Zone Realignment

We have talked before about how Rotarians are organized into Rotary Clubs, Rotary Clubs are organized into Rotary Districts and Rotary Districts are organized into Rotary Zones.

We in District 5710 are currently part of Zone 29. The picture on top is a current depiction of Zones 29 and 30. Kansas to Ohio and Illinois to Louisiana.

During the last Rotary International Council of Legislation, it was determined that due to the declining membership in the US, we would have to eliminate a Zone and a realignment would be necessary to equalize the membership numbers among the Zones.

The map on the bottom is a depiction of the new Zone structure for the US. District 5710 will become part of Zone 27. Kansas to Idaho and Montana to Texas.

The Zone realignment will take place effective July 1, 2009.

Hurricane Damage in Haiti

Four hurricanes within a span of a month have caused massive flooding in Haiti, sending local Rotarians scrambling to provide help for thousands displaced by the storms.

Our very own Past District Governor Bill Kromer of the Leavenworth Rotary Club, participates in annual humanitarian trips to Haiti providing much needed medical, educational and nutritional aid to the citizens.

The situation in Haiti is very bad and they need our help right away. Having made so many trips to Haiti, knowing the problems they face on a daily basis and the extreme contitions these people are now facing, Bill is once again extending his knowledge of the area, people, politics and contacts he has made throughout the years to direct aid where he knows it will be used to help people and not be wasted.

Lets all join in this effort and send what we can to help the suffering in Haiti. Send the collected funds to (checks payable to: District 5710) our District Treasurer, Stan Teeter (address in the District Directory or on the District website). Indicate Haiti Relief on the memo of your check.

RI website story on Haiti:

http://rotary.org/en/MediaAndNews/News/Pages/080912_news_hurricanes.aspx

Rotary Expands Into a New Country

The Island Nation of Kiribati is the newest country to experience the world of Rotary. On August 11 2008 the Rotary Club of Kiritimati was chartered with 35 new Rotarians. The Islands of Kiribati are formerly known as the Christmas Islands. They are located in the Pacific Ocean, northeast of Australia. They gained their independence from the United Kingdom in 1979, official language is English and their major income is tourism.

A Rotarian from Commerce City, Colorado who had vacationed in Kiribati for years saw the potential for Rotary and with his club, was instrumental in the introduction of Rotary and the eventual extension of Rotary with the Kiritimati Rotary Club. Welcome.

End Polio Now

We Can Do it !!!

OK....lets just say you had been working to eradicate polio in the world since 1983. You had been working with the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. You were down to the last 1%....the hardest and most expensive part of the effort....

Now this new guy comes along and says, I believe in you. I believe in you so much that if in 3 years you and the other 1.2 million Rotarians in the world can come up with $100,000,000 that I will give you a matching $100,000,000 to finish your dream. And he believes in us so much that he has already given us his $100,000,000 !!!

Well, this guy (and his wife) is Bill and Melinda Gates and their Foundation.

Now all we have to do is have each Rotary Club (all 33,000 of us) donate $3,000 to our Rotary Foundation under the name of Polio in the next 3 years! Piece of cake !!! Now we know that there are some very small clubs around that could never make the $3,000. But we also know that there are some very large clubs that can make a lot, lot more than $3,000. So it will all even out. The main thing is that we do what we can, and do it as quickly as we can.

Many of you may remember donating to Polio eradication in the past. Some of us, 2 times. So this time, lets get everyone involved. And I don't mean just Rotarians, but the members of your community. Use the resources that Rotary has provided and educate our communities about Rotary's effort to eradicate polio. Set up fund raising events so they can participate and feel good about being part of the solution.

click on the title of this blog to get to the Rotary website, specifically the Polio section.

In 1988, 1,000 children a day were diagnosed with Polio.

In 2007, worldwide 1,315 cases were diagnosed the entire year!

That's progress!!

Think where we will be after this last push. Lets get out there and get this done !

More website links for Polio eradication:

http://www.rotary.org/en/EndPolio

http://www.polioeradication.org/