On October 13, 2017 the Winona Rotary Club held its regular Friday noon meeting at the Pizza Inn. President Jonathan Graves presided. Sixteen members and seven guests were present. President Graves presented Paul Bucurel, the Past District Governor of Rotary District 6820, as his program. Bucurel was assisted by his wife, Jen Bucurel, who is also a Rotarian and is now an Assistant District Governor.
Bucurel talked about the Rotary Foundation and he told the club all the ways that they could participate in the Foundation and its many good works. He said that he wanted to make the Foundation our “charity of choice.”
The Rotary Foundation supports projects in six primary areas: Peace and Conflict Prevention and Resolution; Disease Prevention and Treatment; Water and Sanitation; Maternal and Child Health; Basic Education and Literacy; and Economic and Community Development. That is undeniably a big mission, but the World is a big place, and the needs are great.
At present, the Rotary Club has around 1.2 million members scattered around the world in approximately 35,000 clubs, so we have a lot of people working on those problems and their solutions. That takes money - hence the Foundation.
I do not have space to itemize all of the projects that Rotary International is involved with, but I will mention a short sampling. Polio Eradication. When I was a child, there were children here in Montgomery County living in iron lungs because polio had robbed them of the ability to breath on their own. Other children who caught the disease were left to use crutches for the rest of their lives. Some of those are still living among us now.
Because of modern medicine and the work of the Rotary Club and others like the Bill Gates Foundation, Polio has been eradicated from all but two counties in the world, Afghanistan and Pakistan. We are so close. In 2017, there have been only 11 cases reported in those two countries so far. Rotary members are working there now, using the money raised by the Foundation, and we hope that by next year Polio will be gone forever. October 24 is World Polio Day.
Another is the Shelter Box Project which Rotary International partners with. A Shelter Box is a self-contained box that includes a family size tent, cooking supplies, solar lights and basic supplies to help a family until they can start the rebuilding process. The boxes are distributed to areas that have suffered natural disasters. After Hurricane Katrina, they were used in the Gulfport area., and today they are being used in Puerto Rico.
Locally, the Foundation, in cooperation with Mississippi Public Radio, assists the Winona Rotary Club with a literacy and reading program for preschool children called “Reading Between the Lyons.” Last year, our club had programs in three preschools in the Montgomery and Carroll County area. The children involved showed significant improvement in their reading abilities.
The Foundation also assists us in distributing a dictionary to every third grader in the county schools and a thesaurus to every fifth grader. A percentage of the money we raise for the Foundation comes back to our Rotary District and our Winona Rotary Club for us to use locally.
If you are interested in learning more about what the Rotary Club does and how the Rotary Foundation supports good works around the world, take a look at our website: www.rotary.org or ask a Rotarian. If you want to be a part of the work ask a Rotarian and they will tell how to join.
Next week, there will be a Club Assembly. You are invited to come and bring a guest and you are asked to remember the Rotary motto of “Service Above Self.”
