Our speaker, Brian Finley, Chair "End Polio" for District 5040, provided a description of polio, plus a history of Rotary involvement from 1979 and brought us to the present with a year to date status of "7" worldwide wild polio virus cases. This is a far cry from the times there were 1,000 children a day affected by this terrible plague. For new Rotarians and old, there was much to absorb in Brian's presentation. National Immunization Days (NID's) still are in play (NID video). He explained how polio vaccine must be distributed to every child in affected countries, a logistical nightmare, because so many are most difficult to count, most difficult to reach and how many new births are added each year. He also related how many volunteer workers risk their lives to distribute the vaccine. With each "live" case, and as long as polio exists, the potential to spread across the globe still prevails.
To mark Brian's visit, a $5,000 cheque to Rotary Foundation for End Polio was presented to Brian. This will be remitted to The Rotary Foundation, and in so doing, our Club will more than meet our goal for End Polio this year. Brian was also informed of the "My Dream" Charity Show on October 7th, partial proceeds from which will also be directed to End Polio. Past President Eric Wang from Rotary Club Sunset was present and spoke most passionately for support of the Oct 7th show at the River Rock.
 |  |
Other guests today, Franco Gallo from Rotary Club Vancouver talked about the Nov 18 District Foundation Dinner, Branden Yu and Harry Jung from Rotary Club Vancouver Cambie invited us to their Oct 7 Korean Thanksgiving Fundraising Dinner Show, plus Jacqueline Ho who will be inducted next week.
Visitor Branden Yu won the bottle of Rotary Foundation wine, by drawing the Ace of Hearts, in front of a full house at the Rotary luncheon today. Nice attendance from Rotarians today, only 8 club members missing.
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |