District 6440 Membership SeminarClub members Dr. Robert Steinberg, Dr. Zenobia Tantra, Dessie Panomitros & Marianna Zeidler attend and connect with Rotarians from across District 6440 at a New Member Orientation event at Rotary International headquarters in Evanston, Illinois. The day ended with a tour of the newly remodeled One Rotary Center.    |
Governor's Visit |
Michael McGovern Addresses End Polio Now (Click on the image to access Michael's complete presentation)Past Rotary International Vice President and current Chair of the International End Polio Now Committee, Michael McGovern gave us an update on Rotary’s End Polio efforts and challenges. Rotary has been working to eradicate polio for more than 35 years. As a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, we have reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent since our first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979. The eradication of polio is Rotary’s longest standing and most significant effort. Along with our partners, we have helped immunize more than 2.5 billion ... Pakistan and Afghanistan had been the two countries where Polio immunizations were not quite possible. Unfortunately, an increase number of cases have been recently detected; four cases in Mozambique … even when Africa was declared polio free in 2020. Now, the first U.S. case of polio in nearly a decade has been confirmed in an unvaccinated individual in Rockland County, N.Y. Polio is a very contagious, life-threatening viral disease that causes permanent paralysis in people who are not fully vaccinated in about 5 out of every 1,000 cases. Most of the U.S. population has protection against the disease because they were vaccinated during childhood. But in areas with low vaccination coverage, such as the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Rockland County, people who are not vaccinated are at high risk. There is no treatment for polio, but vaccination prevents the disease. State health officials on Monday confirmed that Rockland County's polio case is genetically linked to samples found in wastewater around Jerusalem and in samples taken in London. The person with polio in Rockland County had never been vaccinated against the virus. Mike stated that the optimism that Rotarians show, brings hope. The battle continues and funds should continue to be raised to match the challenge. Help from the Gates Foundation, private organizations and individual advocates, make the promotion of vaccines and immunization campaigns possible. Read more: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/polio/hcp/vaccine-derived-poliovirus-faq.html ∙ https://www.rotarygbi.org/magazine/august-september-2022/the-polio-bombshell/ |
Rotary’s Network: Rapid Humanitarian Relief for Ukrainian RefugeesThe war in Ukraine is having devastating consequences on civilians as families flee their homes. According to the United Nations, more than 5 million people, most of them women and children, have sought refuge in neighboring countries and across Europe, while about 7 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. Because of our generous donors, The Rotary Foundation has received more than $15 million in contributions that will be prioritized for disaster response grants. |
Immigration & Refugee Services Emily Parker, a second-year Masters student in the refugee and forced migration studies program, is a refugee resettlement caseworker with Catholic Charities of Chicago. Parker works to provide refugees housing and address other immediate needs within the first months of arriving in the U.S. Catholic Charities agencies across the country have been helping resettle refugees from Afghanistan. Chicago’s influx of Afghan refugees has overwhelmed aspects of the city’s resettlement infrastructure, leaving gaps in support services. “No one anticipated the Afghanistan situation, it all happened incredibly abruptly,” Parker said. “So, we have kind of just had to roll with the punches and completely transform our resettlement team.” Catholic Charities USA’s approach to migration is rooted in that all persons have the right to find in their own countries the opportunities to live in dignity and the right to seek work elsewhere in order to survive. Sovereign nations have the right to control their borders while affording protection to refugees and asylum seekers and respecting the human dignity and rights of undocumented migrants. In addition to providing essential services to immigrants and refugees to the U.S., they advocate for policies that protect family unity and allow newcomers to contribute to and more fully participate in their new communities. Click on the image to share in our club meeting, and view her whole presentation. |
First Club Meeting of 2022 |
Karnataka Haemophilia Society Recognized Working with an established very local NGO with a record of service is a big bonus for our GC 2119212 global grant, that made possible the Rotary Mobile Medical Van that will provide needed attention to local Hemophilia patients.The project inauguration was honored by RI President Shekhar Mehta and First Lady Raashi Mehta on October 20th when visiting our international partner District 3160 (Hosapete) in India. See previous news below. Today, the recipient of the Rotary Medical Van, the Karnataka Haemophilia Society will be recognized with the Karnataka Rajyotsava State Service Award. The ceremony takes place today in Bangalore, India. |
October 24 World Polio Day Join us for World Polio Day as global health experts and partners share our progress on the road to polio eradication. World Polio Day was initiated by Rotary International over a decade ago to commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk, who developed a vaccine against poliomyelitis. The annual number of wild poliovirus cases has declined by more than 99.9% worldwide from an estimated 350,000 in 1988 when the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched. Of the three serotypes of wild poliovirus, type 2 was certified as eradicated in 2015 and type 3 was certified as eradicated in 2018. Your contributions count by saving a life at only $3 per child. Our Rotary District 6440 has just launched its PolioPlus Society. Your annual pledge of $100 per year until the world is declared polio free earns our membership. Learn more and click HERE To join District 6440's PolioPlus Society; "Charter Membership" opportunity until June 30, 2022.
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Food for Life- Enriching the Nutritional Lives of Families in Need
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Global Grant for Hemophilia Treatment Delivers Our club's first Global Grant #2119211 budgeted at $41,419 for a Mobile Medical Van for Hemophilia Patients becomes a reality. RI President Shekhar Mehta and First Lady Raashi Mehta are visiting our international partner District 3160 (Hosapete) in India, on the 20th of October, and personally inaugurate the Mobile Medical Van that day. India with nearly two hundred thousand cases is estimated to have the second highest number of patients with hemophilia, a lifelong bleeding disorder that prevents blood from clotting. Despite improvement in the medical technologies for the treatment of hemophilia, health experts believe that nearly 80 per cent of Indians with the serious blood disorder are not diagnosed due to the absence of proper diagnostic facilities in the remote areas. [India Healthworld, April 2019] Project spearhead Happie Datt and International Service Chair Raman Grover have been coordinating the details of this project with our fellow Rotarian partners in the India District 3160. The Rotary Mobile Medical Van is surely welcome in that community, in ways that only those that were once hopeless can now appreciate. |
Rotarians Give Forward Our club's sponsored high school graduate Adriana Ulloa Alonzo was awarded the $1,500 District 6440 Vocational Scholarship towards a Baking and Pastry Arts AAS Degree at the College of Lake County. Adriana's goal is to change the "unhealthy" stigma that baked pastries have ... her dream is to develop recipes for healthy cakes! Additionally, Educate The Children, a charity founded by Marco Island Rotarian, Prem Advani, donated a new laptop for Adriana to start classes this month. Adriana had been an ETC Recognized student in 2019. Educate The Children is a 501.c.3 charity that has been helping further the education of over 1000 underprivileged children in over 10 countries since 1999. educatechildren.org. This month the laptop was presented by 2003 RYLA International participant, and long time ETC volunteer, Christine Arason who currently teaches Math at the high school Adriana graduated from. While a Junior in high school, Christine Arason had been a youth exchange student candidate slated to travel in 2001. Fate had it, that September 11 happened that year and the youth exchange dream was scrapped. However, Christine joined the Interact Club and after graduation, she became the first RYLA International participant from our Rotary District 6440 and travelled to Brisbane, Australia in 2003. She has been volunteering for Educate The Children ever since, and now ... 20 years later, on the anniversary of that fateful year, hope is transferred forward to younger students that start new dreams and build their lives! |
Roar To Soar Young Speakers Pilot Delivers Success Early March, Rotarians from the NE Chicagoland Passport and Lincolnshire clubs teamed up with the Daniel Wright Toastmasters Club to test the feasibility of a speakers’ program for teens. The Roar to Soar was created as a pilot program, tailored to introduce teenagers to an interactive learning experience aimed at developing speaking and communication skills while helping others in the youth group to develop theirs. Hosting the program through Zoom sessions was a first. Students from five different high schools in Lake County, Illinois volunteered to participate after a couple of orientation meetings. Eight sessions followed, covering topics such as Ice Breakers, Impromptu Speaking, Listening & Evaluating, Organizing Your Speech, Gestures in Speaking, Voice & Vocabulary, Interviews ... ending with a Show Your Skills session run entirely by the students which took place May 17, 2021. Our initiative is aimed at encouraging Rotary clubs to engage their Interact clubs with a similar program. The results are extremely rewarding. Full credit for the success of this program is given to students Alexandra Berns & MeiLi Tompson from Libertyville High School, Nathan Knoll from Antioch Community High School, Gina Li from Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Aditi Thota from Aptakisic Junior High School in Buffalo Grove, and Adriana Ulloa-Alonzo from Zion Benton Township High School. |
RIPE Shekhar Mehta Addresses Club Rotary International President Elect Shekhar Mehta provided an update on the current Covid crisis in India, and encouraged us to continue to serve under the programs supported by The Rotary Foundation. [Click here to Watch Video]Our club is currently involved in a Global Matching Grant project for the treatment of hemophilia in India which India is estimated to have the second highest number of patients with hemophilia, a lifelong bleeding disorder that prevents blood from clotting. In addition to our local distinguished guests, current District Governor Lyle Staab, and Rotary International Director-Elect Pat Merriweather-Arges, today's morning meeting was attended by our club's international project partners in India, Davangere Rotarian Vishwazith Jadhav, and Past Rotary District 3160 Governor K. Madhu Prasad. This Hemophilia Project is led by club members Happie Datt and Raman Grover. At closing of the meeting, PDG Madhu expressed the urgent need for Oxygen Concentrators that those affected by Covid could use at home. Hospitals in India are already overcrowded, understaffed and their equipment can hardly meet the demand of the number of needy patients. The availability of home units could ease the burden of the healthcare system while patients could be cared for in a familiar environment.
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Rotary’s Response to the 1918 Flu Pandemic
This is how Rotary responded to the influenza pandemic that began in 1918 and came in three waves, lasting more than a year. The Rotary Club of Berkeley, California, USA, meets in John Hinkel Park during the 1918 flu pandemic. |
Rotary at the Start of the United Nations
During World War II, Rotary informed and educated members about the formation of the United Nations and the importance of planning for peace. Materials such as the booklet “From Here On!” and articles in The Rotarian helped members understand the UN before it was formally established and follow its work after its charter. Many countries were fighting the war when the term “United Nations” was first used officially in the 1942 “Declaration by United Nations.” The 26 nations that signed it pledged to uphold the ideals expressed by the United States and the United Kingdom the previous year of the common principles “on which they based their hopes for a better future for the world.”
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History of Women in RotaryWomen are active participants in Rotary, serving their communities in increasing numbers and serving in leadership positions in Rotary. The 1989 Council on Legislation vote to admit women into Rotary clubs worldwide remains a watershed moment in the history of Rotary. “My fellow delegates, I would like to remind you that the world of 1989 is very different to the world of 1905. I sincerely believe that Rotary has to adapt itself to a changing world,” said Frank J. Devlyn, who would go on to become RI president in 2000-01. The vote followed the decades-long efforts of men and women from all over the Rotary world to allow the admission of women into Rotary clubs, and several close votes at previous Council meetings.
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First Club in Philippines Opens Door to Rotary in Asia
The club would be the only one in the country for more than 12 years. Eventually, Manila club members organized Rotary clubs in the Philippine cities of Cebu (1932) and Iloilo (1933). Iloilo club members then started a club in Bacolod (1937), and Rotary continued to expand across the country. |
Young Inventor Eco-Friendly Bricks Come Full Circle
Every hero has an origin story. “I was 10 years old when the entire journey started,” explains Binish Desai. It began with a cartoon called Captain Planet, an animated TV series from the 1990s about an environmentalist with superpowers. Desai can still recite the show’s refrain: Captain Planet, he’s our hero / Gonna take pollution down to zero! “That tagline stuck in my mind,” he says. “I wanted to do something to help Captain Planet.” Full Circle Video |
An estimated 500 million people worldwide became infected. Many cities closed theaters and cinemas, and placed restrictions on public gatherings. Rotary clubs adjusted their activities while also helping the sick.
Rotary and the United Nations have a shared history of working toward peace and addressing humanitarian issues around the world.
In early 1919, Rotarian Roger Pinneo of Seattle, Washington, USA, traveled to the Philippines to try to organize a Rotary club in Manila. Leon J. Lambert, a Manila business leader helped Pinneo establish the club. Several months later, on 1 June 1919, the Rotary Club of Manila was chartered and became the first Rotary club in Asia.