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July 18: Mike Wilcox (right) and past District
Governor Mike O'Brien.
PAUL HARRIS FELLOW PRESENTATION: District
7070 has honored our own Mike Wilcox with a Gold Pin and Paul Harris
Fellowship, in recognition of his many years of service to Rotary, both at
the Club and District level. Congratulations Mike!
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7/18/02:
CHARITIBLE DONATION TO ROTARY
INTERNATIONAL: Sherm Whitney introduced the Club to our honored guests,
Anithma and Elton Ireland, who just placed $50,000 in a Charitible Remainder
Trust because of a good deed performed for them many years ago by the
Bainbridge Rotary Club. This means that upon their death, the sum of
$50,000 will be paid to the Permanent Fund managed by the Rotary
Foundation. That money will be considered a permanent endowment, and the
interest will be used to fund the various projects of Rotary International.
The good deed was performed in 1971 after the Ireland’s barn burned down.
At the suggestion of Ken Benson and Al DeClue the members of the Club took
hammer and saw in hand and rebuilt the Ireland’s barn. They never forgot our
good deed, giving proof to the old saying: “what goes around, comes around”. |
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July 25: Helen Hernandez
introduced the Mohamed Family, including husband Mohamed, his wife Reda and
their children: Merawan, Ahmed and Marwa (Taman) Since Mohamed and Reda
don’t speak English very well yet, their daughter, Marwa, did the
translating. The family left Cairo, Egypt in 1987 and came to New York
City, where they lived for about 13 years. Mr. Mohamed owns a food vending
company and moved to Bainbridge seeking a better environment for his family.
Thanks,
Helen, for and interesting program. We wish the Mohamed family the best and
welcome them to our community. |
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theme of their presentation was that Islam, Christianity and Judaism have a
great deal in common, and that Islam is not a religion that promotes
hatred. Simply stated, their religion has five basic beliefs: There is but
one God, and Mohamed is his prophet; pray four times a day; give to the
poor; fast during the holy months; and try to visit God’s home, Mecca,
during your lifetime. They believe that Christ existed, but was a prophet,
like Abraham before him and Mohamed, after. During the question and answer
period, they stated that violence was not a tenet of their faith, and that
those who espoused violence were not familiar with the teachings of the
Koran and were promoting false religious values among the uneducated. |
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August 8:
 | THE PROGRAM:
Michelle Shirkey (left) introduced Elise Barber, Peter Sterchek and Toby
Hawkins, who recently attended the RYLA program at Hartwick College in
Oneonta. Activities included SCUBA diving, creation of a music video and
scrapbook making. Mostly, however, it was about meeting new people who
had similar interests. Favorite speakers included one of our former
foreign exchange students, Duke Fisher, whose topic was Anger Management.
As always, our students reported that they had a great time and learned a
lot about themselves. Judging from the reports we get, this is a Rotary
Program that seems to work – year after year! |
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8/22/02: Dr. William Cadwalder [left]
with President Wayne Burnett.
Mike Wilcox introduced Bill Cadwalder, a
veterinarian from Cortland and long-time Rotarian. Bill is a Past District
Governor (PDG) of District 7170 and also a Director of Rotary
International. Bill was also National Coordinator of Polio Plus – which was
his topic.
In 1982, Rotary undertook a campaign to eliminate polio around the world
by the year 2005. Polio was virtually eliminated in the United States by
1962, thanks to Dr. Salk, who developed a vaccine administered by shot in
1952, and Dr, Sabin, who was responsible for the oral vaccine introduced in
1956.
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The initial goal
of Rotary was to raise 125 million dollars and vaccinate 500 million
children worldwide. As it turned out, 247 million dollars was raised and 5
billion children around the world have been vaccinated. Rotary has spent
over 500 million dollars so far in the fight against polio.
When the Polio Plus
Campaign began, polio was endemic in 130 different countries. Today, polio
is found in only 10 countries. Before, approximately 350,000 children per
year contracted polio - as compared with only 442 last year.
For various political
reasons and in order to facilitate distribution of the needed vaccine,
Rotary acts in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF,
and the Center for Disease Control (CDC).
At the present time, the
world is 99% polio free. However, this presents a problem. If polio is not
eradicated entirely, a whole new generation of children around the world who
have never been inoculated will be at risk of contracting the disease.
That’s why Rotary plans to raise another billion dollars between now and the
year 2005 (when Rotary celebrates its 100th anniversary) in order
to finish the job it started. 600 million dollars have already been
pledged. Another 400 million is needed. Of that amount – 80 million needs
to come from Rotary. |
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8/29/02: Robert Grantham,
District Governor Visit from left to right:
Ken Baldwin, President Wayne Burnett, District Governor Robert Grantham. Front
Center: Linda Watson.
District Governor Bob Grantham made his annual official visit to our
Club. Bob began his remarks by acknowledging the contributions
made by our Club to the District over the years. We have two past District
Governors: Carl Hutchinson and Ken Benson. Mike Wilcox has served the
District well as Student Exchange Chairman. Three of our members have also
served as GSE (Group Study Exchange) Team Leaders: Ken Benson, Tom Margrave
and Mike Wilcox. |
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Bob then next took us by surprise by
announcing that our featured speaker two weeks ago, Bill Cadwallader, is
one of several nominees for the office of President of Rotary International,
and Bob wanted our Club to endorse his candidacy. When the suggestion was
made that it would be an honor to have one of our own serve as President of
Rotary International, the motion to support Bill’s candidacy was adopted by
those present. Bob told us Rotary International has several specific goals
this year. They include: a global quest for increased membership, the
fostering of high ethical standards for those in positions of power, the
eradication of Polio world-wide, the development of effective clubs (those
that address the needs of their community and the world), support for the
Rotary Foundation, and an effort to develop leaders beyond the community
level.
Goals for each of the 43 Clubs within
District 7170 include: Becoming an “Effective Club”; the development of
inter-Club cooperation; increasing membership to include more persons of
color and persons with disabilities; increasing local participation at
District and International events (such as encouraging attendance at the
R.I. Convention next year in Chicago – when we celebrate the 100th
anniversary of Rotary); generating work groups to promote District projects;
developing a Strategic Planning Committee to decide where the District
should be going in the next five years; and achieving recognition as a
Rotary Citation District, which occurs when at least half the Clubs in the
District have received recognition as “Effective Clubs”
Did you know that the President of Rotary
International this year is Bhichai Rattakul from Thailand, and that Rotary
International’s motto this year is “Sow the Seeds of Love”? Good advice
during troubled times. |
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