March 24, 2009
Henderson Rotary Club Meeting
Today’s Program
Rotarian Laura Reed is our host today. Louise Helton will lead us in a program on “Communities in Schools”.
Calendar Weekly Tuesday meetings are listed in red.
March 26 The “Gotcha Store” will be open at the Robert Taylor School.
Please let Dianna Fyke, (702) 565-1472, know if you can
help.
March 28 Our first fundraiser of the summer season will be held at the
Extreme Music Concert to be held at Spring Mountain Park
where we will be selling water from 6 P.M. to 1 A.M.
Volunteers should sign up at today’s meeting.
March 31 Past President Patrick Jordan will be our host. Judge
Douglas Hedger will inform us about “ABC Court”.
April 7 President Barrett Adams will bring us up to date on our
club’s activities.
April 14 Maureen Thibodeau will provide us with a second RYLA
program.
April 21 Patrick Jordan will introduce Mitch Schwartz of MBS Realty
who will discuss REOs, foreclosures and the current real
estate market.
April 24 That’s a Friday. We will hold a bike rodeo at the Robert L.
Taylor
Elementary School. About a dozen volunteer
helpers will be needed. See Barry Thibodeau for
details.
April 28 Myron Martin, President of the Smith Center of the
Performing Arts will provide the program.
May 5 President Barrett Adams will lead the first of the month’s
president’s meeting.
May 12 Author Scott Linklater will discuss the contents of his book
“How to Land A Job in Las Vegas: Don’t Gamble with your
Career”.
May 16 Anyone interested in the Mexico home-building trip see
Barrett Adams.
May 28-31 Rotary District Conference will be held at the Marriott in
Palm Springs.
Rotarians are welcome.
See President Adams for details.
Last Week’s Meeting (March 17, 2009)
Steve West introduced our speaker, Adrienne Cox, past President of the South West Las Vegas Rotary Club and Past Assistant Governor of District 5300.
Adrienne started her illustrated talk by flashing on screen the familiar Polio Plus logo. This was the subject of her discussion. Last year she was part of a 54-member Rotarian group from around the world (including 5 from District 5300) that went to India to study and participate in our Polio eradication project. They landed in Delhi and then traveled some 60 plus miles to a rural area. Although rural, it was very crowded. The streets were jammed with people, small cars, large trucks, camels and all kinds of hand drawn vehicles. Although in the United States it is common to keep our lights on to warn others of our presence, in India it is proper to continually blow your horn to let others know where you are.
She said that poverty is unimaginable by our standards. People live in shacks put together with whatever trash they can find. Stores, such as they are, are not much better. They are simply shacks with the owners living amongst the merchandise. With poor or no education and no birth control procedures, the population just continues to explode. She spoke of one location where 1.3 million people live within a single square mile. Sanitation is poor and one of the first things that this delegation did on arrival was to dig a trench to separate sewage from supposedly palatable water. Animals and cultivating tools are kept in buildings made of dung.
The Rotarians provided daily immunization opportunities for the populace and these were extremely popular. When polio plus started a decade ago, the procedure used needle injections. Then, a pill was developed and used successfully. Now, the simple procedure of putting two drops in the mouth suffices. The crowds did not line up, they simply mobbed the immunization stations. Mothers would often throw their babies over the heads of others to make sure that their kids got their protection.
All of the above, and much more, was illustrated by wonderful pictures shown on screen.