Rotary eBulletin , October 7, 2014

Top of the week:

Club vote on board of directors' resolution to approve up to $20,000 from Ray P. Jones fund to be used on the Strawbery Banke/Puddledock Rink project.  

This vote will be conducted by paper ballot this Thursday at Rotary after a quorum has been affirmed, with the results announced before the end of the meeting.   Because our meeting time is extremely limited, if you have questions that were not answered last week please phone or send an email to President Tricia or any member of the board of directors.  For further information on this vote please see the article in last week's eBulletin, which remains on the home page of portsmouthrotary.org (you don't even have to log in to find it, just scroll down on the home page), and refer to the supplemental information sent by email to all members last Thursday.

PolioPlus End Polio Now BridgeWalk

by Susan M. Gold

Polio is personal, particularly to Ann Lee Hussey. Many New England Rotarians are familiar with Ann Lee’s story, but for those who are new to Rotary, it’s a story that is personal to all of us. She was diagnosed with Polio when she was a toddler in 1955, a few months after the polio vaccine was distributed. Thankfully, she’s recovered since then.

Ann Lee has committed to do everything possible to eradicate Polio, and with Rotary International’s decades long mission to do the same, we can all work together to Close the Gap. Only 3 countries are polio-endemic: Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. These hardest-to-reach areas make up the final 1%. We must eradicate this debilitating disease because if polio rebounds, more than 200,000 children worldwide could be paralyzed every year within a decade.

Here’s where you come in: Saturday, October 25^th, join us for a symbolic walk across our new Memorial Bridge in Portsmouth. Donate $30 and you be a part of BridgeWalk and proudly wear your End Polio Now t-shirt. Bring your family, your neighbors and friends. And here’s the best part: for every $25 donation contributed through Rotary, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will DOUBLE it by contributing an additional $50 donation for a total of $75!

Let’s all walk the bridge to keep children walking around the world. Let’s eradicate Polio in our lifetime!

Event details: Arrive at 8:30 A.M. on October 25th at Memorial Bridge; BridgeWalk at 9 A.M. 

To make an online donation: please go to rotary7780.org

To join us for the walk: register at our weekly lunch meeting; we're taking pledges and payments and signing up a team of participants.   The board of directors has already signed up, and we've raised over $2,000 to-date, which will qualify for an additional Gates Foundation match of over $4,000.   Last year, our club members donated over ten thousand dollars to PolioPlus, so your pledge in any amount will make a huge difference.

Preview the event with this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GN7cz78m7s

For more information: contact Susan Gold or Dave Underhill at Portsmouth Rotary, or event chair Susan von Hemert, Seacoast Rotary Club of Portsmouth via email at susanvonhemert@gmail.com

Tree Project Sign-Up Time!

Since there's not enough going on at our club yet, here's another sign of fall: sign-up for your Christmas Tree shift, beginning this Thursday at Rotary.   VP James Petersen's the king of scheduling this year, and he'll have sign-up sheets and procedures in the back of our meeting room.  All Rotarians are required to work three shifts on this project.   It's part of the three-way test of a good Portsmouth Rotary Club member: pay your dues, make your attendance, and sell trees.   Thank you!

Last week's Rotary meeting log follows, as reported by Dick Seery.

​Photographs by Jim Rini. Full slideshow here: http://www.clubrunner.ca/portal/Journals/JournalDetails.aspx?accountid=6644&jid=61304