Rotary Log for Thursday August 15th, 2019
 
 
Hello fellow Rotarians, happy Thursday! Our still new and shiny president Leo opened the meeting at 12:15. Visiting Rotarian from Rotary International Julia Phelps led us in song, while Lindsey Hery read a nice upbeat invocation.
 
Guests.
 
Nicole Scarneo invited Heath Wilson.  We were lucky to host Julia Phelps along with our speaker Mike McGovern from Rotary International Foundation. 
 
 
Leonard Seagren brought Sateesh, who lives in India and volunteers on board one of the Tall Ships that recently came to Portsmouth.
 
Happy Dollars.
 
Our President Emeritus’ daughter Eleina is 11 today. That’s worth eleven bucks!...Francois Meissner’s son got a 3rd place in sheep shearing. Who needs a haircut?.….Yours truly is proud of her husband Matt. He passed his P&C insurance test and will work with Cleo and Aileen.  No more studying!
 
Announcements.
 
North Conway Rotary plans on packaging 30,000 meals on September 14th!...Next year’s Rotary International Convention is in Honolulu in June, bring sunscreen…Rotary Rocks is on October 5th in Portland, Maine this year! Mark your calendars…Cross Roads and Salvation Army is looking for volunteers, please sign up!...Leonard Seagren needs volunteers for the Belize water project.
 
Seacoast Rep is offering Rotarians two free tickets to Neil Simon’s “Sunshine Boys” August 29th to September 8th.  Enter code “sunshinerotary” at checkout…The Rotary Foundation has received a $5000 donation in the name of James Labrie….Program Chair James Petersen has said thank you but no thank you to Tony Delyani.  Tony has not been able to invite any Democratic Party 2020 candidates!...Marie Brownell, our returning Golf Tournament Chair, announced that next year’s Tournament is June 26th.
 
 
John Lyons won the $44 raffle and sorry not a match.
 
The Program.
 
James Petersen came up to the podium for the third time today to introduce our speaker Mike McGovern. Mike belongs to the Rotary Club of South Portland-Cape Elizabeth and was the 1999-2000 district governor. He is now a Rotary International Director and Rotary Foundation Trustee, serving as Chair of the Rotary International PolioPlus Committee.  Mike’s last visit to our club was 20 years ago.  He sat next to George W. Bush, whom he described as class act. And that’s even after Mike shared that he is a die-hard Democrat.
 
 
Mike discussed the Foundation’s efforts to 100% eradicate Polio.  In Nigeria and all of Africa, it’s been three years since the last case was reported, which is great news. But recent cases in Afghanistan and Pakistan this year are worrisome.
 
Mike describes that after our own Ellen Labrie’s visit to Ethiopia, a woman named her newborn baby after her.  Some of the Rotary Foundation’s efforts include donating constructing a laboratory in Nigeria. This is where the last case of Polio was found. The Foundation delivered 70 wheelchairs and organized national immunization days.  Last year $51-million dollars was raised and matched by the Gates Foundation.
 
 
It was profound to hear that there are now eighteen million children who don’t have Polio because of Rotary’s efforts.
 
President Leo closed the meeting with the Four Way Test as we dispersed back out into the world.
 
Respectfully submitted, Yvonne Legge
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