Defeating an Archenemy Moriches Rotary of NY - 09-02-2005
Center Moriches, NY (September 2, 2005) If your perception of Rotary involves a bunch of middle-aged businessmen smoking after-dinner cigars in the backroom of an expensive restaurant, it?s time to take another look.
Rotary International is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. That means 1.2 million men and women of all ages, in 31,000 clubs in 167 countries, dedicated to fulfilling its motto: service above self. It means 100 years of providing life-saving surgeries to thousands of babies, awarding millions of dollars in scholarships and supporting a legion of charitable efforts.
Perhaps the most astounding and successful endeavor began about 25 years ago when Rotary International decided to eradicate the despicable disease of Polio. All those Rotarians in all those clubs came together to adopt a common goal: vaccinate the world?s at-risk children and defeat the dreadful, crippling disease.
Raising the 600 million dollars it will end up taking, motivating the hundreds of thousands of indispensable volunteers, logistics and finding millions of ?in-kind? donations almost proved less daunting than overcoming local political and parental opposition and superstition in some Third World countries.
?Sometimes it seemed like one step forward and ten steps backwards,? says Suffolk District 7260 Governor Fred Notter. ?We almost won the war against Polio and then, in 2003, we encountered a new battle.? Northern Nigerian Muslim clerics claimed that America was trying to eliminate their people by vaccinating their female children with sterilization drugs. Vaccinations in that area ceased and its cases of Polio doubled. The Polio strain spread to 16 other countries that already had beaten Polio.
As fate would have it, a Northern Nigerian had been elected Rotary International president that year. He stepped in with a compromise that allowed vaccine manufactured in another Muslim country, Indonesia, to be used. One year later, a well-known Nigerian politician publicly vaccinated his baby daughter and the immunization project resumed.
Unless Nigeria, the remaining pocket of infection, again resists, the disease should be wiped out within another year in that country and in the 16 re-infected countries.
Rotary is no longer ?your father?s Oldsmobile.? It is credible, dedicated men and women from your neighborhood who commit themselves to serving others on a local and an international level.
?Happy Birthday,? venerable friend.
About Rotary:
Rotary is a worldwide organization of business and professional leaders that provides humanitarian service, encourages high ethical standards in all vocations, and helps build goodwill and peace in the world. Approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 31,000 Rotary clubs located in 166 countries.
Rotary is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.
Our web site is http://www.morichesrotary.org
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For more information, please contact: Deborah Brown-Volkman
Phone Number : 631-874-2877
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