed to any student in need.  Several of the students have taken on the task of filling back packs, which were provided by the Homer Emblem Club, with the donated food and placing them in a bin by the door, accessible to any student.  The back packs are returned weekly and re-filled.  In addition to the non-perishables, the Food Pantry and various farmers at the Farmer’s Market, when operational, provide fresh fruit, vegetables, bagels and bread to FLEX to support Ingrid’s cooking programs on a weekly basis. 
               
              The backpacks contain several cans; Chili, stew, soup, fruit, some oatmeal, ramen noodles, crackers and peanut butter as well as a “one pot meal” recipe including the canned goods and spices needed.  Some of Ingrid’s cooking programs included making kale chips with all the fresh grown kale from the Farmer’s Market; Crockpot Tuesday featuring homemade vegetable soup and Chili.  Teaching the kids to cook is a vital part to this project and we are fortunate to have a partner in Ingrid at the school.
               
              The canned goods provided to the school are purchased by the Food Pantry, produce and bread are donated by the local grocers each Monday.  To date, the Food Pantry has spent $951 on this project that began in late September. 
               
              In December, I met with Poppy Benson and her high school age Girl Scout Troop to discuss the project and ways the girls could participate.  It was determined at that meeting that there are approximately 30 at-risk teens at the High School.  The Troop was very interested in expanding the project to the high school and is planning a back pack drive and a food drive.  The Food Pantry will assist with additional food as needed.  It was very exciting to watch the girls collaborate and develop ideas for advertising the availability of the food-filled packs. I look forward to seeing their project take flight.
               
              Over the next few months, the Food Pantry will be coordinating with the ED at the Rec Room to develop a summer program.  We envision a similar process of delivering food in bulk to the Rec Room for distribution and will collaborate on ways to advertise its availability.
               
              The Homer Community Food Pantry serves the greater Homer/Kachemak area from Anchor Point to the villages out East and across the bay.  The Pantry statistics show over 1,680 households were served in 2017.  Children and teens are generally served through their families however there is a growing number of teens that are in need and have difficulty getting assistance.  This collaboration with FLEX through key individual, Ingrid Harrald, has allowed us to reach those teens in need.  We are hopeful that the Girl Scout Troop will be successful in serving the need at the Homer High School and that the program can continue throughout the summer months.  It has been very successful to date and has provided a supplement to those kids on the edge.
               
              We greatly appreciate your support and involvement.  Thank you.
               
              Respectfully submitted,
              Cinda Martin
              Homer Community Food Pantry Secretary
              Chairman, Food for Teens
              Food For Teens Project Report 2018-01-25 09:00:00Z 0

              New Members: January 18, 2018

              On January 18, 2018 our first corporate member was inducted.  Christie Gibbs, Director of Business Development at Geneva Woods Pharmacy, was inducted into Rotary International at our January 18 meeting.  Two of her colleagues will also be joining our ranks.  Following are short bios of two of the three new members. 
               
              Christie Gibbs
              Job Title:  Director of Business Development at Geneva Woods Pharmacy
               
              Christie was born in Batangas City, Philippines.  Her family immigrated to the US in 1972 when she was 2 years old.  Her father had proudly enlisted as a Filipino national in the US Navy in 1964.  Her mother had been a high school history teacher in the Philippines. in the US, Christie's mother worked as a caregiver to the elderly and disabled for many years.
               
              Christie and her mother made the long journey from the Philippines to Jacksonville, FL alone.  Christie has two younger siblings who were born in the US in Jacksonville and Pensacola, FL.
               
              The family was transferred to Norfolk Naval Base in Virginia in 1979.  In 1980, Christie and her mother achieved US Citizenship.
               
              Christie's family enrolled her in a local after school/weekend Judo school.  She excelled in the sport and achieved her black belt during high school.
               
              Christie excelled in school too. She was President of the National Honor Society, achieved Varsity letters in Academics, Debate, and Forensics.  She graduated Valedictorian of her high school class and was accepted into the College of William and Mary.  She was very proud to be awarded an INTERNATIONAL ROTARY SCHOLARSHIP.
               
              In 1990 she married Trey Gibbs in Virginia Beach.  He had been stationed at Norfolk Naval Base, but he had been raised in Anchorage, AK.  Upon his Honorable Discharge from the Navy, they returned to Anchorage in 1993 with their first child Samantha. Their other three children, Sabrina, Drew, and Regan, were later born in Anchorage and Soldotna.
               
              Trey and Christie pursued careers in insurance and securities.  Christie specialized in Long Term Care Insurance and Medicare supplemental insurance sales.  In 2005, the family moved to the Kenai Peninsula.
               
              Christie began working for Geneva Woods in Soldotna that year as a documentation specialist.  She was promoted to Education and Resources Representative.  In 2007 she was promoted to General Manager of the branch site.  In 2014 Christie was promoted to Director of Business Development.
               
              Christie enjoys travel, family church, and community activities.  The children's sports and other activities take up most of her time.  The family recently celebrated Samantha's UAA graduation, Sabrina is on the Chancellor's list and Honor Society at UAA.  Drew was named Alaska's #1 High School Running Back in 2014 and is currently on football scholarship at Northern State University in South Dakota. The youngest one, Regan, attends Soldotna Elementary and dances competitively for Diamond Dance Project in Soldotna.  She was recently awarded dance scholarships in a national competition in Los Vegas and a regional scholarship from a regional competition in Anchorage.
               
              Chris Finlay
               
              Born and raised in the Eugene area of Oregon.  Moved to Alaska in November of 2011.  Started work at Peninsula Community Health Services of Alaska in June of 2012 as an individual Services Provider (ISP) in the Behavioral Health Department. Was promoted to the position of Medical Front Office Manager in May of 2013, then promoted again in June of 2014 to the position of Medical Operations Manager and promoted once a gain in May of 2015 to Director of Operations.  In November of 2016, took a job at MediCenter Medical Group as Director of Operations.  in January of this year, took position of 
              Operations Manager of Geneva Woods Healthcare Services in Soldotna.
               
              Chris is also Treasurer of the Kenai Chamber of  Commerce Board of Directors, as well as the Board of Directors Liaison for the Kenai Young Professionals Advisory Council. He has two little girls who are three and five years old and enjoys spending time outdoors.
              New Members: January 18, 2018 2018-01-24 09:00:00Z 0
              Cranium Cup 2018-01-17 09:00:00Z 0

              Waging Peace

              Rotarian Mary Ann Peters will draw from her three decades as a diplomat to lead the Carter Center into the future
               
              By Diana Schoberg
              An interview with Mary Ann Peters is a master class in the art of diplomatic responses. Asked about her most difficult assignment, the former U.S. ambassador responds that “difficulty and challenge are two sides of the same coin.” 
              Pressed on the impact that U.S. President Donald Trump is having on the country’s ability to make peace, she says – after noting the nonpartisan nature of the Carter Center, where she is now chief executive – that administrations of both parties have relied disproportionately on the military since 11 September 2001, and she hopes the current administration will capitalize on other means to pursue its objectives. 
              Speaking about negotiating on behalf of the Carter Center, she notes: “I like to think that we’re very useful to the government, because we can and do engage with people who a government that represents so many perspectives in the fabric of democracy can’t always engage with,” adding, “I’m saying that very diplomatically.”
               
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/2017_MaryAnn_Peters-116REVISED2.jpg?itok=CXxL-yrV
              The cross-cultural skills she gained as a diplomat make Mary Ann Peters right at home leading the Carter Center.
              Branden Camp/AP Images
               
              Peters is able to put her astute communication skills, along with the cross-cultural savvy she developed during 30 years with the U.S. State Department, to good use at the Carter Center. Since 2014, Peters, a member of the Rotary Club of Atlanta, has led the organization in advancing human rights and fighting disease through projects such as monitoring elections, mediating international conflicts, and working to eliminate diseases such as Guinea worm.
               “She’s a fabulous communicator and absolute pro in the diplomacy field, with decades and decades of experience,” says Martha Brooks, a fellow Atlanta Rotarian who met Peters through their membership in the Belizean Grove, a group of influential women that includes Wall Street executives and Army generals. Brooks is a retired aluminum company executive and past chair of the Carter Center Board of Councilors, a group of civic leaders that advocates for the center’s work in Georgia and beyond. She calls Peters “an interpreter of the world.”
              Peters is in many ways different from her boss, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who, with his wife, Rosalynn, founded the Carter Center in 1982. He grew up on a farm, she in the suburbs; he’s a Southerner, she’s a Yankee. But she’s like Carter in her desire to be engaged in her community.
              “She’s CEO of the Carter Center but she comes to Rotary every Monday,” says Bob Hope, an Atlanta Rotarian who has monitored elections in Nepal on behalf of the Carter Center. “She must be out of the country sometimes, but I’m not sure when because she’s always there, smiling, shaking hands, and making alliances for President Carter. Carter is open about what he says and that sometimes rubs people wrong. She bridges it, and she does it in such a friendly and warm way.”
              Peters got an early start in her international career. She understands the value of programs such as Rotary Youth Exchange: She herself spent a year in Paris during her time as an undergraduate at Santa Clara University. “It’s not only what you learn,” she says. “It’s the fact that you’re the one who got on the plane, and so therefore you actually become the confident person you wanted to be – or at least you think you are and you act that way, so nobody knows the difference.” That works in both directions: She recalls meeting a Muslim leader in Bangladesh who told her that he could never be anti-American because he had been on an exchange program and lived with a family in Pennsylvania.
              “She’s CEO of the Carter Center but she comes to Rotary every Monday,” says Bob Hope, an Atlanta Rotarian who has monitored elections in Nepal on behalf of the Carter Center. “She must be out of the country sometimes, but I’m not sure when because she’s always there, smiling, shaking hands, and making alliances for President Carter. Carter is open about what he says and that sometimes rubs people wrong. She bridges it, and she does it in such a friendly and warm way.”
              Peters got an early start in her international career. She understands the value of programs such as Rotary Youth Exchange: She herself spent a year in Paris during her time as an undergraduate at Santa Clara University. “It’s not only what you learn,” she says. “It’s the fact that you’re the one who got on the plane, and so therefore you actually become the confident person you wanted to be – or at least you think you are and you act that way, so nobody knows the difference.” That works in both directions: She recalls meeting a Muslim leader in Bangladesh who told her that he could never be anti-American because he had been on an exchange program and lived with a family in Pennsylvania.
              After receiving her master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, she launched her career as a U.S. diplomat. Fluent in seven languages, she had assignments in Germany, Russia, Bulgaria, Canada, and other countries. President Bill Clinton named her U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh in 2000, a position she held until 2003.
              It was a difficult assignment, she says. Bangladesh, one of the most densely populated countries in the world, suffers from terrible poverty. Her stint in the majority-Muslim country spanned 9/11, and U.S. foreign policy goals drastically changed while she was there. Her team began meeting with local religious leaders to get their support for aid programs the U.S. government was conducting. In meeting with the imams, she says, “We were trying to follow the rules, but we were doing things that no one had given us permission to do.”
               
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/Photos_Amb_PetersUSE.jpg?itok=dPxF0Rb2
              Mary Ann Peters leads the Carter Center in its work to eliminate diseases such as river blindness in Nigeria.
               
              Peters is able to put her astute communication skills, along with the cross-cultural savvy she developed during 30 years with the U.S. State Department, to good use at the Carter Center. Since 2014, Peters, a member of the Rotary Club of Atlanta, has led the organization in advancing human rights and fighting disease through projects such as monitoring elections, mediating international conflicts, and working to eliminate diseases such as Guinea worm.
               “She’s a fabulous communicator and absolute pro in the diplomacy field, with decades and decades of experience,” says Martha Brooks, a fellow Atlanta Rotarian who met Peters through their membership in the Belizean Grove, a group of influential women that includes Wall Street executives and Army generals. Brooks is a retired aluminum company executive and past chair of the Carter Center Board of Councilors, a group of civic leaders that advocates for the center’s work in Georgia and beyond. She calls Peters “an interpreter of the world.”
              Peters is in many ways different from her boss, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who, with his wife, Rosalynn, founded the Carter Center in 1982. He grew up on a farm, she in the suburbs; he’s a Southerner, she’s a Yankee. But she’s like Carter in her desire to be engaged in her community.
              “She’s CEO of the Carter Center but she comes to Rotary every Monday,” says Bob Hope, an Atlanta Rotarian who has monitored elections in Nepal on behalf of the Carter Center. “She must be out of the country sometimes, but I’m not sure when because she’s always there, smiling, shaking hands, and making alliances for President Carter. Carter is open about what he says and that sometimes rubs people wrong. She bridges it, and she does it in such a friendly and warm way.”
              Peters got an early start in her international career. She understands the value of programs such as Rotary Youth Exchange: She herself spent a year in Paris during her time as an undergraduate at Santa Clara University. “It’s not only what you learn,” she says. “It’s the fact that you’re the one who got on the plane, and so therefore you actually become the confident person you wanted to be – or at least you think you are and you act that way, so nobody knows the difference.” That works in both directions: She recalls meeting a Muslim leader in Bangladesh who told her that he could never be anti-American because he had been on an exchange program and lived with a family in Pennsylvania.
              After receiving her master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, she launched her career as a U.S. diplomat. Fluent in seven languages, she had assignments in Germany, Russia, Bulgaria, Canada, and other countries. President Bill Clinton named her U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh in 2000, a position she held until 2003.
              It was a difficult assignment, she says. Bangladesh, one of the most densely populated countries in the world, suffers from terrible poverty. Her stint in the majority-Muslim country spanned 9/11, and U.S. foreign policy goals drastically changed while she was there. Her team began meeting with local religious leaders to get their support for aid programs the U.S. government was conducting. In meeting with the imams, she says, “We were trying to follow the rules, but we were doing things that no one had given us permission to do.”
              Mementos from her years in the Foreign Service decorate her office at the Carter Center. Her “brag wall” includes photos of Peters with President Clinton and Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell. On one wall hangs a woodcut of Narragansett Bay in Newport, R.I., where she served as provost of the U.S. Naval War College from 2008 to 2014.
               
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/2Screen%20Shot%202017-11-21%20at%202.49.00%20PM.jpg?itok=WNnF3IsU
              Mary Ann Peters became CEO of the Carter Center in 2014.
               
              Peters’ background as an educator is evident when she talks about diplomacy. On the notes she had prepared for her interview, she scrawls out “DIME” – an acronym for “Diplomacy, Information/Intelligence, Military, Economic” to explain the options a government has to exercise its power. “As a diplomat, of course, I believe that talking is better than shooting.” To make her point, she paraphrases Winston Churchill: “‘Jaw, jaw, is better than war, war’ – I suppose it rhymes if you’re an upper-class Brit like Churchill was. I believe it with every fiber of my being.”
              She’s full of maxims like that one: “A diplomat answers twice and says nothing.” “A diplomat can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you look forward to the trip.” “A diplomat is an honest man sent to lie abroad for his country.” Or one she made up herself: “A diplomat never insults anyone by accident.”
              The transition from provost of the Naval War College to CEO of the Carter Center, an institution whose motto includes the words “waging peace,” wasn’t as big a leap as it sounds. The college has a master’s program in national security and strategic studies – “and the greatest security of all, of course, is peace,” she says. When Oz Nelson, then the chairman of the Carter Center board, introduced Peters to the staff, he joked that the organization would have a new motto: Peace or Else! “I thought that was great,” she says.
              The cross-cultural skills she gained as a diplomat make her right at home leading the Carter Center; she likens managing people to negotiating mini-treaties. “It’s about advocacy,” she says of the role of a diplomat. “It’s about words, it’s about navigating cultural differences. It’s about firmly remaining American while understanding better than you could in Washington what’s going on where you are, and how that’s likely to affect what the United States wants to accomplish.”
              Hope, who also sits on the Carter Center’s Board of Councilors, says Peters’ discipline shows in whatever she does. “Particularly in a political environment where the funding for the Carter Center comes from countries all over the world, being diplomatic and being friendly and knowing how to deal with people is critical,” he says. “And she just knows how to do it.”
              Peters joined Rotary shortly after moving to Atlanta. Some of the first people she met in town were Rotarians, and she was impressed when she heard what they were doing. The Atlanta club is very active in human trafficking issues, and when she arrived in September 2014, the Carter Center was already working with the Rotarian Action Group Against Slavery on a world summit to end sexual exploitation that was held the following spring.
              She says she continues to discover synergies between the work of Rotary and the Carter Center; she recently met with Rotarians for Family Health and AIDS Prevention to consider adopting their family health day methodology for the Carter Center’s work to eradicate malaria and lymphatic filariasis, the disease that causes elephantiasis, from the island of Hispaniola.
              Nonprofits such as Rotary and the Carter Center are the right groups to eradicate disease, she says, because the U.S. government must deal with annual budgets subject to approval by Congress, which doesn’t always consider the long-term societal costs and benefits of such work. “They can’t do it financially, and frankly, they can’t do it politically, because an administration lasts at most eight years,” she says. “It really seems to me that it’s our job to make these commitments and then to rope in governments and other funders as we can.”
              As she talks, she picks up a Four-Way Test paperweight. At the Carter Center, she says, “we’re action oriented and data driven, and that reminds me of the first question of The Four-Way Test: Is it the truth?” And like Rotary, she says, the center is nonpartisan and based on universal values such as compassion, equity, and respect for human dignity.
              Another of the Carter Center’s principles is that it doesn’t duplicate the work of others; that’s why it isn’t involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS or polio, for instance. Instead, it has tackled a list of often largely unknown diseases. “When I first got here, I was going around chanting ‘schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis, dracunculiasis,’” Peters says, to help her remember the unfamiliar names. Which brings her to another of the center’s principles: These are difficult problems in difficult places, and if you’re going to be bold and take them on, you must see failure as an acceptable risk. “That’s what really sold me on going full speed ahead to try to get this job, because I thought it was so honest and so brave to put that out there.”
              President Carter is 93 years old and Rosalynn Carter is 90, and while the Carter Center must prepare for the day when its founders are no longer around, the center’s reputation, built on that of the former president, is firmly in place. To help ensure the center remains true to its principles, Jason Carter, the couple’s eldest grandson and a former Georgia state senator, was recently elected chair of the board of trustees. “They have positioned us as well as we can be,” Peters says.
              As the Carter Center moves into the post-Carter phase, Peters “does have an enormous task,” Hope says. “When President Carter comes into a room, everyone is abuzz. She’s tried to figure out how to institutionalize his reputation and what he’s done. She and Jason have done a really nice job of transitioning the operation into something that will be less dependent on him as a personality. I think she’s the right person at the right time for them.”
              As she discusses the future of the center, the ding of a meeting reminder sounds from Peters’ computer. She’s graciously let the interview go well beyond its allotted time, and now she needs a few minutes to prepare for her next appointment. She’ll be having a conversation about a risky new role the Carter Center may play in a country whose peace process is complicated by politics, history, terrorism, and nationalist groups. But taking a risk where others can’t or won’t is in the DNA of the Carter Center. That will continue with Peters at the helm. 
               
              • Read more stories from The Rotarian
              Waging Peace 2018-01-17 09:00:00Z 0

              Cell Phones Help Power Disease Fight

              Pakistan and Nigeria replace paper-based reporting with fast, accurate cellphone messaging
               
              By Ryan Hyland                         Photos by Khaula Jamil
               
              Mobile phones and simple text messaging may be the keys to victory in the world’s largest public health initiative: the eradication of polio. 
              As the disease retreats from the global stage, thriving in only a few remote areas in three countries, it’s up to health workers to deliver vaccines and share information with speed and accuracy. 
              Health workers in Pakistan are receiving cellphone and e-monitoring training at the Rotary Resource Center in Nowshera, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. 
               
              Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative are strengthening the lines of communication by giving cellphones to health workers in Pakistan and Nigeria, where a single text message could save a life. 
              In Pakistan, Rotary has been working to replace traditional paper-based reporting of maternal and child health information, including polio immunization data, with mobile phone and e-monitoring technology. 
              Community health workers across the nation have received more than 800 phones through a partnership with Rotary, the Pakistani government; Telenor, the country’s second-largest telecommunications provider; and Eycon, a data monitoring and evaluation specialist. Organizers plan to distribute a total of 5,000 cellphones by the end of 2018. 
              Health workers can use the phones to send data via text message to a central server. If they see a potential polio case, they can immediately alert officials at Pakistan’s National Emergency Operations Center. They also can note any children who didn’t receive the vaccine or parental refusals – and record successful immunizations. In Pakistan, the polio eradication effort aims to reach the nation’s 35 million children under age five.
              The result is a collection of real-time information that officials can easily monitor and assess, says Michel Thieren, regional emergency director of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergency Program. 
              Pakistan health workers are replacing traditional paper-reporting with accurate and timely cellphone-based reporting. 
               
              “Cellphone technology signals tremendous progress in the polio eradication program,” says Thieren, who has directed polio-related initiatives for WHO in Pakistan. “The data we collect needs to have such a granular level of detail. With real-time information that can be recorded and transcribed immediately, you can increase accuracy and validity.
              “This gives governments and polio eradication leaders an advantage in the decisions we need to make operationally and tactically to eliminate polio,” Thieren says.
               
              Beyond polio
              Health workers also are using mobile phones to monitor a multitude of maternal and child health factors. 
              Pakistan’s child mortality rate ranks among the highest in the world, according to UNICEF, with 81 deaths under age five per 1,000 live births. 
              But mobile technology can help reduce those deaths, says Asher Ali, project manager for Rotary’s Pakistan PolioPlus Committee. 
              “Our health workers, including community midwives, are tracking pregnant mothers,” Ali says. “When a child is born, they can input and maintain complete health records, not just for polio, but for other vaccines and basic health care and hygiene needs.”
              They also can monitor infectious diseases, such as malaria, tuberculosis, and influenza-like illnesses, as well as child malnutrition and maternal health concerns. 
              “If there is a problem with the baby or the mother, we can send information to the government health departments immediately, so they can solve the issue quickly and adjust their strategies,” Ali says. 
              Cellphones also facilitate follow-up visits with families, because health workers can send appointment reminders over text message. 
               
              Proliferation of phones
              Mobile phone use worldwide has spiked recently, with about 7 billion subscribers globally, 89 percent of them in developing countries, says WHO. Even people living on less than $1 a day often have access to phones and text messaging, according to WHO. Cellphones are used more than any other technology in the developing world. 
              Rotary and other nonprofit organizations are leveraging this fact to boost a variety of health initiatives. 
              The Grameen Foundation conducts a “mobile midwife” program that sends daily texts and weekly voice mails to expectant mothers, offering advice during pregnancy and the first year of the child’s life. UNICEF provides similar support to mothers, with a focus on nutrition throughout pregnancy and the first two years of a child’s life. 
              Mobile phones also are helping in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa. The British nonprofit Absolute Return for Kids uses text messages to remind patients about medications and upcoming appointments. 
              The Ugandan health ministry’s mTrac program, a mobile text messaging data collection network run in conjunction with UNICEF and other organizations, has a broader focus. Nearly 30,000 workers at 3,700 health centers submit weekly reports through their phones and receive surveys, alerts, and other communications. Questions go out to health workers about medical supply levels, conditions in clinics, and other critical issues.
              Members of the Rotaract Club of The Caduceus, India, collaborated with the Jana Swasthya Project in 2015 to screen more than 8,000 people for oral health conditions, hypertension, and diabetes during Kumbh Mela, one of the world’s largest Hindu festivals. The project established a digital disease-surveillance system to study epidemiological trends, replacing a paper-based data-tracking process and allowing officials to access live data with a few clicks. 
              In 2016, after Nigeria saw its first polio cases in almost two years, Rotary and WHO officials rushed to replace traditional reporting with a cell-based system in the northern state of Borno, where the new cases were identified. The mobile phone initiative has since expanded to more than 11 states. 
              “Traditional paper reporting was misleading our program. The information we were getting was not entirely accurate. This gave us the sense that we were doing better than we actually were,” says Boniface Igomu, program coordinator of Rotary’s Nigeria PolioPlus Committee. “With cellphones, we’re identifying problem areas quickly and acting accordingly.”
              The country has yet to see a polio case this year. 
              Nigeria is also using cell-based mapping technology to identify areas that polio immunization teams have missed. Health workers test stool samples from children arriving from remote areas and log reports of acute flaccid paralysis. This effort started in Borno but has expanded to three additional states, Igomu says. 
              After more than 1,000 people died earlier this year in Nigeria from meningitis, the country used the same digital tools in emergency vaccination campaigns, he adds.
              “Mobile technologies are the type of innovations that can fill in the gaps of our program and finally help us end polio for good,” Igomu says. “Their uses have never been more important than now.”
               
               
              Cell Phones Help Power Disease Fight 2018-01-10 09:00:00Z 0

              With End to Polio in Sight, Vaccination Gets Creative

              Dec 19 2017, 10:56 pm ET
              With end to polio in sight, vaccination gets creative
              by Maggie Fox
               
              Could the world be about to eradicate polio? Only 17 cases were diagnosed last year and they were all in two countries with the last hard-to-reach corners: Afghanistan and Pakistan.
              The public health groups trying to put the squeeze on polio have started to get more creative in their last push. The latest: turning vaccination into a circus.
              https://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2017_51/2266101/171218-polio-afghanistan-mn-1730_bf1f0866183d5cc5d339b0c28306ee14.nbcnews-ux-320-320.jpg
              The circus enables the children who join, often from internally displaced communities around Kabul, to learn new skills while continuing their education. Nadia, seen here, is 14 years old, and one of the best girl-performers in the country. Ashley Hamer / UNICEF
               
              “We are trying to build trust and momentum around why we need to vaccinate our kids,” said Melissa Corkum, UNICEF team leader on polio eradication.
              UNICEF has teamed up with a local group called the Afghan Mini Mobile Circus for Children to help lure every last mother and child to get their monthly dose of polio vaccine.
              And there’s nothing like a circus to attract kids.
              “In many of these communities there is not a lot of entertainment,” said Corkum, who’s helping head up a vaccination drive this week in Jalalabad, in eastern Afghanistan.
              The Afghan Mini Mobile Circus finds children in a community and trains them in simple circus skills like juggling. “It’s pretty basic. There’s no tightrope walking or anything like that.”
              After training, they put on a show. Embedded in the show is a lesson about polio and vaccination. The polio virus is played by a child dressed like a monster, often a snake. Vaccination volunteers conquer the monster.
              “It draws a crowd of people around the performance,” Corkum said. “While that performance is taking place, polio vaccinators are moving around in the crowd, vaccinating children.”
              Inventive approaches like this have helped the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, led by Rotary International, reach hundreds of thousands of children.
              Image: Polio vaccination in Pakistan
              Police stand guard as a polio vaccination team works in Karachi, Pakistan,in 2016, the day after seven policemen who were guarding a polio vaccination team were killed in the city by unknown gunmen. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last two countries where polio is still endemic. SHAHZAIB AKBER / EPA
               
              If it works, polio would become only the second disease ever to have been eradicated by human intervention. The first was smallpox, driven out of existence by a vaccination campaign in the 1970s, and declared eradicated in 1980.
              “We are really close,” Corkum said.
              “Polio now survives only among the world's poorest and most marginalized communities, where it stalks the most vulnerable children,” the World Health Organization says. “Polio cases have decreased by over 99 percent since 1988, from an estimated 350,000 cases then, to 37 reported cases in 2016. As a result of the global effort to eradicate the disease, more than 16 million people have been saved from paralysis.”
              For 2017, the count is down to 17 cases.
              Why it's hard to eradicate
              In June, public health groups and nonprofits pledged $1.2 billion to help finance a final push by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
              Polio is hard to eradicate because it lives and multiplies in the human gut, and so it can be spread in sewage.
              “There’s no going back if a child is affected by polio,” Corkum said. About one in 200 infections cause permanent paralysis and 5 to 10 percent of those paralyzed die when the muscles that aid breathing stop working.
              Children in developed countries like the U.S. are protected after four doses of vaccine. But in developing countries where polio is still a risk, kids need many more doses than that, Corkum said. They have weaker immune systems, thanks in part to malnutrition, and they’re more likely to be exposed to the virus.
              The easiest polio immunization to deliver is an oral vaccine, given as a few drops into the mouth. It’s made using a live but weakened version of polio and it can sometimes persist in a child’s digestive system, getting into sewage. Sometimes, it mutates back into an infectious form.
              https://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2017_51/2266106/171218-polio-afghanistan-mn-1731_bf1f0866183d5cc5d339b0c28306ee14.nbcnews-ux-320-320.jpg
              Children flock to the circus the moment they see youngsters their own age pull out their juggling pins. Fardeen Barekzai / UNICEF
               
              Children flock to the circus the moment they see youngsters their own age pull out their juggling pins. Fardeen Barekzai / UNICEF
               
              “On rare occasions, if a population is seriously under-immunized, an excreted vaccine-virus can continue to circulate for an extended period of time,” WHO says.
              “The longer it is allowed to survive, the more genetic changes it undergoes. In very rare instances, the vaccine-virus can genetically change into a form that can paralyze. This is what is known as a circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus.”
              It’s rare, but turns polio vaccination into a far more challenging project than it otherwise would be. There have been 24 outbreaks of this vaccine-derived polio strain, causing more than 700 cases.
              But over that same time, most than 10 billion doses of oral vaccine have been given to 3 billion kids.
              “As long as a single child remains infected, children in all countries are at risk of contracting polio. Failure to eradicate polio from these last remaining strongholds could result in as many as 200,000 new cases every year, within 10 years, all over the world,” WHO said.
              So Corkum will be watching the street circus in Jalalabad this week.
              https://media2.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2017_51/2266141/171218-afghanistan-polio-mn-1740_bbea63cd720ce9680cccefd8627dbcda.nbcnews-ux-320-320.jpg
              Hamid, clutching his precious box of vaccinations, attacks a snake that represents polio during the performance. The crowd cheers. "Vaccinating your children will destroy this disease!" cries Hamid. "Make sure your whole village takes these droplets and you will see how strong your children can be." Ashley Hamer / UNICEF
               
              And volunteers will be going house to house in other areas, talking with mothers to encourage vaccination.
              Last case possible this year
              It’s notoriously risky and difficult work. Afghanistan and Pakistan both have some of the most extreme terrain in the world, with villages tucked into high mountains with no road access, or cut off by constant fighting.
              “We can’t risk getting in the line of fire,” Corkum said.
              “There are many different types of fighting activities that take place of Afghanistan every day between various groups. There are a lot of different tribal back and forths.”
               https://media1.s-nbcnews.com/j/msnbc/components/video/__new/2014-11-30t23-46-04-033z--1280x720.nbcnews-ux-1240-700.jpg
               
              Pakistan's Polio Epidemic Aided by Anti-Vaccine Sentiment 
               
              While vaccination teams have been directly targeted in recent years, they can be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The militant Islamic Taliban once blocked access to some areas for more than a year, and attacked some volunteers giving vaccines, although global Islamic leaders now encourage vaccination.
              But with efforts like circuses, door-to-door visits and grabbing refugees at checkpoints, UNICEF, WHO, Rotary International and other groups leading the effort hope the end is in sight.
              Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, whose Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation helps pay for polio vaccination efforts, predicts the end is near. "If things stay stable in the conflicted areas, humanity could see its last case of polio this year,” he said in October.
              With End to Polio in Sight, Vaccination Gets Creative 2018-01-10 09:00:00Z 0

              Homer High School Swing Choir Performs For Us!!

              If you missed the December 14th meeting, you missed one of the really great experiences that we get to have at our weekly meetings--the Homer High School Swing Choir!  Sorry you missed it!  It was fantastic!
               
               
              Homer High School Swing Choir Performs For Us!! 2018-01-03 09:00:00Z 0

              Talent Around the Table

              Yachts bring aid to remote South Pacific islands
              Richard and Stephanie Hackett began chartering sailboats and yachts to travel the South Pacific more than 20 years ago. Seeing the problems of getting health care to remote islands, Richard Hackett, past president of the Rotary Club of Fern Ridge (Veneta), Ore., came up with the idea of charter sailboats helping to provide health care and disaster relief. Sea Mercy, the nonprofit he and his wife founded, started with one volunteer vessel in 2013 and now has more than 100 yachts on call, with initiatives to address health care, disaster response, education and training, and economic development.
              Sea Mercy has more than 100 yachts on call, ready to deliver health care and aid. 
              Monica Garwood
              Q: How do you get the vessels and the volunteers for Sea Mercy’s programs?
              A: The people with the vessels are either private owners or the captains who represent private owners. Most are people who have chased the dream of sailing the South Pacific or sailing around the world. For the medical personnel, it’s a working vacation: Doctors, nurses, physician assistants, pharmacists, dentists, and optometrists come out and join us. Even some medical students want to participate. It’s a two-week period. We travel to anywhere from five to nine remote islands. We set up a clinic onshore, and they treat patients throughout the day or over a two-day period. When we’re all done, we start sailing to the next remote island.
              Q: How did disaster relief fit into the original model?
              A: We thought once every five years we would be responding to, perhaps, a cyclone. Cyclone Ian hit Tonga in 2014, and we sent two vessels. We were the only vessels that could reach these remote islands; big merchant ships can’t get in, because of the narrow entrances and shallow lagoons. Then Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu in 2015, so we sent eight vessels to Vanuatu. We realized we had to get in front of this and created our first response league. We contacted owners of small yachts and the superyachts, and built a network just in case something else happens. When Cyclone Winston hit Fiji in 2016, we had 60 vessels that responded. We were the first on the scene and the last ones to leave.
              Q: How did this expand into economic development?
              A: It started with diabetes. The rate of diabetes in the South Pacific is one of the highest in the world. A lot of the health issues are either directly or indirectly a result of diabetes. The [Western] diet that we have introduced to them has changed their whole culture. On the remote islands they don’t have access to the drugs to treat it. And the farmers are moving away, and they’re sending money home. Instead of working and farming and fishing, people are buying sugar and processed flour and rice and noodles. In our health clinics, we realized, we’re treating the symptoms but not the underlying causes. So we are shifting to more of an economic development, agriculturally based program. We’re budgeting it, gearing up, meeting with the leadership, and getting the approval. It’s been a really amazing journey, but we’re very excited about seeing the impact it’s going to have on these remote islands. 
              –Nikki Kallio
              • Read more stories from The Rotarian
              Talent Around the Table 2018-01-03 09:00:00Z 0

              The Power of Light

              Rotary members from Durango, Colorado, USA, team with the Navajo Nation to bring solar lights to remote, off-the-grid homes on the country’s largest Native American reservation.
               
              By Kate Sieber Produced by Stuart Cleland
               
              After decades of crafting squash-blossom necklaces, pendants, and bracelets, Jerry Domingo knew he would have to quit making jewelry, because he couldn’t see very well anymore. 
               
               
               
              Navajo like Jerry Domingo are caught in isolated pockets of land, which are called The Checkerboard.
               
              A sturdy Navajo grandfather, silversmith, and revivalist preacher, Domingo lives in a one-room house smaller than a single-car garage in the windswept sagebrush desert near Nageezi, New Mexico. 
               
              His home is mere miles from the picturesque badlands Georgia O’Keefe painted and Dzilth Na-o Dithle, the sacred portal where the Navajo believe the first people came out of the earth. But it’s a long distance from all that the modern world seems to promise — grocery stores, jobs, medical care. Domingo’s home is new. It has unpainted walls, plywood floors, and a wood stove but no insulation or electricity. 
               
              In a twist to his story, electric lines traverse the land just a few hundred yards from Domingo’s front door, but with all of the permissions and work required by the utility, it would cost more than $30,000 to connect to the power. 
               
              Domingo, who has pewter hair and a broad, calm face, first started making jewelry in the 1970s, when he went to work in his uncle’s shop. Over the years, he honed his craft, and customers started to come to him to commission works. 
               
              Now he sells his wares when he travels to preach all over the reservation. But with his failing eyesight, it has been getting harder to do the detailed work. After all, it takes a good four days to make a full squash-blossom necklace. 
               
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/20160209_US_047.jpg?itok=CjZbIfiR
              Jerry Domingo creates jewelry by the light of a window in his home in The Checkerboard.
              Ben Fredman
               
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_1800/public/jerry%20dark.jpg?itok=k78z9sLb
              Before Rotary members installed a solar light, Jerry Domingo relied on light from his window.
              Ben Fredman
               
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_1800/public/jerry%20dark%202.jpg?itok=JVwhGqeq
              Jerry Domingo says detailed jewelry work was difficult without proper light.
              Ben Fredman
               
              Jerry Domingo works on jewelry at his home on Navaho land.
              Ben Fredman
               
              Without a solar light, Jerry Domingo says he would have to quit making jewelry.
              Ben Fredman
               
              At night, the glow of kerosene lamps is too dim. Even during the day, the home’s interior is full of shadows, making it difficult to tease, hammer, and solder metal into art. 
               
              “When I do silverworking, I have to wait until the sun comes through the window,” said Domingo, wearing a thick Dallas Cowboys sweatshirt to insulate himself against the chill and large turquoise rings on his fingers, as he worked on a necklace more than a year ago. “I can’t really know what I’m doing when it’s dark in here. It would make a whole lot of difference just to not be in the dark.” 
               
              Through a pastor at a local church, Domingo found out about a program through a Rotary club in Durango , Colorado, USA, that brings solar-powered lighting to remote homes on the Navajo reservation. 
               
              A solar light is a simple thing: just a small panel the size of a baking sheet, which mounts onto a roof with a pole. A wire runs from the panel into the house, where up to three rechargeable lights hang from hooks on the ceiling. To turn on the lights, Domingo simply has to touch a button.
              To use the light as a flashlight for going outside at night, he simply unhooks it. A fully charged lamp offers dim light for 75 hours or bright light for 7½ before needing to be recharged. 
               
              But in this house, a light is more than a simple thing. It brings a world of possibility.
               
              In the dark of The Checkerboard 
               
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_1200/public/vast%203.jpg?itok=lrtq8iBD
              It’s not unusual for Navajo homes to lack electricity. 
              The reservation, bigger than the state of West Virginia, sprawls across Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. It’s a harsh, beautiful land marked by extremes of temperature, sun, wind, and dryness.
               
               
              Jeanette Sandoval explains why electricity is scarce in The Checkerboard.
               
              Many Navajo — Diné in their own language — have lived in these rural areas for generations, as the land is passed from grandmother to granddaughter.
               
              Although they are blessed with big skies and desert vistas, these remote locations are often far from services and paved roads. 
               
              According to a 2016 assessment, about 16,000 Navajo homes don’t have access to electricity. Nearly a third have no running water, and more than half lack kitchen and toilet facilities. 
               
              In an area known as The Checkerboard, in northwestern New Mexico, it can be particularly challenging to gain access to utilities.
               
              As a result of legislation dating to the 1880s, the land was divided into 160-acre chunks and distributed among individual Native Americans in an attempt to encourage them to adopt Euro-American farming lifestyles. 
              The remaining chunks became a patchwork of lands administered by federal, state, and other entities. Now, when a house is separated from utilities by these checkerboard-like lands, it can be difficult and expensive to secure the rights of way. 
               
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/20160506_US_046.jpg?itok=ziVX2TZV
              Joe Williams hugs Irene Guerito after installing solar lights in her home on the Navajo reservation.
              Derek Knowles
               
              Rotarian Joe Williams grew up in The Checkerboard in the 1960s, not far from where Jerry Domingo’s house now stands. The son of a natural-gas worker, he went to work in the oil-and-gas fields at age 14. But he still remembers riding the bus 48 miles to school and 48 miles back, one of the only white kids in a crowd of Navajo children. 
               
              Williams now owns an industrial water-purification company in Aztec, New Mexico, and employs many Navajo people. He has been a member of the Durango Daybreak Rotary Club, about 35 miles north, since 1996. 
               
              He always loved international service projects. In 2013, he traveled with a group to Nepal to trek along the Great Himalaya Trail and install solar lights in teahouses, which offer food, lodging, and other services to hikers. 
               
              In such remote areas, under the shadows of the Annapurna and Everest mountains, it wasn’t surprising that residents didn’t have access to electricity. When the group returned, however, new member Nancy Lauro, a civil engineer in Durango, brought up a provocative question: Similar developing-nation conditions exist within a couple of hours by car. Why not serve our neighbors, the Navajo? 
               
              “We can’t go very far south from Durango without driving through the Navajo Nation, and many Durango-area residents work or go to school with tribal members,” says Lauro, who joined Rotary after her daughters participated in the club’s Youth Exchange program. “Our International Committee had just come back from installing the solar lights in Nepal, and we all thought that it was a natural to bring it home.” 
               
              The group planned a project that would bring solar lights to at-risk populations on the reservation, including elders over 70 years old and disabled tribal members. Soon after launching, the group asked Joe Williams to become the project leader. 
               
              To see a house go from kerosene to solar ... it’s life-changing. No longer do they have a proclivity for upper respiratory infections because of the soot. 
              Joe Williams
              Rotarian
               
              “I viewed this as a bookend project,” says Williams. “I started off as a kid out there, and there were no lights. I’ve lived my whole life and traveled everywhere, and I’ve come back 50 years later, and the same places have no lights. I said to myself, ‘This is my project.’”  
              Williams has an air of gentleness about him and an indomitable wellspring of energy. He walks with the slight stoop and occasional uncertainty of Parkinson’s, which he staves off with determination. Last year alone, Williams coordinated 90 service trips to the reservation at his own expense. 
               
              “To see a house go from kerosene to solar ... it’s life-changing,” he says. “No longer do they spend $20 a month on kerosene. No longer do they have a proclivity for upper respiratory infections because of the soot. It’s a hell of a thing.” 
               

              Transformative power of light

              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/20160506_US_013.jpg?itok=lQ4_6QLVhttps://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/20160506_US_028.jpg?itok=gplYHtl0

               

              One weekend in November, a group of Rotarians and international exchange students, part of the Mountains & Plains Rotary Youth Exchange, drove from their homes in southern Colorado across the state line and into northwest New Mexico. 

               

              The wind was howling, kicking up sheets of dust, making the town of Shiprock look like a scene from an apocalyptic movie. But overhead, long spine-like clouds lay across a desert sky turning pink and purple with sunset. 

               

              The group gathered to sleep on mats camping-style inside the Sanostee Chapter House, a branch of the tribal government. 

              The Power of Light 2018-01-03 09:00:00Z 0

              Announcements: January 4, 2018

              Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a great holiday season!

              Thanks for all of the responses to my survey about our club's priorities for fundraising events - it's so helpful to hear from everyone.  Thanks also to everyone who is able to help with the Cranium Cup event - expect to hear more from committee chairs in the coming week!!

               

              Save the date: Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club's First Annual Cranium Cup Trivia Fundraiser - February 10 Alice's Champagne Palace 6:00 - 8:30

               

              Shout out to the Girdwood Rotary Club! A member - Sue Liebner offered to host our exchange student, Winston, as he travels to have the ultimate Alaskan experience - learning to downhill ski!

               

              Beth


              Words From DG Harry

               

              As your District Governor, I would like to thank you for being Rotarians and for your wonderful efforts to make your communities and our world a better place. Some of your efforts are obvious to you and I but the effect of some of your efforts will never be known. But just imagine the smiles on the faces of young people in your neighborhood enjoying that playground project or young people in far away lands being able to walk without crutches or drink water that won't make them sick. And imagine that tiny glimmer of joy that foster kid might enjoy when she receives that back pack that she can call her own. 

              Thank You 5010 Rotarians for all you do. Be safe tonight and have a wonderful and well deserved New Year.

               

              DG Harry (Iceman)


               
              Announcements: January 4, 2018 2018-01-02 09:00:00Z 0

              Winston is Here!

              I Just wanted to update you and let you know that our inbound exchange student from Nigeria - Winston - arrived on Tuesday December 19th!

              He is staying with Paula and John Kulhanek right now.  We will all be able to meet him at our next meeting on January 4th!

              Yahoo!  Please reach out to make him feel welcome if you see him over the break or at our meetings!

               

              Beth
               

              Winston arrives in Homer!
               
              Winston is Here! 2018-01-01 09:00:00Z 0

              2017 Holiday Party

              For those of you who didn't have fun Sunday night, sorry--you must not have been at the 2017 Holiday Party!  Once again the Holiday Elves (aka. Sunshine Committee) outdid themselves and transformed the basement at the Elk's Lodge into a Winter Wonderland and Smorgasbord!  Here are some pictures to show you what I mean!
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              The Elves
              2017 Holiday Party 2017-12-12 09:00:00Z 0

              Announcements:  December 14, 2017

              Announcements

              Thanks to our fabulous Sunshine Committee (Lorna, Dee, Susie and Sherry) for putting on such a wonderful Xmas Party on Sunday!

               

              Thanks to Dennis Weidler for volunteering to be on the Board of Directors for the rest of the 2017-18 year.

               

              We are still in need of a President Elect for 2018-19 whose term would begin in July of 2019.

               

              Don't forget there are no meetings December 21 & 28 See you next year on January 4th!

               

              There will be a Rotary Board Meeting on December 26 at 5:15 at the CACS headquarters building.

               

              Thanks!

               

              Beth


              Shelter Box Needs a Ride
              Our club borrowed the Shelter Box for use at our Health Fair.  The Shelter Box director in Anchorage now needs it back.
              I am in need of someone to transport it to Anchorage in the next 30 days.  There are is one large box and two smaller
              ones, so a pickup or SUV would be required.  Please call me at 299-3973 if you can assist.
              Thanks,
              Boyd
              Cranium Cup Fundraiser Help Needed

              Tom Early and the Fundraising Committee have been working hard to pull together the basics for our first ever Homer Kachemak Bay Cranium Cup Trivia Contest!  We are getting really excited and think it's going to be a great event but we need your help to finalize the plans and make it all happen!

               

              Here are the basics:

              Alice’s at 6:00 PM, Saturday February 10, 2018

               

              We need a few committees to pull the details together and to make things run smoothly on the night of the event.  Here are the committees we need to have filled - see if there is a spot you might like to fill - it's going to be a fun night!

               

              a.      Publicity

              b.     Team Composition –help to determine entry fees, team size, maximum number of teams, prizes, etc. (we have templates and examples to refer to)

              c.     Silent Auction Crew: Help solicit donations, setup and manage a silent auction to happen at the same time

              d.      Stage and tables setup and arrangement – coordination with Alice’s

              e.      Sound system and computer/video set up

              f.       Trivia categories and questions (we have ordered a package of questions and categories - we just have to narrow it down to the best 6 categories!)

              g.     Trivia power point setup

              h.     Master of Ceremonies (MC) - Gary Thomas

              i.       Crew to hand out and collect answer sheets and act as sergeants-at arms

              j.       Timers, judges and scorers

              k.     Cashier and fund collection

              We will have a sign up sheet to be passed around at the meeting on Thursday - and a brief meeting afterwards to discuss any needs and answer questions.  Please let me know if you would like to help out in some way!

              Thanks!

              Beth


              Time to Sign Up for the 2018 Rotary International Convention in Toronto

              I suggest you get yourself an early present this year and register for the 2018 RI Convention in Toronto.  The Dates are June 23-27, 2018.  I attended my 1st International Convention last year in Atlanta.  I expected a Great Time, Great Speakers, meeting Great new People and validating how Great it is to be a Rotarian.  What I found was all of that and much more - by far.  It was an awesome experience!!  Toronto looks to be even better, in a cool city I have not yet been to.

               

              If you haven’t been to the Toronto Promotional Material in Rotary’s Website do it now.  Here is a link on the City of Toronto with a special invitation from Ian Riseley.  Early Bird Sign Up for the convention runs through December 15th (just one more week) at only $335.00 for the convention.  Register here.  There are links on this registration page to hotels in the area, they do fill up as there were over 40,000 Rotarians registered in Atlanta.

               

              It’s a great idea to have multiple members from each club attend so you have someone to share all the new experiences with.  Attending this will bring you back home - Energized!!  

               

              If you have been to an International Convention before you know what a great time is to be had, if you haven’t been before – ‘Trust Me’, you’ll love it.

              See you in Toronto, Eh?

               

              Bruce Erickson

              Anchorage International Rotary

              907-223-0610  or Befespud1@gmail.com


              Speaker Information Needed

              If you are one of the lucky members who signed up to recruit a speaker for one of our meetings then please use the link below to add their name, title or topic of the presentation and list any additional people who may be presenting.  The more info the better!
               

              https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mSD1uouoIjGuZnBzWosGSb5pPsgc6AjfmlxwZCD4eK4/edit#gid=991044525

               

              We like to give certificates to everyone who presents - and Craig makes these up a day or two prior to our meeting - so it is important to have the spreadsheet filled out in advance.  I also use this information to plan the agenda for the week - so it is very helpful to have the info complete!

               

              Also - if you have someone who you think would be a good presenter - look at the spreadsheet, see who is responsible for recruiting the speaker and contact them with your idea.

               

              AND - if you aren't in charge of recruiting - but see a speaker who you think would be interesting to a friend or colleague - please invite them and share Rotary and the club experience with them!  It's a great way to recruit new members.  OR invite a member who hasn't been to a meeting for a while and ask them to join you!  It's a great way to retain our members!!

               

              See you on Thursday!

              Announcements:  December 14, 2017 2017-12-12 09:00:00Z 0

              News From Rotary

               
               
               
              News from Rotary
               
               
               
              December 2017
               
               
               
              Dear Fellow Rotarians,

              Together, we are setting in motion our global effort to help the world better understand who we are: people of action, driven by a desire to strengthen communities, mobilize problem solvers, and find solutions to the tough challenges that affect people around the world.

              Starting now, you can visit the Brand Center to download new People of Action templates for social media posts and print ads. You can also download the video public service announcements that debuted at the Atlanta convention, as well as guidelines and tips on using the campaign. Use all of these to tell your own stories about how your club and district are taking action and bringing leaders together to make an impact in your community. 

              We are very proud of this new campaign and the opportunity it gives us to tell a consistent, compelling story about what makes Rotarians people of action. In the coming months, we’ll add more resources to the Brand Center. We hope that you take advantage of these materials, because they’ll help you to get the full benefit of the campaign by promoting both your club and Rotary in your community. Join us and bring the People of Action campaign to life by visiting the Brand Center today. The more we build awareness of Rotary, the easier it will be to make an impact in our communities right across the world.

              — Ian Riseley
              President, Rotary International
               
                
               
               
               
               
               
                
               
               
               
               
              News From Rotary 2017-12-12 09:00:00Z 0

              Comfort From an Unexpected Source

              Column: A grieving daughter finds comfort in an unexpected source: customer service 

              By Barbara Brotman

              Death comes with paperwork. There are credit cards to be canceled, bank accounts to be closed, mutual funds to be transferred. When my mother died recently, I set myself to my tasks. Hers was not a tragic or unexpected death; she was 103. Still, we were soul-close. This, I thought as I began, was not going to be pleasant.

              But I was wrong. In a way, it was.

              I was continually amazed as every single customer service person I spoke with began by expressing condolences. It happened so many times that I started taking notes:

              “First, let me say that I am sorry for your loss.” “Before we go on, I am very sorry for your loss.”   “I can help you with that, but first, my condolences for your loss.” And in a particularly heartfelt moment on the phone with Franklin Templeton Investments: “Oh, Barbara, I’m so sorry.”

              I was touched. But I was surprised that I was touched. After all, these condolences were surely company-mandated. Financial firms get calls all the time from people settling their late loved ones’ affairs. They would be foolish not to train employees in how to handle them.

              No matter; I was still grateful. This wasn’t a conventional financial transaction; this was the closing-down of my mother’s life.

              And there, on the other end of the line, someone understood and was sorry. With a single phrase of condolence, whether they were required to say it or simply responding with reflexive kindness, they had established a human connection.

              Suddenly I wasn’t speaking to an anonymous voice, but to someone who might have suffered his or her own loss. There on the phone, we were not customer and customer service rep; we were simply two fellow souls on earth.

              My friend Suzy Sachs encountered similar thoughtfulness when she went to her brother’s bank after he died last year.

              “The poor guy at the bank showed me unbelievable patience and kindness,” she says. “I talked way too much and gave him details he never needed. When we finally finished, he said again how sorry he was for my loss.

              “Every time I’ve been in the branch since, he comes up to me, shakes my hand, calls me by my name, and asks how everything is going,” she continues. “In this painful journey, I am often stunned by the kindness of people – strangers and friends. It gives me faith in humanity.”

              Mimi Weyrick found that every financial institution, with one notable exception, dealt tenderly with her after her father, former California Lt. Gov. Ed Reinecke, died. 

              “Even little things like canceling his subscription to the Orange County Register – people were just so nice and gentle with me,” she says. “It kind of renewed my faith in people. It’s not like his death was unexpected; he was 92. But it was just nice to have somebody say, ‘Hey, I’m really sorry.’”

              Such expressions are profoundly important, says Jane Bissler, a grief counselor in Kent, Ohio, and a past president of the Association for Death Education and Counseling. “We want people to acknowledge where we are in life,” she says. “When we’re grieving, we want people to understand that you need to treat us a little bit differently. We don’t have 100 percent of our brain power; we are living a little bit in our heart, and we’re sad or we’re stressed or we’re anxious.”

              When someone is kind in that moment, she notes, “We say, ‘OK, this person is going to get it. They’re trying to understand. They’re trying to meet me where I am.’ ”

              Early on – before my mother’s death, but well into her dementia – I called the New York Times and the New Yorker to cancel her subscriptions.

              Those were my hardest calls. The Times and the New Yorker defined her; they represented her in her full liberal New York Jewish glory. I had kept her subscriptions going for two years after she had lost the ability to read. 

              I didn’t want to simply cancel her subscriptions. I wanted to tell someone who she was. 

              “I think she’s probably one of your longest-running subscribers,” I told the woman taking my call at the Times. “She’s been reading the Times since the 1930s. She did the crossword puzzle every day, in pen. Including a half-hour after she came out of anesthesia for open-heart surgery at age 94.”

              The customer service rep murmured kindly as I cried.

              And the New Yorker: “She not only subscribed for decades, but she once had a short humor piece published,” I told the phone staffer. “Oh, that’s wonderful,” the woman said in tones that made me certain she meant it. I smiled proudly through the tears.

              Mine were good experiences. But not everyone’s are. That notable exception Mimi Weyrick encountered?

              Her father’s private bank ducked her calls so determinedly when she was trying to find out the value of his account that she had to drive there and waylay a banker in person.

              “I could not get them on the phone. Nobody would return my call. We literally had to track them down,” she says. “It wasn’t until my brother threatened legal action that they started to work with us.”

              And this report from a friend: “Shortly after my dad died, the pain clinic called my mom to ask when she would be returning his pump. This is the morphine pump that was surgically implanted in his stomach to deliver a steady stream of medicine to try to limit his pain. She was taken aback, and she told them it was buried inside of him. The woman paused for a second or two, then wondered, ‘What about the remote device that went with the pump?’” 

              My friend Mike Precker, a writer in Dallas, will never forget the aftermath of his father’s death, though it happened in 1974.

              “We had literally just gotten back from my dad’s funeral when a fellow from the local bank called to inquire when we would be paying his credit card bills,” he recalls. “Apparently some poor guy’s job was to read the obits and then call the families.”

              Mike cut up the credit card and mailed it to the bank with a letter reading, “Dear Sir, I hope that from the tone of this letter you can infer just what you can do with the enclosed card.”

              At Franklin Templeton Investments, the firm that was notably kind to me, Bethany Hendricks is vice president of customer service for the subsidiary whose wealth transfer team handles calls after a death. After her own father died, she called a credit card company to close his account.

              “I probably got transferred three different times, and each time I had to say my dad died,” she says. “There was no acknowledgment of what that meant. And at one point there was a language barrier, to the point where I had to keep saying, ‘He’s dead.’ ‘He’s dead.’ It was awful.”

              Franklin Templeton tells its people to acknowledge a loss and express condolences. But beyond that, the firm deliberately provides no script.

              “We want them to be real people,” Hendricks says. “This is probably the time when you have the biggest opportunity to really be good to a person. Our folks fortunately are in the position to be compassionate in that moment and take a little extra time to be human.

              “I don’t want to overstate what we do; we’re just a financial services company,” she says. “But I think people are hungry for finding people who are really people, and connecting with them on a very human level.”

              The way companies handle those moments can be crucial, says Rima Toure-Tillery, assistant professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. “Any company, anyone that becomes aware of someone else’s loss has to say, ‘I’m sorry for your loss,’” she says. “To most people it wouldn’t seem like they’re doing something extra.”

              From a marketing point of view, there are advantages, Toure-Tillery says. All banks offer similar services; warm personal exchanges can be what keeps a customer loyal. But the real impact comes if a company treats a grieving relative poorly. That’s when you get “the nightmare stories,” she says – the ones that make people so angry that they tell them, over and over, for years.

              And a bank could lose more than goodwill. Weyrick suspects that her father’s bank was ducking her to keep her from moving his assets elsewhere. In fact, “we would have been happy to leave everything there,” she says. “But it was because of how they treated us in those first few months that we decided to move everything.”

              As time passed after my mother’s death, the financial transactions became less fraught. I wasn’t grieving; I was just taking care of business. 

              But I never stopped appreciating it when a customer service rep said she was sorry for my loss. Each time, those words turned a transaction into an acknowledgment of our fundamental bond. We are all human, we are all walking the same mortal path, and we can all use a little kindness, even and maybe especially from an unexpected place, to light the way.

              • Barbara Brotman is a freelancer and a former writer for the Chicago Tribune. Read more stories from The Rotarian

               
              Comfort From an Unexpected Source 2017-12-11 09:00:00Z 0

              New Partners Build on Rotary's Strengths

              Habitat for Humanity and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness join with Rotary to improve lives 
              By Sallyann Price
               
              Rotary has added two service partners that offer clubs new ways to collaborate with other organizations and strengthen their projects: Habitat for Humanity and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB).
               
              1.     
              Habitat for Humanity, one of Rotary’s newest service partners, builds homes for families in need, and provides opportunities for hands-on community service.
              Photo by Alyce Henson
               
              2.      https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_800/public/20170204_US_002.jpg?itok=l6HiTk6-
              Rotary members assemble in an Atlanta suburb to receive their work assignments for a home building project with Habitat for Humanity, one of Rotary’s newest service partners.
              Photo by Alyce Henson
               
              3.      https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_800/public/20170204_US_016.jpg?itok=xV7WmMz-
              Randy Schiltz (right) helps put up siding during a Habitat for Humanity home building project. Schiltz owns a construction firm and is a member of the Rotary Club of Alpharetta, Georgia, USA.
              Photo by Alyce Henson
               
              4.       
              Alpharetta Rotarian Glennette Haynes (middle) works alongside a friend of the new homeowner.
              Photo by Alyce Henson
               
              5.       
              Local secondary school students join Rotary members, including Katie Rocco from the Alpharetta club (center), and other volunteers to lend a hand.
              Photo by Alyce Henson
               
              Habitat for Humanity has a long history of working with Rotarians and Rotaractors to build the types of low-cost shelters that now qualify for global grant funding, under a recent Board decision. It’s also a natural fit for Rotary’s approach to vocational service, which encourages members to use their professional skills to help others.
              When the Rotary Club of Alpharetta, Georgia, USA, participated in a Habitat home building project in the Atlanta area earlier this year, members showed up ready to work and lend their professional expertise. Randy Schiltz, who owns a construction firm, helped the new homeowners pre-drill holes to prepare for installing siding. Interior decorator Glennette Haynes, who works with people in transitional housing, was there to offer advice on furnishing and decorating their homes.
              Habitat for Humanity International Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Reckford is a member of the Rotary Club of Atlanta. During the 2017 Rotary International Convention there, volunteers gathered on-site to help construct the wood framing for a home.
               
              Our values are so closely aligned, and the desire to help others runs deep in both organizations.
              Jonathan Reckford 
              Habitat for Humanity International Chief Executive Officer and Rotary Club of Atlanta member
               
              “Often when I speak to Rotary groups and ask how many people have worked on a Habitat project, it’s not uncommon for more than three-quarters of the audience to raise their hands,” Reckford says. “Our values are so closely aligned, and the desire to help others runs deep in both organizations.”
              Rotary’s values are also closely aligned with IAPB, a membership organization that brings together government and nongovernmental agencies, academics, and private providers to plan and implement sustainable eye care programs. 
              “We seek to encourage both organizations [Rotary and IAPB] to promote greater awareness of the need for eye clinics and blindness prevention activities, to develop projects together, to consult, and to work together with their constituents,” says Peter Kyle, a member of the Rotary Club of Capitol Hill (Washington, D.C.), and Rotary’s Joint Committee on Partnerships.
               
              Rotary is a global organization with members in nearly every community around the world, and the cause of eye health is just as universal. 
              Victoria Sheffield 
              President and CEO of the International Eye Foundation and vice president of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness
               
              A global grant project in India, one of three pilot projects with IAPB, aims to improve access to eye care in Karol Bagh, a neighborhood in New Delhi, where private eye doctors and facilities are available but unaffordable for many.
              Local Rotary clubs worked with the International Eye Foundation, an IAPB member, to raise funds and supply medical equipment for vision screenings and treatment at an eye hospital’s new facility. They also worked to design a social enterprise to sustain the hospital’s charitable outreach programs.
              “There is a wonderful opportunity for our networks,” says Victoria Sheffield, president and CEO of the International Eye Foundation and vice president of IAPB. “Rotary is a global organization with members in nearly every community around the world, and the cause of eye health is just as universal. Everyone is affected by eye conditions at some point, whether it’s needing glasses or cataract surgery, or addressing a congenital issue or complications from diabetes. Everyone has two eyes.”
               
              ·        Read our press releases about Habitat for Humanity and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness
              New Partners Build on Rotary's Strengths 2017-12-11 09:00:00Z 0

              IMPORTANT!  Fire Extinguisher Recall

              This is some very important information, and very timely. Recently one of the subject fire extinguishers discharged itself, and spread a white powder into the owner's house.  The powder MUST be vacuumed up, as it can be quite corrosive, and definitely shortens the life of moving parts as it is also very abrasive.  The extinguishers can self-discharge or not discharge at all!  Please check. Please note that there are several different brand names included in this recall.
               
              Kidde Recalls Fire Extinguishers with Plastic Handles Due to Failure to Discharge and Nozzle Detachment: One Death Reported
               
              ·  https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-public/styles/thumbnail/public/110%20and%20Excel%20FX%20Identification%20Guide.jpg?4UuTu3RhWgLocT6MZ9J57XE39R76Kr50&itok=l_sHwRUR
              ·  https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-public/styles/thumbnail/public/Pindicator%20ID%20Guide.jpg?YBUwMb.UZSgcriCoDi0cWeQu4orHym_X&itok=Ayu1icKv
              Name of product:
              Kidde fire extinguishers with plastic handles
              Hazard:
              The fire extinguishers can become clogged or require excessive force to discharge and can fail to activate during a fire emergency. In addition, the nozzle can detach with enough force to pose an impact hazard.
              Remedy:
              Replace
              Recall date:
              November 2, 2017
              Recall number:
              18-022
              Consumer Contact:
              Kidde toll-free at 855-271-0773 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. ET Saturday and Sunday, or online at www.kidde.com and click on “Product Safety Recall” for more information.
              Recall Details
              In Conjunction With:
              Description:
              This recall involves two styles of Kidde fire extinguishers: plastic handle fire extinguishers and push-button Pindicator fire extinguishers.
              Plastic handle fire extinguishers: The recall involves 134 models of Kidde fire extinguishers manufactured between January 1, 1973 and August 15, 2017, including models that were previously recalled in March 2009 and February 2015. The extinguishers were sold in red, white and silver, and are either ABC- or BC-rated. The model number is printed on the fire extinguisher label. For units produced in 2007 and beyond, the date of manufacture is a 10-digit date code printed on the side of the cylinder, near the bottom.  Digits five through nine represent the day and year of manufacture in DDDYY format. Date codes for recalled models manufactured from January 2, 2012 through August 15, 2017 are 00212 through 22717.  For units produced before 2007, a date code is not printed on the fire extinguisher.
               
              Plastic-handle models produced between January 1, 1973 and October 25, 2015
              2A40BC
              Gillette TPS-1 1A10BC
              Sams SM 340
              6 RAP
              Home 10BC
              Sanford 1A10BC
              6 TAP
              Home 1A10BC
              Sanford 2A40BC
              Ademco 720 1A10BC
              Home 2A40BC
              Sanford TPS-1 1A10BC
              Ademco 722 2A40BC
              Home H-10 10BC
              Sanford TPS-1 2A40BC
              ADT 3A40BC
              Home H-110 1A10BC
              Sears 2RPS   5BC
              All Purpose 2A40BC
              Home H-240 2A-40BC
              Sears 58033 10BC
              Bicentenial RPS-2  10BC
              Honeywell 1A10BC
              Sears 58043 1A10BC
              Bicentenial TPS-2  1A-10BC
              Honeywell TPS-1 1A10BC
              Sears 5805  2A40BC
              Costco 340
              J.L. 2A40BC
              Sears 958034
              FA 340HD
              J.L. TPS-1 2A40BC
              Sears 958044
              FA240HD
              Kadet 2RPS-1   5BC
              Sears 958054
              FC 340Z
              Kidde 10BC
              Sears 958075
              FC Super
              Kidde 1A10BC
              Sears RPS-1 10BC
              FC210R-C8S
              Kidde 2A40BC
              Sears TPS-1  1A10BC
              Fire Away 10BC Spanish
              Kidde 40BC
              Sears TPS-1 2A40BC
              Fire Away 1A10BC Spanish
              Kidde RPS-1 10BC
              Traveler 10BC
              Fire Away 2A40BC Spanish
              Kidde RPS-1 40BC
              Traveler 1A10BC
              Fireaway 10 (F-10)
              Kidde TPS-1 1A10BC
              Traveler 2A40BC
              Fireaway 10BC
              Kidde TPS-1 2A40BC
              Traveler T-10 10BC
              Fireaway 110 (F-110)
              KX 2-1/2 TCZ
              Traveler T-110 1A10BC
              Fireaway 1A10BC
              Mariner 10BC
              Traveler T-240 2A40BC
              Fireaway 240 (F-240)
              Mariner 1A10BC
              Volunteer 1A10BC
              Fireaway 2A40BC
              Mariner 2A40BC
              Volunteer TPS-V 1A10BC
              Force 9 2A40BC
              Mariner M-10  10BC
              XL 2.5 TCZ
              FS 340Z
              Mariner M-110 1A10BC
              XL 2.5 TCZ-3
              Fuller 420  1A10BC
              Mariner M-240 2A40BC
              XL 2.5 TCZ-4
              Fuller Brush 420 1A10BC
              Master Protection 2A40BC
              XL 2.75 RZ
              FX210
              Montgomery Ward 10BC
              XL 2.75 RZ-3
              FX210R
              Montgomery Ward 1A-10BC
              XL 2-3/4 RZ
              FX210W
              Montgomery Ward 8627 1A10BC
              XL 340HD
              FX340GW
              Montgomery Ward 8637  10BC
              XL 4 TXZ
              FX340GW-2
              Quell 10BC
              XL 5 PK
              FX340H
              Quell 1A10BC
              XL 5 TCZ
              FX340SC
              Quell RPS-1 10BC
              XL 5 TCZ-1
              FX340SC-2
              Quell TPS-1 1A10BC
              XL5 MR
              Gillette 1A10BC
              Quell ZRPS  5BC
              XL 6 RZ
               
              Plastic-handle models with date codes between January 2, 2012 and August 15, 2017
              AUTO FX5 II-1
              FC5
              M10G
              FA10G
              FS10
              M10GM
              FA10T
              FS110
              M110G
              FA110G
              FS5
              M110GM
              FA5-1
              FX10K
              M5G
              FA5G
              FX5 II
              M5GM
              FC10
              H110G
              RESSP
              FC110
              H5G
               
               
              Push-button Pindicator fire extinguishers: The recall involves eight models of Kidde Pindicator fire extinguishers manufactured between August 11, 1995 and September 22, 2017. The no-gauge push-button extinguishers were sold in red and white, and with a red or black nozzle. These models were sold primarily for kitchen and personal watercraft applications.
               
              Push Button Pindicator Models manufactured between  August 11, 1995 and September 22, 2017
              KK2
              M5PM
              100D
              AUTO 5FX
              210D
              AUTO 5FX-1
              M5P
              FF 210D-1
               
              Remedy:
              Consumers should immediately contact Kidde to request a free replacement fire extinguisher and for instructions on returning the recalled unit, as it may not work properly in a fire emergency.
               
              Note: This recall includes fire extinguisher models that were previously recalled in March 2009 and February 2015. Kidde branded fire extinguishers included in these previously announced recalls should also be replaced. All affected model numbers are listed in the charts above.
              Recall information for fire extinguishers used in RVs and motor vehicles can be found on NHTSA’s website.
              Incidents/Injuries:
              The firm is aware of a 2014 death involving a car fire following a crash. Emergency responders could not get the recalled Kidde fire extinguishers to work. There have been approximately 391 reports of failed or limited activation or nozzle detachment, including the fatality, approximately 16 injuries, including smoke inhalation and minor burns, and approximately 91 reports of property damage.
              Sold At:
              Menards, Montgomery Ward, Sears, The Home Depot, Walmart and other department, home and hardware stores nationwide, and online at Amazon.com, ShopKidde.com and other online retailers for between $12 and $50 and for about $200 for model XL 5MR. These fire extinguishers were also sold with commercial trucks, recreational vehicles, personal watercraft and boats.
              Importer(s):
              Walter Kidde Portable Equipment Company Inc., of Mebane, N.C.
              Manufactured In:
              United States and Mexico
              Units:
              About 37.8 million (in addition, 2.7 million in Canada and 6,730 in Mexico)
               
               
              The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death associated with the use of thousands of types of consumer products under the agency’s jurisdiction. Deaths, injuries, and property damage from consumer product incidents cost the nation more than $1 trillion annually. CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical or mechanical hazard. CPSC's work to help ensure the safety of consumer products - such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters and household chemicals -– contributed to a decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 40 years.
              Federal law bars any person from selling products subject to a publicly-announced voluntary recall by a manufacturer or a mandatory recall ordered by the Commission.
               
              To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury go online to www.SaferProducts.gov or call CPSC's Hotline at 800-638-2772 or teletypewriter at 301-595-7054 for the hearing impaired. Consumers can obtain news release and recall information at www.cpsc.gov, on Twitter @USCPSC or by subscribing to CPSC's free e-mail newsletters.
              IMPORTANT!  Fire Extinguisher Recall 2017-12-05 09:00:00Z 0

              Announcements:  December 7, 2017

              Some Sad News
               
              We have just received word through Dave Brann that Tamara, wife of Past District Governor Vladimir Donskoy of Irkutsk, Russia, has passed away due to cancer.  Our condolences to him and their family and friends.  During his tenure, Vladimir came to Homer and other Clubs in Alaska, and attended District Conference in Anchorage.  For anyone wishing to contact Vladimir directly, here is his email address < vladimir.f.donskoy@gmail.com >

              Holiday Family Party

               
              New Members Proposed

              The Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club Board has approved the proposed Corporate Membership of Geneva Woods, a medical equipment, supplies, and pharmacy services company.  Representing Geneva Woods as members of the Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club will be Ms. Christie Gibbs and Mr. Mike Tivoli.

              Per our by-laws the Board solicits comments from the membership NLT December 7, 2017 concerning these prospective members. All comments should be in written form.


              Volunteers Needed
              The Club needs YOU to step up and put your name forward to run for the position of President-Elect for the 2019-2020 year.  If you are unsure whether, or not, you are qualified, please contact Beth.  There is plenty of training available, and lots of help, to perform one of the most fun and rewarding jobs you'll ever have.
               
              We also need someone to fill out the rest of the year (until June 30, 2018) on the Board of Directors.  Please contact Beth for this one also.

              Speaker Information Needed

              If you are one of the lucky members who signed up to recruit a speaker for one of our meetings then please use the link below to add their name, title or topic of the presentation and list any additional people who may be presenting.  The more info the better!
               

              https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mSD1uouoIjGuZnBzWosGSb5pPsgc6AjfmlxwZCD4eK4/edit#gid=991044525

               

              We like to give certificates to everyone who presents - and Craig makes these up a day or two prior to our meeting - so it is important to have the spreadsheet filled out in advance.  I also use this information to plan the agenda for the week - so it is very helpful to have the info complete!

               

              Also - if you have someone who you think would be a good presenter - look at the spreadsheet, see who is responsible for recruiting the speaker and contact them with your idea.

               

              AND - if you aren't in charge of recruiting - but see a speaker who you think would be interesting to a friend or colleague - please invite them and share Rotary and the club experience with them!  It's a great way to recruit new members.  OR invite a member who hasn't been to a meeting for a while and ask them to join you!  It's a great way to retain our members!!

               

              See you on Thursday!



              Announcements:  December 7, 2017 2017-12-05 09:00:00Z 0

              On the Trail of History

              Rotarians from three countries resurrect the forgotten Great Western Trail
               
              By Frank Bures Photos by Scott Slusher
               
              At Doan’s Crossing, in a remote corner of Texas near the southeastern tip of the Panhandle, the local folks hold a picnic every May. It has all the things you would expect from a small-town picnic: A few hundred people from the nearby town of Vernon and the surrounding area gather to eat barbecue and socialize. Riders on horseback cross the river from Oklahoma to attend. A Picnic King and Queen are crowned. 
               
              But the event, which claims to be the “oldest pioneer festival” in Texas, also marks a piece of American history that was nearly lost: Doan’s Crossing was a key point along the Great Western Trail, a major cattle trail that, during its 20 years of existence, was more heavily used than the better-remembered Chisholm Trail. While it was in use, some 6 million to 7 million cattle and a million horses made their way up various parts of the route. 
               
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_800/public/trail%20rotarians.jpg?itok=xJ0F0xct
              At Doan’s Crossing, near the historic Doan house, five trail-saving Rotarians gather around the first marker erected in Texas: Rick Jouett, left, Paul Hawkins, Jeff Bearden, Sylvia Mahoney, and Phil McCuistion.
               
              But unlike the Oregon Trail, along which pioneer wagons left ruts that are still visible, cattle trails could be a mile wide and left few traces – except in people’s memories.
              The Great Western Trail traversed the Red River at Doan’s Crossing. It’s the spot where Jonathan Doan and his family set up a trading post in 1878. It was the last place where the cattle drovers – the cowboys – could stock up on supplies before they headed north across the Texas border into Indian Territory, as Oklahoma was then known. Doan’s Picnic was started by the wives of the drovers who had gone up the trail in 1884. It has been held every year since.
              Today, Doan’s store is gone, but the small adobe house where his nephew lived still sits in a field, much as it did when the first picnic took place. On an August day, the site is quiet but for the crickets’ song. A few stone historical markers keep vigil in the tall grass. 
               
              Not far from the house stands a tall white concrete post with “GREAT WESTERN TR” in red letters, and next to it stand Rotarians Sylvia Mahoney and Jeff Bearden, who are largely responsible for that marker being there. They’re chatting with John Yudell Barton from across the Red River in Oklahoma, who made this post and helped launch the Great Western Trail project, one of the biggest and most complex Rotary projects in the state – if not the country – which has involved hundreds of Rotarians across three countries.
               
              “There used to be a town here with the streets all platted out,” Bearden says on an unusually cool summer day. “There were about 300 people living here, with a school and a post office. This is all that’s left. The rest just dried up and blew away.” 
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_400/public/trail%20map.jpg?itok=6yWyi65k
              A map of the trail as it might have appeared more than 130 years ago, when Oklahoma was still known as Indian Territory.
               
              The memory of the Great Western Trail almost blew away too, the only traces being the stories handed down through families and the yellowed documents and maps in small-town archives along the 2,000-mile route that stretches from Matamoros, Mexico, all the way to Val Marie, Sask. That’s when Rotary rode to the rescue.
               
              In the fall of 2002, Mahoney attended the National Cowboy Symposium in Lubbock, Texas, where she met Barton and Rotarian Dennis Vernon (no relation to the town). A college rodeo coach and a member of the Rotary Club of Vernon, Mahoney was intrigued by this almost forgotten slice of history. She knew about the Chisholm Trail and the Shawnee Trail. And she knew about the Goodnight-Loving Trail from her favorite TV miniseries, Lonesome Dove. But the Great Western was a mystery, which was strange since she lived right on its path. In fact, it was just a stone’s throw from her office at Vernon College, where she was an administrator and taught English.
               
              Back home, she invited Barton and Vernon to speak to her Rotary club. “They came back in a few months and challenged us to participate in marking the Great Western Trail,” says Bearden, who’s also a member of the Rotary Club of Vernon. “They were marking it in Oklahoma and wanted to extend it to other states.”
               
              Dennis Vernon, a member of the Rotary Club of Altus, Okla., was working with the Museum of the Western Prairie in Altus to mark the trail, but he realized that Rotary could take the project further than he and Barton ever could. “I told them, ‘This would be great not just for your community, but for those south of you too, to help mark this historic trail,’” recalls Vernon. “And we said, ‘We’ll make the first marker for you.’”
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_400/public/trail%20signpost%202.jpg?itok=xXO4Zftr
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_400/public/trail%20signpost.jpg?itok=uMdfV-lM
              Posts mark the trail including in Altus, Okla., USA, near the Museum of the Western Prairie, left, and the rodeo grounds in Throckmorton, Texas, USA.
               
              Mahoney grasped the importance immediately. “It would be a history-making project, because the Great Western Trail was the last Texas cattle trail, ” she says. “It was the largest Texas cattle trail. It was the longest Texas cattle trail. And it was almost forgotten.”
               
              After discussing it with their club, Mahoney looked over at Bearden, who owned a chuck wagon and appeared at re-enactments as Davy Crockett. Not quite knowing the magnitude of the undertaking, they accepted the challenge, agreeing to co-chair the project and try to mark the trail every six of its 620 miles across Texas.
               
              “When our friends from Vernon Rotary Club joined in,” Dennis Vernon says, “that’s when it really took off. ”
               
              As time went on, scores of other Rotarians joined the project – including Ray Klinginsmith, who, as president of Rotary International in 2010-11, became one of the trail’s most prominent champions.
               
              Cattle trails occupy a key place in American history and culture. The Civil War devastated the economies of the former Confederate states. In the summer of 1865, Texas had little industry, and many of its young men had been killed in the war.
               
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_400/public/AC_537.jpg?itok=ZY2vnoj4
              Cowboys would often eat beans, bacon, and other things that could be preserved on long cattle drives. See some common recipes here.
               
              One thing the state did have was cattle: millions of feral longhorns roaming the high plains. They were a strange and hardy breed that resulted from half-wild Spanish cattle mixing with English stock. They had few birthing problems, were easy to raise, and were immune to tick fever. And they were so tough they often gained weight on the long journey north.
               
              Before the war, some cattle had been sent north (mainly on the Shawnee Trail), but back then, people in the United States consumed more pork than beef, partly because pork was easier to preserve. The cattle drives helped change the American diet. In the 1860s, ranchers and cowboys in Texas and northern Mexico started rounding up loose herds and driving them north en masse to Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri. From the railheads there, the cattle traveled to Chicago and other points east, where people were developing a taste for beef – and where a steer worth $4 in Texas might sell for as much as 10 times that amount.
               
              But first the cattle had to travel across hundreds of miles of open range – in some instances going beyond the railheads as far north as Montana and even into Canada, where they could feed the growing population and still earn a pretty profit. The journey required months of inching along day by day as the trail hands tried to keep thousands of cattle moving together in the same direction.
               
              Overseeing this task was the trail boss, who was aided by about 10 drovers, who herded the cows, rounded up strays, cut out interlopers, and got the longhorns where they were going. Some of the trail hands worked as wranglers, overseeing the remuda – the herd of spare saddle horses.
              These were the cowboys, young men (and a few women) at loose ends because of the war or the economy or their own deeds. Most were white, but some were freed slaves, others were Native American, and many came from Mexico. (Cowboy culture first evolved in Spanish California in the late 1700s and early 1800s, as seen in words such as “buckaroo” (vaquero), “lasso,” “chaps,” and others; see “How to Talk Cowboy,” page 36.) Some were criminals, and others were adventurers, but on the trail, they were all equals.
               
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_800/public/trail%20main.jpg?itok=r6ayBXqp
              A ranch hand uses his lariat to lasso a cow. Cowboy terms with Spanish roots reveal the origins of many Old West traditions.
               
              In time, the cowboys came to embody America’s most prized character traits – independence, toughness, fairness, self-reliance. They had an informal ethical code, with a number of tenets: “When you make a promise, keep it.” “Live each day with courage.” “Always finish what you start.” (You will find these and other maxims in James P. Owen’s Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn from the Code of the West.) It was a simple, hard-bitten wisdom that was the foundation of the culture of the West.
               
              Mahoney, who was raised in southeastern New Mexico and Texas, sees those values reflected in Rotary’s Four-Way Test: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned? “The cowboy code has so much in common with The Four-Way Test,” Mahoney says as we drive across the high plains of Texas. “And I think The Four-Way Test is the best ethical statement. If everyone lived like that, the world would be a much better place.”
               
              We are on our way to Vernon, where those first markers set out by the Great Western Trail project now stand. One is outside the Red River Valley Museum on the outskirts of town.
              When Mahoney and I arrive, we meet some of the Vernon Rotarians who spent years bringing the trail back to life: Phil McCuistion, who poured the concrete for 121 of the markers with Rick Jouett, and Paul Hawkins, who hand-painted the markers white with red letters. They’re each wearing Great Western Trail shirts, Rotary pins embellished with longhorns, and large belt buckles.
              Marking the Great Western Trail’s route through Texas was a massive project: It stretches 620 miles across that state alone. The Vernon Rotarians were rescuing history, and in the process they were putting some small towns back on the map. Marking historic routes such as the Oregon Trail, the Lewis and Clark Trail, and the Natchez Trace has proven a good way to draw history buffs and infuse small towns along the way with tourist dollars.
               
              As promised, Barton and Vernon donated the first marker. This handoff was scheduled for Doan’s Picnic in 2004. On that day, the Vernon Rotarians gathered at Doan’s Crossing. As the dedication ceremony began, Oklahoma State Sen. Robert M. Kerr rode in on horseback from the north, followed by a wagon carrying the marker. From the south came Texas State Rep. Rick Hardcastle on his own horse. When the groups met, they rode to the marker location, planted the post in the ground, and cemented it in place. Then the Texans and Oklahomans took turns pouring water from the Red River out of a Mason jar onto the marker. “Everyone got a chance to pour some Red River water if they wanted to,” says Mahoney. That ritual became a key part of marking the trail.
               
              “All of the dedications gave people this feeling that their community was part of this big trail and part of history,” says Dave Mason, a past governor of Rotary District 5790 in north-central Texas, who got involved with the project in Abilene and has attended several dedications from one end of the trail to the other. “They really cemented the whole thing. There was some coordination by email and phone calls, but until you meet face to face, you don’t really know each other. Now we’re all tied in with 2,000 miles of communities, all the way from Mexico to Canada.”
               
              Rick Jouett, right, and Paul Hawkins at the courthouse in Vernon, Texas
               
              After it had the marker, the Vernon club got two metal molds from Barton so it could make its own concrete posts. Then the members got to work. They looked at the map and figured out which towns along the trail in Texas had Rotary clubs. 
              “We contacted the Rotarians in these towns,” says Mahoney. “And everyone I talked to was excited to be included and eager to do something in their towns with their history. Some of the Rotary clubs had never even heard of the Great Western Trail.”
               
              Ted Paup, a ranch owner and a member of the Rotary Club of Abilene at the time (he’s currently with the Rotary Club of Fort Worth), remembers getting that call. “I said, ‘You’re going to mark it for 2,000 miles north and south? That’s the craziest idea I’ve ever heard. You-all are out of your minds!’” 
               

              In fact, they hadn’t planned to mark the entire trail quite yet. But that would change soon. And before long, there was a trail marker at Frontier Texas, a history museum in Abilene, and another in Moran, Texas, near Paup’s ranch. (Paup funded that marker and another about 45 miles north in Throckmorton.)

               

              In Texas, the markers began to accumulate. But getting from expressing interest in the project to actually installing a post took a lot of work. First the club or town had to produce documentation that the trail did in fact pass through the location. This could usually be found in the family histories compiled in small-town museums and historical societies. (An invaluable resource for marking the trail was “The Great Western Cattle Trail to Dodge City, Kansas,” which Jimmy M. Skaggs wrote as his 1965 master’s thesis at what is today Texas Tech University.)

               

              Once that was established, the club had to choose a location and secure any needed permissions. Then the Vernon club would pour the concrete into the marker mold, let it cure for a month, paint it, and work out the logistics of either a formal dedication – complete with Red River water – or a quieter ceremony. (As work on the trail expanded to other towns, states, and countries, volunteers from other clubs along the trail eventually took on the making of the markers.)

               

              Sometimes, the hardest part was getting the 225-pound markers to their destinations. But little by little, the trail in Texas began to come back to life.

               

              “It seemed like a pretty insurmountable thing, going from one end of Texas to the other,” says Bearden. “But people got involved, and it worked out well.”

               

              Marking the trail across Texas was a huge job, but the Great Western Trail project was about to get even bigger. Jim Aneff, District 5790 governor at the time, got excited about the project, and in 2005, while the planting of the Texas posts was ongoing, he invited Mahoney to set up a display at the Rotary institute in Corpus Christi. She packed up her maps and photos and installed herself in the hallway of the hotel where the district governors had gathered. Many of those governors were from states that the Great Western Trail passed through.

               

              On the Trail of History 2017-12-04 09:00:00Z 0

              Partnership Takes on Cervical Cancer in Senegal

              Until the 1950s, cervical cancer killed more American women than any other type of cancer. Widespread screening has drastically decreased the number of those deaths in the United States, but in the West African country of Senegal, the disease remains prevalent. Every year, more than 1,400 Senegalese women are diagnosed with cervical cancer, and hundreds of them die from it.

              To Andrew Dykens, a professor of family medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), the situation is especially galling given how easy this form of cancer is to catch.

              “Cervical cancer develops very, very slowly,” Dykens says. “There are five to 15 years from the first cellular changes to the actual cancer development. So you’ve got time during that phase to do something about it.”

               

              1.      https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/IMG_5398.JPG?itok=X-ebyOkc

              Training for health care workers in Kedougou.

              Courtesy of Andrew Dykens

              2.      https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/IMG_5376.JPG?itok=K5CB1O1h

              Training for health care workers in Kedougou.

              Courtesy of Andrew Dykens

               

              3.      https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/Copy%20of%20P1040464.JPG?itok=3s1JycCM

              Training for health care workers in Kedougou.

              Courtesy of Andrew Dykens

               

              4.      https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/DSC03666.jpg?itok=9B5vqwdu

              Andrew Dykens, lower left, worked closely with local health care workers and Peace Care volunteers to bring a simple testing and treatment protocol for cervical cancer to Senegal.

              Courtesy of Andrew Dykens

               

              That’s exactly what he’s doing, with the help of the Peace Corps, Rotarians, and UIC. 

              Dykens – who is a member of the Rotary Club of Chicago, the director of the Global Community Health Track at UIC’s Center for Global Health, and a former Peace Corps volunteer – is bringing together those organizations and Senegal’s Ministry of Health and Social Action to reduce the number of women who die from this highly treatable disease.

               

              A bit of background: In 2010, Dykens launched Peace Care, a nonprofit that helps communities and organizations work together to bring resources where they are needed. “It dawned on me that the Peace Corps should be working more closely with, for example, academic centers, because these centers have technical expertise but don’t have a footprint in local settings,” he says. “Meanwhile, the Peace Corps has people who are extraordinarily knowledgeable about the local context.” 

               

              And Rotary? “Rotary loves to build capacity,” he says. “If we can build the capacity to implement evidence-based solutions that already exist, we don’t need fancy tools like MRIs or robotic surgery. Not that those tools aren’t good, but there’s a basic level of access to primary health care that doesn’t exist.”

               

              After hearing from Peace Corps staff in Senegal about the need for cervical cancer screenings there, Dykens and Peace Care started training health workers in the Kedougou region of the country to detect abnormal cervical cells via a simple but effective method. A vinegar solution, dabbed onto the cervix, reveals abnormal cells that can be killed immediately with a cryotherapy gun and CO2 tank – no electricity required. This is far easier and less expensive than the standard Pap test, which requires looking at cell samples under a microscope to identify abnormalities. 

               

              “Cool, right?” Dykens says. “This technique has been around for decades, and it costs so little and saves women’s lives. So how is it that in this day and age, in Senegal, there are 10 rural regions that have no access to cervical cancer screening?”

               

              Part of the answer is local influence. “In some cases, the local opinion leaders are very conservative on women’s issues, and they are reluctant to help the women go for consultation,” says Manuel Pina, an obstetrician/gynecologist and member of the Rotary Club of Dakar-Soleil who is working with Peace Care. “But Rotarians are also opinion leaders. We have already done local talks on the importance of this project, to help end all of the rumors and bad information linked to cervical cancer.” Pina notes that they also encourage families to have their daughters vaccinated against human papillomavirus, which causes cervical cancer.

               

              Rotarians and Peace Corps volunteers have a long history of working together on projects, and in 2014 the two organizations began a more formalized partnership. The cervical cancer screening project demonstrates how a grassroots effort can benefit from the combined strengths of the two organizations.

               

              The Rotary clubs plan to apply for a Rotary Foundation global grant to help expand cervical cancer screening services to the Tambacounda region. “Not just for the purpose of building capacity, but also to build a training center for cervical cancer screening,” Dykens says. Eventually, that center could also train health workers to screen for and treat other diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, and other types of cancers, he adds.

               

              Dykens says support of Rotarians in the United States and in Senegal will continue to be key.

               

              “Rotarians do things right,” he says. “They work systematically and always engage local voices and perspectives, and that is what ultimately creates success. Rotary has worked a long time on polio and done an amazing job. And in my mind, access to primary care is the next polio.”

               

              –Anne Ford

               

              • Read more stories from The Rotarian

              Partnership Takes on Cervical Cancer in Senegal 2017-12-04 09:00:00Z 0

              Behind the Scenes of Polio Eradication

              Rotary’s national advocacy advisers are putting polio on the world stage. Here’s how.

               

              By Diana Schoberg 

               

              At the Rotary International Convention in Atlanta in June, world leaders were on hand to celebrate a historic $1.2 billion in commitments to finance polio eradication. It was a huge moment for the polio eradication effort. But how did it come about?

              A group of Rotary volunteers has been hard at work behind the scenes: our PolioPlus national advocacy advisers. This team of Rotarians from donor countries has a mission to make sure polio eradication is on the global agenda. In the corridors of power, they relentlessly work their connections – lunches with government officials, phone calls with ministers – to garner money and support for ending the disease.

              And they’ve been successful: Since Rotary’s advocacy program started in 1995, it has generated more than $8 billion toward ending polio. The United States is the leading public sector donor to global polio eradication with a cumulative investment that totals $3 billion through fiscal 2017, thanks in large part to the leadership of Past RI President James L. Lacy and members of the Polio Eradication Advocacy Task Force for the U.S. Their advocacy colleagues around the world have done remarkable work as well.

              “The national advocacy advisers always come through in knowing the right people to speak with in government and in arranging key meetings,” says Michael K. McGovern, International PolioPlus Committee chair. “No matter the political party in charge, the Rotarians are known and respected.”

              This year, the pledging of funds wasn’t the only priority. Working with our Global Polio Eradication Initiative partners, the advocates had the ambitious goal of getting a commitment to polio eradication from the world’s most powerful nations. The advocacy advisers saw two unprecedented political victories when both the health ministers and leaders of the Group of 20, an informal bloc of countries accounting for 85 percent of the global economy, committed to strive to finish our work and end the disease. 

              Rotary’s message about ending polio is reaching the key decision-makers. So how did our national advocacy advisers do it? We checked in with three of them to find out what went into their recent successes.

               

              Behind the Scenes of Polio Eradication 2017-11-29 09:00:00Z 0

              Bringing Up Babies

              After overcoming a tough childhood, pediatrician Ramon Resa is helping to raise a new generation of kids
               
              By Mary MacVean         Photos by NashCO
               
              At three years old, an age when most toddlers are being assessed on how high they can count or how well they can recite their ABCs, Ramon Resa faced a different standard of measurement: how much cotton he could pile up in the farm fields of central California.  
               
              And for many years, as he harvested cotton, walnuts, or oranges, Resa felt that he didn’t measure up. That feeling was reinforced by some who might have been his mentors and guides: Even though he graduated at the top of his eighth-grade class, he was told to let a white classmate give the valedictory speech. A school counselor tried to shunt him into wood shop instead of algebra.
              Ramon Resa strides the halls of Sierra View Medical Center in In Porterville, Calif., USA, where he’s on staff.
               
              But Resa persevered. Today, to visit him at work, you’ll walk through a door labeled Dr. Ramon Resa. A Rotarian and a pediatrician in Porterville, Calif., he spends his days in an office not far from the tiny box of a house where he grew up among 14 relatives. 
               
              From farmworker to pediatrician
              At work, Resa moves among four exam rooms, sometimes seeing more than 50 patients in a day: a three-year-old suffering from allergies, a two-year-old in for a checkup, a 10-year-old who hurt his thumb playing sports. Resa tickles a child lightly as he checks a throat or belly, switching from English to Spanish as needed. “I can out-stare you,” he jokes with a determined boy who has a sinus infection. 
               
              “He teases the babies and the moms, and he builds their confidence up, ” says his office manager, Shirley Rowell, who has worked with Resa since he arrived in Porterville in 1985 with his newly minted medical degree. The children energize him, bringing out his jovial nature, but he’s also gentle and caring. When C-section newborns were moved from surgery to the maternity ward, Rowell recalls, Resa always carried them in his arms and talked to them. He never used the transport carts. “Of course it was against protocol,” Resa says. “But if I have a chance to bond with the baby, I will.”
               
              In his own childhood, doctors were called only for the most severe ailments. Resa was the fifth child born to a mother barely out of her teens herself, and he never knew his father. He and two brothers were sent to live with their grandparents: The kids crowded in with “Ama” and “Apa,” uncles, aunts, and cousins, sleeping on mattresses on the floor and sharing one bathroom. Goats, pigs, and chickens lived in a side yard. Everyone had to pitch in.
               
              By the time he was seven or eight, he felt he was “no longer a child,” Resa wrote in his 2010 memoir, Out of the Fields. He was a worker who was paid 3 cents a pound for cotton. He tried to prove his worth by outworking people much older than he was. But alcohol, fights, and other stressors were all around him, and his feelings of isolation, inadequacy, and resentment grew. By the start of high school, Resa began to feel a debilitating depression that robbed him of the joy of his scholastic and athletic achievements. He found himself dreading the bad things he was sure were to come. But he had brains and determination, and he vowed to succeed.
               
              Research has shown that aspirations and resolve play a role in resilience. Supportive role models do, too. Several key people saw promise in the young student and encouraged him: his fourth-grade teacher. A woman in the school district office. And his neighbors Jim and Susan Drake. Jim Drake was a principal aide to César Chávez, but Resa didn’t learn about his role in the labor movement until years later.
               
              Ernest Moreno, a friend since childhood who also grew up in a farmworker family, has often thought about why he and Resa succeeded when others did not. “You had to think you were special and didn’t belong in that environment,” says Moreno, who runs an executive search firm in Illinois. “You had to have friends who were like you” – Moreno recalls the many Friday nights he and Resa spent playing board games such as Risk – “and you had to want it.”
              Ramon Resa dispenses medical care, cute faces, and high-fives.
               
              A turning point: University of California, medical school, and Rotary
              Resa’s first exposure to Rotary came when good grades earned him a club-sponsored trip to see the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was his first trip anywhere. 
               
              As a teenager, he became aware of the advantages some of his classmates had: tutoring and private lessons, vacations, college and career expectations. But when a tennis coach offered him free private lessons, Resa turned him down. He had to work; his family needed the money. During his junior year in high school, he had to take a break from the cross-country team because his knees were so sore from kneeling to harvest walnuts. He was relieved when he got a letter jacket anyway, feeling sure that it would compel other students to see him “as a real person and not as a nobody.”
              Resa at the former site of Goshen School, near his childhood home.
               
              Although Resa qualified for the University of California system, no one at his high school informed him about it. Instead, he says, he and other farmworkers were pointed toward vocational classes at the local community college – until recruiters from the University of California Santa Cruz Educational Opportunities Program showed up.
               
              Early in his freshman year at UCSC, Resa met an artist named Debbie Binger, and she has been his partner ever since – through medical school at UC Irvine, parenthood, all the ups and downs of life. The couple married and settled in California’s Central Valley, and Resa joined the Rotary Club of Porterville. In 1990, he became its president.
              Yet he still couldn’t kick those childhood feelings of inadequacy. “I didn’t belong in front of these people,” he says. “I felt like a simple farmworker boy pretending to be a doctor.”
               
              But he didn’t feel at home among his family anymore, either. “He went through a period where he didn’t fit in either place,” says Debbie. She eventually persuaded him to see a therapist for his depression. That, combined with religion, helped him to shed his bitterness and resentment and to understand that his family had done the best they could for him.
               
              Revealing his childhood
              At the end of 1990, a freeze devastated the Central Valley citrus industry and caused nearly $1 billion in damage. Rotarians, Resa says, understood what the disaster meant to growers, who were their fellow community leaders. But Resa also understood what the freeze meant for the farmworkers – at least 100,000 lost their jobs – and for their families. He knew that his Rotary club could help.  
              But first, he would need to tell them his story. 
              “So at the podium, I told my story of going without food, relying on donations, and going to bed hungry,” he says. “I was ashamed of the way I grew up. I didn’t tell Rotary about it until I wanted to help get the farmworkers food.”
               
              His fellow Rotarians responded immediately. Contributions poured in to help the farmworker families get by. Ken Boyd, then governor of District 5230, who was at that meeting, had had no idea about the childhood his friend had endured. He spread the word to all 44 clubs in his district at that time.
               
              To learn more about the documentary being made about Resa's life, visit ramonrising.film.
               
              Today, Resa tells his story all over the country – to teenagers and Rotary members, to teachers and migrant worker advocates, at the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards and at medical schools. He wrote a memoir, and a documentary film about his life is being produced.
              But he still hates speaking in public – at least until it’s over. And then he loves it, because every time, he says, at least one person comes up to him with a story of resilience: a childhood spent in a crack house or with a severe learning disability. A stutter like the one Resa had.
               
              “He affects kids by letting them know they can do what they want,” Boyd says. “And when you believe it, you really can.”
               
              Nina Clancy, another former district governor, is among those who encourage Resa to keep on telling his story. “I’ve never heard anyone so courageous, so inspiring,” she says. “He has a zest for life that couldn’t be stamped out.”  
               
              Accepting the past, and moving on  
              At home, the Resas’ two children are now grown: Marina is an actor in Los Angeles, and Joshua is a fellow in pediatric oncology. Resa, meanwhile, is not-so-patiently waiting to become a grandfather. At his Rotary meeting, he jokingly bemoans his fellow members’ success – at acquiring grandchildren. At work, he holds an infant and says, “Can I keep him?”
              https://www.rotary.org/sites/default/files/styles/w_600/public/20170808_Resa_405.jpg?itok=uL-U7qZa
              Resa attends a meeting of the Rotary Club of Porterville.
               
              But for many years, Resa kept his other relatives at a distance. Many of his family members were surprised by parts of his memoir; some remember things differently. Some told him Out of the Fields deepened their understanding of the family and of him. His uncle Esmael, one of the kids in his childhood home, says, “I felt like he slapped me, I was so shocked. I thought I knew everything about him.”
               
              On one recent evening, some 20 members of the family gather at Round Table Pizza in Visalia, taking over two large tables for some boisterous storytelling and catching up. Tales of how hard they worked get the loudest laughs, but when asked if those experiences were funny at the time, there’s a unanimous chorus of “No!”
               
              But even as a child, Resa was struck by the beauty of his surroundings: “One thing I liked about picking oranges is how spectacular the groves looked,” he says. Driving past the fields where he once worked, through the blocks of houses where he spent his childhood, and past produce-packing houses along streets with names such as Olive and Orange, Resa points out the snow-topped mountains in the distance, the stands of walnut trees, and the fruit-heavy citrus groves extending to the horizon. 
              “My biggest regret is not going back and inspiring the next generation of my family,” he says. “I didn’t destroy the bridge. I just didn’t cross over it very often.” Fiercely protective of his children, he kept them away from relatives who struggled with drugs or gangs. 
               
              But those bonds are being mended. He stops one morning at his sister Rosa’s house. Inside, he helps himself to homemade tortillas, potatoes, and chorizo. “I still don’t know anything that tastes better than scooping a fresh corn tortilla into the kettle for a mouthful of hot chili with its iron taste from the pot, especially on a cold, crisp winter day,” he says.
              These days, Resa can hold on to the best of his memories without any bitter taste.
               
              • Read more stories from The Rotarian
              Bringing Up Babies 2017-11-29 09:00:00Z 0
              2017 Homer Mayoral Proclamation for Homer Rotary Health Fair 2017-11-28 09:00:00Z 0

              Announcements:  November 30, 2017

              New Members Proposed

              The Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club Board has approved the proposed Corporate Membership of Geneva Woods, a medical equipment, supplies, and pharmacy services company.  Representing Geneva Woods as members of the Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club will be Ms. Christie Gibbs and Mr. Mike Tivoli.

              Per our by-laws the Board solicits comments from the membership NLT December 7, 2017 concerning these prospective members. All comments should be in written form.

              Announcements:  November 30, 2017 2017-11-28 09:00:00Z 0

              Council on Resolutions Results

              Dear Rotarians of District 5010:

              Rotary International’s Council on Resolution representatives voted online between October 15 and November 15, 2017.  Below are the voting results and the Resolutions that were passed will go to the Rotary International Board of Directors for their consideration.  The Board of Directors are not obligated to implement them but can do so if they deem them in Rotary’s best interest.

              The Council on Legislation meets every three years to vote on proposed Enactments.  Enactments are different from Resolutions because once they are voted on and if they are passed by the Council, they become binding legislation.  The next Council on Legislation will meet in April 2019.  If you would like to submit an enactment, send it to District Governor Harry Kieling prior to December 15, 2017.
               
              Resolutions are proposed annually and the deadline for 2018 is on June 30, 2018.  If you would like to submit a Resolution, please submit it for approval at District Governor Harry Kieling’s District Conference in Seward.
               
              If you have any questions or need any additional information, contact me at rotaryjane@yahoo.com or (907) 299-1649.
               
              Best Regards,
               
              Jane Little
              Past District Governor 2010-11
              Council on Legislation Representative for District 5010
               

               

               
               
               
              Council on Resolutions Results 2017-11-28 09:00:00Z 0
              Rotary and ShelterBox 2017-11-26 09:00:00Z 0

              ANNOUNCEMENTS--November 16, 2017

               

              Don't miss the Club Assembly this week!  Maynard has put together a great slide show  about the Health Fair and this is YOUR time to get together with your committee members and map out the rest of the year - and then share all the great things we are doing with each other!

              Community Service Committee members - this is an important meeting to make some decisions,

              Club Services/Membership Committee - set some concrete goals for this year to move our club and district in a positive direction,

              Vocational Committee - there's lots to plan for with the Marine Trades program, scholarships and more,

              International Committee - what exciting projects are you going to get involved with this year? - Youth Services - 3 outbound students! confirming host families, making presentations in the schools and RYLA in Whitehorse - so much to talk about!

              Public Relations Committee - we have so much to share with our members, the community, the District - how are you going to help us share our story?

              Sunshine Committee - Xmas party! revitalization of Firesides?!? Fellowship opportunities - lots to plan for the year!

              I hope you will all join us this Thursday!


              FRIDAY DEADLINE - NOVEMBER 17th For District Governor Nominations

               

              Surely you know someone in your club or region that would make a great District Governor!

               

              They have been in Rotary over 7 years and been a club President. This Friday is the deadline for submitting their application. I leave it to you, as an Awesome Rotarian, to speak with them about applying. (All paperwork and forms are listed on the District Website under the second story, Nominations)

               

              And you, yes you, who fit the above criteria. We know you have the spark, drive and inclination to be a great District Governor. Where's your application?

               

              This position in Rotary will broaden your horizons like you wouldn't believe. It's challenging, confidence building and rewarding all in one. The doors it opens in Rotary are endless.

               

              I encourage all of you in our District to be on the look out for qualified Rotarians, even if you find them in the mirror!

               

              Yours in Rotary Service,

               

              Peggy Pollen, PDG 2012-2013

              District 5010 Nomination Chair

              (907) 388-2283

              News From DG Harry
               

              I wanted to send out a quick note to all of 5010 Rotarians on a couple of issues. I will also include the info in the next news letter.

               

              First, thank you for your tremendous support in our membership efforts. The figures came out yesterday and our District has recruited 34 new members since the first of July. That represents an almost 2% net gain for the Rotary Year. Your efforts have placed our District in the number 1 position out of 16 Districts in our Zone. Now is the time to plug in our afterburners and go even faster. If we can get 34 net new members in the first 4 months, we can get 68 net new members in the next 8 months which will enable us to exceed our goal of 5% net new members. Don't forget my offer of a District match ($$) on membership events. First City took  me up on the offer and had a very successful social (and new members)

               

              Rotary Cares For Kids has become unbelievable . The efforts and support of all of you is humbling. Thank You on behalf of so many wonderful kids who deserve a better than the hand they were dealt.

               

              Third, now is the time to submit proposals for the next RI Council on Legislation. If you have an idea please submit it to your club president. Club Presidents please submit your proposals to Jane Little and I not later than 15 December. Here is the guidelines and format.

               https://rotary.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_1zb6VhSSzgQXLLL.

              To help you and your clubs prepare 

              legislation, RI has updated the How to Propose Legislation course in Rotary’s 

              Learning Center. The course can be 

              found by going to My Rotary>Learning & Reference>Learning Center.

              Thank All of You for being such incredible Rotarians

               

              DG Harry (AKA Iceman)

               

               
              ANNOUNCEMENTS--November 16, 2017 2017-11-15 09:00:00Z 0

              Boathouse Pavilion is Paved

              Dave Brann has been instrumental at working with Rotary and the Friends of Kachemak Bay State Parks Water Trail group to get the paving of the pavilion done this fall. A Rotary  District Grant collaborative project!  Here are some pictures:
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Boathouse Pavilion is Paved 2017-11-15 09:00:00Z 0

              The Future of Buildings

              A program created by Rotary scholar Marco Faggella is training engineers around the world to make buildings safer in earthquakes
              By Diana Schoberg Photos by Gianluca Cecere
               
              We’re in the car, and my traveling companion and local guide Marco Faggella is blasting the stereo. He wants me to hear the music of a friend of his, who has reinterpreted southern Italy’s traditional tarantella rhythms as intoxicating trance tunes. Over dinner the previous evening, Faggella, a member of the Rotary Club of Roma Nord-Est, filled me in on his Top Secret Plan to get his friend to play at the Burning Man art festival. In that conversation, Faggella also educated me on the finer points of Italian mysticism, Magna Graecia, and Pythagoras.
               
              Faggella is full of grand plans: When he launched a film festival in 2009 in the beach town of Maratea in partnership with Rotary District 2100 (in part to show off the Oscar-nominated polio film The Final Inch), he called Francis Ford Coppola, whose grandparents came from the region. Coppola ended up sending a video message.  
              Marco Faggella, who was left homeless by an earthquake as a child, inspects a model house that engineers use to study the effects of simulated earthquakes. 
               
              I’m here to find out more about another of his big ideas, this one in his professional life. Faggella, who was trained through a Rotary scholarship, is a research associate in seismic engineering at Sapienza University of Rome. He looks at how to construct buildings – or retrofit existing ones – so that they don’t tumble down if an earthquake strikes. It’s a passion that makes sense given the earthquake risk in Italy, including in his hometown of Potenza, the city we are visiting at the instep of Italy’s boot. 
              Most of the 60,000 people who die in natural disasters every year are killed by a building collapse during an earthquake in a developing country. Instead of going into reaction mode each time an earthquake strikes, Faggella thought, why not educate people to construct safer buildings so that fewer people are injured? 
               
              He looked to his experiences with Rotary to come up with a plan. 
               
              At the University of Basilicata at Potenza, where Faggella did some of his research, engineers have built a model house that they shake with hydraulic pistons to simulate the effects of an earthquake. It’s made of clay bricks with strong floor beams but weak columns, the way houses were built for thousands of years until modern building codes began to account for seismic activity in the first half of the 20th century. “We’ve predicted extensively how this house will behave, ” Faggella explains as he stands in front of the model. “The bricks will break. The columns will topple.” 
              Around the world, people still live in these unsafe structures. “If you look at Kathmandu, a lot of Kathmandu is like this. If you look at Karachi, a lot of Karachi is like this,” Faggella says. “Houses like these can accommodate a lot of people quickly, but they account for a lot of the earthquake risk in the world.”
               
              For example, on 26 December 2003, a 6.6 magnitude earthquake struck Bam, Iran, killing more than 30,000 people and damaging 45,000 homes, many of which were built with mud bricks and didn’t comply with regulations set more than a decade earlier. Four days earlier, a 6.5 quake hit the central coast of California, where the losses were limited to two deaths and 500 damaged buildings, thanks to the implementation of modern seismic codes. 
              After a series of earthquakes hit Italy in 2016, the government created financial incentives for people to retrofit their homes to make them seismically safe.
               
              While we know much about earthquake-safe construction, the application of this knowledge still lags, even in a developed country such as Italy, where 60 percent of the buildings are more than 100 years old. The week before my visit, the Italian government passed guidelines to classify the seismic risk of buildings, along with tax incentives to promote retrofitting them with anti-seismic measures. A senior official from Sapienza University of Rome helped develop the rating system based on the work of the team of researchers to which Faggella belongs.  
               
              Faggella had a personal experience with all this at an early age. In November 1980, when he was five years old, he was watching a soccer game with his dad in their third-floor apartment in Potenza. “All of a sudden, everything started to shake like crazy, ” he recalls. “There was rubble coming down from the ceiling. We felt like the whole house was falling apart.” His dad grabbed him, his mom picked up his two-year-old sister, and they rushed, shoeless, down the stairs onto the tiny piazza below, where a crowd of shocked people had gathered, wondering what was going on. 
               
              More than 3,000 people died, and over 200,000 were left homeless as a result of the earthquake – including Faggella’s family. They spent the first night at the farm of a family friend, Faggella and his sister sleeping on a coffee table. The schools closed for a few months, so they moved with other families to a beach town two hours away. His parents never felt safe with the idea of returning to the old apartment, so they built an earthquake-proof home in the countryside.
               
              Reconstruction after the 1980 quake took years, and the work was plagued by corruption and graft. Government money paid for roads to nowhere and factories that never opened. Despite millions of dollars spent in the region, 28,500 people were still living in canvas tents a decade after the earthquake.
               
              You can still see the effects of the earthquake nearly 40 years later. As we drive around the city, Faggella points out the movie theater that never reopened and the clock on the town hall still stopped at 7:34, the time of the earthquake. Pre-earthquake cookie-cutter high-rises that speculators built without seismic provisions are an outrage to someone in his line of work.
               
              Faggella studied seismic engineering at the University of Basilicata at Potenza, which was established after the quake. His Ph.D. adviser, Enrico Spacone, suggested he look into a Rotary scholarship for an opportunity to do research in the United States. Faggella called Gaetano Laguardia, a family friend who was a member of the Rotary Club of Potenza, who helped him through the application process. He received an Ambassadorial Scholarship, the predecessor to today’s global grant scholarships, to study at the University of California at San Diego, another city on a major fault. 
              0
              Through a scholarship program set up by Faggella, students are conducting research in Matera, a 9,000-year-old city in southern Italy that will be a European Capital of Culture in 2019.
               
              In San Diego, Faggella connected with Fary Moini, who was later honored at the U.S. White House in 2012 as one of 10 Champions of Change, and Stephen R. Brown, who went on to become a Rotary Foundation trustee. Moini and Brown, members of the Rotary Club of La Jolla Golden Triangle, have long been involved in Rotary projects in Afghanistan, including establishing several Rotary clubs. Inspired by their work as well as that of a professional contact, Brian Tucker of GeoHazards International (a nongovernmental organization that works in disaster preparedness), Faggella successfully applied for a Rotary Peace Fellowship to study the intersection of natural disasters and peace. 
               
              He was ready for a career working in developing countries, bringing his engineering background to bear, but fate intervened. As a teenager, he had been a daredevil: He was a competitive skier, he cliff dove, he did flips while wakeboarding. But when he was 17, a motorcycle accident nearly severed his foot at the ankle. Doctors saved his foot, but just barely. While in San Diego, Faggella had a bone graft, but he had to decline the peace fellowship and set aside his dreams for a career in developing countries.
               
              Instead, he went back home, joined Rotary himself, and came up with his biggest idea of all: He created a scholarship program to bring students from high seismic-risk countries in Asia to the European Union to study earthquake engineering. When they return to their countries, they become professors or government officials who work to make construction safer. 
               
              “I managed to get developing countries to come to me,” he says later as we look out over a ghost town that was never rebuilt after the 1980 earthquake, a destiny he is trying to prevent for other communities. “I live in a cool region that everyone wants to come to, but I’m stuck with this, let’s say, disability. Let’s just flip the story.” 
              From 2010 to ’14, 104 students and researchers from 14 Asian countries studied at five European universities, funded by a €2.5 million grant from the European Union. Faggella’s Rotary district in Rome helps provide hospitality for visiting students.
               
              “It’s a kind of dilemma that Rotarians face all the time,” notes Stephen Brown. “To what extent can one person make a difference that would impact hundreds, as opposed to providing food and shelter after the fact? Rotarians can’t help themselves – when there is a natural disaster, they’re going to write checks. If we look more at the cause of the problem, it’s a better investment.”
              This elementary school in Potenza features braces that dissipate energy, one way to retrofit buildings to make them safer during an earthquake. 
               
              Twenty-two of the scholars who went through the program were from Nepal, including Surya Narayan Shrestha, the deputy director of Nepal’s National Society for Earthquake Technology. Now he is using his knowledge in the rebuilding after its devastating earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people in April 2015. (Faggella appeared with him on Italian television shortly after the quake.)
               
              Aslam Faqeer is another scholar who went through the program. Before studying in Italy, Faqeer had taken courses on seismic engineering at NED University of Engineering and Technology in Karachi, a city where he estimates 20 to 30 percent of structures are earthquake safe. “At that time, people in Pakistan had limited knowledge,” he says. Faqeer received his Ph.D. at Sapienza University of Rome in 2015, advised by Faggella and Spacone. Now an assistant professor in Karachi, he has trained more than 120 master’s students and practicing engineers on modern seismic analysis and design, and researched how structures will perform if they are built to international standards. 
               
              On my final day in Basilicata, Faggella drives me to the ancient city of Matera, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that will be a European Capital of Culture in 2019. The city dates back 9,000 years and is among the world’s oldest continuously inhabited settlements. Early inhabitants drilled into the city’s cliffs to make caves, then used the materials to make bricks and build houses on the caves’ faces. 
               
              Looking to expand its international collaborations, the University of Basilicata at Matera asked Faggella to set up another scholarship program. This time, the initiative aimed at protecting cultural heritage sites in Latin America and Europe from natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods. A total of 119 students are participating: 83 traveling from Latin America to study at schools across Europe, and 36 Europeans going to Latin America to study at universities there. The program, which is running from 2014 to 2018, is funded through a €3.7 million grant from the EU. 
               
              We stop outside one of the cave buildings, but this one is surrounded by scaffolding and covered with tarps. While Matera is not in a high-risk earthquake zone, its protection is still of concern because of its cultural significance. Students here do simulation trials in the lab and advanced computer modeling before they do any work on-site. “We prefer to do it in a virtual environment rather than go and smash an artifact, ” Faggella says. 
               
              Rotary’s investment in Faggella and the exponential number of students touched by the programs he has set up are paving the way to keep this and other culturally important structures around for years to come, he says. “I’ve always tried to drag the science community toward cooperating with the international aid field,” he says. “Rotary gave me the idea of how to make this have a large, global impact.” 
               
              • Read more stories from The Rotarian
              The Future of Buildings 2017-11-15 09:00:00Z 0

              Peace Needs to be Lived

              Rotary Day at the United Nations pushes peace from concept to reality
               
              By Geoff Johnson Photos by Monika Lozinska
               
              On the 99th anniversary of the end of World War I, more than 1,200 people gathered in Geneva, Switzerland, for Rotary Day at the United Nations. 
              Representing 87 countries, they convened on Saturday, 11 November, at the Palais des Nations, originally the home of the League of Nations, and dedicated themselves to the theme introduced by Rotary President Ian H. S. Riseley: “Peace: Making a Difference.”
               
              Rotary International honors six champions of peace at the United Nations on 11 November.
              “The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace have always been among Rotary’s primary goals,” said Riseley. “It is past time for all of us to recognize the potential of all of our Rotary service to build peace, and approach that service with peacebuilding in mind.”
              For the first time in its 13-year history, Rotary Day at the UN was held outside of New York.
              Rotary Day concluded Geneva Peace Week, during which John Hewko, general secretary of Rotary International, noted the “close and longstanding ties between Rotary and the UN in (their) mutual pursuit of peace and international understanding.”
              Rotary members “can transform a concept like peace to a reality through service,” said Ed Futa, dean of the Rotary Representatives to the United Nations. “Peace needs to be lived rather than preached.”
              During a Rotary Day highlight, Hewko introduced Rotary’s 2017 People of Action: Champions of Peace. He praised them as “an embodiment of the range and impact of our organization’s work,” and saluted them for providing “a roadmap for what more peaceful, resilient societies look like.”
              Rotary honored six individuals, who each made brief remarks. They were:
              1.     
              Alejandro Reyes Lozano, of the Rotary Club of Bogotá Capital, Cundinamarca, Colombia: As "part of the generation that grew up with uncertainty and fear,” as he put it, Reyes Lozano played a key role in negotiating an end to the 50-year conflict between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Now he's using a Rotary Foundation global grant to lead peacebuilding efforts among women from six Latin American countries.
              2.    
              Jean Best, of the Rotary Club of Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and gallowayScotland: “Without peace within ourselves we will never advance global peace,” said Best, explaining The Peace Project, the program she created to help “the future leaders of peace” develop the skills they need to resolve the conflicts in their lives.
              3.    
              Safina Rahman, of the Rotary Club of Dhaka Mahanagar, Bangladesh: “Education is a powerful and transformative vehicle for peace,” said Rahman, a passionate advocate for workers’ rights and workplace safety who also promotes and provides educational and vocational opportunities for girls. 
               
              4.      
              Ann Frisch, of the Rotary Club of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, USA: Frisch’s Civilian-Based Peace Process introduced the radical concept of “unarmed civilian protection” in war zones around the world. “Sustainable peace,” she said, “requires strong civilian engagement.”
               
              5.      
              Kiran Singh Sirah, Rotary Peace Fellow: As the president of the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee, USA, Sirah uses stories to foster peace, nurture empathy, and build a sense of community. “Stories matter—and I believe they matter a lot,” he said.
              6.      
              Taylor Cass Talbot, Rotary Peace Fellow: Currently based in Portland, Oregon, USA, Cass Talbot partnered with SWaCH, a waste-picker cooperative in India to form Pushing for Peace, which promotes safety, sanitation, and dignity for waste pickers in Pune, India. Her advocacy displays an artistic flair: her Live Debris project creatively addresses issues of waste on a global scale.
              Later, the six honorees participated in workshops devoted to sustainability and peace, as well as a workshop on education, science, and peace designed by and for young leaders in which Rotaract members from around the world played a prominent role. 
              Dr. Michel Zaffran, the director of polio eradication at the World Health Organization, provided an update on efforts to eradicate polio. They noted the tremendous progress made by Rotary, WHO, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other partners in eliminating 99 percent of all global incidences of polio. 
              Returning the focus to peace, Zaffran said: “This same international relationship (that’s eradicating polio),” he said, “can be used to achieve world peace.”
              Zaffran was joined Her Excellency Mitsuko Shino, the deputy permanent representative of Japan to the international organizations in Geneva and co-chair of Global Polio Eradication Initiative's Polio Partners Group
              In his keynote address, Riseley made a similar observation. “The work of polio eradication, has taught us . . . that when you have enough people working together, when you understand the problems and the processes, when you combine and leverage your resources, when you set a plan and set your targets — you can indeed move mountains,” he said. “And the need for action, and cooperation, is greater now than ever before.”
              Peace Needs to be Lived 2017-11-15 09:00:00Z 0

              Italy's Disappearing Villages

              Earthquakes and emigration are draining the life out of rural communities. Rotarians are giving young people a reason to come back.

              By Diana Schoberg      Photos by Gianluca Cecere

              Arquata del Tronto was never an easy place to live. Picturesque, yes: The snowcapped peak of Monte Vettore forms the backdrop to this collection of medieval villages sandwiched between two national parks in central Italy’s Appenine Mountains. Tiny chapels line the local trails, and one village is known as the land of the fairies, a mythological place where shepherds were lured in by beautiful fairies with goat feet. But the municipality, which includes 15 villages, had a population of 1,200, and the nearest city is 15 miles away along the narrow, winding mountain roads. For a young person, for a young family, there was not much reason to stay. And that was before the earthquakes hit.  

              In villages damaged by a series of earthquakes last year, Italian Rotarians are working to help rebuild not only buildings but livelihoods. 

              Maurizio Paci explains all of this after he escorts us through an army checkpoint to view this community where he and his family have lived for generations, which  was reduced to rubble after three major  earthquakes hit central Italy in 2016. He experienced the tragedy up close: Here in Arquata, he has been on the municipal council for 11 years, while in nearby Amatrice, which was also pummeled during the disasters, he is a police officer. “I was hit on all sides,” he says.

              It’s a cool day in March, and the wind blows a shutter open and shut, revealing the plush headboard of a bed inside one of the still-standing buildings. We see a purple ironing board peeking out of an upended roof, a squashed red car, mattresses, bed frames, and bales of hay strewn about. 

              But we also see signs of hope. With the help of Rotarians, some people see a future for these abandoned towns.

              It was 3:30 a.m. on 24 August when the first earthquake struck. Paci awoke to the sound of a large mirror crashing to the floor, his parents yelling. He ran outside and saw his neighbors pouring out onto the street. He went to help in Pescara del Tronto, an area village that was so devastated that the mayor told the Italian newspaper il Giornale that it looked like Aleppo, Syria. 

              “I saw people dead on the street who had escaped from their homes but were hit by debris. I pulled somebody alive from the rubble,” Paci says as we stand outside the ruins. “It was really dark. Everybody was yelling. You didn’t know where to go or who to help first.” 

              Nearly 300 people died in the 6.2 magnitude quake, including 50 in this area. Two more earthquakes hit the region in late October. The three in rapid succession left thousands homeless.  

              Earthquakes are not unfamiliar to Italians. Two plates of the earth’s crust, the African and Eurasian plates, are slowly colliding in northeastern Italy, a geologic shift that created the Alps. Meanwhile, the entire area where that collision is happening is drifting southeast. The result is that the ground underneath the Tyrrhenian Basin – the portion of the Mediterranean Sea surrounded by mainland Italy and Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica – is being stretched apart. It’s that stretching that is causing the tectonic activity in the Apennines. 

              The municipality of Arquata del Tronto was still uninhabitable six months after the earthquakes because of continuing aftershocks.

              The last of the three earthquakes had a 6.6 magnitude, the strongest to hit Italy in 36 years. It created a huge crack in Monte Vettore and caused the land in a nearby village to drop 2 feet. Homes that had survived the initial earthquake were damaged. Arquata’s villages were declared uninhabitable because of the continuing aftershocks (including one early in the morning of our visit), and its residents, including Paci, now live in hotels or with family somewhere safer. A tunnel that had connected Arquata to other towns collapsed, and what had been a 15-minute trip became two hours. “The biggest problem is that people have left,” he says. “People are afraid to come back.” 

              In the weeks after the first earthquake, Rotarians began meeting with members of the affected communities to find out what they needed most. “The days following the earthquake were full of phone calls from everyone who wanted to go help, who wanted to collect materials and so on,” recalls Paolo Raschiatore, 2016-17 governor of Rotary District 2090, home to about 90 percent of the communities damaged by the earthquakes. But too many well-intended helpers jammed the mountain roads, making the work for emergency crews harder, he explains. “It’s not only not necessary; it’s a problem. I asked them to stay home.”

              Less than two months before the first temblor, Italian Rotarians had already embarked on a landmark earthquake initiative that was years in the making. The 2014-15 district governor-nominees had decided to focus on earthquake safety as a group, prescient given what was to come. They signed a memorandum of understanding with the national Department of Civil Protection in July 2016 in which Rotarians agreed to create a task force for disaster aid in each district. The groups would organize activities to use Rotarians’ professional skills – technical, legal, medical, and industrial – to support civil protection activities in both ordinary and emergency situations. The project had to be put on hold as the government responded to the recent disasters.

              After an earthquake in L’Aquila in 2009, Rotarians had stepped in and raised €2 million to rebuild a wing of the school of engineering at the University of L’Aquila. But following the 2016 earthquakes, the Italian government promised to reconstruct the buildings. So, instead of a construction project, members of District 2090 decided to draw on their expertise as businesspeople to help the communities rebound economically and give young people a reason to return. 

              The district already had an active mentoring framework called the Virgilio Association, named for Virgil, the guide in Dante’s Divine Comedy. Rotarians had founded the organization several years prior to foster new economic activity in the district. They decided to use the Virgilio Association to develop programs for young entrepreneurs, including business mentoring, marketing, and facilitating access to bank credit. 

              Rotarians Vincent Mazzone and Paolo Raschiatore talk with Aleandro Petrucci (right), Arquata’s mayor, about Rotary’s role in bringing young people back to the village.

              In June, the district signed agreements to build two business incubators, one in Arquata and one in Camerino, a city about 50 miles away with a university that will manage the programs to ensure sustainability. Rotarian professionals will handle the design and contracting for the construction of the facilities, which will cost an estimated €300,000 to €400,000 each. “If we want to maintain these places, it’s important to build new occupations for people, especially for young people,” Raschiatore says. They call the initiative Progetto Fenice – the Phoenix Project.  

              As of the end of June, the district had raised €600,000 from Rotary members, clubs, and districts in Italy and abroad for the initiative, as well as a substantial portion from non-Rotarian donors. They launched about 20 mentoring relationships, with another 20 in the works. Rotarians are also working to create an e-commerce website to help businesspeople sell their products. “The youth are waiting on us. We absolutely can’t fail,” says Vincent Mazzone, president of the Rotary Club of Ascoli Piceno, the nearest club to Arquata. 

              At the trailer serving as Arquata’s town hall, Paci introduces me to Aleandro Petrucci, the mayor of the munici-pality. Boxes are stacked along the floor in the office, and a space heater helps warm the cool mountain air. Petrucci says he has three main goals: jobs, housing – “and churches, of course,” he says with a laugh – and bringing back youth, something he’s glad to have Rotary’s help with. Just a few days earlier, Rotarians met to talk about the project. “Rotary will bring structure that would not be there without it,” he says. “That will bring jobs and young people.”

              Giovanni Palaferri is precisely the kind of enterprising young person the Rotarians are trying to keep in the area. Palaferri’s home was built with anti-seismic measures, so it is still standing. But since the area is deemed uninhabitable, he makes a 40-mile daily round trip to care for the animals on his farm in Spelonga. A calf born the previous night mews as we talk, the larger cows crunching on hay in a temporary barn.

              Giovanni Palaferri, who has begun raising cows on his family’s ancestral land, has joined with other young people to form a business group that is receiving assistance through the Italian Rotarians’ project.

              After spending time in his early 20s traveling Europe as a tour bus driver, Palaferri returned to the area and started raising cows a year ago on property his grandfather had farmed. He wants to expand his effort to making specialty cheeses and products with the chestnuts he harvests from his and his neighbors’ properties. With other young people in the area, he founded a business association to help increase production and sales, which is receiving assistance from the Rotarians’ project. “Rotary will let this business go further,” he says. “I could go national.”

              And that, he hopes, will make Arquata a destination. “The ultimate goal would be that Arquata and all of the small villages in the area will compete with the famous centers around here,” he says. “If we can put Arquata on the map, it will attract more young people to come here.”

              But life is so tough here, why would anyone want to come back? 

              Palaferri left this rural area to seek a better life elsewhere, but what he discovered is that this is his home. “I love it, and for me it’s the best place in the world. It’s almost like paradise when this is what you see,” he says, gesturing to the mountain view outside the barn door. 

              For Paci, whose girlfriend hopes to launch a beekeeping business to sell honey and related products through the Rotary project, it’s even simpler. This is where his family has always lived. “I have the option to leave; I have a job in Amatrice. I could forget about it here. But I’m tied here because of my ancestry. 

              “Before the earthquake you had to have resolve to live here,” he says. “Now my resolve is even stronger. I feel motivated not just about building a home, but building a community.” 

              And that’s something Rotarians know how to do. 

              -- Translations by Francesco Bruno, RI communications specialist/Europe-Africa

              • Read more stories from The Rotarian

              Italy's Disappearing Villages 2017-11-08 09:00:00Z 0

              ANNOUNCEMENTS


              We are recruiting for a new Board of Directors member to fill Christi's spot.


              Reminder that the Swing Choir will be at the December 14th meeting and we need to know if Rotarians will be inviting guests.


              All are invited to the Downtown Rotary Club's Rotary Foundation Auction on Tuesday, Nov. 14 at 6 p.m. Early bird discount has passed but you can still get tickets for $15 at the Homer Bookstore or on our FaceBook page. Or, as a last resort, you can buy them at the door. The ticket price includes appetizers and sweets, coffee, and a no-host wine bar, as well as a chance to bid on some really great auction items.


              Dear Fellow Rotarian:

               

              We are announcing our trips to the Toronto Convention AND a trip to India to participate in the March, 2018 Polio National Immunization Days (NID).  All the material can be accessed at our website:  www.HowardTours.net

               

              Please feel free to share this information with the Rotarians in your club as soon as possible as we have a limited amount of space.

               

              • Travel to a Rotary Convention is a wonderful international exposure to our organization and Canada offers many unique opportunities for 2018.

               

              • Rotarians in India are preparing to fully transition to the injectable Polio vaccine soon.  Therefore, this might be one of the last opportunities we will have to organize a trip to India for non-medical volunteers to participate in polio NID activities. 

               

              Both of these trips offer you and the Rotarians in your club an extraordinary opportunity to have an experience of a life time. 

               

              If you have questions, please let us know.

               

              Jolene R. Bortz

              Manager
              Howard Tours

              516 Grand Ave., Oakland, CA 94610

              (510) 834-2260 voice

              (510) 834-1019 fax

              JBortz@HowardTours.net

              www.HowardTours.net

              www.facebook.com/howardtours/

              "We look forward to traveling with you"

              ANNOUNCEMENTS 2017-11-08 09:00:00Z 0
              Homer Downtown Rotary Club's Rotary Foundation Auction  2017-11-08 09:00:00Z 0

              The Power of a Garden

              Rotary members in Harvard, Illinois, USA, have teamed up with community groups to help alleviate hunger and bring the community together.
              By Arnold R. Grahl Photos by Monika Lozinska Videos by Andrew Chudzinski 
               
              On a sunny morning in July, two dozen preschool children from Brown Bear Daycare inspect a bed of milkweed plants for monarch butterfly eggs, holding magnifying glasses to the underside of leaves in search of the tiny, off-white objects.
              Preschool children from Brown Bear Daycare plant a young tomato plant. The class visits the garden every Monday morning spring to fall.
               
              Curiosity stoked, the five-year-olds and their teachers move to the shade of a large tree to listen to a master gardener explain the role these butterflies play in gardens. The preschool class visits the community garden in Harvard, Illinois, USA, every Monday from spring to fall to learn about garden-related topics and even help out. 
               
              “They get to taste the vegetables, some that they have never even seen. They get to experience what it is like to plant a garden from the planting to the picking to the eating,” says Sheila Henson, executive director of the day care center and a member of the Rotary Club of Harvard. “At the end of the summer, we have a parent night where the parents come and get to see the different things their children have been involved with.”
               
              With the goals of alleviating hunger and educating the community, master gardeners from University of Illinois Extension planted the garden in 2001 on a half-acre parcel donated by the city and adjacent to the public library. Over the years, the master gardeners have enlisted the support of many businesses, organizations, and clubs, including the Rotary Club of Harvard, making the project a community-wide effort. 
               
              As many as 250 needy families benefit from the 10,000 pounds of vegetables that are grown and donated every year to the local food pantry. The fresh produce serves as a safety net for many families. 
               
               
               
              Roughly a quarter of the community’s 9,200 residents live below the federal poverty line, a result of the limited employment opportunities in small farm towns across Illinois. The already fragile economy was further affected by the closing of a Motorola  plant here in 2003 after only seven years of operation.
               
              “In this community, the only way we can get by is by helping each other,” says Dave Decker, site director for the Harvard Community Food Pantry. “Everybody needs a little help now and then.”
               
              The Rotary Club of Harvard took on the project seven years ago, looking for a way to address hunger and help the community. With only seven members, the club has had an impact far beyond its size, amplifying its efforts by working with the master gardeners and other groups.
               
              “Harvard is definitely a better place because of the members of this club, and that is what keeps us going,” says Mike Morris, the club’s president. “It’s the expertise of the master gardeners, individuals in the community, farmers who help, and the education provided through the day care that makes this an amazing team effort.” 
               
              The Rotary club has provided $400 to buy seeds and starter plants from a local nursery every year since 2011. It also purchased plastic drip irrigation tubing and fertilizer valves after a drought threatened the garden in 2012. This year, it provided a letter of support needed by the master gardeners to secure a $5,000 grant from the McHenry County Community Foundation for an organic compost mix that will add nutrients back to the soil and help keep weeds at bay.
               
              Morris has made the garden his special focus and enlisted every member of the club to help with planting, weeding, and harvesting. Henson also recruited day care employees to volunteer. 
               
              The garden needs everyone for planting, says Dale Nelmes, one of the master gardeners who volunteer every week.
               
              “Many of us master gardeners are up there in years and can’t get down on our hands and knees like we used to,” he says. “I was so impressed with Rotary and Sheila, who brought all these young volunteers in. It was incredible how much we accomplished.”
               
              The Harvard Rotarians also used a Rotary grant to buy a new freezer, which allows the food pantry to store vegetables longer. 
               
              Last winter, Morris secured another Rotary grant  for $2,000, which, when combined with $5,000 from club funds, funded seven weeks of food deliveries from the Northern Illinois Food Bank. A mobile unit from the food bank set up at Brown Bear Daycare once a month from October to April, each time distributing 9,000 pounds of meat, vegetables, boxed goods, breads, and fruits.
               
              Morris says growing up on a farm in northwestern Illinois played a big part in his interest in fighting hunger. 
               
              “I know we can produce more than enough food to feed everybody in the country,” he says. “It’s just a matter of the logistics of getting it from the farm to their table.”
               
              On a July morning, about 20 people – Rotarians, master gardeners, and community volunteers – are scattered among the 14 rows, each 125 feet long, pulling weeds and picking vegetables. The garden is behind schedule this year because of heavy rains, and today’s harvest is smaller than normal. At the food pantry, Nelmes weighs each crate: 9 pounds of broccoli, 6 pounds of kohlrabi, 8 pounds of peppers, and 22 pounds of zucchini. Later in the season, many more hands will be needed to harvest.
               
              Reina Montes began volunteering at the garden after a back injury forced her to stop working temporarily and she had to go to the pantry to supplement her groceries. When she learned about the garden, she persuaded her daughter, Elizabeth Sanchez, to join her on Mondays to help plant, pick, and weed.
               
              Montes moved to Harvard from Mexico City more than 20 years ago and fell in love with the smaller town. Her daughter now has two college-age daughters of her own, whom she hopes to teach the value of community service. 
               
              “Thanks to the garden, we can feed people who can’t afford to buy fresh food at the supermarket,” says Sanchez. “I believe it is everybody’s responsibility to help the community. If our children see that there is unity, love, and support, they are going to do the same thing. We are leaving them a legacy.” 
              The Power of a Garden 2017-11-07 09:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Day at the UN

              filled with peace champions and workshops

              By Geoff Johnson

               

              Rotary will honor six champions of peace at the United Nations on 11 November.

               

              The Palais des Nations in Geneva, built as the headquarters for the League of Nations, remains an enduring emblem of humanity’s hope for global peace, making it an ideal setting for this year’s Rotary Day at the United Nations on 11 November.

              Underscoring this year’s theme — Peace: Making a Difference — the event will include workshops devoted to sustainability and peace, as well as a workshop on education, science, and peace, designed by and for young leaders.

              A variety of speakers will contribute to the discussion, including Rotary International President Ian H.S. Riseley; Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair Paul A. Netzel; Walter B Gyger and Claudine Wyssa, the representatives of Rotary International to UN/Geneva; and Dr. Mohanned Arabiat, president of Generations for Peace.

               

              Rotary General Secretary John Hewko will introduce each of the People of Action: Champions of Peace. They are:

              ·        Jean Best, Rotary Club of Kirkcudbright, Scotland

              ·        Taylor (Stevenson) Cass Talbott, Rotary Peace Fellow, Portland, Oregon, USA

              ·        Ann Frisch, Rotary Club of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, USA

              ·        Safina Rahman, Rotary Club of Dhaka Mahanagar, Bangladesh

              ·        Alejandro Reyes Lozano, Rotary Club of Bogotá Capital, Colombia

              ·        Kiran Singh Sirah, Rotary Peace Fellow, Tennessee, USA

              Other highlights will include a polio-tulip-planting ceremony, updates on polio eradication, and closing remarks from Edwin Futa, dean of the Rotary Representative Network.

               

              Peace partnership

              Rotary Day at the UN culminates Geneva Peace Week. That event’s organizers include the Institute for Economics and Peace, a global think tank that uses data-driven research to analyze peace and quantify its economic value.

              ·        Watch the Rotary Day at the United Nations on UN TV

              ·        See program details

              This summer, the institute and Rotary announced a strategic partnership that will pair the two organizations’ individual strengths — empirical research and community connections — and focus them on resolving conflict and achieving peace.

              On 8 November, as part of Geneva Peace Week, the institute will join the Geneva Centre for Security Policy in hosting a panel discussion, “Building the Evidence for Better Prevention.” Staged at the Maison de la Paix, it will systematically evaluate conflict prevention and peacebuilding methods in the context of a research framework.

               

              Rotary Day at the UN 2017-10-31 08:00:00Z 0

              2017 Rotary Health Fair Was a Huge Success!

              Another great success!!!!   The final count was 1087 people coming to see our health fair!!!!!

               

              Looks  like we did about 900 total blood draws this year. We have done about 900+- for three years in a row. We are holding steady and exceeding our budget.

               

              Expanding into the middle of the gym freed up some space in the commons and made room for everyone this year. The event took on a whole new life in the gym this year and the energy was great!

               

              Set up had a few bumps but we dealt with them and  were ready on time for the exhibitors to get in at 5:30 to set up. Take down was perfect and we walked out the door  2 pm.

               

              There are too many of you to thank by name. Every year  you  folks step up and make this the big successful event  our community deserves and has come to expect from our Rotary Club. Please give each other a pat on the back for our success.

               

              We hear from many of the folks who travel the state doing other health  fairs that there is not one health fair that even comes close to ours in size, scope and professionalism. The folks who came up with the original  model and standards gave us a plan that has stood the test of time and continues to grow.

               

              This partnership with South Peninsula Hospital is a gift to our club and to this community. The staff at SPH continue to be the best partners we could ask for. We will be treating the lab to lunch as our thank you for all  their time and effort.

               

              The Rotarians and SPH staff who serve as your Rotary Health Fair committee once again have provided Homer with an incredible opportunity to "Take a Day to Be Well?

               

              It has been an honor to serve as the Rotary Health Fair Coordinator. As many of you have heard me say, " In 2006 I did not even know what a health fair  was and now I am one." Just look how far we have come together. 

               

              Thank you all for the cards, flowers and kind words. The people in this club are some of the very best on the planet. It takes a Rotary Club to put on such a huge successful event year after year.

               

              I know you all will continue to give this event all your support and assistance.  Today is  bittersweet as I step back from my role and make room for new leaders.  I am grateful for having had the opportunity to serve our community thru our club.   Gary and Van can build on what we have created and foster new innovations.

               

              Here's to continued growth  and success of the Rotary Health Fair as the club moves forward to  the 35th Annual Rotary Health Fair on November 3, 2018.

               

              35 years is something to be proud of!

               

               

              Yours in rotary Service,

               

              Sharon Minsch

              Former Coordinator

              Rotary Health Fair

               Pre-Health Fair Blood Draws at South Peninsula Hospital

               

              At the Health Fair

               

               

              2017 Rotary Health Fair Was a Huge Success! 2017-10-31 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Praises Unsung Heroes on World Polio Day

              Rotary and the Gates Foundation host fifth annual World Polio Day to highlight progress in the fight to eradicate the disease

              By Photos by

              After another year of dwindling polio cases, Rotary leaders, top health experts, and celebrities said on 24 October — World Polio Day — that the paralyzing disease has never been closer to being eradicated globally.

              A special livestreamed presentation — End Polio Now: Countdown to History — featured the people who work tirelessly to end the disease and reviewed the progress that the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has made.

              Co-hosted by Rotary and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the 45-minute program took place before a live audience at the Gates Foundation headquarters in Seattle, Washington, USA, and was streamed online to viewers worldwide. Mark Wright, news host for the local NBC television station and president of the Rotary Club of Seattle, and CNN news host Fredricka Whitfield led the event. 

              Wright updated the audience on the latest figures of polio cases saying that the total number of cases caused by the wild poliovirus so far this year is 12, with seven cases in Afghanistan, five in Pakistan, and none in Nigeria. This is a 70 percent reduction from 2016 and is the lowest count of polio cases in history.

              “The scale of the effort is staggering,” he said. “Every year 2.2 billion doses are delivered to 430 million children, through a sophisticated vaccine supply and logistics network.”

              Sue Desmond-Hellmann, the Gates Foundation’s chief executive officer, began the event by praising Rotary members and front-line health workers for their dedication to ending the disease. 

              Rotary Praises Unsung Heroes on World Polio Day 2017-10-26 08:00:00Z 0




              Rotary Praises Unsung Heroes on World Polio Day

              Rotary and the Gates Foundation host fifth annual World Polio Day to highlight progress in the fight to eradicate the disease

              By Photos by

              After another year of dwindling polio cases, Rotary leaders, top health experts, and celebrities said on 24 October — World Polio Day — that the paralyzing disease has never been closer to being eradicated globally.

              A special livestreamed presentation — End Polio Now: Countdown to History — featured the people who work tirelessly to end the disease and reviewed the progress that the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has made.

              Co-hosted by Rotary and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the 45-minute program took place before a live audience at the Gates Foundation headquarters in Seattle, Washington, USA, and was streamed online to viewers worldwide. Mark Wright, news host for the local NBC television station and president of the Rotary Club of Seattle, and CNN news host Fredricka Whitfield led the event. 

              Wright updated the audience on the latest figures of polio cases saying that the total number of cases caused by the wild poliovirus so far this year is 12, with seven cases in Afghanistan, five in Pakistan, and none in Nigeria. This is a 70 percent reduction from 2016 and is the lowest count of polio cases in history.

              “The scale of the effort is staggering,” he said. “Every year 2.2 billion doses are delivered to 430 million children, through a sophisticated vaccine supply and logistics network.”

              Sue Desmond-Hellmann, the Gates Foundation’s chief executive officer, began the event by praising Rotary members and front-line health workers for their dedication to ending the disease. 

               

              Rotary Praises Unsung Heroes on World Polio Day 2017-10-25 08:00:00Z 0

              Homer Rotary Health Fair Update--THIS SATURDAY!!!

              The Health Fair is this Saturday!  Setup is Friday afternoon, after 3:00--maybe 3:30  Check with Sharon if you are not at the meeting to hear it.  Sharon also has the assignment list, if you are not certain what you signed up for, or when.
              Homer Rotary Health Fair Update--THIS SATURDAY!!! 2017-10-25 08:00:00Z 0

              Column: Game Changer

              Rotarians in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, USA, tout their town as baseball's true birthplace

              By

              If you’re a baseball fan, you probably think of Cooperstown, N.Y., as the game’s birthplace. That’s why the Hall of Fame is there, right?

              But the Cooperstown story is a myth. The Hall of Fame itself refers to the “mythical first game” there. That first ballgame, supposedly played in 1839, is the sort of alternative fact the New York American sportswriter Damon Runyon called “the old phonus balonus.

              So where did baseball really start?

              Illustration by Dave Cutler

               

              “Right here,” says Phil Massery, pointing at the turf beneath his feet. We’re at Rotary Park in Pittsfield, a cozy town in western Massachusetts, USA. He and 30 other Rotarians are enjoying a summer barbecue in lieu of their usual meeting at a hotel. The park, with its playground built by Massery and other members of the Pittsfield club, adjoins a Little League diamond. 

              Wherever you go in Pittsfield, baseball is nearby.

              “I’ve got nothing against Cooperstown,” Massery says, “but people should know the Hall of Fame is there by mistake.” He laughs. “I doubt they’ll move it here, though.”

              Sitting in the shade with library director Alex Reczkowski, insurance agent John Murphy, and other local leaders, Massery, a real estate broker, tells the true story of baseball’s history. “It starts with Cooperstown, all right, but not the way people think.” Back in 1904, sporting goods tycoon Albert Spalding named a panel of experts to determine how the national pastime had begun. But Spalding didn’t want to hear that the sport had evolved from English games such as cricket and rounders. He said – and this is a direct quote – “Our good old American game of baseball must have an American Dad.” So it got one. The panel declared that Civil War Gen. Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown in 1839. Never mind that Doubleday was a plebe at West Point at the time. Never mind that Doubleday never claimed to have anything to do with inventing baseball. (One historian wrote that the man “didn’t know a baseball from a kumquat.”) Fans and sportswriters bought the story, and the Hall of Fame opened in Cooperstown in 1939 to mark the 100th anniversary of the First Game that never was. 

              “Now flash-forward 65 years,” Massery says. In 2004 John Thorn, Major League Baseball’s official historian, discovered a document written in Pittsfield in 1791. “George Washington was president. There were still only 13 states. But there was already baseball here in Pittsfield. How do we know? Because kids were knocking windows out of the town church!” 

              City fathers didn’t want rocks, horsehide-covered balls, or anything else pocking the First Congregational meetinghouse. They had paid Charles Bulfinch, the architect who was about to design the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., to build it. So they passed a local law. “For the Preservation of the Windows in the New Meeting House,” it read, “no Person, an Inhabitant of said Town, shall be permitted to play at any Game called Wicket, Cricket, Baseball … or any other Game or Games with Balls within the Distance of Eighty Yards.” This was the first known mention of the national game in American history. As Thorn announced at a press conference, “It’s clear that not only was baseball played here in 1791, but it was rampant.”

              A Hall of Fame spokesman called the discovery “incredibly monumental.”

              “Pittsfield,” crowed then-Mayor James Ruberto, “is baseball’s Garden of Eden.”

              George Washington was president. There were still only 13 states. But there was already baseball here in Pittsfield. How do we know? Because kids were knocking windows out of the town church!

              Today the Rotary club holds its regular meetings at a hotel a block from Park Square. It’s a long fly ball from there to the spot where schoolkids played 226 years ago. In those days, Park Square was a grassy block at the crossing of the town’s main roads. It would have taken quite a clout to launch a ball from there to the meetinghouse. You would think such a shot might earn a kid a hip-hip-hooray. But the descendants of the Puritans frowned on such displays, so we can imagine the young Pittsfielders pioneering something like today’s walk-off home run. Somebody smacks a long one, they all wait for the sound of breaking glass and run off as fast as they can. 

              What was the game like in those days? “The basepaths would have been shorter than they are today,” says historian Thorn. “The ball would be smaller than the one we’re used to, and softer. Fielders would throw base runners out by ‘soaking’ them – hitting them with the ball.” 

              More than two centuries later, Park Square is a leafy ellipse in the middle of a busy traffic circle. It’s a couple hundred feet from there to the towering First Church of Christ on the site of the old meetinghouse and the small plaque beside the church. ON THIS SITE IN 1791, it reads, A NEW MEETING HOUSE OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL PARISH IN PITTSFIELD WAS BEING COMPLETED WHEN SEVERAL OF ITS WINDOWS WERE BROKEN AS A RESULT OF BALL GAMES. But few visitors notice the plaque. Even among people born and raised here, as Massery was, few know that Park Square is a special place. 

              “That’s our own fault,” he says. “We haven’t done enough to get the word out.”

              At the barbecue, talk turns to baseball. Club President Jeff Hassett recalls his dad’s days running the local Babe Ruth League. Another Rotarian remembers his Little League years, when his coach said that “we had a tradition to uphold – years and years of Pittsfield baseball. Thousands of years, I thought. Maybe millions. I was 12!” Reczkowski mentions that the library he runs is where the 1791 document was found. “We’ve got it in a vault,” says the library director, who knows his local lore. “Our minor league diamond, Wahconah Park, is one of only two in America that face west. Did you know that? It means that the batter looks right into the late-afternoon sun. We’ve got a park that has rain delays and sun delays. And our team, of course, is called the Suns.” 

              Of course they all know why other ballparks face east. It’s so the batter has the afternoon sun behind him. That means the pitcher faces west, which is why left-handers are called southpaws. 

              Eric Schaffer used to watch his beloved Chicago Cubs on jumbo screens in Las Vegas casinos. Schaffer, who moved east with his Pittsfield-born wife 20 years ago, likes the “baseball feel” of New England and the regular-folks vibe of the local Rotary club. “It’s nice and casual here,” he says. “Plus the fines aren’t so bad. My cell goes off at a meeting in Pittsfield, OK, I’ll pay a dollar. The Vegas Rotary met at Harrah’s – there were some high rollers in that club. My phone went off in Vegas and it was, ‘Schaffer, that’s a $100 fine.’”

              He and Massery and the others agree that Pittsfield could use an extra dose of pilgrims’ pride. “We should be one of the capitals of baseball,” Massery says. “I’m not saying the capital, but we really should be better known.”

              The Hall of Fame at Cooperstown now recognizes Pittsfield, displaying a copy of the 1791 document near the front door. Serious fans know about the game’s roots in Pittsfield. “So why aren’t we capitalizing on it?” Massery asks. He did his part by paying for hundreds of baseball caps emblazoned “1791.” Local Rotarians wear them. But now he’s thinking bigger. He has his eyes on an abandoned building downtown. “We could turn it into a tourist attraction, our own little hall of fame.”

              And what if someone finds evidence of a still-earlier baseball game? Wouldn’t that spoil everything?

              “I feel good about our claim to fame. We got a lot of attention when the document turned up. Since then, every town in New England has had 13 years to rummage through its records. If they were going to beat us, they’d have done it by now.”

              • Kevin Cook is a member of the Rotary club of Northampton, Massachusetts, USA, and a frequent contributor to The Rotarian. His latest book, "Electric October," is about the epic 1947 World Series.

              Column: Game Changer 2017-10-17 08:00:00Z 0

              Profile: Summit Meeting Brings Surprise Proposal

              Profile: Summit meeting brings surprise proposal

              By

              Jennifer Boyd, Scarborough Rotary Passport Club, Ontario, Canada

              For three Toronto-area Rotarians, a successful six-day trek up Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzaniain June 2016 was momentous for several reasons.

              Jennifer Boyd

               

              After a year of planning and publicizing, Jennifer Boyd, Ryan Fogarty, and Raffy Chouljian raised CA$500,000 for End Polio Now. The climb went without a hitch, and at the summit, Fogarty surprised Boyd when he got on one knee and proposed.

              The seed for the journey was planted in 2011. “At the District 7070 Conference, one of the keynote speakers was a polio survivor, Ramesh Ferris, who crawled in,” explains Boyd, who is her club’s president. “It was the first time I’d seen what polio was firsthand. It made me want to make a difference.”

              After Boyd participated in a National Immunization Day in India in 2015, a friend suggested she climb Kilimanjaro to raise funds for End Polio Now; within days she persuaded Fogarty and Chouljian to come along.

              They exceeded their initial fundraising goal of CA$100,000 in donations. The Canadian government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation matched it 2-to-1, bringing it to CA$500,000.

              Boyd’s next big project was her September wedding, where every guest was to receive a wooden rose with a note that a $10 donation had been made in their name – to End Polio Now, of course.

              • Read more stories from The Rotarian

              Profile: Summit Meeting Brings Surprise Proposal 2017-10-17 08:00:00Z 0

              Somali Refugee Spreads Peace as Rotary Fellow

              Manitoba honors Rotary Peace Fellow for public achievement

              Refugees who come to Winnipeg often end up living in areas that are predominantly inhabited by indigenous people. 

              “Newcomers do not know much about the indigenous life and heritage and, without that knowledge, the first thing they encounter is people who are poor and stereotyped by the mainstream community,” says Abdikheir “Abdi” Ahmed, a 2011-12 Rotary Peace Fellow and immigration partnership coordinator for the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg. “Indigenous people may see immigrants as encroaching into their neighborhoods. There is tension between both groups.” 

              Abdikheir “Abdi” Ahmed, a 2011-12 Rotary Peace Fellow and immigration partnership coordinator for the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg.

               

              Ahmed works to smooth relations, helping them see they have more in common than what divides them. “Integration is a two-way process,” he says. 

              In recognition of his work, Ahmed received the Order of the Buffalo Hunt, one of the highest honours for public achievement issued by the Manitoba legislature, in January 2016. 

              “I never thought what I was doing had this significance,” he says. “But I don’t look at what I have done. I look at what needs to be done to bring about better living standards for people.” 

              Ahmed, 37, may understand the needs of immigrants better than most. 

              Originally from Somalia, he and his family fled the conflict there and settled in Kenya when he was a child. 

              My hope is that in the next 20 to 50 years, if we have more Rotary Peace Fellows around the world who are speaking the same language and taking on a leadership role to create an interconnected world, things will change.

              As a young adult, he moved to Canada as part of the national resettlement program. He began working with refugee children who were struggling in school while attending the University of Winnipeg, where he earned a degree in international development in 2007.

              After graduation, Ahmed began working at the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba. 

              He learned about the Rotary Peace Centers program from Noëlle DePape, a colleague who had earned her master’s degree at the University of Queensland, Australia, through the fellowship.

               After Ahmed completed his own peace fellowship at Queensland, he and DePape worked together to develop a curriculum for a summer course that they teach to high school students at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, part of a Rotary District 5550 (Manitoba and parts of Ontario and Saskatchewan) program called Adventures in Human Rights.

              “We help them view the world from the perspective that everyone’s rights are equal and understand the idea of building a community where everyone’s rights are respected and each person is given a fair opportunity,” he says. 

              In addition to his work in Winnipeg, Ahmed serves on the board of Humankind International, an early childhood learning center that he co-founded at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya with two Somali friends who also immigrated to Winnipeg. He says it serves 150 children with four teachers, and he hopes to expand it to accommodate the many children who have to be turned away. 

              Despite the suffering he has witnessed and the daily conflicts he works to resolve, Ahmed is optimistic about the prospects for peace and the potential of the peace centers program. 

              “My hope is that in the next 20 to 50 years, if we have more Rotary Peace Fellows around the world who are speaking the same language and taking on a leadership role to create an interconnected world, things will change,” he says. “I also hope we can find an opportunity for Rotarians and past peace fellows to collaborate on projects in a more defined way.” 

              Ahmed and his wife, Saadi, have three sons. He says their oldest, Mohamed, 9, dreams of playing in the NBA and says that with the money he earns, he will build houses for the homeless people he sees on his way to school. 

              Ibrahim, 7, wants to be a firefighter so he can save people. One-year-old Yussuf has not announced any career plans yet. 

              Somali Refugee Spreads Peace as Rotary Fellow 2017-10-17 08:00:00Z 0

              Nowhere To Go

              Eviction isn't just a momentary lapse in housing; it's often the start of a downward spiral

              By

              It was kids playing a game, a snowball thrown at the wrong car on a cold January day, that led to Arleen’s eviction. But that moment created an avalanche of instability in her life and that of her two young sons: a few months at a homeless shelter euphemistically nicknamed “the Lodge”; renting a house without running water, which they had to leave when the city deemed it unfit for human habitation; another in an apartment complex known as a den for drug dealers, which she left after a few months out of concern for her sons’ safety. 

              Matthew Desmond, Princeton sociologist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Evicted"

              Illustration: Viktor Miller Gausa

              It was yet another move for a kid who attended five schools between seventh and eighth grades, who once missed 17 straight days of school while the family stayed at a domestic violence shelter. The rent on Arleen’s next apartment consumed 88 percent of her welfare check, leaving her with less than $100 to last the month. Then there were the costs of a funeral.

              Eviction seems so straightforward: You don’t pay the rent, you get evicted. But sociologist Matthew Desmond found out that it’s not so simple while researching his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Evicted."

              Renters can get evicted for calling the police to report domestic violence, or for the things their children do – have an asthma attack, hit a car with a snowball – that draw the attention of local officials or provoke an angry motorist to kick down the front door. The blemish of an eviction on their records sends people into ever worse neighborhoods, the landlords relying on renters’ desperation to justify increasingly squalid conditions. Poor families and criminals end up in the same places because both are deemed undesirable, but for vastly different reasons.

              “Eviction is not just a condition of poverty; it’s a cause of it,” Desmond told The Rotarian. “We are paying for its fallout. We’re paying for higher rates of depression and we are paying for higher crime in neighborhoods with more evictions. We’re paying for kids’ health issues and the educational fallout. Investing in safe, affordable housing is not only something that has a moral benefit; it has economic benefits too.”

              Desmond spent more than a year living in poor neighborhoods in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, to research the book and subsequently conducted additional surveys drawing on his fieldwork with the support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (he later received the foundation’s “genius grant” in 2015). The resulting book paints such detailed portraits of families going through eviction that it reads like a novel. It was named one of the 10 best books of 2016 by the Washington Post and one of the best books of 2016 by New York Times book reviewers, among its many accolades.

              Desmond, now a professor at Princeton University, is familiar with Rotary and its mission: His father, Nicholas Desmond, was a member of the Rotary Club of Winslow, Arizona, USA, before moving to Massachusetts. The Winslow Rotary Club gave the younger Desmond a scholarship to support his undergraduate work at Arizona State University.

              I wanted to write a different kind of poverty book, one that wasn’t just about poor folks or poor places, but these relationships.

              Desmond spoke with senior staff writer Diana Schoberg, who lives in Milwaukee and was a renter herself in the city while he was doing his research. They talked about the high cost of living in run-down housing, the financial burden of the eviction cycle on society, and what we can do about it.

              TR: Your book reads like a novel. How did you gain access to and the trust of the people you profiled?

              Desmond: Living in the neighborhood helped a lot. In the trailer park, Larraine and Scott, Ned and Pam – those were my neighbors. I would spend days hanging out with Lennie in the office, which was right in the middle of the trailer park, and just became a presence. Some folks were very open from the beginning. Some folks were much more reserved and cautious. I took time with them and shared my previous publications so they knew what my work was about. Folks thought I was a cop, or a Child Protective Services worker undercover, or a drug addict. There were a lot of suspicions, all of which were completely understandable and much more normal in these neighborhoods than a social scientist.

              TR: Did you get involved in the families’ lives or did you have rules for yourself about the boundaries you were going to keep?

              Desmond: I didn’t have many rules about that. I was trying to understand their lives as deeply as I could and with as much complexity as I could. That meant that some nights I slept on their couches and their floors, and I watched their kids, and they bought me dinner and I bought them dinner. I wanted to try to bear witness to this problem, and that meant trying to involve myself as little as possible in certain scenarios, but as I talked about the book, there were some times when I helped out and there were a lot of times when they helped me out, like you do with friends.

              TR: Did you go into the book wanting to write about evictions, or had you wanted to write about poverty and then evictions became the issue that stood out?

              Desmond: I wanted to write a different kind of poverty book, one that wasn’t just about poor folks or poor places, but these relationships. Eviction was the narrative device. I had no idea how common evictions were. I had no idea that one in eight Milwaukee renters were evicted every two years, that eviction has such a big impact on people’s lives. Eviction became much more than just a way to write a certain book – it became the thing to really understand in a deeper way.

              TR: The difference in rent between some of the squalid apartments you write about and well-kept places in safe neighborhoods was only $100 or $200 a month. Why is that?

              Desmond: Researchers from [University of California] Berkeley have geocoded rentals on Craigslist, and you see this compression of rents in a lot of soft-market cities all around the country. This isn’t a uniquely Milwaukee thing – this is something you can see in a city like Cleveland or Baltimore or Pittsburgh or Philadelphia. Why is that? What’s going on?

              The median asking rent in Milwaukee in 2010 for a two-bedroom apartment was $600. In the middle of the [poorer] north side, rents are about $550. So you have a slight reduction in housing costs, but the neighborhood and housing quality are vastly different.

              Most landlords in Milwaukee set rents by looking at Craigslist or the newspaper to see what apartments are going for. If you geocode the addresses of properties advertising in Craigslist and the newspaper, they’re not on the north side of Milwaukee. They’re usually [in wealthier neighborhoods]. So the rents are skewed upward. That might be something that’s happening.

              What’s interesting is that historically it doesn’t seem that weird. Even Jacob Riis talked about it when he wrote How the Other Half Lives [in 1890]. The rents in the tenements were actually a bit more expensive than rents uptown. That suggests that it has policy implications. It suggests that maybe the nonprofit sector can get more involved in very poor neighborhoods than they are. And it suggests that the housing crisis isn’t just driven by these kinds of bloodless forces, like supply and demand, but is also driven in part at least by a profit motive.

              TR: How do you balance the right to profit that a landlord has, versus a need for someone to have safe and affordable housing?

              Desmond: This is a moral discussion that the nation needs to begin to have. When I think about how to address this problem at scale, I always come back to public-private partnerships. I think that’s the way out of this crisis that can help the most people. Profits are involved in that, people making a living are involved in that, but the state is also involved in that, and much more housing assistance to families in need is involved with that. That’s why the book calls for a mass expansion of housing vouchers, which are these public-private partnerships. In America, we have chosen to house the vast majority of our families of modest means in the private rental market, which means landlords and property owners in that market have to be at the table.

              TR: You portrayed the landlords so richly in the book. Tobin lends money to someone to attend a funeral, and Sherrena bought food for Arleen when she moved in. But as Sherrena said, “Love don’t pay the bills.” What makes the landlords you met tick?

              Desmond: My job was to try to write about everyone with as much complexity as I could. Depending on how we lean politically, we might be more inclined toward the landlords or toward the tenants. And maybe we’re inclined to paint one of those groups in a really poor light, but if you look at the problem from the sidewalk level, it’s just much more complex than that. You see landlords in the book being generous and being forgiving and sometimes being very hard and sometimes cavalier. They’re human. One thing that makes them tick is making a good living. This is where the rubber meets the road on hard questions on affordable housing. The landlords in "Evicted" made a good living, and they rented exclusively to low-income families. How much inequality are we OK with? How big a profit should we tolerate, and are some ways of making a profit more upstanding than others?

              One thing we’re doing now is trying to understand how landlord profit margins vary across neighborhood types. We’re finding some statistical evidence that profit margins are higher in poorer neighborhoods because the mortgage and the property tax bills are lower, but rents, like we just talked about, aren’t that much lower. That raises normative questions for us and public policy questions, too.

              TR: How do we change the problem when it is so systemic? What role could an organization like Rotary play?

              Desmond: Only about one in four families who qualify for housing assistance get any. The vast majority of poor folks get nothing. Their kids don’t get enough to eat, because the rent eats first. One in four poor families who are renting is spending over 70 percent of its income on housing costs. Even with imperfect policies, we need a vast expansion of housing assistance to those families. One way to get there is building a broad coalition – and involving not the usual suspects. If you care about educational quality and allowing kids to reach their full potential, then you’ve got to give them a stable home. If you care about reducing health care costs, the top 5 percent of the users consume 50 percent of health care costs in hospitals. And guess who those users are? They’re the unstably housed. They’re homeless folks.

              This lack of affordable housing is going to hit our business leaders hard. They’re going to experience more turnover in their workforce. They’re going to experience the resistance of folks to move to high-cost cities even if the jobs are better. Folks that are part of Rotary have a vital role to play, not only as business leaders, but as community leaders as well. When low-income neighborhoods are communities – when folks know their neighbors – there are massive returns. They can drive down crime in their neighborhood, become more politically engaged, form that stickiness of neighborhoods that’s so important for kids’ well-being. Eviction threatens that.

              TR: Are there other countries that we can look to for solutions?

              Desmond: We’re unique among other advanced industrial societies for the level of poverty that we have and the kind of poverty that we have. If you give a talk on this book in Amsterdam or London or Paris, people are flabbergasted, outraged. They’re just not used to the material hardship that we have come to tolerate as a nation.

              We can look to countries that have universal housing programs like the Netherlands or Britain. We can look at countries that have installed mandatory mediators between landlords and tenants like France has. Or countries like Germany that make a much more serious investment in public housing than we have. Or countries that don’t have these massive homeowner subsidies like we do, but have equal or similar rates of homeownership. Canada is one, the UK is another. But the good news is that we don’t have to – the policies we have here work pretty darn well. Our housing voucher program [often referred to as Section 8] is a great program. It lifts over 2 million people above the poverty line every year, and it makes kids healthier. Families move less. They live in better neighborhoods. It works. The problem is that it’s just not enough to go around.

              TR: What sort of financial burden does the eviction cycle have on society as a whole?

              Desmond: To answer that question, we need to ask, What does eviction do to a family? Families not only leave their homes. Kids lose their schools, you lose your community, you often lose your stuff because it’s piled on the sidewalk or taken by movers. Eviction comes with a mark: It pushes families into worse housing, worse neighborhoods. Those are things that can have a lasting and deep impact on kids’ well-being. We have a study that shows that moms who get evicted have high rates of depression two years later. We know that suicides attributed to evictions and foreclosures doubled between 2005 and 2010 [years when housing costs soared]. We have a study that shows eviction can cause job loss because it can be such a consuming, stressful event. It can make you make mistakes at work, lose your footing in the job market.

              TR: Your book has gotten a lot of attention. Has that translated into any changes?

              Desmond: We’re seeing a lot more people talk about this issue than before. This work has helped push forward arguments like the right to counsel in housing court, which New York City passed earlier this year. It is the first city in the country to take a stand to say folks who are facing eviction around the city should have legal representation. I testified at that hearing citing the research on what eviction does to families. Philadelphia is now considering something similar.

              We’ve had movement on the federal level too. One example of that has to do with research that connected evictions to nuisance ordinances and domestic violence. Domestic violence survivors had to choose between calling 911 and risking eviction, or not calling 911 when they were in an abusive relationship. At a meeting on Capitol Hill, Sen. [Elizabeth] Warren really latched on to those ordinances. She organized 28 senators to write a letter to HUD [U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development], and HUD very shortly thereafter issued guidance putting federal law back on the side of domestic violence survivors. The ACLU has been involved in that effort as well. It started a campaign called “I Am Not a Nuisance” where it’s litigating against these ordinances across the country.

              If the book has made a difference, it’s because people are responding to the folks in its pages, folks like Arleen and Larraine and Scott. People are recognizing that this level of social suffering and blunting of human capacity is not right, and it’s not us.

              Nowhere To Go 2017-10-11 08:00:00Z 0

              Cellphones Power Disease Fight

              Pakistan and Nigeria replace paper-based reporting with fast, accurate cellphone messaging

              By Photos by

              Mobile phones and simple text messaging may be the keys to victory in the world’s largest public health initiative: the eradication of polio. 

              As the disease retreats from the global stage, thriving in only a few remote areas in three countries, it’s up to health workers to deliver vaccines and share information with speed and accuracy. 

              Health workers in Pakistan are receiving cellphone and e-monitoring training at the Rotary Resource Center in Nowshera, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. 

               

              Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative are strengthening the lines of communication by giving cellphones to health workers in Pakistan and Nigeria, where a single text message could save a life. 

              In Pakistan, Rotary has been working to replace traditional paper-based reporting of maternal and child health information, including polio immunization data, with mobile phone and e-monitoring technology. 

              Community health workers across the nation have received more than 800 phones through a partnership with Rotary, the Pakistani government; Telenor, the country’s second-largest telecommunications provider; and Eycon, a data monitoring and evaluation specialist. Organizers plan to distribute a total of 5,000 cellphones by the end of 2018. 

              Health workers can use the phones to send data via text message to a central server. If they see a potential polio case, they can immediately alert officials at Pakistan’s National Emergency Operations Center. They also can note any children who didn’t receive the vaccine or parental refusals – and record successful immunizations. In Pakistan, the polio eradication effort aims to reach the nation’s 35 million children under age five.

              The result is a collection of real-time information that officials can easily monitor and assess, says Michel Thieren, regional emergency director of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergency Program. 

              Pakistan health workers are replacing traditional paper-reporting with accurate and timely cellphone-based reporting. 

               

              “Cellphone technology signals tremendous progress in the polio eradication program,” says Thieren, who has directed polio-related initiatives for WHO in Pakistan. “The data we collect needs to have such a granular level of detail. With real-time information that can be recorded and transcribed immediately, you can increase accuracy and validity.

              “This gives governments and polio eradication leaders an advantage in the decisions we need to make operationally and tactically to eliminate polio,” Thieren says.

              Beyond polio

              Health workers also are using mobile phones to monitor a multitude of maternal and child health factors. 

              Pakistan’s child mortality rate ranks among the highest in the world, according to UNICEF, with 81 deaths under age five per 1,000 live births. 

              But mobile technology can help reduce those deaths, says Asher Ali, project manager for Rotary’s Pakistan PolioPlus Committee. 

              “Our health workers, including community midwives, are tracking pregnant mothers,” Ali says. “When a child is born, they can input and maintain complete health records, not just for polio, but for other vaccines and basic health care and hygiene needs.”

              They also can monitor infectious diseases, such as malaria, tuberculosis, and influenza-like illnesses, as well as child malnutrition and maternal health concerns. 

              “If there is a problem with the baby or the mother, we can send information to the government health departments immediately, so they can solve the issue quickly and adjust their strategies,” Ali says. 

              Cellphones also facilitate follow-up visits with families, because health workers can send appointment reminders over text message. 

              Proliferation of phones

              Mobile phone use worldwide has spiked recently, with about 7 billion subscribers globally, 89 percent of them in developing countries, says WHO. Even people living on less than $1 a day often have access to phones and text messaging, according to WHO. Cellphones are used more than any other technology in the developing world. 

              Rotary and other nonprofit organizations are leveraging this fact to boost a variety of health initiatives. 

              The Grameen Foundation conducts a “mobile midwife” program that sends daily texts and weekly voice mails to expectant mothers, offering advice during pregnancy and the first year of the child’s life. UNICEF provides similar support to mothers, with a focus on nutrition throughout pregnancy and the first two years of a child’s life. 

              Mobile phones also are helping in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa. The British nonprofit Absolute Return for Kids uses text messages to remind patients about medications and upcoming appointments. 

              The Ugandan health ministry’s mTrac program, a mobile text messaging data collection network run in conjunction with UNICEF and other organizations, has a broader focus. Nearly 30,000 workers at 3,700 health centers submit weekly reports through their phones and receive surveys, alerts, and other communications. Questions go out to health workers about medical supply levels, conditions in clinics, and other critical issues.

              Members of the Rotaract Club of The Caduceus, India, collaborated with the Jana Swasthya Project in 2015 to screen more than 8,000 people for oral health conditions, hypertension, and diabetes during Kumbh Mela, one of the world’s largest Hindu festivals. The project established a digital disease-surveillance system to study epidemiological trends, replacing a paper-based data-tracking process and allowing officials to access live data with a few clicks. 

              In 2016, after Nigeria saw its first polio cases in almost two years, Rotary and WHO officials rushed to replace traditional reporting with a cell-based system in the northern state of Borno, where the new cases were identified. The mobile phone initiative has since expanded to more than 11 states. 

              “Traditional paper reporting was misleading our program. The information we were getting was not entirely accurate. This gave us the sense that we were doing better than we actually were,” says Boniface Igomu, program coordinator of Rotary’s Nigeria PolioPlus Committee. “With cellphones, we’re identifying problem areas quickly and acting accordingly.”

              The country has yet to see a polio case this year. 

              Nigeria is also using cell-based mapping technology to identify areas that polio immunization teams have missed. Health workers test stool samples from children arriving from remote areas and log reports of acute flaccid paralysis. This effort started in Borno but has expanded to three additional states, Igomu says. 

              After more than 1,000 people died earlier this year in Nigeria from meningitis, the country used the same digital tools in emergency vaccination campaigns, he adds.

              “Mobile technologies are the type of innovations that can fill in the gaps of our program and finally help us end polio for good,” Igomu says. “Their uses have never been more important than now.”

              Cellphones Power Disease Fight 2017-10-11 08:00:00Z 0
              Call for District Governor Nominations 2017-10-11 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Uncorked

              We attended a major fundraiser in Wasilla on Saturday, October 7, "Rotary Uncorked", which is an annual event sponsored by our old club Wasilla, and by the Palmer club.  This year's theme was "Under the Big Top" and we were invited to participate as a clown (Clyde) and a fortune teller (Vivian aka Madame Voyeur)...this fundraiser generally nets about $40,000 and the funds are used for youth programs including "My House" the homeless shelter for teens in the valley. 

              I know this isn't about our club, but it does promote Rotary and fundraisers!!
               
              Vivian and Clyde
               
               
               
              Rotary Uncorked 2017-10-10 08:00:00Z 0

              KPBSD Superintendent  Dr. Sean Dusek Visits Homer Rotary

              Dr. Sean Dusek, KPBSD Superintendent, spoke at Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary on October 5th.  Among other things, he spoke of the current happenings within the Borough schools, and what is both expected and hoped for the School District.  It sounds as though the students are doing very well, overall, but that funding is getting to be a problem. It looks as though hard choices will need to be made pretty soon.  You will want to listen up for future news and opportunities to give your input.
               
               
               
               
               
              KPBSD Superintendent  Dr. Sean Dusek Visits Homer Rotary 2017-10-10 08:00:00Z 0

              From Country Doctor to International Epidemiologist

              What made Gates Foundation polio eradication director drop his country doctor dream to become an international polio expert

              By

              At the Rotary International Convention in June, Rotary and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation renewed their long-standing support for ending polio in dramatic fashion: Rotary committed to raising $50 million per year over the next three years, with every dollar to be matched with two additional dollars from the Gates Foundation.

              This expanded agreement will translate to up to $450 million for polio eradication activities.

              Jay Wenger, director of the Gates Foundation’s polio eradication program, talks about his work as an epidemiologist and about why ending polio for good is so important.


               

              Jay Wenger, director of the Gates Foundation’s polio eradication program

               

              I wanted to become a doctor ever since I was a little kid, but I originally thought I would become a country doctor – a general practitioner.

              That notion changed when I had the opportunity to work at a mission hospital for a couple of months during medical school. One thing I saw during that experience was that you could deliver a lot of health care and prevent a huge amount of disease for a relatively small amount of money.  

              Eventually, I became interested in infectious diseases. I liked the idea of focusing on something specific – that seemed more doable to me than knowing everything about everything, as it seemed a general practitioner needed to do. I went on to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where I received additional training in infectious disease epidemiology.

              Epidemiology involves studying disease in an entire population – figuring out who gets sick, how it spreads, and how it can be prevented. It included working on outbreaks, which is like solving a disease mystery but needing to do it in a hurry.

              •  

                Counties, individuals, business and organizations pledge $1.3 billion to end polio. Read more

                 

                 

              •  

                 

                See a timeline of Rotary partners in eradicating polio

                 

                 

              When I was at the CDC, we studied one outbreak where a dozen or so individuals in the same area wound up with the same skin infection. So I went to the affected area and started trying to figure out what these people had in common. It turned out they had all been patients at one particular clinic – that was one clue. When we looked further into the record, we found they had all had the same specific operation. In the end, we figured out that all the cases traced to a single bottle of fluid under one sink in that clinic, which had contaminated the equipment they were using. 

              That’s a lot of what epidemiologists do: We track infectious diseases, try to figure out how they spread, and then, hopefully, figure out what to do to stop it.

              I worked in a group at the CDC that focused on bacterial meningitis, which is an infection of the brain and spinal cord. A bacteria called Haemophilus influenzae Type B (Hib) was the most common cause, infecting up to 15,000 kids in the U.S. every year. This was when the Hib vaccine had just been developed. I got involved in monitoring how much disease was out there and how the vaccine was working, and it was really striking. We went from thousands upon thousands of cases per year to a couple of dozen as vaccine use spread to all kids across the country. 

              Seeing the power of a vaccine program was a big part of what led me to get involved with polio eradication. 

              I was born in 1955, which is the same year, incredibly, that the Salk vaccine for polio was licensed and introduced in the U.S. At that time, polio was the most feared infection in the country.

              “You have to get rid of the virus everywhere or it can come back, reinfecting places where it was eliminated.”

              To understand the significance of the development of the polio vaccine, you have to understand how big the polio scare had been in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s. When summer came around, parents were terrified that their children would get the disease and wind up paralyzed or even dead. When that first vaccine came out in 1955, it was hailed as a medical miracle. 

              Even after I was born, the specter of polio haunted people. There were campaigns with the newer oral vaccine where drops of the vaccine would be put onto a sugar cube, which you would then eat. I can still remember getting those sugar cubes for polio as a kid.

              Polio became a major example of a successful vaccine – driving down case counts from hundreds of thousands per year globally to zero in the U.S. and other wealthy countries. But polio remained a big threat in the developing world. 

              The poliovirus affects a type of cell in the spinal column, and once these cells are killed, there’s no way for the brain to send messages to the muscles. The result is what’s called acute flaccid paralysis, or AFP, and that muscle doesn’t work anymore – it can’t flex or contract. The virus often affects an arm or leg, which tends to shrivel from disuse. If the disease affects the muscles of the chest or diaphragm, polio can be fatal, because the patient can’t breathe.

              What makes it possible to get rid of the virus is that it can only reproduce in humans and that it can live in humans for only a few weeks to a month or so until the body gets rid of it. During that time, virus is excreted in the stool, but once outside the human body, it can survive for only a week or two. It has to find another person to infect in that time, or it dies off. So if you can break the chain of transmission – stop the virus from spreading from person to person by making enough people immune through the vaccine – you can actually drive the virus into extinction. But you have to get rid of the virus everywhere or it can come back, reinfecting places where it had been eliminated. 

              This is why the World Health Assembly voted, in 1988, to eradicate polio. Rotary was incredibly important at that time. They took ownership of the mission from the beginning, and they assisted numerous countries in the early stages of this effort. 

              I could see the impact they were making, and as an epidemiologist I was struck by the possibility that we could eliminate a disease from the face of the earth, if we were determined enough. 

              In 2002, I had the opportunity to work with WHO in India. I directed the National Polio Surveillance Project. That’s where I got firsthand experience with how Rotary works within a country. 

              A great deal of Rotary’s support resides in their fundraising, of course. With an effort like this, you need a consistent source of funding, and Rotary has made it clear that they want to see this through to the end. Their support has been unwavering.

              But I think the most striking thing about working with Rotarians has been how they’ve energized the sense of commitment in each country. In the United States, they worked in every congressional district and in Washington, D.C., to promote the vaccination effort. In a place like India, I learned quickly that the support of the Rotarians is invaluable. For example, we initially faced challenges with political leaders – but regardless of who we were working with, we could always rely on a local Rotarian to connect with politicians and persuade them to support the polio program.

              More broadly, Rotarians provided an instant sense of legitimacy and urgency. They were influential members of their communities, and people took notice when they advocated for polio eradication. 

               

              Stopping polio in India was a tremendous feat. From dense cities like Mumbai to the most remote villages up in the mountains, we had to make sure every child was vaccinated. 

              Most of my fieldwork was in the north, because that’s where we saw cases. As head of the surveillance program, I would go see children with polio. One time, traveling to a northern state called Uttar Pradesh, I went into a tiny single-room house, where a little girl was sitting on a mat bed with a limp leg.

              Her leg had been paralyzed for a couple of months. There were things we could do, like make sure she got physical therapy and splints. But there was no way to cure her paralyzed limb. Her mom was looking at me expectantly, and I could tell what she was thinking: “Here’s this big doctor from the West and he’ll know what to do. He’ll know how to fix my child.” 

              That feeling of helplessness, those moments when you’re actually seeing the victims – that’s my strongest motivator. They’re the driving force for the eradication program, because we can’t fix polio once it happens. But we can fix it before it happens.

              In 2011, I took my position at the Gates Foundation. By that time, Rotary and the Gates Foundation were already huge partners, and Rotary had played a major role in getting the foundation involved in the polio eradication program several years previously.

              About the same time, the last case of polio in India occurred, which energized the community to believe global eradication was really within reach. Rotary and the Gates Foundation responded by committing to a multiyear strategic plan for ending polio for good, alongside the other partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (WHO, CDC, UNICEF). 

              In June 2013, Rotary announced that it would contribute $35 million per year to the effort for a five-year period, which the Gates Foundation would match 2-to-1. In June 2017, Rotary announced that it would increase that contribution to $50 million per year for the next three years, which the Gates Foundation again committed to match 2-to-1. 

              “The most striking thing about working with Rotarians has been how they’ve energized the sense of commitment in each country.”

              What people need to realize is that with polio eradication, in contrast to many other public health programs, we can’t choose where to go. We have to go where the disease is. 

              As of now, there are only three countries in the world where wild poliovirus may still circulate: Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria. Those are incredibly challenging countries to work in, because they have much bigger issues to contend with than polio. 

              We can’t forget about those places or deal with them later, because this would mean that we lose against polio – if the virus remains anywhere, it can spread back to those places we have already cleared out. We have to extend our efforts to the hardest places in the world, and to the least-reached kids in the world. 

              The question I get most often is when we’ll be able to declare that polio is actually gone from the earth. I tell them that we’re pushing hard and nearly there. 

              Last year at the end of July, there were 19 reported cases of polio worldwide. This year, there were only eight. However, the only way we can know that polio is really eradicated is if we record at least three years with no new cases, and I’m optimistic that we will meet this goal soon.

              In my work as an epidemiologist, I’ve seen that it is possible to stop a disease as we did with smallpox. We didn’t just drive smallpox down to a small number of cases; we drove it down to nothing. 

              If I were a more romantic type, I might allow myself to dream about the future of a polio-free world more often. But I’m a worker bee, and I like to keep my head down and focused on what work needs to be done to achieve that goal. 

              What I try to think about – what Rotary and the Gates Foundation keep me focused on – is the human side of all this. I can still remember from my childhood how scared people were of polio. And I’ve seen firsthand in my fieldwork what polio does to its victims and their families.

              That’s what keeps me working. 

              • Read more stories from The Rotarian

              From Country Doctor to International Epidemiologist 2017-10-05 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Partners With Habitat for Humanity

              EVANSTON, IL (October 2, 2017) — More than 1 billion people around the world live in inadequate housing according to the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements. Through a partnership between Rotary and Habitat for Humanity, more will have access to safe and affordable housing across the globe.

              The partnership will facilitate collaboration between local Rotary clubs and local Habitat for Humanity organizations, enabling Habitat to extend their volunteer pool by tapping into Rotary’s 1.2 million members in 200 countries and regions.

              “Habitat’s aim to bring people together to build homes, communities and hope aligns perfectly with Rotary’s commitment to make positive, lasting change in communities around the world,” said Rotary General Secretary John Hewko. “With Habitat’s expertise and the power of Rotary’s volunteer network, we will help build the foundation for stronger communities.”

              “The values of our organizations are so closely aligned, and the desire to help others runs deep for both groups. That makes us such a perfect match,” said Habitat for Humanity International CEO Jonathan T.M. Reckford. “So many Rotarians have worked alongside Habitat and the knowledge, experiences and connections that are so strong in local Rotary clubs will make them valuable Habitat partners in many communities worldwide.”

              Rotary members develop and implement sustainable projects that fight disease, promote peace, provide clean water, support education, save mothers and children and grow local economies. These projects are supported by more than $200 million awarded through Rotary’s grants programs.

              Habitat for Humanity joins a list of Rotary service partners including, the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, Peace Corps, Dollywood Foundation, the Global FoodBanking Network and Youth Service America (YSA).

              About Rotary

              Rotary brings together a global network of volunteer leaders dedicated to tackling the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges. Rotary connects 1.2 million members of more than 35,000 Rotary clubs in over 200 countries and geographical areas. Their work improves lives at both the local and international levels, from helping families in need in their own communities to working toward a polio-free world.

              About Habitat for Humanity

              Driven by the vision that everyone needs a decent place to live, Habitat for Humanity began in 1976 as a grassroots effort on a community farm in southern Georgia. The Christian housing organization has since grown to become a leading global nonprofit working in more than 1,300 communities throughout the U.S. and in more than 70 countries. Families and individuals in need of a hand up partner with Habitat for Humanity to build or improve a place they can call home. Habitat homeowners help build their own homes alongside volunteers and pay an affordable mortgage. Through financial support, volunteering or adding a voice to support affordable housing, everyone can help families achieve the strength, stability and self-reliance they need to build better lives for themselves. Through shelter, we empower. To learn more, visit habitat.org.

              Rotary contact: Chanele Williams 847-866-3466 chanele.williams@rotary.org

               Habitat for Humanity contact: Laura Layton 404 420 3615 newsroom@habitat.org

              Rotary Partners With Habitat for Humanity 2017-10-05 08:00:00Z 0

              Some Pictures of DG Harry's Visit to Homer!

              Here are some pictures of DG Harry Keiling's visit to Homer and the Rotary Clubs of Homer.
               
              Potluck at Barbara Hill's
               
              DG Harry Informing Rebound Rotary Exchange Student, Summer McGuire, That She has been Made an Honorary Rotarian!
               
              And Presents Her With His Own Rotary Pin!
               
              Summer Presents President Beth With Over $600 that She Has Raised to Contribute Toward the Purchase of a Shelter Box
               
              DG Harry Begins His Presentation
               
              Rotary Cares for Kids Program
               
              This Year's Rotary International Theme - Rotary: Making a Difference
               
              The 2018 Rotary District 5010 Conference in Seward, AK Looks Pretty Neat!
               
              DG Harry Makes Presentations to Milli
              And Receives One in Renturn!
               
              Some Pictures of DG Harry's Visit to Homer! 2017-10-04 08:00:00Z 0

              Great Potato Race and Barbeque

              Saturday September 30 we had a our annual Great Potato Barbeque at Mari-Anne Gross' house where we found the results of the Great Potato Race.  Maynard barbequed hamburgers and hot dogs and side dishes were provided by the participants and onlookers.  Great Grub and Lots of Fun!!
               
              Great Potato Race Results
                Magic Molly (purple)  French Fingerlings (red) 
              1st PlaceMarv Peters9.1lbs.Marv Peters16lbs.
              2nd PlaceCharlie Franz8lbs.Mike Cline15.5lbs.
              3rd PlaceMike Cline7lbs.Charlie Franz13.5lbs.
                     
              Potatoes donated to Food Pantry   
                Red66.33lbs   
               Purple43.70lbs   
               White21.9lbs   
               Total131.93lbs   
                     
                     
               Total Potato Weight    
               Marv25.1    
               Mike 22.5    
               Charlie21.5    
               
               
              Great Potato Race and Barbeque 2017-10-04 08:00:00Z 0

              NEW--Health Fair Updates

              Please bring a yellow highlighter with you on Thursday to the meeting. We have to mark up and tear the forms for the Rotary Health Fair blood tests. 

               

              Lots of busy hands make quick work!

               

              We like everyone to be in their black "Rotarians at Work" vests for the big event. That way the public knows we are not the professional exhibitors but the rotary volunteers. Would like to get some group shots in our vests this year.

               

              If you do not have a vest you can take any black fleece vest to NOMAR. They will put our logo and Rotarians at Work on your vest.

               

              Milli has cashiers lined up and we are moving forward.  Hard to believe the predraws start on October 9th already!

               

              I will start signing everyone up for tasks next week.

               

              If you are NOT here to help on the 27th or 28th please send me an email letting me know you  are NOT available.  It is easier if you tell me rather than me chasing 62 of you ........ Send it to :

               

               rotaryhealthfair@gmail.com

               

              Thanks!!

               

              Sharon

              399-4266

               

              Good morning,

               

              The Health Fair is coming quickly.   The Pre Draws where we offer the low cost blood tests before the Fair will start on October 9th and runs through the 27th.  The Fair is the 28th.    The Cashiers need to be at the hospital from 7:45 a.m until noon the latest, Monday through Friday.  It is my understanding an effort will be  made to conclude the work by 11 a.m. daily.   At this time I still need one volunteer for the 9th, 10th, 20th and 25th.       If you can help one of those dates, please email me at <millimom@xyz.net>.    All Cashiers need to come to Sharon's at 1:15 on the 5th for training. this year that is mandatory.   I will be sending a list of instructions before then.   

              Thank you.

               

              Milli
               

               

              NEW--Health Fair Updates 2017-09-27 08:00:00Z 0

              Open World

              From: Natalia Kunzer <Natalia.Kunzer@rotary.org>

              Subject: Open World Program 2018 - call for host RC

              Date: September 25, 2017 at 8:09:40 AM AKDT

              To: "Clyde Boyer (vivandclyde@gmail.com)" <vivandclyde@gmail.com>, WillFiles <will@wfiles.us>, Gayle Knepper <5010rotary@gmail.com>

               

              Dear Gayle, Clyde and Will,

               

              Greetings from Evanston!

               

              This is the time of the year, again, when we are looking for clubs to host Open World delegations. OW has asked me to see if Rotary in Alaska could host a Russian delegation under the “Sustainable Fishery Development and Management” hosting theme during the 2-10 June 2018 hosting week.

               

              Please see the description of the hosting theme below.

               

              Sustainable Fishery Development and Management (from sea to shining sea)

              Rationale: The history of the United States is inextricably linked to Russia. From early Russian settlements around Fort Ross to the Seward purchase of Alaska in 1867, our countries have shared much in common. With the U.S. – Russia maritime border in the Bering Strait, there have been many linkages between Alaska and the Russian Far East. Sadly, many of these linkages have dwindled over time. This program for experts in the seafood industry is designed to reestablish linkages primarily in sustainable fishery development and management. The program will have to be Alaska-based as the Alaskan seafood industry has long term interests in working with/in Russia, but there are currently very limited options due to the current state of the relationship between Russia and the United States.

               

              Would you please let me know if this might be of interest to you, your clubs or other clubs in your great state by Monday, 16 October or sooner. Only this morning we received OW Grant Guidelines and were given less than four weeks to submit our grant proposal. I hope the short deadline wouldn’t be much of inconvenience.

               

              Please see the Host Registration Form and programming brochure attached.

               

              Thank you for your continuous support!

               

              Should you have any questions please feel free to contact me at your convenience.

               

              Warm Rotary Regards,

              Natalia

              ………………..

              Natalia Kunzer

              Open World Program Officer | Programs

              Ph.:1 (847) 946-5664

              https://www.rotary.org/en/get-involved/rotary-clubs

               
              Open World 2017-09-26 08:00:00Z 0

              A Place to Call Home

              In the suburbs of Atlanta, Rotarians are filling a gap in social services to help struggling families get back on their feet.

              By Photos and video by

              It’s a sunny Friday afternoon in the quiet suburbs of Atlanta. Beatrice is at home with her 10-year-old daughter, who is practicing the trumpet. Her older daughter, age 12, is at her first school dance. It’s a rare moment of relaxation for the family amid their usual activities – church, homework, chores.

              It’s hard to imagine now, but just seven years ago, Beatrice was homeless.

              Social service programs, with the support of Rotary, helped her get back on her feet, and today she’s a homeowner with a master’s degree. 

              Beatrice’s story

              In early 2006, Beatrice arrived home to find her husband in a rage. With bills and the mortgage adding up, the family was in danger of losing their house, and he had reached some kind of breaking point. “I’m not going to do this anymore,” he told her. “It’s all going to end.” 

              Editor's note: The names of Beatrice's children have been changed.

              Beatrice, who was pregnant with their second daughter, scooped up Maya, who was then 18 months old, to shield her from his anger. She had felt her husband’s fury before. Mostly he would yell, but sometimes he would punch a wall. Other times, he had pushed her or thrown something at her. 

              With her family an ocean away in her native Kenya and a small child to care for, Beatrice felt she had few options. She was in the United States on a student visa, studying accounting. “But that day, I knew something had to give,” she says. “When you see that kind of rage in someone’s eyes, it’s very scary.” She had applied for a green card, and although the couple were just a week away from their interview, she couldn’t risk staying. “I thought, I may die waiting for that interview.” 

              When he went to bed, she called a friend from church who knew about her situation. She whispered into the phone, “Pat, I’m scared for my life.” The women made plans to meet the next day. Beatrice held her daughter and waited for morning to come. 

              Single and struggling

              This was supposed to be a story about the working poor. But to write about the estimated 10 million Americans who work yet live below the poverty line, you encounter the same people again and again: single mothers like Beatrice. 

              Nearly 40 percent of single mothers in the United States live in poverty.

              The cost of child care eats up much of their take-home pay, so some move in with relatives or a boyfriend. Others are forced to rent substandard apartments in dangerous neighborhoods. Many minimum-wage workers don’t have health insurance through their employers and are one serious illness away from losing everything. In fact, that’s how Beatrice became homeless: She got sick.

              After three months in a shelter, Beatrice rented an apartment. She found an internship and was making $15 an hour. Life was difficult for the expectant mother with a toddler, a job, and night classes, but she made it work. Pat watched Maya while Beatrice was at school in the evenings. She continued to work on her degree so she wouldn’t lose her student visa. 

              After losing her apartment, Beatrice lived at HomeStretch, an organization that provides transitional housing along with financial mentoring and life skills classes. Several Rotarians have volunteered there as mentors. 

               

              In December, she gave birth to a second daughter. 

              Ella suffered from severe sleep apnea and was in intensive care for a week. When she came home, she needed constant monitoring to make sure she didn’t stop breathing. No day care facility would accept the risk of caring for her, and Beatrice’s internship didn’t offer paid leave. 

              “Now I’m in an apartment and I can’t work. I couldn’t pay for it,” she says. “In the meantime, I lost my friend Pat. She died of complications from the flu.” 

              Luckily, other friends helped her find another job, and, with her church’s support, she was able to stay in her apartment. When Ella turned six months old, Beatrice started working again. But a month later, she felt a terrible pain in her side and passed out at the office. After emergency surgery for an ovarian cyst, Beatrice developed a blood clot that nearly killed her. Her new employer couldn’t wait for her to recover and replaced her. Once again Beatrice had no income, no insurance – and this time she had $115,000 in hospital bills. She lost the apartment. “That’s how I ended up at HomeStretch,” she says.

               

              A Place to Call Home 2017-09-26 08:00:00Z 0

              Meet the 2017 Rotary Peace Champions   

              Honorees will be recognized at Rotary Day at the United Nations in November

              Six Rotary members and Rotary Peace Center alumni will be honored this November as People of Action: Champions of Peace. Their commitment to creating peace and resolving conflict will be recognized during Rotary Day at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. 

              The honorees, which were announced on International Peace Day, are all involved in projects that address underlying causes of conflict, including poverty, inequality, ethnic tension, lack of access to education, or unequal distribution of resources. 

              The six Champions of Peace are:

              •  

                 

                Jean Best, a member of the Rotary Club of Kirkcudbright, Scotland —Best leads a peace project that is designed to teach teenagers conflict resolution skills they can use to create peace-related service projects in their schools and communities. Best worked with peace fellows at the University of Bradford to create the curriculum. She has also worked with local Rotary members and peace fellows to set up peace hubs in Australia, England, Mexico, Scotland, and the U.S.

                Best became a Paul Harris Fellow for contribution to developing peace strategies.

                 

                 

                 

              •  

                 

                Ann Frisch, a member of the Rotary Club of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, USA — Frisch believes unarmed civilians can protect people in violent conflicts. She collaborated with Rotary members in Thailand to establish the Southern Thailand Peace Process training program in 2015 in Bankok, Hat Yai, and Pattani in southern Thailand. The group brought together electrical and irrigation authorities, Red Cross staff, a Buddhist monk, and a Catholic nun to this border region to train civilians to build so-called safe zones. These are areas in which families, teachers, and local officials do not have to confront military forces every day. 

                Frisch, a UN delegate to Geneva, co-wrote the first manual on unarmed civilian protection, which was endorsed by the UN. Her training in a civilian-based peace process is administered by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, the department that trains all UN personnel. 

                 

                 

              •  

                 

                Safina Rahman, a member of the Rotary Club of Dhaka Mahanagar, Bangladesh — Rahman is an important advocate for women’s rights in the workplace in Bangladesh. As a garment factory owner, she was the first to offer health insurance and maternity leave for her female employees. She worked with the Rotarian Action Group for Peace to organize the first international peace conference in Bangladesh. A policymaker for the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, she champions workplace safety and workers’ rights and promotes girls’ education and women’s rights. 

                Rahman is chair of two schools that provide basic education, vocational training, conflict prevention, and health and hygiene classes. 

                 

                 

              •  

                 

                Alejandro Reyes Lozano, a member of the Rotary Club of Bogotá Capital, Colombia — Using a Rotary global grant, Reyes Lozano is training 27 women from six Latin American countries to develop skills in peace building, conflict resolution, and mediation to deal with conflicts in their communities. The project also will build an international network of women peacebuilders.

                Reyes Lozano, an attorney, was appointed by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos to assist with negotiations and set terms and conditions to end the 50-year conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). 

                 

                 

              •  

                 

                Kiran Singh Sirah, a graduate of the Rotary Peace Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — Sirah is president of the International Storytelling Center in Tennessee, USA, which uses storytelling as a path to building peace. The organization seeks to inspire and empower people everywhere to tell their stories, listen to the stories of others, and use storytelling to create positive change. 

                Kiran, the son of Ugandan refugees, created “Telling Stories That Matter,” a free guide for educators, peace builders, students, volunteers, and business leaders. The resource is now used in 18 countries.

                 

                 

              •  

                 

                Taylor (Stevenson) Cass Talbott, a graduate of the Rotary Peace Center at the International Christian University in Japan — Stevenson developed a global grant to improve sanitary conditions for waste collectors in Pune, India. Waste collectors together handle 20 tons of unwrapped sanitary waste every day. Stevenson collaborated with SWaCH, a waste-collector cooperative, to create the “Red Dot” campaign, which calls for people to wrap their sanitary waste in newspaper or bags and mark it with a red dot.

                This helps waste collectors identify sanitary waste and handle it accordingly. Stevenson developed all the educational imaging for the campaign. She also secured in-kind offerings of support, including free training space and campaign printing. She is also a Global Peace Index ambassador. 

              Meet the 2017 Rotary Peace Champions    2017-09-26 08:00:00Z 0

              Profile: A Teacher’s Lesson Spans the Years

              By
               

              Abbas Rajabi, Rotary Club of Denver Southeast, Colorado, USA

              In mid-1960s Iran, Peace Corps volunteers made a big impression on student Abbas Rajabi. Rajabi became friendly with volunteer Don Laffoon, who taught in his high school. 

              Abbas Rajabi

               

              “We were not all that different, even though our cultures were thousands of miles apart,” remembers Rajabi, now governor for District 5450 (northern Colorado) and a member and past president of the Rotary Club of Denver Southeast.

              Rajabi emigrated to the United States for college in 1967, eventually going into the real estate business and joining Rotary. All the while, the memories of his Peace Corps friends lingered. So when a fellow Rotarian asked him if he would like to help foster cooperation between Rotary and the Peace Corps, Rajabi knew where to start.

              “I wanted to call Don,” he says. “I tracked him down in California, and I said, ‘Thank you. You made a great impact in my life, and I needed to tell you that.’”

              Since that conversation, Rajabi has been encouraging Rotary clubs all over the world to support the Peace Corps’ work. At the International Assembly, he passed out hundreds of flyers encouraging clubs to find ways to work with Peace Corps volunteers; at a Peace Corps conference, he spread the word about Rotary.

              “My hope is that people realize that in spite of our looks, our background, our cultures, we are more or less the same,” he says.

              • Read more stories from The Rotarian

              Profile: A Teacher’s Lesson Spans the Years 2017-09-20 08:00:00Z 0

              5 Things You Might Not Know About Ending Polio 

              The road to eradicating polio has been a long and difficult one, with Rotary leading the fight since 1985. Going from nearly 350,000 cases in 1988 to just 10 so far this year has required time, money, dedication, and innovation from thousands of people who are working to end the disease. 

              Here are five things you may not know about the fight to end polio:

              1. Ice cream factories in Syria are helping by freezing the ice packs that health workers use to keep the polio vaccine cold during immunization campaigns.

              John Cena

               

              2. Celebrities have become ambassadors in our fight to end the disease. 

              They include WWE wrestling superstar John Cena, actress Kristen Bell, action-movie star Jackie Chan, golf legend Jack Nicklaus, Grammy Award-winning singers Angelique Kidjo and Ziggy Marley, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, anthropologist Dr. Jane Goodall, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Bill Gates, and world-renowned violinist and polio survivor Itzhak Perlman.

              3. Health workers and Rotary volunteers have climbed mountains, crossed deserts, and sailed to remote islands, risking their lives to vaccinate children against this disease. Rotary has funded more than 1,500 motorbikes and 6,700 other vehicles, as well as 17 boats, to make those journeys. Vaccinators have even traveled on the backs of elephants, donkeys, and camels to immunize children in remote areas.

              4. In Pakistan, the polio program emphasizes hiring local female vaccinators and monitors. More than 21,000 vaccinators, 83 percent of whom are women, are achieving the highest immunization coverage rates in the country’s history.

              5. Thanks to the efforts of Rotary and its partners, more than 16 million people who otherwise might have been paralyzed are walking today. In all, more than 2.5 billion children have been vaccinated since 1988.

               

              5 Things You Might Not Know About Ending Polio  2017-09-20 08:00:00Z 0

              District Governor Harry Kieling to Visit Homer!

               

              Let's get ready to knock the socks off of our DG Harry Kieling next week!


              Wednesday

              1. Showcasing our projects - any and all welcome to join us! 10:00 - 12:00

              2. Potluck picnic at the fire pit at the Karen Hornaday park - 12:00-1:00

              3. Weather permitting we will head out on the Bay for a bit!  1:00 -3:00

              4. Fellowship gathering at Barb Hill's house (directions and details coming) - potluck and a chance to meet and mingle with DG Harry - talk to him about all of the great things our club is involved in and just share a fun and relaxing time.  (joint gathering between the two Homer clubs)

               

               

               

               

              Thursday

              1. 10:30 - 11:30 Monthly board meeting downstairs at the Bidarki with DG Harry attending

              2. Lunch meeting and some inspiring words from DG Harry!

              District Governor Harry Kieling to Visit Homer! 2017-09-20 08:00:00Z 0

              Coastwalk 2017 Community Cleanup

               

              Coastwalk 2017 Community Cleanups!  There will be two days for "across the Bay" cleanup!

              Free water taxi transportation provided:

               

              September 24th -- McKeon Spit 10:00 - 4:00

              October 1 -- Grewingk Spit 10:00 - 4:00

               

              Contact Beth Trowbridge or Henry Reiske to sign up - space is limited.

              Coastwalk 2017 Community Cleanup 2017-09-20 08:00:00Z 0

              Information From Shelterbox

               

              D5010 has been asked by Nancy Dodge to share the below information. Her contact information is given at the end of this e-mail.

               

              Category 4 Hurricane Irma has made landfall on the US coastline in Florida.

              At this time we do not have any information from RI about Rotary Clubs and Districts in the affected areas coordinating relief efforts, as they did in Houston.  We expect that information to come early in the week after an assessment is completed of the affected areas.

              ShelterBox is sending out a highly-trained Response Team today to understand how they can help families who have lost everything. 2,000 Shelter Kits are currently stored nearby in Panama. With Shelter Box teams kicking into action, they are keeping one step ahead by tracking its trajectory.

              The IRMA/Hurricane Relief Fund has been launched which provides support for all costs associated with ShelterBox’s response to Hurricane Irma and other 2017 hurricanes.

              The Caribbean was badly battered as Irma has claimed at least 80 lives. The prime minister of Barbuda sadly proclaimed the island was now “rubble.” The mayor of the Haitian city of Fort Liberty described the storm as a “nuclear hurricane.”

               As well as being home to communities who are particularly vulnerable to these storms, many of these countries are also holiday destinations with high numbers of tourists from across the world.

              Shelter Box has supported communities in several of these places before, including Haiti after the massive earthquake in 2010 and Hurricane Matthew, which hit last year.

              We also have a strong network of contacts, partners and Rotary connections in the region, who will help us to identify communities in need of support.

              Read about ShelterBox’s response in Texas following Hurricane Harvey(http://www.shelterboxusa.org/harvey)

               

              HELP AMIDST THE CHAOS


              The last two weeks have brought devastating flooding around the world. Shelter Box is working hard to stem the damage and bring back peace to people’s lives.

              More than 1.7 million people have been affected in Nepal, while a third of Bangladesh is under water. Huge areas of India and Myanmar are also in need of support.

              A ShelterBox Response Team is on the ground, assessing the situation in Nepal. Another team is enroute to Bangladesh right now.

              Shelter Box is working with local authorities and Rotarians in both countries to understand how best we can help.

              ShelterBox has the connections and the expertise to reach people in need of shelter following disasters such as flooding and hurricanes, but they can’t do it without your help.

              Will you support us today to help our ShelterBox Response Teams to go further, to place the right tools in their hands?

              Donate today and you can help ShelterBox build a world where no family goes without shelter.

              IRMA/Hurricane Relief Fund – Provides support for all costs associated with ShelterBox’s response to Hurricane Irma and other 2017 hurricanes.

              In the event that funds donated exceed the cost of ShelterBox’s response to these disasters, the excess will be used to prepare for and respond to humanitarian disasters worldwide. This fund is separate from the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund.

               

              Sincerely,

               

              Andre' Layral

              D5010 DGN 2019-2020

              alayral.1920@gmail.com

              cell 907-460-7786

               

              Nancy Dodge 
              Eagle River, Alaska 99577

              ShelterBox Ambassador

              ShelterBox USA | Pacific Northwest | e-Club Rotary District 5010
              e: ShelterBox: nhdodge@comcast.net
               | w: shelterboxusa.org Cell: 941 993-4335

               

              Information From Shelterbox 2017-09-14 08:00:00Z 0

              Youth Services Committee Really Needs YOUR Help!

              Our club is in need for someone to step up and help out the Youth Services Committee by attending the Fall Youth Exchange Retreat in Willow next weekend.

               

              Christi is unable to attend and neither am I.  I can commit to attending the January meeting. 

               

              Youth Services - especially the Youth Exchange program - has always been a priority for our club.  Now we need help making sure we can work through this transition year and share responsibilities so that we can continue with the program.

               

              Please let me know if you are available to help with this weekend!  We need a few more members of our club to step up and help fill the gap with Christi leaving if we want to continue offering youth exchange as something our club is involved in. 

               

              Please contact me to let me know if you can help.

               

              Thanks

               

              Beth
               

              Heather Beggs responded to my request for someone to attend the Youth Exchange Fall Orientation with the following inspiration:

               

              The fall orientation weekend in Hatcher Pass is one of the best possible ways to experience what our youth exchange program is all about.  You will meet our recently-returned Alaskan students and hear their moving stories about how this exchange has changed their lives, their struggles and their accomplishments.  You'll spend the weekend in comfortable cabins at a beautiful lakeside camp, surrounded by Hatcher Pass fall colors.  You'll meet our fellow Rotarians from around the district helping our kids have successful exchanges, some brand new to the program and many seasoned veterans.  You'll learn A LOT and not be expected to be an expert - just come to learn.  Even if you are not considering stepping up to more responsibility with our youth programs, this is an incredible way to understand them better and be an advocate for youth exchange.  You won't regret spending your weekend with amazing kids from around the world and a fabulous group of Rotarians.

               

              I added the bold - you don't need to commit to being the Youth Exchange Representative to attend - it could just be a great learning experience for you about the program!

               

              Thanks

               

              Beth

              Youth Services Committee Really Needs YOUR Help! 2017-09-14 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Helps Disaster Victims

               

              Severe storms, an earthquake, and hurricanes are wreaking havoc across the globe from the United States and Mexico to South Asia and Africa. The Rotary Foundation and Rotary clubs in affected areas are helping bring emergency aid to battered communities. 

              The Rotary Foundation is collecting emergency relief funds to help victims of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. 

              Severe rainfall caused historic flooding along the Texas coast, including in Houston, the fourth largest city by population in the United States. About 6.8 million people have been affected by the hurricane.

              Meanwhile, Hurricane Irma is in the Caribbean and headed for Florida and the Atlantic coast of the United States. Already, the storm has directly affected 1.2 million people and millions more are in its path.

              “The power of Rotary is in the Foundation's ability to pull help from around the world while local clubs provide immediate relief in their own communities,” says Don Mebus of the Rotary Club of Arlington, Texas.

              Rotary districts along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana are collecting emergency relief funds and providing immediate aid to flood victims. 

              The most powerful earthquake in a century hit the southern coast of Mexico on 7 September. At least 61 people were killed in the 8.1-magnitude quake. Rescue and relief efforts are expected to be hampered by floods and a dangerous storm surge off the Gulf of Mexico as Hurricane Katia moves into the area.

              How to contribute

              Two Rotary Foundation donor advised funds have been set up to accept donations for disaster relief and recovery in response to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma:

              Hurricane Harvey
              Account name: Gulf Coast Disaster Relief Fund
              Account number: 608

              Hurricane Irma
              Account name: Hurricane Emergency Relief Fund
              Account number: 296

              You can contribute by check or wire transfer or online with a credit card. You'll need to provide the DAF account name and number listed above. If you would like a credit card receipt, please check the address box to share your address with Rotary. 

              Learn how you can contribute.

              In Sierra Leone, torrential rains and a mudslide in August has killed more than 500 people and destroyed nearly 2,000 homes. On the outskirts of Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital, an orphanage, where more than 60 children slept, was swept away in the slide. More than 600 people are still missing.

              An estimated 40 million people across Bangladesh, India, and Nepal have been affected after massive floods hit the area last month. UNICEF estimates 31 million people in India have lost their homes, and 8 million people in Bangladesh and 1.7 million in Nepal have been affected.

              Rotary's partner, ShelterBox, is providing support to families displaced by the storms.

              ShelterBox teams are working with Rotarians to assess the damage and provide emergency supplies and temporary housing in Bangladesh, Nepal, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.

              In Texas, hundreds of light privacy tents were deployed to evacuation centers for families to use temporarily.

              If you have questions about how you can help, contact relief@rotary.org.

              Rotary Helps Disaster Victims 2017-09-14 08:00:00Z 0

              Biking for the Heart  

              September 7th our speaker was Chris Figureida, who spoke of biking across the US and LOTS of other places.  It was a really informative and exciting program, but rather than try to explain his program, I'll include some pictures of his presentation, and an excerpt from his website: < http://www.cycleforheart.org/ >.
               

              What We Do

               

              Since 2005, Chris Figureida has cycled thousands of miles across the globe promoting healthy heart awareness. He has worked with schools to increase health, education and community development programs to help improve the future of our children. Cycle for Heart inspires both children and adults alike to take control of their lives and know they can do anything they put there minds to.


              My Mission

              To engage people - and especially kids, our leaders of tomorrow - to know that they can make a difference too - starting with themselves and healthy habits. Every day.


              What I've Achieved

              • Ridden over 40,000 miles across North America
              • Spoken to over 67,000 students from kindergarten to college about the benefits of a health and active lifestyle.
              • Been recognized by State Capitals across the U.S.
              • Helped enact healthy legislation at local, state, and federal governments
              • Named a Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary International
              • Visited 165 Rotary Clubs around the world for Polio eradication
              Chris' Opening Slide
               
              Wet Gloves = Blistered Hands
               
              California, Pennsylvania, That Is!
               
              And This is What it Looks Like When You Get Off the Interstate in the Eastern US
               
              The Most Fun of All--Teaching the Kids
               
              The Other Side of the World (Country)!
               
              And Kids Showing Their Muscles!
               
              Statistics of Chris' First Trip
               
              Chris' Travels Outside Alaska
               
              From the Lowest Point in North America (Death Valley) to the Highest (Mt. Denali) and Back!
               
              Prudhoe Bay South, This Time!
               
              The Next Project?  The Lowest Point We Can Get to--to the Highest!
               
              Chris' Non-Profit Foundation
               
              President Beth and Chris
               
              Biking for the Heart   2017-09-13 08:00:00Z 0

              Annual Labor Day Picnic at the Gordon's

              Things were going so well, then the weather caught up with us...!  A very minor detail, like winds of about 12 kts, increasing to 40 kts, but fortunately easterly.  Some quick phone calls lead to a change in transportation.  The small boats we had were going to stay home (pretty good idea), and a much larger one would take those who elected to go to Halibut Cove over to the Gordon's.  Great call!  
               
              The ride over was a bit bouncy, as we were going into the seas, but otherwise uneventful.  Then we got to the Gordon's--WOW!  Fantastic people, fantastic place, fantastic food!  Those of us who made it there had a wonderful time, but we had to leave (several days too soon).  The ride back was considerably smoother, although the seas were much higher, but luckily we were going with them, and the boat handled the weather very well.  What a blast!
               
              The Place
               
              Our Host
               
              and Hostess
               
               
               
              How About This View!
               
               
              Our Transportation--the One on the Left, not the One on the Right!
               
              Annual Labor Day Picnic at the Gordon's 2017-09-06 08:00:00Z 0

              2018-2019 Rotary President Selected

              Barry Rassin selected to be 2018-19 Rotary president

              Barry Rassin

               

              Barry Rassin, of the Rotary Club of East Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas, is the selection of the Nominating Committee for President of Rotary International for 2018-19. He will be declared the president-elect on 1 September if no challenging candidates have been suggested.

              As president, Rassin aims to strengthen our public image and our use of digital tools to maximize Rotary’s reach.

              “Those who know what good Rotary clubs do will want to be a part of it, and we must find new models for membership that allow all interested in our mission to participate,” he says. “With Rotary more in the public eye, we will attract more individuals who want to be part of and support a membership organization that accomplishes so much good around the world.”

              Rassin earned an MBA in health and hospital administration from the University of Florida and is the first fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives in the Bahamas. He recently retired after 37 years as president of Doctors Hospital Health System, where he continues to serve as an adviser. He is a lifetime member of the American Hospital Association and has served on several boards, including the Quality Council of the Bahamas, Health Education Council, and Employer’s Confederation.

              A Rotarian since 1980, Rassin has served Rotary as director and is vice chair of The Rotary Foundation Board of Trustees. He was an RI training leader and the aide to 2015-16 RI President K.R. Ravindran.

              Rassin received Rotary's highest honor, the Service Above Self Award, as well as other humanitarian awards for his work leading Rotary’s relief efforts in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake there. He and his wife, Esther, are Major Donors and Benefactors of The Rotary Foundation.

              Rassin’s nomination follows Sam F. Owori’s death in July, just two weeks into his term as Rotary International president-elect.

              The members of the 2017-18 Nominating Committee for President of Rotary International are Anne L. Matthews (chair), Rotary Club of Columbia East, South Carolina, USA; Ann-Britt Åsebol, Rotary Club of Falun-Kopparvågen, Sweden; Örsçelik Balkan, Rotary Club of Istanbul-Karaköy, Turkey; James Anthony Black, Rotary Club of Dunoon, Argyll, Scotland; John T. Blount, Rotary Club of Sebastopol, California, USA; Frank N. Goldberg, Rotary Club of Omaha-Suburban, Nebraska, USA; Antonio Hallage, Rotary Club of Curitiba-Leste, Paraná, Brazil; Jackson S.L. Hsieh, Rotary Club of Taipei Sunrise, Taiwan; Holger Knaack, Rotary Club of Herzogtum Lauenburg-Mölln, Germany; Masahiro Kuroda, Rotary Club of Hachinohe South, Aomori, Japan; Larry A. Lunsford, Rotary Club of Kansas City-Plaza, Missouri, USA; P.T. Prabhakar, Rotary Club of Madras Central, Tamil Nadu, India; M.K. Panduranga Setty, Rotary Club of Bangalore, Karnataka, India; Andy Smallwood, Rotary Club of Gulfway-Hobby Airport (Houston), Texas, USA; Norbert Turco, Rotary Club of Ajaccio, Corse, France; Yoshimasa Watanabe, Rotary Club of Kojima, Okayama, Japan; and Sangkoo Yun, Rotary Club of Sae Hanyang, Seoul, Korea.

              To learn more about Barry Rassin, read this interview and vision statement outlining his goals for Rotary.

              2018-2019 Rotary President Selected 2017-09-06 08:00:00Z 0

              Greening the Desert

              Check dams increase farm incomes and reverse migration in India’s semidesert areas

              Not long ago, young men in the semidesert areas of Rajasthan’s Sikar and Alwar districts were leaving their family farms to find work in the city. Faced with scarce water for crops and unreliable rainfall, they could no longer count on farming to feed their families.
              Our villages no longer have only old men and women. Our young men have returned.

              An elder from the Neem Ka Thana village in the Sikar district of Rajasthan
              “The land here was so dry that you could barely get drinking water at 800 feet [244 meters] deep,” recalls Goverdhan, an elder from the Neem Ka Thana village in the Sikar district of Rajasthanelder. Because using only monsoon water limited cultivation, “young men migrated to cities like Delhi and Mumbai to work.”
              Now, a Rotary water project is making farming profitable again and reversing the departure of young people. Farmers harvest rainwater that percolates into the ground by using check dams, which restrain, or check, the flow of rainwater from catchment basins.
              Farmers use that water to replenish water supplies, including wells. Unlike dams built across rivers, check dams aren’t designed to create a new water source for irrigation or drinking, but rather to prevent the runoff and loss of precious rainwater.
              “Our villages no longer have only old men and women,” says Goverdhan, one of the first beneficiaries of the project. “Our young men have returned.”

              Water banks

              The Rotary India Water Conservation Trust in partnership with the PHD Rural Development Foundation, built 82 check dams between 2005 and 2017, benefiting more than 250,000 residents of farming communities throughout the Sikar and Alwar districts. Rotary Foundation Trustee Sushil Gupta, chair emeritus of the water conservation trust, spearheaded the program.
              • 82
                check dams built since 2005
              • 250,000
              • village residents' lives changed
              The dams include walls 14 feet (4.3 meters) high and foundations 7 feet (2.1 meters) deep to prevent erosion. Their catchment basins range in length from 3 to 7 kilometers (1.9 to 4.3 miles).
              Water from the Aravalli hills flows into the check dam catchments and stays for roughly six to eight months. When the water recedes, it leaves behind silt and rich minerals, which offer another opportunity for a quick cash crop before the onset of the next monsoon. Twenty of these dams are now perennial (filled with water year-round) and contain enough fish to help feed the community.
              Despite 2014’s disappointing rainfall, Goverdhan, who helps Rotary with its work, proudly points to the area’s greenery.
              “Due to water scarcity, these farmers could earlier grow only millets and a little wheat. Now, they have three crops: millets, wheat, and vegetables such as bhindi [okra], tomatoes, and green chilies.” Goverdhan also says the check dams have raised water levels in wells eight feet (2.4 meters).” 
              PHD Foundation CEO Atul Rishi says the check dams and increased water availability have dramatically expanded the area that can be farmed, as well as improved incomes. 
              Some farmers’ incomes have increased 100-200 times, says field officer Mukti Narain Lal. “From thatched homes, they now have [better-quality] pucca houses; from camels and cattle, they now have tractors to plow their fields,” Lal says.
              An aerial view of a check dam. Such dams feature walls 14 feet (4.3 meters) high and foundations 7 feet (2.1 meters) deep to prevent erosion. Their catchment basins range in length from 3 to 7 kilometers (1.9 to 4.3 miles).
               
              Philippe Dangelser (standing second from right) attends the inauguration of the Banari Wala Dam, one of 24 check dams built with support from Rotary clubs. Village residents, above right, wait with marigold garlands to welcome Dangelser.
              Photos by Rasheed Bhagat
              At a gathering at Goverdhan’s home, a farmer tells his story. Some years ago, his five sons departed for cities to find work doing menial tasks. They’ve all come back, he says, adding that now, there is plenty of water, plenty of grain, plenty of money. In recent years, the farmer bought a tractor worth roughly $8,000. 
              Village residents have taken ownership of the check dams and their maintenance to ensure sustainability. Each dam has a committee overseeing it, with money for maintenance kept in a bank.
              One committee “wants to increase the width of the dam wall, which is now being used as a bridge,” says Atul Dev of the Rotary Club of Indraprastha-Okhla, Delhi, India. Dev is the project director of the Rotary India Water Conservation Trust.
              “Thanks to the check dams, we have copious water for animals, birds, plants, and trees, too, as you can see from the greenery around,” he says.

              A global connection

              In November 2014, Dev accompanied Philippe Dangelser, past president of the Rotary Club of Brumath-Truchtersheim-Kochersberg, France, who was in India to inaugurate three completed check dams and help break ground for three more in the Sikar and Alwar districts.
              Dangelser comes to India twice a year, bringing money he raises from Rotary clubs in France and Germany. So far, he has financed the construction of 24 dams. On this trip, he brings 30,000 euros (about $32,000) to build four to five more dams. Each dam costs around $12,000, minus the money saved by local volunteers who help with construction.
              Dangelser’s India connection began in 2005, when he attended the Rotary International Convention in Chicago. Past District 3010 (now District 3011) Governor Ranjan Dhingra, the district’s water chair, invited Dangelser to visit India. Soon, he was dedicated. As one farmer describes Dangelser, “Another god gave us birth — you gave us life.”
              The Latter-day Saints Charities have contributed $188,000 for 21 dams. And Rotary clubs in Russia and the United States have also donated money and labor.
              • Read more stories from Rotary News India
              Thanks to the check dams, we have copious water for animals, birds, plants, and trees, too, as you can see from the greenery around.
               

              Member, Rotary Club of Indraprastha-Okhla, Delhi, India, and project director, Rotary India Water Conservation Trust
              Greening the Desert 2017-09-06 08:00:00Z 0

              My Journey Into Rotary

              Why one new member decided to join Rotary – and what he found when he hit the road to see how different clubs can be

              By Illustrations by

              Why I Joined

              All it took was a new town, a sense of purpose – and an invitation

              I never expected to be a Rotarian. For years, my idea of networking with the business community was paying my Visa bill. My idea of service was helping an elderly lady with her groceries.  

              You’re welcome, Mom.

              Then I wrote a story for The Rotarian on John F. Germ. It was an easy assignment: The 2016-17 president of Rotary International is good company and a generous host with a trove of stories about his life and work. He also has strong opinions about what Rotary does well and what it could do better. Germ took me on a whirlwind tour of Chattanooga, Tenn., his hometown. I was scribbling notes when he asked if I was a Rotarian. 

              I admitted I wasn’t. 

              “Why not?”

              “Nobody ever asked me.”

              He nodded. “That’s one of our problems. We don’t ask enough of the right people,” he said, “for fear of rejection. We’re afraid they’ll say no.”

              I wasn’t sure about being one of the right people, but a couple of weeks later an email arrived, inviting me to join Rotary. This was Germ theory in action, turning words into deeds. To paraphrase another business leader known for getting results, he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. 

              It was a good time to join. My wife and I were moving from New York City to western Massachusetts, where we knew nobody. What better way to get acquainted than through the local Rotary club?

              The Rotary Club of Northampton gathers at noon on Mondays in the grand old Hotel Northampton, where the guest list has included the town’s former mayor, Calvin Coolidge, who went on to be the 30th president of the United States, as well as Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, the Dalai Lama, Bob Dylan, Richard Nixon, Tom Cruise, and John Mayer. The dining room where the club meets isn’t quite so star-studded, but it’s congenial. It’s where you’ll find a dozen or so Rotarians doling mashed potatoes and chicken onto dinner plates, catching up on the weekend’s events, listening to a short presentation from this week’s speaker, and hoping to make the world a little better before next week’s meeting. 

              For this longtime New Yorker, the good-natured vibe in the room was a refreshing change. The locals hung around to give me directions to libraries and bookstores, tips on restaurants, invitations to lunch or dinner. When I spent a few hours welcoming guests to New Year’s Eve performances by local musicians – my first gig as a Rotary volunteer – Club President Dan Shaver took over for me a half-hour early. “Thanks for helping out,” he said. “Now go enjoy the music.” And he gave me a brownie. 

              It’s enough to make you wonder why everybody doesn’t join the club. 

              Yet membership is still a challenge in many parts of the world. As Rotarians get older, fewer new members fill the ranks. Over time, attrition can shrink or eliminate Rotary clubs. “We lost a club up the road in Williamsburg and another in Hatfield. They basically aged out,” says my new friend Phil Sullivan, a longtime Rotarian who recalls when those all-male clubs’ members followed rules that sound antique today. “You had to wear a shirt and tie to meetings or you were out. You had to make 90 percent of the meetings or you were out. That stuff wouldn’t fly these days. People are so busy you’re lucky to get them when you can.”

              A 2011 survey showed that while Rotary is one of the best-known service organizations in the world, four in 10 people had never heard of it, another four in 10 knew only the name – to them, “Rotary” had perhaps a hazy association with good-deed-doing – and just 20 percent knew something about Rotary’s work. Rotary’s public image campaigns have since improved awareness, but most people still lack a clear understanding of what Rotary is and what Rotarians do: In 2015, only 41 percent of people surveyed were familiar with Rotary clubs, 12 percent knew about Rotary’s work to end polio, and 8 percent were aware of Rotary Peace Centers. 

              The same survey asked people why they didn’t join Rotary. The top three reasons: 

              “Not enough time.”

              “I’m worried about the cost.”

              “Nobody asked me.” 

              In 2011, Rotary International launched a program to strengthen our image, expand public understanding of what Rotary does, and motivate, engage, and inspire current and prospective members. Four years later, global awareness of the organization had jumped from 60 to 75 percent. 

              So why are members joining today? “Having a sense of purpose” is the most popular reason, followed by making a difference, friendship, and networking. Northampton Club President Shaver’s trajectory was typical: “When I moved here four years ago, I didn’t know anyone,” he says. “I needed to join something, but I was looking for networking with a purpose.” Shaver is a chiropractor; he took over a retiring colleague’s office space, and the man was a Rotarian who offered to sponsor him. That sounded good to Shaver, who got so involved that he was soon running the 32-member club. “It’s more work than I ever expected, and the workload just keeps growing. But so does the fun. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

              When Maria Maher moved from Chicago to Annapolis, Md., she looked forward to years of boating on the Chesapeake Bay with her husband, an avid sailor. Then he lost a leg in a motorcycle crash. Looking back, Maher says, “If you want to make God laugh, just tell her your plans.”

              After months spent largely in hospitals and rehab centers, Maher wanted to reconnect with the business community. “The Rotary Club of Annapolis was a place to put my skills to use,” says the former vice president and chief of staff to the CEO of the American Medical Association. Sponsored by local legend Charles Heller (whom we profiled in our July 2014 issue), she joined and quickly volunteered to help recruit new members. 

              “We want the club to get younger,” Maher says, and to that end they recently voted to create a new class of membership called Active Under 40, which allows younger members to join at a reduced dues rate. “But young people today are also very time-poor. Jobs and family take up almost every minute. The question is, how can we adapt to the lives they live?”

              Maher is now part of the Annapolis club’s membership committee, floating new ideas such as flexible meeting times and ways to attract young parents as members. “For one thing, we’re looking at weekend service projects where younger members might bring their families,” she says. “It might be a chance for children to see their parents giving back to the community. Wouldn’t that help instill Rotary values in the next generation?”

              On a recent road trip to Texas, I visited the Rotary Club of Cross Timbers, near Dallas (read the story in our July issue). The hard-charging officers of that club evaluate prospective members by asking, “Do they have the three T’s: talent, time, and treasure?” I like their spirit. For them, Rotary isn’t a 112-year-old bunch of businessmen trying to keep up with the times. It’s the hottest service organization of the future. 

              What I Saw

              On Day One, I get lost in a rotary on my way to Rotary. In most of the world, such a traffic circle is called a “roundabout,” but in New England it’s a “rotary.” I take a wrong way out and wind up east of Westfield.

              This is no way to start my undertaking to visit seven Rotary clubs in a week – all of them within an easy drive of Northampton, Mass. Having recently moved from New York City, I’m a newcomer both to the area and to Rotary, and I figure this would be the perfect way to make contacts, learn about the area – and to get a sense of what different Rotary clubs have in common, as well as what makes each one unique. 

              As long as I don’t get lost. 

              “Westfield?” a pedestrian says. “Well, first you head back to the rotary …”

              MONDAY, 12:05 p.m.; Westfield, Mass. 

              I hustle into the Westfield Technical Academy, a vocational high school with a sign out front: “Tiger’s Pride Restaurant.” 

              Westfield, also known as Whip City, was once the world’s buggy-whip capital. Today the spirited kids at Westfield Tech study information technology, collision technology (don’t call it auto shop), aviation maintenance, and culinary arts. I’m here for the last specialty – the culinary arts students run a full-service restaurant in the auditorium.

              “Welcome to Tiger’s Pride,” chirps the freshman who leads me to my table. The menu features baked chicken stuffed with cornbread and sausage, pecan-crusted catfish, pork roast, and a carrot cake I want two pieces of. 

              A friend had told me not to eat in a high school restaurant. “Would you get your hair cut at a barber college?” 

              I would if it were Tiger’s Pride Barber College. That’s how good my catfish is.

              Almost all 38 members of the Rotary Club of Westfield turn out for the lunch that the high school is hosting for them this week. About half are Rotarians of long standing; the other half are younger, more recent members. “We’re the new blood,” one says. 

              This club is a foodie’s garden of eatin’. As Tim Flynn, the club’s 2016-17 president, announces a $1,300 donation to the city’s food pantry that made the local news, John Slattery digs into his lunch. Slattery, a professional chef, pronounces his taste buds “impressed. The asparagus was perfectly cooked, and the flavors in the pork roast were spot-on. These kids are getting great instruction.” 

              Incoming President Lynn Boscher tells me about the club’s main event: “Our Food Fest in August. We take over the town with food and drink!” 

              Later, circumnavigating the rotary that threw me off before, I have a thought: This story has a chance to be delicious. 

              MONDAY, 6 p.m.; Chicopee, Mass.

              A town known for foundries that turned out Civil War cannons, Chicopee seems to be made of red brick. The vast Cabotville Mill on the Chicopee Canal, City Hall with its 147-foot clock tower, and Munich Haus, a locally famous rathskeller where the Chicopee Rotary Club convenes once a month – all these buildings are 100-plus years old, as sturdy as the club that has been meeting in the town since 1969.

              The club usually meets at a Chinese restaurant. “But once a month we get together here after work to give people who can’t make a noon meeting a chance to join us,” says President Tania Spear, leading me into a red-brick dining room festooned with mounted boars’ heads and a stuffed pheasant. 

              That kind of flexibility is crucial, says longtime member Lucille Kolish. “We can’t simply wait for people to come through the door.” 

              Spear runs down a list of club causes: the Sandwich Ministry, a charity that provides meals to people who need them in Chicopee; an upcoming Veterans Appreciation Dinner; and a new freezer for the Chicopee Senior Center. Biggest of all is the annual Celebrity Bartender night, when the mayor and other local luminaries mix drinks for charity. John Arthur rises to his feet. “Madam President,” he says, “we’re gonna raise a whole lot of money that night!” 

              When dinner comes, Spear offers a typically to-the-point toast: “Enjoy.” Then she hands me a bottle of hand sanitizer. “What do you expect?” she says. “I’m a nurse!” 

               

              My Journey Into Rotary 2017-08-30 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Districts Collect Emergency Funds for Hurricane Harvey Victims

              Rotary clubs along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana, USA, are collecting emergency relief funds to help flood victims of Hurricane Harvey, which slammed into southeast Texas over the weekend.

              Severe rainfall has caused historic flooding along the Texas coast, including in Houston, the fourth largest city by population in the United States. Deluged towns in the region are in desperate need of aid as thousands of residents were forced to flee their homes. About 6.8 million people have been affected by the hurricane, which made landfall on 25 August.

              Several districts located along the Gulf coast in Texas and Louisiana have established disaster relief funds, including districts 58905910, and 5930 in Texas, and district 6200 in Louisiana. You can find information about how to contribute to other district funds in Texas on district 5840's website.

              “We know that a disaster of this magnitude will require our financial assistance for months into the future,” says District 5930 Governor Betty Ramirez-Lara. “Our disaster relief committee will provide support where we believe it can best be used.”

              ShelterBox, an independent charity and Rotary’s project partner, is also providing support to families displaced by the storm. Hundreds of light privacy tents will be deployed to evacuation centers throughout Texas for families to use temporarily.

              “Our normal tents and ShelterKits are not appropriate for the conditions families are experiencing in Texas,” says James Luxton, ShelterBox operations team leader. “The flooding is covering large swathes of land, and is set to rise even further in the coming days, making indoor shelter the best option.”

              If you have questions about how you can help, contact relief@rotary.org.

              Rotary Districts Collect Emergency Funds for Hurricane Harvey Victims 2017-08-30 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary and Hurricane Harvey

              District 5010 Rotarians and Clubs:

               

              Severe rainfall has caused historic flooding along the Texas coast, including in Houston, the fourth largest city by population in the United States. Deluged towns in the region are in desperate need of aid as thousands of residents were forced to flee their homes. About 6.8 million people have been affected by the hurricane, which made landfall on 25 August.

               

              Several D5010 Rotary members and club presidents have asked how they can individually, or as a club, support relief efforts in Texas and Louisiana with donations and support. 

               

              Several districts located along the Gulf coast in Texas and Louisiana have established disaster relief funds, including districts 58905910, and 5930 in Texas, and district 6200 in Louisiana. You can find information about how to contribute to other district funds in Texas on district 5840's website.

               

              “We know that a disaster of this magnitude will require our financial assistance for months into the future,” says District 5930 Governor Betty Ramirez-Lara. “Our disaster relief committee will provide support where we believe it can best be used.”

               

              ShelterBox, an independent charity and Rotary’s project partner, is also providing support to families displaced by the storm. ShelterBox is providing much needed equipment.  With the blessing of DG Harry, we are encouraging donations to be made directly to ShelterBox that will support the victims of Hurricane Harvey with needed aid and equipment.  For more information, go to www.shelterboxusa.org/Harvey

               

              If you have questions about how you can help, contact relief@rotary.org.

               

              Sincerely,

               

              Andre' Layral

              DGN 2019-2020

               
              HURRICANE HARVEY
              ShelterBox is responding
              AN 'UNPRECEDENTED EVENT'

              A ShelterBox Response Team is on the ground in Texas assessing the needs and working with partners for emergency shelter in Houston and other impacted areas.
              ShelterBox is positioning tents, school kits, blankets, groundsheets and solar lights near the hurricane-devastated region as it communicates with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and state agencies to determine urgent shelter and aid needs.
               
              ShelterBox USA has created a designated fund for the Texas disaster.
              100% of all donations received will support all associated deployment costs with the ShelterBox response to Harvey.
               
              To give go to:< shelterboxusa.org/Harvey >
              Stay up to date by going to < facebook/shelterbox.usa >
               
               
              Nancy Dodge
              Eagle River, Alaska 99577
              ShelterBox Ambassador
               
              ShelterBox USA | Pacific Northwest | e-Club Rotary District 5010
              e: ShelterBox: nhdodge@comcast.net | w: shelterboxusa.org  | Cell: 941 993-4335
               
              Providing shelter, warmth and dignity to disaster survivors worldwide.
              Rotary and Hurricane Harvey 2017-08-30 08:00:00Z 0

              XIII Ecuador Rotary Project Fair

              Here is information about the Ecuador Projects Fair and Galapagos trip that Noko spoke to us about.  Looks pretty neat!

               

              Purpose:  To enjoy a 5 day excursion (12-16 November 2017) to the Galapagos Islands followed by the D4400 Project Fair in Guayaquil, Ecuador (17-19 November 2017).

               

              Features:  Meet Homer youth exchange student Felix Minuche, who lives in Guayaquil.  Promote the Health Fair Project at the Projects Fair.  No visa required.  US dollars are the official Ecuadorian currency.  Fly Alaska Airlines / American Airlines to Guayaquil.  Get back home in time for Thanksgiving.

               

              Costs:  $200 Project Fair registration, Guayaquil hotel $133/night for 3 nights, about $1,700 for Galapagos Island tour, including R/T airfare from Guayaquil and $100 park entrance fee.

               

              Contact:   Steve Yoshida for more information.  

               

               

               

               

              XIII Ecuador Rotary Project Fair 2017-08-30 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Partners with International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness

              EVANSTON, IL (August 7, 2017) — About 80 percent of the world's 285 million visually impaired people have treatable eye diseases, according to the World Health Organization. Rotary and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) aim to promote eye health to underserved communities.   

              Under the one-year partnership signed today by Rotary International General Secretary John Hewko and Vice President of IAPB Victoria Sheffield, Rotary clubs can partner with IAPB member agencies to provide access to continuous eye care and blindness prevention services such as eye exams, cataract screenings and treatment, and diabetic eye examinations and follow-up services. 

              Victoria Sheffield, vice president of International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, and John Hewko, Rotary International general secretary, sign the partnership agreement.

              Monika Lozinska/Rotary International

              “IAPB champions the belief that in the 21st century no one should have to live with avoidable blindness or sight loss,” said Rotary General Secretary John Hewko. “Rotary also sees global health as a core priority. With IAPB’s expertise, and the power of Rotary’s volunteer network, we will strengthen our ability to transform the lives of millions of people who live with a visual impairment.” 

              "The impact of blindness prevention efforts is lasting and has a palpable effect at the local level. This service partnership agreement will help eye care agencies and hospitals tie-up with local Rotary clubs to deliver positive, lasting eye care to local communities" noted Victoria Sheffield, CEO, International Eye Foundation and Vice-President, IAPB. “Eye care work will greatly benefit from the passion, energy, and support of Rotary members worldwide”.

              IAPB’s mission is to eliminate the main causes of avoidable blindness and visual impairment by bringing together governments, non-governmental agencies, academic institutions, and the private sector to facilitate the planning, development, and implementation of sustainable eye care programs. 

              Rotary members develop sustainable projects that fight disease, promote peace, provide clean water, support education, save mothers and children, and grow local economies. The recent partnership will help clubs further their efforts to provide disease prevention and treatment and maternal and child health programs worldwide. Over the past three years, nearly a quarter of a million people benefited from Rotary’s interventions for disease prevention and maternal and child health, supported by almost $100 million awarded through its grants programs.

              IAPB joins a list of Rotary service partners including, the Peace CorpsDollywood Foundation, the Global FoodBanking Network, and Youth Service America

              About Rotary

              Rotary  brings together a global network of volunteer leaders dedicated to tackling the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges. Rotary connects 1.2 million members of more than 35,000 Rotary clubs in over 200 countries and geographical areas. Their work improves lives at both the local and international levels, from helping families in need in their own communities to working toward a polio-free world. 

              About International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness 

              The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) is the coordinating membership organization leading international efforts in blindness prevention activities. IAPB’s mission is to eliminate the main causes of avoidable blindness and visual impairment by bringing together governments and non-governmental agencies to facilitate the planning, development and implementation of sustainable national eye care programs. 

              ###

              Rotary contact: Chanele Williams 847-866-3466 chanele.williams@rotary.org.  

              IAPB contact: Tejah Balantrapu tejahb@iapb.org

              Rotary Partners with International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness 2017-08-23 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Clubs Raise $304 Million in One Year to Strengthen Communities and Improves Lives Around the World

              EVANSTON, IL (August 10, 2017) — As part of Rotary’s year-long centennial celebration of The Rotary Foundation – the global membership organization’s charitable arm, Rotary clubs raised $304 million to support positive, lasting change in communities around the world.

              Since its inception in 1917 with its first donation of $26.50, The Rotary Foundation is today a leading humanitarian foundation that has spent nearly $4 billion to help countless people live better. Each year, The Rotary Foundation provides more than $200 million to end polio and support sustainable projects and scholarships that promote peace, fight disease, provide clean water, support education, save mothers and children, and grow local economies

              Rotary’s top humanitarian goal is to eradicate the paralyzing disease, polio. Rotary launched its polio immunization program PolioPlus in 1985, and in 1988 became a spearheading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Since the initiative launched, the incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99.9 percent, from about 350,000 cases a year to 37 confirmed in 2016. Rotary has contributed more than US $1.7 billion and countless volunteer hours to immunize more than 2.5 billion children in 122 countries.

              “When we say that our Rotary Foundation is saving and transforming lives, we are not exaggerating,” said Kalyan Banerjee, Trustee Chair, The Rotary Foundation – 2016-17. “With the continued strong support of our members, we will keep our promise of a polio-free world for all children, and enable the Foundation to carry out its mission of advancing world understanding, goodwill and peace.  We look forward to another 100 years of Rotary members taking action to make communities better around the world.”

              About Rotary

              Rotary  brings together a global network of volunteer leaders dedicated to tackling the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges. Rotary connects 1.2 million members of more than 35,000 Rotary clubs in over 200 countries and geographical areas. Their work improves lives at both the local and international levels, from helping families in need in their own communities to working toward a polio-free world. 

              ###

              Contacts: Chanele Williams 847-866-3466 chanele.williams@rotary.org

              Rotary Clubs Raise $304 Million in One Year to Strengthen Communities and Improves Lives Around the World 2017-08-23 08:00:00Z 0

              Help Honor Sam Owaori's  Legacy

                 

              Sam F. Owori was elected to serve as president of Rotary International in 2018-19 and would have been the second African Rotarian, and the first Ugandan, to hold that office. He died on 13 July, at age 76, from complications after surgery.  

              Owori is largely credited with the tremendous increase in clubs in Uganda, from nine in 1988, when he was district governor, to 89 today. 

              Owori was a district governor during the term of Rotary President Chuck Keller in 1987-88, when the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and the first fundraising campaign was launched. A member of the Africa Regional PolioPlus Committee and the International PolioPlus Committee, he brought an unyielding sense of right and wrong to his work with Rotary, as well as to his position as CEO of the Institute of Corporate Governance of Uganda and his previous work with the African Development Bank and other institutions. 

              He held a graduate degree in labor law from the University of Leicester, England; a business management degree from California Coast University; and a management graduate degree from Harvard Business School.

              Owori is survived by his wife, Norah; three sons, Adrin Stephen, Bonny Patrick, and Daniel Timothy; and grandchildren Kaitlyn, Sam, and Adam. Condolences can be addressed to Mrs. Norah Agnes Owori, c/o Institute of Corporate Governance of Uganda, Crusader House, Plot 3 Portal Avenue, Kampala, Uganda, or via sam.owori@rotary.org. 

              The Sam F. Owori Memorial to Polio has been established to honor Owori’s commitment to Rotary’s polio eradication efforts. Go here and select "Sam F. Owori Memorial to Polio" to contribute to this memorial fund.

              Help Honor Sam Owaori's  Legacy 2017-08-23 08:00:00Z 0
              Our Vision Re-visited 2017-08-23 08:00:00Z 0
              Cassidy Arrives in Vienna Boyd 2017-08-21 08:00:00Z 0

              Bringing Rotary's Brand to Life

              Help launch our new global ad campaign, "People of Action"

              While many people have heard of Rotary, few people actually understand what Rotary clubs do. In fact, 35 percent of the public is unfamiliar with any Rotary program, including their local club. That’s why Rotary has created a new global ad campaign called “People of Action.” The ads are available for download at Rotary.org / brandcenter, where you’ll also find guidelines on how to use and localize each element, making it easier for clubs in any part of the world to tell their story in a consistent, compelling way. 

              Work with local print media ad representatives to place these full-color ads in community magazines and newspapers.

               

              Here’s what you need to know

              Who are we trying to reach?

              This campaign is for people who do not know about Rotary or why it’s relevant to them. We hope the campaign will appeal to potential members who want to make a difference in their communities, those interested in Rotary’s causes, and people looking to establish relationships with others in their communities.

              Why is the campaign’s theme “People of Action”?

              Rotarians share a unique passion for taking action to improve their communities and the world. Where others see problems, we see solutions. This is our chance to show others how Rotarians see what’s possible in their communities and to highlight what we can achieve when more community leaders join Rotary.

              Here's how you can help:

              1. Go to Rotary.org/brandcenter

                Download the People of Action campaign assets

              2. Share materials with club members

                Particularly advertising professionals who can help place ads locally

              3. Collaborate with your district leaders

                Work with your district public image coordinator for additional guidance

              4. Use social media 

                Share campaign videos and graphics on your Facebook and Twitter accounts

              5. Tell us your success stories

                Email Rotary's marketing team with success stories and questions. 

              What materials are available?

              At Rotary.org/brandcenter, you’ll find videos, social media graphics, and advertisements for print and digital. Campaign guidelines are also provided to help districts and clubs localize the assets.

              Who are the people/projects featured in the campaign?

              The first ads in the campaign feature real Rotarians in Colorado and Brazil, and the stories shown were inspired by actual projects. More stories from Rotarians will be featured in upcoming ads.

              Can clubs or districts modify campaign materials with pictures of their own projects?

              Yes. Guidelines are provided at Rotary.org/brandcenter to help districts and clubs localize the campaign with photos of their own communities.

              Is there guidance for taking photos for the ads?

              Yes. Rotary.org/brandcenter has a checklist and information on how to capture photos that focus on connections and community.

              Inspire your community in any language by posting one of these social media graphics along with an update about the work your club is doing locally. On Facebook, you can boost posts by ZIP code for less than $100 and substantially increase the number of people you reach.

               

              What are some ways we can place the campaign locally?

              Campaign placement tips are on Rotary.org/brandcenter. There are also other ways to use the materials – consider adding campaign graphics to club and district websites, posting them on social media, and displaying the ads at events. 

              What kind of support will be provided to members who don’t know how to buy ads or secure donated space?

              RI provides guidelines on how to develop media plans, buy ads, and secure donated ad space at Rotary.org/brandcenter. In addition, the RI marketing communications team will host a series of webinars to help club and district leaders with media planning. 

              How does the campaign work with the existing Rotary brand positioning of “Join Leaders,” “Share Ideas,” and “Take Action”?

              The People of Action campaign brings the Rotary brand to life by highlighting what happens when community leaders within Rotary join together, share their vision, exchange ideas about solutions, and then take action to make it a reality. 

              Who do I contact with questions about this campaign?

              Please send all questions regarding the People of Action campaign to pr@rotary.org.

              Rotary's billboard ads will be available later this year. For guidance on how to buy billboard space, visit the Brand Center.

              Bringing Rotary's Brand to Life 2017-08-16 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Clubs Go Wild for Wildlife Conservation

              Rotary clubs go wild for wildlife conservation

              Every day, species across the planet become extinct. 

              And for each species that becomes extinct, many more become endangered due to habitat loss, poaching, human activities, and climate change. 

              From the tiny western pygmy possum to the mighty African elephant, Rotarians across Australia, New Zealand, and the South West Pacific are taking their place in the fight to preserve and protect our natural world.

              Here is a look at some of those Rotary wildlife projects.

               

              New pad for white 'roos

              The Rotary Club of Bordertown, South Australia, recently built shelters for Bordertown Wildlife Park’s famous mob of white kangaroos. 

              The roos needed shelter, but the park couldn’t afford workers -- something the Rotary Club of Bordertown was happy to provide. 

              Members of the Rotary Club of Bordertown, South Australia, constructed a handthatched shelter for Bordertown Wildlife Park’s mob of white kangaroos to protect them from the elements.

              Photos by John Harvey

              The roos were already snubbing tin shelters. “It was too loud when it rained,” said club member Trevor Butler. The solution: Using native broombush for new shelters. 

              “A bunch of Rotarians went down to a property in Willalooka with lots of broombush, cutting off a trailer load of big bundles,” Butler said. “We then built a frame and had to learn how to thatch properly. It was a learning curve as we hadn’t done that sort of thing before.” 

              After all this effort, it wasn’t certain the white kangaroos would take to their new “furniture.”

              However, one freezing, wet day, not long after the shelters went up, Trevor took a look on his way to work. “Sure enough, they were all huddled in the two thatched shelters – and none were in the tin shed.”

              The Rotary club is planning to build additional shelters.

               

              Rotary Clubs Go Wild for Wildlife Conservation 2017-08-16 08:00:00Z 0

              Community Service Committee Could Use Some Help!

              Delta Kappa Gamma will be filling the back packs for the Back to School project on Friday, August 18th, at 3 p.m. in the West Homer Elementary School Art Room, located down the first hall way to left after entering the school.

              So far, only Beth Trowbridge has signed up to help.  It would be great if one or two more could help.   I usually do, but I will be out of town.

              If you can help, please let Beth know.

               

              Thanks so, so much.

               

              Milli
              Community Service Committee Could Use Some Help! 2017-08-16 08:00:00Z 0
              Crutches4Africa--Part 2 2017-08-16 08:00:00Z 0

              How Chinese Religions/Philosophies Have Influenced Chinese and East Asian Cultures

              Well, if you saw the title of last week's presentation and decided that you could miss that one, you blew it!  Dr. Erin Cline, daughter of member Mike Cline, gave a rousing and dynamic presentation on "How Chinese Religions/Philosophies Have Influenced Chinese and East Asian Cultures".  I wish that more of my college profs had been as enlightening and well presented as what we heard!  WOW!  I believe that she could have gone on for another hour and had us all enthralled.
               
               
               
               
              How Chinese Religions/Philosophies Have Influenced Chinese and East Asian Cultures 2017-08-08 08:00:00Z 0

              Presidential Conference on Environmental Sustainability and Peace

               

              I wanted to bring to your attention a great Rotary opportunity to participate in the Presidential Conference on Environmental Sustainability and Peace in Vancouver, BC, Canada on Friday-Sunday, February 9-11, 2018.

               

              This is the first of six Peacebuilding Conferences to be offered during 2017-18 RI President Ian Risely's year.  Environmental Sustainability is a major focus of his year.

               

              You can learn more by going to:  www.environmentandpeace.com

               

              Here you can find information on speakers, program, conference registration, banquet and extra social tickets, sponsorship and display tables.

               

              There is also a Facebook page at Presidential Peacebuilding Conference BC 2018.

               

              There is a YouTube entry at:  https://you.tu.be/1-Fu8D55mYE

               

              You may register by going to:  https://portal.clubrunner.ca/50004/Stories/presidential-conference

               

              I've been asked by Rotary VP Dean Rohrs to promote this opportunity and to track and coordinate participants who have interest in attending.

               

              Vancouver, BC is a beautiful city, and I hope you will plan to join me in attending this opportunity in our backyard (Alaska and Yukon).

               

              Please feel free to reach me with any questions at 907-460-7786 or alayral.1920@gmail.com

               

              Sincerely,

               

              Andre' Layral

              D5010 DGN 2019-2020

              Presidential Conference on Environmental Sustainability and Peace 2017-08-08 08:00:00Z 0

              Cassidy is Getting Ready to Go!

              Our Outbound Rotary Exchange Student, Cassidy, spoke to us about the country she expects to visit, Slovakia, for the next school year. She also spoke of her family, and what she hopes to do and to learn while overseas.  For those of you who were unable to attend, you missed a really good presentation.  It looks like Cassidy will be an excellent ambassador for us.
               
               
              Cassidy is Getting Ready to Go! 2017-08-08 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary International President for 2019-2020 Selected

              Mark Daniel Maloney selected to be 2019-20 Rotary president

              Mark Daniel Maloney

               

              Mark Daniel Maloney, of the Rotary Club of Decatur, Alabama, USA, is the selection of the Nominating Committee for President of Rotary International for 2019-20. He will be declared the president-nominee on 1 October if no challenging candidates have been suggested.

              “The clubs are where Rotary happens,” says Maloney, an attorney. He aims to support and strengthen clubs at the community level, preserve Rotary’s culture as a service-oriented membership organization, and test new regional approaches for growth.

              “With the eradication of polio, recognition for Rotary will be great and the opportunities will be many,” he says. “We have the potential to become the global powerhouse for doing good.”

              Maloney is a principal in the law firm of Blackburn, Maloney, and Schuppert LLC, with a focus on taxation, estate planning, and agricultural law. He represents large farming operations in the Southeastern and Midwestern United States, and has chaired the American Bar Association’s Committee on Agriculture in the section of taxation. He is a member of the American Bar Association, Alabama State Bar Association, and the Alabama Law Institute.

              He has been active in Decatur’s religious community, chairing his church’s finance council and a local Catholic school board. He has also served as president of the Community Foundation of Greater Decatur, chair of Morgan County Meals on Wheels, and director of the United Way of Morgan County and the Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce.

              A Rotarian since 1980, Maloney has served as an RI director; trustee and vice chair of The Rotary Foundation; president’s aide; zone coordinator; and a leader on the Future Vision and 2014 Sydney Convention Committees. He serves on the Operations Review Committee and has served on the Rotary Peace Centers Committee. He has received the Rotary Foundation Citation for Meritorious Service and Distinguished Service Award. Maloney and his wife, Gay, are Paul Harris Fellows, Major Donors, and Bequest Society members.

              The members of the 2017-18 Nominating Committee for President of Rotary International are Ann-Britt Åsebol, Rotary Club of Falun-Kopparvågen, Sweden; Örsçelik Balkan, Rotary Club of Istanbul-Karaköy, Turkey; James Anthony Black, Rotary Club of Dunoon, Argyll, Scotland; John T. Blount, Rotary Club of Sebastopol, California, USA; Frank N. Goldberg, Rotary Club of Omaha-Suburban, Nebraska, USA; Antonio Hallage, Rotary Club of Curitiba-Leste, Paraná, Brazil; Jackson S.L. Hsieh, Rotary Club of Taipei Sunrise, Taiwan; Holger Knaack, Rotary Club of Herzogtum Lauenburg-Mölln, Germany; Masahiro Kuroda, Rotary Club of Hachinohe South, Aomori, Japan; Larry A. Lunsford, Rotary Club of Kansas City-Plaza, Missouri, USA; Anne L. Matthews (chair), Rotary Club of Columbia East, South Carolina, USA; P.T. Prabhakar, Rotary Club of Madras Central, Tamil Nadu, India; M.K. Panduranga Setty, Rotary Club of Bangalore, Karnataka, India; Andy Smallwood, Rotary Club of Gulfway-Hobby Airport (Houston), Texas, USA; Norbert Turco, Rotary Club of Ajaccio, Corse, France; Yoshimasa Watanabe, Rotary Club of Kojima, Okayama, Japan; and Sangkoo Yun, Rotary Club of Sae Hanyang, Seoul, Korea.

              Rotary International President for 2019-2020 Selected 2017-08-07 08:00:00Z 0

              It Takes a Community

              Rotary Community Corps lets local volunteers tap into our organization’s network

              By Illustrations by

              Mobilizing more than 200,000 volunteers across 92 countries, the Rotary Community Corps expands Rotary’s reach by bringing the knowledge and talents of local people to projects in their communities. 

              Sponsored by a local club, corps members are not Rotarians but can tap into the Rotary network. 

              Conceived as the Rotary Village Corps during the term of RI President M.A.T. Caparas in the late 1980s, the Rotary Community Corps (RCC) was initially viewed as a program for the developing world. 

              Even today, most of the 9,400 RCCs are concentrated in India, followed by the Philippines and Africa. About 60 are sponsored by clubs in the United States; Canada hosts four. Every community corps differs in size and scope. Meet four of them.

              It Takes a Community 2017-08-07 08:00:00Z 0

              $1.3 Billion Pledge to End Polio

              At the Rotary International Convention, global leaders and key donors affirm their commitment to ending polio

              By

              With polio on the brink of eradication, nations from around the world and key donors pledged more than $1 billion on Monday to energize the global fight to end the paralyzing disease.

              View Slideshow

              Bill Gates, co-chair of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and RI President John Germ share the recent news about their partnership in the fight to eradicate polio.

               

               

              $1.3 Billion Pledge to End Polio 2017-08-07 08:00:00Z 0

              Your Unconcious Can Yield Unexpected Powers

              Column: Your unconscious can yield unexpected powers

              By

              I’ve spent the past two decades teaching aspiring writers. One oddity I’ve noticed is that students write best when they are the least “conscious” of actually writing.

              That is: When I ask students to write informally for a short time, they often produce work that is far more candid and compelling than a story they might have slaved over for months.

              Illustration by Dave Cutler

               

              The reason for this, in my view, is that our conscious minds tend to overthink decisions. We get caught up in self-doubt, or trying to impress, and we stop focusing on the story we want to tell. But it is our unconscious – the part of our minds we can’t control and that we therefore don’t judge – that makes the best decisions.

              I know this to be true in the realm of creativity. But recently, I’ve been pondering the broader and more ambivalent role that the unconscious plays in our lives. 

              I realize that term – the unconscious – can sound a bit daunting. Sigmund Freud is widely credited with introducing the concept of the unconscious, which people sometimes call the subconscious. All he meant is that there is a part of the mind that exists beneath our conscious recognition. This region serves as a repository for our forbidden desires, our taboo ideas, our painful memories and unbearable feelings.

              Freud’s colleague Carl Jung expanded on this by observing that the conscious mind can accommodate only so much data and that the unconscious was designed, in part, as backup storage for our knowledge and experience.

              Our minds might be viewed, therefore, as neurological icebergs, with our conscious thoughts representing only a small percentage of all that we think and feel.

              And because most of us move through our lives like hopeful little Titanics, we don’t realize that much of what controls our habits of thought and behavior lurks below the surface. No matter how hard we try to steer clear of the icebergs we can see, we wind up crashing into them over and over.

              In other words, what you don’t know can hurt you.

              Our minds might be viewed as neurological icebergs, with our conscious thoughts representing only a small percentage of all that we think and feel.

              Let me offer a rather painful personal example. I want to write a great novel. Actually, “great” is an overstatement. At this point, I’d settle for a “good” novel. Or even “a novel that does not put my wife to sleep.” 

              So far, I’ve started six separate projects. In each case, I reach a point where I feel overwhelmed by the task. There are too many plotlines, too many characters, no unifying theme. I lose faith and give up – or I soldier on, slogging through a draft that feels lifeless and doomed. 

              Consciously, I know I’m equipped to write a decent novel. But something is holding me back.

              The same pattern obtains during my weekly squash games against my friend Zach. 

              Zach and I used to be pretty evenly matched. But for the past year, whenever I’ve gotten within a few points of winning a game, I start to rush and mis-hit the ball. 

              It’s at the point where the pattern feels so ingrained that I automatically lose concentration and fall apart. Zach says I  “fall out of the moment. ” But as sports psychologists have emphasized, “choking” often begins when a conscious anxiety about blowing it becomes an unconscious conviction.

              The best response, the sports psychologists insist, is to turn down the pressure. 

              I know they’re right. The only times I’ve beaten Zach this past year have been on those mornings when I’m exhausted, getting sick, or hobbling around with a sore back.

              Why do I win these matches? Because I come into them convinced that there’s no chance I’ll win, which eliminates the pressure. 

              This is why my wife – wise woman that she is – often tells me that I’ll write that great novel just as soon as I stop pushing myself to do so.

              There are, of course, plenty of ways in which this principle applies. Consider the case of the lost keys. If you’re me, this is something you consider on an almost daily basis: I am an inveterate loser of my keys, as well as my phone and my wallet.

              The harder I look for my keys, the more elusive they become. So I’ve taken to playing a little trick on myself: I stop looking.

              And yes, it works. If you can redirect your conscious mind from the task of hunting, your unconscious tends to offer up the answer. (Pssst. Hey, dummy. Why don’t you check on the dryer downstairs where, for some reason, you left them last night?)

              If my experience is any indication, we are losing our keys more and more. This is happening because we’re trying to store too much information in our conscious minds. It doesn’t help that most of us are carrying around powerful little distraction devices – smartphones, I mean – which further divide our attention. 

              But this pattern of information overload doesn’t affect only our conscious minds. Our unconscious minds are also overrun by meaningless data: I have no problem recalling exactly how many points my favorite basketball player scored in his last six games. 

              There is one population that loves to celebrate the “power of the unconscious” – self-help authors. They are continually arguing that people can train themselves to become successful through techniques such as affirmations and auto-suggestion, which implant positive messages in our unconscious minds and magically guide us toward success.

              The late college basketball coach Jim Valvano used to ask his players to devote one entire practice each year to rehearsing precisely how they would celebrate when they won the NCAA championship. He believed that consciously sending the message that they were destined to win would seep into the subconscious and guide them.

              And in 1983, his North Carolina State University team did go on an unprecedented run. But people tend to forget that the Wolfpack won that championship because players on opposing teams missed crucial free throws in the final seconds of several games.

              I don’t mean to be a buzzkill. But researchers haven’t found much basis for these claims. Folks tend to point to examples such as Valvano’s championship run while overlooking all those teams that used similar techniques and still lost.

              I am a believer in the power of the unconscious as a creative tool. But my experience suggests that we often perceive the power of the unconscious in the wrong way. 

              A lot of the anguish we suffer in life arises from repressing feelings that we need to bring into the light. 

              For many years, my wife has wanted to remove an especially ugly rug from our oldest daughter’s room. Josie has stubbornly resisted these efforts.

              The other day, my wife took matters into her own hands and removed the rug. Josie, who is 11 years old and starting to feel the emotional upheaval of adolescence, had a total meltdown.

              I was out of the house when all this went down, but I returned to find Josie red-eyed and despondent. She told me what happened, working herself into a crying jag all over again. She pointed out that if she was old enough to baby-sit her little sister, she was old enough to make her own decisions about the décor in her room.

              So it seemed like a control issue. But then Josie admitted that my wife hadn’t banished her old rug for good. She had merely asked that Josie give another rug a trial run.

              I asked Josie why her old rug was so important to her. She thought for a moment, then said it was because it was a reminder of her childhood. 

              Something clicked for me in that moment. Her loyalty to that ugly rug wasn’t just sentimental. In her unconscious mind, holding on to that rug was a way of holding on to a childhood that she knew was fading away. I gently suggested this to Josie. 

              “Yeah,” she said. “That’s how it feels, like I don’t get to be a kid anymore. Maybe I’m kind of putting some of that on the rug.”

              Something about identifying an unconscious fear allowed her to stop crying and calm down. And she eventually wrote her mother an incredibly eloquent letter explaining why the rug was so important to her, which nearly brought my wife to tears.

              Perhaps that’s the ultimate power of the unconscious: our willingness to recognize that it’s not simply a tool we can sharpen and wield, like a knife. It’s a reminder that we’re most effective when we have the courage, and trust, to look beneath the surface of our lives. 

              • Steve Almond is a regular contributor to The Rotarian and the author of books including "Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto

               
              Your Unconcious Can Yield Unexpected Powers 2017-08-03 08:00:00Z 0

              Profile: Software, Hard Work

              Profile: Software, hard work

              Al Kalter, Rotary Club of Mandarin, Florida, USA

              Al Kalter is a passionate believer in the Rotary Youth Exchange program. He was the Youth Exchange chairman for Rotary District 7150 in New York, and when he later relocated to Jacksonville, Florida, USA, for a new job, he started a program there. 

               

              Al Kalter 

              Photo by Edward Linsmier

              But as the paperwork started to stack up, “I decided I needed to combine my vocation with my avocation,” says Kalter, vice president and programmer analyst for APPX Software Inc. The result was the creation of a database management system that now performs virtually all of the functions needed to manage the Youth Exchange program. 

              “Our software significantly reduces the time that Youth Exchange volunteers need to spend on clerical, technical, and organizational efforts,” Kalter says. 

              The software makes it easier for Youth Exchange teams to access information, file required reports with the U.S. State Department, check flight schedules, make host family changes, and perform many other functions. 

              The tool, known as Rotary YEAH! (Youth Exchange Administration Hub), caught the attention of other districts and is supporting Youth Exchange programs in 132 districts. Kalter and APPX donated the time for development of the system – by some estimates, a value of $250,000 to $500,000. 

              “It’s been amazing to me to see how it’s taken off,” he says. “It’s a really big application, and people are really happy about it.”

              – Nikki Kallio

              Profile: Software, Hard Work 2017-08-03 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary International Travel and Hosting Foundation is Alive and Well in Homer

              From: Clyde Boyer and Vivian Finlay
              Date: Tue, Aug 1, 2017 at 11:00 AM
              Subject: ITHF connection for newsletter
               
              Dear Kimberly,
              We are members of ITHF living in Homer, Alaska, USA.  We have not had the privilege of hosting ITHFers in Homer.  
              We moved here 7 1/2 years ago having lived in Wasilla - almost 300 miles north of Homer.  We had many ITHFers in Wasilla who we hosted, and have traveled extensively internationally staying with ITHF hosts.
              However, during the last few days we had our first ITHF guests in Homer!  
              Pam Pine, and her husband Rick, visited us from Colorado.  They were in Homer to pick up crutches and walkers for a "Crutches for Africa" project for which Pam is helping.  Pam's Rotary club is in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.  In Homer, the Hospice organization had dozens of stored crutches that were not needed.  The Director of the Hospice of Homer researched places that would accept donations of the crutches and connected with the Crutches for Africa project.  (see:  http://www.crutches4africa.org)  
              Because Pam and Rick were traveling in Alaska, they were willing give their time, and space in their camper/truck, to transport the crutches to Tacoma, Washington, where they will be included in the container shipment that will go to Africa when it is full.  
               
              Yesterday, July 31, 2017, Rotarians from the Homer-Kachemak Bay Club helped sort, wrap and load the crutches into Pam and Rick's truck.  I attach a photo showing Rotarians at work!
               
              On Saturday, July 29, many local Rotarians and Pam and Rick, took a boat trip to Halibut Cove, across Kachemak Bay from Homer, and attended a welcoming dinner for Rotary International Vice President, Dean Rohrs, who visited Homer with two of her cousins from South Africa.  I attach a photo of Rick, Pam, Vivian and Clyde on the boat that took us to the dinner event.
               
              ITHF contributes to very interesting and wonderful experiences and projects!
              I do hope both Pam and I will qualify for a year's extension on our memberships with ITHF!
              Thank you.
               
              Sincerely,
              Vivian Finlay, and Clyde Boyer (husband)
               
              Rick, Pam, Vivian, and Clyde Enroute to Halibut Cove, Alaska
               
              Loading Crutches, etc. into Rick and Pam's Truck at Hospice of Homer in Homer, Alaska
               
              Rotary International Travel and Hosting Foundation is Alive and Well in Homer 2017-08-03 08:00:00Z 0

              Crutches4Africa

              One of the things that is so great about Rotary is the way that things seemingly just accidently come together to help people all over the world!  It seems as though our local Hospice of Homer had a surplus of crutches, and a lack of storage space.  Rather than throw them away, the Director of Hospice searched for an organization that could make use of them, and found Crutches4Africa, based in Colorado, who would love to have them!  Glenwood Springs, CO Rotarian Pam Pine and her husband, Rick, were planning a trip to Alaska in their pickup truck, and volunteered to pick them up in Homer, AK and transport them to Tacoma, WA for consolidation prior to being shipped to Africa.  Pam and Rick are members of the Rotary International Travel and Hosting Foundation, so they contacted local Rotarians Vivian Finlay and Clyde Boyer (also members of the ITHF) about possible hosting and, perhaps, some assistance.  The WORD went out.
               
              Monday July 31 at 0800 16 Rotarians met with the Hospice staff to sort, pack, and load 85 pairs of crutches, 10 walkers, and 6 mobility boots into Pam and Rick's pickup truck.  Before 0930 we were done, proof positive that many hands make for light work!
               
              Meeting the Crutches
               
              Sorting and Pairing
               
              Wire Ties and Plastic Wrap to Hold the Crutches Together
               
              Most of the "Crew" and many of the Crutches
               
              Pam Stuffing the Back Seat
               
              Loading the Back of the Truck
               
              Rebecca Stuffing the Last of the Crutches In
               
              Pam Securing the Load
               
              Pam, Rick, and Jessica (Director of Hospice of Homer)
               
              Crutches4Africa 2017-08-02 08:00:00Z 0

              Homer Rotarians Meet With RI Vice President, Dean Rohrs

              Saturday July 29th and Sunday July 30th, 2017 Homer Rotarians had the wonderful opportunity to meet, greet, and dine with Rotary International Vice-President, Dean Rohrs, and it was a WONDERFUL opportunity!  I wasn't able to take part in Sunday's breakfast festivities, but was able to attend the Saturday gathering.  WOW!!  About 35 Rotarians and guests traveled by boat to the Cove Country Cabins in Halibut Cove, Alaska to meet up with Dean and her cousins,  who were on a trip to see Alaska.  They had been "seeing the sights" in Homer and the Center for Alaska Coastal Studies in Petersen Bay, then headed over to Halibut Cove to meet up with us.
               
              Tammy and Carl Jones of Cove Country Cabins and their crew put on a fantastic spread for us, with Root Beer Pulled Pork (Incredibly Good!), spare ribs, chicken, vegetarian lasagna (fantastic!), salads, side dishes, and Dessert!  To make is short...the scenery was spectacular...the food...incredible!
               
              Dean was kind enough to introduce her cousins (from South Africa) to us, and to speak about Rotary and what is happening in the Rotary World.  
               
              Thank you so much, Dean!
               
              Looking North in Halibut Cove Toward Cove Country Cabins
              Dock, Ramp, and Walkway at Cove Country Cabins
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Lodge and Dining Room at Cove Country Cabins in Halibut Cove, Alaska
               
              Headed Back to Homer
              Homer Rotarians Meet With RI Vice President, Dean Rohrs 2017-08-02 08:00:00Z 0

              Building Peace at Every Level

              Rotary peace fellow applies lessons to life in Bogotá

              As a child in Bogotá, Colombia, Lucas Peña was shocked to learn that violence between government forces and insurgent groups prevented his family from visiting relatives elsewhere in the country. 

              Years later in college, he studied the conflict from what he calls an “academic, analytical point of view.” 

              Only after graduating and joining the effort to demobilize ex-combatants did he really begin to understand the issues behind the violence that has plagued the nation for decades. (In February, members of the country’s largest insurgent group began surrendering their weapons as part of a peace deal with the government.)

              Lucas Peña

              Illustration by Monica Garwood

              Thanks to the Rotary Peace Fellowship, Peña earned his master’s degree in conflict, security, and development at the University of Bradford in Bradford, England, in 2015.

              He now works for the World Wildlife Fund as a specialist in land governance. A member of the Bogotá Capital Rotary Club, Peña encourages other Colombians to become peace fellows. And it’s working: Five peace fellows were selected from Colombia for 2017.

              Q: After college, you began working with the Organization of American States Mission to Support the Peace Process in Colombia, helping monitor the demobilization process of right-wing groups. What did that process entail, and what was your role in it?

              A: At that time, the paramilitaries were laying down their guns, demobilizing their combatants, and participating in judicial processes. This was in exchange for spending only five to eight years in jail. As part of the demobilization process, the government had to issue identification to the ex-combatants, because without identification, they couldn’t re-integrate into society. The government provided them with health insurance and education, too. 

              What I did was report on their security conditions and the re-integration process of the ex-combatants. I did that by talking to people – local government officials, military, police officers, victims.

              Q: How does your current work at the World Wildlife Fund pertain to peace?

              A: We are working toward a policy for the provision of land to peasants who live in natural parks in Colombia. The peasants’ lack of land is what made them go to the national parks and live there illegally. There’s plenty of land in Colombia, but the good stuff is already owned; less than 1 percent of the population owns more than half of Colombia’s best land.

              We expect the public-policy response will include the provision of land, but it also has to ensure that the peasants will be given productive land, as well as the means of making that land productive. Solving this problem is part of the peace accord that the Colombian government has reached with FARC [the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia], the biggest guerrilla group. 

              Q: What did you learn from your time as a Rotary Peace Fellow?

              A: Peacebuilding is not only a matter of local communities, not only a matter of national government, and not only a matter of the international community; it’s a mix of all those levels. Another thing I learned is that the world itself is getting safer, in that the number of people killed in conflicts has decreased proportionate to the population. It’s a very long and slow process, but the world is becoming more secure.  

              –Anne Ford

              Building Peace at Every Level 2017-07-25 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary  Remembers Sam Owari

              Rotary remembers Sam Owori for his ‘quiet confidence,’ integrity, and friendship 

              The Rotary flags in front of Rotary International World Headquarters in Evanston, Illinois, USA, and Rotary offices around the world fly at half-staff this week as friends and colleagues mourn President-elect Sam F. Owori, who died on 13 July from complications after surgery. 

              With an engaging smile and a calming voice, Sam put everyone he talked to at ease, says Hilda Tadria , a member of the Rotary Club of Gaba, Uganda, and a close friend of Sam and his wife, Norah. 

              Sam F. Owori, Rotary's president-elect, was always optimistic and brought an unyielding sense of right and wrong to his work. Owori died 13 July.

              Monika Lozinska/Rotary International

              “I call it the ‘Sam Smile,’” says Tadria. “It made him very approachable and easy to talk to. I think his smile is one of the things Rotary and his friends will miss most.”

              Sam, who had been elected to serve as president of Rotary International in 2018-19, would have been the second African Rotary member, and the first Ugandan, to hold that office. He joined Rotary in 1978 and was a member of the Rotary Club of Kampala, Uganda.

              “No matter the situation, Sam was always upbeat, always joking around and putting everyone else in a good mood,” says Tadria.

              One of the admirable things about Sam, Tadria says, was his love and devotion to his wife. They met in primary school in Tororo, Uganda. Sam described Norah Owori as beautiful, well-educated, and full of character. 

              “He adored Norah and always put her first.” Tadria says. “They were best friends and partners for life. It was very sweet to see them together. They never left each other’s side.”

              Sam was highly respected in Uganda, Tadria says, for his high integrity and consistent ethical standards. Those qualities, she says, are important in a Rotary president. “He was a man everyone could trust.” 

              She adds, “He preferred listening to speaking. It’s one reason he was so well-liked.” 

              The road to president-elect

              Like many members, Sam was invited to Rotary by a persistent friend. “I did not want to go,” he cheerfully acknowledged years later. “I had no interest. But I had respect for my friend, so I went. And when I got there, I was in shock. The room was full of people I knew.” 

              The more Sam saw of Rotary’s good work, the more enthusiastic he became. He is largely credited with the tremendous increase in clubs in Uganda: from nine in 1988, when he was district governor, to 89 today. His friends called his enthusiasm “the Owori madness” — to which he mildly replied, “If it is madness, I would be glad if more people would catch it.”

              Sam described himself as “an incorrigible optimist” who chose to see the best side of everyone and the bright side of any situation. Gentle in manner, unfailingly modest, and quick to smile, Sam is remembered as “Smiling Sam,” says RI President Ian Riseley. 

              John Smarge, who was selected by Sam to be his presidential aide, called Sam a “rock star” among Rotary members. “In just the two weeks he was president-elect, you could see how much he was loved,” Smarge says. “The Rotarians in Uganda view him as a national treasure.”

              Smarge adds, “He spoke with quiet confidence and simple complexity.” 

              Sam brought an unyielding sense of right and wrong to his work as chief executive officer of the Institute of Corporate Governance of Uganda, to his previous work with the African Development Bank and other institutions, and to his work with Rotary. 

              Sam, who was one of 15 children, attributed his deep ethical sense to his upbringing, and particularly his father, who had been a school principal and then a county chief in Uganda. “He was a very strict disciplinarian,” Sam remembered, “and when he became chief, he ran that county like a big school — with a ruler. He insisted that everything was done the right way.” 

              Sam and his wife, Norah, traveled the world together.

              Monika Lozinska/Rotary International

              Sam’s Rotary career spanned some of Uganda’s most difficult years, including the dictatorship of Idi Amin, who was deeply suspicious of Rotary and often sent agents to spy on Rotary meetings. “Sometimes people came as guests, and you wouldn’t know exactly where they were coming from or who invited them,” Sam said later. “We always welcomed them. We had nothing to hide.”

              Prominent Ugandan Rotary members, including Sam’s own manager at the bank where he worked, were picked off the streets by Amin’s forces and killed. Many Rotary clubs closed and most members withdrew: from a high of 220 members, Rotary membership dropped to around 20. 

              One day, Sam recalled, a member was taken right in front of Sam’s club. “We had just finished our meeting and were standing in front of the entrance of the hotel. He got picked up right there in front of us. Two guys threw him in the truck of a car and we never saw him again.”

              Undeterred, Sam was back at his meeting the next week.  

              An avid learner, Sam held a graduate degree in labor law from the University of Leicester, England; a business management degree from California Coast University; and a management graduate degree from Harvard Business School. 

              He served Rotary in many capacities, including RI director, trustee of The Rotary Foundation, regional Rotary Foundation coordinator, regional RI membership coordinator, and RI representative to the United Nations Environment Program and UN-Habitat. He was a member or chair of several committees, including the International PolioPlus Committee, the Drug Abuse Prevention Task Force, and the Audit Committee. 

              Sam and Norah became Paul Harris Fellows, Major Donors, and Benefactors of The Rotary Foundation.  

              Sam is survived by his wife, Norah; three sons, Adrin Stephen, Bonny Patrick, and Daniel Timothy; and grandchildren Kaitlyn, Sam, and Adam. Condolences can be addressed to Mrs. Norah Agnes Owori, c/o Institute of Corporate Governance of Uganda, Crusader House, Plot 3 Portal Avenue, Kampala, Uganda or via sam.owori@rotary.org

              Memorial contributions in honor of Sam can be directed to the Sam F. Owori Memorial to Polio

              Rotary’s 2017-18 nominating committee will select a new president-elect, in addition to the president-nominee, during its scheduled meeting in early August. 

              “Optimism is what brings us to Rotary. But Rotary is not a place for those who are only dreamers. It is a place for those with the ability, the capacity, and the compassion for fruitful service.”

              Sam F. Owori, 1941-2017

               

              Rotary  Remembers Sam Owari 2017-07-25 08:00:00Z 0

              Going Away Picnic for Louise

              Rotarians met to see Louise one more time, thank her for being such a wonderful exchange student and wish her will on her travels and transition back home.  The picnic was originally scheduled to be held at the Karen Hornaday Park, but cold weather and strong winds made our "Party Fairies" reconsider and the picnic was shifted to Susie Quinn's house.  About 25 Rotarians came to say goodbye to Louise and celebrate her time with us.
               
               
               
              Bon Voyage, Louise!
              Going Away Picnic for Louise 2017-07-25 08:00:00Z 0

              An Opportunity to Help!

              Hospice of Homer is donating 70 pairs of crutches, 10 walkers & 5 medical boots to the Crutches4Africa project and Pam Pine, a fellow Rotarian who is helping with this project, will be in Homer to pick them up this week/early next week.  She is hoping to get a few Rotarians to help her with sorting, pairing, packaging and loading these into her truck so she can transport them to the lower 48 and get them ready to ship.  She is hoping to load on Monday or Tuesday of next week (July 31 or Aug 1).

               

              Please let me know if you can spare an hour or two to help with this project - many hands make light work!

               

              Pam will be at our meeting on Thursday and will tell us a little more about the project and will have a more details.

               

              Here's a little more info on the project: http://www.crutches4africa.org/

               

              Hope you can help!

               

              Beth

              An Opportunity to Help! 2017-07-25 08:00:00Z 0
              Video Clip from the 2017 Rotary International Convention in Atlanta 2017-07-18 08:00:00Z 0

              Some Announcements From Our President

              The monthly board meeting will continue to be held the last Tuesday of the month throughout the year.  The next board meeting is Tuesday July 25th at 5:15 at the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies Building.  All are welcome.

              Mark your calendar for Saturday July 29th for an opportunity to have dinner with Dean Rohrs, Vice President of Rotary International, in Halibut Cove.  Boats are being arranged and time to be determined - but expect a $35 dinner expense which includes a delicious menu and great company.  Please let Beth Trowbridge know if you would like to attend.  There will also be a breakfast at Land's End on Sunday July 30th for those of you not able to make it on Saturday night!

              2017-18 District Theme: Be Humble, Be Kind, Take Action

              Be inspired by Tim McGraw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awzNHuGqoMc) think about the ways our club already does this and ways we can have an even greater impact in our community while staying humble & kind!

              Thanks!

              Beth

              Some Announcements From Our President 2017-07-18 08:00:00Z 0

              Interactor From Brazil Combats a Deadly Online Game

              Interactor from Brazil combats a deadly online game 

              White Whale designed to promote peace and self-esteem

              Horrified by stories about an online suicide game called Blue Whale, Gabriel Kenji of Brazil decided to create a game to counter the dangerous online trend, and hopefully, save lives. 

              The Blue Whale Challenge is a chilling suicide game allegedly run by a social media group. The game preys on vulnerable adolescents and teenagers, who are instructed to complete a set of challenges over a 50-day period. The tasks begin harmlessly but become increasingly more dangerous, including self-punishing, and end with the teenager being urged to take their own life. 

              Interactor Gabriel Kenji from Brazil is combating the deadly "Blue Whale" game with "White Whale," a social media project that promotes peace and self-esteem. 

               

              “When I first heard about the horrific game, I thought it was a problem far away from Brazil,” says Kenji, a member of the Interact Club of Pinhais, Parana, Brazil. “Once it reached my country I realized this type of evil can be anywhere. I had to do something to alert others about the seriousness of the problem.”

              The game may have originated in Russia where more than 130 suicides have been allegedly linked to the game. The online trend has caused significant concern in Western Europe and South America, particularly in Brazil, where alleged suicide attempts from the game have cropped up in at least eight states. At least two suicide cases in the U.S. have been linked to the online fad. The title is said to refer to blue whales that beach themselves purposefully to die. 

              While no one can prove the existence of the game or identify who is behind these suicidal challenges, what is clear is that young people are ending their lives and documenting it on social media. 

              So Kenji decided to do something about it. He devised a social media game that he named White Whale to help boost self-esteem, self-worth, and peaceful interactions among young people. 

              Challenges include forgiving yourself for mistakes, exercising daily, discovering new facts about people in your life, participating in volunteer activities, and posting positive messages on social media. 

              We want to show young people that they can make small changes to change the direction of their lives.


              Interact Club of Pinhais, Parana, Brazil

              White Whale is a way for teenagers, who may be vulnerable to the suicide game, to engage in positive activities and feel valued, says Kenji. He chose the name White Whale because he says the color white signifies peace, purity, and clarity. 

              “We want to show young people that they can make small changes to change the direction of their lives,” says Kenji, who will enter college this year to study dentistry. “There is another path for teenagers to take that is far removed from an action like taking their own lives.”

              Fellow Interactors and local Rotaract club members are helping to spread the word about White Whale by passing out brochures and information at bus and train stops, busy intersections, and to friends and family. They also helped Kenji create some of the game’s challenges. “I’m so grateful that my club and others people in the Rotary family are taking a small idea and making it big,” he says. 

              According to Kenji, about 4,000 people have shared the White Whale’s Facebook page with a reach of nearly 30,000. 

              Kenji says he’s already seen tangible results from the game among his own friends. “I’ve had friends tell me that the game is giving them the courage to reconcile broken friendships. It’s great to see. I hope this is just a start.” 

               

              Interactor From Brazil Combats a Deadly Online Game 2017-07-18 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary President-Elect Sam F. Owari Dies

              Rotary President-elect Sam F. Owori dies

              Rotary International President-elect Sam F. Owori died unexpectedly on 13 July due to complications from surgery. Sam was a member of the Rotary Club Kampala, Uganda, for 38 years.

              Rotary President-elect Sam F. Owori died Thursday, 13 July.

               

              “Rotary has become a way of life for me – with the intrinsic value and core belief in mutual responsibility and concern for one another as a cornerstone,” Sam said when he was nominated last year. “I feel immense satisfaction knowing that through Rotary, I’ve helped someone live better.”

              Sam's term as Rotary’s 108th president would have begun on 1 July 2018.

              “Please remember Sam as the outstanding, hardworking Rotarian he was,” said Rotary International President Ian Riseley. “In this difficult time, I ask you to keep his wife, Norah, the Owori family, and Sam’s millions of friends around the world in your thoughts.”

              Under Sam's leadership, the number of clubs in Uganda swelled from nine to 89 over the course of 29 years. 

              Sam saw in Rotary members "an incredible passion to make a difference," and wanted to "harness that enthusiasm and pride so that every project becomes the engine of peace and prosperity."

              Sam was the chief executive officer of the Institute of Corporate Governance of Uganda, whose mission is to promote excellence in corporate governance principles and practice in the region by 2020. Previously, he was executive director of the African Development Bank, managing director of Uganda Commercial Bank Ltd., and director of Uganda Development Bank.  He has also served as corporate secretary of the Central Bank of Uganda.

              He served as member and chair of several boards including FAULU (U) Ltd., (now Opportunity Bank), the Uganda Heart Institute, the Centre for African Family Studies, Mulago Hospital Complex, Mukono Theological College, and the Kampala City Council.

              Sam also was the vice chair of Hospice Africa Uganda, and board member and chair of the Audit Committee of PACE (Programme for Accessible Health, Communication, and Education) in Uganda.

              “Sam was a special person in so many ways, and his unexpected death is a huge loss to Rotary, his community, and the world,” Riseley said. “We are establishing details on plans to celebrate his life as they become available.” 

              Rotary is establishing a memorial fund in Sam's honor and will provide details soon.    

              Rotary President-Elect Sam F. Owari Dies 2017-07-18 08:00:00Z 0

              Why Good Intentions Aren't Enough

              Rotary member and author Marilyn Fitzgerald stresses the importance of community involvement for sustainable service projects.

              Rotary members, volunteers, and donors are usually excited to talk about successful projects. Marilyn Fitzgerald, a member of the Rotary Club of Traverse City, Michigan, USA, draws inspiration from a far less popular topic: failure.

              A clinical psychologist and author, Fitzgerald has spent years studying economic development projects in poor countries, where well-intentioned efforts to improve lives sometimes backfire. Now she travels the world to consult on projects and speak to Rotary clubs about sustainability and lessons from her fieldwork. We caught up with her at One Rotary Center, where she had addressed Rotary staff.

              It’s about getting away from the charity model, where we give things away, and getting into the opportunity model, where we empower people to carve their own paths out of poverty.

              Q: How did you come to focus on sustainability in projects?

              A: Looking back on international projects I’ve been involved with, I realized that they often created a dependency on the Rotarians, outsiders coming into a community with money and good intentions. I asked myself why projects no longer existed, why the people we wanted to help weren’t carrying on like we planned. I started to realize that those people were not included in project planning, and that’s not sustainable.

              What does it take for people to sustain a project themselves, and go on without our help? It’s about getting away from the charity model, where we give things away, and getting into the opportunity model, where we empower people to carve their own paths out of poverty.

              Q: How does that work?

              A: I work with microloan programs that provide entrepreneurs with capital to start or invest in a business, and the programs I work with always incorporate an educational component. People sometimes don’t know how to count or even the cost of the goods they’re selling. They can get themselves into terrible financial trouble.

              It’s amazing to watch in the field: You teach financial literacy, and the people that will listen and learn are the youth and the mothers and grandmothers, the core of the community. In the past we’ve given loans mostly to men and learned when we give a loan to a man, he gets some money, develops a business, and often leaves his family. Women tend to take better care of the money and share their skills with the community.

              Q: How do we define sustainability with respect to humanitarian work? 

              A: There are two main areas of humanitarian aid. One is relief aid, and we don’t expect for that to be sustainable; we expect to take people out of dire straits and help them get back on their feet. Development aid has to do with people being able to do something for themselves, so they’re not dependent on us. It’s a simple litmus test: What will happen to these people if you walk away today?

              I was involved in a scholarship program in Indonesia where I was raising $72,000 a year for 1,200 kids to go to school. I didn’t think too much about what would happen if I didn’t show up [with the money] one year, because I planned to keep showing up. You know who thought about it? 

              The mothers and the children — every year they worried if I was going to be there or not. That wasn’t a sustainable source of income for tuition and we had to change our approach. Income from livestock eventually helped that community become more self-sufficient.

              Does what you’re offering matter to them? If not, you have to go back to the drawing board and come up with something that will matter.

              Q: What steps can Rotary clubs take to make their projects more sustainable?

              A: The first step is to involve the community you want to help; talk to the people who live there about their priorities.

              In Guatemala, I worked with women who lived and worked on a city dump. A group of Rotarians came in with the goal of providing shelter for these women and their children. But the houses they built were four miles from the dump, and it wasn’t practical for the women to stay there during the workweek.

              One woman later told me she had never asked for a house, that she was used to living outside, and what she really wanted was an education for her children. Do you know how much cheaper that would have been than building houses?

              As Westerners, we often think we know the answers, we know people need clean water. What we forget to ask is whether they think they need clean water. Does what you’re offering matter to them? If not, you have to go back to the drawing board and come up with something that will matter.

               

              Why Good Intentions Aren't Enough 2017-07-13 08:00:00Z 0

              Senator Lisa Murkowski Visits Homer-Kachemak  Bay Rotary

              July 7th Senator Lisa Murkowski spoke to us and members of the public, to give us a legislative update about what is happening with legislation in Washington, D.C. After the update, she took questions from the audience and answered them.
               
              Representative Seaton and Senator Murkowski
              Senator Murkowski speaking to Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary
               
               
              Senator Lisa Murkowski Visits Homer-Kachemak  Bay Rotary 2017-07-13 08:00:00Z 0

              The Passing of the Gavel

              June 29, 2017 saw the Passing of the Gavel from old President, Tom Early 2016-2017, to new President Beth Trowbridge, 2017-2018.  We got to thank Tom for a Job Well Done, and assure Beth that we would be there to help.
               
              President Tom thanks his Officers, Board of Directors, and Committee Chairs
               
              Lorna introduces almost Past President Tom to his new Hat
              Presents it to him....
              And it FITS!
               
              Sharon retires as Treasurer, Vocational Committee Chair, and Health Fair Chair!!
               
              and is presented with...
              a Plaque...
              Expressing Our Appreciation for Her Years of Service!
               
              Past President Tom passes the pin to President Beth!
              Beth presents Tom with a "copy" of his "soon to arrive" Thank You plaque!
              Our new Officers and Board of Directors!
              The Passing of the Gavel 2017-07-12 08:00:00Z 0

              Understanding the Recent Polio Outbreaks

              Understanding the recent polio outbreaks

              By

              Outbreaks of vaccine-derived polio have been reported this month in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Syria, according to the World Health Organization.

              At least 24 cases were identified in Syria and at least four in Congo. In both countries, health officials are working with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative to respond immediately to the outbreaks with supplementary immunization activities and field investigations.

              To prevent the virus from spreading further, investigations and immunizations are also being strengthened in neighboring countries, the World Health Organization said.

              Despite the new cases, the push to eradicate polio is stronger than ever, with fewer cases reported so far this year than ever before. It also got a boost at the Rotary International Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, where donors pledged $1.2 billion for the effort. 

              Vaccine-derived cases are rare, and they differ from wild cases. Here’s what you need to know to understand these outbreaks.

              Q: What are the two kinds of polio cases?

              A: Wild cases of polio are caused by poliovirus that is circulating naturally in the environment. 

              Vaccine-derived polioviruses are extremely rare and exist under specific circumstances. Oral polio vaccine contains live virus that is weakened so that it will prompt the body’s immune response without causing paralysis. The vaccine is ingested, and the weakened virus replicates in the child’s gut and is then excreted. In areas with poor sanitation, this excreted vaccine virus can spread to other children. This can actually be good because it then immunizes them. When the strain no longer finds susceptible children, it dies out.

              The problem occurs in areas of low vaccination coverage. There, such vaccine-derived strains of the virus can continue to circulate as long as they continue to find unvaccinated or otherwise susceptible children. While they continue to circulate, they mutate. Eventually, if they are allowed to circulate long enough — at least 12 months — they can mutate into strains that are strong enough to cause paralysis.

              Q: Is the vaccine safe?

              A: Yes. The oral polio vaccine has reduced the number of polio cases by 99.9 percent since 1988. The risk posed by wild poliovirus is far greater than the risk of an outbreak caused by circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus. Once wild polioviruses have been eradicated, use of oral vaccine will be stopped. 

              Q: Are vaccine-derived cases common?

              Health workers work diligently to monitor children and test sewage samples for the polio virus.

              Photo by Miriam Doan

              A: Polio cases caused by circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus are extremely rare. Wild poliovirus remains the far greater risk. Nevertheless, because of the small risk of vaccine-derived outbreaks, use of oral vaccine will be stopped when wild polioviruses have been eradicated. 

              Q: Are wild cases common?

              A: Wild poliovirus occurs only in the countries where polio remains endemic: Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Only six cases of polio caused by the wild virus have been reported so far in 2017. That’s the lowest number of polio cases in history, with fewer cases reported in fewer areas of fewer countries than ever before.

              Q: How are polio cases detected? 

              A: Polio surveillance has two parts: Doctors and health workers monitor children for the virus, and authorities test sewage samples from sewer systems or elsewhere, in areas that don’t have adequate sanitation facilities.

              The detection of these most recent cases demonstrates that polio surveillance systems are functioning in both countries.

              Q: What is the science behind the vaccines?

              A: There are two types of vaccine: oral and inactivated-virus. The original oral vaccine protected against types 1, 2, and 3 of the virus.

              Type 2 wild poliovirus was eradicated in 1999 so the current vaccine contains only type 1 and type 3. This allows it to provide quicker and better protection against the two remaining types. The inactivated-virus vaccine, administered by injection, contains virus that is dead. Because the virus is dead, the vaccine cannot cause polio outbreaks. 

              Understanding the Recent Polio Outbreaks 2017-07-05 08:00:00Z 0

              The Social Networker

              Ian Riseley has spent his career making connections among friends, colleagues, and Rotarians. He brings that gift for putting people together to his work as Rotary’s president.

              By Photographs by

               “Traditionally, I pay for the coffee.” Ian H.S. Riseley makes this pronouncement in such a serious tone that you believe it. Until, that is, his friend Kevin Harrison guffaws. Just who does pay for the coffee is never resolved, but the good-natured joking sets the mood for a walk along the banks of the Patterson River in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. 

              For the past five years, these walks have been a twice-weekly routine for a small group of Rotarian friends. It’s a way to get “some much-needed exercise, coupled with the opportunity for us to resolve the problems of the world,” says Harrison.

              Whoever can make it on a given day – Richard Garner, John Williams, Nick and Maree Vinocuroff – comes along for the chance to bounce ideas off the others. And everyone always wants to know what Ian thinks. “He’ll listen to an idea,” says Harrison, “and over a period of five or six walks, we’ve got ourselves a project.”

              Riseley, right, and Bob Richards, second from right, accept donations from visitors to the Bayside Farmers Market, sponsored by the Rotary clubs of Hampton and Sandringham. The market features produce, meat, flowers, and gourmet foods from local farmers and artisanal producers.

               

              On a pleasant December morning, the conversation ranges widely. The friends discuss news including a recent earthquake in New Zealand, as well as business in their Rotary clubs: Sandringham, Hampton, Noble Park-Keysborough, and Chelsea. 

              As the group talks, Riseley listens. His entire life has been about putting people together, nurturing ideas, and guiding people with practical suggestions about what to improve and how. The new president of Rotary does it with such easy charm and self-deprecating wit that at first you might not realize how intensely focused he is.

              Riseley’s earliest exposure to Rotary was typical of what many newcomers to the organization experience: He wasn’t sure what to make of it. In 1977, he was the owner of an accounting firm when one of his clients invited him to speak at the Rotary Club of Cheltenham. “My first question was,  ‘About what?’” Riseley recalls. His second: “What’s a Rotary club?”  

              He gave a talk on income tax. “Nice people, laughed at the right places, stayed awake the whole time,” he jokes. A few weeks later his client called again to invite him to a planning meeting for a new club in Sandringham. 

              “I said, ‘I’m not really sure what Rotary does, but I’m happy to come along,’” Riseley says. “I actually missed the first meeting, but I got another call, and I went to the next one. The movers and shakers were all there, so I thought, wow, what a group to be involved with.”

              Before joining, he consulted his wife, Juliet. Many of Ian’s friends were also accountants, so she thought Rotary could help him meet people outside his professional circle. He became a charter member of the Rotary Club of Sandringham in 1978.

               

              The Social Networker 2017-07-05 08:00:00Z 0

              A Chance to Meet Some of the Young People That We Have Helped!

              If you are interested in meeting and visiting with the 4 Thai Hill Tribe girls who the club has supported over the years, there will be a brown bag picnic lunch at the Rotary/Kachemak Bay Water Park Pavilion on the Spit at Noon on Thursday July 6th!  Bring your lunch (we will have a sandwiches for the girls) and anything you would like to share if you want!

               

              (Our club donated laptops to their welfare school in MaeChan some 12 years ago.  They learned computer skills, went on to college, and now hold decent jobs.  They have been saving their hard earned money to come to Alaska to visit us.  Steve and Noko Yoshida have rented a motorhome and will be parked at Heritage Park on the spit 4-6 July (2 nights)). 
               

               Hope to see you there!

               
              A Chance to Meet Some of the Young People That We Have Helped! 2017-07-05 08:00:00Z 0
              A Reminder!!  This Week's Meeting is FRIDAY July 7, 2017!! 2017-07-05 08:00:00Z 0

              Re: Donations to Help Vera Fefelov Get to Australia

               

              Hello Fellow Rotarians,

               

              First, a heartfelt thank you to ALL who responded to Vera today with such generous help. 

              Vera is a recent graduate of Nikolaevsk High School, with a 4.2 GPA.  She has been accepted at Georgetown University.

              But, she was also selected to represent the state of Alaska on the Pacific Conference Girls Basketball Team at the 21st annual Down Under Hoops Classic hosted on the Gold Coast of Australia in July of this year.

              She is looking for donations to help her make the trip.  At this time her goal is getting closer. 

              Her GoFundMe account is:   https://www.gofundme.com/australia-basketball-tournament   PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE WAS A MISPRINT IN THE ORIGINAL EMAIL AND THIS IS THE CORRECTED ADDRESS

               

              We have invited her to come back late July/early August to report to us.

               

              Again, heartfelt thanks for all your generosity.

               

              Milli
              Re: Donations to Help Vera Fefelov Get to Australia 2017-06-28 08:00:00Z 0
              Change of Gavel at June 29 Meeting 2017-06-28 08:00:00Z 0
              Donations to Help Vera Fefelov Get to Australia 2017-06-28 08:00:00Z 0

              The Power of One

              Candlelight vigil, survivor stories shine a light on the issue of modern slavery

              If Rotary members had any doubt that human trafficking and modern slavery occur in the United States, Brad Myles, executive director and chief executive officer of Polaris, put that doubt to rest. 

              “We’ve recorded more than 35,000 cases of human trafficking since our hotline began (in 2007),” Myles told attendees during a breakout session at the Presidential Peace Conference, an event held prior to this year's Rotary International Convention.

              Myles said that one way Rotary members can help is by promoting the organization’s hotline number: +1-888-373-7888. Polaris is a nonprofit organization that trains volunteers to answer phones and direct victims to organizations across the country that can help them.

              View Slideshow

              At a candlelight vigil, Dorsey Jones tells her story as a survivor of sexual exploitation. The vigil, held Saturday during the Rotary International Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, sought to raise awareness of the fight to end human trafficking.

              Monika Lozinska

              “We would love for thousands of Rotary clubs to become foot soldiers and help us put the hotline number out there,” Myles said. “We need people who can put it on the radio, on billboards, on websites, and in their social media messages.”

              The issue of human trafficking was prominent throughout the Rotary Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, where members learned about the Power of One, the difference one person can make in combating modern slavery. Trafficking in humans takes many forms but includes forced labor and sex slavery.

              In a display of solidarity with survivors, Rotary members and Atlanta residents held a candlelight vigil Saturday night in Centennial Olympic Park. A mother and daughter musical duo, Southerndipity, performed. The mother, Tenesha Cargil, is a trafficking survivor.

              Atlanta native Dorsey Jones, a former probation officer, recalled how she was sexually exploited.

              “When I was 11 years old, my neighbor crumpled up a $20 bill and placed it in my hand, and he began to fondle me, and pounce on me,” said Jones. “He passed me on to his brother and they passed me on to their father. Before long, half the community was sleeping with this scared, desperate, kid.”

              A counselor at her school noticed Jones, a frequent runaway, sleeping on the playground and stepped in to help. The counselor found Jones a place to live, helped her finish high school, and gave her the support she needed to earn a college degree in criminology, Jones said. Now married for 22 years, Jones works for a nonprofit that helps exploited, abused, and neglected young people. 

               

              • 20.9

                million victims of human trafficking globally

              • 68
                %

                are trapped in forced labor

              • 26
                %

                are children

              • 55
                %

                are women and girls

              “I turned my story around because I found hope. But not every child has that hope,” Jones said. “So I am going to be a voice for the voiceless. I am going to be a hope for the hopeless. And I ask you today to stand with me, and fight for that little girl and that little boy and all the children across the globe who do not have a voice.” 

              Before the convention, attendees of Rotary's Presidential Peace Conference had the chance to discuss the problem and ideas for solving it. Camille Kesler, executive director of Rebuilding Together Atlanta, told how her organization helps low-income families repair and maintain their homes, preserving families' independence and preventing homelessness. This, in turn, prevents crumbling neighborhoods and rising area crime that could make family members more vulnerable to sexual exploitation. 

              “Our vision is a safe and healthy home for every person,” Kesler said.

              During the peace conference, Tjada McKenna, chief operating officer of Habitat for Humanity, spoke about the organization’s 40-year-history of mobilizing volunteers to help get families off the streets. The organization has built homes for millions of families. Rotary members have volunteered on Habitat for Humanity home building projects, and convention attendees had a chance to work on such a project as part of a Host Organization Committee event.

              During Monday’s general session of the convention, actor and philanthropist Ashton Kutcher, co-founder of Thorn, an organization that combats human trafficking, explained how online technology is helping to fight child sexual exploitation. He was joined onstage by Gary Haugen of the International Justice Mission and U.S. Senator Bob Corker. Corker has sponsored legislation that would unite current efforts in a partnership that would provide for a new global fund to "do whatever is necessary to end this scourge,” he said.

              And in the convention's House of Friendship, Rotary members learned what the Rotarian Action Group Against Slavery is doing. Dave McCleary, vice chair of the action group, said he recalls being approached by a small Rotary club in southern Georgia that was overwhelmed by the scope of the issue and unsure what to do.

              “I asked them what is really busy around here,” McCleary says. “Well, they had the busiest truck stop on the Eastern Seaboard, and it happened that the owner of that truck stop was in their Rotary club." That was the beginning of Truckers Against Trafficking, which has placed posters showing the Polaris national hotline number at truck stops in 22 states, McCleary said. As a result, more than 400 victims of trafficking have received helped.

              The Power of One 2017-06-28 08:00:00Z 0

              Opening Up the World

              Opening up the World

               

              Skip to main content

              650 students broaden horizons through Rotary exchange program

              By

              Growing up in a village near the shores of Lake Victoria in Tanzania, Wanzita Ally never seriously thought about getting on a plane and flying to America. 

              Her father had died when she was young, and she lived with her mother and grandmother, who were poor farmers. 

              The family depended on what they grew in their fields to eat. 

              But Wanzita loved school, and she did well. She was chosen as a class leader by her fellow students, and her teachers noted that she showed “good effort, behavior, and attendance,” despite going long periods without eating. She was determined not to let her family’s situation interfere with her education.

              In her senior class photo, Wanzita Ally’s jacket features a wide array of buttons and pins and a Rotary patch on the pocket; 

               

              Two decades earlier, in the early 1990s, a Peace Corps volunteer named Brian Singer was teaching mathematics at a high school near Wanzita’s village when he got to know four siblings whose parents had died. 

              After Singer returned home to Minnesota, he talked to family and friends about helping those students with their school fees. The response was so great that he sponsored additional kids, and Project Zawadi  was born. To date, the nonprofit has sponsored some 650 students. 

              A few years ago, Project Zawadi began expanding its mission to help schools increase their educational reach, building classrooms and housing for teachers; installing toilets and computer labs; and setting up a vocational training center. One of the projects provided beds for a dormitory at Makongoro Secondary School, where Wanzita was a student. Wanzita herself received a school fee scholarship.

              Project Zawadi’s local partner organization, Zinduka, contacted the nearby Rotary Club of Musoma (Zinduka’s director, Max Madoro, later joined that club) to help with the Makongoro project. But the collaboration with Rotary didn’t begin in earnest until Vicki Dilley, a Rotarian in Northfield, Minn., who is also a returned Peace Corps volunteer, came on board as director. 

              Dilley is also deeply involved in the North Star Youth Exchange, which is run by districts 5950 and 5960 (Minnesota and Wisconsin). One of the most active in the United States, it sends 60 to 68 students abroad each year and hosts students from other countries as well.

              Last year, because of Dilley’s connection, North Star decided to see about finding a student in Tanzania for a one-way exchange. Singer and Madoro looked through their files and decided that Wanzita had the qualities that would help her adapt in America, even though she had never been far from home. 

              Project Zawadi set up a vocational training center and furnished a dormitory at Makongoro Secondary School.

               

              This kind of collaboration between Rotarians and former Peace Corps  volunteers is one reason the two organizations formalized their relationship in 2014. Both groups share goals of promoting better international understanding, enhancing global awareness, and empowering communities to create lasting improvements in education, economic development, health, and more. “It’s a really natural collaboration,” says Singer. “It connects concerned and caring people – Rotarians – with people who have a specific connection to a village or a group of people.” 

              Dilley sees it the same way. “For my husband and me,” she says, “it always felt like Rotary was an extension of what we wanted to do in the Peace Corps.”

              But Wanzita couldn’t embark on her journey without a passport. To get one, she needed a birth certificate. In order to get a birth certificate, her mother needed a birth certificate. So, accompanied by Madoro, Wanzita and her mother flew to Dar es Salaam, where they spent several weeks obtaining the necessary papers and stamps for her journey across the world. 

              • 868580

                students sponsored through Project Zawadi

              Wanzita has embraced her experience – although when she got to Minnesota in the fall of 2016, she couldn’t see how anyone found their home, because to her, they all looked the same. “I couldn’t believe how many cars there were, and the way the roads were built over each other, and the buildings – how nicely they were built.”  

              But over time, the strange new things seemed less strange. 

              At her high school, where she spent her senior year, she joined the cross-country team and signed up for an ambitious load of classes, including child psychology, accounting, and biology. 

              “Now,” she says, “I am used to everything – except cheese.”

              She has come to like American foods such as burgers, spaghetti, and, despite the cheese, pizza, but she still cooks ugali, a stiff maize porridge, from time to time. She sends photos and messages to her friends and family in Tanzania on her new smartphone. To see them, her mother goes to Wanzita’s old school, where a teacher pulls up the photos of her daughter’s life in America.

              Where that life will lead next, Wanzita isn’t sure. She wants to continue her schooling in Tanzania. She had thought about becoming a nurse, but now that she has been out in the world, she is imagining other paths. 

              “When I told Brian [Singer] I wanted to be a nurse,” she says, “he asked me, ‘Why not a doctor?’ So maybe I will become a doctor!”

              • Read more stories from The Rotarian

              Opening Up the World 2017-06-28 08:00:00Z 0

              Apply to Serve on a 2018-19 Rotary Committee

              Apply to serve on a 2018-19 Rotary committee

               

              Would you like to contribute further to Rotary by serving on a committee? Each of Rotary's committees, comprising Rotarians and Rotaractors from around the world, works with the organization's leadership to ensure efficiency and promote the goals and priorities of the strategic plan.

              The following committees are searching for qualified candidates for openings in 2018-19. All committees correspond via email, teleconference, and webinars as needed, and some involve at least one mandatory in-person meeting per year. Most committee business is conducted in English.

              To be considered for committee membership or recommend someone for an appointment, visit .

              Applicants must be registered on My Rotary at www.rotary.org/myrotary and ensure that their My Rotary profile includes current contact details.

              The application deadline is 11 August.

              Audit committee
              Function: Advises the Board on financial reports, auditing, and the system of internal control
              Prerequisites: Independence, appropriate business experience, and demonstrated literacy in auditing, accounting, banking, risk management, or compliance
              Commitment: One six-year term; multiple meetings in Evanston

              Communications committee
              Function: Advises the Board on communication with key audiences
              Prerequisites: Professional background and experience in a communication-related field
              Commitment: One three-year term; annual meeting in Evanston

              Constitution and bylaws committee
              Function: Counsels the Board on constitutional documents and legislative procedures, including the Council on Legislation and the Council on Resolutions
              Prerequisites: Must be comfortable reviewing legal and governance documents; legal, legislative, or Council experience preferred
              Commitment: One three-year term; at least one meeting a year in Evanston; annual teleconference; and one Council on Legislation meeting in Chicago

              Election review committee
              Function: Reviews complaints and disputes related to RI officer elections
              Prerequisites: Must be a past district governor with strong knowledge of RI bylaws
              Commitment: One three-year term; meets via correspondence as needed

              Finance committee
              Function: Advises the Board on Rotary's finances, including budgets, investment policy, and sustainability measures
              Prerequisites: Professional background in a finance-related field; nonprofit experience preferred
              Commitment: One three-year term; two meetings a year in Evanston

              Global networking groups committee
              Function: Oversees action groups, fellowships, and vocational service, including operations, program enhancements, proposals
              Prerequisites: Strong candidates have led action groups, fellowships, or club- or district-level vocational service initiatives, and are familiar with their policies
              Commitment: One three-year term

              Joint committee on partnerships
              Function: Advises the Board and Trustees on partnership and sponsorship matters
              Prerequisites: Extensive knowledge of international development issues; experience in developing and working with partner organizations; ability to network and to identify and cultivate significant partners for Rotary; and willingness to commit time and effort to Rotary, including participation in committee meetings
              Commitment: One three-year term; two meetings a year in Evanston

              Joint young leaders and alumni engagement committee
              Function: Advises the Board and Trustees on engaging program participants, alumni, and other youth and young professionals
              Prerequisites: Rotarians: Experience working with youth and alumni; district committee leadership; prior Rotary program participation
              Prerequisites: Rotaractors/alumni: Leadership at the club, district, and international level
              Commitment: Rotarians: One three-year term; annual meeting in Evanston
              Commitment: Rotaractors/alumni: One one-year term; one meeting in Evanston

              Leadership development and training committee
              Function: Advises the Board on Rotary's leadership training program for Rotarians, clubs, and districts, with a special emphasis on training for district governors
              Prerequisites: Must have significant training or education experience with a preference for leadership development
              Commitment: One three-year term; annual meeting in Evanston

              Membership committee
              Function: Advises the Board on matters related to membership development, retention, and engagement
              Prerequisites: Must have significant knowledge of and commitment to membership attraction and engagement activities; members of clubs that have diversified preferred
              Commitment: One three-year term; two meetings a year in Evanston

              Operations review committee
              Function: Monitors the effectiveness, efficiency, and implementation of all internal systems; serves as an advisory group to the Executive Committee on compensation matters; and performs other oversight functions as requested by the Board
              Prerequisites: Experience in management, leadership development, or financial management, with a thorough knowledge of Rotary's operations
              Commitment: One six-year term; typically meets in Evanston twice a year

              Rotaract and Interact committee
              Function: Advises the Board on Interact and Rotaract; develops the Rotaract Preconvention Meeting program
              Prerequisites: Rotarians: Experience working with youth; direct experience as a mentor or Rotaract/Interact adviser or district chair. Youth program alumni are strong candidates.
              Prerequisites: Rotaractors: Leadership at the club, district, and international levels. Strong candidates have served as a district Rotaract representative, organized projects, or attended a Rotaract Preconvention. Age restrictions may apply.
              Commitment: Rotarians: One three-year term; annual meeting in Evanston
              Commitment: Rotaractors: One one-year term; one meeting in Evanston

              Strategic planning committee
              Function: Reviews Rotary's strategic plan and associated measures; advises leadership on other matters of long-term significance
              Prerequisites: 10+ years of experience in strategy development, monitoring, and implementation, and strong understanding of RI and Foundation programs and services
              Commitment: One four-year term; up to four meetings in Evanston

              Rotary International staff

              22-Jun-2017
              Apply to Serve on a 2018-19 Rotary Committee 2017-06-28 08:00:00Z 0
              Change of Gavel at June 29 Meeting! 2017-06-28 08:00:00Z 0

              Flying to Fight Polio

              Skydivers raise thousands for polio eradication

              By

              The first time Noel Jackson jumped out of a plane, it had nothing to do with raising money for polio eradication.

              The Michigan dentist had received a gift certificate from members of his staff to go skydiving because they knew he was into adventure.

              “It is definitely a defining moment,” says Jackson, a member of the Rotary Club of Trenton, Mich., of that first jump at 14,000 feet, done in tandem strapped to a professional skydiver. “The rush of the free fall is beyond anything I have ever experienced before. Just the speed and acceleration is unbelievable. You don’t even have time to figure out if you are enjoying it or not; it’s just a sensation that happens.”

              Jackson did enjoy the sensation, so much so that he agreed to do another jump, with Shiva Koushik, a Rotarian friend in nearby Windsor, Ont. 

              The two men were waiting for this second jump when their wives came up with the idea of enlisting other jumpers and raising pledges for polio eradication.

              In August 2014, a jump in the skies of northeastern Michigan raised $15,000 for Rotary’s polio eradication campaign. Matched 2-to-1 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the effort contributed $45,000 to the cause.

              Since 1985, when Rotary committed to polio eradication, the organization has contributed more than $1.5 billion and countless volunteer hours to immunize children against the disease. In that time, the number of polio cases has dropped 99.9 percent, and only three countries remain where the virus has never been stopped: Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. While World Polio Day, 24 October, serves as an important opportunity to remind the world of the need to finish the job, raising money and awareness is a year-round effort for many.

              Late-night recruiting

              Julie Caron, a member of the Rotary Club of Toronto Skyline, heard about plans for the Michigan fundraising skydive after being invited to speak at a leadership training event in Koushik’s district.

              View Slideshow

              Julie Caron and 10 members from Toronto Skyline and surrounding Rotary clubs plunged earthward in their own tandem skydive, raising several thousand dollars for polio eradication.   

               

              “We were in one of those friendship rooms after the conference … when Koushik began talking about the skydive,” Caron says. “We all got really excited and signed up.

              “I don’t like to back out on things I say I’m going to do, even if it’s the middle of the night,” Caron says. So she began raising money and drove down to Michigan to do the jump.

              She also took the idea back to her own club, whose members are mostly young professionals looking for fun things to do. This past July, 10 members from Toronto Skyline and surrounding Rotary clubs plunged earthward in their own tandem skydive, raising several thousand dollars for polio eradication. 

              Caron hopes to make it a yearly event.

              “Polio eradication is definitely something I am passionate about,” she says. “It’s not a hard fundraiser to put together at all. You just call around and pick a place, and then you begin asking people if they would rather jump or pay up in pledges.”

              Jackson, who’d jumped out of the plane in his “Captain Rotary” outfit, says he personally raised $4,700 for the Michigan skydive using Caron’s approach.

              A recent jump in Michigan raised $45,000 to help end polio.

               

              I would go up to people and tell them we were skydiving for polio and give them two options,” says Jackson. “I would tell them I was paying $180 out of my own pocket to jump, so if you are not going to jump, you have to pay $180. Most people would say, ‘OK, you got it.’ ”

              Floating like a bird

              Koushik and his wife are active in other ways to rid the world of polio. They have been on several trips with their Rotary district to immunize children in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, and particularly enjoy showing off their native country, India, from which they emigrated to Canada about 30 years ago. They are planning to take part in another National Immunization Day in Pakistan next year.

              Still, the skydive will hold a special place in Koushik’s heart.

              “This is one of the highlights of my polio eradication efforts,” he says. “It’s such a feeling of freedom. The first time out of the plane, you have very little idea what is happening; you are free-falling so fast. But once that parachute opens, you look around and say, ‘Wow!’ It’s such a great feeling to be able to float like a bird.”

               

              Flying to Fight Polio 2017-06-21 08:00:00Z 0

              Strength in Diversity

              Muslim and Christian women work together to prevent dengue fever in Indonesia

              In a world where intolerance and violence fueled by religious differences are seemingly increasing, one Rotary club in Indonesia is showing how diversity can help prevent a pandemic threat.

              When the Rotary Club of Solo Kartini in Surakarta, Indonesia, formed 25 years ago, its members drew criticism from the predominantly Muslim community.

              The club’s members were mostly Christians, atypical for a country where more than 80 percent of the population is Muslim. Religious leaders were skeptical of Rotary’s secular mission and wary of intrusion.

              Undeterred, the club started recruiting more members. Today, the 72-member, all-female club includes both Muslims and Christians. 

              And the effort they have put into breaking down barriers and fostering respect and understanding among club members has reinforced the club’s capacity to address dengue fever, one of the biggest public health threats in tropical cities like Surakarta.

              Dengue fever is a virus transmitted by mosquitos that flourish in tropical urban environments like Surakarta. There is no effective treatment; once infected, victims experience sudden high fevers, severe headaches, joint and muscle pain, fatigue, nausea, and vomiting.

              Launching an effective public health initiative to prevent the disease requires volunteers with deep knowledge and connections to the community who can craft specific and sustainable solutions. And that means being able to build relationships across religious, cultural and socio-economic lines.  

              The Rotary Club of Solo Kartini in Surakarta, Indonesia, installed white tiles on more than 3,500 tubs. The tiles make it easier to see and clean mosquito larvae, which helps prevent dengue fever.

              Photos by Tim Deagle

              Rotary member Mariam Kartonagoro says her club’s diverse makeup – particularly its abundance of mothers and professionals of varied ages and backgrounds – enhances their effort to fight dengue fever. “The fact that we are different does not create trouble, but it strengthens our relationship,” she says.

              In collaboration with the Rotary Club of Westport, Connecticut, USA, and the local ministry of health in Surakarta, the Muslim and Christian club members have been able to help reduce the risk for dengue fever by interrupting the breeding cycles of carrier mosquitos. 

              The first step was to implement a startlingly simple, low-cost strategy: line the dark cement bathtubs, common in Indonesian households, with white tiles so mosquito larvae is easier to see – and remove. In five years, the club project modified more than 3,500 tubs in two neighborhoods.

              But tiles weren’t enough. The club needed to change habits and behaviors that contribute to infections, which required building trust to educate the community.

              “Our main focus is to educate and invite people to be aware of health issues, hygiene, and the importance of a clean environment,” says Rotarian Indrijani Sutapa, one of the dengue project leads. “This takes a very long time to teach.” 

              Community social workers teach homeowners how to empty and scrub infested tubs twice a week, close the lid on water containers, and bury waste that can collect water.

              The fact that we are different does not create trouble, but it strengthens our relationship.


              Rotary Club of Solo Kartini in Surakarta, Indonesia

              Siti Wahyuningsih, Surakarta’s director of public health, hopes to extend Rotary’s white-tile project to other parts of the city. 

              “Health is a shared responsibility between government, society, and the private sector,” she says. “The government can’t do it alone. We as a community must embrace all of our strengths, and Rotary is a big one.”

              The club hopes to see more people crossing cultural lines to help each other.

              “Rotary has a very diverse membership, and we can be examples to others in the way we work. After all, when we give help, we do not ask about the religion of the person whose tub we replace. We think in a much more global way,” says Rotarian Febri Dipokusumo. “And we try to foster relationships with people who may have different beliefs or thoughts. We can become friends here in Rotary. Maybe this way, we can inspire Indonesia and the world.”

              View Slideshow

              Rotary Club of Solo Kartini in Surakarta, Indonesia, formed 25 years ago. Today, the all-female club has 72 members and includes both Christians and Muslims.

              Strength in Diversity 2017-06-21 08:00:00Z 0
              NOTE!  Meeting for July 6 Changed to  July 7,2017 2017-06-21 08:00:00Z 0

              Latest on the Rotary Guns and Weapons Policy

              Here is the latest on the Rotary Guns and Weapons Policy.

               

              Begin forwarded message:

               

              From: Laurie McCarthy <Laurie.McCarthy@rotary.org>

              Subject: June Board policy clarification

              Date: June 12, 2017 at 9:11:58 AM MDT

               

               

              Dear Past Governors of District 5010,

               

              On behalf of Rotary’s Board of Directors, thank you again for taking the time to express your concerns regarding our organization’s policy on Rotary club and district activities that involve guns and weapons.

               

              The RI Board reviewed your and other members’ feedback at its June meeting this week and has decided to clarify this policy:

               

              • The policy allows clubs and districts to hold gun raffles and sponsor gun shows, as long as no club or district ever takes ownership of the weapons and all transfers of firearms are conducted by licensed third parties.

               

              • The policy does not prohibit sponsorship by companies that manufacture or sell guns.

               

              The policy also provides guidance on the depiction of weapons with the Rotary Marks. Specifically, the Rotary Marks may not be shown along with images of guns or other weapons. The policy would not prohibit the incidental appearance of a gun or other weapon, for example, in a photo of a police officer being honored at a club function.

               

              Thank you for being so engaged in this issue and telling Rotary how the policy has affected you and your club. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.

               

              Sincerely,

               

              Laurie

              .............................. .....

              Laurie S. McCarthy

              Director | Member Support

              Tel 1.847.424.5289

              rotary.org 

               

               

               

              ROTARY INTERNATIONAL | One Rotary Center | 1560 Sherman Ave. | Evanston, IL 60201 USA

              Latest on the Rotary Guns and Weapons Policy 2017-06-20 08:00:00Z 0

              Pavilion Open House was a Hit!

              Here is the word from Dave on the Pavillion Open House.

               

              Over the course of the 2-3 hours I would say we had 100 plus folks stop by.  The amount of food we went through would indicate perhaps more, 10 dozen oysters, 80 hotdogs, lots of shrimp and scallops, two watermelons,  and other picnic style goodies.  The good weather, the great music from the marimba band all added to the occasion.  The Kachemak Bay Rotary Club can be very proud of the role it played in making this community facility a reality.  I think we need to have a Rotary Social there someday soon, I’ll let you and Beth be in charge of the weather.

               

              Thanks, 

              Dave

               

               

               

              Pavilion Open House was a Hit! 2017-06-20 08:00:00Z 0

              New Speakers Websheet  for 2017-2018 Rotary Year

              At the bottom, you will find a link to the Speakers List for 2017-2018. Please find your name and be prepared to find a speaker for that date. Twelve Rotarians have volunteered to be in charge of each month. Those folks are your main contacts if you need to make changes/corrections, etc.

               

              A number of you were not assigned and can fill in as needed. If you find a great speaker, contact whoever has that week and see if your choice could fill in.

               

              Thanks for your help and support. This is one of the most important assignments in our club. Great speakers are informative, interesting, and keep us up to date on local and broader issues.

               

              Let me know if you have any trouble accessing our Google.docs.

               

              Yours in Rotary service,

               

              Will

               

              https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mSD1uouoIjGuZnBzWosGSb5pPsgc6AjfmlxwZCD4eK4/edit#gid=991044525
              New Speakers Websheet  for 2017-2018 Rotary Year 2017-06-20 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Uses Virtual Reality to Inspire Others

              Rotary uses virtual reality to inspire others 

              Rotary is leveraging Google’s virtual reality technology to offer an experience that showcases the impact of compassion to a global audience. 

              We’re producing a three-minute virtual reality film that emphasizes the two themes of polio and peace, and how Rotary’s work to eradicate the disease is increasing stability across the world. 

              Through the power of virtual reality, viewers will follow the extraordinary journey of a child whose world has been torn apart by conflict. The film will immerse viewers in this child’s world, and they’ll experience for themselves the impact that small acts of compassion, protection, and kindness can have on others. 

              We’ll premiere the film on 13 June at the Rotary International Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. It will be widely released in time for World Polio Day on 24 October.

              This isn’t Rotary’s first experience with virtual reality. With support from the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, Rotary premiered its first virtual reality film, “I Dream of an Empty Ward,” in October 2016. In that film, viewers visit India, which has been polio-free since 2011, to follow Alokita, a young woman paralyzed by the disease as a child.

              Traveling through the streets of Delhi, viewers get a close look at life in India and what’s being done to keep the country polio-free. And, through a visit to India’s only polio ward, at St. Stephen’s Hospital, they witness Alokita’s triumphant first steps after 11 years. 

              Rotary Uses Virtual Reality to Inspire Others 2017-06-13 08:00:00Z 0

              Global Grants Available for Low-Cost Shelters and Simple Schools

              Global grants available for low-cost shelters and simple schools

               

              Clubs and districts can now use global grants to build low-cost shelters and simple schools, under a recent policy change effective through 2019. The construction must be part of a comprehensive project related to an . (Projects that involve construction alone are still not eligible for global grants.)

              Please note that these structures are limited. Low-cost shelters are intended to provide housing for the poor or homeless. Simple schools provide modest buildings in areas without nearby schools or where current ones are overcrowded. Simple schools can also replace schools that are structurally unsafe. As part of this program, clubs and districts can use global grants to build additional classrooms on school property as long as they are not attached to current structures.

              To get started, see the and guidelines and application appendixes.

              31-May-2017
              Global Grants Available for Low-Cost Shelters and Simple Schools 2017-06-13 08:00:00Z 0

              Will Files Receives Rotary Service Above Self Award

              We announced last week that Will Files had won the Rotary Service Above Self Award and that only 150 people world wide receive the award annually, so it is a great honor for him to receive it.   

              This is what the RI nomination form says about the award:

              Rotary’s highest honor recognizes Rotarians who demonstrate Rotary’s motto, Service Above Self, by volunteering
              their time and talents to help others. The award is internationally competitive and is granted to no more than 150
              Rotarians worldwide, and no more than one from each district, each year.

               June 3rd, an Open House honoring Will was held at Clyde and Vivian's house. Following are some pictures taken at the Open House.

               

              PDG Clyde, PDG Maynard, PDG Jane, and Will
              Will Files Receives Rotary Service Above Self Award 2017-06-13 08:00:00Z 0

              Dues and Other Important Things

              Everyone!!
               
              The end of the Rotary Year is rapidly approaching!  As of July 1, 2017, we will have new leaders and several new officers. One of the very important items is DUES!  We will have a New Treasurer and a New Bookkeeper.  In order to start things out smoothly, it would really help if everyone could check and make certain that their 2016-2017 dues are ALL paid. It would also help even more if your first quarter dues for the 2017-2018 year are paid.  In Rotary, the dues are expected to be paid in advance, so please do!  If you cannot, or if there are ANY questions, please contact Sharon at 907-399-4266 as soon as possible---this is not something that you should put off.  Thanks!
               
              The New Club Officers (2017-2018), are:
               

                  President: Beth Trowbridge

                  President Elect:  Bernie Griffard

                  Vice President:  Christine Griffard

                  Past President:  Tom Early

                  Secretary:  Charlie Franz

                  Treasurer:  Susie Quinn

                  Directors:  Van Hawkins, Vivian Finlay, Gary Thomas

               
              We still badly need a Membership Chair!
               
              Dues and Other Important Things 2017-06-12 08:00:00Z 0

              Invasion of the Rotary Exchange Students-Part 2!!

              Following a fun, windy, and wet picnic at Karen Hornaday Park, 22 Rotary Exchange Students were parceled out to various very enthused hosts to spend the night.  I can't say what happened at other houses, but we (Gayle and I) were absolutely delighted to host Ricco (Italy), Thomas (Belgium), and Gio (Brazil) for the night.  We were able to take a quick tour of Skyline Drive and East End Road and got out of the rain at our house.  After the obligatory "this is where you are staying" tour of our house, we got to sit down with popcorn and talk of the young men's experiences in Alaska, their homes, our experiences in Alaska, and all of the other fun things until we all started to fade. The next morning we feasted on waffles (Belgian waffles are not like Alaskan waffles!), and headed for town.  The normally 15 minute drive took 45 minutes due to road construction, but modern cell communication worked and Gio, Ricco, and Tom didn't get to stay in Homer--darn!  A stop at the Homer Chamber of Commerce for a few thousand pictures and a chance to meet Homer's Mayor Bryan Zak, and away they to Two Sister's for coffee and then north for more exploring. What a delightful bunch of young people!
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Invasion of the Rotary Exchange Students-Part 2!! 2017-06-12 08:00:00Z 0

              Open House at Pavillion!!

               
               

              Saturday, June 17th, there will be a Picnic Shelter grand opening and celebration--mainly a BIG thank you to our donors and volunteers.  Starting at 1:00 pm there will be music and goodies from the grill. At 1:30 pm we will have 4-5 (3 min. or less) talks, me, then Robert, someone from Rotary (Tom?), Rasmuson (if they make it) Katie for the City, Christine, Friends of Kachemak Bay State Park.  Then there will be an open mic for brief comments by anyone else.  After the thank-you to the donors and volunteers, photo ops, much music, goodies and finish up by 3:00 pm.

              A lot going on about town on Saturday, but great if you could come to celebrate Rotary’s participation.  Everyone is welcome so if an announcement could be made to the club that would be great.

              Due to the Fishing Hole being hot, parking will be tight so plan ahead for that, maybe park roadside of Pier One.


              Open House at Pavillion!! 2017-06-12 08:00:00Z 0

              Ashton Kutcher to Speak at Atlanta Convention

               

              Ashton Kutcher to speak at Atlanta convention

              Ashton Kutcher

              Nigel Parry

              Ashton Kutcher, co-founder of Thorn, actor, tech investor, and philanthropist will join the End of Modern Slavery panel discussion at this year’s Rotary International Convention. The discussion will take place during the second general session on Monday, 12 June.

              Thorn partners with nonprofits and academic institutions to gather new insights into the role technology plays in child sex trafficking, the creation and proliferation of child pornography, and the normalization of child sexual exploitation. Thorn then goes beyond insight to action to develop the tools, systems, and approaches to help address these issues.

              Other panelists include moderator Bob Hope, Atlanta Convention Promotion Committee adviser; U.S. Senator Bob Corker; and Gary Haugen, CEO of International Justice Mission.

              Learn more about Kutcher and our other speakers

              Ashton Kutcher to Speak at Atlanta Convention 2017-05-31 08:00:00Z 0

              Letter From 2017 Mongolian Open World Delegation

               

              On May 27, 2017, at 06:48, Tsogtbaatar Damdin <tsogtbaatar@parliament.mn> wrote:

               

              Dear Mr. Griffard:

               

              Please accept my sincere gratitude for the warm hospitality extended to us during our visit to the great State of Alaska. Our contacts are part of our wider bilateral endeavors to expand the cooperation between our two nations. We, on our part, will be pursuing our committed quest to further increase the collaboration between Mongolia and Alaska.

               

              Our confidence in the even brighter future of the mutually beneficial cooperation between Mongolia and Alaska has grown much stronger as a result of our stay in your beautiful state. Sectors like agriculture, tourism, mining, environment are but few of the sectors we could have exemplary and fruitful cooperation. With your and our support and encouragement we believe that the relationship between our countries could grow wider and more visible.

               

              Yours sincerely,

               

              Tsogtbaatar Damdin, MP

              State Great Hural (Parliament) of Mongolia

              Letter From 2017 Mongolian Open World Delegation 2017-05-31 08:00:00Z 0

              Critical Care

              Linked through sister cities, Rotarians save newborns in Brazil

              By Photographs by

              A mother is in labor, and she’s frightened. Her baby isn’t due for three months. The closest hospital is 30 miles away, and although she makes it there in time, the baby is born weighing barely 2 pounds. 

              And there’s another problem. 

              The hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit has only seven incubators, and all are in use, so the baby must be transferred to another hospital to receive the critical care he needs. If he survives the transfer, his parents will need to find a way to make trips to that hospital for months.

              Many new mothers were facing similar situations at Dr. Leopoldo Bevilacqua Regional Hospital, a state-run facility in Brazil’s Ribeira Valley. Lack of equipment meant some of the hospital’s most vulnerable newborns had to be transferred, which was a factor in São Paulo state’s high infant mortality rate. 

              Rotarians funded incubators, ventilators, heated cribs, vital-sign monitors, and other equipment for a state-run hospital outside São Paulo. 
               

               

               

               

               


               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

              Rotarians funded incubators, ventilators, heated cribs, vital-sign monitors, and other equipment for a state-run hospital outside São Paulo.

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

              “There are two realities here: people who can

              pay for a private hospital and those who can’t,”

              says Lina Shimizu, who spearheaded the project

              for the Rotary Club of Registro-Ouro, Brazil.

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

              “There are two realities here: people who can pay for a private hospital and those who can’t,” says Lina Shimizu, who spearheaded the project for the Rotary Club of Registro-Ouro, Brazil. Those who can’t, she says, often have to travel long distances to get to a state-run hospital such as Leopoldo Bevilacqua, which serves 24 towns. 

              By partnering on a Rotary Foundation global grant with two clubs in Nakatsugawa, Japan, Brazilian Rotarians raised $172,500. They funded equipment including five incubators for the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), which nearly doubled the hospital’s capacity to care for fragile newborns. In 2013, 129 babies were admitted to the NICU; since the completion of the project, the hospital has been able to care for about 220 babies per year. 

              Other equipment provided through the grant included five ventilators, a bilirubin meter, three heated cribs, five vital-sign monitors, and a super LED microprocessed phototherapy unit to treat babies with jaundice. The grant also funded the cost of publicity to inform residents about prenatal care workshops conducted by area health workers. The publicity campaign aimed to reach mothers in remote areas who may not know what services are available to them or about the importance of prenatal care and breast-feeding. 

              The Rotary clubs also used the grant to launch a publicity campaign on importance of prenatal care and breast-feeding. 

               

              This global grant marked a turning point for Rotarians in Nakatsugawa, who had stopped contributing to international projects after experiencing difficulties on a past grant. The difference this time was in the relationship between the cities of Registro and Nakatsugawa, which established a “sister city” affiliation in 1980. 

              “This was initially a project of another Brazilian club, but they spent five years trying to find a partner and funding,” Shimizu says. “We were able to implement it in three years because of our sister city relationship.”

              Rotarians from both cities meet regularly to foster their friendships, alternating between Brazil and Japan, and because of their close relationship, the Japanese Rotarians felt confident that their financial contributions to the project would be managed well. In addition, Shimizu, who is of Japanese descent and speaks fluent Japanese, helped build trust and effective communication. 

              A group of Japanese Rotarians visited the NICU after the project was completed. “After 37 years,” says Mitsuo Hara, a member of the Rotary Club of Nakatsugawa, “there’s a friendship and bond between Rotary members of both countries.” 

              • Read more stories from The Rotarian

               

               

              Critical Care 2017-05-23 08:00:00Z 0
              District 5010 Grants for 2017-2018 Announced 2017-05-23 08:00:00Z 0

              Education Soars With Kites

              Rotary program boosts scientific literacy in Taiwan’s schools

              The sky above the playground at Lao Mei Elementary School in New Taipei City, Taiwan, is dotted with kites of different colors, shapes, and sizes. Below, groups of students are busy making more kites and testing their construction skills in flying competitions.

              To a passerby, the scene looks like just a fun day at school, but teachers know this is much more than play. It’s science, or to be exact, physics.

              The basic ability to fly a kite teaches lessons of aerodynamics and physics.


              Lao Mei science teacher 

              “As a matter of fact, it’s pure physics. The basic ability to fly a kite teaches lessons of aerodynamics and physics,” says Lao Mei science teacher Tsai Shin Yi, who believes that making and flying kites helps students see how science affects their daily lives — including playtime — and motivates them to learn more.

              And in this class, even failures are seen as positive teaching moments. When some of Yi’s students were ready to quit after several failed attempts to get their kites airborne, he asked them, “Can any of you tell me why some kites fail to fly successfully?”

              The kite classes at Lao Mei School, affectionately referred to as Love Kites, Love Lao Mei, are part of the Rotary Science Education Program, the flagship project of the Rotary Club of Taipei Pei-An. The global grant project aims to improve science education for students attending public schools in rural areas of Taiwan.

              “We realized that science teachers and classrooms, particularly elementary and secondary schools in rural areas, receive fewer materials and resources, and even less institutional support” than other subjects, says Pauline Leung, past governor of District 3520 in Taiwan and the club’s former president.

              Applying their knowledge of physics and math, students at Lao Mei School build and fly kites during classes supported by the Rotary Science Education Program.

               

              Local teachers and Rotary club members agree that without a proper foundation in science, students become scientifically illiterate. And science teachers need strong classroom management skills and an in-depth understanding of their subject to help their students develop an interest and aptitude for science.

              “So, we designed a science education program that provides a systematic approach to learning with a number of components, including audiovisual and instructional materials, professional development, material resources, community support, and evaluation,” says Leung.

              Building on the success of the Rotary Science Education Program, Lao Mei School added a new component that teaches students basic science topics using simple machines and the application of energy.

               

              Lao Mei School has used kites to help students learn about a variety of subjects, including math, engineering, and basic science. Because of the program’s success, the school added a new component that helps students understand basic science theories, says Leung.

              The program involves working with simple machines — levers, wheels, axles, gears, and pulleys — along with energy. To ensure the program’s sustainability, teachers also received training. Leung says the program is partly funded by a global grant from The Rotary Foundation with help from the Taiwan district’s international partner, Rotary District 3700 in Daegu, Korea.

              “We wanted to participate in projects that support literacy and education. The Rotary Science Education Program in Taiwan exemplifies Rotary’s enduring commitment to this effort,” says Seung Ho Lee, a member of the Rotary Club of Daegu-Seongseo in District 3700.

              Teachers at Lao Mei School believe that making and flying kites helps students see how science affects their daily lives — including playtime — and motivates them to learn more.

               

              Since the Rotary Science Education Program launched three years ago, teachers in the 20 rural schools where it’s been implemented have reported a new enthusiasm for learning among their students and increased participation by students with learning difficulties.

              Yi says the program has also affected teachers, adding that the professional development elements have helped teachers increase their science knowledge and improve their teaching techniques.

              Last year, members of the Taipei Pei-An Rotary Club visited Lao Mei School to see the program firsthand.

              “We realized that what students learn is greatly influenced by how they are taught,” says Irene Lu, club president. “The actions of science teachers are deeply influenced by their understanding of the subject matter.”

              Education Soars With Kites 2017-05-23 08:00:00Z 0

              Invasion of the Rotary Exchange Students!!

              Be prepared for a lot of fun!!
               
               

                  This from Cheryl Combs, the District's Youth Exchange Chair:  We are planning a small road trip with the inbound students as they wrap up their exchange year.   Beginning Sunday, June 5 2017  all 22 inbound students will be visiting the cities of Alyeska, Seward, Soldotna/Kenai, Homer, and Anchorage.  Our tour will bring the students to Homer on June 7.  Throughout the day we plan to do some sightseeing on the Homer Spit and doing some beach coming.  The students represent 19 different countries.  This could also be used as a great opportunity to showcase the program to potential students and parents in your community for future student  recruitment!   In total we will have 12 male students, and 10 female students in our group.  

              At last week's meeting it was brought up that we could have a picnic/BBQ at the Karen Hornaday Park firepit​.  Keep track of the Website or, even better, come to the MEETINGS for more information!!

              Invasion of the Rotary Exchange Students!! 2017-05-17 08:00:00Z 0

              Taking Your Club Online

               

              Taking your club online

              Charlotte Ahlberg of Färjestaden, Sweden, traveled around the world in her career as a business coach, had small children at home, and just couldn’t fit Rotary meetings into her schedule – until e-clubs came along. She joined an e-club in London in 2010; started the E-Club of 2410se, Sweden’s first e-club, in 2012; and was 2015-16 chair of the Rotary International E-Club Committee. In 2016, the Council on Legislation voted to remove the distinction of e-clubs versus traditional clubs to emphasize that both are Rotary clubs that meet in different formats. The Council also approved electronic means such as webinars, teleconferences, and live-streaming as flexible meeting options for all clubs. We spoke with Ahlberg about the Rotary club of the future.

              Q: What motivates Rotarians to join clubs that meet online instead of in person? 

              A: There are three reasons. One is they find it too hard to get to a meeting but they still want to support Rotary. Second, they want to visit other clubs to have networking opportunities all over the world. The third reason is the reason I joined – because the concept fits me. I need the communication online and the flexibility in the format.

              Charlotte Ahlberg

               

              Q: How have clubs rethought Rotary meetings to work online? 

              A: The biggest mistake is when clubs take the traditional meeting format and just try to do it online. We need to split up what clubs do into information and communication. The first step is to focus on information. Board meetings are an easy place to start, because most people today are used to online business meetings. You send the agenda out digitally, with background information. Then you use an online meeting or a webinar to actually meet. If you are developing a document for the club, you might have an online meeting with a draft and you keep sending it around and people add things and then you’ve got the final version. 

              Q: So why meet in person at all? 

              A: There are things we can’t do virtually. The other day we were doing a project to feed children. It’s very difficult to pour the rice and the ingredients virtually, right? When we come together in the future, it will be for physical activities. The essence of Rotary is that we join leaders, exchange ideas, and take action. If we focus on the action part, that could be done hands-on, but the information about it beforehand could be done online. 

              Q: What are some first steps for clubs that want to adapt to the changing digital climate? 

              A: First, gather correct email addresses for all the members. Second, update the club’s website. The website is your club’s business card, so it should have a way to contact you. You might also have a Facebook group. Use it to chat and to drive traffic to the web page. You could also have a little film clip on the website saying, “Hi, I’m the president of this club. We would love to welcome you to one of our meetings.” Keep it simple and do it step by step.  

              – Diana Schoberg

              Taking Your Club Online 2017-05-17 08:00:00Z 0

              The Rotary Foundation of the United Kingdom Receives Gift from Accomplished Pianist and Teacher

              The Rotary Foundation of the United Kingdom receives gift of £1.25 million from accomplished pianist and teacher

               
              Helen Ruddock
              Helen Ruddock of Suffolk, England, promoted the goals and values of Rotary through her leadership, service, and integrity.

              Helen Ruddock of Suffolk, England bequeathed a generous donation of £1.25 million to The Rotary Foundation. Having passed away in 2015 at the age of 96, and although not a Rotarian herself, Mrs Ruddock had a passion for improving the lives of others.

              Her introduction to Rotary and The Rotary Foundation was made by a close friend, who was a member of the Rotary Club of Halstead for a number of years.

              Complying with Mrs Ruddock's wishes, the spendable earnings from her gift, known as the Helen Ruddock Foundation Endowed Fund, will exclusively fund charitable service projects in the area of water and sanitation to improve the provision of clean water and hygiene practices in communities across Africa through the Rotary Global Grants programme.

              Despite not being a member of Rotary, Mrs. Ruddock exhibited many of the values of Rotary throughout her life with her involvement in her local community and by devoting her time and talents to help others.

              Music was central to her life and for many years she split her time between tending the farm her parent's had owned and teaching piano, after being educated at institutions including the Royal College of Music.

              She married her beloved husband Ted in 1956 and after his death in 1970 she went on to become a highly respected piano teacher, sharing her knowledge at South Lee School in Bury St. Edmunds, Fairstead House School in Newmarket and Riverwalk School, where she worked with children with severe learning difficulties.

              Renowned for her ability to inspire her pupil's to get the best out of themselves, a number of those she taught went on to study at the most prestigious universities and music colleges, with many more holding fond memories of her as a teacher.

              The Rotary Foundation this year celebrates its centennial anniversary. Over the last 100 years, the Foundation has funded over $3 billion worth of projects in Rotary's Six Areas of Focus in communities around the world.

              Alison Budge from Ashtons Legal, who provided legal advice to Mrs Ruddock said: "We are seeing more and more clients leaving money to good causes in their Wills, and know how much these charities rely on legacy gifts. I knew Helen for many years both as a friend and a client and I greatly appreciated her lively character and indefatigable spirit. Helen was very explicit in her wishes and it was a pleasure assisting her in setting up the Helen Ruddock Foundation Endowed Fund."

              8-May-2017
              The Rotary Foundation of the United Kingdom Receives Gift from Accomplished Pianist and Teacher 2017-05-17 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Uses Virtual Reality to Inspire Others

              Rotary uses virtual reality to inspire others 

              Rotary is working with Google’s virtual reality team to offer an experience that showcases the impact of compassion to a global audience. 

              We’re producing a three-minute virtual reality film that emphasizes the two themes of polio and peace, and how Rotary’s work to eradicate the disease is increasing stability across the world. 

              Through the power of virtual reality, viewers will follow the extraordinary journey of a child whose world has been torn apart by conflict. The film will immerse viewers in this child’s world, and they’ll experience for themselves the impact that small acts of compassion, protection, and kindness can have on others. 

              We’ll premiere the film on 13 June at the Rotary International Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. It will be widely released in time for World Polio Day on 24 October.

              This isn’t Rotary’s first experience with virtual reality. With support from the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, Rotary premiered its first virtual reality film, “I Dream of an Empty Ward,” in October 2016. In that film, viewers visit India, which has been polio-free since 2011, to follow Alokita, a young woman paralyzed by the disease as a child.

              Traveling through the streets of Delhi, viewers get a close look at life in India and what’s being done to keep the country polio-free. And, through a visit to India’s only polio ward, at St. Stephen’s Hospital, they witness Alokita’s triumphant first steps after 11 years

              Rotary Uses Virtual Reality to Inspire Others 2017-05-10 08:00:00Z 0

              Tiwa Savage Signs on as Rotary Celebrity Ambassador for Polio Eradication

              Tiwa Savage signs on as Rotary celebrity ambassador for polio eradication 

              EVANSTON, Ill. (3 May 2017) – Nigerian singer/songwriter Tiwa Savage is the newest face to join Rotary’s ‘This Close’ public awareness campaign for polio eradication. A paralyzing and life altering disease, polio is on the verge of becoming the second human disease ever to be eliminated worldwide after smallpox.

              Savage, who has been described by CNN as Nigeria’s biggest pop star, will help Rotary achieve its goal of a polio-free world by raising awareness about the vaccine-preventable disease. Savage administered a vaccine to children in Lagos in late April. Nigeria regularly conducts mass immunization campaigns to vaccinate every child under the age of five in the country.

              Tiwa Savage is a Rotary celebrity ambassador for polio eradication.

              Andrew Esiebo

              The singer's participation in this program comes at a critical juncture. Last year, Nigeria experienced a polio outbreak that paralyzed four children after passing nearly two years without a case of the disease. Her involvement in the campaign will raise important awareness that will help ensure the outbreak is stopped. 

              “This is a cause that hits close to home for me, not only as a mother of a small child, but as a proud Nigerian, whose country has been battling this disease for many years,” said Savage.

              Savage’s musical career began when she was 16 years of age as a backup singer for George Michael. Before going out on her own, she worked with many other well-known musicians, such as Whitney Houston, Kelly Clarkson, Andrea Bocelli, Mary J Blige and many more. Tiwa Savage is also a successful songwriter. She was signed to Sony/ATV Music before establishing her own label 323 Entertainment which teamed up with Marvin Records in 2012. 

              Last year, Savage signed with Roc Nation as a management client  Already a superstar in her home country, her social media has amassed to a staggering 2.9 million followers on Instagram, 1. 8 million on Facebook, and 1.7 million on Twitter. 

              Savage announced her new partnership with Rotary last week in New York City at a World Immunization Week event. As part of the ‘This Close’ campaign, Savage will be featured in ads raising her thumb and forefinger in the ‘this close’ gesture with the tagline ‘we're this close to ending polio.’ Since the initiative launched in 1988, the incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99.9 percent, from about 350,000 cases a year to less than 37 cases in 2016.

              The Nigerian music star joins other public figures and celebrities participating in Rotary’s public awareness campaign, including Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation;  actress Kristen Bell; Supermodel Isabeli Fontana; Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu; action movie star Jackie Chan; boxing great Manny Pacquiao; pop star Psy; golf legend Jack Nicklaus; conservationist Jane Goodall; premier violinist Itzhak Perlman; Grammy Award winners A.R. Rahman; Angelique Kidjo and Ziggy Marley; and peace advocate Queen Noor of Jordan.

              Rotary launched its polio immunization program PolioPlus in 1985 and in 1988 became a spearheading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative with the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and more recently the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 

              Rotary’s roles within the initiative are fundraising, advocacy, raising awareness and mobilizing volunteers. To date, Rotary has contributed more than $1.6 billion and countless volunteer hours to fight polio. Through 2018, every dollar Rotary commits to polio eradication will be matched two-to-one by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation up to $35 million a year. To date, more than 2.5 billion children have been immunized against polio, a paralyzing and sometimes deadly disease.  

              About Rotary

              Rotary brings together a global network of volunteer leaders dedicated to tackling the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges. Rotary connects 1.2 million members of more than 35,000 Rotary clubs in over 200 countries and geographical areas. Their work improves lives at both the local and international levels, from helping families in need in their own communities to working toward a polio-free world. To access broadcast quality video footage and still photos of Rotary members immunizing children against polio available go to: The Newsmarket

              Contact 

              Monica Fahmy +41 (44) 387-7116

              Tiwa Savage Signs on as Rotary Celebrity Ambassador for Polio Eradication 2017-05-10 08:00:00Z 0

              Things Happened at the District Conference in Sitka!

               

              My report is that the conference was fun with live music 2 nights, and a DJ one night, and a couple of inspirational speakers including Past RI President Rick King.  Dave Brann did a good presentation about our Russian Club projects.  We had plenty of time to enjoy Sitka and to explore...the final event ended at 10am on Sunday, and most of us were on the 7pm flight back to Anchorage...so that gave us most of a day!  We had an umbrella parade that was also fun.

              Next year's DC will be in Seward on 18-20.  If people register before end December, they receive a discount...go to the District website to register...rotary5010.org.

               

              Mari Anne and Maynard Gross donated a bunch of items for the Youth Exchange Auction (on behalf of our club) which is held at the DC and where every club is expected to donate item(s) worth at least $75.  We were able to keep track of one of the Gross' items because the bidding on it was "fierce"...that item raised $115, and all their items raised good money, - each was bid separately and we couldn't keep track of the earnings on them all.  So that was wonderful.

              Kathy Hill donated some Rotary shirts.  However, the youth exchange person in charge of the auction mistakenly took those home with her (in Sitka) so they weren't available for the auction, much to my annoyance since I had packed them all and given them to the organizers of the auction, along with the Gross' gifts!  I was later told that they would auction of the shirts at another venue...

              Vivian

              Rotary Exchange Students in Opening Ceremony

              Homer Rotarians and an Old Friend

              Dave Brann Delivers Report on Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club's Activities in Russia and Neighboring Countries

              Clyde and Beth

              Tom and Sandy Line Dancing

              Tom, Sandy, Beth, and Others Dancing

              Louise at Rotary District 5010 Conference

               

               

              Things Happened at the District Conference in Sitka! 2017-05-10 08:00:00Z 0

              Wil Files Receives Rotary Service Above Self Award

               
              Rotary’s highest honor recognizes Rotarians who demonstrate Rotary’s motto, Service Above Self, by volunteering
              their time and talents to help others. The award is internationally competitive and is granted to no more than 150
              Rotarians worldwide, and no more than one from each district, each year.
               
               
               
              Wil Files Receives Rotary Service Above Self Award 2017-05-10 08:00:00Z 0

              2017 Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Scholarships Awarded

              The 2017Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Scholarship Awardees
               
               

              Our Rotary club awarded six $1,000 scholarships to students from Homer High School. The scholarship recipients are from left to right:  Katie Shank, Annali Metz, Seth Classen, Timothy Woo, and Johanna Allen.  Jamie Rios, who also received a scholarship, was not present. 

               

              2017 Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Scholarships Awarded 2017-05-10 08:00:00Z 0

              Manitoba Honors Rotary Peace Fellow for Public Achievement

              Manitoba honors Rotary Peace Fellow for public achievement

              Refugees who come to Winnipeg often end up living in areas that are predominantly inhabited by indigenous people. 

              “Newcomers do not know much about the indigenous life and heritage and, without that knowledge, the first thing they encounter is people who are poor and stereotyped by the mainstream community,” says Abdikheir “Abdi” Ahmed, a 2011-12 Rotary Peace Fellow and immigration partnership coordinator for the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg. “Indigenous people may see immigrants as encroaching into their neighborhoods. There is tension between both groups.” 

              Abdikheir “Abdi” Ahmed, a 2011-12 Rotary Peace Fellow and immigration partnership coordinator for the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg.

               

              Ahmed works to smooth relations, helping them see they have more in common than what divides them. “Integration is a two-way process,” he says. 

              In recognition of his work, Ahmed received the Order of the Buffalo Hunt, one of the highest honours for public achievement issued by the Manitoba legislature, in January 2016. 

              “I never thought what I was doing had this significance,” he says. “But I don’t look at what I have done. I look at what needs to be done to bring about better living standards for people.” 

              Ahmed, 37, may understand the needs of immigrants better than most. 

              Originally from Somalia, he and his family fled the conflict there and settled in Kenya when he was a child. 

              My hope is that in the next 20 to 50 years, if we have more Rotary Peace Fellows around the world who are speaking the same language and taking on a leadership role to create an interconnected world, things will change.

              As a young adult, he moved to Canada as part of the national resettlement program. He began working with refugee children who were struggling in school while attending the University of Winnipeg, where he earned a degree in international development in 2007.

              After graduation, Ahmed began working at the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba. 

              He learned about the Rotary Peace Centers program from Noëlle DePape, a colleague who had earned her master’s degree at the University of Queensland, Australia, through the fellowship.

               After Ahmed completed his own peace fellowship at Queensland, he and DePape worked together to develop a curriculum for a summer course that they teach to high school students at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, part of a Rotary District 5550 (Manitoba and parts of Ontario and Saskatchewan) program called Adventures in Human Rights.

              “We help them view the world from the perspective that everyone’s rights are equal and understand the idea of building a community where everyone’s rights are respected and each person is given a fair opportunity,” he says. 

              In addition to his work in Winnipeg, Ahmed serves on the board of Humankind International, an early childhood learning center that he co-founded at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya with two Somali friends who also immigrated to Winnipeg. He says it serves 150 children with four teachers, and he hopes to expand it to accommodate the many children who have to be turned away. 

              Despite the suffering he has witnessed and the daily conflicts he works to resolve, Ahmed is optimistic about the prospects for peace and the potential of the peace centers program. 

              “My hope is that in the next 20 to 50 years, if we have more Rotary Peace Fellows around the world who are speaking the same language and taking on a leadership role to create an interconnected world, things will change,” he says. “I also hope we can find an opportunity for Rotarians and past peace fellows to collaborate on projects in a more defined way.” 

              Ahmed and his wife, Saadi, have three sons. He says their oldest, Mohamed, 9, dreams of playing in the NBA and says that with the money he earns, he will build houses for the homeless people he sees on his way to school. 

              Ibrahim, 7, wants to be a firefighter so he can save people. One-year-old Yussuf has not announced any career plans yet. 

              Support peace and celebrate the Foundation’s centennial 

              To mark this year’s centennial of The Rotary Foundation, the Trustees of The Rotary Foundation have set a goal to register 100 new Arch Klumph Society members worldwide, including seven from Canada.

              Prospective donors who wish to see evidence that their contributions can make a difference need look no further than Abdi Ahmed, whose Rotary Peace Fellowship was funded through an endowment from an Arch Klumph Society member who wishes to remain anonymous.

              Manitoba Honors Rotary Peace Fellow for Public Achievement 2017-05-02 08:00:00Z 0

              RISE Program and Disaster Response Fleet

              Hello Rotarians!
              As a fellow Northwest Rotarian, it was such an honor to witness Sea Mercy displayed on the cover of Rotary Down Under last year, showcasing our health care programs for those living on the thousands of ‘at risk’ remote islands of the South Pacific. Sadly, shortly after that article was published, Cyclone Winston devastated the island nation of Fiji, keeping our volunteer Disaster Response Fleet and volunteers very busy this past year. In 2017, we’ve developed a program that will empower those living on these remote islands to return to the healthy, self-sustaining and thriving communities they once were. We call it RISE and we would like to encourage your club to join us.
              Our RISE Program is a 4-week comprehensive training program that fully embraces the view that for any health, self-sustainable or economic development related program in the South Pacific to succeed, it must start with soils training. Our goal is not to “do it for them,” but to give them the training, inspiration and tools needed for them to succeed on their own. We also want to inspire and empower volunteers of all ages around the world to have the most incredible and life-changing experience during their time with us.
              How can your Rotary Club help?
              Volunteer with us! – Join other international volunteers for 1, 2 or all 4 weeks of the RISE Program on the beautiful remote island of Batiki in Fiji. Whether your background is in healthcare, construction, farming, economic development, nutrition, or in other key program areas, your skills and inspiration are vital. Follow this link to learn more about RISE Volunteer Opportunities and please forward this email to your members and to encourage others to join your club.
              Financial Support – As a 100% volunteer organization, 100% of any donation goes directly to support the RISE Programs for the islanders. Whether individually or as a club, you can donate online (secure site) or by wire transfer (email me for bank details or questions).
              As with all benevolent programs, there are so many ways for Rotary Club members to help. My goal is to encourage members of your club to personally experience the beauty of the people and culture of the South Pacific and to witness firsthand the impact our programs and your donations are having with these ‘at risk’ and forgotten island communities.
              Thank you for your consideration of the above request and please feel free to contact me with any questions.
              All the best to you and your club.
               
              Richard Hackett
              President – Sea Mercy
              President – Fern Ridge Rotary Club (Veneta, Oregon, USA)
              www.seamercy.org
              info@seamercy.org
              541-935-5846
               
               
               
               
               
              RISE Program and Disaster Response Fleet 2017-05-02 08:00:00Z 0

              Clean-Up Day!

              Some pictures of Homer Clean-Up Day 2017.  For the numbers...attend the Meeting!  The results are beautiful!
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Pictures courtesy Jan
               
               
              Clean-Up Day! 2017-04-26 08:00:00Z 0

              By-Laws Updates Approved by Board of Directors

              The revised bylaws with the changes approved at the April 25, 2017 board meeting are attached.  Changes are shown below.

               

              The changes include adding Sections 3 & 4 to Article 6 to address corporate and family memberships as well as the edits to Section 4 of Article 12 to correct the way new members are elected.

               

              In accordance with the Amendments section of our bylaws, these changes should be presented to the membership at least 10 days before approval is considered.

               

                        Article 6 Fees and Dues

                            Section 3 – Corporations/Businesses shall pay a $25.00 one-time fee for each additional member included in the corporate/business membership to cover administrative      expenses.
               
                            Section 4 – Family/couple members shall pay a $20 one-time fee for each member of the family to be included in the membership to cover administrative expenses.
               
               
              Article 12 Method of Electing Members
               

              Section 4 – If the decision of the board is favorable, the prospective member shall be informed of the purposes of Rotary and of the privileges and responsibilities of membership.   The prospective member’s name and classification will be announced to the club.

               

               

              By-Laws Updates Approved by Board of Directors 2017-04-26 08:00:00Z 0

              Where Polio Hides

              The discovery of the poliovirus in Nigeria last summer shocked eradication efforts. Here’s how Rotary is making sure it doesn’t happen again

              By Photos by

              For a 13-month-old boy whose family lives in northeastern Nigeria, escaping Boko Haram was only the beginning of a long, difficult journey.

              When his family finally arrived at the Muna Garage camp for internally displaced people (IDP), they had walked more than 130 miles in three days. They were starving, and the camp was only a temporary setup with inadequate facilities, housing more than 15,000 people. But the worst news was yet to come. Health officials in the camp determined the baby had polio.

              “It was heartbreaking,” says Tunji Funsho, chair of the Nigeria PolioPlus Committee and a member of the Rotary Club of Lekki Phase I. Funsho met the boy on a trip he took in August to three of the country’s IDP camps. “At least (the family was) able to escape Boko Haram. The child was able to walk but with a limp, and was quite malnourished.”

              If it weren’t for the polio surveillance system that the World Health Organization (WHO) has in place at every one of Nigeria’s IDP camps, Funsho says, the boy’s polio could have easily gone unnoticed. In fact, it was a shock to the entire polio eradication effort in the country that a case existed at all. 

              View Slideshow

              An estimated 15,000 people live in the Muna Garage camp, an informal settlement on private land. 

               

              The country hadn’t had a case since July 2014 and had been removed from the list of polio-endemic countries. But in August 2016, routine surveillance methods, which include sampling of sewage and wastewater to look for viruses circulating in the wild as well as monitoring and investigating all cases of paralysis in children, discovered two cases of polio in Borno state – one of them the 13-month-old. (Two more cases were subsequently reported.) Polio wasn’t gone from Nigeria after all. 

              “The new cases devastated us. Even one case is unacceptable. It’s very unfortunate we are in this position, but we are recalibrating our efforts to end this disease,” Nigeria’s health minister, Isaac Adewole, told Rotary leaders during a meeting at Rotary International World Headquarters at the time. “We consider this situation a national emergency.”

               

              Where Polio Hides 2017-04-25 08:00:00Z 0
              Your Gift: From Start to Finish 2017-04-25 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary, ShelterBox in Peru to Help Flood Victims

              Rotary, ShelterBox in Peru to help flood victims

               

              Rotary International has been working with its partner ShelterBox to provide relief to flood victims in Peru. 

              Since February, flash flooding and mudslides have damaged and destroyed thousands of buildings, including homes, schools, and churches  in several countries in western South America.

              Rotary and Rotaract in Peru have reported widespread destruction there. A ShelterBox response team is working with local authorities and Rotary to assess the damage and determine how to help people in the northwest region of the country.

              The floods in Peru have killed more than 100 people. According to the Los Angeles times, relief agencies estimate that 700,000  people have been left homeless.  Heavy rains are expected to continue for the rest of the week. 

              Where flood waters have receded, they’ve left behind a thick layer of mud. This can lead to serious health problems and irritation of the eyes, skin, and respiratory tract, ShelterBox officials say.

              Rotary, ShelterBox in Peru to Help Flood Victims 2017-04-20 08:00:00Z 0

              8,000 Kilometers to Peace

                 

              Rotary members in a small town of Nova Scotia, Canada, took action to bring two families from war-torn Syria to their country, where the refugees are starting a new life.

              By Produced by

              Sultanah Alchehade and her husband, Mazan, wanted to live in a smaller community like they did in Syria so they chose Amherst instead of Toronto or Montreal.

               

               

               

              2 of 5

              Mazen Alchehade, who works for a landscaping company, walks his 6-year-old daughter, Kawthar, to her bus stop before school. 

              3 of 5

              Mazen and Sultanah Alchehade are building a new life for their children in Nova Scotia after being forced to flee their home during Syria’s violent civil war.  More than 11 million people have been displaced since the conflict began in 2011

              4 of 5

              Sultanah Alchehade and her husband, Mazan, wanted to live in a smaller community like they did in Syria so they chose Amherst instead of Toronto or Montreal. 

              5 of 5

              The Alchehade children enjoy playing in the snow.

              Rotary Club of Amherst were thinking about their next international project. Over the years, the group has helped build and equip a school in South Africa, provided educational materials to students in the Bahamas, and raised funds for disaster-stricken areas around the world, but their thoughts turned to Syria as the plight of refugees dominated the news.

               
              8,000 Kilometers to Peace 2017-04-12 08:00:00Z 0

              New Member Inducted!

              New member, Joan Frederick, was inducted at the April 6, 2017 meeting and welcomed to the Club.  Her sponsor and mentor is Gina Pelaia.

               
              Joan Frederick was born and raised in the rural midwest. She lived in Columbus, Ohio until retirement and then came, sight unseen to Alaska. Her son was working here and had made this his home. Since moving to Alaska, after 30 years she finally had the chance to be a full time stay at home mom to her grown son. Both enjoyed that time, but he recently transferred to Anchorage and Joan chose to stay in Homer. And she wants to become part of this community through volunteering.

               

              New Member Inducted! 2017-04-12 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Guns, Weapons, and Armament Policy

               

              President Early and Past President Forrest attended a webinar held Monday evening on Rotary International's new and controversial policy on guns.  The meeting was at the request of District 5010 District Governor O'Brien and chaired by RI Director Dean Rohrs.  Many comments on the new policy were sent in and presented to Director Rohrs who explained the lengthy process in developing the new policy.  The main concern was that Rotary and/or it's members would be responsible for accidents and crimes committed with the guns obtained from Rotary events.  She also reminded us that the policy had to address concerns internationally - not just for America.

               

              Most comments concerned the fact that this policy was developed without input from the clubs.  The process began in December, 2015, with a memo that a revised policy was being developed and they would get back to clubs at a later date.  That was the last notice until the new final policy came out in January this year.  There was impassioned comments made by District 5010 members mainly concerning the fact that all guns are viewed as "weapons" by R.I. and not a means of food gathering and non-lethal items. 

               

              Information on the new policy was sent out to all out members last week so there is no need to go into detail on the specifics of what is allowed and not allowed under the new policy.  However, DG O'Brien was adamant that we were not allowed to comment on the development of the policy and it should be re-evaluated at the next RI Board of Directors meeting in June.   Director Rohr was astounded by the passion presented during this meeting and ensured us the new policy would be reviewed in June.

               

              RI Director Dean Rohrs is asking that ALL members who have any comments concerning the new (updated) policy on firearms, weapons, and armaments, to please contact her AND Laurie McCarthy (from the RI office).  Laurie is gathering all of the comments that are submitted to her into a single document for the RI Directors to be able to read.  Should you not feel up to writing your comments down, you may call her and she will transcribe them for you.  Please understand that Laurie has absolutely NO part in the decision making, and is acting as a neutral party to gather all of the comments.  Laurie's contact information is:  < Laurie.McCarthy@Rotary.org >, and her phone number is 847-824-5289.

               

              Please submit your comments as soon as possible.  The Rotary International Board of Directors meets in June, and the information must be submitted in a timely manner so that all of the Directors might have time to read it.

               

               

               

               

              Rotary Guns, Weapons, and Armament Policy 2017-04-12 08:00:00Z 0

              Help Wanted -- Part 3

                 HELP WANTED (NEEDED)!--Part 3
               

                   -We are looking for a Chair for the Membership Committee beginning July, 2017

               

               

              Help Wanted -- Part 3 2017-04-11 08:00:00Z 0

              Alzheimer's/Dementia Rotary Action Group Information

              Alzheimers / Dementia Rotarian Action Group
               
               

              What is Alzheimer’s?

              Alzheimer’s disease (AD), is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death. It was first described by German psychiatrist and neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer in 1906 and was named after him. Most often, AD is diagnosed in people over 65 years of age, although the less-prevalent early-onset Alzheimer’s can occur much earlier. In 2006, there were projected to be about 26.6 million people worldwide with AD. Alzheimer’s is predicted to affect 1 in 85 people globally by 2050.

              Although Alzheimer’s disease develops differently for every individual, there are many common symptoms. Early symptoms are often mistakenly thought to be ‘age-related’ concerns, or manifestations of stress. In the early stages, the most common symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events, known as short term memory loss. When AD is suspected, the diagnosis is usually confirmed with tests that evaluate behavior and thinking abilities, sometimes followed by a brain scan if available, however, examination of brain tissue is required for a definitive diagnosis. As the disease advances, symptoms can include confusion, irritability, aggression, mood swings, trouble with language, and long-term memory loss. As the person’s condition declines they often withdraw from family and society. Gradually, bodily functions are lost, ultimately leading to death. Since the disease is different for each individual, predicting how it will affect the person is difficult. AD develops for an unknown and variable amount of time before becoming fully apparent, and it can progress undiagnosed for years. On average, the life expectancy following diagnosis is approximately seven years. Fewer than 3% of individuals live more than 14 years after diagnosis.

              AD is classified as a neurodegenerative disorder. The cause and progression of the disease are not well understood; it is associated with plaques and tangles in the brain. Current treatments only help with the symptoms of the disease. There are no available treatments that stop or reverse the progression of the disease. As of 2012, more than 1,000 clinical trials have been or are being conducted to test various compounds in AD. Mental stimulation, exercise, and a balanced diet have been suggested as ways to delay cognitive symptoms (though not brain pathology) in healthy older individuals, but there is no conclusive evidence supporting an effect.

              Because AD cannot be cured and is degenerative, the affected person increasingly relies on others for assistance. The role of the main caregiver is often taken by the spouse or a close relative. Alzheimer’s disease is known for placing a great burden on caregivers; the pressures can be wide-ranging, involving social, psychological, physical, and economic elements of the caregiver’s life. In developed countries, AD is one of the most costly diseases to society.

              Alzheimer's/Dementia Rotary Action Group Information 2017-04-05 08:00:00Z 0

              Help Wanted!

                                     HELP WANTED (NEEDED)!
               

                   -We are looking for a Chair for the Membership Committee beginning July, 2017

                  -

                  - We are looking for a Club Treasurer beginning July, 2017

               

                  - After 11 years, Sharon Minsch is stepping down as coordinator of the Health Fair following the 2017 event. 

                     We are seeking candidates for  this position.  Anyone interested, please contact Tom Early or Beth Trowbridge for more information. 

              Help Wanted! 2017-04-04 08:00:00Z 0
              Part 2-Mongolian Open World Delegation Visits Homer and Homer 2017-04-04 08:00:00Z 0

              Driven to Serve

              Driven to Serve

               

              Skip to main content

              Rotary road trip hits 14 West Coast cities to work with clubs and communities

              By Photos by

              Hundreds of Rotarians applauded as a 25-foot recreational vehicle rambled toward the Fess Parker hotel, a palm-lined resort on the Pacific oceanfront in Santa Barbara, Calif.  

              Two Rotarians, two Rotaractors, and a district governor on board the RV had just concluded a 2,400-mile road trip that originated in Seattle nearly two weeks earlier, stopping for service projects in Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, and Arizona. (There was also a kickoff party in October in Hawaii.) The road trip helped link Rotarians with charitable organizations in their home communities, encouraged clubs to partner with their crosstown counterparts, and illustrated the scope and value of Rotary.

               

              View Slideshow

              The RV team includes Nicholas Domingo, left, Katie Coard, Joey Vaesen, Abbey Hawthorne, Melissa Cross, and Wulff Reinhold. 

               

              After a brief welcome, more than 400 Rotarians, some with spouses, piled onto buses and followed the RV to two Boys & Girls clubs in Santa Barbara where they hoisted paintbrushes, sandpaper, hammers, and rakes to revitalize the youth centers. (Local Rotarians, along with members of Interact and Rotaract, met separately to refurbish a third club, in Carpinteria.) Dozens stayed behind at the hotel to fill 400 backpacks that would later be given to the children. The point: a potent display of the power of Rotary.

              “I was amazed,” says Jeff Henley, vice chairman of Oracle Corp. and a governor of the national board of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, who watched the mob of Rotarians give a center a face-lift by painting the hallways and gymnasiums, adding storage lockers, weeding playfields, and refinishing picnic tables.  

              Santa Barbara Rotarian Michael Baker is the CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Barbara County, which serves about 550 children every day, mostly underprivileged youth who find the clubs to be an after-school haven. “It was beautiful, ” Baker says. “There were teams assembling cubbies, teams sanding and painting benches, teams doing general cleaning. We had another two sets of teams cataloging books. Nobody was standing around.”

              Joey Vaesen, a 21-year-old member of the Rotaract Club of Victoria, B.C., rode in the RV and was the youngest person on the tour. 

              Watch Video

              Joey Vaesen, a 21-year-old member of the Rotaract Club of Victoria, B.C., was the youngest person on the tour. 

               

              In Santa Barbara, he cleared brush from a playground at a Boys & Girls club as others, including Past RI President William B. Boyd, painted a door in a blue closely matching Rotary’s hue. Vaesen signed on for the RV expedition at the suggestion of Katie Coard, charter president of the Rotary Club of Downtown Victoria. “It started off as this public image type thing,” he explains. “We were focusing on what Rotary is doing on the West Coast and just trying to get the word out there.” But Vaesen says the RV tour also ended up connecting local clubs that otherwise might not have worked together. 

              The 14-city RV expedition was primarily organized by Danielle Lallement, charter president of the Rotary Club of San Francisco Evening. The self-described tour manager says the RV trip was modeled after a similar journey in which four Rotarians drove an RV from Pennsylvania to Iowa a year earlier. 

              That foray, called Rollin’ with Rotary, was inspired by RI Vice President Jennifer E. Jones. Jones had asked the participants of the 2014 Young Professionals Summit, a Chicago meeting of 32 young Rotary leaders, to “dream big,” and one suggested an RV tour. 

              “We took their idea and expanded it,” says Lallement, who called this tour “Connecting for Good.” RI Director Brad Howard gave the road trip his stamp of approval. “The tour was organized and orchestrated by these emerging Rotary leaders – every aspect, all the finances, all the logistics,” Howard says. 

              Giving younger Rotarians freedom to make a difference in Rotary is key to the organization’s vibrance.

              Giving younger Rotarians freedom to make a difference in Rotary is key to the organization’s vibrancy, Howard and Lallement say. Separately, the two bemoan the obstacles that younger Rotarians have faced. 

              “One club, to get on the board of directors, you had to be in the club for eight years,” says Lallement, who chartered what is now a 40-member club with an average age of about 37. “Especially in the area I live in, you have tech people, they’re millionaires, and they’re 25, maybe 30. You ask them to come into an organization and then you tell them that they can’t be the leader of the organization? So they don’t join. Or they come into the club and they realize, ‘well, they obviously don’t need me.’ ”

              “Only in Rotary could people in their 30s or 40s be called young professionals,” Howard says. Only about 5 percent of Rotarians are under 40. 

              Inspired by the Chicago Young Professionals Summit, Lallement and Howard developed their own zone summit to match young Rotarian professionals with older ones, the “cultural” leaders of Rotary. 

              “We wanted to develop a network of emerging Rotary leaders and put them in leadership roles,” says Howard. “But we needed buy-in from the current leadership – the 50-, 60-, 70-year-olds – to view these people in their district as having a voice. We hired two professors of innovation and change management from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.” The summit showed participants that, young or old, Rotarians all have common ground – they share the same values and goals.

              View Slideshow

              At the Boys & Girls Club of San Dieguito in Encinitas, 150 U.S. Navy sailors helped Rotarians, Interactors, and Rotaractors clean up a half-acre garden. 

               

              Celebrating the meeting’s success over champagne, Lallement and a small group decided that one way to present a younger image of Rotary to the world would be to replicate the Rollin’ with Rotary RV tour. 

              Driven to Serve 2017-03-29 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Scholar Combines Business and Environment

              Rotary scholar combines business and environment

               

              The daughter of a Macedonian foreign service officer, Anja Nikolova grew up in London, New York, and Venice. Her globe-trotting childhood gave her not only a gift for languages (she’s fluent in five), but also a passion for international environmental issues. With the aid of global grants funded by Rotary districts from Texas, Oklahoma, and Connecticut, Nikolova is working toward her master’s degree in environmental management at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the Yale Center for Business and the Environment. She has interned at the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition – an initiative to accelerate action on climate change – and attended the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris as a member of the Macedonian delegation.

              Anja Nikolova is a Rotary International scholar.

               

              Q: How did you become interested in environmental issues?

              A: It was when my family lived in Venice, because we got floods all the time. Everything just shut down. You walked out of your house and walked into a lake. I remember thinking, “If this happens in such a wealthy city, then I can’t even begin to imagine what happens in other places in the world that are not as fortunate.”

              Q: What led you to study at Yale, and what are you hoping to accomplish there?

              A: I did an internship with Earthmind, an organization supported by and with its headquarters at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, an environmental NGO in Switzerland. That’s when I started becoming more interested in the international environmental scene. Because the environment is so interwoven with other fields, I felt I needed a broader degree, and that’s why I applied to Yale.

              I’m interested in tying together the environment and economics on a larger scale to understand the feasibility of certain environmental projects. In the end, if whatever you pursue doesn’t make business sense, it’s probably not going to work. That has to be acknowledged and seen as an opportunity rather than as a threat. 

              Q: Tell us about your work in Ghana.

              A: When I worked at IUCN, one of the projects there was a community agricultural and forestry project in Mole National Park in Ghana. The vision was to empower villagers living on the fringes of the park by teaching them to farm the products that are in the park and then sell them. They don’t have the technical support to sell them at a scale that’s profitable. I’ve connected this project with some Rotarians, and together we’ve managed to raise more than $100,000 for it. Rotarians in Ghana are also very involved. 

              Q: Now that you’re in the United States, do you have much opportunity to speak languages other than English?

              A: I speak maybe three or four languages on a daily basis. With my parents, I speak in Macedonian. With my sister, I speak in Italian. With my friends, it depends. It’s not that I’m some sort of genius; I was just fortunate to grow up in different countries and learn different languages by default.

              That has actually motivated me to co-found something at Yale: a program called Tandem Language Café. We match native speakers of two languages who want to learn each other’s language. The pairs meet once a week for eight weeks, and it’s free. This year we had more than 400 applicants. If I had the time this semester, I would even participate, but I’m just so overwhelmed with everything. Otherwise, I would love to learn Mandarin. 

              – Anne Ford

               

              In the end, if whatever you pursue doesn’t make business sense, it’s probably not going to work. That has to be acknowledged and seen as an opportunity rather than as a threat. 


              Rotary scholar

              Rotary Scholar Combines Business and Environment 2017-03-29 08:00:00Z 0

              Mongolian Open World Delegation Visits Homer and Homer Rotary

              The Open World visit of the Delegation of Mongolian Parliamentarians was a huge success thanks to your support. Your outstanding efforts made things happen. Special mention goes out to Susie Quinn for her gracious hosting on Saturday evening; to Jan Knutson for working us into a very busy Chamber of Commerce schedule; to Tom Early for driving the “Magic Bus”, and especially to our Host Families. These “Moms and Dads” provided our guests with true Homer hospitality. The Delegates departed safely Sunday afternoon knowing that Homer would be the highlight of their visit to Alaska. As the pictures below show, they participated fully in what Homer had to offer.

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

              Mongolian Open World Delegation Visits Homer and Homer Rotary 2017-03-28 08:00:00Z 0

              Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Announces Grants for Non-Profits

               
               

              Attention,   Non Profits of Homer

               

              Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club invites you to apply for a mini grant that we are offering to a few local entities.   These are for local projects that will benefit the community and or its children, and will range in amounts up to $1,000.00, depending on the scope of the project, value to the greater Homer area and availability of funds.  We are especially interested in projects where our members can also be involved.

              Please email Milli Martin at millimom@xyz.net for application forms.

              These must be completed and returned before April 30, 2017.

               

              Thank you.

               

              Milli Martin, Chair

              Community Service Committee

              Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club

              Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Announces Grants for Non-Profits 2017-03-22 08:00:00Z 0

              Lunches with the Open World Visitors

               
               

              There are three lunches:

               

              Mar 24-Brown Bag at the Kenai Peninsula College Campus 12:00-1:00PM (Box Lunch from Mike’s: $12.00)

              Mar 25- Catered Lunch at the Homer Visitor’s Center  11:30 Am -12:45 PM (Buffet from Vida’s: $15.00)

              Mar 26- Lunch at Chart Room, Land’s End 11:30 Am -12:45 PM (Pay as you go)

               

              Notify Bernie Griffard on Thursday Mar 23, and bring lunch money
               
              All Rotarians are invited to all of the Open World Activities.  Please Contact Bernie Griffard at 717-319-2653 for further information and to make reservations.
              Lunches with the Open World Visitors 2017-03-22 08:00:00Z 0

              New Book Praises Rotary's Role in Fight to End Polio

              New book praises Rotary's role in fight to end polio 

               

              A new book in the field of public health highlights Rotary’s role in the global effort to wipe out polio, and places it in the context of humanity’s relentless struggle to contain the world’s epidemics.

              In “The Health of Nations: The Campaign to End Polio and Eradicate Epidemic Diseases” (Oneworld Publications), British journalist and Sunday Times best-selling author Karen Bartlett surveys the global landscape of epidemics past, present, and future. Beginning with the 1980 eradication of smallpox, she guides us through more timely threats such as the Ebola and Zika viruses, and looks ahead to a future without malaria, measles, or polio.

               

              “Who decided to rid the world of polio? Not politicians or global health organizations, as you might expect,” she writes, in one of several chapters devoted to polio. “The starting gun was fired by Rotary International, a network of businessmen more used to enjoying convivial dinners, raising money for local good causes, and organizing floats to carry Santa Claus around suburban neighborhoods at Christmas.”

              Bartlett offers a comprehensive, readable account of the polio-eradication campaign’s history and Rotary’s unlikely role as its chief advocate. From epidemiologist John Sever’s early suggestion that Rotary adopt ending polio as an organizational mission to the first immunization drives in the Philippines and Central and South America, the world community doubted both the idea of a campaign targeting a single disease and Rotary’s capacity as a volunteer organization to execute it.

              The narrative traces Rotary’s mission to reach all the world’s children with Albert Sabin’s polio vaccine, the formation of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), and the struggle to interrupt transmission in the world’s poorest communities, particularly in densely populated countries like India, which has not reported a new case since 2011.

              “Polio eradication is a twentieth-century dream, conceived by idealists and driven by big international institutions and mass mobilizations of volunteers, working together to make a better world for all,” Bartlett writes. “It must succeed or fail, however, in a twenty-first century marked by factionalism, religious intolerance, and rising inequality.”

              Aziz Memon, chair of Rotary’s National PolioPlus Committee in Pakistan, is interviewed about the challenges facing his country, one of the few where polio remains endemic and conflict has slowed progress. Carol Pandak, director of PolioPlus at Rotary headquarters, weighs in on the contributions of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in both funding and high-profile advocacy. Other prominent voices from Rotary’s GPEI partners chime in throughout.

              Based in London, Bartlett has previously worked in politics and written for Newsweek and Wired. She’s produced documentary films and written nonfiction books, including a biography of musician Dusty Springfield and a collaboration with Anne Frank’s stepsister Eva Schloss on Schloss’ memoirs.N

              New Book Praises Rotary's Role in Fight to End Polio 2017-03-22 08:00:00Z 0

              Drawing Connections

              Rotary Club pairs students with celebrity and CEO mentors

              Written by Photos by Chalk art by

              Snow is falling in St. Joseph, Michigan. On this December day, the overcast sky, swirling flakes, and twinkling bulbs of holiday decorations have created a festive, almost Capraesque atmosphere along the brick-paved streets of this community, which sits on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. Across the street from the Boulevard Inn, stairs lead down to Silver Beach, a 1,600-foot-long expanse of sand that is the town’s main attraction in warmer months.  

              Inside the inn’s restaurant, Jackie Huie sits at a corner table explaining the student mentoring program that the Rotary Club of St. Joseph & Benton Harbor started a decade ago – a program that has helped more than 400 local high school students learn more about their dream careers by connecting them with professionals in those fields.

              The exposure to community service that the program provides has led students to start Interact clubs at six local schools, including one at St. Joseph High School that has about 150 members. As the Rotarians work their connections to find mentors for students, they have strengthened the bonds between the 140-member Rotary club and its community. And in small ways, the program is even building bridges between St. Joseph and its “twin city” across the St. Joseph River – Benton Harbor, a once-affluent manufacturing town fallen on hard times.  

              “I grew up in an entrepreneur family where my father did something I found interesting, and he allowed me to see behind the scenes,” says Huie, CEO of JohnsonRauhoff, an ad agency her father built. “I felt very fortunate to be able to do that, and I want that opportunity for others.”

               

              Drawing Connections 2017-03-22 08:00:00Z 0

              Kenai Peninsula Borough Sponsoring a Town Hall Meeting

               
               

              We're having a "Town Hall Meeting" in Homer on April 6th at 5:30 p.m. at the Islands & Oceans Center.  What I'm trying to do is expand the debate on the state's fiscal situation to the broader topic of the economy of Alaska.  Should be interesting and we wanted to make sure we included as many groups as possible in the discussions.  It will be hosted by the Kenai Peninsula Borough and I'll be doing a good part of the presentation and answering questions.  It's something I'm passionate about and am growing increasingly concerned about the progress, as well as the tenor of the debate.

               

              Best regards,

               

              Mike Navarre

              Kenai Peninsula Borough Sponsoring a Town Hall Meeting 2017-03-22 08:00:00Z 0
              Map to Quinn's 2017-03-22 08:00:00Z 0

              NEW   Final Agenda for Mongolian Open World Visit

              Please Note that there are several changes from the previous Agendas!!!!
               
               
               
              OPEN WORLD PROGRAM
               
               
              Sponsored by the
              Open World Leadership Center
               
               
              THEME: Alaska Local Governance: Responsible, Accountable, and Open
              Dates: March 23-26, 2017
               
               
              Delegate, Facilitator and Interpreter Names
              Ms. Batsukh Saranchimeg (Group Leader)
              Mr. Dakiyei Murat
              Ms. Navaan-Yunden Oyundari
              Mr. Damdin Tsogtbaatar
              Mr. Namsrai Tserenbat
              Mr. Gulguu Zolboo (Facilitator)
              Ms. Chimgee Erdenechimeg (Interpreter)
               
              Official Host City
              Homer, Alaska
               
              Host Organization
              Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club
               
              Local Host Coordinator Name
              Bernie Griffard
              735 Soundview Ave, PO Box 1347, Homer, AK 99603
              717-319-2653, griffbfgak@gmail.com
               
              Administered by
              Rotary International
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Description of host Rotary Club or District
              Rotary District 5010 covers Alaska USA and Yukon Territory Canada. More than 1,700 Rotarians and 39 Rotary Clubs provide humanitarian and community service projects in our cities and towns as well as many regions around the world. The Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club has 64 members from many different professions as well as retired individuals. The annual Rotary Health Fair is our major community service project. We also sponsored the Homer Downtown Rotary Club.
               
              THURSDAY, 23 MARCH 2017 (Arriving from Anchorage)
               
              GOAL:          
              ·       Safe arrival and welcome of the Delegation and smooth transition to host families
              ·       Develop an understanding of American culture and society and contribute to enhanced American knowledge of Mongolian society, culture, and institutions.
               
               
              7:35 – 8:15 PM          Delegation Arrival Bernie Griffard, Open World Coordinator; Homer Airport, 3720 FAA St, Homer, AK 99603; (717) 319-2653; griffbfgak@gmail.com
               
              Arrive in Homer Ravn Air Flight 7H 880
              Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club meet delegation at Homer Airport
                                                  Link up delegation with host families.
               
              Evening                      Host family
               
              FRIDAY, 24 MARCH 2017
               
              GOAL:          
              ·       Relationships between local, borough and state governments.
              ·       Opportunity to compare the governance processes of Homer’s Mayor-City Manager with the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s (KPB) strong Mayor form of local government.
              ·       Develop an understanding of how citizens and interest groups work within the Homer city government process to affect the governing process.
              ·       Exchange professional expertise with members of the Homer business and civic communities.
              ·       Develop an understanding of American culture and society and contribute to enhanced American knowledge of Mongolian society, culture, and institutions.
               
              Breakfast with host family
               
              9:00 – 9:45 AM          Visit Orientation Mr. Tom Early, President, Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club; City Hall Small Conference Room; (907) 399-2432; minerscourt@yahoo.com
               
              Delegation information exchange. Review of visit agenda and background/programs of the Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club
               
              10:00 – 11:45 AM      Homer City Government RoundtableMayor Bryan Zak and City Manager Katie Koester; Homer City Hall, 491 E. Pioneer Ave, Homer, AK 99603
               
              Roundtable will provide the forum for an exchange of ideas on local administration systems, how City and Borough governments tackle key problems such as air pollution, infrastructure, and energy allocation. Also, the processes in place for dealing with  with complaint, petition, opinion and compliments from the public. An area of special interest are local programs and policies relating to domestic violence.
               
              12:00 – 1:00 PM        LUNCH          Brown Bag at the Kenai Peninsula College Campus Carol Swartz ciswartz@alaska.edu; 533 East Pioneer Ave., Homer, Alaska 99603, (907) 235-7743
               
              Delegates will receive a tour of the Kenai Peninsula College Kachemak Bay Campus, followed by a working lunch and discussions on the College’s post-secondary educations and job training programs and system.
               
               
              1:15 – 2:30 PM          Windshield tour of Homer and the Homer Spit. Mr. Tom Early, President, Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club; (907) 399-2432; minerscourt@yahoo.com
               
              Delegates receive a familiarization tour of the City of Homer and the Homer Spit.
               
               
              2:45 – 3:40 PM          Healthcare on the Kenai Peninsula. Conference Room #1, South Peninsula Hospital (SPH), 4300 Bartlett St, Homer, AK 99603. Derotha Ferraro, Dir., Marketing & Public Relations, SPH, 907-235-0397
              Emily Read, Seldovia Village Tribal (SVT) Medical Clinic and Wellness Center, 907-226-2228
              Missi White, South Peninsula Women’s Services (Haven House)
              907-235-7712
               
              This facilities tour and roundtable provides an in depth look at Homer’s health sector infrastructure, and the sector options for domestic violence victims. This is also a forum to explore expansion of health and education sector cooperation between our two countries.
               
              3:45 -4:30 PM            SVT Site Visit, 880 East End Road, Homer, AK 99603, and Haven House Site Visit, 3776 Lake St, Homer, AK 99603
               
              Visits to key health sector facilities not located on the to South Peninsula Hospital campus.
               
              4:30 PM                     Free time with host families to allow delegates to delve further into Homer’s highlights
               
              6:15 – 9:00 PM          Dinner with Delegation Cultural Presentation. Alice’s Champagne Palace, 195 E. Pioneer Ave, Homer, AK 99603
               
              SATURDAY 25 MARCH 2017
               
              GOAL:          
              ·       Experience examples of the civic, NGOs and the business and educational communities in action.
              ·       Experience Homer’s quality of life advantages
              ·       Develop an understanding of American culture and society and contribute to enhanced American knowledge of Mongolian society, culture, and institutions.
               
               
              Breakfast with host family
               
              9:00 – 11:15 AM        Chamber of Commerce Roundtable. Ms. Janet Knutson, Events Manager,907-235-7740, Homer Chamber of Commerce; 201 Sterling Hwy, Homer, AK  99603
               
              The Homer Chamber of Commerce hosts this occasion for the delegation see how a Homer promotes tourism through local events and industries (Winter King Tournament; Halibut Tournament; Commercial and Charter fishing; mariculture). It will introduce Homer’s growing agricultural sector (high tunnels, fruits, vegetables, and honey production) and Farmer’s Market, and the growing influence it is having on local commerce. This opportunity to exchange ideas with local businessmen and entrepreneurs on how local government, businesses and NGOs interact to build a stronger community is a valuable take away for the delegation’s visit to Homer.
               
              11:30 AM–12:45 PM            Lunch Catered by Vida's Thai Restaurant Homer Chamber of Commerce, 201 Sterling Hwy, Homer, AK  99603
               
              1:00 – 2:15 PM          Environmental Stewardship and Outdoor Education. Center for Alaska Coastal Studies (CACS), 708 Smokey Bay Way, Homer, AK 99603.
               
              Homer-Kachemak Bay is one of the most ecologically diverse and productive places in the world. By interfacing with the Center for Alaska Coastal Studies (CACS), the Kachemak Heritage Land Trust, and the Cook Inletkeeper, the delegation will see how environmental stewardship and outdoor education benefit the local community. The activities of the CACS encourage tourism and build a sense of environmental responsibility in our younger generation. The Kachemak Heritage Land Trust (KHLT) supports preservation, for public benefit, land with significant natural, recreational, or cultural values on the Kenai Peninsula. Cook Inletkeeper is Alaska’s conscience of one of its main commercial and recreational resources.
                         
              2:30 – 3:45 PM          Pratt Museum 3779 Bartlett Street, Homer, AK 99603; 907-235-
                                                  8635   
               
              The Pratt Museum hosts indoor exhibits of natural history, Native cultures, art, homesteading, quilts, fishing, and marine ecology with live aquaria. It has been recognized with the National Award for Museum Service, and the Governor’s Award for the Humanities.
               
              3:45 – 4:00 PM          Travel by Bus to Homer Spit
               
              4:00 – 4:40 PM          Winter King Salmon Tournament Homer Spit
               
              The Homer Chamber of Commerce holds a one-day Winter King Salmon tournament. Watch the fishermen weigh their catch as they compete for cash prizes.
               
              4:40 – 5:00 PM          Travel by Bus to Open House
               
              5:00-7:00 PM             Open House Susan and Mike Quinn’s, 5165 Hopkins Way,
                                                  Homer, AK; 907-299-3551
               
                                                  Host families link up with delegates at the Open House
               
               
              SUNDAY 26 MARCH 2017
               
              GOAL:
              ·       Reinforce the Open World experience of understanding different cultures by establishing a continuing relationship with the Delegation.
              ·       Safe transfer of Delegation to Juneau
               
              Breakfast with host family
               
              Morning                     Free Time, pack, and prepare for departure
               
              11:30 AM-12:45 PM Lunch Chart Room Restaurant, Land's End Resort, 4786 Homer Spit Rd, Homer, AK 99603; (907) 235-0400
               
              1:00 – 2:25 PM          Homer Harbor Walking Tour Bryan Hawkins, Harbormaster, 4350 Homer Spit Rd, Homer, AK 99603; (907) 235-3160
               
              The Homer Harbor provides space for sail and motor vessels, commercial fishing boats, water taxis, and the charter fleet. It is a major player in Homer’s key role in the commercial fishing industry and the economically important charter fishing fleet.
               
              2:30 – 2:45 PM          Transportation to Homer Airport
               
              2:45 -3:15 PM            Airport Check-In Bernie Griffard, Open World Coordinator; Homer Airport, 3720 FAA St, Homer, AK 99603; (717) 319-2653; griffbfgak@gmail.com
                         
              3:50 PM                     Delegation Departure. Delegation depart for Anchorage/Juneau, Ravn Air Flight 7H 879 
               
               
                         
              NEW   Final Agenda for Mongolian Open World Visit 2017-03-22 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Women Inspire

                 

              Women share stories of humanitarian service on International Women's Day

              What motivates everyday women to do extraordinary things — to positively change the lives of people halfway around the world while inspiring so many folks at home?

              Razia Jan, the founder and director of the Zabuli Education Center, was honored on International Women's Day.  

               

              Three Rotary members answered that question at a celebration of International Women’s Day hosted by the World Bank at its Washington, D.C., headquarters 8 March. 

              Speaking to an audience of more than 300, with thousands listening to the live-stream, Razia Jan, Deborah Walters, and Ann Lee Hussey told their personal stories and explained what inspired them to build a girls school in Afghanistan, assist people living in a Guatemala City garbage dump, and lead more than 24 teams to immunize children in Africa and Asia.

              “I’m so inspired to see the faces of the children, what they’re learning, how to stand up for their rights, to have ambition ... to want to do things that may even be impossible — to have dreams,” said Jan, a member of the Rotary Club of Duxbury, Massachusetts, USA. 

              An Afghan native now living in the United States, Jan has worked for decades to build connections between Afghans and Americans while improving the lives of young women and girls in Afghanistan.

              Founder and director of the Zabuli Education Center, a school that serves more than 625 girls in Deh’Subz, Afghanistan, Jan said the first class of students graduated in 2015 and a women’s college will open soon. 

              Dr. Deborah Walters, a member of the Rotary Club of Unity, was honored by the World Bank at International Women's Day.  

               

              The girls school teaches math, English, science, and technology, along with practical skills to prepare them to achieve economic freedom within a challenging social environment.

               Walters, a neuroscientist and member of the Rotary Club of Unity, Maine, USA, has served as a volunteer for Safe Passage (Camino Seguro), a nonprofit organization that provides educational and social services to children and families who live in a Guatemala City garbage dump.

              Walters, known as the “kayaking grandmother,” traveled from her home in Maine to Guatemala in a small kayak to raise awareness of the plight of the residents.

              Hussey, a member of the Rotary Club of Portland Sunrise, Maine, has made the eradication of polio and the alleviation of suffering by polio survivors her life’s work.

              A polio survivor herself, she’s spent the past 14years leading teams of Rotary volunteers to developing countries to immunize children during National Immunization Days.

              Ann Lee Hussey was honored for her lifelong work in polio eradication.

               

              She often chooses to lead or participate in NIDs in places that don’t often see Westerners: Bangladesh, Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and remote areas of Egypt and India. There, the need is greatest, and the publicity and goodwill that the trips foster are critical in communicating the urgency of the need for immunizations.

              “These women exemplify what the World Bank is striving to attain every day with the twin goals of ending extreme poverty within a generation and boosting shared prosperity,” said Daniel Sellen, chair of the World Bank Group Staff Association. “They illustrate the power of women to change the world and improve people’s lives through innovative and impactful projects in education, economic development, and health.”

              Rotary Women Inspire 2017-03-15 08:00:00Z 0

              Stigma and Superstition

                 

              Hunted for body parts and isolated by fear, Tanzanians with albinism find safe futures with help of Rotary, Sister Martha

              By Produced by
              It’s the peak of the afternoon in Nyamizeze, Tanzania, and Martha Mganga is in her element. 
              Better known as Sister Martha, the 54-year-old Rotary community advocate is one of her country’s most prolific campaigners for the rights of people with albinism, the often-misunderstood, inherited condition characterized by abnormally light skin, eyes, and hair, limited vision, and extreme sensitivity to the sun. 
              Mganga, an albino herself, has spent three decades helping those with the condition get an education, protect themselves from harmful ultraviolet rays, and fight pervasive myths and stigmas, including false beliefs, propagated by rogue witch doctors, that albino body parts can bring good luck or fortune. 
              View Slideshow
              Saada Kaema has two businesses, a fabric shop and a roadside shop selling baskets, mats and cooking pots. “My mom can do anything,” says her daughter Mary, who works with her.
               
               
               
               
               
              Over the last decade, these superstitions have led to a wave of grisly albino killings, dismemberments, and even grave robberies. At least 76 Tanzanian albinos have been murdered; 72 others have survived attacks, often with severe mutilations. 
              On this day, Mganga is part of a team of facilitators taking part in a Rotary-supported community workshop, convened under a plastic tarp with a small group of elders from this village of about 10,000. 
              Already, multiple colleagues have addressed those in attendance: mostly male civic and religious leaders, dressed in fraying button-down shirts, who are joined by Nyamizeze’s two albino residents, Happiness Sebastian, 24, and her infant daughter, Keflin. 
              Rotary member Faye Cran holds Keflin Clement, daughter of Happiness (left), at a community education event in the Mwanza region.
               
               
               
               
               
              The discussion, meant to educate locals on albinism’s causes, debunk its many stigmas, and promote the well-being of the albino community, has already touched on the condition’s genetics, the recent attacks, and the many dehumanizing myths.
              Albinism is a curse brought on by evil spirits, one villager says he was taught as a child. It’s the result of an African woman sleeping with a white man, says another. “Albinos do not die,” says a third. “They simply disappear.”
              Mganga, speaking toward the end of the session, saves her words for what she believes is the day’s most critical message. 
              For all the horrors of the killings, she tells the group, albinos face an even greater danger from the sun. Because albinos have low levels of melanin, the pigment that gives skin, hair, and eyes their color, they lack adequate protection from the sun’s ultraviolet rays, a reality that is often deadly in an equatorial country like Tanzania.
              With many people unaware of proper protection measures, skin cancer rates are alarmingly high. According to Under the Same Sun, a Canadian group that promotes the well-being of albinos around the world, nearly all albinos in Tanzania develop dangerous precancerous lesions by age 20 and many die before age 40. Although life expectancy is on the rise because of increased cancer awareness and better access to treatment, albinos living in remote areas often know little of the sun’s dangers.
              Mganga, therefore, lectures the group on the need for those with the condition to continually seek out shade, particularly when the sun’s rays are brightest, and cover up as well as possible — advice that is news to Sebastian, who sits with her legs and arms bare. Leading by example, Mganga shows off her own outfit: a long-sleeved shirt that covers her neck and shoulders, an ankle-length skirt, and a Rotary-emblazoned bucket hat protecting her face and head.
              “The sun is our biggest enemy,” she says before the discussion gives way to a performance by local dancers and an educational video that is screened for the entire village. “But there’s no reason so many of us should be dying.”

              Superstitions vs. science

              For all the myths, the science of albinism is actually simple. People with the condition are born with a mutation to one of several genes involved in the production of melanin.
              • 8383,808080
                +
                 
                 
                people with albinism in Tanzania
              • 8786
                 
                 
                Tanzanians with albinism have been murdered since 2000
              • 8782
                 
                 
                Tanzanians with albinism have survived attacks since 2000
               
               
              Oculocutaneous albinism, which affects the skin, eyes, and hair (as opposed to ocular albinism, which affects only the eyes), is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern, which means both copies of the gene must have mutations and both parents of an albino must be carriers. If a non-albino mother and father both have one mutated copy, the likelihood of albinism in a given child will be 25 percent.
              Globally, oculocutaneous albinism affects roughly 1 in 20,000 people. In many parts of Africa, though, the prevalence is higher.
              Wisconsin-based geneticist Murray Brilliant, one of the world’s leading albinism experts, estimates that 1 in 1,400 people in Tanzania have the condition and that 1 in 19 are carriers. Most albinos in the country, his research has found, can trace their mutation back 2,500 years to a common ancestor. 
              Despite their numbers, Tanzania’s albinos have long faced an onslaught of stigma.
              For generations, parents would routinely kill albino babies at birth, opting for a quick act of brutality over a lifetime of shame and misfortune they believed an albino child would bring upon their family. 
              As Christianity gradually spread to the country’s interior, these practices began to dissipate, but the myths and discrimination remained.
              Mganga, who is the first albino child in a family of non-albino parents, recalls a childhood of isolation.

              What causes albinism?

               
               
              Stigma and Superstition 2017-03-15 08:00:00Z 0

              Final Agenda for Mongolian Open World Visit

               
               
              OPEN WORLD PROGRAM
               
               
              Sponsored by the
              Open World Leadership Center
               
               
              THEME: Alaska Local Governance: Responsible, Accountable, and Open
              Dates: March 23-26, 2017
               
               
              Delegate, Facilitator and Interpreter Names
              Ms. Batsukh Saranchimeg (Group Leader)
              Mr. Dakiyei Murat
              Ms. Navaan-Yunden Oyundari
              Mr. Damdin Tsogtbaatar
                                                                                     Mr. Namsrai Tserenbat
              Mr. Gulguu Zolboo (Facilitator)
              Ms. Chimgee Erdenechimeg (Interpreter)
               
              Official Host City
              Homer, Alaska
               
              Host Organization
              Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club
               
              Local Host Coordinator Name
              Bernie Griffard
              735 Soundview Ave, PO Box 1347, Homer, AK 99603
              717-319-2653, griffbfgak@gmail.com
               
              Administered by
              Rotary International
               
               
               
               
               
              Description of host Rotary Club or District
              Rotary District 5010 covers Alaska USA and Yukon Territory Canada. More than 1,700 Rotarians and 39 Rotary Clubs provide humanitarian and community service projects in our cities and towns as well as many regions around the world. The Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club has 64 members from many different professions as well as retired individuals. The annual Rotary Health Fair is our major community service project. We also sponsored the Homer Downtown Rotary Club.
               
              THURSDAY, 23 MARCH 2017 (Arriving from Anchorage)
               
              GOAL:          
              ·       Safe arrival and welcome of the Delegation and smooth transition to host families
              ·       Develop an understanding of American culture and society and contribute to enhanced American knowledge of Mongolian society, culture, and institutions.
               
               
              7:35 – 8:15 PM          Delegation Arrival Bernie Griffard, Open World Coordinator; Homer Airport, 3720 FAA St, Homer, AK 99603; (717) 319-2653; griffbfgak@gmail.com
               
              Arrive in Homer Ravn Air Flight 7H 880
              Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club meet delegation at Homer Airport
                                                  Link up delegation with host families.
               
              Evening                      Host family
               
              FRIDAY, 24 MARCH 2017
               
              GOAL:          
              ·       Relationships between local, borough and state governments.
              ·       Opportunity to compare the governance processes of Homer’s Mayor-City Manager with the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s (KPB) strong Mayor form of local government.
              ·       Develop an understanding of how citizens and interest groups work within the Homer city government process to affect the governing process.
              ·       Exchange professional expertise with members of the Homer business and civic communities.
              ·       Develop an understanding of American culture and society and contribute to enhanced American knowledge of Mongolian society, culture, and institutions.
               
              Breakfast with host family
               
              9:00 – 9:45 AM          Visit Orientation Mr. Tom Early, President, Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club; Location: TBD; (907) 399-2432; minerscourt@yahoo.com
               
              Delegation information exchange. Review of visit agenda and background/programs of the Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club
               
              10:00 – 11:45 AM      Homer City Government RoundtableMayor Bryan Zak and City Manager Katie Koester; Homer City Hall, 491 E. Pioneer Ave, Homer, AK 99603
               
              Roundtable will provide the forum for an exchange of ideas on local administration systems, how City and Borough governments tackle key problems such as air pollution, infrastructure, and energy allocation. Also, the processes in place for dealing with  
              with complaint, petition, opinion and compliments from the public. An area of special interest are local programs and policies relating to domestic violence.
               
              12:00 – 1:00 PM        LUNCH          Brown Bag at the Kenai Peninsula College Campus Carol Swartz ciswartz@alaska.edu; 533 East Pioneer Ave.,Homer, Alaska 99603, (907) 235-7743
               
              Delegates will receive a tour of the Kenai Peninsula College Kachemak Bay Campus, followed by a working lunch and discussions on the College’s post-secondary educations and job training programs and system.
               
               
              1:15 – 2:30 PM          Windshield tour (Red Trolley?) of Homer and the Homer Spit. Mr. Tom Early, President, Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club; (907) 399-2432; minerscourt@yahoo.com
               
                                                  Delegates receive a familiarization tour of the City of Homer and the Homer Spit.
               
              2:45 – 3:40 PM          Healthcare on the Kenai Peninsula. Conference Room #1, South Peninsula Hospital (SPH), 4300 Bartlett St, Homer, AK 99603. Derotha Ferraro, Dir., Marketing & Public Relations, SPH, 907-235-0397
              Emily Read, Seldovia Village Tribal (SVT) Medical Clinic and Wellness Center, 907-226-2228
              Missi White, South Peninsula Women’s Services (Haven House)
              907-235-7712
               
              This facilities tour and roundtable provides an in depth look at Homer’s health sector infrastructure, and the sector options for domestic violence victims. This is also a forum to explore expansion of health and education sector cooperation between our two countries.
               
              3:45 -4:30 PM            SVT Site Visit, 880 East End Road, Homer, AK 99603, and Haven House Site Visit, 3776 Lake St, Homer, AK 99603
               
                                                  Visits to key health sector facilities not located on the to South Peninsula Hospital campus.
               
              4:30 PM                     Free time with host families to allow delegates to delve further into Homer’s highlights
               
              6:15 – 9:00 PM          Dinner with Delegation Cultural Presentation. Alice’s Champagne Palace, 195 E. Pioneer Ave, Homer, AK 99603
               
              SATURDAY 25 MARCH 2017
               
              GOAL:          
              ·       Experience examples of the civic, NGOs and the business and educational communities in action.
              ·       Experience Homer’s quality of life advantages
              ·       Develop an understanding of American culture and society and contribute to enhanced American knowledge of Mongolian society, culture, and institutions.
               
               
              Breakfast with host family
               
              9:00 – 11:15 AM        Chamber of Commerce Roundtable. Ms. Janet Knutson, Events Manager,907-235-7740, Homer Chamber of Commerce; 201 Sterling Hwy, Homer, AK  99603
               
              The Homer Chamber of Commerce hosts this occasion for the delegation see how a Homer promotes tourism through local events and industries (Winter King Tournament; Halibut Tournament; Commercial and Charter fishing; mariculture). It will introduce Homer’s growing agricultural sector (high tunnels, fruits, vegetables, and honey production) and Farmer’s Market, and the growing influence it is having on local commerce. This opportunity to exchange ideas with local businessmen and entrepreneurs on how local government, businesses and NGOs interact to build a stronger community is a valuable take away for the delegation’s visit to Homer.
               
              11:30 AM–12:45 PM Lunch Fat Olives Restaurant, 276 Ohlson Ln, Homer, AK 99603; (907) 235-8488
               
              1:00 – 2:15 PM          Environmental Stewardship and Outdoor Education. Center for Alaska Coastal Studies (CACS), 708 Smokey Bay Way, Homer, AK 99603.
               
              Homer-Kachemak Bay is one of the most ecologically diverse and productive places in the world. By interfacing with the Center for Alaska Coastal Studies (CACS), the Kachemak Heritage Land Trust, and the Cook Inletkeeper, the delegation will see how environmental stewardship and outdoor education benefit the local community. The activities of the CACS encourage tourism and build a sense of environmental responsibility in our younger generation. The Kachemak Heritage Land Trust (KHLT) supports preservation, for public benefit, land with significant natural, recreational, or cultural values on the Kenai Peninsula. Cook Inletkeeper is Alaska’s conscience of one of its main commercial and recreational resources.
               
               
                         
              2:30 – 4:00 PM          Islands and Oceans Visitors Center and Beluga Slough Trail, 95 Sterling Hwy, Homer, AK 99603.
               
                                                  The Islands & Oceans Visitor Center is a window to the largest seabird refuge in the world. It houses interpretive and interactive exhibits that provide an introduction to this rich environment, its inhabitants, and the important biological research of the Alaska maritime National Wildlife Refuge.
               
              4:00 PM                     Free time with host families to allow delegates to delve further into Homer’s highlights
               
              5:00-7:00 PM             Open House Location: Susan and Mike Quinn’s estate
               
              SUNDAY 26 MARCH 2017
               
              GOAL:
              ·       Reinforce the Open World experience of understanding different cultures by establishing a continuing relationship with the Delegation.
              ·       Safe transfer of Delegation to Juneau
               
              Breakfast with host family
               
              Morning                     Free Time, pack, and prepare for departure
               
              11:30 AM-12:45 PM Lunch Chart Room Restaurant, Land's End Resort, 4786 Homer Spit Rd, Homer, AK 99603; (907) 235-0400
               
              1:00 – 2:25 PM          Homer Harbor Walking Tour Bryan Hawkins, Harbormaster, 4350 Homer Spit Rd, Homer, AK 99603; (907) 235-3160
               
              The Homer Harbor provides space for sail and motor vessels, commercial fishing boats, water taxis, and the charter fleet. It is a major player in Homer’s key role in the commercial fishing industry and the economically important charter fishing fleet.
               
              2:30 – 2:45 PM          Transportation to Homer Airport
               
              2:45 -3:15 PM            Airport Check-In Bernie Griffard, Open World Coordinator; Homer Airport, 3720 FAA St, Homer, AK 99603; (717) 319-2653; griffbfgak@gmail.com
                         
              3:50 PM                     Delegation Departure. Bernie Griffard, Open World Coordinator; Homer Airport, 3720 FAA St, Homer, AK 99603; (717) 319-2653; griffbfgak@gmail.com
               
              Delegation depart for Anchorage/Juneau, Ravn Air Flight 7H 879     
              Final Agenda for Mongolian Open World Visit 2017-03-15 08:00:00Z 0

              Big Change in School Busing in South Peninsula Area Coming

               

              Homer Middle School Principle Kari Dendurent spoke about the changes in school bus schedules for next year. There will be two separate bus runs instead of one as is the case this year.  The elementary schools in Homer and the Chapman School will start at 8:00 AM and end at 2:30 PM.  Homer Middle School, High School and Flex School will begin at 9:00 AM and end at 3:45 PM.  The Ninilchik School will begin at 9:00 AM and end at 3:30 PM.  McNeil Canyon School will begin at 8:20 AM and end at 2:50 PM.

               

              One other big change next year is that students will NOT be allowed to take a bus to a school outside their area.  Parents or caregivers are responsible to transport children to and from a school outside of their area.

               

              Big Change in School Busing in South Peninsula Area Coming 2017-03-15 08:00:00Z 0

              Dictionaries for 3rd Graders

              These pictures  were taken last Friday (March 3, 2017) in the West Homer Elementary School Library -- the same one we helped convert to the Lexile filing system a couple years ago, a system that has been so, so successful for the West Homer Students. Here we are delivering the dictionaries to the 3rd grade students. One class had a conflict and was not able to attend, but the books will be passed on.

              When we delivered to the Fireweed Students, Charlie specifically asked their teacher how much she thought they would use the books. She said, a lot. They only have one big dictionary in the classroom, so only one or two students at a time can use it. This way they each have their own book. At this grade level they are not using technology (that will come later), so these books are invaluable to them.

              The dictionaries also have a little encyclopedia, with all the Presidents, the States, and where they are in the U.S., all Foreign Countries and other information such as math tables. The children had a delightful discovery time while we were there.
              I thank Suzie Quinn, Charlie Franz and Tom Early for their assistance, and the Club for supporting this program.

              Milli

               
              Pictures courtesy Suzie.
              Dictionaries for 3rd Graders 2017-03-15 08:00:00Z 0

              What I've Learned from Birds

              What I’ve learned from birds

              Acclaimed Chicago artist Tony Fitzpatrick tells us how he fell in love with birds – a passion he shares with the Rotarians

               

              Writer Albert Camus believed that artists invariably cycle back to one or two images that opened their hearts. For me, that was birds.

              I’ve been fascinated by birds since childhood. Now I have bird feeders in my backyard, and every morning is a miracle. Sometimes 30 species of birds show up at my feeder – sparrows, juncos, blackbirds, finches of every kind, the odd warbler, cardinals. I don’t know what it is about them that makes me so happy, gives me such peace, and fills me with such wonder. Perhaps it is the idea that nature isn’t something a hundred miles away. Even in the city, it surrounds us and makes life more bearable and beautiful and wondrous – and enjoying it doesn’t cost a thing.

              What I’ve learned from these common, everyday birds is just how uncommon and remarkable their lives are. I’ve learned that their songs are a language, far more complex than we knew. I’ve also learned that grosbeaks, crossbills, and siskins fill out the finch family of songbirds known as Fringillidae – and to me, the finches possess the most lovely songs of all the songbirds.

              Often there is a silhouette of a woman in my drawings. That woman is my grandmother Mae, who, every morning, would toast a couple of pieces of bread and put jelly on them. She would then dice them up and toss them out the back door for the birds. When I asked her why she was giving our bread to the birds, she would hold a finger up to her lips and tell me, “Listen.” 

              When I did, I heard blackbirds, mourning doves, warblers, finches, and sparrows. My grandmother would look down at me and tell me, “For a piece of bread, you can hear God sing.”

              The Magic Catbird/collection of Gabrielle Fitzpatrick

               

              The Bird of the Century/collection of the artist

               

              The Secret Bird/collection of Charlie Jones

               

              Bird For The Daughters Of Juarez/collection of Troy Klyber

               

              The Jersey Owl/anonymous collector

               

              Kid Ghost/collection of Troy Klyber

               

              Indiana Cardinal/collection of John Shaft Jones

               

              Birds Of The Fisher King/collection of Kurtwood Smith

              What I've Learned from Birds 2017-03-08 09:00:00Z 0

              Practicing Compassion in Challenging Times

               
              Dear Neighbors,
               
              "Practicing Compassion in Challenging Times" is an interfaith event exploring how compassion is a universal human value across faith traditions and belief systems. This two hour event is the introduction to what we hope will be many other events in practicing compassion.
               
              The confirmed speakers are:
              Skywalker Payne, professional storyteller
              Rev. Lisa Talbott, pastor of Homer United Methodist Church
              Chaplain Bob Redmond, chaplain of South Peninsula Hospital and Hospice of Homer
              Anna Raupp, kundalini yoga instructor
              Father Tom Rush, priest of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church
               
              The event will begin with storytelling and a short panel discussion. The attendees will then rotate through three activities that provide practical exercises in compassion from various belief systems.The evening will close with a group discussion/debrief. 
               
              Please feel free to print and post the attached flyer.
               
              Skywalker Payne and I are the main organizers of the event, and we are looking for ways to broaden our circle of representatives from the faith traditions and belief systems that exist in Homer, so please help connect us to people and organization that we can collaborate with as we move forward in practicing compassion in our community. 
               
              Peace,
               
              Lisa Talbott
               
              Rev. Lisa Marie Talbott
              Pastor, Homer United Methodist Church
              770 East End Road
              Homer AK 99603
              Practicing Compassion in Challenging Times 2017-03-08 09:00:00Z 0

              Draft of Mongolian Open World Visit--3-7-2017

               
               
              OPEN WORLD PROGRAM
               
               
              Sponsored by the
              Open World Leadership Center
               
               
              THEME: Alaska Local Governance: Responsible, Accountable, and Open
              Dates: March 23-26, 2017
               
               
              Delegate, Facilitator and Interpreter Names
              Ms. Batsukh Saranchimeg (Group Leader)
              Mr. Dakiyei Murat
              Ms. Navaan-Yunden Oyundari
              Mr. Damdin Tsogtbaatar
              Mr. Namsrai Tserenbat
              Mr. Gulguu Zolboo (Facilitator)
              Ms. Chimgee Erdenechimeg (Interpreter)
               
              Official Host City
              Homer, Alaska
               
              Host Organization
              Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club
               
              Local Host Coordinator Name
              Bernie Griffard
              735 Soundview Ave, PO Box 1347, Homer, AK 99603
              717-319-2653, griffbfgak@gmail.com
               
              Administered by
              Rotary International
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Description of host Rotary Club or District
              Rotary District 5010 covers Alaska USA and Yukon Territory Canada. More than 1,700 Rotarians and 39 Rotary Clubs provide humanitarian and community service projects in our cities and towns as well as many regions around the world. The Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club has 64 members from many different professions as well as retired individuals. The annual Rotary Health Fair is our major community service project. We also sponsored the Homer Downtown Rotary Club.
               
              THURSDAY, 23 MARCH 2017 (Arriving from Anchorage)
               
              GOAL:          
              ·       Safe arrival and welcome of the Delegation and smooth transition to host families
              ·       Develop an understanding of American culture and society and contribute to enhanced American knowledge of Mongolian society, culture, and institutions.
               
               
              7:35 – 8:15 PM          Delegation Arrival Bernie Griffard, Open World Coordinator; Homer Airport, 3720 FAA St, Homer, AK 99603; (717) 319-2653; griffbfgak@gmail.com
               
              Arrive in Homer Ravn Air Flight 7H 880
              Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club meet delegation at Homer Airport
                                                  Link up delegation with host families.
               
              Evening                      Host family
               
              FRIDAY, 24 MARCH 2017
               
              GOAL:          
              ·       Relationships between local, borough and state governments.
              ·       Opportunity to compare the governance processes of Homer’s Mayor-City Manager with the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s (KPB) strong Mayor form of local government.
              ·       Develop an understanding of how citizens and interest groups work within the Homer city government process to affect the governing process.
              ·       Exchange professional expertise with members of the Homer business and civic communities.
              ·       Develop an understanding of American culture and society and contribute to enhanced American knowledge of Mongolian society, culture, and institutions.
               
              Breakfast with host family
               
              9:00 – 9:45 AM          Visit Orientation Mr. Tom Early, President, Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club; Location: TBD; (907) 399-2432; minerscourt@yahoo.com
               
              Delegation information exchange. Review of visit agenda and background/programs of the Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club
               
              10:00 – 11:45 AM      Homer City Government RoundtableMayor Bryan Zak and City Manager Katie Koester; Homer City Hall, 491 E. Pioneer Ave, Homer, AK 99603
               
              Roundtable will provide the forum for an exchange of ideas on local administration systems, how City and Borough governments tackle key problems such as air pollution, infrastructure, and energy allocation. Also, the processes in place for dealing with  
              complaint, petition, opinion and compliments from the public. An area of special interest are local programs and policies relating to domestic violence.
               
              12:00 – 1:00 PM        LUNCH          Brown Bag at the Kenai Peninsula College Campus Carol Swartz ciswartz@alaska.edu; 533 East Pioneer Ave.,Homer, Alaska 99603, (907) 235-7743
               
              Delegates will receive a tour of the Kenai Peninsula College Kachemak Bay Campus, followed by a working lunch and discussions on the College’s post-secondary educations and job training programs and system.
               
               
              1:15 – 2:30 PM          Windshield tour (Red Trolley?) of Homer and the Homer Spit. Mr. Tom Early, President, Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club; (907) 399-2432; minerscourt@yahoo.com
               
                                                  Delegates receive a familiarization tour of the City of Homer and the Homer Spit.
               
              2:45 – 3:40 PM          Healthcare on the Kenai Peninsula. Conference Room #1, South Peninsula Hospital (SPH), 4300 Bartlett St, Homer, AK 99603. Derotha Ferraro, Dir., Marketing & Public Relations, SPH, 907-235-0397
              Emily Read, Seldovia Village Tribal (SVT) Medical Clinic and Wellness Center, 907-226-2228
              Missi White, South Peninsula Women’s Services (Haven House)
              907-235-7712
               
              This facilities tour and roundtable provides an in depth look at Homer’s health sector infrastructure, and the sector options for domestic violence victims. This is also a forum to explore expansion of health and education sector cooperation between our two countries.
               
              3:45 -4:10 PM            SVT Site Visit, 880 East End Road, Homer, AK 99603, and Haven House Site Visit, 3776 Lake St, Homer, AK 99603
               
                                                  Visits to key health sector facilities not located on the to South Peninsula Hospital campus.
               
              4:15 – 4:40 PM          Homer News and Homer Tribune. Interview and coverage opportunity
               
              4:45 PM                     Free time with host families to allow delegates to delve further into Homer’s highlights
               
              6:15 – 9:00 PM          Dinner with Delegation Cultural Presentation. Alice’s Champagne Palace, 195 E. Pioneer Ave, Homer, AK 99603
               
              SATURDAY 25 MARCH 2017
               
              GOAL:          
              ·       Experience examples of the civic, NGOs and the business and educational communities in action.
              ·       Experience Homer’s quality of life advantages
              ·       Develop an understanding of American culture and society and contribute to enhanced American knowledge of Mongolian society, culture, and institutions.
               
               
              Breakfast with host family
               
              9:00 – 11:15 AM        Chamber of Commerce Roundtable. Ms. Janet Knutson, Events Manager,907-235-7740, Homer Chamber of Commerce; 201 Sterling Hwy, Homer, AK  99603
               
              The Homer Chamber of Commerce hosts this occasion for the delegation see how a Homer promotes tourism through local events and industries (Winter King Tournament; Halibut Tournament; Commercial and Charter fishing; mariculture). It will introduce Homer’s growing agricultural sector (high tunnels, fruits, vegetables, and honey production) and Farmer’s Market, and the growing influence it is having on local commerce. This opportunity to exchange ideas with local businessmen and entrepreneurs on how local government, businesses and NGOs interact to build a stronger community is a valuable take away for the delegation’s visit to Homer.
               
              11:30 AM – 12:45 PM LUNCH       TBD
               
              1:00 – 2:15 PM          Environmental Stewardship and Outdoor Education. Center for Alaska Coastal Studies (CACS), 708 Smokey Bay Way, Homer, AK 99603.
               
              Homer-Kachemak Bay is one of the most ecologically diverse and productive places in the world. By interfacing with the Center for Alaska Coastal Studies (CACS), the Kachemak Heritage Land Trust, and the Cook Inletkeeper, the delegation will see how environmental stewardship and outdoor education benefit the local community. The activities of the CACS encourage tourism and build a sense of environmental responsibility in our younger generation. The Kachemak Heritage Land Trust (KHLT) supports preservation, for public benefit, land with significant natural, recreational, or cultural values on the Kenai Peninsula. Cook Inletkeeper is Alaska’s conscience of one of its main commercial and recreational resources.
               
               
                         
              2:30 – 4:00 PM          Islands and Oceans Visitors Center and Beluga Slough Trail, 95 Sterling Hwy, Homer, AK 99603.
               
                                                  The Islands & Oceans Visitor Center is a window to the largest seabird refuge in the world. It houses interpretive and interactive exhibits that provide an introduction to this rich environment, its inhabitants, and the important biological research of the Alaska maritime National Wildlife Refuge.
               
              4:00 PM                     Free time with host families to allow delegates to delve further into Homer’s highlights
               
              5:00-7:00 PM             Open House Location: Susan and Mike Quinn’s estate
               
              SUNDAY 26 MARCH 2017
               
              GOAL:
              ·       Reinforce the Open World experience of understanding different cultures by establishing a continuing relationship with the Delegation.
              ·       Safe transfer of Delegation to Juneau
               
              Breakfast with host family
               
              Morning                     Free Time, pack, and prepare for departure
               
              11:30-12:45 PM         Lunch TBD
               
              1:00 – 2:25 PM          Homer Harbor Walking Tour Bryan Hawkins, Harbormaster
               
              The Homer Harbor provides space for sail and motor vessels, commercial fishing boats, water taxis, and the charter fleet. It is a major player in Homer’s key role in the commercial fishing industry and the economically important charter fishing fleet.
               
              2:30 – 2:45 PM          Transportation to Homer Airport
               
              2:45 -3:15 PM            Airport Check-In Bernie Griffard, Open World Coordinator; Homer Airport, 3720 FAA St, Homer, AK 99603; (717) 319-2653; griffbfgak@gmail.com
                         
              3:50 PM                     Delegation Departure. Bernie Griffard, Open World Coordinator; Homer Airport, 3720 FAA St, Homer, AK 99603; (717) 319-2653; griffbfgak@gmail.com
               
              Delegation depart for Anchorage/Juneau, Ravn Air Flight 7H 879     
               
               
                         
              Draft of Mongolian Open World Visit--3-7-2017 2017-03-08 09:00:00Z 0

              Choking Clean Water

              Blooms of poisonous blue-green algae threaten the western basin of Lake Erie, the source of drinking water for millions of people. Rotarians are joining the fight.

              By Photos by

              For 56 hours in August 2014, nearly a half-million people living along the shores of the largest freshwater lake system in the world could not drink the water out of their taps. They couldn’t use it to brush their teeth or wash their dishes. Restaurants shut their doors. Hospitals canceled elective surgeries. Stores ran out of bottled water, and the Ohio National Guard stepped in to help.

              Rotarians are fighting algae bloom in Lake Erie. Algae blooms can be found anywhere in the world where there is nutrient runoff into the shallow, warm water where cyanobacteria thrive. 

               

              A bloom of cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, had poisoned the western basin of Lake Erie, the source of drinking water for Toledo, Ohio. The algae had been fed by nitrogen and phosphorus runoff that heavy rains had washed down the Maumee River, the largest watershed in the Great Lakes. Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes and therefore the warmest, creating ideal conditions for the toxic algae to flourish. Wind and waves carried the bloom to the intake pipe for the city’s water supply. Drinking the contaminated water can cause symptoms ranging from fever, vomiting, and headaches to liver failure and death.

              Over the previous five summers, major algae blooms had become more common, and water managers in Toledo and nearby communities were bracing for the possibility of a bloom contaminating the water supply. 

              How did we get to this point? Who or what is to blame? The pioneers who settled the area? Paved-over cities? Old, leaky septic tanks on rural properties? The mania for lush lawns? Changing farming practices? 

              The answer is all of them – all of us. That means we all must play a role in solving the problem. It’s a complex knot, but one that Rotary may be uniquely poised to untangle.

              Illustration by Alexander Vidal

              It all started with a big swamp. The Great Black Swamp, to be exact. That’s what the area southwest of Lake Erie was called, a thickly wooded and deeply mucky wetland almost as big as Connecticut and as old as the glaciers. The mud preserved the skeletons of mastodons that once roamed the area and, later, trapped the wagons of pioneers on their way west, forcing them to make a long detour.

              Beginning in the 1850s, settlers drained most of the swamp to take advantage of the fertile soil, some of the most productive farmland in the country. They laid 15,000 miles of underground drain tiles that still whisk rainwater from farm fields into ditches that then feed into creeks and rivers and eventually the Maumee – an aquatic superhighway to Lake Erie. But in doing so, they removed the lake’s “kidneys” – the wetlands that had filtered the water before it reached the Maumee River. (Today, one of the last bits of the swamp remains at Pearson Metropark just outside Toledo, accessible to visitors via crushed gravel paths and Depression-era bridges.) 

              Toledo, nicknamed Frog Town, grew into a city, and by the 1960s, industrial pollution and phosphorus used in fertilizers and detergents had reduced Lake Erie to a stinking, contaminated mess. Blue-green algae blooms fed by runoff and by unregulated dumping of sewage by shoreline towns and cities sucked the oxygen out of the water. In nearby Cleveland, oil slicks caused the Cuyahoga River to catch fire more than once, most famously in 1969. The crisis spurred the passage of the U.S. Clean Water Act in 1972, which regulated industrial dumping and provided funding to upgrade wastewater treatment plants. States banned some phosphate detergents, which had been a big contributor to the algae growth. 

              Choking Clean Water 2017-03-01 09:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Board Meeting

              There will be a Rotary Board of Directors meeting on Tuesday, 28 February, at 5 PM at the Kachemak Bay Title office next to Captain's Coffee.  Committee Chairs; if you cannot make it to the meeting, please send a brief committee report to Tom Early.  All members are welcome to attend.

               

              Rotary Board Meeting 2017-02-22 09:00:00Z 0

              Draft Agenda for Open World Delegation from Mongolia

               
               
               
               
              OPEN WORLD PROGRAM
               
               
              Sponsored by the
              Open World Leadership Center
               
               
              THEME: TBD
              Dates: March 23-26, 2017
               
               
              Delegate, Facilitator and Interpreter Names
              Ms. Batsukh Saranchimeg (Group Leader)
              Mr. Dakiyei Murat
              Ms. Navaan-Yunden Oyundari
              Mr. Damdin Tsogtbaatar
              Mr. Jadamba Enkhbayar
              Mr. Gulguu Zolboo (Facilitator)
              Ms. Chimgee Erdenechimeg (Interpreter)
               
              Official Host City
              Homer, Alaska
               
              Host Organization
              Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club
               
              Local Host Coordinator Name
              Bernie Griffard
              735 Soundview Ave, PO Box 1347, Homer, AK 99603
              717-319-2653, griffbfgak@gmail.com
               
              Administered by
              Rotary International
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Description of host Rotary Club or District
              Rotary District 5010 covers Alaska USA and Yukon Territory Canada. More than 1,700 Rotarians and 39 Rotary Clubs provide humanitarian and community service projects in our cities and towns as well as many regions around the world. The Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club has 64 members from many different professions as well as retired individuals. The annual Rotary Health Fair is our major community service project. We also sponsored the Homer Downtown Rotary Club.
               
              THURSDAY, 23 MARCH 2017 (Arriving from Anchorage)
               
              GOAL:          
              ·       Safe arrival and welcome of the Delegation and smooth transition to host families
              ·       Develop an understanding of American culture and society and contribute to enhanced American knowledge of Mongolian society, culture, and institutions.
               
               
              7:35 PM         Arrive in Homer Ravn Air Flight 7H 880
                                      Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club meet delegation at Homer Airport
                                      Link up delegation with host families.
              Evening          Host family
               
              FRIDAY, 24 MARCH 2017
               
              GOAL:          
              §  Relationships between local, borough and state governments.
              §  Opportunity to compare the governance processes of Homer’s Mayor-City Manager with the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s (KPB) strong Mayor form of local government.
              §  Develop an understanding of how citizens and interest groups work within the Homer city government process to affect the governing process.
              §  Exchange professional expertise with members of the Homer business and civic communities.
              §  Develop an understanding of American culture and society and contribute to enhanced American knowledge of Mongolian society, culture, and institutions.
               
              Breakfast with host family
               
              9:00 AM         Visit Orientation and Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club/Delegation information exchange. Homer background. Location: TBD.
               
              10:00 AM       Homer City Government Roundtable – Mayor Bryan Zak, Homer City Hall, 491 E. Pioneer Ave, Homer, AK 99603
               
              Attendees: Homer Mayor and City Manager, KPB Assembly member, representatives of the State Legislative Information Office, and other key personnel. Delegation would also make presentations on how Mongolian local governments function.
              ·       Identified Areas of Interest
              o   Local administration systems
              o   How do local governments tackle key problems of air pollution, infrastructure, energy allocation and health sectors
              o   How do local governments deal with complaint, petition, opinion and compliments from the public
              o   Domestic violence
               
              12:00 PM
              LUNCH          Don Jose’s
               
               
              1:15 PM         Windshield tour (Red Trolley?) of Homer and the Homer Spit.
               
              2:45 PM         Healthcare on the Kenai Peninsula. Derotha Ferraro, South Peninsula Hospital (SPH),  4300 Bartlett St, Homer, AK 99603
               Attendees: SPH, Seldovia Village Tribal (SVT) Medical Clinic and Wellness Center, South Peninsula Women’s Services (Haven House)
              ·       Identified Areas of Interest:
              o   Health sector infrastructure
              o   Options for domestic violence victims
              o   Opportunities for health and education sector to expand cooperation between our two countries
               
              3:45 PM         SVT Site Visit, 880 East End Road, Homer, AK 99603, and Haven House Site Visit, 3776 Lake St, Homer, AK 99603
               
              4:15 PM         Homer News and Homer Tribune. Interview and coverage opportunity
               
              4:45 PM         Free time with host families to allow delegates to delve further into Homer’s highlights
               
              6:30 PM         Dinner with Delegation Cultural Presentation. Location: TBD
               
              SATURDAY 25 MARCH 2017
               
              GOAL:          
              ·       Experience examples of the civic, NGOs and the business and educational communities in action.
              ·       Experience Homer’s quality of life advantages
              ·       Develop an understanding of American culture and society and contribute to enhanced American knowledge of Mongolian society, culture, and institutions.
               
               
              Breakfast with host family
               
              9:00 AM         Chamber of Commerce Roundtable. Homer Chamber of Commerce, 201 Sterling Hwy, Homer, AK  99603
              Attendees: Homer Chamber of Commerce Director and board members, business representatives, Local agriculture representative, Homer Electric Association.
              ·       C:
              o   Local government, business community and NGO cooperation on environmental challenges and energy allocation
              o   Homer’s agricultural sector (high tunnels, fruits, vegetables, and honey production) and Farmer’s Market
              o   Promotion of tourism through local events and industries (Winter King Tournament; Halibut Tournament; Commercial and Charter fishing; mariculture)
               
              11:30 AM
              LUNCH          Thai Restaurant
               
              1:00 PM         Environmental Stewardship and Outdoor Education. Center for Alaska Coastal Studies (CACS),  708 Smokey Bay Way, Homer, AK 99603.
              Attendees: Director, CACS; Director, Kachemak Heritage Land Trust (KHLT), Cook Inlet Keeper
              ·       Areas of Interest
              o   Environmental education and stewardship
              o   Preservation, for public benefit, land with significant natural, recreational, or cultural values on the Kenai Peninsula
               
                         
              2:30 PM         Islands and Oceans Visitors Center and Beluga Slough Trail, 95 Sterling Hwy, Homer, AK 99603.
               
              4:00 PM         Free time with host families to allow delegates to delve further into Homer’s highlights
               
              6:30                 Potluck Dinner Location: TBD
               
              SUNDAY 26 MARCH 2017
               
              GOAL:
              ·       Reinforce the Open World experience of understanding different cultures by establishing a continuing relationship with the Delegation.
              ·       Safe transfer of Delegation to Juneau
               
              Breakfast with host family
               
              9:00 AM         Free Time, pack, and prepare for departure
               
              1:00 PM         Walking Tour of harbor including an orientation on the water trail
               
              2:30 PM         Transportation to Homer Airport
                         
              3:50 PM         Departure. Delegation depart for Anchorage/Juneau, Ravn Air Flight 7H 879           
              Draft Agenda for Open World Delegation from Mongolia 2017-02-22 09:00:00Z 0

              Birds of a Feather

               

              For 25 years, they have migrated to the site of the Rotary Convention. Look closely and you may spot them: The Fellowship of Birdwatching Rotarians.

              By

              Birds of a Feather 2017-02-22 09:00:00Z 0

              Bill Gates to Speak at Rotary International Convention

              Bill Gates

              Rotary president invites members to Atlanta

              I am thrilled to announce that Bill Gates will be speaking this June at the Rotary International Convention in Atlanta. Rotary and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have been working together on polio eradication for a long time, and our strong partnership will continue through the final years of the effort. 

              Bill and his wife, Melinda, in their much-anticipated Annual Letter, released today, offer a glimpse of their appreciation for Rotary and the incredible progress we’ve made toward polio eradication through our joint effort with national governments, UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

              With the most effective resources in place, it’s possible that we have seen, or soon will see, the last case of polio in history. At the convention, Bill will say more about how we can — and will — end polio together. 

              I hope you will join me and Bill at the Rotary International Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 10-14 June. This is one speaker you’re not going to want to miss. Register now.

               

              John F. Germ

              2016-17 RI President

              Bill Gates to Speak at Rotary International Convention 2017-02-15 09:00:00Z 0
              Sponsors Needed for 2017 Rotary 5010 District Conference 2017-02-15 09:00:00Z 0

              Call For Resolutions for Rotary District 5010

              Members:  Each year Rotary members have the opportunity to submit resolutions to change or amend the way Rotary operates. 

               

              Each resolution, or proposal, is given to the club’s board of directors then submitted to the membership for adoption at a regular club meeting.  If adopted, the proposal is then forwarded to the District Governor. 

               

              We ask that any resolution brought forward be presented to a board member prior to February 28 in order to meet the March 10 submission deadline.  Each proposal, if in compliance with R.I. Constitution, By-Laws, or MOP, will be voted on at the District Conference in Sitka on April 28-30.

               

              Tom 

               

              The Forms are below or Tom or Craig can provide them.

               
              Call For Resolutions for Rotary District 5010 2017-02-15 09:00:00Z 0

              Input Requested From Former Peace Corps Volunteers!

              Rotary.org
              Rotary Service and Engagement
               
              To: U.S. Rotary Club Presidents
               
              Dear Tom,
              We are contacting you regarding Rotary’s partnership with Peace Corps. In 2015, Rotary International and Peace Corps formalized a service partnership to help enhance our club and district service activities locally and around the world.
              Peace Corps, an independent U.S. federal agency, sends U.S. citizens abroad to help tackle the most pressing needs around the world while promoting better international understanding of American culture and enhancing global awareness. With similar missions, we know many of our U.S. Rotarians have served as Peace Corps Volunteers and clubs continue to partner with Peace Corps in many different capacities.
              We want to hear from Rotarians with experience working with Peace Corps! Have your fellow club members served as Peace Corps Volunteers or worked with Peace Corps in other capacities? Please forward this survey to your members and encourage them to complete it by 28 February. The link to the survey is included below. The survey should take no more than ten minutes to complete and all responses are confidential.
              Peace Corps currently has volunteers in more than 60 countries and concentrates on the following sectors: education, health, community economic development, environment, youth in development, and agriculture. By working together with active and returned Peace Corps Volunteers, we can continue addressing Rotary’s six areas of focus while enhancing goodwill, international understanding, and building capacity to address the most pressing community concerns.
              Read the Rotary-Peace Corps partnership factsheet for more information on how clubs and districts can partner with either actively service or returned Peace Corps volunteers. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions.
               
              Best regards,
               
              The Rotary Service Team
              rotary.service@rotary.org
               
              Input Requested From Former Peace Corps Volunteers! 2017-02-15 09:00:00Z 0

              What Does it Feel Like to be in an Iron Lung?

               

              Photo of man using an Emerson tank respirator equipped with a mirror, 1950s

              Rotarian builds his own iron lung replica to teach a new generation about polio

              Roger Frank wants to inspire people to donate to polio eradication. 

               

              Dispatched to Ghana with a fellow British Rotarian to scout club service opportunities, Roger Frank hadn’t planned their visit to coincide with National Immunization Days, but the pair – Frank and Dr. Carl Hallam – jumped, unhesitating, into the thick of inoculations. During a four-day stretch in October 2015, nearly 2,000 children in the area were protected from poliomyelitis. The effort galvanized Frank, who brainstormed for a way to do even more at home: How could he promote polio eradication when few of his countrymen gave much thought to the scourge?

              Recalling the fear that gripped the UK, the U.S., and elsewhere during the height of the polio epidemic in the early 1950s, Frank, a past president of the Rotary Club of Upper Eden, thought of the iron lung, a device largely relegated to museums and history books. The lifesaving mechanical respirator was a potent, if depressing, symbol of the debilitating disease. An iron lung, Frank reasoned, would educate younger generations who grew up free of the fear created by polio, a virus that is spread easily, during the 20th century. 

              He hoped to borrow a model to put on tour to serve as a reminder that the polio fight remains unfinished. “I spent the last three months of 2015 looking for an iron lung in hospitals, etc.,” says Frank, 65. “I had hoped to source an original unit, but they have all been scrapped and those that remain are in museums, and they would not part with them. Being fully committed to the project, I had no other option than to build an iron lung myself. 

              “This proved quite a challenge,” even for a retired mechanical engineer and self-described “nut and bolt man,” particularly after he resolved that only a fully functioning machine would do. “I learned many years ago that the dafter the project, the easier it is to get good publicity for the cause,” he quips.

              Roger Frank put his engineering background to good use, rolling and welding all the steel components himself.

               

              Using the outline dimensions of a unit in the Thackray Medical Museum in Leeds as a reference, Frank rolled and welded steel for a cylindrical main chamber, fabricated tracks for a mattress that slides into and out of the unit, and cut access doors and windows. “I cajoled various local companies into assisting with the project,” he says, particularly painting the unit and a trailer used to transport it; Upper Eden club members also assisted. “I suppose in some ways people are used to my harebrained ideas, and not one of them declined to support the project,” he adds. Frank, who bore most of the construction costs, concedes that most of the 650 hours he spent over four months on the heavy metal labor of love were devoted to the trailer, itself a showcase worthy of a Rolls-Royce Phantom. 

              “To finish the job, he then created visual displays to fit into and onto the trailer, including a television program of iron lungs being used ‘for real,’” notes Ben Lyon, the club’s immediate past president. “The finished result is a stunning promotional and educational tool in aid of polio eradication.” Onsite, a computer-controlled sequence activates the lung, in thumps and whooshes, for five minutes before triggering a YouTube video about iron lungs. 

              For many polio patients, the apparatus was crucial to surviving the disease’s early stages, when their muscles were too weak, or paralyzed, for independent breathing. The lifesaving mechanical respirators were a common sight, lined up in rows at hospitals. The stricken, mostly young children, were confined in the chambers, normally for at least two or three weeks, exposed only from the neck up, with mirrors above their heads providing their only glimpse into the world around them amid the machines’ cacophony.

              Most people, especially young ones, are totally dumbfounded by the whole spectacle.

              As a static exhibit the lung is lifeless and really comes alive when the motor starts and the end bellow operates. I think it really helps give people an understanding of how it would be to be locked in it,” Frank says. “Also the drive unit, or mechanism, is quite noisy and adds to the atmosphere, just as the original units did.”

              Frank, who notes that his replica has been booked for the Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland conference in April, makes the display available to Rotary clubs that agree to arrange transportation and staff it to raise funds and awareness for End Polio Now. It has been deployed to agricultural shows and schools, with area club members staffing the unit. 

              “Most people, especially young ones, are totally dumbfounded by the whole spectacle, and after watching the video are mesmerized and stand motionless for quite a few seconds,” says Frank, “I suppose in awe, or taking in how somebody could spend [nearly] their entire life in such a machine.”

              On occasion, a “lucky” visitor might be invited inside the lung.

               

              Sara Dumbell, a journalist with BBC Radio Cumbria who reported on the project, says: “I get sent on many exciting jobs, but getting to see a real life-size replica iron lung was a first for me. The iron lung itself was hugely impressive. I’m 28, and so the major UK outbreaks of polio were a little before my time, but it was deeply moving to learn about how so many children across the world were forced to live in these machines.

              “I couldn’t leave without trying out the iron lung for myself, but having the metal lung separating your head and body at the neck I found to be the most uncomfortable feeling,” she adds. “I must admit I was quite relieved when I was allowed out.”

              With a nod to the red End Polio Now donation buckets at the ready, Frank says, “I kid people that it is £1 to get into the unit and £50 for me to let you out.”

              – Brad Webber

              • Read more stories from The Rotarian

               

              Roger Frank crafted the trailer to give his iron lung a setting that would educate people about polio past and present. 

              What Does it Feel Like to be in an Iron Lung? 2017-02-07 09:00:00Z 0

              Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary to Host Delegation From Mongolia!

              The Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary is conducting an Open World event March 23-26, 2017. We will be hosting a delegation of parliamentarians from Mongolia. 

              As part of this event Rotarians open their homes to host members of the visiting delegation. We are looking for two more host families. Please contact Bernie Griffard if you can assist.

              Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary to Host Delegation From Mongolia! 2017-02-07 09:00:00Z 0

              Reading is Fundamental

              Reading is fundamental

              Profile: Sarah Sugden, Rotary Club of Waterville, Maine

              Sarah Sugden’s love of libraries started early when she discovered the joy of perusing the endless stacks of free stories. 

              Sarah Sugden, Rotary Club of Waterville, Maine.

               

              “I just fell in love with the fact that I could come here every day after school by myself and read,” says Sugden, director of the Waterville (Maine) Public Library.

              A past president of the Rotary Club of Waterville, she has spent her career finding ways to pass along that love. In 2014, she was one of 10 librarians nationally to win the I Love My Librarian Award, sponsored by the Carnegie Corp. and the New York Times.

              Sugden also participates in the Waterville club’s Rhoda Reads program, the brainchild of current club President Tina Chapman, who hoped to engage children in reading at a very young age.

              Through the program, volunteer readers receive a kit that includes a selection of age-appropriate books including a story featuring Rhoda the Owl, the program mascot, and a plush toy version of Rhoda. “It’s storytime in a bag, basically,” Sugden says.

              The volunteers are matched with a child care facility that they will visit regularly to read to the children.

              Since the program began in 2013, about 40 Rotarians have received training and about a dozen participate at any time. Ten preschools and child care facilities are participating.

              The club estimates that it has reached more than 800 children and hopes to expand the program, making it accessible to other clubs.

              – Nikki Kallio

              Reading is Fundamental 2017-01-31 09:00:00Z 0

              New Membership Categories Approved by Board

              The following new categories for membership were approved at the January 19 Rotary Board Meeting.  The details have not been finished, and are currently under discussion.  Your input is invited.
               
              Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay
              Corporate/Business Memberships
               
              A Corporation/Business may have one of their employees become a Rotary member by following the Club’s established procedures and paying the required dues.  That Corporate employee and Rotary member would be listed by both the Corporation and Rotarian’s name in the Club’s database and on the name badge.  In addition, the corporation/business may select up to 3 employees who are approved by the Board of Directors of the Rotary Club as “alternate Corporate members” of the Club.  The alternate members may attend any and all Rotary meetings and events/functions, and assist in projects and fundraisers.  However, they are not listed as members of the Club, they do not pay dues, do not have voting rights, and may not serve as Club Officers.  
              The Corporation/Business would pay an additional $25 administrative fee to cover badges for all the approved employee/members and to cover additional club expenses.   
               
              Family Memberships
              A Family or Marital couple may join the Rotary Club by selecting one of its members to become the Rotary member, and by providing a list of spouse and/or children up to 2 additional members, who would be approved by the Board of Directors of the Club as “alternate family members”.  The Rotarian family member would be the one whose name is listed in the Club’s data base.  The alternate members may attend any and all Rotary meetings and events/functions, and assist in projects and fundraisers.  However, they are not listed as members of the Club, they do not pay dues, do not have voting rights, and may not serve as Club Officers.
              The family/couple would pay an additional $20 administrative fee to cover name badges for all members of the family and to cover additional club expenses.
              New Membership Categories Approved by Board 2017-01-30 09:00:00Z 0

              BIOS for New Members Inducted January 19, 2017

              Under normal circumstances, new members are asked to tell us about themselves when they are inducted, but with the excitement and shortness of time at their induction meeting (DG Michelle's visit), President Tom elected to hold off and print them instead.  So here they are!
               

              Derotha Ferraro Bio:

              ·         Raised in western Pennsylvania on a small farm, which her father and brother still operate and she visits yearly

              ·         Bachelor’s Degree in Communications from Bethany College in West Virginia

              ·         Lived in Washington DC for 8 years; worked at the National 4-H Council and The Washington Post

              ·         Came to Homer in 1993 for vacation and stayed;

              ·         Was the Executive Director of Homer Chamber of Commerce for 12 years

              ·         Charlie Franz hired her in 2006 as the Director of Public Relations and Marketing, which she still is today.

              ·         She and her husband Gary Harris and their 13 year old daughter Delilah live on Green Timbers Road out towards west Diamond Ridge;

              ·         She spends most of her time at work, motherhood,  volunteering and staying active in the community.   She loves to fish, eat fish, cook fish (but not clean fish!) and even with the advent of smart phones, she still carries a camera with her at most times, remaining in awe of the beauty and unexpected sites one finds just driving to work each day.

              ·         After decades of working side by side with Rotarians on Clean Up Days, light-up nights, tree decoratings, health fairs, hospital tours, hosting international delegations and more, she is happy to actually finally become a Rotarian!

               

              Resume for Frank M. Kislan

               

              Education:

              West Virginia University, BS, Agriculture

              Pennsylvania State University, MS, Engineering

              US Army War College, MS, Strategic Studies

               

              Work Experience:

              US Army, Engineer Branch, Positions included Battalion and Brigade Commands, Colonel, Retired

              US Government, Engineering and Project Management, 35 years

               

              Licenses:

              Private Pilot

              EIT Certificate, Pennsylvania

               

              Interests:

              International Travel, Fishing, Shooting, Gardening, Flying

               

               

               

              Resume for Constance M. Kislan

               

              Education:

              Millersville University, BS, Secondary Education

              Pennsylvania State University, MA, French Language and Culture

              Pennsylvania State University, MBA

              University of Montpellier, France, Certificat Pratique de la langue franςaise

              University of Montpellier, France, Diplôme d’études franςaises

              L’Ecole Militaire, Paris, France, French Command and General Staff College

               

               

              Work Experience:

              US Army, Quartermaster and Civil Affairs Branches--Positions included Battalion Command, Lieutenant

              Colonel, Retired

              US Government, Resource Management and Strategic/International Security Studies, 35 years

               

              Licenses:

              Private Pilot

              Licensed in PA and OK, Secondary Education

               

              Interests:

              International Travel, Cooking, Gardening, Crafts, Photography

               

               

              BIOS for New Members Inducted January 19, 2017 2017-01-30 09:00:00Z 0

              Agenda for Rotary District 5010 Conference in Sitka, Alaska

              Rotary District 5010 Conference Agenda
              April 27-April 30, 2017
              Sitka, Alaska
               
              Thursday, April 27th DISTRICT ASSEMBLY
               
              ●       “Up, Up, and Away!”  District Assembly, Hosted by District Governor Elect, Harry Kieling 10AM-4:30PM, with an introductory welcome by Zone 24W Rotary Coordinator and Director’s Rep. Jackie Hobal
              Chart your own course through a series of exciting and interactive breakout sessions designed for you to discuss and dig deeper into topics that interest you.  Explore ways to take action in your community, lead your club, promote Rotary, engage Youth, and much, much more. 
              ●       “Adventure, Straight Ahead.” District Assembly Luncheon, 12:45-2PM, featuring RI President’s Rep PDG Elizabeth Smith Yeats, Rotary Public Image Coordinator, Zone 29
              Unknown conditions ahead are a norm for aviators.  Join us for this fun theme lunch which will feature a special twist.  This won’t be your normal lunch, and our Leadership Academy Graduates will be your table Captains.
              ●       “The Road Well Traveled”, Past District Governor’s & VIP Dinner, Ludwig’s, 5:30-7:30
              By invitation only, this special gathering honors those who have captained the ship, and our special VIP guests.
              ●       “Change the Course of the Future”  7-11PM  The Pub, Downtown Sitka
              If you could guarantee a great journey for only $26.50, would you do it?  Join us for an evening of live music, appetizers, and a tribute to the Rotary Foundation.  $26.50 gets you an evening of great music, prizes, food, and more.  Plus your donation helps The Foundation. **Please note that regular menu items are available for an additional cost at The Pub for those that desire to dine.
               
              Friday, April 28th
               
              ●       Grand Opening Umbrella Parade, Main Street, Sitka, 9AM
              Rain or shine, bring your own unusual umbrella or grab one of our Rotary umbrellas as we celebrate everything Rotary.  Surprise us with your creativity, and then grab our special passport to get great deals in all of the local Sitka shops.
              ●       “This is Here, This is Now, You are the Future of Rotary.” Opening Celebration, Centennial Hall, 12:30-1:45PM,  with RI Director Nominee Jeffry Cadorette and a special tribute to the 150th Anniversary of Alaska and the Yukon
              Start the festivities off right with a welcome you’re sure to put in your memory book.  2017 is a monumental year for Rotary, and for Alaska and the Yukon.  There are historic moments that deeply impact communities far beyond their scope of time.  Hear from RI Director Nominee Jeffry Cadorette about why we should not only celebrate the past, but also steer our compass to the future.
              ●       “You Never Know What You Can Make Happen”, 2-3PM featuring Razia Jan
              Razia’s Ray of Hope Foundation has been shaped by the spirit and vision of Razia Jan. Founder of the Zabuli Education Center, Razia has worked for many years to forge connections between Afghans and Americans. Her humanitarian efforts are honored in First Lady Laura Bush's 2016 book We Are Afghan Women.  She is a CNN Top Ten Hero, a Rotarian, and a recipient of Rotary’s Service Above Self Award in 2016.
              ●       “Sharing Our Stories to Grow Membership”  3:15-4PM featuring RI Presidential Rep,  PDG Elizabeth Smith Yeats.
              “Every man can transform the world from one of monotony and drabness to one of excitement and adventure.” – Irving Wallace.  Why Rotary’s story is so important.  Learn how new media and Rotary’s new tools are essential to our future success.
              ●       Assistant Governor Shoreside Social, 5-6:30 PM, Sitka Centennial Hall Seaside Patio
              It’s not the Lido deck, but the closest thing we can get.  Grab your fun fishing outfits and join us portside with live music, cocktails, and more. 
              ●       Steer Your Way Into Service, Rotary E-Club and Youth Exchange Project, 6-9PM, Sitka Fine Arts Camp
              Two powerhouses join together to create a great project to benefit the community.  This awesome event will be followed by a movie and pizza night for the kids at the Fine Arts Camp. Project starts at 6, Dinner and a movie starts at 7:30.
              ●       Pier Pleasure Seafood Spectacular!  7-11PM, Centennial Hall.  Featuring Ray Troll and the Ratfish Wranglers and Authentic Alaskan Seafood
              Grab your Xtratufs, your fishing clothes and celebrate everything seafood with the famous Ray Troll and his musical band of fishy folks.   Travel around the room tasting fresh Alaskan seafood, enjoy live music, and more. This is an event not to be missed.  **Please note this event will be open to the public on an invitation only basis. **Dress is casual Alaskan.
               
              Saturday, April 29th
               
              ●       Presidents’ Breakfasts, 7:30-8:30AM
              Whether you’ve driven the President’s boat, are driving it now, or are set to sail soon, join some of Rotary’s VIP’s for a Q&A at breakfast, with opening thoughts from our world travelers, Rotary Youth Exchange
              ●       General Breakfast for all others, 7:30-8:30AM, Centennial Hall
              ●       “Women in Rotary:  What an Adventure It’s Been!”9:15-10:15AM Centennial Hall,  featuring Past RI Director Julia Phelps.
               “A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” Rotary is celebrating its 30th Anniversary of Women in its ranks. Hear the exhilarating history from one of Rotary’s leading women who paved the way, and what she thinks about women in Rotary moving forward.
              ●       “The Power of Connections.  From Young to Old, There’s Something for Everyone in Rotary”, 10:30-11:45, featuring Mayo Woodward, former Charter Member with DG Michelle of the Sunset Rotary Club of Tallahassee.
              Chartering new clubs isn’t easy, especially if you don’t have a roadmap, but Michelle and Mayo did exactly that back in Tallahassee for a group of young professionals.  Learn how you can engage every age group and make their Rotary adventure worth every minute. From new clubs to your club, you’re sure to learn something.
              ●       Luncheon, “Oh, the Places, You’ll Go!”, 12-1:45PM  RI President’s Rep Elizabeth Smith Yeats, and joined by Julia Phelps, Jeffry Cadorette, and Jackie Hobal in a roundtable discussion with audience participation.
              Rotary offers an amazing adventure that you can take advantage of.  Learn more about where Rotary plans to go in the future, and how you can help make it happen.  From the new customizable meetings, to brand new “mileage plans”, Rotary has some awesome opportunities for your clubs.  Learn all about it, first-hand here.
              ●       “I’m 26, and I’ve Been a Rotarian for Half my Life.”  Mitty Chang, President E-Club of Silicon Valley, 2-3:00 PM
              From Interact, to Rotaract, and now the President of the E-Club of Silicon Valley, Rotary has been the trip of a lifetime. You won’t want to miss this amazing Rotarian’s stories.  #futureofRotary  #Rotaract
              ●       Major Donors Reception, Centennial Hall, 5:00-6:00PM
              You’ll need a special passport to attend this very special event honoring those who have invested in the future of Rotary’s efforts through the Rotary Foundation.  Featuring special whiskey pairings from the Jim Beam Corporation.
              ●       Rotary Youth Exchange Balloon and Silent Auction, Centennial Hall 6:00-7:30
              The original creator of memories, Rotary Youth Exchange brings you their annual fundraiser and auction.  From trips to artisan items from around the world, bid high and bid often!  Your donation helps the next dream come true.
              ●       Governor’s Banquet featuring Past Rotary International President, Richard D. King, Centennial Hall, 7PM, featuring local Sitka entertainment and various live performers.
              Larger than life Rotary icon, RI Past President Richard King, joins us for an entertaining and enlightening (and often humorous) look at Rotary and beyond.  “Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
               
              Sunday, April 30th
               
              ●       Wonderous Waters, Whale Watching Breakfast Tour Aboard Allen Marine, 8:00-10:00AM, Remarks by District Governor Michelle O’Brien and various dignitaries, **Please note that those leaving on domestic flights will have plenty of time to check in at the airport in Sitka for southbound flights if you are leaving at noon.
              The Grand Finale to the tour….join us aboard Allen Marine’s famous, enclosed small ships for a tour around the spectacular beauty of Sitka’s waters to not only honor those who have departed, but to celebrate our future legacies. A beautiful vessel and knowledgeable captain are at your command for this soul-stirring coastal scenery.  Guests will have an opportunity to honor the departed by casting flowers upon the water.
              Agenda for Rotary District 5010 Conference in Sitka, Alaska 2017-01-30 09:00:00Z 0

              Ice Swimming in Lake Baikal

              When we were first contemplating helping with The Great Lake Baikal Trail, Mischa and Tatiana came from Irkutsk to visit and explain "what it was all about".  While here they, and Dave Brann, "went for a swim" on Bishop's Beach and raised $700 toward the construction of the trail.  Our 10 year commitment is completed, but like may Rotary happenings, many of us have made friends for life.
               
               
               
              Tatiania, Mischa, and Dave After Their Swim in Kachemak Bay!  That's Ice on the Beach!
               
               
               
               
              Ice Swimming in Lake Baikal 2017-01-25 09:00:00Z 0

              Interview With Gary Haugen of the International Justice Mission

              Justice For All

               

              Skip to main content

              Gary Haugen, leader of the International Justice Mission, contends that humanitarian work means little if basic safety is threatened

              In 1994 Rwanda was reeling from the genocide of as many as 1 million people over 100 days, the apex of decades of civil conflict in the East African nation. 

              Gary Haugen, then a young human rights attorney working for the U.S. Department of Justice, landed in Kigali to head a United Nations unit investigating the genocide and gathering evidence needed to prosecute the perpetrators for war crimes.

              Gary Haugen, leader of the International Justice Mission

              Illustration: Viktor Miller Gausa

              “There was basically no functioning government, Haugen recalls. “So much chaos is unleashed when there isn’t a civil authority exercising control. A lot of people tried to help, sending food and medicine and providing housing and education, but when it came to the problem of violence, very few people stepped up to that challenge.

              Haugen established the International Justice Mission (IJM) in 1997 to address violence in developing countries. The organization has 17 field offices and works with local investigators to rescue victims of violence, support survivors, strengthen law enforcement, and bring violent criminals to justice. In his 2014 book, The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence, Haugen argues that the progress made in the global fight against poverty means little when citizens’ basic safety is threatened.

              At the 2016 Rotary International Convention in Korea, Haugen talked to Rotarians about one of the most harmful forms of what he calls the “everyday violence affecting the world’s poorest people – forced labor, or slavery. “Slavery is not a relic of history," he said, noting that an estimated 35 million enslaved people are hidden in plain sight, all over the world, generating $150 billion in profits for traffickers who seldom face prosecution. “It’s vaster and more brutal than ever. And it’s more stoppable than ever.

              Haugen sat down with contributor Sallyann Price in Seoul to talk about the importance of addressing violence and safety in development work. 

              The Rotarian: How are poverty and violence related?

              Haugen: When people think about the world’s poorest people, they don’t usually think about violence. They think of hunger, disease, and a lack of education and job opportunities. But just as important is daily vulnerability to violence, and not necessarily the violence that makes headlines: war, genocide, mass atrocities.

              The form of violence that is far more destructive is what we call everyday violence – that’s sexual violence, police abuse, land theft, and forced labor. On a daily basis, these types of violence make it very difficult for the common poor person to improve his or her situation. You can give all kinds of goods and services to alleviate poverty, but if you’re not able to restrain the hands of the bullies that have the power to take it all away, you won’t see the kind of progress you want.

              The world is now divided between those who can afford to pay for their own protection and the billions who are left in lawless chaos.


              International Justice Mission

              Abuse of power is a very simple human dynamic. It’s what a kid will understand in the schoolyard: There’s the kid who’s stronger and bigger than everybody else, and he’s abusing that power to take something from the victim, whether it’s lunch money or possessions or just their dignity. You see the same dynamic in the adult world; it just manifests itself in more adult, violent ways over time and on a bigger scale.

              TR: Your address to the Rotary Convention focused specifically on the issue of slavery. Why this message for this audience?

              Haugen: We are in a moment in history when forces are coming together to make it possible to end slavery in our lifetime. For the first time, enslavement is completely against the law everywhere. It’s an ancient evil that still exists, but it’s no longer the center of the global economy.

              Rotary has demonstrated a unique capacity to focus effort on a global problem that simply shouldn’t exist anymore. Look at the example of polio: We have a vaccine that works perfectly well and we agree that everyone should be safe from this disease, but there’s an access gap. Similarly, everyone should be safe from slavery, and no parent should have to worry about a child being enslaved. We know that a combination of effective law enforcement and excellent survivor support can measurably reduce slavery, and violence overall. Rotarians, in their work to end polio, have shown the kind of focus and determination we need to succeed in that struggle.

              TR: How do you respond to scientist Steven Pinker? In his book The Better Angels of Our Nature, he argues that this is actually the least violent time in history.

              Haugen: If you look at the broad scope of history, there is, on average, much less violence in our world today. That’s good news because it shows progress is possible. But think of the comparison with polio – fewer people are vulnerable to the disease, but does that mean we don’t finish the job? Like polio, the violence that remains in our world is more concentrated in the lives of the world’s poorest people.

              Wealthier countries provide a measure of security and law enforcement on a public basis, but in the developing world, personal safety often means hiring private security. The world is now divided between those who can afford to pay for their own protection and the billions who are left in lawless chaos, experiencing extreme levels of violence.

              Gary Haugen and IJM staff meeet with clients in Bangalore, India who were rescued from brutal bonded labor slavery in a brick kiln. 

              International Justice Mission

              TR: What role can more powerful members of society, like Rotarians, play in improving the situation? 

              Haugen: In much of the developing world, the public systems of justice are so broken that those with wealth and resources do not depend on them. Every culture debates the role of government and the range of services it should provide, but there should be no doubt that the most basic of those services is seeing to the security of its citizens. Those with the opportunity to lead must invest in public security so all citizens can enjoy that same safety.

              It’s fascinating that the most common forms of violence in the developing world are almost always against the law already. The problem is not the absence of law, but the absence of law enforcement that protects everyone. That’s our focus at IJM.

              TR: When did you first see this pattern?

              Haugen: After I graduated from college, I lived in South Africa. The big issue at the time was the apartheid crisis. That’s where I started to see what it was like to live in a society of violent oppression and abuse. After law school, I went to work for the U.S. Department of Justice, where I worked specifically on the problem of police abuse in the United States. I started to see that no matter where you are in the world, no matter which country you’re in, people with power – whether political or police – tend to abuse it if they are not held accountable. I saw the particular problem of violence against the poor when I was sent to Rwanda in 1994 to direct the UN’s investigation into the genocide there. A lot of people tried to help, sending food and medicine and providing housing and education, but when it came to the problem of violence, very few people stepped up to that challenge. Slavery in this era strikes me as a similar issue: We are aware of it, we can stop it, and it is up to us to take that responsibility. 

              TR: How does IJM help a community plagued by violence?

              Haugen: In many parts of the developing world, people have given up hope that law enforcement will ever protect the poor from violence. Our work demonstrates that it’s possible to change. The recovery of that hope is a game-changer.

              We begin with what we call collaborative casework with the local authorities. We recruit a local team of lawyers, investigators, and social workers and start working on individual cases. As we try to bring the criminals to justice, we start to see the broken points in the criminal justice system.

              When we begin working on a case, we pursue a baseline study to measure the prevalence of different types of violence and the performance of the police and the courts. Working from those two baselines, we can measure when the criminal justice system starts working....

              • Read more stories from The Rotarian

               
              •  
               
               
              Interview With Gary Haugen of the International Justice Mission 2017-01-25 09:00:00Z 0

              DG Michelle's 2017 Visit to Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club

              Last week, District Governor Michelle O'Brian visited Homer and both Rotary Clubs (and even got in some sight-seeing).  To say that her visit was "different" would be about like saying that "sometimes" the sky is blue!  Those who were unable to attend our meeting really missed out on an opportunity to see what Rotary can and, hopefully, will be.  Most of us have sat through a Governor's Speech that tells us of how well we have done, and that the hope is to keep up doing it.  DG Michelle's speech had that, of course, but she went on to show us ways to improve our delivery and to expand our message.  With the vision that she and her successors have, Rotary cannot help but flourish. Check out the Rotary District 5010 Website ( www.Rotary5010.org ) for more info on some of the things to come!  Some pictures of the meeting are below.
               
              "First Dude" Dave, ADG Matt Pyhala, and District Governor Michelle O'Brian
               
              DG Michelle Presents Maynard and Mari-Anne with their Certificates and a Plaque Welcoming them as Major Donors
               
              DG Michelle Inducts New Members Derotha, Connie, and Frank into the Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay
               
               
              DG Michelle O'Brian Addresses Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay
               
               
               
              DG Michelle's 2017 Visit to Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club 2017-01-25 09:00:00Z 0
              Rotary District 5010 Annual Leadership Team Training 2017-01-18 09:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Announces $35 Million to Support a Polio-Free World

              Rotary announces $35 million to support a polio-free world

              News Release

              Contact: Michelle Kloempken, (847) 866-3247, michelle.kloempken@rotary.org


              EVANSTON, Ill. (17 January 2017) — Rotary today announced $35 million in grants to support the global effort to end polio, bringing the humanitarian service organization’s contribution to $140 million since January 2016.

              Nearly half of the funds Rotary announced today ($16.15 million) will support the emergency response campaigns in Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin (Chad, northern Cameroon, southern Niger and Central African Republic). Four cases of polio were detected in Nigeria in 2016, which had previously not seen a case since July 2014.

              With these cases, funding is needed to support rapid response plans in Nigeria and surrounding countries to stop the outbreak.

              While significant strides have been made against the paralyzing disease, with just 35 cases reported in 2016, polio remains a threat in hard-to-reach and underserved areas, and conflict zones. To sustain this progress, and protect all children from polio, experts say $1.5 billion is needed.

              In addition to supporting the response in the Lake Chad Basin region, funding has been allocated to support polio eradication efforts in Afghanistan ($7.15 million), Pakistan ($4.2 million), Somalia ($4.64 million), and South Sudan ($2.19 million). A final grant in the amount of $666,845 will support technical assistance in UNICEF’s West and Central Africa Regional Office.

              Rotary has contributed more than $1.6 billion, including matching funds from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and countless volunteer hours since launching its polio immunization program, PolioPlus, in 1985. In 1988, Rotary became a spearheading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative with the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and was later joined by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Since the initiative launched, the incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99.9 percent, from about 350,000 cases a year to 35 confirmed in 2016, and no cases in 2017. 

              About Rotary

              Rotary brings together a global network of volunteer leaders dedicated to tackling the world's most pressing humanitarian challenges. Rotary connects 1.2 million members of more than 35,000 Rotary clubs in over 200 countries and geographical areas. Their work improves lives at both the local and international levels, from helping families in need in their own communities to working toward a polio-free world. To access broadcast quality video footage and still photos go to: The Newsmarket.

              Rotary Announces $35 Million to Support a Polio-Free World 2017-01-18 09:00:00Z 0

              Register for Rotary District 5010 District Conference is in SITKA!

               
              DISTRICT 5010 CONFERENCE
               
               
              We Want YOU! District Conference - Sitka
              The 2017 Sitka District Conference Committee has openings for individuals who are talented in the following areas:
              Sponsorships
              Decorating
              Publicity
              Transportation
              and more!
               
              Leadership Opportunities for All District 5010 Rotarians
               
              One of the great opportunities in Rotary that sometimes doesn't get much fanfare is leadership training and hands on leadership experience. It usually starts in the club and depending on the size of your club the opportunities might come very soon after joining.
              Register for Rotary District 5010 District Conference is in SITKA! 2017-01-18 09:00:00Z 0
              Schedule for District Governor Michelle O'Brian's Visit 2017-01-11 09:00:00Z 0

              Pakistan's Rise to Zero

              Pakistan's Rise to Zero

               

              Skip to main content

              Pakistan and Rotary are cutting through a whirl of migrating families and cultural barriers to turn what was 'a badge of shame' into a model for disease eradication.

              By Produced by

              At a busy toll plaza in Kohat, Pakistan, a three-member vaccination team is working fast. 

              Outfitted in blue Rotary vests and flanked by armed military personnel, the vaccinators approach a white van as it pulls away from the scattered stream of traffic, cars rattling east toward Islamabad and west to the nearby border with Afghanistan. One worker leans toward the driver to ask a question as another reaches into a cooler to prepare the vaccine. Among the crush of passengers in the van, they identify one child who has not yet been vaccinated.

              There is no time for second-guessing. 

              There is not even enough room for the boy to crawl toward the front of the vehicle or through one of the doors; a relative must hand the young child to the vaccinators through one of the rear windows. He is quickly inoculated with two drops of oral polio vaccine, and his pinkie finger is stained with purple ink to indicate that he’s received his dose. He cries as the vaccinator hurriedly passes him back through the window. The van speeds off, fading back into the dizzying hum of traffic, as the vaccinators look for the next car and child.

              This scene plays out thousands of times a day at transit posts like this one — makeshift vaccination clinics set up at bus stops, border crossings, army posts, and police checkpoints across the country in an effort to reach children who are on the move. 

              Here in Pakistan, home to almost all of the world’s polio cases just a few years ago, these moving targets require a vaccination strategy as agile and stubborn as the virus itself. At hundreds of sites, teams of health workers verify that every child passing through receives the vaccine. 

              The interaction is fleeting — faster than getting a meal at a drive-through restaurant — but the benefit is permanent. Another child, another family, another generation is protected, and Pakistan moves one step closer to having zero polio cases.

              More than 700 children are vaccinated daily at the busy Kohat Toll Plaza, which borders Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

              Photos by Khaula Jamil

              Setback year

              In 2014, Pakistan’s effort to wipe out polio, a disease that can paralyze, was in crisis.

              Political pressure to root out the virus was being tested, reports of violence against vaccinators were common, and perceptions that the country was an incubator of the disease grew. Massive population movement and displacement had pushed the anti-polio campaign to its limit. 

              The consequence? Reports of the disease spiked to alarming levels. 

              The explosive outbreak that year totaled 306 reported cases, up from 93 the previous year. Pakistan had 82 percent of the world’s cases of polio in 2014. One newspaper editorial at the time called the epidemic Pakistan’s “badge of shame.”

              Dr. Rana Safdar, director of the National Emergency Operations Center in Pakistan, on the success of Rotary’s PolioPlus strategy.

              A pointed 2014 report from the Independent Monitoring Board of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative spotlighted Pakistan’s missteps, humbling government leaders and health officials, who scrambled to find solutions. 

              “We were emotional and somewhat defensive,” says Dr. Rana Safdar, director of the National Emergency Operations Center in Pakistan. “But the report pushed us to get our act together on polio, for first time. Our program was a threat to the global polio eradication efforts. The upsurge we had in Pakistan was unprecedented.”

              The government effectively declared war on polio, condemning the outbreak as a national disaster. Words were soon matched with action.

              “The motivation and the commitment of the vaccinators on the front line and government officials became stronger,” says Aziz Memon, chair of Rotary’s Pakistan PolioPlus Committee. “We had more reason to say, ‘Yes, we need to get rid of this disease and fulfill the promise we made to the children of this country: No child in the future will be crippled by this disease.’”

              Led by this renewed commitment, the country rallied, intensifying immunizations through new strategies that resulted in a dramatic decrease in polio cases over the next two years. 

              The number of new infections dropped from 306 in 2014 to 56 the next year, a decrease of 82 percent. In 2016, only 15 cases of polio caused by the wild virus were reported. 

              ‘A paradigm shift’ 

              Continued in "Read More" Section
              Pakistan's Rise to Zero 2017-01-11 09:00:00Z 0

              Register for Rotary International Convention in Atlanta

               
               
               

              Important Links:

              RI Convention 2017:

              Celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Rotary Foundation!  Join us in Altanta Georgia from June 10-14, 2017.

              Book now and get the Early Bird registration fee of $340 (increasing over time to the full rate of $490).  CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

              While you are registering for the Convention, register for your hotel.  Here are some recommendations of hotels near the Convention Center.  These will book quickly so register now - cancellation policy gives you until May 2017 in case you change your mind.

              Hotel Recommendations:

              Only 5 hotels remaining at this point. (July 14)

              The best option for location and price is the Mariott Marquis at $205 per night and about a 20 minute walk.  It has a rating of 4/5 and ranks 41 on TripAdvisor.   Amenities include the Sear restaurant, High Velocity Sports Bar, Pulse (50' sail), and Sear Bar

              The two low cost options are about 3 miles away from the Convention Center:

              • W Atlanta Midtown $189
              • Renaissance Atlanta Midtown  $194

              Two closer  (around 2.5 miles) but more expensive hotels:

              • Four Seasons $266
              • Loews Atlanta  $236.80

              As the Convention is Saturday, June 10 to Wednesday, June 14, consider arriving early (ie Thursday June 8) to enjoy the city first and leaving on Thursday June 15 or later.

              Typically there is a District Get Together after the closing ceremony, so make sure you stay in town and are available on Wednesday, June 14.

              Hotel booking is through Experient on the RI Convention website - here's the link:  http://www.riconvention.org/en/atlanta/accommodations

              Register for Rotary International Convention in Atlanta 2017-01-11 09:00:00Z 0

              Technology: Tricks of the Trade

               
               

              Technology: Tricks of the trade

               
               

              Awhile back, I got a call on my landline phone from a pleasant-sounding fellow who claimed to be from Microsoft. He said that a problem with my computer had been detected over the internet and it was urgent that I let him fix it.

              “Thanks, that is so nice of you,” I said. “What should I do? ”

              He told me to go to my computer and click on my Google icon.

              “Click on my what?”

              “Your Google symbol. Do you see the Google symbol?”

              “Uh, no, I don’t.”

              “What do you see?”

              “I see a picture of my wife and my kids and my dog and my cat,” I said.

              “I need you to click on your Google symbol.”

               “I don’t see it,” I said. “Where is it?”

              “It’s near the bottom of your screen.”

              “Do you think it would be closer to my dog or my cat?”

              Call me perverse, but I take great pleasure in painting a con artist into a corner. Especially when I know I have tricked one into believing that he (it’s almost always a he) has found an easy mark. In this case, I was stealing a page from my friend Tony, a fundraising whiz who delights in thwarting telemarketers by coaching them on their sales delivery. He’ll ask them to go through their pitch again, but this time do it slowly and with feeling.

              The object of this game is to occupy a caller’s time until he gets so exasperated that he hangs up. Every minute a scammer spends being played is one less minute that he could be playing someone else.

              Unfortunately, it’s not always that easy to avoid being scammed, and there are plenty of scammers at work. The Federal Trade Commission received more than 1.2 million fraud complaints on its Consumer Sentinel Network in 2015, and a comprehensive review of consumer financial fraud research since 1990 conducted at the Stanford University Center on Longevity found that consumer fraud is significantly underreported.

              About three-quarters of those FTC complaints identified the telephone as the initial method of contact. If you haven’t yet received a call from someone saying you’re being sued by the IRS, you may want to make sure your phone is working properly.

              My mother-in-law, who is 84, recently found an IRS warning message on her answering machine from a Mr. Gray, who left a phone number with a Washington, D.C., area code. A widow living alone on a farm in Wisconsin, she sleeps with one eye open, can spot a $3 bill a mile away, and does not hesitate to use her rifle to scare off any varmint who gets close to her tomatoes. But this message worried her enough that she thought it necessary to check in with my wife right away.

              According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center – a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center – the tech-support scam is one of the most popular cyber frauds going. Typically the caller will identify a nonexistent problem and offer to repair it for a fee. A variation on that scheme involves the scammer calling to offer a refund for services rendered and getting the victim to log on to his bank account to process the transaction, possibly providing future access for electronic theft.

              Phones are pretty much a level playing field – we all know how to hang up – but not so the internet. As the web enables us to see the other side of the world without leaving our homes, it also makes us visible to strangers at far greater distances and from many more angles than we once would have thought possible.

              “Technology has definitely allowed con artists and scammers to get more sophisticated and therefore harder to spot,” says Kristin Keckeisen, a senior adviser for the AARP Fraud Watch Network. And she points out that some are able to hijack names, email addresses, and social media profiles of people you know or do business with.

              Bob Becker, a member of the Rotary Club of Paw Paw Lake (Coloma Hartford Watervliet), Mich., says his Facebook activity is pretty much limited to keeping up with his family. So when one of his daughters received a request to become his friend, he knew something was amiss. “It was a pretty easy fix,” says Becker. “We solved it by changing my password. I think if you have half a noodle, you can tell what’s legitimate and what is not.”

              Yes, but some of us may feel our noodles are getting a little past al dente.

              Becker recently received an email with a link that appeared to be from a friend, but he sensed that something was not right with it. He emailed the friend asking if he had sent it and promptly received a reply saying that he had. But Becker was still wary, so he phoned him and learned that the email was bogus.

              “I’m 75; if I were 76, I might have fallen for that,” he jokes, acknowledging the widely accepted notion that we older folks are more at risk of being scammed. But he also finds it plausible that younger people who take technology for granted may also be at risk, and research on the topic bears that out.

              A 2014 AARP study concluded that behavior, personality, and state of mind are more determinative than age in predicting victims of online fraud. The study identified nine internet behaviors – among them clicking on pop-ups, opening email from unknown sources, and signing up for free offers – that make people more susceptible to fraud, especially when linked with four “life experiences”: loneliness, job loss, worry about debt, and negative change in financial status. Two other factors relate to lack of knowledge about the internet: mistakenly believing that a company or website’s privacy policy guarantees one’s privacy and not knowing that financial institutions do not send emails asking for personal information.

              AARP fraud expert Keckeisen warns: “Never engage a stranger in a dialogue about your personal life, always ask more questions than you answer, and never make a decision about an investment or payment when you are overly excited. Wait at least a day after hearing a particularly enticing pitch before making a decision, and recognize that anything that seems too good to be true usually is. Any legitimate offer will not threaten you with a short time frame to act on it.”

              I’ll go that advice one better. Even if it is a legitimate solicitation, do you really want to do business with someone who called you out of the blue? If a guy tells you there’s never been a better time to buy gold, you may want to ask why he’s selling it.

              Avoiding scams all comes down to common sense and paying attention – following the kind of advice that you received from your parents and passed on to your own kids: e.g., never accept rides from strangers or invite people you don’t know into your house. Of course in our topsy-turvy technology-dependent modern way of life, those no-nos have become bedrock components of the sharing economy.

              Says Becker: “Whether you’re 25 or 75, it behooves everyone to be very cautious.” Indeed.

              The Rotarian

              1-Dec-2016
              Technology: Tricks of the Trade 2017-01-03 09:00:00Z 0

              Mission to Myanmar

               
              This is among the projects that we have donated time and effort to, and we have seen some real progress.
              Mission to Myanmar 2017-01-03 09:00:00Z 0
              Give the Gift of Rotary 2016-12-20 09:00:00Z 0

              Member Interview: Writer Sheds Light on FDR's Right-Hand Woman

              Member interview: Writer sheds light on FDR’s right-hand woman

              Illustration by Monica Garwood

              Battling breast cancer in 2000, Kathryn Smith found comfort pursuing her lifelong interest in Franklin D. Roosevelt. The more she read, the more intrigued she became with the 32nd U.S. president’s private secretary, Marguerite Alice “Missy” LeHand. “I thought, what a fascinating life she had because she was by his side through the polio crisis, establishing the polio rehabilitation center in Warm Springs and then after his return to politics,” she says. Smith, a past president of the Rotary Club of Greater Anderson, S.C., and a longtime newspaper journalist, turned that curiosity into a book, The Gatekeeper: Missy LeHand, FDR, and the Untold Story of the Partnership That Defined a Presidency. FDR historians have praised the work for its scholarship in detailing the life of LeHand, who was not only a private secretary but also a de facto chief of staff, confidant, and source of inspiration to Roosevelt as he fought the polio that paralyzed him from the waist down. Smith shared LeHand’s story with The Rotarian.

              THE ROTARIAN: How was LeHand involved in Roosevelt’s polio rehabilitation center in Warm Springs, Ga.?

              SMITH: When FDR and Missy first came to Warm Springs in 1924, it was kind of like riding into a tribal village – unpaved roads, a lot of houses didn’t have doors or windowpanes, and Eleanor Roosevelt was so appalled she only stayed a couple of nights. She never stayed long. She didn’t like it there. Missy was always the hostess in Warm Springs. When Roosevelt started the polio rehabilitation hospital, there were no doctors, no nurses. It was just “Dr. Roosevelt" and “Nurse Missy."

              TR: What was her role at the White House?

              SMITH: FDR had four secretaries. The press dubbed them the White House secretariat. She was his private, or personal, secretary, and she was the only one to have an office adjoining his. She also lived in the White House. Missy was one of the people who helped FDR become the FDR of history. But she also enabled Eleanor to become the Eleanor of history. She was Eleanor’s backup at the White House so Eleanor could go off on her trips and inspection tours and always knew Missy would take care of things at the White House. People have ignored how important she was as an adviser and how important she was as the de facto chief of staff of the White House.

              TR: Didn’t LeHand’s closeness to FDR raise eyebrows?

              SMITH: The person who really perpetuated the rumor that Missy was FDR’s in-house mistress was his son Elliott, who was the black sheep of the family. He said this in print for the first time in his 1973 book. All four of the other children disavowed the book. In fact, the whole time she had a long-term [love interest], William Bullitt Jr., the U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union.

              TR: What would LeHand have said about your endeavor?

              SMITH: I hope she would like it. I’ve come away with tremendous respect and affection for her. In political circles there are people who hate each other. But all [at the White House] liked Missy. She was described as a saintlike person. She wasn’t a gossip and she didn’t play to those rivalries. Her No. 1 loyalty was always to FDR. He knew he could always count on her that she wasn’t playing those games.

              The Rotarian

              1-Jan-2017
              Member Interview: Writer Sheds Light on FDR's Right-Hand Woman 2016-12-20 09:00:00Z 0

              The Rotarian Conversation with Ban Ki-Moon

               

              The Rotarian Conversation with Ban Ki-moon

              Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa

              One of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s earliest memories is of fleeing with his family into the mountains during the Korean War, his village burning behind him. His father and grandfather had to forage for food in the woods; his mother gave birth to his siblings away from anything remotely resembling a health facility. “I have known hunger,” he says. “I have known war, and I have known what it means to be forced to flee conflict.”

              The soldiers who came to their rescue were flying the blue flag of the United Nations. The UN provided them with food and their schools with books. And the experience sowed in Ban a belief in the transformative power of global solidarity, a belief he has spent his career working to achieve. 

              A meeting with U.S. President John F. Kennedy at the White House after winning an essay-writing contest as a teenager inspired Ban to become a diplomat. He entered Korea’s foreign service in 1970, serving roles including ambassador and minister of foreign affairs and trade before being elected UN secretary-general in 2006.

              Ban made polio eradication a top priority of his second five-year term. In 2012, he chaired a polio summit on the sidelines of the annual General Assembly, securing strong commitment to eradication from all the heads of state where polio is endemic as well as ministers from key donor governments, Rotary, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He has included polio messages in his briefings, during visits to polio-priority countries, and in statements at multilateral events including the General Assembly, African Union, and Group of Eight summits, and has personally participated in polio vaccination campaigns.

              In 2016, Ban addressed the Rotary International Convention in Seoul and donated his $100,000 honorarium to Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign. “The ‘wind in our sails’ is Rotary International,” he now tells The Rotarian. “Thanks to its advocacy, we have been able to come within striking distance of a polio-free world. I will always be grateful to its leaders and its many volunteers on the front lines of this effort. They are truly noble humanitarians.”

              Ban is stepping down from his position at the United Nations after a decade that saw declines in poverty and achievements in public health. But it was also a rough period for the UN, with rising violent extremism and an unprecedented population of refugees. His successor, António Guterres, former prime minister of Portugal, begins 1 January. The Rotarian’s Diana Schoberg interviewed Ban about polio, his legacy, and how Rotary and the UN can work together. “I believe the world is moving in the right direction,” he says. “I am generally hopeful.”

              THE ROTARIAN: A cornerstone of your legacy will be the Paris Agreement on climate change. How were you able to rally people together about this issue?

              BAN: It has been a long, hard road, but it has paid off. I went against all of my advisers by raising climate change with then-U.S. President George W. Bush in my first visit to the White House during my third week in office in 2007. He was a bit surprised – but he came on board. At the meeting in Bali where we adopted the first road map leading to the Paris agreement, the United States gave its last-minute support. President Bush confided to me at a private farewell lunch in 2009 that the U.S. delegation leader had phoned him from Bali for advice and he told her to do what I wanted.

              While the outcome of the Copenhagen climate change conference in 2009 was not what we had expected, it was the start of a long road that led to the Paris Agreement. My vision to get to an agreement was based on one word: inclusion. The issue of climate is too important and too big for only governments to take on. We opened the doors of the United Nations to civil society and to the business sector. They, too, needed a seat at the table. Civil society has kept pressure on governments to act. Whether it’s the energy sector, the insurance industry, or transportation companies, they all have a role to play.

              TR: What is your most unsung achievement at the UN?

              BAN: I have made human rights a top priority, which is reflected across all areas of the United Nations. Human rights are integral to the Sustainable Development Goals [a set of 17 goals adopted in 2015 to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all within 15 years]. And after hearing “never again” over and over again in response to atrocity crimes, I created the Human Rights up Front initiative to prevent and respond to warning signs of looming atrocities.

              I have also been proud to be the first secretary-general to speak out against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. And because I believe in leading by example, I backed up my words with full equality in terms of benefits. 

              Sometimes in the world of diplomacy, “unsung” successes are destined to remain so. I have often employed quiet diplomacy, whether to ensure the release of an imprisoned journalist or convincing a leader to truly listen to the aspirations of his people. Quiet diplomacy is about letting the other party get the credit for doing the right thing. It’s not about me getting accolades.

              TR: With the recent setback in polio eradication in Nigeria in mind, what is the key to ending polio?

              BAN: Trust is essential. To earn and maintain trust, it is absolutely imperative that there be no politicization of polio eradication activities. Community and religious leaders are our best advocates in this effort.

              The detection of wild poliovirus in Nigeria is a serious setback, but it is only a setback. The world has never been closer to eradicating polio, we have the tools and strategies that we know are effective in stopping the disease, and together we have reduced polio transmission to the lowest levels in history in just three countries worldwide. If we continue, with courage and determination, on our current trajectory, we will stop polio once and for all. Failure is not an option, and in the very near future, I believe we will deliver on Rotary’s promise of a polio-free world for all generations to come.

              TR: What decision or course of action from your time as secretary-general would you change if you could?

              BAN: I have made clear to the member states, and particularly to the members of the Security Council, that they work best when they are united. That is why I have felt so frustrated about the disunity in the Security Council when it comes to Syria. As I have argued, it shames us all that we as an international community have not been able to come together and halt this brutal war.  While that disunity has persisted, more than 300,000 people have died. I will keep working until my last day in office to resolve this horrific crisis, but I need the support of the member states – all of them.

              TR: UN peacekeepers played a role in introducing cholera to Haiti after the devastating earthquake in that country in 2010. The epidemic has since killed 10,000 people and sickened 800,000. What can the UN do to restore trust?

              BAN: It is clear that the United Nations has a moral responsibility to the victims of the cholera epidemic and for supporting Haiti in overcoming the epidemic and building sound water, sanitation, and health systems. During my own visit to the country, I made it clear that I deeply regret the terrible suffering the people of Haiti have endured as a result of the cholera epidemic.

              I am working to develop a package that would provide material assistance and support to those Haitians most directly affected by cholera. These efforts must include, as a central focus, the victims of the disease and their families. The United Nations also intends to intensify its support to reduce, and ultimately end, the transmission of cholera, improve access to care and treatment, and address the longer-term issues of water, sanitation, and health systems in Haiti.

              TR: The UN’s recent Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 are more numerous and seem more detailed than the Millennium Development Goals – 17 goals with multiple subpoints for each. What was the thinking behind that, and how can the UN and partners keep so many goals in focus?

              BAN: I have heard the criticism that we have too many goals and they may be unwieldy.

              These new goals matter because they will be the yardstick that everything between now and 2030 is judged against. These goals are far more than aspirations. They provide a guide for action in the key areas where countries will have to invest in order to move forward.

              Moreover, the goals, including their subpoints, were not imposed by the United Nations bureaucrats like some forced agenda. The 17 SDGs are the product of long and detailed consultations by member states as well as the broader civil society through online portals and local meetings. We may have a big number, but the goals are a true reflection of what the world has been asking for.

              TR: We are seeing globalism being rejected in many pockets. Nations are becoming less stable, and tribalism or religious sectarianism is gaining some appeal. What can the UN offer to counter these trends?

              BAN: This has been a period of multiple challenges – from the financial crisis to the uprisings in the Middle East, from the rise of violent extremism to renewed geopolitical competition in Europe and Asia.

              In times of uncertainty, we do see a rise of politicians who prey on people’s fear, especially when it comes to the rising number of refugees and migrants. We must reject the dangerous political math that says you add votes by dividing people, and we need to stand against bigotry and xenophobia in all its forms. The United Nations has just launched a campaign against this poison. It is designed to foster communities of inclusion and mutual respect – and we call it, simply, “Together.”

              This time of uncertainty has also witnessed a rise in violent extremism. While it’s of course critical to counter this extremism, we must also work hard to prevent it. I recently put together the UN Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism, which places heavy emphasis on human rights. Experience with counterterrorism measures has underscored the need to avoid stoking the fires we are trying to extinguish. To this end, civil society organizations, like Rotary, have an important part to play by promoting inclusion and dialogue between communities.

              TR: What advice can you offer Rotary leaders on working with people in a diverse, multicultural, global organization?

              BAN: I’m not sure that I can offer any advice to Rotary leaders. Your organization is older than the United Nations and, arguably, you have a broader representation than we do. When I had the privilege to address your members recently in Korea, I think I counted more flags in the hall than we have at the United Nations!

              Since you are asking, I will share some thoughts. Every day that I have worked at the United Nations, I have combined my efforts with people from every part of the world, and that has shown me the value of having as broad a range of viewpoints as possible when dealing with the world’s problems. I found that I gain much from listening to people from cultures other than mine who approach problems and solutions differently. That intellectual diversity, whether in the UN or any other organization, is to be cherished and nourished. We all have much to gain from listening to others. No one culture holds the keys to all the solutions.

              TR: How can Rotary and the UN make the most of our partnership?

              BAN: Rotary and other similarly engaged civil society organizations represent the best that the world has to offer. You understand the need to get involved and participate positively in the lives of your communities and the world around us.

              We now have a global agenda to build a better, more equitable, more sustainable world. I would encourage Rotary International to embrace the Sustainable Development Goals and find within them areas where we could, as partners, replicate the success of the polio eradication campaign. 

              The Rotarian

              1-Jan-2017
              The Rotarian Conversation with Ban Ki-Moon 2016-12-20 09:00:00Z 0

              Homer High School Swing Choir Performs for Rotary

              On December 15, the Homer High School Swing Choir treated us with a wonderful performance at our noon meeting.  This year they performed some new (to us) songs in French, that our Exchange Student, Louise had helped with pronunciations.  The songs were great! A real treat.
               
               
               
               
              Another new item was that the Staff at the Bidarka Inn decided to "fancy things up" a bit by putting out tablecloths and actually hand serving us a fantastic lunch, including a dessert (the name of which I've forgotten) that was incredible! 
              Homer High School Swing Choir Performs for Rotary 2016-12-20 09:00:00Z 0

              Bernie Griffard Update-2

              Update 1-3-2016
              Bernie is HOME!  Lots of excitement, but no wheelchair races, etc.
               
              Update 12-20-2016
              As of Monday, Bernie is doing well.  Not doing much running (or even standing, much less walking).  Nurses aren't even having any fun because he doesn't even try to get away.  He must keep his legs straight, so lower body movement is pretty much limited to wiggling his toes!  Upper body is getting quite a workout, though.  Visitors still welcome!
               
               
               
              For those of you who left last week's meeting right afterward, you missed some excitement.  It seems as though Bernie, who is not know for half measures, created some excitement as he left the building.  When he started down the steps, he tore BOTH (not just one side) Bilateral Quadricep Tendons!  Gary had his chance to arrange for transportation for Bernie in Homer's own very sharp looking taxi with AMBULANCE on the side and Bernie got a ride to the hospital.  Friday he was operated on by Dr. Adcox and is recovering very well.  The other down side is that he is bored to tears and will be a resident of SPH for a couple of weeks.  He'll get to go home eventually, but won't be moving very fast for a few months.  I am assured that VISITORS are extremely WELCOME at Room 209!
              Bernie Griffard Update-2 2016-12-14 09:00:00Z 0

              In Case of Emergency

              In case of emergency

              From Malawi to Fiji (above), ShelterBox response teams help displaced families around the globe.
              Photo Credit: ShelterBox

              Three days after Typhoon Haiyan smashed into the Philippines in November 2013, Derek Locke was tramping among the sinews of uprooted palm trees, downed power lines, and fragments of homes shattered by one of the region’s deadliest disasters. As he delivered tents and other essentials in Santa Fe, a small community on Bantayan Island, he came face to face with the crushing need and finite resources of the eight-person response team dispatched by ShelterBox. The aid recipients had been identified as families most at risk, and as Locke assisted a young single mother and her toddler, he felt a sense of dread as two neighbors, with four children of their own in tow, approached.

              “I turned around and they said, ‘Thank you for helping our people, ’” recalls Locke, a member of the Rotary Club of Dearborn Heights, Mich., who has spent 38 weeks as a ShelterBox first responder since 2012. He has traveled to 11 countries and participated in 13 ShelterBox response team missions, yet that moment sticks with him. “It was heartwarming, because despite their obvious plight, they were just grateful we were able to help somebody else.”

              “That’s the kind of thing you lie awake at night thinking about,” says Bruce Heller, a veteran of seven ShelterBox deployments and a member of the Rotary Club of Allen Sunrise, Texas. “You’re handing out that last box and you see that mom and her small baby waiting and you don’t have any more to give. There’s never enough aid.”

              Amid catastrophes produced by nature and mankind’s cruelest impulses, ShelterBox teams of volunteers rush forward. From the earthquake that killed hundreds of people in Ecuador in April to the continuing refugee trail out of the Middle East, ShelterBox has sent aid to help hundreds of thousands of displaced households. Notable missions since the disaster relief charity was founded 16 years ago include the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2010 quake in Haiti, where some 300,000 tents were supplied. In the United States, ShelterBoxes were delivered to those displaced by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Sandy in New York and New Jersey, and tornadoes in the Midwest.

              In July, RI and ShelterBox announced the extension of a three-year project partnership to provide emergency shelter, a natural fit according to both organizations. Rotarians, along with Rotaractors and Interactors, have contributed $48 million, or 40 percent of ShelterBox’s revenue, from the UK-based nonprofit’s inception in 2000 through 2015. (ShelterBox was founded by a Rotarian but is independent of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation.) The signature green boxes feature Rotary’s logo and are adapted to fit the emergency before being transported on scant notice. Most boxes include family-size tents, though the contents differ depending on the disaster and climate. Many are packed with solar lights, water storage and purification equipment, thermal blankets, and cooking utensils. Depending on need, the organization may deliver ShelterKits, smaller aid packages that include tools, ropes, and heavy tarpaulins used to provide emergency shelter and repair damaged structures.

              “The partnership between Rotary and ShelterBox has provided a place of refuge to people facing some of the most difficult and uncertain moments in their lives,” says RI General Secretary John Hewko. Tapping Rotary’s strengths, not just its funds, has nurtured ShelterBox, adds its chief executive, Chris Warham. “The partnership is absolutely fundamental to what we do,” Warham says. “Ninety percent of our deployments involve working with local Rotarians. In almost every case, our first call is to the local Rotary club to see how they can help us as the teams start to deploy. We ask Rotarians everything from ‘can you get us a truck?’ to ‘can you introduce us to a local or central government figure?’ These needs are often crucial to the success of our deployment – and Rotarians invariably deliver.”

              Rotary has been a key player in ShelterBox’s success, beginning with the adoption of the nonprofit by the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard, England, in 2000. “One of the most important elements of our partnership is creating opportunities for Rotarians to serve in countries hit by disasters,” says Warham. “We just completed a mission in Sri Lanka, and Rotarians were fundamental.” Members of the Rotary Club of Capital City spent five days using boats and kayaks to rescue villagers marooned by flooding in May. “We built temporary camps for individuals who had lost their homes as result of landslides” and housed 126 families in six camps. “Providing shelter is far more than just providing a tent,” Warham adds. “It’s helping a community start on the right path. … There is a blurring of lines when the emergency phase ends and when the recovery phase begins. Rotary is involved in all stages of that. We’ve seen Rotarians who have helped people long after we have disappeared from the scene.”

              Shortly after the 7.8 magnitude temblor in Ecuador in April, local Rotarians met the response team at the airport and jointly attended coordination meetings. ShelterBox assisted more than 2,500 households in Comuna Las Gilces. After significant aftershocks, it returned to support another 690 families. “We often work with Rotary contacts throughout deployments,” says Mark Boeck, ShelterBox’s senior training officer. “Through their own businesses and personal networks, they have contacts for drivers, interpreters, and even warehousing.” Ron Noseworthy, a member of the Rotary Club of Kenora, Ont., says that he and his wife, Claire, have been volunteering with ShelterBox since learning about it in 2006. They both signed on, with Claire joining Rotary afterward. 

              Joining Locke, Heller, and the Noseworthys on the front lines are about 70 more Rotarians out of the 180 responder volunteers globally. The required commitment is hardly casual, with ongoing training and a minimum deployment of two weeks per year, and the selection process is rigorous. After applying, prospective volunteers are interviewed and, if chosen to proceed, undergo a four-day field assessment. “Successful candidates are invited to what we call a pre-deployment training course,” says Boeck. Those selected spend nine days in England where they are trained in everything from customs forms to personal safety and the use of satellite phones and GPS devices.

              “We need people who can react and work together under extreme conditions,” says Boeck, noting that sponsoring a standard ShelterBox costs about $1,000. “In the early days [of a deployment] a volunteer may be going to a country where the infrastructure has been wiped out. There is often no food, communication, water. … They might land in a country and not meet their fellow team members [immediately]. We look for self-awareness – people who really understand their own abilities and limitations.”

              “The training is tough,” says Liz Odell, a member of the Rotary Club of Nailsworth, England. “If you make it that far, and many don’t, there’s the nine-day course in Cornwall, living in a tent in the rain, deprived of food and sleep, and never knowing what challenges they were going to throw at us next.” Odell has served on 15 deployments since 2010. Ron Noseworthy, who has been on 11 deployments and counting, found his four-day test a challenge in itself. Four groups of four applicants had assembled in the Blackwater River State Park in the Florida Panhandle. “We had been walking for miles,” he says. “They said to take an hour for supper, but we knew there was something coming. After supper, they said, ‘This is a mock terrorist threat. You’ve got to take the tents down, pack all your gear, and get ready to move out.’ We had a four-mile walk on rough trails, all in the dark, in the bush. You’re tired after a long day and then that. They’re testing to see if you’ve got the physical capacity, but the biggest thing is to not lose your cool.”

              “Historically, some of the training was like a boot camp,” Boeck concedes. “Since 2013, when we revamped and refreshed the nine-day training course, we’ve made it into much more of a learning environment. We’re training people in, not assessing people out. We want to give people the information and skills so that when we drop them into a post-disaster situation, they know what’s required of them.”

              The training has come in handy on deployments, says Noseworthy, notably in the wake of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, where he was in Port-au-Prince with the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army. “It was dangerous. People were hungry and desperate,” he says. “A commander told me that they had people with good intentions coming to help. One couple with a truckload of bags of rice pulled up in front of a makeshift camp. People came out of the woodwork. They started to fight over the food. The military had to come in and stop the rioting. With our training, we knew not to do that. We went to a campsite first. If we determined 200 tents were needed and we only had 100 tents, we waited.”

              “You see people who were not living in the greatest of conditions to begin with,” notes Locke, a 2015-16 recipient of the Service Above Self Award, Rotary’s top honor, for his work with the organization over the past four years. “I’m sitting here in my beautiful house in the living room. I just can’t imagine losing everything so quickly and being left with nothing and needing the help that we bring. That applies to every type of disaster. It doesn’t matter if it’s a natural disaster or the Syrian refugees we see fleeing the violence.”

              With 18 ShelterBox affiliates around the world assisting its headquarters, the organization is ramping up for a heightened demand for the shelter and gear it provides, particularly with an expected increase in Iraqi refugees as that country’s army tries to retake cities from Islamic State. “We live in really, really challenging times,” says Warham, yet he points out Rotarians as a bright spot. “They don’t just go the extra mile, they go 10 miles.”

              To explore service and partnership opportunities with ShelterBox, Rotarians should email .

              The Rotarian

              1-Dec-2016
              In Case of Emergency 2016-12-14 09:00:00Z 0
              Christmas Party Invite From Ninilchik Satellite Rotary Club 2016-12-14 09:00:00Z 0

              Report on Homer Rotary Health Fair by Nandar (Burmese Nurse)

              Below is  the "report" that Nandar, the Nurse from Burma who visited Homer during the Health Fair, just sent about her experiences in Homer.  She was particularly grateful to Sharon for everything she did/learned related to the Health Fair.  She was also thankful to all Rotarians for our Club's financial support to fly her to Homer and back to Anchorage.

              Where the Earth Meets the Sky

              Imagine a little town nestled on the shore of a glistening bay; glaciers

              and mountains rimming the shoreline and active volcanoes looming in the distance...

              (Tom Bodett )

              At the very first thought of going to Homer, Alaska I experienced both chills as well as being filled with excitement and joy. This was to be a golden opportunity for me to learn and observe something very special as a brand new graduated nurse.

              My name is Mya Yee Nandar. People call me Nandar. I was born and raised in Mandalay, Burma. Over the past six decades, Burma, also known as Myanmar, has seen the worst: civil war, child soldiers, slavery, human trafficking, and the lack of even the most basic freedoms including freedom of speech. Burma is situated almost in the middle of Asia; in fact 40% of all the people in the world live in the countries which share our borders. That is almost 3 billion people. Burma has a rich culture which dates back at least 2,500 years. We are also rich in natural resources such as rubies, jade, sapphires, gold, teakwood, oil and gas. Unfortunately, we’re not so rich where it counts for most people – wealth and income. These unstable 60 years have left Burma near the bottom of the world in education and health care.  

              Over many years, through my experience of travelling throughout the remote regions of the country as a translator/ tour-guide, I learned of the great and urgent need for even the most basic health care as well as the importance of community development in Burma.

              At age of 29, I decided to become a health care professional in order to contribute to the improvement of health care of Burma. Due to the oppression, obstructions, discrimination and discouragement of higher education in Burma under the Burmese military dictators, it was impossible to study further in Burma. Therefore, I decided to pursue nursing studies at Assumption University in Thailand and then at the University of Hawaii, USA. I graduated from the University of Hawaii, Hilo in May, 2016.

              My aspirations and the ideals for their implementation grew even larger when I was able to actually observe the real life scenarios in Homer, Alaska with the help of Rotarians in Hilo, Hawaii and Homer, Alaska. It was clear right from the outset that the richness of community involvement in the Rotary Health fair was astounding. People took fully responsibility and pride in whatever role that they could play so as to serve the betterment of their community. Their selfless commitment for over 30 years of service to Homer and abroad and the strength of their dedication are of endless inherit value to future generation and stand as a great role model for the world community. The value of the rays of positivity, encouragement and reassurance to somebody like me from a country that has been broken into pieces is beyond measure. The transcended call that will endure from this trip is that things can be changed, proven by a community like Homer, which itself went through many times of hardships and difficulty in its own way.

              Another highlight of the trip was the Seldovia Tribe Clinic and the Homer Community Hospital. I was able to meet with directors, medical doctors, nurse practioners and nurses and was given explanations on many matters, all while feeling their passion to their calling. The team’s thoughtful implementation, dedication and commitment to the community was clearly substantial. They are dedicated to improving the health of all people in their communities by providing quality, respectful and culturally-appropriate primary, holistic and preventive care. My former professor and scholar of transcultural nursing, Dr. Daub often speaks of the importance of the application of culturally congruency in health care in order to respect the patient’s autonomy, rights and identity rather than only focusing on the technical implementation of mainstream western medicine. Those values clearly dwell in SVT clinic.  Community empowerment via training community members to become leaders in the community is the most powerful and sustainable tool that I have ever experienced.

              As my professional and academic development has increased, I move closer to the realization of my three objectives of returning home and collaborating with others to initiate free mobile clinics, raise the standards of Burmese nursing education and advocate for enhanced rural community health development. My experience in Homer provided me with ideas and inspiration for all three of these plans.

              I am hopeful that the Rotary Clubs of Homer-Kachemak Bay and Hilo as well as Rotary International will play an important partnership role in Burma in the years ahead. I can’t imagine another institution in the U.S. that has as much transcultural richness, experience and sensitivity in the field of healthcare. I have experienced this firsthand through my trip and my volunteer experience. I wish to deepen my practical knowledge and experience and widen my exposure to and connections with Homer and Hilo Rotary and talents through this special opportunity. I dream that one day I will be able to conduce, educate and empower the community like, Homer, Alaska, on stunning Kachemak Bay!; made famous as "The End of the Road" in Tom Bodett's tales.

              I want to express a million thank you’s to every Rotarian at Kachemak Bay, Hilo, SVT clinic and to the community members for your generosity, hospitality and role of humanism for such a tremendous eye opening educational journey to Homer.

              Report on Homer Rotary Health Fair by Nandar (Burmese Nurse) 2016-12-13 09:00:00Z 0

              Arch Klumph's Hometown Raises Over $2 Million Through Centennial Celebration

              Arch Klumph’s hometown raises over $2 million through centennial celebration

              Associate Conductor Brett Mitchell leads The Cleveland Orchestra at the benefit concert in Severance Hall, which was completed in 1931 and has been called one of the world’s most beautiful concert halls.

              Rotary members in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, celebrated 100 years of The Rotary Foundation on 23 October with a banquet and a concert by The Cleveland Orchestra that have so far raised more than $2.1 million for the Foundation's next century of good work.

              Arch Klumph, a Cleveland Rotarian, planted the seed for The Rotary Foundation in 1917, with his idea of having an endowment fund dedicated to "doing good in the world." Today's District 6630 leaders thought that a concert was a fitting way to honor Klumph and mark the centennial because of Klumph's love of music. Klumph performed in several predecessors of The Cleveland Orchestra.

              "We felt very strongly that here in the home of Arch Klumph we needed to take stock of what the Foundation has accomplished this past 100 years. It's almost impossible to quantify," says Mike Johns, an event organizer and past RI director. "If you look at where we are and where we are going, we've just scratched the surface on what we can do."

              The banquet inducted four couples into the Arch Klumph Society for giving $250,000 or more to the Foundation over their lifetimes: Geoff and Kim Goll, Rotary Club of Salem, Ohio; Frank H. and Nancy Lyon Porter, Rotary Club of Cleveland, Ohio; Edna and Martin Sutter, Rotary Club of Fort Bonifacio Global City, Makati City, Philippines; and Norman R. and Marjory A. Veliquette, Rotary Club of Elk Rapids, Michigan, USA.

              The Porters, who were inducted posthumously, contributed $500,000 toward polio eradication, Rotary's top priority. The Golls have also directed $200,000 of their contributions to PolioPlus.

              Johns says the event was designed to educate the community about The Rotary Foundation. Videos interspersed between musical pieces highlighted Rotary's work and the fight to end polio.

              "We had a lot of people there who didn't know what Rotary was, and they made a great discovery," he says. "I think Rotary members around the world should really reach out to the public this year and show them what our Foundation does."

              Learn more about

              Rotary News

              17-Nov-2016
              Arch Klumph's Hometown Raises Over $2 Million Through Centennial Celebration 2016-12-07 09:00:00Z 0

              Virtual Reality Films Bring New Dimension to Polio Fight

              Virtual reality films bring new dimension to polio fight

              Behind the scenes of Rotary's virtual reality film about a polio survivor, a specially outfitted camera captures a 360-view of a classroom in India.

              At this year’s World Polio Day celebration in Atlanta, Rotary is harnessing the power of virtual reality technology to build empathy and inspire action in our fight to eradicate polio.

              Rotary, with support from the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, produced a virtual reality film that tells the story of Alokita, a young adult who suffered paralysis from polio as a child growing up in India, which has been polio-free since 2011.

              “When you open your eyes and see a different environment around you, you relate to the subject on a visceral, personal level,” says Vincent Vernet, direct of digital and publishing with Rotary’s communications team, who spearheaded the project. “The final push to end polio requires significant resources and emotional investment. This type of innovative technology has the potential to inspire that.”

              Actress and polio ambassador Archie Panjabi introduces us to Alokita, part of the last generation of children to be affected by polio, and the doctors working to provide corrective surgery to survivors like her. Viewers are transported to India as soon as they put on the virtual reality headset, which transmits the 360-degree mix of sights and sounds. In this interactive environment, viewers roam the streets of Delhi and the halls of St. Stephen’s Hospital, home to India’s only polio ward, where Alokita takes her first steps in 11 years.

              UNICEF has worked with virtual reality since 2015, recognizing that immersive experience can be a powerful advocacy tool. The agency also produced a film, You are there: On the road to making polio history, in this model. Actor and goodwill ambassador Ewan McGregor introduces and narrates the five-minute film, which takes us to a Kenyan village to meet a nine-year-old boy infected with polio and a vaccinator working to spare other children his fate.

              Both films will debut on World Polio Day, at the Atlanta headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where facilitators will walk newcomers through the individual viewing process. Then the two films will travel to San Diego for an audience with Rotary leaders at the International Assembly in early 2017 and will be available to the public later in the year.

              • Watch the World Polio Day livestream at for a global update on the polio eradication campaign.
              • Use #endpolio to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.
              • about UNICEF’s virtual reality projects.

              Rotary News

              21-Oct-2016
              Virtual Reality Films Bring New Dimension to Polio Fight 2016-12-07 09:00:00Z 0

              2016 Rotary Holiday Party

              Lorna, Louise, and Sherrie
               
               

               

              Saturday, December 3rd, sixty Rotarians, friends, and family attended our 2016 Holiday Party at the Homer Elk's Club.  We had a blast!  Fun, fellowship, and food--what a combination!  Our thanks to the people who brought the party to us.


              Party Committee: Sherrie Hartley, Susie Quinn, Lorna Olson, Denice Clyne

              Set up: Van Hawkins, Don Keller, Bob Hartley, Mike Quinn, Roger Clyne, Lorna Olson, Susie Quinn, Sherrie Hartley, Denice Clyne

              Place cards and Name Tags: Kathy Hill

               

              Greeter: Lisa Roberts

              Music: Aurora Neal, Mike Quinn

              Food: Ed Hutchinson, who roasted ham, made a delicious raisin sauce and carved the hams for everyone the entire evening. Thank you also to Sherrie and Bob Hartley and Mike and Susie Quinn also for baking a ham.  And to  Everyone who brought a delectable salads, side dishes, appetizers and dessert, making our dinner delicious and well rounded.

              Clean up: The committee thinks that everyone when was there when the party broke up helped to make the cleanup happen quickly and efficiently. However, Beth, Charlie, Cora and Rebecca Trowbridge; Christi and Bernie Griffard, Tom and Sandy Early, Lorna Olson, Susie and Mike Quinn, Sherrie and Bob Hartley and Denice and Roger Clyne were there until the room was restored to its original condition, which was before 8 PM. GREAT JOB EVERYONE!    


              Hugs of gratitude to you all, DENICE, SHERRIE, SUSIE, AND LORNA

               

              The Room

               

              Lorna, Louise, and Sherrie

               

              Curt, Louise, and Lorna

               

              Bob, Louise, and Sherrie

               

              The Organizers!

               

              Jason and Annelisa

               

              Checking out the Desserts

               

              Glenn Cuts the Yule Log

               

              Mike, Louise, and Susie

               

              Vivian and Clyde

               

               

              Lorna, Louise, and Sherrie

               

              M & M

               

              President Tom and Sandy

               

              Where's Louise?

               

              Louise Builds a Gingerbread Man

               

              Dee and Roger

               

              Louise and Dee

               

               

              Serious Business Happening

               

              Don's Gingerbread Man

               

              Thanks for the pictures:

              Maynard, Susie, Will, Dee, and Craig

               

              2016 Rotary Holiday Party 2016-12-06 09:00:00Z 0

              Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club Elects Officers for 2017-2018 Rotary Year

              Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay Officers for Rotary Year 2017-2018

               

                      President -  Beth Trowbridge

                      Vice-President – Christi Griffard

                      President-Elect Nominee – Bernie Griffard

                      Treasurer – Sharon Minsch

                      Secretary –

                      Sergeant-at-Arms – Marv Peters

                      Director – Charlie Franz

                      Director – Vivian Finley

                      Director – Van Hawkins

              Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club Elects Officers for 2017-2018 Rotary Year 2016-12-06 09:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Foundation Named World's Outstanding Foundation for 2016

              Rotary Foundation named World's Outstanding Foundation for 2016

              Photo Credit: Rotary International/Alyce Henson

              The has recognized The Rotary Foundation with its annual Award for Outstanding Foundation.

              The award honors organizations that show philanthropic commitment and leadership through financial support, innovation, encouragement of others, and involvement in public affairs. Some of the boldest names in American giving — Kellogg, Komen, and MacArthur, among others —are past honorees.

              “We are honored to receive this recognition from the AFP, which gives us even more reason to celebrate during our Foundation’s centennial year,” says Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair Kalyan Banerjee. “The continued strong support of Rotary members will help us keep our promise of a polio-free world for all children and enable the Foundation to carry out its mission of advancing world understanding, goodwill, and peace. We look forward to another 100 years of Rotary members taking action to make communities better around the world.”

              The announcement came on 15 November, known to industry professionals since the 1980s as National Philanthropy Day. The award will be presented in early 2017 at the AFP’s annual conference in San Francisco.

              Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair-elect Paul Netzel is set to accept the award on Rotary’s behalf, and Eric Schmelling, director of fund development at Rotary, will speak at the conference. The event is expected to draw more than 3,400 senior-level fundraising professionals from 33 countries.

              “While almost everyone is familiar with Rotary, not everyone may realize just how much of an impact Rotary and The Rotary Foundation have had on countless people and communities across the globe,” says Jason Lee, AFP president and CEO. “On behalf of the entire charitable sector and people around the world, all of us at AFP are honored to be able to recognize The Rotary Foundation as our 2016 Outstanding Foundation.”

              AFP’s committee of judges cited Rotary’s comprehensive campaign to eradicate polio as a major driver of the selection. They also mentioned that Rotary applies a methodical, purposeful approach to support a wide variety of causes, from providing clean water to educating the next generation of peace professionals.

              Rotary News

              15-Nov-2016
              Rotary Foundation Named World's Outstanding Foundation for 2016 2016-11-29 09:00:00Z 0

              2016 Homer Rotary Christmas Party

              The 2016 Rotary Holiday Party is fast approaching. If you are not signed up, Thursday 12/1 is the deadline. If you have signed up and have not paid ( $15.00/Adult ), please pay at the meeting Thursday. We will not have cash at the party, if you need to pay at the party, please pay with a check.

               

              There will be ham and vegetarian lasagne as main dishes for the party. Please sign up at the meeting on 12/1 for either a side dish or a salad, we have plenty of appetizers  and desserts. If you cannot be at the meeting and/or have not signed up for food, please call Sherrie Hartley with what you plan to bring. This will help your committee DETERMINE what is needed to assure we all have both a variety and enough food for everyone.

               

              Beverages that will be available are water and punch at no charge. The Elks Club server will provide bottles of wine, for purchase. The choices are white, red and rose’. The cost is $26 per bottle. If you do not consume all of the bottle, the server will cap it for you to take home (legally) to enjoy later. PLEASE BRING CASH TO PAY FOR YOUR WINE PURCHASE.

              2016 Homer Rotary Christmas Party 2016-11-29 09:00:00Z 0

              Rotary-UN Celebration Mixes Business with Diplomacy

              Rotary-UN celebration mixes business with diplomacy

              The Rotary Responsible Business honorees are, from left: Jean-Paul Faure, Stephanie Woollard, Mercantil Banco Universal representative Luis Calvo Blesa, Larry Wright, Annemarie Mostert, Suresh Goklaney, and Coca-Cola Pakistan representative Fahad Qadir. (Not pictured: Juan Silva Beauperthuy.)
              Photo Credit: Monika Lozinska/Rotary International

              Outside the United Nations building in midtown Manhattan stands an imposing sculpture of a man wielding a sword in one hand and raising a hammer with the other. It reflects a shared goal that Rotary and the United Nations celebrated at the organizations' annual meeting on Saturday, 12 November: to use our strengths and tools to build a more peaceful and just world.

              The theme of this year's Rotary Day at the United Nations, "Responsible Business, Resilient Societies," emphasizes Rotary's role as a global network of business leaders using the tools of their trades to build stronger, more prosperous communities.

              In his introductory remarks, Rotary International President John F. Germ drew the crowd's attention to the statue, "Let Us Beat Our Swords Into Ploughshares," as he set the tone for the day, which included breakout sessions and keynote addresses on aspects of responsible business, or the philosophy that for-profit enterprise can contribute to positive social and economic development.

              "Here is where the UN and Rotary International are working side by side, equipping communities with the tools they need, and empowering them with the will to use those tools far and wide," he said.

              Per Saxegaard, founder and chairman of the Oslo-based Business for Peace Foundation, gave a keynote address on the complex relationship between business and broader society, marked by both tension and opportunity. Despite the perception that profit alone motivates enterprise, he says, commercial success and social progress are closely intertwined.

              "Societal needs define markets," he said. "I have met many entrepreneurs in my career, and they all have one thing in common: They see a problem, and they say 'I can fix that, and I can do it cheaper and better.' That is the engine of innovation in business. We need that energy to solve the problems at hand," such as hunger or illiteracy. He pointed to the Sustainable Development Goals, the UN's ambitious roadmap for eliminating poverty by 2030 and highlighted the opportunity for businesses to help achieve them.

              Other speakers included UN Under Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Kim Won-soo and UNICEF polio chief Reza Houssaini, who provided an update on the polio eradication campaign.

              John Hewko, general secretary of Rotary International, introduced eight Rotary Responsible Business honorees, six individuals and two corporate partners whose inclusive business practices are bringing employment, mentoring, education, and innovation to their communities.

              The individuals honored were:

              • Juan Silva Beauperthuy, Rotary Club of Chacao, Venezuela: For 25 years, Beauperthuy has helped keep disadvantaged youths on the right track through Queremos Graduarnos, an education program focused on mentoring and skill development, with support from his engineering firm. Today, the program serves more than 700 students in 18 schools.
              • Jean-Paul Faure, Rotary Club of Cagnes-Grimaldi, France: To encourage young professionals and provide promising new businesses with training and funding, Faure launched a business contest called Le Trophée du Rotary. Now in its seventh year, the program has drawn support from a major bank and has kept past participants involved as mentors.
              • Suresh Goklaney, Rotary Club of Bombay, India: Goklaney, executive vice chair of a large manufacturer of UV water purification systems, has led efforts to provide clean water in rural villages and impoverished urban areas throughout India. The project has also established centers where local women can sell clean water to generate income.
              • Annemarie Mostert, Rotary Club of Southern Africa, South Africa: Mostert formed Sesego Cares, a Johannesburg-based nonprofit, in 2005 to offer education and job training, and to teach entrepreneurship and leadership development to women and children. She also worked with TOMS Shoes to provide 1.3 million pairs of its shoes to the country's poor.
              • Stephanie Woollard, Rotary Club of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: After meeting seven illiterate craftspeople during a visit to Nepal, Woollard founded Seven Women to help Nepalese women make products to sell abroad. The program, which has trained and employed more than 1,000 women in the past decade, also teaches basic bookkeeping and computer skills.
              • Larry Wright, Rotary Club of Taylor, Michigan, USA: A master gardener, Wright started his landscaping business with a bank loan in the 1970s. In 2013, he led an effort to adapt a microfinance model that had succeeded abroad to offer microloans, business classes, and mentorship to entrepreneurs in Detroit.

              The business partners honored were:

              • Coca-Cola Pakistan has supported the Rotary Pakistan National PolioPlus Charitable Trust since 2010 to promote polio prevention and awareness, particularly through publicity and projects to provide clean water, in one of the few countries where polio remains endemic.
              • Mercantil Banco Universal supports a project that has trained 6,000 students in 40 universities across Venezuela in social responsibility and leadership, with the goal of encouraging students to use their academic knowledge to respond to the challenges of underserved communities.

              In the afternoon, Rotary member Devin Thorpe spoke about the intersection of profit and purpose. Infusing a corporate program with a sense of social purpose pays off, he says, because it breeds loyalty and satisfaction among both customers and employees.

              "When a purpose program is profitable, there is no limit to the good that can come from it," he said. "Corporations are made up of people. We in this room bear the responsibility to shape corporate behavior, it is up to each one of us."

              Watch video coverage of the event on .

              Rotary news

              12-Nov-2016
              Rotary-UN Celebration Mixes Business with Diplomacy 2016-11-15 09:00:00Z 0

              Featured Excerpt From Chapter 2, “The Seed Is Planted”

              Featured Excerpt From Chapter 2, “The Seed Is Planted”

              Rotary was invited to send consultants to the 1945 UN charter conference in San Francisco, California, USA.

              In 2016-17, The Rotary Foundation turns 100. That's a century of helping Rotary members change lives and improve communities all over the world.

              Throughout the year we're posting excerpts from "Doing Good in the World: The Inspiring Story of The Rotary Foundation's First 100 Years." You can at shop.rotary.org.

              To learn more about the Foundation's centennial and find tips and resources for celebrating, visit .

              From Chapter 2, "The Seed Is Planted":

              Rotary International was one of 42 organizations invited to serve as consultant to the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco in 1945. Each organization had seats for three representatives —one "consultant" and two "associate consultants." Rotary International's eleven representatives served three at a time, in rotation.

              RI's consultants to the United States delegation:

              Philip Lovejoy, Chicago, Illinois, RI General Secretary, 1942-52
              Richard H. Wells, Pocatello, Idaho, 1944-45 RI President
              Lester B. Struthers, Chicago, Illinois, RI Assistant Secretary
              Tom J. Davis, Butte, Montana, 1941-42 RI President
              Charles L. Wheeler, San Francisco, California, 1943-44 RI President
              J. Raymond Tiffany, Hoboken, New Jersey, 1942-43 RI Vice President
              Cyrus P. Barnum, Minneapolis, Minnesota, RI Assistant Secretary
              Walter D. Head, Montclair, New Jersey, 1939-40 RI President
              Allen D. Albert, Paris, Illinois, 1915-16 RI President
              Luther H. Hodges, New York, New York, 1967-68 RI President
              Leland D. Case, Chicago, Illinois, Editor, The Rotarian

              Rotarians from many other countries also attended the conference as delegates or consultants. Today, Rotary International appoints Rotarians to act as special representatives to the United Nations and its other agencies and publicizes its value as an advocate for peace.

              14-Nov-2016
              Featured Excerpt From Chapter 2, “The Seed Is Planted” 2016-11-15 09:00:00Z 0
              Latest Picture of the Gazebo 2016-11-15 09:00:00Z 0

              Some Food and Room Reminders

              Please remember---The food is NOT All You Can Eat!  Please take what you want the first time, and eat all that you take.
               
                                          We need to work pretty hard at getting the room cleared by 1:15, so that the kitchen staff can get done without needing to work overtime.
              Some Food and Room Reminders 2016-11-15 09:00:00Z 0

              2016 Homer Rotary Health Fair a Major Success!!

              It takes a Rotary Club to put on such a huge successful event!! Thank you one and all for your help and support.

               

              Set up and take down went especially well this year!!! Once again we were cleaned up and walked out of there by 2 p.m. today. Bryan and Mark had the last of the tables loaded and the deposits had all been made. 

               

              I remember a couple years still being there with Gary at 5 pm on Saturday......

               

              We processed  914 tests so far ( WITH LITTLE WAITING AT THE HOSPITAL PRE-DRAW AND NO  WAITING TODAY)  compared to 905 last year.

               

              More people are choosing the pre-draw at the hospital. While the number for Saturday tests is decreasing the total numbers are holding strong and we met budget.

               

              Looks like we gave away 193 free flu shots with very little wait time.

               

              We saw 1018 people thru the front door today. Last years attendance was large for reasons unknown at 1385.

               

              1064 people is our last 5 years average fair attendance which is a huge number in a town of 5000.

               

              It is amazing that we have been doing this for 33 years! Our community is so appreciative!!!

               

              This event is truly a gift to our friends and neighbors and we should be  proud of what we have accomplished.

               

              Thank you.

               

              Sharon

               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              2016 Homer Rotary Health Fair a Major Success!! 2016-11-15 09:00:00Z 0

              Note From Mike Hawfield Concerning November 10 Program

               Professor Michael Hawfield who spoke on the Treaty of Cession at our meeting on November 3, wanted to add the following comments to wrap up his very interesting presentation:
               
              The one really important thing I intended to say to the club before I finished was that the impact of this odd Treaty of Cession is that it would later play a key role in the development of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) precisely because it failed to give any mention to the lands of the native peoples; they were just ignored (as was usual in that era).  But later, in the late 1960s when oil was discovered at Prudhoe, the issue of whose land the proposed pipeline would cross became one of the most important questions of all, and everything came to a halt until that question was settled.  Going back to the original Treaty of Cession revealed that nowhere (then or later) was the issue of native land ever addressed.  No treaty was ever made with native peoples.  So, this became a major instance of how being ignored played to the advantage of the indigenous peoples and this continues to shape Alaskan society to this day and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
              Note From Mike Hawfield Concerning November 10 Program 2016-11-15 09:00:00Z 0

              Seven Decades of Service Began in a Dorm Room

              Seven decades of service began in a dorm room

              Students from Kishiwada, Japan, visit San Francisco as part of an exchange initiated by Renán Domínguez - the only surviving member of the first class of Rotary scholars - when he was president of the Rotary Club of South San Francisco in 1992.

              In January 1946, just months after the end of World War II, The Rotary Foundation embarked on a mission to help heal the wounds from the conflict. The Foundation decided to nurture an understanding of other nations and cultures by providing scholarships to promising graduate students. The inaugural class began its year of postgraduate study abroad in the fall of 1947. That class was funded through donations to a memorial fund set up to honor Rotary founder Paul Harris, who had died earlier in the year. They were the first of more than 42,000 collegians to be granted scholarships by the Foundation over the following seven decades.

              The only surviving member of the 1947-48 class of scholars is Renán Domínguez, who had been nudged by his father, a charter member of the Rotary Club of Mérida, Mexico, to apply for the program as he was finishing his bachelor’s degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He studied engineering, though he was confounded by American football and the size – and furnishings – of dorm rooms. “Every-body wonders how we can sleep on hammocks without falling off, and I wonder how everybody here manages not to fall out of the beds, which are less safe,” he mused to The Rotarian in a March 1948 article.

              A sprightly 90, Domínguez now resides with his wife, Teresita, in Concord, Calif., driving an hour each way to attend meetings of the Rotary Club of South San Francisco. In 2013 the club began a scholarship bearing his name to help cover expenses for a high school exchange with the Rotary Club of Kishiwada in Japan. “He’ll latch on to a need and he’ll push it along,” says John Henry Fullen of his club’s senior member. “He does it in a friendly, firm, and kind way. He’s part of the lifeblood of the club.”

              As a structural engineer, Domínguez worked with architects to design buildings so they don’t fall down, especially critical in the earthquake-prone Bay Area. Besides work on Rotary Plaza, a 180-plus-unit complex created and still managed by the club for low-income seniors, another crown in his career was consulting on the construction of the auditorium at the Marin County Civic Center, an enduringly futuristic Frank Lloyd Wright project. Solid footings, he says, provide the support for fanciful flourishes in concrete and steel, but service to others – as embodied by Rotary – is an undergirding of a great life. He shared his memories of his Rotary scholarship year at Illinois with The Rotarian.

              THE ROTARIAN: What impressions did you have of the people you met?

              DOMÍNGUEZ: What struck me was the friendliness of the people. I joined a couple of groups and I was accepted without any friction. My peers understood that I had a little problem with English, and the teachers would help me practice. Most people that I got acquainted with were very friendly to me. I remember a couple of middle-aged people, a husband and wife that almost took me in like a nephew, even a son; they would invite me to their place and would help me with English. I appreciated that very much.

              TR: What was the highlight of your scholarship year?

              DOMÍNGUEZ: My fondest recollection was the time I spent at the United Nations. Prior to finishing the school year, I received a note from Rotary International suggesting that I could also participate in an internship with the United Nations at Lake Success, N.Y. I was an assistant in the water supply segment of the UN, where they were studying the dams around the world.

              There were around 50 interns; they came from Egypt, Italy, Argentina, India, and elsewhere. We would have parties and get-togethers. We were able to have conversations about what was happening around the world. It was a very intriguing time.

              TR: How did your scholarship influence the rest of your life?

              DOMÍNGUEZ: What I got from that experience is a feeling of worldwide fellowship. I could not think of anything against any culture. I met people from many countries and I had no animosity toward anyone, and none of them had any animosity toward me. 

              When I returned to Mérida in 1948, my father asked me to become a Rotarian. Then when my family moved to Decatur, Ill., in 1955, I joined the Rotary Club of Decatur right away, until we moved to California in 1957.

              My father was a pillar of Rotary, so Rotary’s principles were always there for me. The Four-Way Test and the purpose of Rotary influenced my professional career. It brought me success. The Rotary scholarship was the final inspiration in me becoming a life-long Rotarian. 

              TR: Can you offer any secrets for a long life?

              DOMÍNGUEZ: We keep a positive attitude. We have been studying with doctors and nutritionists that teach what the body needs to stay healthy. And the other secret is being involved in community and family. Most people prefer to die before 90. No, I want to live as long as I can to do things to benefit as many people as I can.

              The Rotarian

              1-Nov-2016
              Seven Decades of Service Began in a Dorm Room 2016-11-07 09:00:00Z 0

              Culture:  Grievance Counseling

              Culture: Grievance counseling

              Illustration by Dave Cutler

              Several years ago, I had an experience that forced me to confront an aspect of myself I had denied for many years.

              It began when a friend forwarded me a link to a prominent literary blog launched by a guy who clearly was not a fan of my writing. “The adulation accorded Steve Almond constitutes one of the blogosphere’s enduring mysteries,” he began. “From the very first days of this site, I’ve shaken my head in a sort of dazed wonder at the wake of overheated prose stylings the guys [sic] leaves behind.”

              As chance would have it, a few months later I was invited to take part in an event that included this blogger. The moment I arrived at the venue, I walked straight up to him and introduced myself.

              The blogger refused to shake my hand. Instead, he sat down and began typing furiously on his laptop. (As I later discovered, he was writing a blog post about me while I was standing right in front of him.)

              I could have confronted him. But I told myself that would only reinforce the idea that he and his blog mattered.

              Looking back, I can see the more damning truth: I was trying to avoid conflict. In fact, throughout the event, I had several more opportunities to confront the guy. I never did.

              Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this story is that I, like most of you, tend to think of myself as a candid person, someone willing to speak my mind when necessary. But the more I thought about my life, the more I came to realize that I am essentially ruled by conflict avoidance.

              It’s the reason, years ago, that I left my job as an investigative reporter. As much as I loved the larger mission – to root out systemic corruption – I hated the part of the job that required me to confront the subjects of my investigations. It’s the reason I stopped playing squash with my friend Allen after we got into a heated email exchange. It’s even the reason I stopped shopping at a grocery store near my house – to avoid a produce manager who once scolded me for sampling the grapes.

              On paper, these evasive maneuvers seem absurd. But I suspect they may sound familiar to some of you. And I believe that our tendency to shy away from confrontation has wreaked havoc on our individual and collective psychic health.

              The central reason for this, according to virtually every researcher who has looked into it, is that avoiding conflict is not the same thing as resolving conflict. Often, it is the direct opposite.

              To be sure, there are some scenarios where avoiding conflict makes perfect sense, particularly when we can sense that someone is spoiling for a fight.

              But the central reasons we avoid conflict have more to do with our doubts and inhibitions. We fear we will be rejected or humiliated if we stand up for ourselves. We fear we will hurt other people’s feelings. We worry about unleashing our aggression. We may lack confidence in our beliefs and values. Rather than face these feelings, we tell ourselves (as I did with the blogger) that we are taking the high road.

              The problem with this strategy is that it leads people to enact a psychological pattern known as “gunnysacking,” in which they suppress their emotions, all the while quietly amassing grievances. Sooner or later, the sack breaks and all these grievances come gushing out in a rage.

              The irony is when we draw the wrong conclusion from this pattern: that we should work even more strenuously to avoid conflict, which we associate with uncontrollable anger, hurt feelings, and sometimes worse.

              But researchers tell us we should be more forthright about our feelings, even if this brings us into conflict with family or colleagues. Why? Because these interactions are much more likely to be constructive.

              My marriage is a living exemplar of these patterns. My wife and I are parents to three small children, and both of us work – or try to work – at home. Even on the best days, we are beset by tensions.

              It’s inconvenient to communicate these emotions as they arise. But when we can manage to do so, even in the form of arguments, we tend to feel that we’re “on the same team.” It’s when we stop arguing and retreat into silent resentments that the big fights occur.

              Sherry Turkle, a renowned sociologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has written about how technology affects social relationships, in particular how people increasingly seek to resolve conflict online.

              Her research indicates that this desire, while understandable, tends to breed misunderstanding and thus escalate conflict. Why? Because, as we all know, it’s easier to type words into cyberspace than it is to speak them aloud to another human being.

              But it’s also much more fraught, because you can’t read tone or body language in an email or a text. You don’t have to face the inconvenient but crucial truth that your adversary is, you know, a human being.

              And this makes people much more likely to say things on the internet that they would never say in person. Anyone who has ever read the comments below an online editorial can confirm this.

              Turkle’s work suggests that part of the reason our country continues to become more polarized, in both our cultural and political lives, is precisely that we spend so much time in front of screens and so little time interacting with our fellow citizens in person. Our very conception of conflict has become distorted. We think of fistfights on reality TV and flame wars on social media, of roaring demagogues and road rage.

              But conflict doesn’t have to be those things. Yes, it usually begins with a sense of disappointment and frustration. But conflict can be respectful, a difficult and necessary discourse.

              In the week after I researched this piece, I conducted a little experiment. I called up Allen, my old squash partner, and asked him out to lunch. He was shocked to hear from me after three years of silence, to be sure. But he agreed to meet me.

              I won’t try to suggest that our lunch was some kind of monumental peace summit. But it was a breakthrough. Without getting into the particulars of our row, we managed to articulate why it had made each of us so angry. I was forced to realize that I can be condescending without meaning to. He was able to concede that he had overreacted to my condescension.

              And having said our piece, we felt a strange and distinct sensation: The animus drained away, leaving behind relief and a little shame, too. We sat there staring at our food, somewhat bemused as to why we had avoided this conversation for so long.

              That’s when it dawned on me: What we had just had wasn’t a confrontation. It was a conversation – tentative, awkward, a little testy at times, sure, but ultimately productive.

              It wound up affirming the lesson suggested by all the available research, which is that we resolve conflict when we accept conflict as a normal and healthy part of the human arrangement – the price you pay, in essence, for being more honest with other people, and yourself.

              Steve Almond is a regular contributor and the author of books including Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto.

              The Rotarian

              1-Nov-2016
              Culture:  Grievance Counseling 2016-11-07 09:00:00Z 0
              Visioning Results 2016-11-07 09:00:00Z 0

              Rotary's World Polio Day Event Looks Ahead to Ending the Disease for Good

              Rotary’s World Polio Day event looks ahead to ending the disease for good

              Dennis Ogbe, Paralympian and polio survivor, tells his personal story of the disease at Rotary’s World Polio Day event on 24 October 2016 at the headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
              Photo Credit: Rotary International/Alyce Henson

              While the fight to eradicate polio suffered a blow this year when the virus re-emerged in Nigeria, Rotary leaders and top health experts focused Monday on the big picture: the global presence  of the paralyzing disease has never been smaller.

              The headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, served as the site of Rotary’s fourth annual World Polio Day event. Some of the biggest names in the polio eradication campaign were there to reflect on the year’s progress and discuss what’s needed to end the disease for good.

              More than 200 people attended the special live program, and thousands more worldwide watched online. Jeffrey Kluger, Time magazine’s editor at large, moderated the event.

              In a question-and-answer session with Kluger, CDC Director Tom Frieden talked about the latest developments in the effort to eradicate polio.

              “We have the fewest number of cases in the fewest number of places in the world right now,” said Frieden. “We continue to make ground against polio, but we’re still recording cases in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria.”

              The total number of cases worldwide so far this year is 27, compared with 51 for the same period last year.

              Unfortunately, Nigeria slipped back onto the list of countries where polio is endemic this year, after cases appeared in the northern state of Borno, which was under the control of Boko Haram militants until recently. The World Health Organization estimates that the virus has been circulating in the region for five years. The country was on the verge of celebrating two years without any polio infections.

              But this hasn’t stopped Rotary and its partners, who are working with the Nigerian government, Chad, Cameroun, and parts of the Central African Republic, from executing a sweeping emergency response. Shortly after the outbreak, a robust immunization campaign targeted about 1 million children with both oral and inactivated polio vaccines.

              “Because the new cases were only detected due to ongoing surveillance efforts,” said Frieden.  “We shouldn’t be surprised to see more cases, because better surveillance means better detection of all polio cases.”

              Polio eradication efforts continue to make progress in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In Afghanistan, cases dropped from 13 in 2015 to eight so far this year. In Pakistan, they decreased from 38 to 15.

              Frieden cited innovative tactics for reaching children in Pakistan who were often missed in the past. These include placing permanent vaccination sites at entry points to the country, provinces, and large cities. Rotary has funded the purchase of cell phones for vaccination teams, so they can send data to health centers immediately.

              “The virus is cornered, we just have to make sure never to let it out again,” Frieden added.

              Celebrities join Rotary’s gathering

              Dennis Ogbe, a polio survivor and Paralympian athlete, told his personal story of survival. Ogbe contracted polio at age three at a clinic near his home in rural Nigeria while being treated for malaria.

              Ogbe competed in the Paralympics in Sydney in 2000 and London in 2012. But he says the toughest challenge he’s faced is helping to rid the world of polio.

              Shira Lazar, host of the show “What’s Trending,” gave a social media update during the live streamed event in which she announced that more than 3,000 World Polio Day events were happening around the world. In Pakistan, a huge End Polio Now message was illuminated at the Kot Diji Fort in the Khairpur district.

              Video addresses came from Maryn McKenna, author and journalist, and new polio ambassador Jenna Bush Hager, chair of UNICEF’s Next Generation, a journalist, and an author. Hager’s father-in-law is a polio survivor.

              Rotary, with support from the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, also debuted a that transported attendees to the streets of India and Kenya, where they interacted with polio survivors and heard their stories.

              “This is very good technology to put people in places where polio has affected so many,” says Reza Hossaini, director of polio eradication for UNICEF. “It’s important we see the places and people we are helping with our polio eradication programs.”

              Earlier in the day, Frieden and Rotary International President John F. Germ announced major contributions to polio eradication. The Canadian government committed $10 million, and Michael Bloomberg, businessman, philanthropist, and former mayor of New York City, donated $25 million.

              Rotary has contributed more than $1.6 billion to polio eradication since taking on the virus in 1979.

              “We started this more than 30 years ago,” said Germ. “We’ve stuck with it all this time. And soon, we’re going to finish it.”


              Rotary News

              24-Oct-2016
              Rotary's World Polio Day Event Looks Ahead to Ending the Disease for Good 2016-10-25 08:00:00Z 0

              The Water Trail Gazebo is Going UP!

              The work on the Water Trail Gazebo continues!  Come on out and take a look!
               
              Wednesday October 19, 2016
              Prepping the Site and Foundation
               
               
              Friday October 21, 2016
              Moving the Parts From Alaska Timberframe to the Homer Spit Site
               
               
              Saturday October 22, 2016
              Putting up the Frame
               
               
              Sunday October, 23
              The Rafters Go Up
               
               
              The Water Trail Gazebo is Going UP! 2016-10-25 08:00:00Z 0

              Skydivers Raise Thousands for Polio Eradication

              Skydivers raise thousands for polio eradication

              The first time Noel Jackson jumped out of a plane at 14,000 feet, it had nothing to do with raising money for polio eradication.

              The Michigan dentist had received a gift certificate to go skydiving from his staff because they knew he was into adventure.

              “It is definitely a defining moment,” says Jackson, a member of the Rotary Club of Trenton, Michigan, USA, of that first jump, done in tandem strapped to a professional skydiver. “The rush of the free fall is beyond anything I have ever experienced before. Just the speed and acceleration is unbelievable. You don’t even have time to figure out if you are enjoying it or not -- it’s just a sensation that happens.”

              But Jackson did enjoy the sensation. So much so that he agreed to do another jump, with Shiva Koushik, a Rotarian friend in nearby Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

              The two men were waiting for this second jump when their wives came up with the idea of enlisting other jumpers and raising pledges for polio eradication.

              So, in August 2014, a jump in the skies of northeastern Michigan raised $15,000 for Rotary’s polio eradication campaign. Matched 2-to-1 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the effort contributed $45,000 to the cause.

              Since 1985, when Rotary committed to polio eradication, the organization has contributed more than $1.5 billion and countless volunteer hours to immunize children against the disease. In that time, the number of polio cases has dropped 99.9 percent, and only three countries remain where the virus has never been stopped: Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. While World Polio Day, 24 October, serves as an important opportunity to remind the world of the need to finish the job, raising money and awareness is a year-round effort for many.

              Late-night recruiting

              Julie Caron, a member of the Rotary Club of Toronto Skyline, heard about plans for the Michigan fundraising skydive after being invited to speak at a leadership training event in Koushik’s district.

              “We were in one of those friendship rooms after the conference … when Koushik began talking about the skydive,” Caron says. “We all got really excited and signed up.

              “I don’t like to back out on things I say I’m going to do, even if it’s the middle of the night,” Caron  says. So she began raising money and drove down to Michigan to do the jump.

              She also took the idea back to her own club, whose members are mostly young professionals looking for fun things to do. This past July, 10 members from Toronto Skyline and surrounding Rotary clubs plunged earthward in their own tandem skydive, raising several thousand dollars for polio eradication.

              Caron hopes to make it a yearly event.

              “Polio eradication is definitely something I am passionate about,” she says. “It’s not a hard fundraiser to put together at all. You just call around and pick a place, and then you begin asking people if they would rather jump or pay up in pledges.”

              Jackson, who’d jumped out of the plane in his “Captain Rotary” outfit, says he personally raised $4,700 for the Michigan skydive using Caron’s approach.

              “I would go up to people and tell them we were skydiving for polio and give them two options,” says Jackson. “I would tell them I was paying $180 out of my own pocket to jump, so if you are not going to jump, you have to pay $180. Most people would say, ‘OK, you got it.’ ”

              Floating like a bird

              Koushik and his wife are active in other ways to rid the world of polio. They have been on several trips with their Rotary district to immunize children in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, and particularly enjoy showing off their native country, India, from which they emigrated to Canada about 30 years ago. They are planning to take part in another National Immunization Day in Pakistan next year.

              Still, the skydive will hold a special place in Koushik’s heart.

              “This is one of the highlights of my polio eradication efforts,” he says. “It’s such a feeling of freedom. The first time out of the plane, you have very little idea what is happening; you are free-falling so fast. But once that parachute opens, you look around and say, ‘Wow!’ It’s such a great feeling to be able to float like a bird.”

              17-Oct-2016
              Skydivers Raise Thousands for Polio Eradication 2016-10-18 08:00:00Z 0

              Latest News About ShelterBox Happenings

              ShelterBox prepares for Mosul refugees

              ShelterBox and its partner, ACTED, a French nongovernmental aid agency, have been preparing for weeks to get aid supplies ready so they can respond quickly as the battle unfolds in Mosul.
              Photo Credit: Rotary International

              Today marked the start of the battle to take control of Mosul back from the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS. The city is the group's last major stronghold in Iraq. But humanitarian aid agencies have known about the military offensive, giving them an unusual opportunity to prepare for the crisis.

              "It is rare for the world to get early warning of a vast human catastrophe," says Chris Warham, chief executive of ShelterBox. "The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees issued a paper in July saying this would likely be the biggest humanitarian crisis of the year — and we better get prepared."

              ShelterBox, Rotary's project partner for disaster relief, and ACTED, a French nongovernmental aid agency, have teams in the city of Irbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, 53 miles (85 km) east of Mosul. They have been working since July to get aid supplies ready so they can respond quickly as the battle unfolds.

              "By tomorrow, 650 of the 3,000 tents that have been deployed to Irbil will arrive," says Warham. He estimates that, without the early notice, it would have taken ShelterBox at least two and a half weeks to gather these supplies.

              Tens of thousands of people have already been displaced from Mosul and surrounding areas since March. The current round of fighting could last weeks or even months and is certain to raise that number, although it's unknown just how many people remain in Mosul and in which direction they might flee.

              "Our aim is to get aid to displaced families as quickly as possible," says Rachel Harvey, operations coordinator at ShelterBox, who is in Irbil. "Giving people shelter and essential items such as a solar lamp, blankets, and a water carrier will allow them a degree of dignity and security to rest and recover."

              Existing camps are already near or over capacity, so other possible sites are being readied. But Warham predicts that demand will almost certainly outpace supply, which could force many families to seek shelter outside managed camps in an inhospitable landscape during a season given to storms and below-freezing overnight temperatures.

              ACTED and ShelterBox have partnered many times around the world. Most recently they worked together to help people in Haiti, where the deadly force of Hurricane Matthew caused a surge in cholera cases and left thousands homeless.

              The Islamic State has controlled Mosul, the oil-rich capital of Nineveh province, since June 2014. Before the invasion, the city was Iraq's second-largest and one of its most diverse.

              Follow ShelterBox on and for the latest updates.

              Learn how you can help at .

              Rotary News

               

              Rotary and ShelterBox on the ground in Haiti

              Staff from ShelterBox and the United Nation’s World Food Programme help unload a delivery of ShelterBox supplies at Les Cayes harbor in Haiti, where tents are likely to be used to help health professionals screen and treat cholera victims.
              Photo Credit: Alexis Masciarelli

              Even as parts of Haiti were still recovering from a catastrophic 2010 earthquake, Hurricane Matthew tore through the impoverished island country 4 October, leaving hundreds dead and many more homeless.

              The Category 4 storm affected an estimated 330,000 people in Haiti, including 6,400 who were moved to temporary shelters. Extensive damage to main bridges and other transportation networks have left some areas cut off and vulnerable. Torrential rains have resulted in flooding and landslides. And contaminated water supplies threaten to lead to a surge in cholera cases and other waterborne illnesses.

              A ShelterBox response team of volunteers from Canada, England, New Zealand, and the United States traveled to Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, last week to assess the damage and decide how best to help people. ShelterBox, an independent charity, is Rotary's project partner for disaster relief.

              Working with Rotary members, government authorities, and other relief agencies, ShelterBox is focusing on the cholera outbreak in the southern region of the island and emergency shelter. A shipment of ShelterBox supplies arrived in Les Cayes, in the south of Haiti, on Wednesday, which likely will be used to help health professionals screen and treat cholera victims.

              "We hope to provide ShelterKits along with other crucial supplies like solar lights, mosquito nets, water purification units, and water carriers. All of which will help in the fight against cholera," says Chris Warham, chief executive of ShelterBox.

              With wind speeds reaching 155 miles per hour, Hurricane Matthew is considered the worst storm to make landfall in Haiti in more than 50 years.

              Storm's path hits United States and Canada

              The destructive path of the hurricane cut through communities in Florida, Georgia, and South and North Carolina, USA, and as far northeast as Nova Scotia, Canada, causing flooding, severe damage, injury, and death. Rotary members are working together to provide emergency supplies and help families find shelter.

              "Rivers are still rising and expected to crest on Sunday," says Rusine Mitchell Sinclair, governor of District 7710 in North Carolina. "We'll work with our neighboring districts to provide relief once the flooding has peaked and we can get in to assess what's needed."

              How you can help

              The and Rotary District 7020 are collecting donations for relief in Haiti and the Bahamas. The initial funds will be used to replace the roofs of 1,000 homes and provide Sawyer water filtration systems. Please visit their to learn about ways to give.

              If you would like to help those affected in North Carolina, send donations to .

              Rotary staff are in touch with district leaders in other areas affected by hurricanes Matthew and Nicole and are also monitoring storms in the Pacific. Contact for information about how to contribute to other districts.

              Follow ShelterBox on and for the latest updates.

              Learn how you can help at

              Rotary News

              14-Oct-2016
              17-Oct-2016
              Latest News About ShelterBox Happenings 2016-10-18 08:00:00Z 0

              Need Nominations for Officers for Rotary Year 2017-2018

              We need Officers for Rotary Year 2017-2018!  Volunteers and Nominations needed! 
               
              We will need to fill the following offices:
               
              President-Elect (President for Rotary Year 2018-2019)
              Vice President
              Director (3)
               
              Elections will be held December 1, 2016 at the Annual Meeting
               
              Nominations for persons not present must be accepted by nominee on, or before December 1.
              You may nominate yourself or volunteer for an office!
              Need Nominations for Officers for Rotary Year 2017-2018 2016-10-11 08:00:00Z 0

              Nigeria’s Top Health Official Visits Rotary to Discuss Country’s Response to Polio Outbreak

              Nigeria’s top health official visits Rotary to discuss country’s response to polio outbreak

               
               

              Nigeria’s health minister, Isaac Adewole, said on Friday that his government is determined to rid the country of polio again. New cases recently landed Nigeria back on the list of countries where the disease is endemic.

              Adewole met with Rotary leaders at Rotary International World Headquarters in Evanston, Illinois, USA, to discuss Nigeria’s recent efforts to stem the outbreak.

              All three of the country’s cases were detected in the northern state of Borno, which was under the control of Boko Haram militants until recently. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the virus has been circulating in the region for five years.

              “The new cases devastated us. Even one case is unacceptable. It’s very unfortunate we are in this position, but we are recalibrating our efforts to end this disease,” Adewole said. “We consider this situation a national emergency.”

              Shortly after the outbreak, the minister sent an emergency response team to Borno for an immediate and robust vaccination campaign targeting about 1 million children. More than 850,000 were immunized in the first five days of the campaign, according to Adewole. To reinforce the effort, the country is using both oral and inactivated polio vaccines.

              Moreover, Nigeria established a task force to tackle other issues in Borno, including lack of clean water, sanitation, health, nutrition, and psychosocial disorder stemming from Boko Haram’s occupation. “Rebuilding Borno is a national priority,” he added.

              Nigeria, with the help of Rotary and its , has already begun additional large-scale immunizations aimed at reaching 60 million children by December. Rotary released $8.5 million to support the response in high-risk areas and parts of the Lake Chad Basin.

              Nearby countries including Cameroun, Central African Republic, Chad, and Niger are also coordinating vaccinations to protect their polio-free status.

              Together, the five countries are conducting what Adewole called a “ringed fence” immunization. Inoculations take place along the countries’ borders.

              “We can’t do this alone. Working with the other countries is crucial to the overall polio eradication in Africa,” he added.

              In 2015, after Nigeria passed more than a year without any cases detected, WHO announced that it was polio-free and removed it from the list of countries where polio is endemic. Adewole admitted that the country stopped focusing on polio after the achievement. “We started the celebration too early. But these cases have awakened us, and we are now redoubling our efforts so this doesn’t happen again,” he said.

              Adewole added that it will take sustained effort to be removed from the list again, including domestic and international financing, the commitment of thousands of health workers, and strategies that reach missed children. The government has allocated $300 million for the emergency response.

              “Polio eradication is about national pride and honor,” he says. “We will not let our citizens or the world down.”

              Rotary News

              7-Oct-2016
              Nigeria’s Top Health Official Visits Rotary to Discuss Country’s Response to Polio Outbreak 2016-10-11 08:00:00Z 0

              Sam Owori is Selected to be 2018-2019 Rotary President

              Sam Owori is selected to be 2018-19 Rotary president

              Samuel Frobisher Owori, a Ugandan businessman and a member of the Rotary Club of Kampala, will become president-nominee on 1 October.

              The 2016-17 Nominating Committee for President of Rotary International has unanimously nominated Samuel Frobisher Owori, of the Rotary Club of Kampala, Uganda, to be the president of Rotary International in 2018-19. He will be declared the president-nominee on 1 October if no challenging candidates have been suggested.

              Owori says he sees in Rotary "an incredible passion to make a difference." As president, he plans to "harness that enthusiasm and pride so that every project becomes the engine of peace and prosperity."

              Owori's chief concerns as a Rotary leader are membership and extension. Since he served as district governor, the number of clubs in Uganda has swelled from nine to 89. He urges past, present, and future leaders to work together to engage more women, youth program participants, alumni, and community members to increase Rotary's membership in the coming years.

              "There are many places which need Rotary and numerous potential members who have never been invited," he says. "The problem is Rotarians who got in and closed the doors."

              Owori is chief executive officer of the Institute of Corporate Governance of Uganda. Before that, he was executive director of the African Development Bank, managing director of Uganda Commercial Bank Ltd., and director of Uganda Development Bank. He has studied law, employment relations, business management, corporate resources management, microfinance, and marketing at institutions in England, Japan, Switzerland, Tanzania, and the United States, including Harvard Business School.

              Since becoming a member in 1978, Owori has served Rotary as regional Rotary Foundation coordinator, regional RI membership coordinator, RI Representative to the United Nations Environment Program and UN-Habitat, and RI director. He has been a member or chair of several committees, including the International PolioPlus Committee, the Drug Abuse Prevention Task Force, and the Audit Committee. Most recently, Owori served as trustee of The Rotary Foundation, chair of The Rotary Foundation's Finance Committee, and a member of the Investment Committee. Owori is a Benefactor of The Rotary Foundation, and he and his wife, Norah, are Major Donors and Paul Harris Fellows.

              The Nominating Committee members are Sudarshan Agarwal, Rotary Club of Delhi, Delhi, India; Şafak Alpay, Rotary Club of Istanbul-Sisli, Turkey; Ronald L. Beaubien, Rotary Club of Coronado, California, USA; John B. Boag, Rotary E-Club of District 9650, New South Wales, Australia; Elio Cerini, Rotary Club of Milano Duomo, Italy; Luiz Coelho de Oliveira, Rotary Club of Limeira-Leste, São Paulo, Brazil; Frank N. Goldberg, Rotary Club of Omaha-Suburban, Nebraska, USA; Kenneth W. Grabeau, Rotary Club of Nashua West, New Hampshire, USA; Jackson S.L. Hsieh, Rotary Club of Taipei Sunrise, Taiwan; Mark Daniel Maloney (chair), Rotary Club of Decatur, Alabama, USA; Barry Matheson, Rotary Club of Jessheim, Norway; Kazuhiko Ozawa, Rotary Club of Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan; Ekkehart Pandel, Rotary Club of Bückeburg, Germany; Noraseth Pathmanand, Rotary Club of Bang Rak, Thailand; Robert S. Scott, Rotary Club of Cobourg, Ontario, Canada; John C. Smarge, Rotary Club of Naples, Florida, USA; Michael F. Webb, Rotary Club of Mendip, Somerset, England.

              To learn more about Sam Owori, read this and outlining his goals for Rotary.

              9-Aug-2016
              Sam Owori is Selected to be 2018-2019 Rotary President 2016-10-04 08:00:00Z 0

              Germ Declares Owori President-Nominee

              Germ declares Owori president-nominee

               

              On 1 October, RI President John F. Germ declared Samuel F. Owori Rotary International's president-nominee.

              The Nominating Committee for President selected Owori, a member of the Rotary Club of Kampala, Uganda, in August. He will be elected at the 2017 RI Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and will become president on 1 July 2018.

              Read more about

              4-Oct-2016
              Germ Declares Owori President-Nominee 2016-10-04 08:00:00Z 0

              Nigeria Reclassified as Polio Endemic

              Nigeria reclassified as polio endemic

               

              Nigeria reported three cases of wild poliovirus in the northeastern state of Borno in August of this year. Following the World Health Organization's confirmation of these cases, the country returned to the list of polio-endemic countries. The other polio-endemic countries are Afghanistan and Pakistan.

              These are the first cases detected in the country since July 2014, and while this news is disappointing for all Rotary members, we are confident that Nigeria can defeat polio. Rotary provided $500,000 to assist immediately with the outbreak response, and an emergency response plan has been put into action in coordination with our partners. Large-scale vaccination campaigns are ongoing across five countries in the Lake Chad basin to counter the outbreak.

              Despite these new cases, there has been significant progress toward ending polio in Nigeria, the rest of the African continent, and globally.

              As recently as 2012, Nigeria accounted for more than half of all polio cases in the world; however, thanks to quality vaccination campaigns and surveillance, as well as political commitment, the country has made significant progress. Furthermore, the new cases were detected due to ongoing efforts to strengthen surveillance, especially in insecure areas.

              We have proven strategies to stop new outbreaks quickly, even in insecure regions or areas made vulnerable by conflict, such as South Sudan and Syria. These strategies will also overcome the outbreak in Nigeria.

              Rotary is committed to the eradication of polio, and we will continue to support our members, particularly those in Nigeria who have worked so hard to help the country end polio. With your help, we can ensure that there is no remaining home for the virus.

              Michael K. McGovern, International PolioPlus Chair

              29-Sep-2016
              Nigeria Reclassified as Polio Endemic 2016-10-04 08:00:00Z 0

              2016 Great Potato Race

              Every year, courtesy of Maynard, our Club has the Great Potato Race, where we all get the chance to show off our Potato Growing Abilities.  Here are the results of this year's Race!
               
              Buckets and Bags awaiting the weigh-off
               
              French Fingerlings
               
              Measuring Marv's Big Potato
               
              Weighed in at 1 lb. 8.45 oz.
               
              The Results Are!
               
              180 Pounds of Potatoes Headed to the Homer Community Food Pantry
               
               
              2016 Great Potato Race 2016-10-04 08:00:00Z 0

              Surgeons From India Bring Relief to Underserved Patients in Rwanda

              Rotary Logo

               
               

              Surgeons from India bring relief to underserved patients in Rwanda

              Photo Credit: Mussa Uwitonze

              From the of The Rotarian

              Hundreds of people gather in an open-air courtyard at University Central Hospital in Kigali, Rwanda. Men in suits, women in flowered dresses, even prisoners in pink and orange gowns are waiting to find out if they will receive medical care. Some have no visible signs of injury. Others arrived on crutches, with arms in slings, or with catheters protruding from their clothing. Several have swollen, broken limbs: injuries that should have been mended long ago but were neglected because of the country’s long surgical-ward backlog, or simply poverty.

              Emmanuel Mugatyawe, 36, sits on the ground as a friend fills out his yellow admissions form. He has been waiting two months for an operation to repair a broken leg – now infected – that he sustained when a car plowed into his motorbike.

              “These are not routine cases; there are very few fresh injuries,” says Shashank Karvekar, an orthopedic surgeon and member of the Rotary Club of Solapur, India, after he and his Rwandan colleague Joel Bikoroti examine several dozen patients, scheduling many for surgery. Over the next eight days, a team of 18 specialized doctors (12 of whom are Rotarians) will perform surgeries on 268 Rwandan patients, including procedures in orthopedics and urology. The trip, initiated by District 3080 (India) and hosted by District 9150 (Central Africa), is funded by The Rotary Foundation with support from the Rwandan government. It’s the fourth medical mission to Rwanda that the two districts have organized since 2012. This time, among the volunteers is K.R. Ravindran, the first sitting RI president to take part in the mission.

              A few buildings down on the University Central Hospital’s campus (referred to as CHUK), Rajendra Saboo, 1991-92 Rotary International president, is busy coordinating the last-minute logistics of the mission. The 82-year-old from Chandigarh, India, has done this many times. After finishing a post-presidential term on the Board of Trustees, Saboo and his wife, Usha, began to look for ways to participate in the type of hands-on service they had long encouraged of their fellow Rotarians.

              They wanted to help India, a country that often receives outside assistance, make a stronger global contribution. It didn’t take long for Saboo to focus on medicine. He found that many local doctors had trained or worked in limited-resource settings similar to what they would find in Africa. “Our doctors are medically very strong,” Saboo explains. “And because India also does not have infrastructure of the highest level, they’ve learned how to innovate.”

              Saboo’s first mission, to Uganda, took place in 1998 and focused on cataract surgeries and corrective operations to help disabled polio survivors. Organized with Rajiv Pradhan, a pathologist and past governor of District 3130, it consisted of doctors from Saboo’s district (3080) and Pradhan’s.

              Today, Saboo recalls the mission as a life-altering experience – one so successful that the two soon arranged a trip to Ethiopia. That visit marked the start of an 18-year partnership that has brought more than three dozen surgical missions to 12 African countries, as well as Cambodia and six of India’s least developed states. Over time, the missions have increased in frequency to four per year, while adding specialties such as plastic surgery, urology, and gynecology. Saboo has been on almost every trip. “Raja Saboo is absolutely full of energy,” says Pradhan. “He’s constantly thinking of new ways to support medical missions. Even at this age, he’s working 12 hours a day.”

              Rwanda, a compact central African country with mountainous topography that often draws comparisons to Switzerland, is perhaps best-known for its darkest moment: the slaughter of up to a million citizens, mostly members of the Tutsi minority, in the 1994 genocide. Twenty-two years later, it’s one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa. Kigali, its capital, is among the tidiest cities on the continent. Since 1994, life expectancy has more than doubled in Rwanda while maternal and child mortality rates have fallen.

              Rwanda still faces public health challenges, however. Access to surgery is among them. According to The Lancet, an estimated 5 billion people, including nine out of 10 residents of lower- and middle-income countries, do not have access to “safe, affordable surgical and anesthesia care when needed.” In these countries, the British medical journal notes, 143 million additional surgical procedures are needed every year. Although most Rwandans are covered by national health insurance, which gives them access to low-cost care, many people living in rural areas cannot afford to get to a public health facility. Moreover, surgery is only available in five of the country’s public hospitals, and many patients must wait to be referred from local health centers or district-level facilities.

              Aside from a minority of patients who can afford private care, complex cases wind up at one of two public hospitals in Kigali: CHUK and Rwanda Military Hospital, which also hosted doctors from the mission. A persistent shortage of surgeons means there’s typically a long waiting list. According to Faustin Ntirenganya, who heads the department of surgery at CHUK, the hospital employs just 10 surgeons and three anesthesiologists – a staffing shortage that, at times, means a backlog of up to 1,000 cases. Despite a growing number of surgical residents at Rwanda’s national university, the lure of better-paying jobs abroad makes holding on to specialists difficult, Ntirenganya says. “Our biggest challenge is numbers,” he says. “Our limited team cannot handle the needs of the whole population.”

              The Rotary mission helps meet the high demand. In four trips to Rwanda, Saboo’s teams have conducted nearly 900 surgeries. For some patients, the mission represents a final chance. Michel Bizimungu, who had been out of work since rupturing a patellar tendon playing soccer last October, was told his case could be handled only at Rwanda’s top private hospital, at a price far beyond his means as a cleaner. Then his case was referred to Asit Chidgupkar, an orthopedic surgeon and member of the Rotary Club of Solapur. Although Chidgupkar had never encountered this specific injury, and CHUK lacked some needed equipment, including biodegradable screws and suture anchors, Chidgupkar devised a plan. The next day, in a four-hour procedure involving three separate incisions, he repaired Bizimungu’s knee. Chidgupkar called the procedure an “absolute improvisation.” (He later presented the case at an orthopedic conference in India, and he keeps in touch with Bizimungu, who updates him periodically on his recovery.) “It’s one of my most memorable cases,” he says.

              The mission also provides training. Mission doctors teach cutting-edge surgical techniques to local physicians, medical students, and residents. During surgery, the visiting doctors demonstrate techniques and learn from host country doctors. Bosco Mugabo, a fourth-year resident in surgery at the University of Rwanda who assisted Chidgupkar with Bizimungu’s operation, says the opportunity was invaluable. “There are some tricks and hints that you don’t learn from school,” he says. “You learn them from a specific surgeon.”

              With this in mind, Saboo worked with local health authorities to slightly modify the Rwanda mission. At a dinner in Kigali, he announced plans to invite 10 Rwandan doctors to India for three-month stints of training there – part of an effort to boost local capacity in a more sustainable manner. The next mission to Rwanda will also be smaller and focus more on teaching two in-demand specialties: reconstructive urology and anesthesiology. In addition, 20 Rwandan children will undergo open-heart surgery in Saboo’s home city of Chandigarh. With travel funds from the Rwandan Ministry of Health, 30 Rwandan children have already received such operations there. According to Emmanuel Rusingiza, one of only two pediatric cardiologists in Rwanda, the country’s high rate of rheumatic heart disease, which generally results from untreated cases of strep throat, means the country has a waiting list of more than 150 children. “A big number of them are passing away,” he says. “It’s a very hard situation.”

              As the mission in Kigali winds down, Saboo is already looking forward to the next one. With more Indian districts interested in sending doctors, and African districts interested in hosting them, he expects the number of trips to increase, even if his own attendance becomes less frequent.

              Many mission participants, both first-timers and veterans, say they plan to return, though it sometimes entails a significant personal and professional sacrifice. Karvekar, whose own son underwent heart surgery in India just days before he traveled to Kigali, is one of them. “I’d wanted to go on one of these trips for a while,” he says, noting that the mission was his longest absence from his family’s private clinic, where he’s the only orthopedic surgeon on staff. “There were a lot of challenging cases, but fortunately we were able to do them well and, I think, give the patients a good result.”

              “It is totally a labor of love,” adds Saboo, speaking for himself as well as the team of doctors. “When they come here, there’s no compensation. They come purely because they want to extend their services to humanity beyond their own borders.”

              The Rotarian

              19-Sep-2016
              Surgeons From India Bring Relief to Underserved Patients in Rwanda 2016-09-28 08:00:00Z 0

              Oiling the Gazebo

              Here are some pictures of the new Gazebo!  Pretty neat!  President Tom and Robert Archibald spent several hours putting the first coat of oil on the timbers.  More to follow.  If everything goes as planned, the building will start going up around the end of October.  Watch for more information!
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Photos provided by Milli
              Oiling the Gazebo 2016-09-28 08:00:00Z 0
              Making Your Will 2016-09-28 08:00:00Z 0

              Ironman Triathlete Minda Dentler Challlenges World to End Polio

              Ironman triathlete Minda Dentler challenges world to end polio

              Minda Dentler becomes the first woman hand cyclist to complete the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile cycle, and 26.2-mile marathon of the Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, USA.

              I was born in 1978 in Mumbai to a domestic worker and single mother. At six months old, I was paralyzed from the hips down by polio. The chances of surviving in India until your 18th birthday with a disability are very slim. My mother was unable to care for me and left me at an orphanage. I don't remember much about my time there because I was so young, but I know the conditions were primitive. I had no real hope that my life would become anything of note or that I would have the opportunity to be independent and overcome the burden of a very preventable disease.

              I didn't know it then, but several years after I was born, a revolution in the way the world approached polio prevention came to India. That revolution was the , which has reduced global polio cases by 99.9 percent since 1988. But like millions of others in India, I never received the two drops of oral vaccine that protect against the virus. In India, your health is vital to your social and economic opportunities. If you are healthy, you can get a job, and if you have a job, you can get married. Unfortunately, this simple passage of convention seemed beyond my reach. But then my life changed irrevocably once more.

              At age three, I was adopted by Bruce and Ann Dentler and joined their family of two children and another adopted son, from Korea. I moved to Spokane, Washington, USA, shortly after my third birthday. Over the next few years, I underwent a series of surgeries on my hips, legs, and back to straighten my body, and I could eventually walk with leg braces and crutches. My parents had the same expectations of me as they did of my siblings and set the tone that having a disability should not prevent me from doing whatever I wanted to do with my life. I had to do the same chores and do my homework. It was a very happy childhood.

              I loved to compete, so I threw myself into many activities, from debating at school to playing the piano. I graduated from high school and moved to Seattle to study business at the University of Washington. While in college, I interned at the White House and IBM. I studied abroad in Spain and backpacked through Europe by myself, wearing my leg braces and crutches. Upon graduating, I moved to New York City for a management consulting job. I pursued an MBA, got married, and now work at a large multinational insurance company. Through my example, I hope people can see that a disability shouldn't hinder someone from living a full and productive life.

              While living in New York, I met Dick Traum, the first amputee to complete the New York City Marathon in 1976. Dick later founded a nonprofit, Achilles International, which provides free training and support to help people with disabilities participate in sports. He gave me a hand cycle, which is a three-wheeled recumbent bicycle propelled by the arms, and encouraged me to train for a marathon. This opened up a new world of opportunity for me, and I completed the New York City Marathon in my hand cycle in 2006.

              My next challenge was thought to be impossible for a female wheelchair athlete: the Ironman Triathlon. I made the transition to triathlon and finished my first Ironman in Louisville, Kentucky, USA, and qualified for the world championship in Kona, Hawaii, in 2012.

              The Ironman Triathlon requires a wheelchair athlete like me to swim 2.4 miles, hand cycle 112 miles, and push a racing wheelchair 26.2 miles, all within tight time limits for each stage of the course. But at the Kona Ironman, I failed to make the 10½-hour cutoff time for the cycling portion. I was disappointed, but I'd faced harder setbacks before. The failure steeled my determination, and I decided to regroup and try again the next year.

              By October 2013, I was back at the starting line for the Kona Ironman in Hawaii for the second time. I was bidding to become the first woman hand cyclist in history to finish the Ironman World Championship. Just as my parents had insisted that I complete the same chores as my siblings, the Ironman event demanded that I complete the course within the same strict time limits as every other able-bodied competitor. I had qualified for the race and earned the right to compete on a level playing field, but if I did complete the race, it would mean something more than achieving another personal goal.

              Every stroke in the water and crank forward on my hand cycle were movements for those who could not lift limbs paralyzed by polio. With every rotation of the wheels on my racing wheelchair, I was moving forward for the millions of polio survivors who would never get this opportunity. When I finally crossed the finish line 14 hours and 39 minutes after I started, I was overwhelmed with joy and excitement. It was a storybook ending and the realization of a dream that seemed impossible to achieve.

              I'd followed Rotary's polio eradication efforts for some time when I had the honor of being invited to speak at a World Polio Day event in 2014. Since then, I've been one of Rotary's polio ambassadors, helping to raise awareness for the End Polio Now campaign. In this role, I was offered an opportunity to return to India for the first time since I was a child.

              Last year I set off for the country where most people said polio could never be eradicated. But against the odds, one year after my first successful Ironman World Championship, India did eradicate polio – despite the challenges of crowded slums with poor sanitation, the second largest population in the world, the weakened immune systems of millions living in poverty without proper nourishment. Despite all this, Southeast Asia was certified polio free in 2014.

              The enormity of this achievement is clear if you consider that less than a decade ago, India reported almost half of the world's new polio cases. But until the disease is eradicated everywhere, it could easily return. So on my trip, I participated in a National Immunization Day, when 172 million children through age five are immunized against polio.

              One of the most memorable moments for me was meeting a polio survivor named Parveen at St. Stephen's Hospital in New Delhi. It was a stark reminder of a tale of two worlds. Here she was, the same age as me, but we are living very different lives. I was adopted and catapulted into a life of privilege. At age 37, Parveen is illiterate, without resources, and has been a burden on her family.

              I do not want to see other children become victims of polio and suffer the lifelong effects of a preventable disease. It was heartbreaking to me, and, as a mother, I want for her and all children in the world, no matter their circumstances, to have a chance at a healthy life. Rotary is changing the world, one child and two drops of vaccine at a time.

              I've had good fortune at various stages of my life. I was adopted by a loving family after three years in an orphanage. I was given my first hand cycle by Achilles International in New York. I had the support of my family to push me across the finish line in Hawaii. But I hope readers realize that my story is also one of empowerment and personal choice.

              Whether you are a polio survivor, a supporter of the polio eradication effort, or even someone who is surprised polio is still a threat – we all have an important choice to make. We can choose to have our children vaccinated and ensure that other parents in our communities do the same. I know what it is to miss out on this life-changing vaccine, as my childhood wasn't the same. In India, I also met Rukhsar Khatoon, the country's last documented polio victim, and it made me realize that when we finally do end polio, our work will not be over.

              There are 10 million to 20 million polio survivors worldwide, and they need more than physical rehabilitation. It will be another lifetime's work to ensure that every polio survivor has access to a good education and to prevent stigmatization in communities or the workplace because of a physical disability. The least we can do in the present is to make the choice to prevent more needless suffering by vaccinating our children. And soon, our children, and their children, will live in a world without polio. Just imagine.



              9-Sep-2016
              Ironman Triathlete Minda Dentler Challlenges World to End Polio 2016-09-21 08:00:00Z 0

              Practice Peace

              Practicing peace

               

              Nations around the world will observe the International Day of Peace on 21 September, a date designated by the United Nations in 2001 as "a day of global ceasefire and nonviolence."

              Rotary's commitment to building peace and resolving conflict is rooted in the Rotary Peace Centers program, formed in 2002. Each year, the program prepares up to 100 fellows to work for peace through a two-year master's degree program or a three-month professional certificate program at university partners worldwide.

              Today, nearly 1,000 peace centers alumni are applying their skills — negotiating peace in conflict areas, drafting legislation to protect exploited children, keeping communities safe through innovative law enforcement tactics, and pursuing many other career paths devoted to peace.

              .

              Rotary News

              19-Sep-2016
              Practice Peace 2016-09-21 08:00:00Z 0

              New Member Inducted

              New member Bernie Griffard was inducted at the September 15, 2016.  Bernie was sponsored by his daughter, Christi. A great addition to the Club!
               
              Welcoming New Member!
               
               
              Photo provided by Tom
               
               
              New Member Inducted 2016-09-21 08:00:00Z 0
              2016 Fall Cleanup of the Peter Larson Memorial Rotary Garden 2016-09-21 08:00:00Z 0

              Opportunity to Train with Hospice of Homer

               
               
               
              Hospice of Homer 2016 Volunteer Training
               
              Dear Hospice Supporter--

              Please consider becoming a Hospice direct care volunteer. If you have friends or family you think would be interested in making a positive difference in someone's life, tell them about the training.

              Thanks.

              Warm Regards,

              Darlene
               
               
               
               

              Drop-In Bereavement Group

              The drop-in bereavement and grief group is available every Tuesday 3-4 pm at the Hospice of Homer office. 
               
              2017 Zion Getaway Raffle Hospice Fundraiser. Includes: 7 day stay in 2 bedroom/2 bath house just outside of Zion National Park in Utah plus 500 air miles and the use of a car,

              Tickets: $50 for one or $250 for 5 plus a free ticket. Only 250 tickets sold at the Hospice office or the Homer Bookstore.

               
               
               
              Opportunity to Train with Hospice of Homer 2016-09-14 08:00:00Z 0

              Charity Navigator Upgrades Rotary Foundation's Rating

              Charity Navigator upgrades Rotary Foundation’s rating

               

              The Rotary Foundation has received the highest possible score from , an independent evaluator of charities in the U.S.

              In the most recent ratings, released on 1 September, The Rotary Foundation earned the maximum 100 points for both financial health and accountability and transparency.

              The ratings reflect how efficiently Charity Navigator believes the Foundation will use donations, how well it has sustained programs and services, and its level of commitment to good governance and openness.

              In the previous rating, the Foundation had received 97 points.

              6-Sep-2016
              Charity Navigator Upgrades Rotary Foundation's Rating 2016-09-14 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Members Link Love of Beer and Clean Water Crisis

              Rotary members link love of beer, clean water crisis

              Beer festivals have a strong fellowship component. When people are sampling beers, they are socializing and having a good time. Founders of the Beers Rotarians Enjoy Worldwide maintains a list of Rotary-sponsored beer festivals and encourages clubs to hold them.
              Photo Credit: Libby March

              When you sit down to enjoy a beer, you probably don't spend a lot of time thinking about one of its main ingredients – water. Or the fact that 3,000 children die each day from diseases caused by unsafe water.

              A group of innovative Rotarians aren't just thinking; they're doing something about it.

              Their group, , has organized events around the world and is working to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Rotary's global water, sanitation, and hygiene efforts.

              "By drinking a beer, I can help bring fresh water to a village in Africa," says Steven Lack, a member of the Rotary Club of Pleasant Hill, California, USA. "If you can drink beer and some of the money goes to doing good in the world, that is something you can feel good about."

              Fellowships like BREW are Rotary's way of bringing together members who share a particular passion. Rotarian Action Groups unite members who have expertise in a specific service area. The beer fellowship's leaders realized that joining forces with an action group dedicated to providing access to clean water would create a sum larger than the two parts.

              "Beer and water have a natural affinity; you need water to brew beer" says Moses Aryee, past president of the Rotary Club of Accra-West, Ghana, and co-chair of the beer fellowship. "Our vision is a global approach to fresh water around the world, because beer is around the world."

              The fellowship members are working with the to identify specific water projects to support by funneling 25 percent of the fellowship's dues to those projects, says Lack, the fellowship's vice chair.

              The members also plan to approach major brewers on each continent to seek financial support for water projects, much as the nonprofit .

              These projects have the potential to improve people's quality of life in several ways. Every day, 8,000 people die of waterborne disease. In addition, women in many parts of the world spend hours a day fetching water, time they could spend caring for their families, generating income, or making other contributions to society.

              "We are very enthusiastic about the opportunities to work together," says F. Ronald Denham, a past chair of the Water and Sanitation Action Group and a member of the Rotary Club of Toronto Eglinton, in Ontario, Canada. "On our side, we can present and describe the projects. BREW will establish relationships with the breweries. And some of the members are senior executives in breweries. It's a wonderful synergy."

              A blueprint for fundraising

              Lack and Aryee founded the beer fellowship in 2014 after reaching the same conclusion at roughly the same time: Beer is fun and promotes fellowship, both of which make Rotary more appealing. And by bringing together people who share an interest in beer, you can unite them for the purpose of doing good.

              "We're always talking about making Rotary fun," says Lack. "When people drink beer, they are socializing. It's one of those things that brings us together, that makes us equal."

              In addition to working with the action group, the fellowship promotes the idea of good times and service by helping clubs organize beer festivals. These events appeal to younger people, raise money for club projects, and are easy to plan. According to Lack, all you need is to:

              • Approach a microbrewery or two to donate beer
              • Bring food or secure a food truck
              • Line up a band
              • Pitch a tent

              "Microbrewing has become a huge industry, and this is definitely a way to capitalize on the popularity of that," notes Lack, who emphasizes that these fests aren't about getting drunk. The events typically last only a few hours and distribute small sampling cups that hold only four to six ounces. And standing in line limits the amount of time that people have to drink.

              The State of Jefferson Brew Fest in Dunsmuir, California, attracts 1,500 people every August and last year netted $15,000 for club projects, says John Poston, a member of the Dunsmuir Rotary Club. It's been so successful, the club added a home-brew competition and cornhole tournament this year, and plans to expand the event to two days next year. Other growing festivals include the Weed Brew Fest in California and Brew on the Bay in Key Largo, Florida. The beer fellowship promotes a list of brew fests sponsored by Rotary clubs.

              Good for club morale

              When Lenny Jordan, president of the Rotary Club of Franklin, North Carolina, and part owner of his town's microbrewery, heard about the fellowship, he got 20 members of the club to sign up.

              "It has been a point of interest for many of our members, and an opportunity to come together in a more casual environment," says Jordan. "I would attribute at least one new member to the fellowship. She attended one of our field trips and said she wanted to join. It's had a positive effect both on membership, and on general morale."

              The fellowship's interest in beer gives members an opportunity to share insights and to learn on an international scale. For instance, members recently heard how the composition of water can determine the type of beer an area is famous for. According to All About Beer magazine, Dublin became known for its darker beers because of its water's high alkaline content. Since yeast doesn't perform as well with high alkalinity, brewers gradually discovered they got better results by roasting the barley, which both lowers the alkaline level and makes a darker beer. Similarly, the soft water in the Czech town of Pilsen made it ideal for the world's first pilsners.

              Another useful fact: Beer has historically provided a safe drinking alternative when clean water is in short supply, because of the boiling step in the brewing process.

              "We've all been to places where we wouldn't drink the water," says Lack, but where "they make a heck of a beer."

              In May, more than 60 members of the fellowship, including beer lovers from Russia, South America, Australia, Japan, India, Europe, Africa, and North America, gathered at the Devil's Door Brew Pub in Seoul during Rotary's annual convention, to sample what was on tap and to socialize. Lack says plans are in the works for a brewery tour every night in Atlanta, Georgia, during Rotary's 2017 convention.

              "There are all kinds of microbreweries around the city, some owned by Rotary members," he says. "We're also looking to be able to pour beer in our booth (in the House of Friendship). You lose some credibility as a beer fellowship if you aren't pouring beer."

              Rotary News

              24-Aug-2016
              Rotary Members Link Love of Beer and Clean Water Crisis 2016-09-14 08:00:00Z 0
              New Member to be Inducted! 2016-09-14 08:00:00Z 0

              Annual Labor Day Event at Mike and Shelli's in Halibut Cove

              About 40 Rotarians and their spouses attended Mike and Shelli Gordon's annual Labor Day Picnic Sunday at their cabin in Halibut Cove.  We met at the boat launch ramp at 12:30 PM and traveled across the bay in four boats among sea otters, whales, and calm seas.  Many thanks to Steve Yoshida, Curt Olson, Bob Hartley and Tom Early for providing the boat transportation.  Also enjoying the good food and fellowship were Rotarians Jane Little, past District Governor from the Downtown Club, and Past District Governor Carolyn Jones.  Clem Tillion, resident of Halibut Cove and past Alaska State Senate President, also boated over to join us.  Despite occasional rain showers, we ate our fill and wandered through the beautiful gardens and grounds of the Gordon's property.  We are extremely grateful to Mike and Shellie Gordon for their hospitality.

               
               
              Labor Day Party--Most of the attendees!
               
              Five PDG'g plus a former State Senator!
               
              Cllem Tillion named Honorary Rotarian
               
              Bob and Sherrie
               
              Karen and Bryan
               
              Bryan and Steve
               
              Clyde and Clem
               
              Don and Clyde
               
              Brenda and Don
              Inside
               
              Getting Pleasantly Stuffed!
               
              The Front Porch
               
              Honey and Patrick
               
              Jane and Carolyne
               
              Lorna and Jim
               
              Louise and Iris
               
              Michelle and Vivian
               
              Milli and Karen
               
               
               
              Patrick all ready for boating.
               
              Tom and Sandy
               
              Honey, Patrick, and Christi head home after a wonderful day!
               
               
              Annual Labor Day Event at Mike and Shelli's in Halibut Cove 2016-09-07 08:00:00Z 0

              ShelterBox and Rotary Clubs take Action Following Earthquake in Italy

              ShelterBox and Rotary clubs take action following earthquake in Italy

              Buildings lie in ruins Wednesday, after a magnitude 6.2 earthquake leveled towns in central Italy. The quake killed at least 241 and left thousands homeless.
              Photo Credit: Massimo Percossi/ANSA via AP

              A 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck central Italy early Wednesday, killing more than 240 people and trapping an unknown number beneath rubble. Tremors were felt as far away as Rome, 100 km (65 miles) southwest of the quake's epicenter.

              International disaster relief agency and Rotary International project partner is sending a response team from its headquarters in the United Kingdom to the remote mountainous area of Italy where the destruction is most severe. The response team will arrive Friday, 26 August, to assess the area's needs.

              Luca Della Volta, president of , the affiliate organization in Genoa, will accompany the response team. Della Volta is working with the Rotary Club of Rieti in District 2080, the club closest to the earthquake-affected sites, and will meet with officials of the Italian Civil Protection Department, fire department, and Red Cross to coordinate efforts.

              If families and individuals made homeless by the disaster need emergency shelter, ShelterBox will send tents and other equipment from its locations in Italy and other sites across Europe. Della Volta says the most urgent need is for tents and relief supplies for the hospital of Rieti, where most of the patients from the destroyed hospital in Amatrice were taken.

              "I am truly heartbroken over what has happened," says Della Volta, charter president of the Rotary E-Club of 2042 Italia. "As Rotarians, we are always available to help people in need."

              Follow for the latest updates.

              Learn how you can help at .

              Rotary Districts 2080 and 2090 in Italy have created a joint fundraising campaign to help communities damaged by the quake. Visit their Facebook pages for more information:

              24-Aug-2016
              ShelterBox and Rotary Clubs take Action Following Earthquake in Italy 2016-09-07 08:00:00Z 0

              New Member Proposed

              A new member has been proposed and approved by the Board of Directors as of July 27, 2017.
               

              The Board voted to approve Pat Melone as a member at the last meeting.  Pat is the owner of the Spyglass B&B.

               
              Should there be an objection to this person becoming  a member of the Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club, please notify the President, or a Member of the Board of Directors, in writing, stating the reason for your objection, no later than the August 10, 2017 meeting.
               
               
              New Member Proposed 2016-08-30 08:00:00Z 0

              Member Spotlight: Zabit Aimal's Mission is to Make Peace

               

              Member Spotlight: Zabit Aimal's mission is to make peace

              Photo Credit: John Davis

              From the of The Rotarian

              Kabul, Afghanistan, isn’t the easiest place for a fatherless child to grow up. Years of harsh Taliban rule had left Zabit Aimal the sole provider for his mother and sister. So in 2007, at age 17, he jumped at the chance to work as a translator and cultural adviser for American troops. Aimal was impressed with one American in particular, Nevada National Guard officer Kurt Neddenriep, a member of the Rotary Club of Elko, Nev. “His unit didn’t break down doors and make people angry. They’d go to the tribal elders, use me as a mediator to ask what’s wrong, sit with them over tea, and listen to their side of the story,” he says. “I asked Kurt, ‘Why is your unit so warm-hearted?’ He explained to me, ‘Back home, I’m a Rotarian. I believe in peace.’” Aimal learned that Rotarians believe in generosity, too. With Neddenriep’s help, as well as donations from the Rotary clubs of Reno, Carson City, and other cities, Aimal graduated from the University of Nevada at Reno in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. Now a Rotary Peace Fellow, he is working on his master’s degree in international politics and security studies at the University of Bradford in England. And after that? “I’d like to be involved in charity organizations that operate in war-torn countries,” he says. “Anything that will let me help The Rotary Foundation’s mission: to create peace.”

              The Rotarian

              19-Aug-2016
              Member Spotlight: Zabit Aimal's Mission is to Make Peace 2016-08-30 08:00:00Z 0

              New Updates!--Annual Labor Day Event at Mike and Shelli Gordon's

               

              Sunday September 4 Details

               

              Please be at the launch ramp ready to leave at 12:30 PM

               

              Clyde & Vivian will have the boat ride list at the launch ramp.

               

              Please call them at 299-4962  if you have to cancel at the last minute so the boats do not wait for someone who is not coming.

               

              Labor Day Weekend Boats  Sunday September 4

               

              12:30 at the launch ramp for  departure

               

              We will return about 4

               

              Steve Yoshida   

              Zaks                    2

              Waclowski         2

               

              Olson 

              Files                    2

              Milli Martin       1

              Jim Hornaday    1

              Keller                  2

               

              Hartley 

              Gross                  2

              C Grifford           3

              Louise Delmas   1

               

              Tom  

              Clyde & Viv        2

              M & D Cline       2

              Franz                   2

               

               

              Clyde and Vivian

              299-4962

               

              We will have a great time! Thanks you to our generous boat captains who are making this possible!

               

              Sharon 

              399-4266

              Annual Labor Day Event at Mike and Shelli Gordon's in Halibut Cove.  This is an ADULTS ONLY EVENT

              We will start sign up next week for food and transportation. This is an adults only event.

               

              ​Boats needed!

               

              We may have to charge $20.00 per person for the boat trip if we need to charter a boat so everyone gets an affordable boat ride.

               

              Please contact Sharon 399-4266 < sminsch@alaska.net  > if you have a boat and can bring Rotarians with you from Homer.

               

              It is always a fun time for all.

               

              Will keep you posted

              New Updates!--Annual Labor Day Event at Mike and Shelli Gordon's 2016-08-30 08:00:00Z 0

              Final opportunity to provide recycling education flyers on Friday, Sep 2

              We need 1-2 people for 1-1/2 hours on Friday, Sep. 2 to be at Save U More and hand out recycling information to customers.  This is the last time we will provide this service to the community in this form.

              Please let me know if you can help.  Those who volunteer decide the time that works best for them.

              This is truly an interesting "hands on" project that our club supports. 

               

              Thank you.

              Vivian (435-3903)
              Final opportunity to provide recycling education flyers on Friday, Sep 2 2016-08-30 08:00:00Z 0

              Our New Inbound Exchange Student Has Arrived!

              August 10th as small group of Rotarians and "Families" met to welcome our new inbound Rotary Exchange Student, Louise, at the Homer Airport.
               
              She's almost here!
               
              She's Here!!
               
              Louise came around the corner in the airport and saw...
               
              Flowers and Pins
               
              Outbound to France--Summer and Inbound from France--Louise
               
              The reception committee.
               
               
               
               
              Our New Inbound Exchange Student Has Arrived! 2016-08-22 08:00:00Z 0

              Hall of Fame Singer Donovan Becomes a Rotary Polio Ambassador

              Hall of Fame singer Donovan becomes a Rotary polio ambassador

              Hall of Fame folk singer and polio survivor Donovan recently became a Rotary polio ambassador.
              Photo Credit: Courtesy of Planet Earth Publicity

              Legendary singer and polio survivor Donovan Leitch, better known simply as Donovan, has joined Rotary in its fight to eradicate the paralyzing disease that afflicted him during much of his childhood.

              Donovan contracted polio at age three in Glasgow, Scotland. The disease weakened his right leg and left it thinner and shorter than the other. Confined to his bed for much of his childhood, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer said his father would read him poetry.

              In a recent , Donovan said that listening to poetry piqued his interest in creative writing. “If I hadn’t had that experience maybe I wouldn’t have gone on to write and sing my own songs for the past half a century.

              “I feel strongly that having a disability in one area makes you explore others instead. That was the case for me after having polio,” says Donovan, who recently became a Rotary polio ambassador.

              Donovan went on to record several hit albums and singles in the UK, United States, and other countries. His top singles include “Mellow Yellow” and “Hurdy Gurdy Man.” Donovan collaborated with The Beatles on songs including “Yellow Submarine” and has shared the stage with musical icons Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

              “Having had polio never held me back as I got older. Although having one leg smaller than the other isn’t much fun I could always get about without any trouble,” Donovan says. “Luckily in the music industry everyone was only interested in my singing and playing and not the size of my legs.”

              As a Rotary polio ambassador, Donovan will support the , a collaboration between Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland and the Royal Horticultural Society. The purple represents the colored dye that health workers use during immunization campaigns to mark the fingers of children who have received the polio vaccine.

              “It was very easy to join this campaign because I had polio, and I wanted to tell everybody that it’s almost eradicated around the world,” Donovan says. “This is very important. I want to help with that last push, which is always the hardest. ”

              Rotary News

              18-Aug-2016
              Hall of Fame Singer Donovan Becomes a Rotary Polio Ambassador 2016-08-22 08:00:00Z 0

              Boats Needed!

              So far we only have Yoshida, Olson and Early confirmed for boat captains for our Labor Day Event  in Halibut Cove.

               

              We need more boats.

               

              Please let me know if you are available to take your boat and how many Rotarians you can carry.

               

              That is Sunday September 4 in Halibut Cove at Mike and Shelli Gordon's.

               

              Email me at sminsch@alaska.net

               

              Thank you.

               

              Sharon.
              Boats Needed! 2016-08-22 08:00:00Z 0

              The Visionaries: Young Women in Peru Learn to See a Future for Themselves

              The visionaries: Young women in Peru learn to see a future for themselves

              Photo Credit: Christopher Carruth

              From the of The Rotarian

              It’s 3 a.m. on a Sunday, and Katheryne Rosa Barazorda Cuellar is up, preparing to work in her mother’s soup stall in the small Peruvian town of Anta, near the Inca capital of Cusco. Smart and seemingly indefatigable, she has a quick smile and infectious laugh.

              Rosa is studying to be a chemical engineer, and she has unmistakable talent and drive. She needs them. Poverty, gender bias, and violence darken the lives of many young Peruvian women, including her.

              Rosa is lucky, though. Her family supports her. And for the past four years,  so has Visionaria Perú – a Rotary Foundation-supported leadership and self-empowerment project in Peru’s Sacred Valley. Colorado Rotarians launched the summer program for adolescent girls with career and community-service aspirations. The project team hopes to generate measurably effective and sustainable empowerment projects worldwide. Peru is the first step on that ambitious journey. 

              In Peru, women suffer higher rates of poverty and unemployment than men. About 50 percent of Peruvian women in the Sacred Valley region, which lies outside Cusco, will suffer severe physical or sexual intimate-partner abuse during their lifetimes, the World Health Organization reports.

              Meanwhile, Peru’s environment suffers. Peruvians – particularly in rural areas – endure high levels of smoke from cooking over indoor fires. About 4 million of the country’s 30 million residents lack access to clean water.

              Untangling such a knot is difficult.

              In 2012, members of the Rotary Club of Boulder’s New Generations pilot satellite club came up with a plan to address all of those problems by concentrating on empowering local women – specifically in their ability to make and act upon their decisions.

              The town of Urubamba shares its name with the river that flows past shops, farms, and ramshackle buildings painted with candidate ballot symbols from the 2011 general election – a soccer ball, a mother and child, a purple striped potato, a traditional cap. Downstream, the river snakes far below the misty ruins of Machu Picchu and tumbles toward the Amazon River.

              Here, well-heeled tourists may drop $475 apiece – nearly the mean monthly salary in Peru – to ride the Hiram Bingham luxury train from Cusco to Machu Picchu. Visitors glide past squalid barrios where grandmothers bathe in ditches, children may breathe toxic indoor stove smoke, and dogs paw through piles of garbage, seeking food.

              On an early January morning in Urubamba’s La Quinta Eco Hotel, young women gather for a weeklong leadership training institute through Visionaria Perú. The girls – the team calls them visionarias (female visionary, in Spanish) – come from both the bucolic Andes and the noisy city. Most receive tutoring, scholarships, and other help from Peruvian nonprofits such as project partner Peruvian Hearts, which supports Rosa.

              Sitting in a circle, the young women each take a small piece of paper and write a fear they harbor. They put their paper in a hat, and each (anonymous) fear is read aloud and discussed. Genevieve Smith, a Rotarian and program director of Visionaria Perú, works with them to understand that shame and fear need not stifle their personal or professional growth.

              This “fears in a hat” exercise is one of the lessons taught during the institute, in which visionarias are coached on leadership skills, professional growth, environmental awareness, and self-esteem. The training follows a 150-page curriculum developed by Colorado Rotarians in partnership with local Peruvian professors and experts.

              “Before, I never really thought much about how I treated myself. I always used to tell myself  ‘You can’t’ and ‘You’re so stupid because you messed up,’ ” one participant says after the training. “But not now. Now I know I should treat myself better. And I know that when I fail, it’s just a chance to learn how to do something  better the next time around.”

              At the end of the institute, the visionarias form teams and enter one of three activism tracks: improved cookstoves, water and sanitation, or solar lighting. The activism tracks give participants the chance to exercise their skills by working on sustainable development projects they envision and carry out from beginning to end.

              Members of the Rotary Club of Cusco attend portions of the leadership institute to review and provide feedback on the girls’ community project plans. They also participate during implementation of the projects and attend the final celebration to review and support the girls’ achievements. A mentor and local NGOs assist each team in project planning and implementation, and Rotary Foundation-supported vocational training team members such as Smith participate.

              The project started in 2012 when Smith, then a Rotaractor, was in Peru through her studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and visited a hogar (home for girls) supported by Peruvian Hearts. There, she asked the girls what kind of support they would need as they got older. She found out that while the students in Peruvian Hearts’ college prep program were smart and qualified to attend a university, they lacked confidence and felt discriminated against because of their indigenous, and often troubled, backgrounds. Smith crafted a project plan to support the girls by the time her bus took her back to where she was staying.

              Marika Meertens, a Rotarian with experience at Engineers Without Borders, pitched the Peru project to the Rotary Club of Boulder’s New Generations members. And Abigale Stangl, who has been working alongside one of her instructors at the University of Colorado to produce metrics that show how well the project works, “got on board as soon I heard about the project,” she recalls.

              The trio is the driving force behind the project. They assumed roles reflecting their strengths: Smith with planning, Meertens in fundraising (including two global grants totaling $55,000 from The Rotary Foundation), Stangl with project evaluation.

              Evaluating the annual program design and execution is one thing. “Measuring empowerment is a different kind of challenge,” Stangl says.

              In four years, 55 visionarias have installed 62 cleaner cookstoves, sold 61 water filters and 75 solar lanterns, and addressed 145 students in workshops. Some 1,640 individuals have been touched by this work, Visionaria Perú calculates. Visionarias themselves report positive results in their own lives: 80 percent said participating in Visionaria Perú improved their status in their communities, and 100 percent agreed or strongly agreed that the program improved their capacity to imagine and create change in their lives and the lives of others. “The program helped me a lot because I had visions and goals, but I did not feel capable in making decisions,” says one girl in an assessment. “Now I am capable of making decisions and taking risks for my life.”

              Peruvian Rotarians are preparing to take full control of the project once Rotary funding ends this year. Flavio Miraval, past president of the Rotary Club of Cusco, is working to form a nongovernmental organization to carry on the work. Colorado Rotarians have sought local input every step of the way, including cultural adaptation of lesson plans, involvement by local NGOs, and adjusting the program to fit participants’ priorities. That transfer back to local control, the final objective of the Rotary project, is what the group means when it speaks of “sustainability” and is an important component of any vocational training team project.

              With all metrics in hand, Colorado Rotarians want to replicate the empowerment program for women in other countries and continents. Since 2014, the team has conducted empowerment, leadership, and business training in 10 countries, including Bolivia, Kenya, India, Uganda, and Guatemala, with funding from USAID, German partner GIZ, and the United Nations Foundation.

              The team recently launched Visionaria programs in two Peruvian schools and plans to expand throughout the country. It is designing a mobile-friendly online platform to allow visionarias to share their visions with one another. This team doesn’t think small.

              Meanwhile, Rosa believes she will find a good job in chemical engineering “with perseverance and with my sacrifice.” Getting to the university in Cusco is a four-hour trip several times a week, but the time she has put in has borne fruit: She just completed an internship at a top laboratory in Lima, Peru’s capital. That lab offered her a chance to pursue her thesis work this fall. She works hard but is grateful. She is quick to credit Peruvian Hearts for its steadfast support.

              And she praises Visionaria Perú, which helps “us to believe more in what we may be able to achieve each day, empower us, and give us strength to achieve our dreams.”

              But the young Rotarians behind Visionaria Perú believe that such power and strength existed all along and that their work to unleash adolescent girls’ powerful visions has only begun.

              The Rotarian

              28-Jul-2016
              The Visionaries: Young Women in Peru Learn to See a Future for Themselves 2016-08-10 08:00:00Z 0

              Governor Walker Visits Rotary in Homer

              August 2nd, the Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club was invited to the meeting of the Homer Downtown Rotary Club at a special place and with a very special guest.  The Homer Downtown Club invited Governor Walker to speak at their meeting and changed the venue to the Quarterdeck at Land's End Resort...and they invited us, too!  It was great.  The main thrust of the Governor's talk was that Alaska is in desperate straits, financially, and that we will all have to pull together to ensure Alaska's financial future.  It will not be easy.  For those of us who were here before 1969, it looks like we will have to go back to the old days.  For those who came after Alaska's oil windfall, we will need to plan on a much tighter belt, and the way it looks, no-one will be happy with what needs to be done to balance the budget.  In short, we need to look at cuts and taxes in the future, and that future is already here.
               
              State Representative Paul Seaton introduces Governor Walker
               
              Governor Bill Walker speaks to Rotarians from both Homer Area Clubs
               
              Thanks to Maynard for the pictures
              Governor Walker Visits Rotary in Homer 2016-08-08 08:00:00Z 0

              Defibrillators: What, Where, and How

              Did you know that every Homer Police vehicle on duty has a defibrillator?  Did you know that there are AT LEAST 15 Public Access defibrillators available in Homer?  Did you know that the State Troopers have to go to their Post in Anchor Point to have access to a defibrillator?  Most of us did not, but that is the way it is.  Samantha Cunningham was kind enough to give us very useful information on the use of Public Access defibrillators, which tend to be quite a bit different than those that medical professionals use.  We also found out that the Alaska State Troopers do NOT have defibrillators in their vehicles.  Twelve years ago they did, but apparently the money to maintain them was never appropriated.  Batteries and other needed supplies are relatively short lived, so those defibrillators are no longer available.  The only defibrillator available to Troopers is required to be left at the Post in Anchor Point until it needs to be used, when a Trooper can take it to the site where it is needed.  That can be 50 miles one way.
               
              Part of the reason she come to our Club is that Samantha is attempting to raise funds to equip the Trooper's vehicles with defibrillators and provide for their maintenance.  Each Unit will cost about $1500.  More on that at a later date.
               
               
              Samantha Cunningham introduces Defibrillators to the Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club.
               
              And this is a Public Access Defibrillator...
               
              Just follow the directions--this is where the pads go...
               
              The machine tells you where to FIND the pads...
               
              Where to PUT the pads...
               
              And what to do next....
               
              Including when to STOP.
               
               
              Defibrillators: What, Where, and How 2016-08-08 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotarian Nancy Dodge Talks About Shelterboxes

              Rotarian Nancy Dodge came to our meeting and talked about what the Shelterbox Program and Shelterboxes are.  Since we purchased our first Shelterbox in 2001, the Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club has, in some way, purchased or arranged the purchase of at least one Shelterbox each year!  New to the program are different types of shelters for different climates, the ability to send only what is needed, etc. For example, Haiti did not need tents, but needed blankets. Shelterbox sent 10,000 blankets.  Some major changes and really good ones!  Visit www.shelterbox.org for more information.
               
              Rotarian Nancy Dodge Talks About Shelterboxes 2016-08-08 08:00:00Z 0

              FUN Happened at the Rotary Picnic at Peterson Bay!

              The weather broke for a day which helped to make the Rotary picnic a great success.  Hartley's cabin was loaded with lots of people, kids of all ages, (much to Sherrie's delight) and lots of food.  When we arrived, the tide was low and Sherrie handed out packets of beach exploration materials for the kids (and adults).  She also set up a bead stringing table that got plenty of use by the kids.  A real variety of delicious food was brought over by the Rotarians and the barbecues and fire pit was busy producing hamburgers, hot dogs, buns (Roger's toasting job) and S' Mores the day a great success.

               

              According to Bob Hartley there were almost (or about) 60 people at the picnic, including a whole "horde" of kids.  Talk about a big smile when Bob was talking about the picnic!

               

               

               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Thanks to Tom, Dee, Vivian, and Maynard for the pictures!
               
               
              FUN Happened at the Rotary Picnic at Peterson Bay! 2016-07-27 08:00:00Z 0

              Family: The New Parent Trap

              Family: The new parent trap

              Illustration by Dave Cutler

              From the of The Rotarian

              When my wife, Erin, first got pregnant, we did what almost every newly expectant couple does: We enrolled in a childbirth class. Every Thursday night, we wandered down to the musty basement of a nearby hospital, where a cheerful woman named Susan offered us first-time parents a graphic account of all the joyous terrors to come.

              At 39, I expected to be the senior member of the group. In fact, at least five dads appeared older than me. One guy in particular, mostly bald and hobbled by a balky knee, looked to be in his 50s. He never wanted to sit on the floor for the breathing exercises, because, he joked, he feared he might never be able to get back up. Erin and I initially (and erroneously) took him to be the baby’s grandfather.

              A decade has passed since we took that class, but I still sometimes think about that old dad, no doubt because I am now 49 years old and find myself, rather unexpectedly, with a toddler, in addition to a nine- and a seven-year-old.

              Not surprisingly, I live in what probably ranks as ground zero for older parents: a suburb of Boston where folks tend to pursue advanced degrees and promotions before starting families. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly a third of all babies in Massachusetts are born to women 35 or older. As a rule, the dads are even older.

              This pattern is obvious in neighborhoods like mine. My dad neighbors are in their late 30s or 40s. Like me, they tend to emerge on weekends clutching giant mugs of coffee and looking sleep-deprived.

              What’s harder to see is the subtle but dramatic demographic shift taking place all across America. In 1970, the average age of a new mother was 21. Today, it’s almost 26. The age of first-time fathers is inching toward 30. And while birth rates are slumping generally, among people over 40, they’re actually on the rise.

              Sociologists even have a name for us: the sandwich generation. The idea is that we’re sandwiched between the needs of small children and elderly parents.

              To be perfectly clear: I could not be more thrilled to have become a father to three beautiful children. In many respects, I’m glad I delayed having kids. I’m more financially and emotionally stable, a good deal calmer, and probably more realistic about my limitations than I was at 30 or 35.

              But there are aspects of raising children at this, uh, advanced age that have come as a rude shock. The most obvious is that our parents have been aging right along with us.

              In late June 2013, our youngest daughter, Rosalie, was born. Two days later, my brother called to inform me that my mother was in an intensive care unit. She had fallen and gone into a delirium.

              I immediately flew to California, leaving my very tired wife with a newborn and two other young children. Her parents were one state away, but they had health problems of their own that made travel difficult.

              The delirium was an acute episode, from which my mom recovered. But her fight against cancer, which began seven years ago, has been ongoing. It hasn’t stopped her from being a loving and attentive grandma. But it has created a certain mood of anxiety around our recent visits.

              Erin and I know that our children are lucky to have four engaged and adoring grandparents. But they are all in their late 60s and 70s, and they are all battling various chronic illnesses. But even without this looming heartbreak, we still face a daunting task: the physical rigors of raising children at an age more often associated with grandparenting.

              My patient and optimistic wife reminds me that our children will keep us young. And I very much want to agree with her. But on dark days (as, say, when bending over to change Rosalie sends a shooting pain down the back of my legs), I torture myself by calculating how old I’ll be when my youngest enters kindergarten (52), learns to drive (63), and graduates from college (69).

              My age has become something of a joke around our house. “Don’t worry, Papa,” nine-year-old Josie will tell me, “when you can no longer walk us to school, we’ll get you a wheelchair.”

              I appreciate her good humor, of course. But a real sense of shame is lurking beneath my laughter. After all, when I was Josie’s age, my dad was leading my brothers and me up steep trails in the Sierra Nevada and coaching my soccer practices, not stretching his hamstrings on the living room rug and popping Advils.

              I don’t want my children to see me as invulnerable or immortal. But I feel haunted by the notion that I may be a burden to them at precisely the moment when they are leaving the nest and making their own way in the world.

              Even if I remain in exceptionally good health, it’s hard to imagine that I’ll be the kind of active grandparent that I, for instance, had growing up. In fact, if our children wait as long as we did to have kids, there’s no guarantee that we’ll get to meet our grandchildren at all.

              I don’t mean any of this to be depressing. I’m simply trying to face the reality of a parenthood that begins so much later than in previous generations.

              In some sense, we’re in uncharted territory as a society. Who can gauge the impact of parents in their 50s raising teenagers, for example, especially given the ways in which technology is transforming youth culture?

              A silly but illuminating example: My seven-year-old, Judah, often visits me in my office, which is decorated with manual typewriters. A few weeks ago he asked me what “the machines with all the letters” were for.

              I explained that they were used to write with before computers came along. “I had that one all the way through college,” I told him, pointing at my beloved Royal.

              He looked at me with an expression of indulgent incredulity. “Seriously,” he said. “What are they really for?”

              As you may have figured out by now, I can get pretty grumpy about all this when I let myself go. Erin has a healthier outlook. “What matters isn’t our age or our energy level,” she tells me. “It’s our ability to appreciate and love.”

              This may be the one overarching attribute to being an older parent: It has renewed my sense of wonder and gratitude at the human arrangement.

              Choosing to have a child is, after all, the most audaciously hopeful thing you can do. It’s the kind of decision you can’t make based on age or ease. It has to be driven by a deep desire to enact your love regardless of the inconveniences.

              As an older parent, I do live closer to my own frailty and mortality. I’m more fatigued, day to day, and more aware of all that can and will go wrong down the line. But on most days, this perspective has the rescuing effect of making me more humble, more present, and more grateful for the blessed moments we have.

              Steve Almond is a regular contributor and the author of books including Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto.

              The Rotarian

              1-Jun-2016
              Family: The New Parent Trap 2016-07-27 08:00:00Z 0

              Peterson Bay Picnic July 23, 2016

              Peterson Bay Picnic
              July 23, 2016
               
              Unless we have some extreme weather conditions the Peterson Bay Family Picnic is a go for Saturday, July 23. We hope it will be a fun and positive experience for the entire family. Following are a few thoughts and considerations about our picnic across the bay:
               
              1)   The beach and trail conditions in Peterson Bay are rocky, slippery and uneven. Please wear sturdy shoes and take care when navigating the area. We are hoping for sun but bringing rain gear is advised.
              2)   The house and grounds are located on a cliff above the beach and special attention should be paid to children navigating the stairs and stair decks.
              3)   The beach, yard and hillside are open to play and exploration, however all children and adults are to stay away from the cliff area.   
              4)    All children must be under direct parental supervision at all times!
               
               
              Water, crystal light, ice and coffee will be provided at the picnic site. In addition to the salads, sides and desserts guests are bringing to the picnic Rotarians will also be grilling hamburgers and hot dogs provided by the Rotary. If you wish something different to eat or drink please feel free to bring it to the party.
               
              Please follow Sharon’s directions for loading the boats … 10:00 AM Departure from the boat launch ramp. Be there NO LATER THAN 9:45 AM, please.
               
              See you on Saturday … we look forward to lots of laughter and good cheer no matter what the weather, but sunshine would be great!!!
              Peterson Bay Picnic July 23, 2016 2016-07-21 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Board Meeting

              The Board of Directors of the Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club will meet July 26, 2016 at Sharon Minsch's office on East End Road near Paul Banks School.  All members are invited and welcome!.  This will be the first meeting for the 2016-2017 Board!
              Rotary Board Meeting 2016-07-20 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Picnic at Peterson Bay!

               
              For those of you who are shy, or have just plain forgotten, or .....!  Don't forget the Rotary Picnic at Peterson Bay on Saturday, July 23rd.  Those who are looking for a ride, the boats leave at 10:00 AM from the Load and Launch Ramp in Homer Harbor.  I would recommend being there by 9:30 AM so you don't miss out.  If you haven't already signed up, Dee Cline or Sherrie Hartley have a sign-up list.  Plan on $5 to help with the gas.
               
              This is a FAMILY event, and children are welcome.  If you need a child's life jacket, please let Craig know, or borrow one from the Kid's Don't Float boxes around the harbor.  We can also provide directions for those who have never been there.
               
              We'll head back to Homer at about 2:30 PM.
               
              Let's all have some fun!
               
              Craig's phone number is 907-299-0232
              Rotary Picnic at Peterson Bay! 2016-07-20 08:00:00Z 0

              Altruism: Individual Serving

              Altruism: Individual serving

              Illustration by Dave Cutler

              From the of The Rotarian

              The sun rises on a new school day. In rural Ganguli, India, 450 students climb aboard school buses. Five years ago they couldn’t have gone to school because the distance from their village was too far to walk.

              In San Agustín, Ecuador, students used to attend classes in the town morgue when it rained, because their school had no roof. Since 2012, hundreds of children there have learned to read and write in a real classroom.

              Quietly orchestrating these and other projects was Vasanth Prabhu, a member of the Rotary Club of Central Chester County (Lionville), Pa. When he was growing up in India, education was not free, and he saw how hard his father worked to pay for schooling for eight children. Understanding how school can change a person’s life keeps Prabhu working to provide education to those with no access to it, he says.

              “I feel that everyone is a diamond in the rough,” he says. “But it must be cut and polished to show its brilliance.” So instead of spending his money on luxuries, he is using it to bring out that brilliance.

              There are three ways we can deal with enormous problems and our emotional responses to them. We can let them overcome us until we feel too paralyzed to act. We can bury our heads in the sand. Or we can act. And when we help others, we often find that we benefit as well.

              “Taking action allows me to exercise passion,” Prabhu says, “to give it a good place to go.”

              James Doty, director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University, wrote Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart. “We’re adapted to recognize suffering and pain; for us to respond is hard-wired into our brain’s pleasure centers,” says Doty. “We receive oxytocin or dopamine bursts that result in increased blood flow to our reward centers. In short, we feel good when we help.”

              Caring for others brings other benefits, too. “When we engage in activities that help, it also results in lowering our blood pressure and heart rate,” he notes. Research shows that it can help us live longer. And the good deeds we do can inspire others.

              On the flip side, Doty says, “People can create mistrust or fear by implying that another group is threatening our safety. When that happens, fear or anxiety makes us want to withdraw into our own group and not care for others. Hormones are released that are detrimental to long-term health. But generally speaking, most people will be kind and compassionate to other people.”

              For years, Peggy Callahan has told stories that are hard to hear. A documentary producer covering social justice issues, she’s also a co-founder of two nonprofits working to help people who are enslaved or caught in human trafficking. But perhaps paradoxically, her difficult work brings her happiness, and, thanks to neuroscience research, she understands why. “When you do an act of good, you get a neurotransmitter ‘drop’ in your brain that makes you happy,” she says. And there’s a multiplier effect: “Someone who witnesses that act also experiences that, and remembering that act makes it happen all over again.” She wondered how she could leverage that.

              The result was Anonymous Good, a virtual community and website where people post stories or photos of acts of kindness they’ve carried out, observed, or received. For each act posted, website sponsors make a donation to feed the hungry, free people who are enslaved, plant a tree for cleaner air, or dig a well for clean water.

              “One act of good is much more than simply one act of good,” says Callahan. “It’s part of a much bigger force.”

              Like Prabhu and Callahan, P.J. Maddox – a member of the Rotary Club of Dunn Loring-Merrifield, Va. – has felt the joy of tackling issues that seem too big to face. Rotary projects she has supported include funding a nurse-led clinic in war-ravaged rural Nicaragua. She has also mentored and made a Youth Exchange trip possible for a student otherwise unable to participate because of hardships at home.

              “Some problems are so complicated and huge, it could be easy to say, ‘Why bother?’” Maddox says. “But in addition to Rotary’s power of collective talents to make something happen, I realized that the outcome of these projects wouldn’t have been what they were if I wasn’t there. I realized that a single human being can change the world.”

              As the sun sets around the globe – as students in India head back home on the school bus, as pupils in Ecuador close their books for the day, and as people in many places are well-fed, free, and happy – the world looks a little different. Because one individual extended a hand, there are people newly ready to change the world tomorrow.

              Carol Hart Metzker is the author of Facing the Monster: How One Person Can Fight Child Slavery and a member of the E-Club of One World D5240.

              The Rotarian

              1-Jun-2016
              Altruism: Individual Serving 2016-07-12 08:00:00Z 0

              A Gift from Summer

              A thank you gift from Summer McGwire, one of our Outbound Rotary Exchange Students, who is actually being sponsored by the Seward Rotary Club.
               
               
              A Gift from Summer 2016-07-12 08:00:00Z 0

              Karoline Heads Home

              Monday, June 11th saw the day that our 2015-2016 Rotary Exchange Student, Karoline, departed for home.  It was both a happy and a sad occasion.  Happy because she gets to go back home and be with her friends and family, and sad because she, as one of our finest exchange students and an absolutely wonderful person and Rotary Ambassador, is going out of our lives, at least for a time.  We wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors, and hope to see you again!
               
              Karoline and Summer, one of next year's Outbound Exchange Students at Homer Airport.
               
              Karoline, in her "Southeast Alaska Sneakers" (xTraTufs) says goodbye.
               
              That darn ticket would have to pick NOW to hide!
               
              Bye, Bye!
               
              Have a Wonderful Trip!
               
               
              Karoline Heads Home 2016-07-12 08:00:00Z 0

              What You Don't Know About the Campaign to End Polio

              What you don’t know about the campaign to end polio

              Photo Credit: Khaula Jamil

              From the of The Rotarian

              When was the last time there was polio in Europe? If you guessed 2002, the year the region was certified polio-free, you were wrong. The last time polio affected a child in Europe was last summer. In 2015, two Ukrainian children were diagnosed with paralytic polio, and, given the way the disease manifests itself, that means many more were likely infected and didn’t show symptoms. At least one Western news outlet deemed the outbreak “crazy” – but the reality is that no place on earth is safe from polio until the disease is eradicated everywhere.

              Ukraine had fully vaccinated only 50 percent of its children against polio, and low immunization rates are a recipe for an outbreak. In this case, a rare mutation in the weakened strain used in the oral polio vaccine was able to spread because so many children had not been vaccinated. To stop it from progressing, the country needed to administer 5 million to 6 million vaccines through an emergency program. But as recently as March, Ukraine’s ability to do so remained in question.

              Finding the occasional case of polio outside Afghanistan and Pakistan, the only countries that have yet to eradicate it, is not unusual. In 2014, just before the World Cup brought travelers from all over the planet to Brazil, the country identified poliovirus in the sewage system at São Paulo’s Viracopos International Airport. Using genetic testing, officials traced its origin to Equatorial Guinea. Brazil’s regular vaccination efforts kept the disease from showing up beyond the airport doors.

              Those are frustrating examples for the thousands of people around the world working to eradicate polio. The fight has come a long way, but it is far from over. And while many involved in the effort say we may detect the final naturally occurring case of polio this year, getting to that point – and ensuring that the disease remains gone – will continue to require money, hard work, and the support of Rotarians around the world.

              Finding polio

              One of the most important aspects of the fight to eradicate polio is detecting where the disease is present. This continuous surveillance is complicated and costly. Ninety percent of people infected with the virus show no symptoms, and those who do usually have mild symptoms such as fever, fatigue, and headaches. Only one in every 200 cases of the illness results in paralysis, which means that for every child with signs of paralysis, several hundred are carrying the disease and may not show it.

              But not every case of paralysis is caused by polio. Other viruses that can be responsible for the polio-like symptoms known as acute flaccid paralysis include Japanese encephalitis, West Nile, Guillain-Barré, and Zika. To determine if a patient has polio, doctors must collect a stool specimen and send it to a lab for testing.

              To find the patients who don’t present symptoms or don’t make it to a clinic, Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) – the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – have set up environmental sampling in the areas that are most susceptible to the disease. Fifteen to 20 countries are still at high risk despite having eradicated the illness. Because the poliovirus is most easily detected, and most easily contracted, through stool, researchers take samples from sewage systems and, in places that don’t have sewer infrastructure, from rivers and open gutters.

              GPEI has developed a network of 145 laboratories around the world that can identify the disease, and Rotary has played a leading role in supporting these facilities. But regular environmental surveillance is “logistically not so easy to do and it’s relatively expensive. It adds a considerable burden to the labs to process the sewage samples,” says Stephen Cochi, senior adviser to the director, Global Immunization Division, at the CDC. “It costs real money to keep that network operational, and this lab network is the most highly sophisticated, state-of-the-art infectious-disease network in the world. Rotarians should be proud of that – it’s the No. 1 network, bar none.”

              As part of this system of labs, Rotary has helped fund smaller, more sophisticated local laboratories that are trying to keep track of the complicated genetic variations of the disease. These labs genetically test the poliovirus to follow how it changes as it spreads. All viruses mutate to confuse the human immune system, but the poliovirus is notorious for doing so at a rapid rate. This makes it easier to track the virus’s genetic changes, though the process, vital to the eradication effort, is expensive and will need continued funding. It was these specialized laboratories that allowed Brazilian authorities to trace the virus they found at their airport to Equatorial Guinea.

              “Each virus has a fingerprint,” says Cochi, and that is an essential tool for monitoring how the virus is moving around the world.

              Vigilance is key to successful surveillance, says Michel Zaffran, director of polio eradication at WHO. “We need to go and investigate a case of paralysis, take specimens, and analyze it. This level of vigilance needs to continue in all of the places that no longer have polio to make sure we are really without polio. This is a hidden cost to the program that people don’t realize is absolutely necessary to maintain.”

              Vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate

              The appearance of polio in Ukraine last year is a perfect example of why vaccination campaigns are essential – and not only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Large-scale vaccinations are an enormous undertaking that require money as well as thousands of volunteers on the ground. And in places where the vaccination programs have been successful, the challenge is now to locate and vaccinate that small percentage of children who have been missed.

              The vaccine itself isn’t the biggest expense in a vaccination campaign (in fact, Rotary rarely funds vaccines). It’s the distribution of the vaccine – transportation and staffing, for example – that costs so much. In January, money donated by Rotarians covered the costs of a Cameroun vaccination campaign that involved 34,000 vaccinators and 21,000 rental cars, which volunteers used to canvass neighborhoods and travel from home to home administering the vaccine. Funds also went to more than 3,700 town criers and 45 radio spots in Chad, to more than 14,000 local guides and 500 clan leaders to ensure that the children of nomads were vaccinated in Ethiopia, and to provide training and support for 60,000 community volunteer vaccinators in Afghanistan.

              “I think sometimes people don’t realize the scale of what these immunization campaigns are actually like,” says International PolioPlus Committee Chair Michael K. McGovern. “Rotary and its partners have administered 15 billion doses since 2000. We’ve immunized 2.5 billion kids. Repeatedly reaching the kids to raise their immunization levels is very personnel intensive.”

              A vaccination campaign is almost mind-bogglingly complex. Rotarians’ contributions  pay for planning by technical experts, large-scale communication efforts to make people aware of the benefits of vaccinations and the dates of the campaign, and support for volunteers to go door to door in large cities as well as in remote areas that may not appear on any map. It sometimes includes overcoming local distrust of government or outsiders and negotiating complicated religious doctrine. And it means trying to understand the movements of nomadic populations or people pushed out of their homes because of unrest. Regardless of how they live their lives, each of these children must be vaccinated. GPEI has addressed some of these issues by setting up vaccination points in highly trafficked transit areas such as train stations or bus depots.

              “In northern Nigeria, for example, when there’s unrest, the population tends to move out of dangerous areas,” says WHO’s Zaffran. “So we monitor carefully when a certain area is accessible and when it is not. If Boko Haram was present, we wouldn’t vaccinate, but the minute it was a more quiet situation we’d do a hit and run – a vaccinate and run. Go in for a short time and get out.”

              GPEI creates detailed logistical blueprints for vaccination teams, which are constantly refined to ensure that every child is reached. In a process called social mapping, health care workers meet with residents of remote or conflict areas and ask them to draw their area, comparing it with maps and other data to try to find settlements that may have been missed. On top of the challenge of discovering previously unknown villages or the difficulty in ensuring that every house in a city has been visited by volunteers, there’s the complicated task of negotiating the religious or cultural beliefs that might prevent people from agreeing to be vaccinated. This is one of the areas in which Rotary has excelled, as local Rotarians have taken on the task of helping to vaccinate their neighbors.

              According to Reza Hossaini, UNICEF’s chief of polio eradication efforts, vaccinators on the ground have developed relationships with local leaders to identify what local people want and need. These relationships have built enough trust to overcome the “hard-core resistance” that vaccinators have met with in the past. But this level of detail in understanding the psychological reasons that a community would be averse to vaccinating requires scientific, technological, and social skill as well as finding vaccinators who meet the specific needs of each community.

              After the last case


              Even if the last case of polio is identified this year, a huge amount of work will remain to ensure that it stays gone.

              Vaccinations will continue and need to be funded. In the areas where polio still exists and many of the areas where it has recently been eradicated, the vaccines contain a weakened live version of the virus, which is much more effective than a killed virus at protecting communities from outbreaks, creating what is known as herd immunity. It’s also less expensive to manufacture and distribute and, because it is given orally, much easier to administer than the inactivated, injectable polio vaccine (IPV).

              But, while vaccine with live virus has reduced polio by more than 99.9 percent, it carries a small risk. The weakened live virus inside a vaccine can, rarely, mutate back to a virulent form. Where vaccination coverage is low, it can reinfect populations, even in countries that have been certified polio-free, such as Ukraine. To prevent this, once the virus has been certified eradicated, all of the live-virus vaccine around the world will be destroyed and replaced with IPV, which does not contain the live virus. This vaccine will be distributed, and trained health care workers will perform injections, a process that has already begun. The polio-fighting community will still need to vaccinate hundreds of millions of children every year until the world is certified polio-free. By that time, polio vaccinations will have become part of routine immunization programs around the world.

              Once the final case of polio is recorded, it will take three years to ensure that the last case is, in fact, the final one. That means that if the final case is seen this year, all of these programs will continue to need funding and volunteers until 2019, at a price tag of $1.5 billion that will be funded by governments and donors such as Rotary. That’s in addition to the more than $1.5 billion Rotarians have contributed to the cause so far.

              “We are so close. We’ve got a 99.9 percent reduction in polio. But we’re not there yet,” says John Sever, a vice chair of Rotary’s International PolioPlus Committee, who has been part of the eradication effort since the beginning. “Rotarians and others have to keep working. People will naturally say, ‘Well, it seems to be basically gone so let’s move on to other things,’ but the fact is it isn’t gone, and if we move on and don’t complete the job, we set ourselves up for having the disease come right back.”

              “Rotary was there at the beginning,” McGovern says. “It would be unfortunate if Rotary isn’t there at the finish line. We’ve done too much, we’ve made too much progress to walk away before we finish.”

              The Rotarian

              16-Jun-2016
              What You Don't Know About the Campaign to End Polio 2016-07-06 08:00:00Z 0

              John Germ: Champion of Chattanooga

              John Germ: Champion of Chattanooga

              Photo Credit: Rotary International / Alyce Henson

              From the of The Rotarian

              Just before John Germ dropped by, Rick Youngblood took a deep breath. “You want to match his energy,” he says, “but he makes it hard to keep up.” Youngblood is the president and CEO of Blood Assurance, a regional blood bank in Chattanooga, Tenn., that Germ helped found in 1972. After his visit with Youngblood, Germ strode between mountains of empty bottles and cans at Chattanooga’s John F. Germ Recycling Center at Orange Grove, which he designed, before he drove to a construction site and popped a cork to dedicate a Miracle League field where special needs children will play baseball – all before zipping to the airport for a flight to Chicago and a cab ride to Rotary International World Headquarters, where he takes office as president of RI this month.

              Why the breakneck pace? “I don’t have hobbies,” he says. “Civic work is my recreation.”

              Not long ago Germ, 77, spent a raucous evening at the Chattanooga Convention Center, enjoying jokes at his expense. “John is a very influential person,” his friend Harry Fields announced from the podium. “I can’t tell you how many people emulate him … at Halloween. I mean, he’s the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome. When it’s dark, he’s handsome!” Nobody laughed harder than the guest of honor at the celebration of his contributions, which was referred to as the “roast of John Germ.” The dinner raised more than $75,000 for Chattanooga State Community College. In closing, Fields noted Germ’s contribution to his community and the world: “100 percent of himself – and everyone else he can shake down!”

              A legendary fundraiser, Germ led Rotary’s $200 Million Challenge, an effort sparked by a challenge grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Rotarians ultimately exceeded that number, raising $228.7 million to fight polio. He has already served Rotary as vice president and director, and The Rotary Foundation as vice chair and trustee. His contributions to the fight to eradicate polio led to his selection as one of 12 U.S. Rotarians honored at the White House in 2013 as a “Champion of Change” – someone who has improved communities around the world. As president, Germ chose three simple, no-nonsense words to be the theme of his year: Rotary Serving Humanity.

              “Rotary has kept its light under a bushel for too long,” he says. “We need to do a better job of promoting our cause. That’s the challenge ahead, but I don’t see it as a problem. I don’t believe in problems – I believe in opportunities.”

              The son of a stonemason, who built the family home with his own hands, excavating its foundation with a shovel and a wheelbarrow, Germ developed his work ethic early in life. Nothing came easily. Other schoolboys made fun of his name – “they called me ‘Bacteria’ ” – and his parents couldn’t afford college tuition. After a stint in vocational school, he paid his way through the University of Tennessee at Knoxville by working in a machine shop and serving food in a dorm cafeteria. After graduating, he joined the U.S. Air Force. Soon promoted to captain, he was navigator on a 50-ton Douglas C-124, ferrying troops and tanks to Vietnam. “Unfortunately,” he says, “we flew home with soldiers’ bodies.” In 1965 Germ’s C-124 carried the Gemini IV space capsule to Cape Kennedy. On another mission, the giant plane lost two engines and skimmed the ocean, shaking like a bumper car all the way back to base. “When we landed, we found seaweed hanging off the fuselage,” he says. “That’s how close we came to a watery grave.”

              When Germ’s military service ended, he joined engineering firm Campbell & Associates in his hometown. His boss, George Campbell, liked the young flier’s can-do attitude. “Within 10 years,” Germ told him, “I’ll either own some of this company or I’ll be your biggest competitor.” He wasn’t wrong. He eventually became chairman and CEO of the firm, which went on to serve Chattanooga’s airport, its most prominent hospital, several downtown high-rises, and the Convention Center. One of his challenges was a new cineplex, where the owner gave him a warning that puzzled him at first: “Don’t make the air conditioning too good.”

              Germ asked, “Why not?”

              “Because the customers need to smell the popcorn; we make most of our money at the concession stand.”

              As president, Germ wants to “find the popcorn smell that’ll bring people to Rotary. And what is that? Service. We’ve got a service-minded generation coming up. We’ve got to get our message out to them, and we’d better do it fast.”

              Part of that message, he says, is that polio hasn’t been eradicated yet. We may be “this close,” but there were still 74 cases worldwide last year (all in Pakistan and Afghanistan). His own father was struck with the disease as an adult. “We were on a fishing trip when my brother said, ‘Daddy can’t walk,’” Germ recalls. “We carried him back to the car. Doctors said he’d never stand up again, but he did exercises. He tied an iron weight to his leg and tried to lift it. Little by little he got to where he could lift that weight and wave it around. He walked with a limp after that, but he walked.” Germ thinks he inherited a little of his father’s stubbornness. “I don’t give up easily either,” he says.

              He’s certainly not giving up on supporting polio eradication – and he’s calling on Rotarians to follow his lead by urging every Rotary club to give at least $2,650 to fight polio during his term, which is also The Rotary Foundation’s centennial year. The number commemorates the first donation – of $26.50, made by the Rotary Club of Kansas City, Mo., in 1917 – to the Foundation. During the 2017 Rotary International Convention, a birthday celebration is also planned for Arch Klumph with tickets costing $26.50. If that all sounds a little gimmicky, fine. “If we can get people to pay attention,” Germ says, “they’ll see that Rotary is doing great things in the world.”

              While preparing for his presidential term, he stayed in touch with friends and allies – often from the nerve center of his world, a maroon leather La-Z-Boy recliner in his comfortable home on the Tennessee River. He designed the house himself. He hangs corncobs on the poplars out back to feed the squirrels that run around his porch. His desk holds a photo of Germ dressed as Elvis Presley, entertaining at a district conference, and a plaque his wife brought home from the local Hobby Lobby. The plaque reads, “Integrity is doing the right thing when no one else is watching.” “It made me think of John,” says Judy Germ.

              Since her husband of 57 years became president-elect last fall, “Rotary has consumed our lives,” she says. “In a good way.”

              His presidency marks the apex of a life devoted to service. Previously active in the Jaycees, Germ joined the Rotary Club of Chattanooga in 1976. A natural leader and inveterate schmoozer, he has set fundraising records for Rotary and other organizations. The Blood Assurance program grew from a single blood draw into a regional network that supplies over 70 health centers in the Southeast with more than 100,000 units a year. It began when the United Way sent three doctors to the Chattanooga Jaycees to seek help with a blood shortage, recalls Germ’s friend and co-founder of Blood Assurance, Dan Johnson. “John was the Jaycees president and I was treasurer, so I got to watch him in action,” Johnson says. “When he goes to work, he never looks back. From nothing, we grew to our current budget of $29 million.” With help from Germ, Johnson, and others, Blood Assurance got its message out: Donating a pint of blood is a painless way to spend 30 minutes and save three lives.

              “We owe much of our success to John Germ,” says Youngblood. “To me, he epitomizes three aspects of leadership: He’s a gentleman at all times, he’s compassionate to all people, and he’s an achiever. If John can’t get something done, it probably can’t be done.”

              According to Fields, Germ’s success as a fundraiser comes from his out-of-the-box thinking. “Go back to the ’90s, when he was district governor. People thought of him as Mr. Chattanooga. We bought a barrel of Jack Daniel’s whiskey in honor of [well-known Tennessee Rotarian] Bill Sergeant. A barrel is 266 bottles’ worth, so we gave one bottle from that barrel to anyone who donated $1,000, and we raised $250,000.” The two men have often tended bar for charity, wearing matching aprons marked “Bar” and “Tender.” “My friend John is my greatest hero,” says Fields.

              At the recycling plant Germ converted from a run-down dairy in 1989, adults with developmental disabilities sort tons of recyclables into great stacks of bottles and cans. “He has been involved in every bit of what happens here, from engineering the building to helping us negotiate contracts with the city,” says Tera Roberts, director of adult services for the center. Few of the employees would have a job if not for the recycling center, and they can keep anything interesting they come across. One worker found a crumpled $100 bill.

              To finance the city’s new Miracle League field, one of the best-equipped in the country, Germ enlisted co-sponsors including Berkshire Hathaway, BlueCross BlueShield, and his own Rotary Club of Chattanooga. “Every kid should be able to play sports,” he says. “It’s not just for the child, but the whole family. What’s better than a child hearing his mom and dad cheer when he plays?” Another of his causes, the First in the Family program at Chattanooga State, provides scholarships for students who couldn’t attend college otherwise. Flora Tydings, the school’s president, calls Germ “an excellent role model to many of our students who, like him, are the first in their family to attend college.”

              Today his schedule changes daily – sometimes hourly – as he keeps up with the duties of his new office. On his agenda, he says he would like to see Rotary operate more like a business. “We’ve been getting leaner, and I’d like to speed that up. In January, for instance, we’re going to hold our Board meeting in Chicago instead of San Diego. That means we won’t have to fly a couple dozen staff members to San Diego and put them up there. It’s just common sense.” He wants to shorten Board meetings, shrink some RI committees, and save money on committee meetings to make Rotary more cost-effective.

              Half a century after landing his last C-124, Germ sees himself as Rotary’s navigator, plotting a course toward a bright future. “It’s going to be a team effort,” he says. His main target after polio will be Rotary’s static membership. On that issue, he says, “The fault is with us, the current Rotarians.” He wants members to “step up their outreach. I really think one of our main problems is that we don’t ask enough people to join. Why? For fear of rejection. We need to get over that – to get out there and bring in new members we’ll be proud of.”

              To appeal to younger members, he supports a new move (approved at the Council on Legislation in April) that allows membership in Rotaract and Rotary at the same time. “I’m all in favor of that,” he says.

              It doesn’t stop there. Germ supports flexibility in many Rotary matters. “Our clubs have always been organized around a meal. Lunch and dinner were part of our dues, and that system served us well. But society has changed,” he says. Rotary International is catching up by allowing clubs more leeway in when and how they meet. “How do we accommodate the 30-year-old businessperson raising a family? Well, for one thing, we could pay less attention to attendance,” he adds. “My question isn’t ‘How many meetings did you make?’ It’s ‘How are you making a difference in your community?' "

              Visit the to:

              The Rotarian

              1-Jul-2016
              John Germ: Champion of Chattanooga 2016-07-06 08:00:00Z 0

              Paul Harris Fellows Introduced

              At the June 30, 2016 meeting, six new and one 2nd time Paul Harris Fellows were introduced to the Homer-Kachemak Bay Club.  They included Joy Steward, Flo Larson, Gayle Forrest, Bob Hartley, Ramona Pearce, Charlie Welles, and second time recipient, Sharon Minsch.  Joy Steward became a Paul Harris Fellow upon a unanimous vote of the Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club Board of Directors in recognition of her many years of support for non-profits and other organizations in the Homer, Alaska area as Executive Director of the Homer Foundation.
               
              Joy Steward, Executive Director of the Homer Foundation, receives her Certificate and Pin as a Paul Harris Fellow from Past District Governor Clyde Boyer.
               
              Paul Harris Fellows Introduced 2016-07-06 08:00:00Z 0

              New Officers for 2016-2017 Year Introduced

              Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary's new president, Tom Early, accepted his new President pin and introduced his Board and Committee Chairs at our June 30, 2016 meeting.  Check out the pictures of the ceremonies.
               
              2016-2017 President Tom Early Introduces his new Board and Committee Chairs
               
              2016-2017 President Tom Early Presents Plaque to 2015-2016 President Craig Forrest
               
               
              New Officers for 2016-2017 Year Introduced 2016-07-06 08:00:00Z 0

              District 5010 Strategic Plan Vote on June 23

              Everyone should have received the full email, including the information below, on June 4.  This is a reminder to please check this out if you haven't already done so.  We will be voting on it at the meeting June 23.
               
              YOUR INPUT = PLAN PRIORITIES
              During the planning process, we listened carefully to the input you and your D5010 colleagues provided through the survey in December, your feedback to the goals and action steps in March. We also incorporated the many suggestions provided to the 15 Rotarians from throughout the district who have worked diligently since November on plan development.  Sincere appreciation to all D5010 Rotarians who contributed to this important process so that the plan best meets the needs of our clubs and members. 
               
              REVIEW THE PLAN & WATCH A VIDEO
              You can download the 2016-19 plan, priorities and action steps here:  http://goo.gl/xmQyrr  (D5010 website, Documents link).  We request that you take a few minutes to review it and also listen to a video presentation  about the plan by the governor team (about 17 minutes): https://vimeo.com/168465360.  Please encourage your members to do the same.  We are standing by for questions, to visit your club and discuss our future direction in more detail, or provide resources to help your club with new areas of development.  Please contact any of us with questions.
               
              YOUR CLUB’S FUTURE
              We also urge you to consider creating a similar road map for your own club, to strengthen your club today and lead it into the future.  Rotary clubs with long range plans report greater success attracting and engaging members, building greater impact from their projects and achieving a positive public image.
               
              Thank you for your important role in charting the future of Rotary in District 5010.  We look forward to hearing from your club before June 30.
               
              Brad Gamble
              Governor 2015-16
               
              Michelle O’Brien
              Governor 2016-17
               
              Harry Kieling
              Governor 2017-18
               
              Diane Fejes
              Governor 2018-19
               
              Gayle Knepper
              D5010 Planning Chair

               
              District 5010 Strategic Plan Vote on June 23 2016-06-20 08:00:00Z 0

              What's Ahead for Rotary? Discussion on the Actions of the Council on Legislation

              What’s Ahead for Rotary?

              Club Actions from the Council on Legislation

               

              Webinar

              Thursday, June 23

              OR

              Tuesday, June 28

              5:30 pm AKDT/6:30 pm PDT (either session)

               

              Register Now

              https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/rt/7510625766259738115

               

              Many exciting changes for clubs were approved during the recent Council on Legislation (COL): flexibility in meeting schedules, membership types, attendance requirements, club administration and more. These changes go into effect on July 1, bringing new benefits to clubs.

               

              Attend this webinar for D5010 Rotarians and find out more about these changes, the decisions your club will make and steps to using this new flexibility to strengthen your club and most effectively meet the needs of your community, today and in the future.

               

              Topics include:

                - Changes for Clubs from the COL

                - Using the New Flexibility Options to Benefit Your Club

                - Decisions and Actions for Your Club

                - Steps to Taking Action

               

              This webinar is designed for club presidents, presidents elect and board members, district leaders and all D5010 Rotarians who would like to hear about the changes and how clubs can benefit.

               

              Reserve your place now by clicking the registration link to participate in one of the two webinar times, and find out what is ahead for your club and for Rotary.  The webinar will be presented by Gayle Knepper, COL Representative, and Jane Little, COL Representative Alternate.

               

              We look forward to your joining us to discuss what’s ahead for your club.
              What's Ahead for Rotary? Discussion on the Actions of the Council on Legislation 2016-06-20 08:00:00Z 0
              Open World Visitors From Russia - June 2016 2016-06-15 08:00:00Z 0

              Last Call to Order Rotary Vests!!

              It is not too late to order your club vest.
               
              Please bring your check to Rotary tomorrow if you have not done so. You can also bring the check direct to me.
               
              I will be placing the order on Monday.
               
              Thank you!

              Sharon
              Last Call to Order Rotary Vests!! 2016-06-15 08:00:00Z 0

              UN Chief Ban Ki-moon Opens Korea Convention

              UN chief Ban Ki-moon opens Korea convention

              United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon indicates that we are “This Close” to ending polio because of Rotary’s great work, during the opening session of the Rotary Convention in Korea on Sunday, 29 May.
              Photo Credit: SJ Cho

              United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was among the first to welcome Rotary members and friends to the 107th Rotary Convention, heralded as one of the largest-ever gatherings of Rotarians and the most multicultural assembly of nonprofit leaders in Korea.

              He offered a message of gratitude: “Rotarians do remarkable work around the world,” Ban told the thousands of attendees gathered at KINTEX, the Korea International Exhibition and Convention Center in Goyang city, on the outskirts of Seoul. “You help the United Nations reach our goals, and you help the world understand the United Nations.”

              He described Allan Albert, the former Rotary president who, 70 years ago this month, participated in discussions that led to the formation of the UN, as “a passionate defender of human understanding who called for people to be real factors in real peace. Together we are working to realize this vision.”

              Ban, the Korean national who has led the UN and its ambitious development agenda since 2007, thanked Rotary for its leadership and commitment to humanitarian causes. He highlighted Rotary’s contributions to the fight against polio, in both funding and advocacy.

              “The United Nations is proud to be a partner in ending this debilitating disease,” he said, referring to UNICEF’s role in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. “We must keep up the fight. Please continue to raise your voices, hold your governments accountable, and campaign hard.”

              The opening session on Sunday morning was infused with local flavor: drummers, dancers, and martial artists warmed up the crowd with K-pop and tae kwon do before the formal remarks began.

              Paul Harris makes a surprise appearance

              An animated hologram of Rotary founder Paul Harris joined RI President K.R. Ravindran on stage. After telling Harris about Rotary’s progress, Ravindran greeted attendees and reflected on his term as Rotary president, including a recent decision by the Council on Legislation to grant clubs more flexibility and autonomy.

              “The traditional Rotary model, of weekly meetings and meals, may not be a viable proposition to the professionals of all ages we most need to attract,” Ravindran said. “Your Council made more progressive changes to our constitution than any Council in history — with an eye to a future in which the business of Rotary will be conducted on a level more ambitious than ever before.”

              Special guests included prime ministers Hwang Kyo-ahn of South Korea, and Ranil Wickremesinghe of Ravindran’s native Sri Lanka.

              Hwang, who was the charter president of the Rotary Club of Seoul before he served as minister of justice, spoke about Rotary’s history and presence in South Korea, now the fourth-strongest Rotary country in terms of membership and one of the strongest supporters of The Rotary Foundation, per capita.

              “Ours is a nation built on the ruins of war,” he said. “Our recovery from those dark days has been called a miracle, but it is the kind of miracle that Rotary knows well: of many hands working together to achieve a common goal that could not have been achieved alone.”

              Wickremesinghe described polio’s unlikely exit from his own war-torn nation 20 years ago. He also gave a government official’s perspective on the interplay between government and service organizations such as Rotary.

              “A Rotary club provides a country with something that every community in every country needs.” He said it complements the government’s work “by offering a way for people who want to make a difference in their community to do it for themselves, together, without having to run for office first.”

              Walk for peace

              In the days and weeks before the convention kicked off, an estimated 43,000 attendees from 160 countries arrived in Seoul, announcing their presence with a parade through the city center on Saturday.

              Several thousand participants, many clad in the traditional attire of their home countries, gathered in front of city hall to join in the 3K Walk for Peace. The route to Gwanghwamun Square led participants past the “Rotary Way” photography exhibit featuring images of Rotary service, set against the mountainous backdrop of Bukhansan National Park in the distance.

              Sue and Jim Dunlop, members of the Rotary Club of Geelong East, Victoria, were proud to represent Australia at the walk. Before they arrived in Seoul, the Dunlops explored the Korean countryside on one of the Host Organization Committee tours, sampling local fare and mingling with fellow members.

              Sue said she savored the vibrant multicultural atmosphere that filled Gwanghwamun Square on Saturday. Her musings about the 3K Walk for Peace could have applied just as easily to the convention itself: “If events like this could happen all the time, in every city around the world, wouldn’t it be wonderful?”

              29-May-2016
              UN Chief Ban Ki-moon Opens Korea Convention 2016-06-07 08:00:00Z 0

              Farewell Potluck for our Open World Guests--Including a Map!!

               

              Farewell Potluck for Open World Guests

              When: Sunday June 12, 2016 from 4:30-6:15

              Where: Mike and Susie Quinns Home at 5165 Hopkins St., a map is available for those who need one.   

              What to bring: Appetizer, Salad, Dessert, Beverage, Please 2 of these 4 items

               

               

               

               

              Farewell Potluck for our Open World Guests--Including a Map!! 2016-06-07 08:00:00Z 0

              Working on Flowers for Ben Walters Park

              Milli Martin, Susie Quinn, Dee Clyne, and Dave Brann worked on the planters for Ben Walters Park this last week.  Looking Good!
               
               
               Milli Martin and Susie Quinn working on flowers for Ben Walters Park.
              Working on Flowers for Ben Walters Park 2016-06-01 08:00:00Z 0

              Ravindran Moves Audience with Personal Story

              Ravindran moves audience with personal story

              RI President K.R. Ravindran shares a personal story of triumph over polio at the closing session of the 107th Rotary convention.
              Photo Credit: SJ Cho

              RI President K.R. Ravindran closed the convention in Korea on Wednesday, 1 June, with a poignant story about his mother's fight to survive polio at age 30.

              When Ravindran was 11 years old in his native Sri Lanka, his mother awoke one day feeling weak and short of breath. Sitting down to rest, she found herself unable to move. The polio virus had quickly invaded her nervous system, resulting in paralysis.

              She was placed in an iron lung at the hospital to enable her to breathe, and was told that her chances of walking, or even surviving without a ventilator, were slim. But most Sri Lankan hospitals were not equipped with ventilators in 1963.

              Ravindran's grandfather, a Rotary member, hosted a club committee meeting in his living room the evening after his daughter was rushed to the hospital. Rather than simply offer consolation, his fellow members went to work, using their business acumen and professional connections to find a ventilator.

              One of the members was a bank manager who called a government minister to facilitate a quick international transfer of funds. Another member, a manager at SwissAir, arranged to have a ventilator flown in. The next day, it arrived at the hospital.

              "There was so much red tape at the time in Sri Lanka, but somehow, those Rotarians made it all fall away," Ravindran told the packed audience at the KINTEX Convention Center in Goyang city.

              Ravindran's mother spent a year-and-a-half in a hospital bed, but her condition gradually improved. She eventually left the hospital walking -- with a walker, but upright, on her own two feet.

              "Fifty-three years ago, my mother's life was perhaps one of the very first to be saved from polio by Rotarians," Ravindran said. "We have saved millions of lives since then.

              "Tonight, I stand before you as her son, and your president, to say that soon -- perhaps not in years but in months -- Rotary will give a gift that will endure forever: a world without polio."

              At the convention's general session the day before, Rebecca Martin, director of the Center for Global Health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had . Earlier that day, Rotary released an additional $35 million in grants to support global efforts to end the crippling disease.

              This year's convention, one of the largest in Rotary history, attracted more than 43,000 attendees from over 150 countries. Ravindran, in his final speech to members as their president, emphasized what it really means to be a Rotarian.

              "There are people on this planet whose lives are better now because you traversed this earth," he said. "And it doesn't matter if they know that or not. It doesn't matter if they even know your name or not. What really matters is that your work touched lives; that it left people healthier, happier, better than they were before."

              Looking ahead to next year

              Following Ravindran's remarks, members of Ravindran's Rotary Club of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and RI President-elect John Germ's Rotary Club of Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA, took the stage to exchange club banners, a tradition that unofficially marks the changing of the guard.

              Germ told the audience that Rotary is about to begin the most progressive year in its history.

              "You told us that we need to change and become more flexible so that Rotary service will be attractive to younger members, recent retirees, and working people," Germ said. "You spoke with clarity, and groundbreaking legislation was passed this year at the Council on Legislation.

              "Clubs now have the opportunity to be who they want to be, but at the same time remain true to our core. I'm pleased to share with you that Rotarians all over the world are responding with great excitement."

              1-Jun-2016
              Ravindran Moves Audience with Personal Story 2016-06-01 08:00:00Z 0

              Board of Directors Meeting for June Cancelled

              The regularly scheduled Board of Directors Meeting for June is CANCELLED.  This is the meeting where the current Board normally meets with the next years Board, but due to inability to get mutually acceptable dates, we will instead meet at the first meeting for next years Board, to be held in July.  Exact date, TBA--Tom is working to get that together.
              Board of Directors Meeting for June Cancelled 2016-06-01 08:00:00Z 0

              2016 Outbound Youth Exchange Students

              Our Outbound Youth Exchange Students, Summer McGuire and Alex Miller, accepting a certificate acknowledging a donation being made in their name (as our weekly speakers) to Haven House.  Although Summer is from Homer, the Seward Rotary Club is sponsoring her Youth Exchange visit.
               
              2016 Outbound Youth Exchange Students 2016-05-27 08:00:00Z 0

              What Millennials Love About Rotary

              What millennials love about Rotary

              From left: Christa Papavasiliou, Jermaine Ee, and Yvonne Kwan.

              From the of The Rotarian

              If there is one absolute truth about millennials, it is this: Anyone who says there is an absolute truth about millennials risks being subjected to their collective eye roll.

              Millennials are individuals, and fiercely so. According to the Pew Research Center, most of them don’t even like being called “millennials,” let alone hearing generalizations about their shared attitudes and behaviors.

              Case in point: Christa Papavasiliou, 31, recoils at the notion that older folks see her generation as a bunch of selfie-snapping smartphone addicts. “I’m the complete opposite,” says Papavasiliou, who was a Boston Rotaract club president and district Rotaract representative before joining a Rotary club, the E-Club of New England, last year. “How would they like it if I stereotyped them?”

              It’s a fair question. And yet, it seems we can’t help ourselves.

              The U.S. Census Bureau defines millennials as Americans born between 1982 and 2000, which puts their overall numbers around 83.1 million. That means there are more of them than any other age group – including baby boomers, who totaled 78.8 million at their peak and now number 75.4 million. As millennials become the dominant demographic in our communities, the rest of us strive to better understand them in order to improve our relationships in the workplace and beyond.

              For Rotary, the millennial era could mean an influx of young, energetic members. The percentage of Rotarians under 40 has remained fairly steady at about 10 percent in recent years, but this could be the generation that bucks the trend.

              The Pew Research Center has found that millennials do tend to share certain traits. A 2014 report characterized them as “unattached to organized politics and religion, linked by social media, burdened by debt, distrustful of people, in no rush to marry – and optimistic about the future.” Millennials are also the most ethnically diverse age group and the first generation of digital natives. And, yes, more than half of them have shared a selfie.

              They also feel compelled to make a difference in their communities. The Case Foundation’s 2015 Millennial Impact Research Report found that 84 percent of the millennials surveyed had made a charitable donation the previous year and that 70 percent had spent at least an hour volunteering.

              What does that mean for Rotary? Papavasiliou may be reluctant to speak for her generation, but she nevertheless represents their drive to make an impact.

              In college, she was drawn to Rotaract because of the service opportunities. The desire to serve is what carried her to International Rotary Youth Leadership Awards and got her “completely hooked” on Rotary. It’s what inspired her to charter a Rotaract club near her hometown and to join the Boston club when she moved. “There’s a real beauty to the underlying message of Service Above Self,” she says. “That’s how I acquire all of my friends in a new city. I know there are going to be people in Rotary who are like-minded and like-hearted.”

              One such friend is 24-year-old Jermaine Ee, who became the youngest member of the Rotary Club of Los Angeles when he joined last August. Before joining “LA5,” he was a Rotaract club president at the University of Southern California, where he also served as district representative. He and Papavasiliou met at a Rotary event.

              “The truth is, Rotary has everything millennials want,” Ee says. Among other things, it offers an opportunity to unplug every once in a while and connect with people who share their values, if not their age demographic, he says.

              As a young professional who is surrounded by tech entrepreneurs, Ee is drawn to Rotary’s in-person interactions and “old school” traditions. “People talk about the Friday lunches that take time out of my schedule,” he says. “I love them. Among my peers, there is a lack of this formality.”

              He also appreciates the opportunity to develop relationships with people who have more life experience than he does. “My older Rotarian friends and mentors never fail to help me put things in perspective,” he says. And their mentorship isn’t just about business; they have helped him navigate some of adulthood’s subtler skills: “drinking Scotch, planning a day at the racetrack, understanding how to place people on a seating chart.”

              In return, Ee likes to coach older Rotarians in mysteries such as how to use social media. As co-founder of a digital marketing agency, Ee bridges the generation gap at work every day. “I sell Snapchat to 60-year-old executives,” he says. “It doesn’t get more resistant than that.”

              He often tells his older clients that they are more skilled at social media than they think. “You know how to care about someone; you remember what they like to eat; you remember that their daughter had a ballet competition,” he reminds them. “You care about things. You just don’t know how to do it on a platform.”

              In contrast, he says, many younger people “know how to use the tools, but they don’t know how to do the relationship building.”

              Ee considers it his responsibility as a young Rotarian to help facilitate intergenerational conversations. His first pointer: It’s not about your membership numbers. “We invest a lot in intent,” he says of his peers. “So when a 60-something Rotarian talks to a 21-year-old, if that person’s intent is to just get another line on the roster, that intent is seen really quickly.”

              He suggests that clubs seek out ways to encourage dialogue. “Millennials are curious,” he says, “and Rotarians in general have a lot of interesting stories.” It seems like a natural fit, but younger members can feel intimidated by the older adults in the room, and longtime members can get so comfortable in their social routines that they forget to mingle.

              While Rotary may be a great ideological fit for millennials, it can present logistical challenges for young people who aren’t settled enough in their professional and personal lives to commit to regular meeting attendance.

              That’s the problem that the founders of the E-Club of Silicon Valley set out to solve when they established their club last year. “It was very much a conversation of how we can get people into Rotary who want to be a part of Rotary but always come up with the response of, ‘I don’t have the time,’” says 25-year-old charter member Yvonne Kwan. “These are people who want to do good. They want to help out. They want to give back to the community, but they just can’t make it out to the meetings every single week at a certain time.”

              Kwan’s club posts its meetings online for members to “attend” at any time during the week. The club also hosts regular social gatherings – potlucks, happy hours, and, most recently, a hike in a natural area north of San Francisco. “We went out into nature, and we took a few hours and hiked up to Point Reyes,” she says. “It was beautiful.”

              When members go online for meetings, they find engaging content, Kwan says. “We’ve made our meetings very visual-heavy with videos, pictures, a font that’s easy to read.”

              In addition to the standard Rotary business items, the e-club meetings feature videos of speakers from all over the world and a weekly “tech tidbit or life hack” that members may find useful or entertaining. Kwan recently posted a tip about a discovery she made when she temporarily lost her Internet connection: The Chrome browser has a game hidden in its connection error page. “It was the highlight of my day for that very treacherous time when I had no Internet,” she jokes. So she made a short video about it and shared it with the club.

              Another difference between Kwan’s club and others: “We don’t have big service projects that we do as a club because we’re dispersed throughout the world,” she says. Instead, members are encouraged to partner with other Rotary clubs or nonprofit organizations, find their own opportunities, and report them to the club as service. “You can do your own service in your own time,” Kwan says. “It gives people more power to adjust their own schedules.”

              Though the e-club’s meetings are online, Kwan considers the in-person interactions to be just as important. She usually invites potential members to a social event before they ever see an online meeting. “It draws them in and it piques their interest, and you get to know them a little bit more,” she says. “I think that’s really valuable. Millennials are looking for a place to give back to their community, but they need to feel like they are getting value as well.”

              Ee, of the Los Angeles club, agrees. “It doesn’t matter how bad my week was. I always end it with Rotary, and I always leave with a little more good faith in humanity,” he says. “I’m really excited for the next 20 years – to see where Rotary’s going to go.”

              Kim Lisagor is a freelance writer and co-author of Disappearing Destinations: 37 Places in Peril and What Can Be Done to Help Save Them.

              The Rotarian

              1-May-2016
              What Millennials Love About Rotary 2016-05-25 08:00:00Z 0

              Kachemak Advocates for Recycling (KARe) needs volunteers

              Our club supports the Kachemak Advocates of Recycling group by passing out educational flyers about recycling locations, types of products, etc. at Save U More on the First Friday of each month.   One volunteer has committed to working on Friday, June 3, and ONE MORE VOLUNTEER is needed.  The volunteers will coordinate the best time for them to do the work.  Can you help for 1 1/2 to 2 hours?  Please reply to Vivian Finlay who coordinates this project for KARe and for our Rotary club. 

              Kachemak Advocates for Recycling (KARe) needs volunteers 2016-05-25 08:00:00Z 0
              Host Family Needed--YESTERDAY or SOONER!! 2016-05-18 08:00:00Z 0

              Dues Increase

               
              One of the items passed by the Rotary Council on Legislation was a dues increase.  "The $4 per year dues increase was based on a five-year financial forecast that predicted that if Rotary didn’t either raise dues or make drastic cuts, its reserves would dip below mandated levels by 2020. The yearly per capita dues that clubs pay to RI will be $60 in 2017-18, $64 in 2018-19, and $68 in 2019-20. The next council will establish the rate after that.I am trying to find out whether, or not, our District is also planning an increase in District dues.
               
              Our Club requires that any change in the dues structure (including increases/decreases) must be done in our By-Laws, which will need to be amended.  The last dues increase for our Club was approximately 10 years ago.  It is looking as though we will need to raise our dues very soon.  To get your thoughts, your Board is giving you a chance to give us some input.  Gary will be passing out "ballots" for you to give us your thoughts at the Club Assembly the 19th.  Please fill them out and return them to him.  For those who are not able to attend the Assembly, Sharon will email them to you.  Please respond in a timely manner.  We don't have much time.
               
              Dues Increase 2016-05-18 08:00:00Z 0
              Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Awards Scholarships 2016-05-10 08:00:00Z 0

              District 5010 Conference Agenda

               
               
              2016 ROTARY DISTRICT 5010
              CONFERENCE AND ASSEMBLY
              YOU ARE A GIFT TO THE WORLD
              MAY 12-14, 2016
                                                                                                                  TALKEETNA ALASKAN LODGE- TALKEETNA, ALASKA
                                                                                                                                                  Update 4-3-16
               
              District Conference Schedule--Please note, it may change at the last minute, so please re-confirm once you get there!
              This is only a Partial Schedule!!
              District 5010 Conference Agenda 2016-05-04 08:00:00Z 0

              Legislative Council Grants Clubs Greater Flexibility in Meeting, Membership

               

              Council grants clubs greater flexibility in meeting, membership

              Council member Dominque Dubois holds up a green card to indicate support of a motion while Sandeep Nurang ponders his response during the 2016 Council on Legislation.
              Photo Credit: Monika Lozinska.

              The 2016 Council on Legislation may well be remembered as one of the most progressive in Rotary history.

              Not only did this Council grant clubs more freedom in determining their meeting schedule and membership, it also approved an increase in per capita dues of $4 a year for three years. The increase will be used to enhance Rotary’s website, improve online tools, and add programs and services to help clubs increase membership.

              The Council is an essential element of Rotary’s governance. Every three years, members from around the world gather in Chicago to consider proposed changes to the policies that govern the organization and its member clubs. Measures that are adopted take effect 1 July.

              The tone for this year was set early, when the RI Board put forth two proposals that increase flexibility. The first measure allows clubs to decide to vary their meeting times, whether to meet online or in person, and when to cancel a meeting, as long as they meet at least twice a month. The second allows clubs flexibility in choosing their membership rules and requirements. Both passed.

              Representatives also approved removing six membership criteria from the RI Constitution and replacing them with a simple requirement that a member be a person of good character who has a good reputation in their business or community and is willing to serve the community.

              The $4 per year dues increase was based on a five-year financial forecast that predicted that if Rotary didn’t either raise dues or make drastic cuts, its reserves would dip below mandated levels by 2020. The yearly per capita dues that clubs pay to RI will be $60 in 2017-18, $64 in 2018-19, and $68 in 2019-20. The next council will establish the rate after that.

              “We are at a moment in time when we must think beyond the status quo,” said RI Vice President Greg E. Podd. “We must think about our future.”

              Podd said the dues increase will allow RI to improve My Rotary, develop resources so clubs can offer a better membership experience, simplify club and district reporting, improve website access for Rotaractors, and update systems to keep Rotary in compliance with changing global regulations.

              Also because of this Council’s decisions:

              • A Council on Resolutions will meet annually online to consider resolutions — recommendations to the RI Board. Council members will be selected for three-year terms. They’ll participate in the Council on Resolutions for three years and the Council on Legislation in their final year only. The Council on Resolutions will free the Council on Legislation to concentrate on enactments — changes to Rotary’s governing documents. Proponents predict that the Council on Legislation can then be shortened by a day, saving $300,000.
              • Rotaractors will be allowed to become members of Rotary clubs while they are still in Rotaract. Proponents argued that too few Rotaractors (around 5 percent) join Rotary. Sometimes it’s because they don’t want to leave their Rotaract clubs before they have to, upon reaching age 30. It’s hoped that giving them more options will boost the numbers of qualified young leaders in Rotary.
              • The distinction between e-clubs and traditional clubs will be eliminated. The Council recognized that clubs have been meeting in a number of ways, and given this flexibility, the distinction was no longer meaningful. Clubs that have “e-club” in their names can keep it, however.
              • The reference to admission fees will be removed from the bylaws. Proponents argued that the mention of admission fees does not advance a modern image of Rotary.
              • A standing committee on membership was established, in recognition that membership is a top priority of the organization, and polio eradication was also reaffirmed to be a goal of the highest order.

              Learn more about the

              Rotary News

              18-Apr-2016
              Legislative Council Grants Clubs Greater Flexibility in Meeting, Membership 2016-04-27 08:00:00Z 0

              We Are a Gift to the World - 2016 District 5010 Conference

               
              WE ARE A GIFT TO THE WORLD

               

               
               
               
               

               

              Rotary District 5010
              Assembly & Convention
              Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge
              Talkeetna, Alaska

               
              Tentative schedule:

              Thursday, May 12: District Training Assembly  10 am - 5 pm

              Friday, May 13 - Sunday, May 15

              District Conference Opening Ceremonies begin at 11 am

              Conference ends at 11 am on Sunday, May 15

               

              Dr. Steven Nakana 2007 Rotary World Peace Fellow

              Alex Saldana Project Amigo

              Julia Phelps Rotary International Director

              Speaker Bios Here:


              May 12-15, 2016

               

              Dear Rotary members & friends,

              Congratulations to Debra Mason from Anch International Rotary!

              She won the flight-seeing trip for 2 provided by K-2 Aviation & Rust’s Flying Service.

               

              Registration Fees include meals, plenary sessions, banquet:

              Rotarian registration  $300

              Guest registration  $200

              Rotaract registration $100

              District Assembly $50

              Add-ons:

              President-elect breakfast $35

              Presidents breakfast $35

              Past presidents breakfast $35

               

              Additional banquet tickets $75

               

               

              To register, please visit: rotarydistrict5010.org

              We have secured a special conference rate at Talkeetna Lodge, our conference location. Just $135 per night, first come first serve on the room type. This should incentivize everyone to book early to get Mountain Side and Main Lodge rooms! Once these rooms are filled, reservations will flow to the exterior lodge rooms. Please request the room type preferred when making reservations.

              Please call 866-845-6338 toll free, or 907-777-2806 local.

              You may also email: groupsales@ahtours.com

              Either by phone or email, simply say that you are with the Rotary Conference, and the discounted rate applies.

               

              An exciting, fun and informative conference is being planned! District conference provides an ideal opportunity for new members & friends to learn more about Rotary International, our District 5010, leadership and service opportunities- plus creating new friendships. Watch your email for other details to follow.

               

              Checklist

              • Call or email Talkeetna Lodge to secure a great room!

              • Invite new members of your club, family or friends to conference

              We look forward to seeing you in Talkeetna May 12-15, 2016.

              In friendship,

              Cheryl

              Cheryl Metiva, Co-Chair

              2016 District Conference Committee

              - See more at: http://rotarydistrict5010.org/Stories/we-are-a-gift-to-the-world#sthash.qi62R7PD.dpuf
              We Are a Gift to the World - 2016 District 5010 Conference 2016-04-27 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary District 5010 Leadership Academy

              Rotarians who are interested in ANY leadership position in Rotary are encouraged to look at the District 5010 Leadership Academy.  Further information can be found at the District 5010 website,  www.rotarydistrict5010.org

              Student Support

              DLA LogoWhen Rotarians make the decision to participate in the Leadership Academy program they are making a significant commitment to see it through to completion.  That is why the members of the Academy Faculty stand ready at all times to assist them whenever needed.  They are the support system that insures that each and every student will complete the program successfully.   They are the "cheerleaders".  Each faculty member spends many hours preparing the materials for their course to insure that the students receive the most current Rotary information possible.  They then coach during their course and write comprehensive grade reports at the end of each course to provide students with the type of feedback which will give them even more insight. Our faculty is the heart and soul of our DLA program and we are very proud of them.

              Responsive Web Site

              Responsive Design

              This new Academy web sites incorporates the latest technology in web site design including "responsive design".  This means that it automatically adjusts to the best readability on your desktop, your laptop, your tablet, or your smartphone.  Give it a try.  it works on both iOS and Android.  We think this is a fantastic feature for DLA web sites as students will be able to access and use it from anywhere. We welcome your feedback. Contact the OpenClass Administrator

              Rotary District 5010 Leadership Academy 2016-04-27 08:00:00Z 0
              A Wave of Compassion 2016-04-19 08:00:00Z 0

              What's Going on Here?

              Come to the meeting on April 21st and find out, as a cast of Rotarians, including such notables as GARY THOMAS, MARIE McCARTY, and TOM EARLY (to name a few) present us with a surprise program. 
               
              DON'T MISS IT!  BE THERE!  NOON APRIL 21st!!
              What's Going on Here? 2016-04-19 08:00:00Z 0
              How do you use Rotary Global Rewards? 2016-03-29 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Visioning April 6!!

               
              As a reminder, Visioning will be on Wednesday, April 6th beginning at 5p.m. and will likely last until 8:30 p.m.; held at the American Legion on East End Road.
               
              Our club will order pizza and soft drinks for all attendees but we’d like to have some salads and desserts if possible. 
               
              See you there!
              Rotary Visioning April 6!! 2016-03-29 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Recycling Opportunity!!

              We need 2 volunteers to hand out recycling educational flyers at Save U More on Friday, April 1, during a 1 1/2 to 2 hour time period to be selected by the volunteers. 

              This project is ongoing so we will need 2 volunteers for the first Friday of each month.

              Our Rotary club supports the Kachemak Advocates of Recycling group (KARe), and this "day at the store" is a shared hands on project.  It is also an interesting and enjoyable project. 

              KARe is working to educate the public about the need to recycle as opposed to dumping all materials in the landfill.  The central landfill will need replacing, soon, and that increases property taxes.  The 2nd. most expensive budget item for the Kenai Peninsula Borough (after education) is Solid Waste Management.

               

              Please contact Vivian (435-3903) or <vivianfinlay@gmail.com> to volunteer. 

              Thank you.

              Rotary Recycling Opportunity!! 2016-03-16 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Recycling Opportunity!!

              We need 2 volunteers to hand out recycling educational flyers at Save U More on Friday, April 1, during a 1 1/2 to 2 hour time period to be selected by the volunteers. 

              This project is ongoing so we will need 2 volunteers for the first Friday of each month.

              Our Rotary club supports the Kachemak Advocates of Recycling group (KARe), and this "day at the store" is a shared hands on project.  It is also an interesting and enjoyable project. 

              KARe is working to educate the public about the need to recycle as opposed to dumping all materials in the landfill.  The central landfill will need replacing, soon, and that increases property taxes.  The 2nd. most expensive budget item for the Kenai Peninsula Borough (after education) is Solid Waste Management.

               

              Please contact Vivian (435-3903) or <vivianfinlay@gmail.com> to volunteer. 

              Thank you.

              Rotary Recycling Opportunity!! 2016-03-16 08:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Structure

              Our Structure

              Rotary is made up of three parts: at the heart of Rotary are our clubs, that are supported by Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation.

              Rotary clubs bring together dedicated individuals to exchange ideas, build relationships, and take action.

              Rotary International supports Rotary clubs worldwide by coordinating global programs, campaigns, and initiatives.

              The Rotary Foundation uses generous donations to fund projects by Rotarians and our partners in communities around the world. As a nonprofit, all of the Foundation's funding comes from voluntary contributions made by Rotarians and friends who share our vision of a better world.

              Together, Rotary clubs, Rotary International, and The Rotary Foundation work to make lasting improvements in our communities and around the world.

              Rotary Structure 2016-03-07 09:00:00Z 0

              Presidential Conference Explores Routes to Peace

              Presidential conference explores routes to peace

              Actress and humanitarian Sharon Stone gives the peace sign after speaking at the Rotary World Peace Conference on 15 January in Ontario, California, USA.
              Photo Credit: Rotary International/Ryan Hyland

              On 2 December, a terrorist attack killed 14 people and wounded more than 20 others in San Bernardino, California.

              Less than two months later, an event nearby focused on peace: the Rotary World Peace Conference. The two-day meeting on 15-16 January brought together experts from around the world to explore ideas and solutions to violence and conflict.

              The conference was the first of five planned for this year.

              San Bernardino County official Janice Rutherford, a member of the Rotary Club of Fontana, California, told attendees at the opening general session that the conference couldn’t be timelier.

              “Now more than ever, we need to come together and create peace and reduce human suffering,” said Rutherford, who declared 15 January 2016 Rotary World Peace Day and a Day of Peace for San Bernardino County. “We appreciate your commitment to exploring these options and taking them back to your community and the rest of the world.”

              More than 150 leaders in the fields of peace, education, business, law, and health care led over 100 breakout sessions and workshops. Topics ranged from how to achieve peace through education to combating human trafficking to the role the media has in eliminating conflict.

              Hosted by Rotary districts in California and attended by more than 1,500 people, the conference is an example of how Rotary members are taking peace into their own hands, said RI President K.R. Ravindran.

              “We can’t wait for governments to build peace, or the United Nations. We can’t expect peace to be handed to us on a platter,” said Ravindran. “We have to build peace from the bottom, from the foundation of our society. The valuable information you leave with at the end of this conference will aid you in managing conflict in your personal lives, local communities, and potentially around the world.”

              Actress and humanitarian Sharon Stone urged conference attendees to find tolerance within themselves as a way to develop compassion and understanding for others. Noting that today’s technology makes it easy to learn about diverse cultures and beliefs, Stone encouraged Rotary members to embrace differences while learning about others’ work.

              “The more we understand the darkness of our enemies, the better we know what to do, how to respond and behave,” said Stone.

              Rotary is inching the world closer to meaningful change, said the Rev. Greg Boyle, executive director of Homeboy Industries, a Los Angeles-based gang intervention and reentry program.

              “Rotary decided to dismantle the barriers that exclude people,” said Boyle, a bestselling author and Catholic priest. “You [Rotary members] know that we must stand outside the margins so that the margins can be erased. You stand with the poor, the powerless, and those whose dignity has been denied.”

              Rotary’s most formidable weapon against war, violence, and intolerance is its Rotary Peace Centers program. Through study and field work, peace fellows at the centers become catalysts for peace and conflict resolution in their communities and around the globe.

              Dozens of Rotary peace fellows attended the conference to promote the program, learn about other peace initiatives, and help Rotary clubs understand the role they can play.

              Peace Fellow Christopher Zambakari, who recently graduated from the University of Queensland in Australia, said the conference is a chance to increase awareness of what others are doing to achieve peace.

              “Some people have only a local view toward peace,” said Zambakari, whose in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, provides advisory services to organizations in Africa and the Middle East. “An event like this, with so many diverse perspectives, can open up connections and different possibilities to how we all can work towards a more peaceful world." 

              Other speakers included Carrie Hessler-Radelet, director of the U.S. Peace Corps; Judge Daniel Nsereko, special tribunal for Lebanon; Gillian Sorensen, senior adviser at the United Nations Foundation; Steve Killelea, founder and executive chair of the Institute for Economics and Peace; Dan Lungren, former U.S. representative; and Mary Ann Peters, chief executive officer of The Carter Center and former U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh.

               

              Rotary News

              1-Feb-2016
              Presidential Conference Explores Routes to Peace 2016-03-02 09:00:00Z 0

              Register for the Jubilee of Rotarians by 15 March

              Rotary.org
              K.R. Ravindran
              President, 2015-16
              My dear friends,
              It is my great pleasure to invite you to join me in Rome, Italy on 30 April as we celebrate the Jubilee of Rotarians, a special event hosted by Rotary District 2080 and the Vatican. His Holiness Pope Francis will celebrate a Jubilee mass at St. Peter’s Square, where we will have 8,000 seats reserved for Rotarians, as well as friends and family.
              For more information, please visit the Jubilee of Rotarians website, which has been provided by our friends in District 2080. The registration deadline is 15 March.
              This Jubilee, as established by Pope Francis, is a commitment to serve with joy and in peace across the world.
              As you work hard to Be a Gift to the World, I do hope you will make the effort to be in Rome with as many members of your district as possible. I look forward to seeing you there.
              Regards,
              K.R. Ravindran
              Rotary International President, 2015-16
              Register for the Jubilee of Rotarians by 15 March 2016-02-24 09:00:00Z 0

              Cyclists Raise Over $4 million in Miles to End Polio Ride

               

              Riders set off on the 2015 El Tour de Tucson in Arizona, USA.
              Photo Credit: James S. Wood Photography
               
               

              The fight to eradicate polio got a major financial boost from the annual bike ride that took place 21 November in Arizona, USA. Rotary General Secretary John Hewko and a team of eight RI staff members helped raise $4.4 million. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will match the funds 2-to-1, bringing the total contribution to PolioPlus to more than $13.5 million.

              This is the fourth year in a row that Hewko has biked in the 104-mile (167 km) El Tour de Tucson ride, one of the country’s top cycling events. More than 100 Rotary members from Arizona and around the world hit the pavement with the Evanston team.

              The RI staff riders have been training together since September. “In the beginning, riding 104 miles seemed impossible,” says Jean Stanula, Rotary’s Global Events supervisor. “But we came together early Saturday mornings and rode 20, 40, 60, and 80 miles. After a while, it felt like we could do anything.”

              Contributions of District Designated Funds (DDFs) were a big part in this year's fundraising effort, with more than $1.4 million collected. Districts can continue to donate DDFs to support the fundraiser through 30 November. President-elect John Germ will visit the district that donates the most DDFs, and the top five contributing districts will be recognized onstage at the 2016 Rotary Convention in Seoul.

              Rotary members have taken part in the ride since 2009, when the End Polio Now campaign was designated an official beneficiary of the race, allowing Rotary cyclists to gather pledges for the campaign. In the first year, 27 cyclists raised $35,000. The number has grown exponentially ever since.

              Download the Miles to End Polio

              Rotary News 

              23-Nov-2015
              Cyclists Raise Over $4 million in Miles to End Polio Ride 2016-02-24 09:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Announcements from the Board of Directors

              Several items were discussed at the Rotary Board meeting February 16th.  More about most of those on another day. 
               
              One of the items brought up was that all too often our speakers are being shorted on the time that they need to complete their talk.  Some of the speakers are traveling quite a ways for their 20-30 minutes, and all too often they are not getting that time, and definitely insufficient time for questions and answers.  In addition, there is all too often no time for brags and complaints.
               
              As a reminder, during the ANNOUNCEMENTS portion of the AGENDA, ONLY announcements relating to ROTARY are to be made.  All others will be considered a Brag or a Complaint, and fined as such.  (Possibly SUPER-FINED ​should the Sergeant-At-Arms be in the mood!) Please wait until the end of the meeting, during Brags and Complaints to make non-Rotary Announcements.
               
              If necessary the person running the meeting (usually the President) shall stop announcements that run on too long (keep them short and succinct i.e.,​ 30 seconds or less and definitely under 60 seconds), or if we are starting to cut into the speakers time, stop all announcements.
               
              Awards and such will normally be given out during Club Assemblies.  The President has a whole lot of these, just waiting for the appropriate people to attend Club Assembly.  Please, they are getting heavy.  If we have time after the Speaker, I may be able to give some out at the end of a regular meeting, but only if you are there!
              Rotary Announcements from the Board of Directors 2016-02-17 09:00:00Z 0

              News From District 5010 for February 4, 2016

              Here are a couple of items of importance to us.  One is the announcement of the selection a new District Governor Elect, and the other is a call for any District Level Legislation to be considered at the District Conference in May.  Please look them over, as they may be be of more interest than they sound.

              Rotary International District

              Alaska, USA § Yukon, Canada

               
              ROTARY DISTRICT GOVERNOR 2018-19 SELECTION
               
              Dear Alaska-Yukon Rotarians,
               
              On behalf of DG Brad Gamble, we are very pleased to announce the selection of Diane Fejes, Anchorage Rotary, as Governor for Rotary District 5010 in 2018-19. Please join us in congratulating Diane on her selection. We look forward to the strong future of the District with her leadership.
               
              If there are questions or concerns, please forward to DG Brad no later than February 13, 2016, per the procedure shown below.
               
              Yours in Rotary Service,
               
               
              Ted B. Trueblood                                          9860 Nearpoint Drive
              District 5010 DG, 2011-2012                        Anchorage, AK  99507
              Chair, 2015-16 Nominating Committee         tedtatnh@gmail.com                                                                                        (907)339-4872
               
              From RI Manual of Procedure 2010 (page 217)
               
              13.020.8. Challenging Candidates. Any club in the district which has been in existence for at least one year as of the beginning of that year may also propose a challenging candidate for governor-nominee provided this club has previously suggested such candidate to the nominating committee. A club in existence for less than one year as of the beginning of that year may propose a challenging candidate provided such candidate is a member of that club and the challenging candidate must have been duly suggested to the nominating committee. The name of the challenging candidate shall be submitted pursuant to a resolution by the club adopted at a regular meeting. The club must file the resolution with the governor by the date determined by the governor. Such date shall be not more than
              14 days after publication of the announcement of the selection for governor-nominee by the governor.
               
               
               
               
              ROTARY DISTRICT 5010
                                                       
                                                       CALL FOR RESOLUTIONS
                                                       FOR CONSIDERATION AT 
                                                        DISTRICT CONFERENCE
                                            MAY 12-15, 2016, TALKEETNA, ALASKA
               
              INTRODUCTION
              Rotary clubs and the District Council of Governors are authorized to submit resolutions for approval at the district conference business meeting. The following summarizes the types of resolutions that may be submitted for approval at the district conference and the procedure that is used to submit resolutions.
               
              AUTHORITY TO SUBMIT RESOLUTIONS, AMENDMENTS OR ADDITIONS
              The District 5010 Manual of Procedure (MOP), Article XII authorizes amendments or additions to the Manual of Procedure shall be by resolution passed by a majority vote of the Rotarians in attendance at a District Conference. In addition, any other resolutions that are in keeping with the RI constitution and bylaws may be proposed by either a club or by the District Council of Governors. Amendments or additions may be proposed by a resolution adopted by any club at a regular meeting, or by a resolution adopted at a meeting of the Council of Governors provided such resolutions are timely submitted to the District Governor and are not in conflict with the Manual of Procedure of Rotary International.
               
              IS THERE A DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING RESOLUTIONS?
              The District MOP requires resolutions be submitted to the District Governor at least 45 days prior to the opening date of the District Conference. All district resolutions must be submitted electronically to District Governor Brad Gamble, bradjgamble@gmail.com                no later than March 28, 2016, with a cc to Ann Metcalfe, Administrative Chair, anngmet@gmail.com
               
              HOW DOES MY CLUB SUBMIT A RESOLUTION?
              When a club proposes a resolution, the club’s board of directors must first submit the proposal to the membership for adoption at a regular club meeting. If adopted, the proposal must then be forwarded to the District Governor in the format of a club resolution signed by the club president and secretary certifying that it has been adopted. The process is similar for proposed resolutions adopted in a meeting by the District Council of Governors.
              Once received, the District Governor must determine that the proposed resolution is not in conflict with the Rotary International Constitution, By-Laws or MOP. The District
              Governor will then forward all resolutions received by the above date to the District Awards and Resolutions Committee which will prepare and distribute copies of all resolutions proposed to the President of each club and to all Past District Governors at least 30 days prior to the opening date of the District Conference. The final step occurs when Rotarians vote on the proposed resolution at the District Conference.
              MAY A DISTRICT RESOLUTION BE ADOPTED ON AN EMERGENCY BASIS?
              Article XII, Section 4, which was revised at the 2012 District Conference, provides that amendments or additions to the District MOP as well as any other resolutions deemed necessary on an emergency basis may be submitted to any District Conference for action when the above time schedule cannot be met provided 2/3 of the Club Presidents present at the business meeting of the District Conference concur such action is necessary to the effective administration of the district.
               
              IS THERE A PRESCRIBED RESOLUTION FORMAT?
              District resolutions consist of those to amend the District MOP and all other actions to be considered. A template for both resolutions is provided.
               
              WHERE CAN I FIND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION?
              The Rotary District 5010 Manual of Procedure (2014 rev) is available on the district website, in the “Download” section (lower right side of page):
              https://clubrunner.blob.core.windows.net/00000050002/en-ca/files/homepage/district-5010mop-(2015-revision)/District-5010-MOP-as-amended-2015.pdf
               
               
              2013 RI Manual of Procedure is available at:
              https://www.rotary.org/en/document/468
               
              WHOM CAN I CONTACT WITH QUESTIONS?
              For questions please contact Ann Metcalfe, District 5010 Administration Chair,
              (907) 321-3686, or anngmet@gmail.com
               
              A RESOLUTION TO AMEND OR MAKE ADDITIONS TO THE
              DISTRICT 5010 MANUAL OF PROCEDURE
                                                                                      RESOLUTION 2016 -           
               
               
               
              WHEREAS;
              WHEREAS;
              NOW THEREFORE, in accordance with Article XII of Rotary District 5010 Manual of Procedure it is resolved that the RI District 5010 Manual of Procedure be amended as follows:
               
              ARTICLE           –               
               
              Section               [Text]
               
              This resolution shall have an effective date of                                                       
               
              Adopted at a regular meeting of the Rotary Club of      on the  day of  , 2015.
               
               
               
               
                              
              President                                                                       Secretary
               
              -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
               
               
              Adopted at the District 5010 Conference in Talkeetna, Alaska on                           
               
                
              Conference Secretary
               
              Club requests appropriate section for MOP placement to be determined by District 5010 leadership.
               
               
              Note to clubs: if you are unsure where an item should be included in the Manual of Procedure, you may indicate in the resolution that it is to be added to the District Manual of Procedure in the appropriate location and numbered accordingly.
              ROTARY DISTRICT 5010 GENERAL
              RESOLUTION
                                                                           PROPOSED RESOLUTION 2016-         
               
               
              To (insert concise statement of the proposal’s purpose)
               
              Proposed by the Rotary Club of           or
                                           Proposed by the District Council of Governors                                        
               
              WHEREAS, (insert words of the resolution), and WHEREAS,
               
              IT IS RESOLVED by that Rotary District 5010
              (insert words of the resolution)
               
              PROPOSER’S PURPOSE AND EFFECT STATEMENT
               
              Insert a statement of purpose and effect not to exceed 300 words in order for the proposal to be considered. This statement should identify the issue or problem that the proposed resolution seeks to address and explain how the proposal addresses or resolves the problem or issue.
               
              This resolution shall have an effective date of                                                       
               
              Adopted at a regular meeting of the Rotary Club of       on the  day of  , 2016.
               
               
                                      
              President                                                           Secretary
              Adopted at the District 5010 Conference in Talkeetna, Alaska on                       
               
              Conference Secretary
                                                                                                         
              News From District 5010 for February 4, 2016 2016-02-03 09:00:00Z 0

              RI Council on Legislation FAQs

               
               
              ​Please Note:  The documents for this may be found on our Webpage under Home Page Download Files - 2016 RI Council on Legislation Documents--Proposed Legislation
              ​There are 472 pages, so you may want to look at them on your computer and only print the pages you are most concerned with.
              CHANGE TO COUNCIL ON LEGISLATION ASSESSMENT:  FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
               
              What is the Council on Legislation?
               
              The Council is Rotary International’s legislative body, which meets every three years, to consider proposals to change RI’s constitutional documents and resolutions that express an opinion or make a recommendation to RI’s Board of Directors.
               
              When and where does the next Council meet?
               
              It will meet 10-15 April 2016 in Chicago.
               
              What impact does the Council have on my club?
               
              RI’s bylaws, which govern the relationship between Rotary International and Rotary clubs, can be changed only by legislation by the Council. The bylaws include provisions covering the formation of new clubs, types of membership within a club, club voting in district elections, and per capita dues.
               
              When did the Board of Directors approve an increase to the additional dues for the Council?
               
              At the October 2014 meeting, the Board of Directors approved an increase for the additional dues for the Council from $1 to $1.50, beginning in 2015-16.
               
              When was the last time the additional dues were changed?
               
              In 2001, the Council adopted annual additional dues of $1 per member, which went into effect in 2002-03. The increase that takes effect in July 2015 is the first.
               
              When will my club see the increase on its invoice?
               
              The $1.50 dues will be reflected on the invoice your club receives in July 2015.
               
              How will this be calculated?
               
              The amount is billed at the club level and is based on membership: $1.50 per member per year to finance the Council that is held every three years. 
               
              Over the three-year period between Council meetings, how much will be collected in additional dues, and will that pay for?
               
              If the membership remains stable at 1.2 million over the three-year period, the additional $4.50 paid by each member will generate $5.4 million. That is expected to cover Council-related expenses, including
              airfare, travel, and hotel expenses for delegates; equipment, venue, and catering expenses; simultaneous interpretation; translation and publication of the Council materials into nine Rotary languages; and expenses for support staff.
               
              Who should I contact if I have questions about the additional dues?
               
              You may email us at RI.ClubFinance@rotary.org  or you may contact your financial representative .
               
              Where can I get additional information about the Council?
               
              RI Council on Legislation FAQs 2016-01-13 09:00:00Z 0

              Message Concerning Rural Health From Charlie Franz

               

              I read the Executive Summary and found it quite interesting.  I ended up with more questions than I wanted to, but that is probably good.

               

              Craig

               

              Good Morning,

               

              To follow up on Mayor Navarre's recent presentation on health care, I thought you might be interested in this paper detailing the approach that Medicare is exploring for health care in rural areas.  I could not get the link to copy into the Club Runner system, but you should be able to paste the URLs into your web browser and access the papers.

               

              Full report:

              http://www.rupri.org/wp-content/uploads/FORHP-comments-km-DSR-PANEL-DOCUMENT_PRD_Review_112315.clean-4_sn-3.pdf 

               

              Executive summary:

               
              Charlie
              Message Concerning Rural Health From Charlie Franz 2016-01-06 09:00:00Z 0

              Message From Craig

              I am very sorry that this week's Bulletin is a bit sparse.  My father passed away Friday morning after being hospitalized all week, and I've been a bit tied up.  I hope to have things a bit better organized for next week.
               
              Thanks much for your understanding.
               
              Craig
              Message From Craig 2016-01-06 09:00:00Z 0

              2015 Holiday Party

              Sunday December 6th 2015 marked another fun day for Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary.  Dee Clyne, Sherrie Hartley, and a crew of volunteers turned the downstairs of the Homer Elk's Club into a fairyland delight.  Aurora Neal provided just the right touch of music for the background, and then led us in a really fun Karaoke  type "sing along".  And the FOOD!  I ran out of room long before I ran out of dishes to try!  What a feast!  I even got to eat some cookies that I have been trying to get the recipe for since 1959! (And now I have it!)
               
              Below are some pictures.  Sorry for the quality...I was having way too much fun.
               
               
               
               
               
               
              2015 Holiday Party 2015-12-08 09:00:00Z 0

              Homer's 32nd Rotary Health Fair a Resounding Success!

              Thank you one and all for all your help and support with this enormous event!!

               

              The last 4 years we have had right around 1000  people thru the door on Saturday. This year we saw 1385!!!

               

              Everything from set up to take down went perfect!! We were out of the school today before 2 p.m!!! Our on line exhibitor registration was a smashing success. I hope you all got to check out the exhibits. We had some great additions this year as well as some really upgraded regulars.

               

              We ended up with 10 exhibitors that we could not accommodate this year. We are doing something right when we have people on a waiting list to be an exhibitor in our health fair!!

               

              There is so much work that goes into this event  and so many of you who work so hard and quietly in the back ground. I appreciate you more than you know. 

               

              I could not bear to leave anyone out so I have to say thank you one and all. I am so proud to be a member of this club and to keep this 32 year old club tradition moving forward.

               

              We have a wrap up meeting on Tuesday so if you have any comments, ideas or suggestions please drop me a note so I may share your input with the committee.

              Thank you again for all your help and support!! It takes a Rotary Club to help take care of our village.

               

              Sharon

               

              rotaryhealthfair@gmail.com

              Homer's 32nd Rotary Health Fair a Resounding Success! 2015-11-15 09:00:00Z 0
              Rotary and Shelterbox Support Syrian Refugees 2015-11-11 09:00:00Z 0
              Letter from our 2011/2012 Exchange Student, Lily Westphal 2015-11-10 09:00:00Z 0
              The Great Potato Race - 2015 2015-10-13 08:00:00Z 0

              Picnic at the Gordon's in Halibut Cove!

              Mike and Shelly Gordon have invited us to a picnic at their home in Halibut Cove on Sunday September 6 from 1-4.
               
              They provide the burgers and we provide the sides and desserts. It is a great time for fellowship in a beautiful setting.
               
              Boat captains - if you can help with transportation please contact Beth Trowbridge 399-6756. Once we know if we have boats or need to hire water taxis we can figure out what we need to pay . We need to figure $10.00 per person for boat fuel if we can do this with private boats. We do not know what the cost would be for water taxi. Beth will get this figured out right away so please let her know if you can help.  With all of the Rotarians volunteering their boats at the July picnic, many more of us were able to afford to make it.  More Rotarians=More FUN!
               
              Food - we need someone to help coordinate food lists so we will have a variety of sides
               
              If you have not been to this event it is a lot of fun!
               
               Please Remember, this is an adults only event.
              Picnic at the Gordon's in Halibut Cove! 2015-08-18 08:00:00Z 0

              Kachemak Bay Rotary hosts Open World Team from Russia

              The Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary Club hosted an Open World team of professionals from Russia May 10-13, 2015.  The health-focused group visited South Peninsula Hospital, the Homer Food Pantry, Seldovia Village Tribe Clinic, South Peninsula Haven House, Kachemak Family Planning Clinic, South Peninsula Behavioral Health Services, Homer Senior Center, and Cook Inlet Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse.
               
              Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotarians and Open World delegates from Russia.
               
              The group was hosted by local Rotarians, who gathered for potlucks, a boat trip across the bay, and visits to the Pratt Museum, Homer High, KBBI and Homer News. The visiting team also learned about Homer's annual Health Fair, sponsored by Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary, a model globally for community health fairs. Hosting Open World delegations is not new to the club. In 2003 and 2006 the club also hosted groups. Read about the 2003 group from Homer's sister city in Kamchatka, Yelisovo and the 2006 group from across Siberia, focusing on environmental issues.
               
              Open World is one of the most effective U.S. exchange programs for countries of the post-Soviet era. Open World delegations consist of committed leaders who experience in-depth programming in themes of interest to Congress and of transnational impact. The Open World Leadership Center’s mission is to enhance understanding and capabilities for cooperation between the United States and the countries of Eurasia by developing a network of leaders. Through Open World, mayors, legislators, judges, civil servants, educators and entrepreneurs from across the former Soviet Union have come to know the real America. Learn more at openworld.gov.
               
              Delegates and facilitators from Yakutsk included:
              • Guryeva, Nadezhda Vasilyevna – “One Click Yakutsk” Deputy Chief Editor
              • Petrova, Olga Dmitriyevna – Department head of Internal Control
              • Portnyagina, Natalya Borisova – Infectious Disease   Physician/Epidemiologist
              • Sokolova, Anna Nikolayevna -  Deputy Head of the Outpatient/Inpatient Center
              • Kovalskiy, Dmitriy Vladimirovich -  Teacher - Counselor
              • Kvyatkovskiy, Ilya Lvovich – Facilitator
              • Medovaya, Mariyam - - Interpreter
              Kachemak Bay Rotary hosts Open World Team from Russia 2015-05-20 08:00:00Z 0

              31st Annual Rotary Health Fair

              Posted by Sharon Minsch
              31st Annual Rotary Health Fair
               
              Milli Martin, Mari-Anne Gross and Debbie Speakman at the ready for registration of 1,000 community members


               

              The 31st Annual Rotary Health Fair in Homer Alaska was held Nov 1, 2014. This event is put on by our club members in partnership with South Peninsula Hospital.

               

              The club paid for 200 free flu shots again this year on a first come first serve basis.

               

              Over 1,000 people were able to take advantage of the low cost blood tests offered only at this time for year. The basic metabolic test for cholesterol, lipids, etc and costs $40.00.  We also offer low cost Vitamin D test, CRP which is cardiac, Prostrate PSA, Thyroid TSH and A1C.

               

              There is a pre-draw offered for three weeks leading up the health fair. A team of Rotarians work daily as cashiers at the hospital for those three weeks, making blood tests convenient for all members of our community, whether or not they can attend the health fair.

               

              A committee of Rotarians and Hospital staff start meeting in August each year and meet weekly until the week after the event.

               

              Clancy Hughes and Co-President Heather Beggs working at the Rotary Health Fair

               

              On the day of the event we see over 1,000 people from the community coming in to the Homer High School to take advantage of the free information and screening offered by over 70 exhibitors . About 300 people get blood tests at the Rotary Health Fair in addition to all the pre-draws prior to the Health Fair.  People picking up blood test results can speak with a medical professional and ask questions about their results. We have an audiologist who provides hearing screenings, Rotarians and the Lions club provide vision screenings, nursing students provide blood pressure checks, medical professionals provide balance testing and the lists of free information... the providers list goes on and on.

               

              It takes all 50+ members of the club to help set up Friday night, run the event during the day and then tear it down and put it away.

               

              We were lucky to have D5010 District Governor Dick Sutliff and his wife with us this year. They helped with the set up and worked the event on Saturday.

              President Elect Craig Forrest mans a booth about keeping your family safe on the water with the volunteer USCG Auxiliary
               
              31st Annual Rotary Health Fair Sharon Minsch 2014-12-18 00:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Garden Schedule

              Posted by Mari-Anne Gross
              Peter Larson Memorial Rotary Garden
               
              The garden looks great due to the loyal Rotarians
              who have maintained the weekly weeding schedule.
              Now there are just 5 more weeks to go,
              Scheduled as follows:
               
              Aug 2      Kathy Hill
              Aug 9      Beth Trowbridge
              Aug 16     _______________  (empty at this time)
              Aug 23    Clyde Boyer
              Aug 30     Denice Clyne

               
              Rotary Garden Schedule Mari-Anne Gross 2014-07-31 00:00:00Z 0

              Press for 30th Anniversary Health Fair

              Press for 30th Anniversary Health Fair 2013-10-23 00:00:00Z 0

              Exchange students bring outside world to Homer

              Exchange students bring outside world to Homer

               
              Published originally by Homer News October 10, 2013
              Exchange students Maximiano Mangue, Yusra Sahi and Sebastian Talamas are learning about life at the end of the road.  Photo by McKibben Jackinsky, Homer News
              Photo by McKibben Jackinsky, Homer News
              Exchange students Maximiano Mangue, Yusra Sahi and Sebastian Talamas are learning about life at the end of the road.
              By McKibben Jackinsky

              Meet Homer High School’s exchange students: Maximiano “Max” Mangue Jr. of Mozambique; Yusra Sahi of the Philippines and Sebastian Talamas Jr. of Bolivia.

              “Our current exchange students are sweet, respectable young men and women,” said Principal Doug Waclawski. “I’m glad they chose to come to Homer High.”

              Enrolled as seniors, the three 16-year-olds will participate in senior activities, including graduation ceremonies in May.

              Exchange students bring outside world to Homer 2013-10-23 00:00:00Z 0

              Mayoral Proclamation Celebrates KBay Rotary's work on Ben Walters Park


               
              August 12, 2013 City Council Meeting
              Photo credit: Michael Armstrong, Homer News

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

              Originally published by Homer News as:
              HOMER KACHEMAK BAY ROTARY CLUB TAKES PARK UNDER ITS WING

              By McKibben Jackinsky

              The little park on the shores of Beluga Lake began getting a facelift over the weekend, thanks to the Homer Kachemak Bay Rotary Club and the city of Homer's Adopt-a-Park Program.

              In 2011, the club officially adopted Ben Walters Park, next to McDonald's. Rotarian Dave Brann managed to get a few flower bulbs planted before the ground froze. On Saturday and Sunday, Brann was joined by other Rotarians Charlie Welles and Kathy Hill, who hauled out paint and brushes and began putting fresh color on the exterior of the park restrooms.

               

               

              Rotarians Dave Brann, Charlie Welles and Kathy Hill put fresh paint on the restrooms at Ben Walters Park.

               

              Photo Credit: McKibben Jackinsky, Homer News

              Mayoral Proclamation Celebrates KBay Rotary's work on Ben Walters Park Heather Beggs 2013-08-15 00:00:00Z 0
              Milli Martin Named Rotarian of the Year Karrie Youngblood 2013-07-11 00:00:00Z 0

              Thought of the week

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood on Jul 04, 2013

              “People are often unreasonable and self- centered,

              Forgive them anyway.

              If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives,

              Be Kind anyway.

              If you are honest, people may cheat you,

              Be honest anyway.

              If you find happiness, people may be jealous,

              Be happy anyway.

              The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow,

              Do good anyway.

              Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough,

              Give the world the best you have anyway.

              For you see, in the end, it is between you and God.  It was never between you and them anyway.”

              Mother Teresa

               

              Thought of the week Karrie Youngblood 2013-07-05 00:00:00Z 0
              Welcome to the 2013-14 Rotary Year! Heather Beggs 2013-07-01 00:00:00Z 0

              2013-2014 Board

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood on Dec 27, 2012

              Hi Everyone,

              Please thank the following people for stepping up into leadership rolls for our club in 2013-2014 Rotary year.

              Heather Beggs President,

              Marie McCarty President Elect,

              Karrie Youngblood Past President,

               Peter Larson Vice President,

              Mary Ann Rowe Secretary,

               Sharon Minsch Treasurer,

               Katie Koester Director,

              Rick Abboud Director

              Boyd Walker Director. 

              2013-2014 Board Karrie Youngblood 2012-12-28 00:00:00Z 0

              Special Dates

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood on Dec 25, 2012




              Anniversaries

              Anniversaries

              Craig and Gayle Forrest 40 Years Dec. 31st.



              Club Anniversaries

              David Brann, Mike Cline, Peter Larson and Carol Swartz

              Special Dates Karrie Youngblood 2012-12-26 00:00:00Z 0

              Labor Day Party at the Gordon's

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood on Jul 05, 2012
              Mike and Shelli Gordon has invited us once again to their home in Halibut Cove on Labor day Sunday Sept. 2. 
              Please mark your calendars and be on the look out to register for this event. 
              Labor Day Party at the Gordon's Karrie Youngblood 2012-07-06 00:00:00Z 0

              The Great Potato Contest Has began!!

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood on Jul 05, 2012

              1.     The Great Potato Contest has began!

              Maynard has purchased and organized the supplies for our Great Potato Contest.  Each participant was given a 30 gallon Extra Heavy Duty Glad Trash Bag, with some starter soil in it, along with 2 seed potatoes. The bags have been taken home and will be nurtured through the summer, and at harvest time in the fall, at a Big Barbecue Party.   The potato bags would be brought to the Great Weigh-In.  After proper honors for the top Rotarian Potato Grower, strangest potato, etc.  We will bag-up and distribute the potatoes to Haven House and the Community Food Bank. .    INSTRUCTIONS can be found at

              http://www.diynetwork.com/how-to/how-to-grow-potatoes-in-a-trash-bag/index.html

               

              The Great Potato Contest Has began!! Karrie Youngblood 2012-07-06 00:00:00Z 0

              Mayoral Proclamation Celebrates Rotary's work on Ben Walters Park

              Photo credit: Michael Armstrong, Homer News
               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

               

              August 12, 2013 City Council Meeting

              Photo credit: Michael Armstrong, Homer News

               

              HOMER KACHEMAK BAY ROTARY CLUB TAKES PARK UNDER ITS WING

              (as originally published in the April 26, 2012 Homer News, by McKibben Jackinsky)

              The little park on the shores of Beluga Lake began getting a facelift over the weekend, thanks to the Homer Kachemak Bay Rotary Club and the city of Homer's Adopt-a-Park Program.

              In 2011, the club officially adopted Ben Walters Park, next to McDonald's. Rotarian Dave Brann managed to get a few flower bulbs planted before the ground froze. On Saturday and Sunday, Brann was joined by other Rotarians Charlie Welles and Kathy Hill, who hauled out paint and brushes and began putting fresh color on the exterior of the park restrooms.

              "I was looking for donations for money to go toward a park from Rotary," said Dave Brann, who, in addition to being a Rotarian, serves on the city's Parks and Recreation Commission. "I donated $200 of my own money and was looking for a match."

              Brann found his match and then some, with a Homer Kachemak Bay Rotary Club donation of $500. Club members also were specific about which park they wanted their efforts to benefit.

              "Everybody liked Ben Walters Park," said Craig Forrest, president of Homer Kachemak Bay Rotary Club.

               
               
               
               
               
               
               
              Photographer: McKibben Jackinsky, Homer News
              Rotarians Dave Brann, Charlie Welles and Kathy Hill put fresh paint on the restrooms at Ben Walters Park.
              Mayoral Proclamation Celebrates Rotary's work on Ben Walters Park Karrie Youngblood 2012-06-19 00:00:00Z 0

              Rotarians make special delivery

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood on Jun 18, 2012

              And 'kindle' a connection with Nanwalek students

              By McKibben Jackinsky
              Staff Writer Homer News 

               


               

              Photo by McKibben Jackinsky

              Nanwalek High School students Xavier Romanoff and Jay Green become familiar with Kindles Fires as Homer Kachemak Bay Rotarian Kathy Hill looks on.

              The small, 500-volume library of Nanwalek School got a boost the morning of April 26. A big boost, thanks to 30 Kindle Fires, e-readers capable of holding up to 45,000 books each. Not bad for a school of less than 90 students.

              The gift was made possible by the efforts of Nanwalek School Principal Scott Handley, members of the Homer Kachemak Bay Rotary Club and Craig and Gayle Forrest of Tech Connect, a Radio Shack dealership in Homer. Funding came from a $1,900 grant from Rotary International District 5010, $2,000 from Kachemak Bay Rotary Club with an additional $200 for screen protectors, and $2,000 from an anonymous donor in Nanwalek.

              The Kindles, each one already containing 20 books, were personally delivered to the school last week by Rotarians Milli Martin, Debbie Dauphinais, Kathy Hill and Sharon Minsch, who traveled to the Cook Inlet village by Mako's Water Taxi.

              "I just want to thank Rotary for their support to make this step possible for our students. Rotary partnerships have helped Nanwalek students achieve. Thank you to all that have helped make this project possible," said Handley.

              Rotarians make special delivery Karrie Youngblood 2012-06-19 00:00:00Z 0
              Clyde and Vivian goes on canoe trip down the Yukon. Karrie Youngblood 2011-07-20 00:00:00Z 0

              The Rotary Garden at the Homer Library

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood on Jul 14, 2011

               

              The new Rotary plaque at our garden!  Great job Peter and Flo! What a wonderful place to sit, relax and enjoy the day.

              Rotary Garden 1  

              Rotary Garden 3  

              Rotary Garden 2
              The Rotary Garden at the Homer Library Karrie Youngblood 2011-07-15 00:00:00Z 0

              Tips to successfully growing Potatoes

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood on Jun 07, 2011

               

              1. A consistent water supply is crucial to potato plants, especially in the early weeks. Plant your spuds early enough to take advantage of spring moisture but not until after the threat of hard frost has passed. Soil needs to be 45 degrees or warmer for the potatoes to grow and send out shoots. Potatoes will rot in soil that has too much moisture, so don’t plant too early.  Provided by Karrie
              2. If sack is to be placed on bare ground, to protect from weeds and grass, set it on either thick layer of newspaper or typar if available.   That will prevent unwanted benficiaries of the nice soil. Provided by Milli
              3. A few weeks after planting, you’ll notice green leaves poking out of the ground. These are your potatoes growing exactly as they should. It is important at this point to “hill” the potatoes. The process is easy, doesn’t take much time, and is critical to the success of your potato crop. When the plant’s green leaves appear, add a couple of inches of soil, creating a small hill around the plant. Mound up another inch or two of soil about once every 2 weeks, depending on how rapid the growth is, keeping an eye on where the plant’s stem emerges from the ground. Use caution, and don’t bury the leaves, as they need sunlight and air to continue maturing.

              Tips to successfully growing Potatoes Karrie Youngblood 2011-06-08 00:00:00Z 0

              World Health Fairs - A Rotarian Action Group(WHFRAG)

              Posted by Will Files on May 31, 2011

              World Health Fairs - A Rotarian Action Group(WHFRAG) held its annual meeting at the RI Convention in New Orleans. Health Fairs in Russia have taken on a life of their own.  Since the award of the three year 3H Grant in the fall of 2006, Health Fairs have been started in seventeen Russian cities. Now that the Rotary grant is completed. Past District Governor Nadia Papp of D2220 (Western Russia) reported that the Russian Government has funded a mandate to provide preventive health programs. Homer Kachemak Bay Rotary's seed has produced much fruit.

               

              World Health Fairs - A Rotarian Action Group(WHFRAG) Will Files 2011-06-01 00:00:00Z 0
              The 27th Health Fair will be November 13, 2010 at Homer High School Tina Day 2010-09-29 00:00:00Z 0
              A MESSAGE FROM DISTRICT GOVERNOR JANE LITTLE Tina Day 2010-09-29 00:00:00Z 0

              ITHF WEBSITE

              Posted by Steve Yoshida on Oct 09, 2008
              New International Traveling and Hosting Fellowship website
              ITHF WEBSITE Steve Yoshida 2008-10-10 00:00:00Z 0

              Rotary Volenteers in Library Lexile Project

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood

              KathyPeter

              Peter

              Lexile Project

              We have now completed this phase of the Lexile Project-it was a great success:

              ·         Of the 20,000 books in our library, we imported the lexile level of 10,000 books through the add on leveling programs

              ·         We researched the lexile level of 10,000 books and entered those numbers into the computer.

              ·         Cheryl Illg created over 120 color coded lexile label templates in increments of 10

              ·         We labeled  the 15,000 books in our library that had a lexile level

              ·         We collaborated across districts and through different community groups and libraries in Homer, throughout Alaska, and across the Lower 48.

              ·         I have prepared a notebook of book titles with their lexiles and a memory drive with the label templates for schools that may want to take on this project

              Hours put into this project:

              ·         160 hours –Teacher time through stipends

              ·         160 hours – Volunteer time (Community members, Delta Kappa Gamma, Homer Kachemak Bay Rotary, parents, students, graduates from West Homer, staff after hours)

              ·         30 hours –Lexile Reading Specialist from Kodiak volunteered her time to train our staff

              ·         24 hour of sub time for three teachers to receive the initial training

              ·         Cheryl and I happily put in many volunteer hours to ensure seamless completion of this project (We had fun and learned a lot!):

              o     Researching  and speaking with other schools and libraries using lexile

              o     Organizing, printing reports and labels, and preparing  for the workers

              o     Learning the different computer programs and talking to the different tech crews in order to mesh programs

              ·         Tech hours--Tony Mika and Casey Olsen took care of our computer needs

              ·         Administrative hours—Jean Calhoun took care of all our financial and office needs

              ·         District Library Supervisor Karla Barkman put in extra volunteer hours to see the project through

              We were able to raise over $3,000 through fundraisers and donations to acquire the SRI/Reading Counts computer programs and corresponding 250 student licenses. Although we used some of this money for materials for labeling and Ray Marshall allotted the initial startup material costs, we did get donations as well.

              Donated items:

              ·         Tape machine and tape

              ·         Label stock

              ·         Items for fundraisers

              Current status of Lexile Project extension:

              ·         We have passed the boxes of labels to the classrooms so that the teachers can label their classroom libraries: 2 classrooms have completed this task. 

              ·         Students have scheduled to take home boxes of labels to label their home libraries.

              ·         Both the SRI and Reading Counts programs are installed and pushed through to the West Homer computers with easy access icons on the desktops.

              ·         Students are in the process of taking the SRI test to identify their lexile level.

              ·         We are in the process of entering each student’s lexile level into the ALEXANDRIA library system so that the students may sign into the library researcher and make their own book lists at their level and of their interests.

              ·         We are using the information in SAM (the lexile management program) to identify and enter into ALEXANDRIA different concepts/aspects of mentor texts for teacher easy access. (For example we are identifying the books that would be good for modeling the persuasive essay, main idea, Cause and effect, compare and contrast, inference, narrative, etc…)

              ·         All new books are lexiled and categorized  as they come in for student and teacher easy access

              The hard work and dedication of the West Homer Staff made this project possible.

              Thank you for all your support,

              Lisa Whip

              West Homer Library

              Rotary Volenteers in Library Lexile Project Karrie Youngblood 0

              Community Service Opportunity

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood

              Our club is helping West Homer Elementrary implement theri Lexile Library program.  They will be meeting on Saturday at West Homer Elementary from 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM.  All hands are welcome. 

              Contact Milli at millimon@xyz.net if you have any questions. 

              Community Service Opportunity Karrie Youngblood 0

              2012 Great Pototo Race

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood

              Well the club did better than last year!  We grew just over 42 lbs of potatoes for the Food Pantry and collected $120 dollars to donate. 

              This years winner is Charlie Wells who grew 8.3 lbs and also had the largest potato weighing in at 15.05 oz.  Great job Charle! In second was Clyde Boyer with a total weight of 7.3 lbs and the sencond larges potato at 14.95 oz.

              Great Job everyone and I look forward to doing it again next year!

               

              2012 Great Pototo Race Karrie Youngblood 0
              Rotary Club of Bysk - Playground. Maynard Gross 0
              2012-2013 Rotary Theme Karrie Youngblood 0

              Karrie's Vacation

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood

               

              Image

              Here is Tary and I on the bike we rented for our trip to the Northwest coast trip. We rode 2525 miles, went through 12 states and Canada in 22 days.  We were lucky and only got rained on two of those days.  The rest of the time it was in the 70-80 degrees and beautiful out.  There was a lot more country than urban sprawl than I had imagined, it was the first time I had been to this area of the US, except for DC and New York City.  It was beautiful country with the fall colors in all their glory. 

              But I missed home badly, nothing compares to the beauty of Kachemak Bay! 

              Karrie 

              Karrie's Vacation Karrie Youngblood 0
              And the winner of the Great Potato Race is!! Karrie Youngblood 0
              Homecoming Class of '10 Maynard Gross 0

              Greetings from the 2008 RFE team from New Zealand!

              Posted by Heather Beggs
              Hello from New Zealand! See the photos tab on the home page (upper left) for pix of the 3 couples who visited Homer in summer 2008 from the Plimmerton Rotary Club. I had dinner with them Saturday night and they all send their hellos to the Homer-KBay Club (and request more visitors)!
              Greetings from the 2008 RFE team from New Zealand! Heather Beggs 0
              Long Chuan, China Village Health Fairs Tina Day 0
              Update from Allison Capps exchange student in Ecuador Boyd Walker 0

              Happy New Year From Panda

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood
              story thumbnail
              Steve is in Thailand for the New Year.  He had the opportunity to visit with Panda our exchange student in 2007-2008 year.  Panda would love to hear from us.  I will get her contact information and send it out to all!
              Happy New Year From Panda Karrie Youngblood 0

              PS Happy New Year

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood
              contuned websites visited by The Rotary Club of the Howe of Fife,

              Scotland

              11) 26/10/04 San Vincente, Santa Fe, Argentina                                 www.rotarysanvicente.org.ar/

              12) 30/11/04 Temuco Frontera.Temuco,Chile.                                    www.rotaryclubtemucofrontera.cl/ 

              13) 25/01/05 Tingo Maria, Huanuco, Peru                                          www.rotarytingomaria.org/

               
              PS Happy New Year Karrie Youngblood 0

              PS Happy New year

              Posted by Tina Day

              PS I've added a summary of the clubs we have visited- does your club website address remain as detailed?

              Perhaps you may prefer also that I use a general contact email address for your club if so, do let me know.

               "Tour History"

               

              PS Happy New year Tina Day 0
              New Year Wishes Tina Day 0

              Bringing Water indoors.

              Posted by Will Files

              22\.12.2009

                Dear Rotary Leader,

              Greetings and best wishes to you.

               

              I am happy to inform you that, Rotary District 3150 has implemented a Huge Water Project with a cost of US $ 135,410

               

              We have done this project with the support of the Rotary Foundation, Rotary Club of Daven Port in RI District 6000, USA.

               

              Our District is thankful to Centennial District Governor Rtn. Bill Tubbs, Rtn. Bill Aston, PDG Calvin J. Litwiller, Rtn. Chris Lunardi, Rtn. Rachel Litwiller who played a very  crucial part in conceptualising the project and raising the resources for the project.

              Bringing Water indoors. Will Files 0

              Letter from Steve Yoshida in Hawaii

              Posted by Steve Yoshida
              story thumbnail

              Hi All,

               

              Here is an article from the Hilo RC bulletin:

               

              The Club's Newest Member. Russ Oda shared the impressive resume of Steve Yoshida, a retired lawyer originally from Los Angeles, California, living in Homer, Alaska, and soon to be living in Hilo. He graduated from UCLA with degrees in Mathematics and Physics and earned his law degree at UC Davis. He practiced commercial law in Alaska for 25 years.

              Steve joined the Homer-Kachemak Bay, Alaska Rotary Club in 1986 and served as club president 1986-88 (Yes!) and has since had a stellar career as a leader and volunteer in Rotary, initiating various Rotary programs for Rotary International and volunteering as a Rotarian to teach law in Kamchatka, Russia, and photography in Thailand. 

               

               

              Letter from Steve Yoshida in Hawaii Steve Yoshida 0
              Thank you from Scholarship recipient Karrie Youngblood 0

              Special Recognitions

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood

              Birthday.jpg

              Special Dates in November

               Happy Birthdays

              Ron Keffer, November 16

              Happy Aniversary

              Steve and Noko Yoshida, November 7

              Club Aniversary's

              Maynard Gross and Clancy Hughes 14years

              Doug Johnson 8 years

              Katie Koester 2 years

              Marie McCarty 1 year

              Special Recognitions Karrie Youngblood 0

              District 5010 Leadership Academy

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood

              District 5010 Leadership Academy

              Our club has 3 graduates from the Academy course.

              Just a correction from last week, Will Files is an instructor for the course.  Peter Larson and Bryan Zak are graduates

              District 5010 Leadership Academy Karrie Youngblood 0

              E-mail and photo from Thai School

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood
              story thumbnail
              Sawadee kha,

              How are you?

              We have a short holiday we call "Buddhist holiday". We went to the temple to make merit together.
              We gave yellow ropes, foods, flowers and candles to the monk. In the Buddist lenght the monks will stay in the temple.
              They can not go too far away and stay over night. So it take 3 months. They will have meditation in the temple.

              We went to the temple on 3 afternoon. Then we went back home on 4 morning and we will come back to school on 13 July.

              I hope to hear from you nakha.

              Aphinya

              for more photos look under photos Thai Buddhist Holiday.  You can also e-mail them back at aphinyagan@hotmail.com
              E-mail and photo from Thai School Karrie Youngblood 0

              Suksasongkraw Maechan School

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood
              story thumbnail

              With Steve's idea of getting laptops into this school and his work with Thailand Rotaries, They brought not only laptops to this rural orphanage/school they also figured out how to get wireless Internet access to them. It is really amazing what Steve initiated here.  With our matching grant of $1000 they were able to leverage around $16,000 in grant money for this project.  

              Photo is Steve with some of the students at the Laptop Dedication ceremony in Thailand. You can also catch a video on youtube at

              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe0JruEXA54

              Suksasongkraw Maechan School Karrie Youngblood 0

              Rotary helps Relay for Life

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood
              story thumbnail

              Rotarian and co-coordinatorDenice Clyne and her husband Roger walking in American Cancer Society's Relay for Life.  For more photos of Rotarian's who participated look under the photo journal section. Behide the scenes photographer, co-coordinatorTina Day.

              Rotary helps Relay for Life Karrie Youngblood 0

              Club Visioning

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood

              Our Meeting on February 20th was a great success!  See the following for the Mission statement and goals that were developed for the next 5 years. See the full Power Point Presentation log into the website, go to the Admin section.  Then to my club runner.  The second from the bottom under my club runner is View Club Documents.  Visioning is #30.

              Homer-Kachemak Bay Rotary

              2009-Club Visioning.

              Long term goals and vision

              Club Visioning Karrie Youngblood 0

              25th Annual Health Fair a Great Success

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood

              What a wonderful Health Fair we had this year!  Thanks to a well oiled machine lead by Sharon Minsch!  This year was our 25th Anniversary of Rotary putting on the Health Fair and what a fantastic turn out we had!  Over 1000 people came to the Health Fair and more than 500 people took advantage of the opportunity to get their blood draw early at the hospital lab.  To veiw photos go to next page

              25th Annual Health Fair a Great Success Karrie Youngblood 0

              To the Open World Community:

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood
              Recent events surrounding the outbreak of hostilities in the Caucasus have seen tensions rising 
              between the United States and Russia. 
              To the Open World Community: Karrie Youngblood 0

              Youth Exchange Fall Orientation

              Posted by Boyd Walker
              story thumbnail
              Katie, Heather, Boyd, Siina and Brennan attended the annual fall orientation for our youth exchange program. There were numerous educational sessions for both the students and the Rotarians involved in youth exchange. There were 52 students from 21 countries accompanied by about 30 Rotarians involved in the program. The highlight of the trip was a raft and kayak trip on the Matanuska River. Everyone had a great time, and the students started their exchange by developing friendships with other students from around the world. "World peace through understanding" will become a reality through the cross cultural experiences and friendships our program offers these students. See the photo album for some more pictures.
              Youth Exchange Fall Orientation Boyd Walker 0
              Garrett McCarthy, Exchange Student/India Blog Boyd Walker 0
              2008-2009 5010 District Conference Karrie Youngblood 0

              Morgan's Brazil BLOG

              Posted by Heather Beggs
              story thumbnail
              Our exchange student, Morgan Edminster, posts comments and photos on her experiencs in Brazil. Check it out at: text (Click "text" link or paste http://morganedminstersyouthexchange.blogspot.com:80/ in your browser)
              Morgan's Brazil BLOG Heather Beggs 0

              Member Highlight Peter Larson

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood
              story thumbnail

              Peter Ellsworth Larson

              Peter graduated from Mandan High School in 1958.  He went on to earn a Bachelor's of Science Degree from Dickinson State University, Dickinson, North Dakota (1963).  Upon completing his degree he taught mathematics at Bismarck High School for one year (1964-65).

              Member Highlight Peter Larson Karrie Youngblood 0

              Member Highlight Cinda Eckert

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood
              story thumbnail

              Born and raised in northeastern Pennsylvania, Cinda is the oldest of three siblings.  She has fond memories of living in close proximity to her grandparents and cousins throughout her childhood.  In 9th grade her family moved to Colorado where she would graduate from Broomfield High School, start college at Denver Metropolitan State College and meet her husband Rick of 20 years.

              Member Highlight Cinda Eckert Karrie Youngblood 0

              Volunteer Opportunity In Fiji

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood

              Early Childhood Education for women and children in

              disadvantaged areas of the Fijian Islands

              Clubs Involved:

              Rotary Clubs of Alaska, USA

              Rotary Club of Suva East, Fiji Islands

              Rotary Clubs of Queensland, Australia

               

              Aim:

              Provide an early childhood education center (ECE Center) with kindergarten and preschool classes, teacher training in early childhood education and hands on training in construction skills for villages<

              Volunteer Opportunity In Fiji Karrie Youngblood 0

              New Library Rotary Garden

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood

              Flo and Peter Larson have graciously volunteered to put in the new Library Rotary Garden. Not only are they donating their time to put it in, they are donating all the plants! They are working on the project today 07/11 through the weekend and hope to have it completed by Tuesday 07/15.  If you are interested in helping out contact Flo at 235-5646.  I am sure they would like all the help they can get. 

              Look for pictures of finished garden in the near future!

              New Library Rotary Garden Karrie Youngblood 0

              Steve Inducted at RI Convention in LA

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood
              story thumbnail

              Steve was inducted as the President of the

              International Traveling and Hosting Rotarians for 2008-10.

              To see more photos of the Rotary International Convention in LA look under Photo on the home page.

              Steve Inducted at RI Convention in LA Karrie Youngblood 0

              Make Dreams Real 08-09 Rotary Theme

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood
              story thumbnail
              Lee asks Rotarians to 'Make Dreams Real' for world's children

              Rotary International President-elect Dong Kurn Lee addressed incoming district governors today at the 2008 International Assembly, urging them to use their resources to help curb child mortality. Lee said he was in disbelief when he learned that 30,000 children under the age of five die every day from preventable diseases such as pneumonia, measles, and malaria.

              Make Dreams Real 08-09 Rotary Theme Karrie Youngblood 0
              Member Highlight Maynard Gross Karrie Youngblood 0

              Rotary Friendship Exchanges Summer 2008

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood

              We have 5 Rotary Friendship Exchange groups scheduled to visit Alaska and Homer this summer.

              1.  Lampong Thailand - 13 people - May 11-14 after the District 5010 Conference

              2.  South Africa - only one person so far - July 3-5  

              3.  Wellington, New Zealand - 4 couples - July 18-20 

              4.  Maechang, Thailand - 12 people - early August  

              Rotary Friendship Exchanges Summer 2008 Karrie Youngblood 0

              Member Highlight Will Files

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood
              story thumbnail

              "Would you be willing to host a Japanese Friendship Exchange participant?"

              "I'm busy, sorry," Will responded.  A few days later, "We're desperate, the Japanese visitor will stay with you for a week."

              Member Highlight Will Files Karrie Youngblood 0

              Rotary and Haven House

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood

              The Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay first became involved with the South Peninsula Haven House in 2006.  In May 2006 club members renovated the children's playroom with new paint and new window treatments. Additionally we donated a TV stand, bookshelves, TV, DVD player and new artwork.  As a finishing touch we furnished the room with new toys, games, movies and books.  The new room was a great success.  Our goal was to create a safe and fun room for their client's children to enjoy during a stay at Haven House.   To learn more about the South Peninsula Haven House visit their website at http://www.havenhousealaska.org/index.htm

              Rotary and Haven House Karrie Youngblood 0

              Member Highlight Lorna Olson

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood
              I joined Rotary in 1988 when Wayne Kessler was president.  At this time, there were only two or three women in the club.  I do want to remind everyone, that our club was among the very first to not only accept women in Rotary, but went out and encouraged women to consider membership.
              Member Highlight Lorna Olson Karrie Youngblood 0

              MEMBER HIGHLIGHT Carol Swartz

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood
              story thumbnail

              Joined our Rotary club in 1987; Peter Larson sponsored me.

              Born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island.

              Spent 15 summers in Maine and New Hampshire as a "professional" camper and camp counselor/waterskiing instructor.

              Besides camp, other great childhood memories include going to museums and the theater, being a Girl Scout and selling cookies, southern RI beaches, eating lobster, clams and hot fudge sundaes.

              MEMBER HIGHLIGHT Carol Swartz Karrie Youngblood 0

              News from Ingrid

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood
              Hi Karrie,
              Would you please share this letter with the club.  Ingrid was our exchange student 2003-04.
              Thanks,
              Boyd
              News from Ingrid Karrie Youngblood 0

              Member Highlight Bryan Zak

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood
              story thumbnail
              Retired from the Air Force after 18 and 1/2 years. This was the early out so that I did not have to spend a tour in Korea. My last assignment was with the On-Site Inspection Agency where I escorted Russian inspectors to variouis military bases in the United States to inspect our weapons for compliance with the START and INF treaties. In return, I was on a team that was able to visit Russia and inspect their weapons. Other duties in the Air Force included inculating a change that embraced "Quality" Air Force wide.
              Member Highlight Bryan Zak Karrie Youngblood 0

              Thailand 07

              Posted by Steve Yoshida
              story thumbnail

              Steve & Noko - volunteers in Thailand

              For more photo's please go to photos

              Thailand 07 Steve Yoshida 0

              Kathy Hill/Mexico Disaster relief

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood

              I have been in contact with Bryan concerning the devastation that is still occurring in the states of Tabasco and Chiapas, Mexico. Bryan sent me a copy of the memo from Maynard solciting funds for this project. I have a close tie with this district as I served as a volunteer a couple of years ago in Villahermosa,Tabasco. I have been in touch with my friends there. They are all safe, thankfully but my school and the surrounding area have been heavily hit.

              Kathy

               The following is the letter sent out by our club to all Presidents in the District. To date we have collected $444.00 from our club, it is not too late to donate.

              Kathy Hill/Mexico Disaster relief Karrie Youngblood 0

              Rotary Club in Scotland Continued

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood
              story thumbnail
              I have had a brief visit to your own website and I'm impressed with the range of activities. I'm sure you make quite an impact in your community.  You look as if you enjoy yourselves at the same time which is the real secret for success.
              We intend toasting the health of the Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay at our club meeting on the evening of Tuesday 27th November.  Before this date I will have circulated our members, details of your club website and what contact I have received: <
              Rotary Club in Scotland Continued Karrie Youngblood 0
              Visit from Rotary Club Howe of Fife, Scotland Karrie Youngblood 0

              Our batting average!

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood
              Our batting average is about .333. For the National Baseball League that would be pretty good, but for health fairs it's not so hot.
              Our batting average! Karrie Youngblood 0
              Health Fairs Continued Karrie Youngblood 0

              Homer Rotary Health Fair

              Posted by Will Files
              The Homer Health Fair started in 1984 through the efforts of Donna Fenske and her husband John.  She is a Public Health nurse, John was a Rotarian.  I believe that the first year event was run by the Alaska Health Fair organization, but Boyd Walker felt we could do the same thing they did, and not pay them the fee for doing the leg work.  The rest is history as we enter our 24th year of service to the community.  We now partner with the South Peninsula Hospital, which provides a vital depth of service with the blood tests, exhibits, and their education department.
              Will
              Homer Rotary Health Fair Will Files 0
              RFFA Mention In London Financial Times Karrie Youngblood 0

              Thank you from Austalians

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood
              story thumbnail

              July 15, 2007

               

              Dear President Noko and Past District Governor Steve

               

              Thank you so much, to you both, and to the club members of both Homer clubs, for such a wonderfully warm welcome to the members of the District 9780 Rotary Friendship Exchange team.  We had so very much looked forward to being there with you and it was even more superb than we had envisaged. 

              Thank you from Austalians Karrie Youngblood 0

              Steve Yoshida fishing in Colorado

              Posted by Karrie Youngblood
              story thumbnail

              Here is Steve fishing in Colorado.  He is at the home of Jerry and Joyce Meddel who have donated the their home in Silverthorne Co. for our new fundraiser.

              Steve Yoshida fishing in Colorado Karrie Youngblood 0