Rotary Club of Brandon
The Rotary Spring Book Sale was a big success thanks to the incredible work of our Rotarian and Non-Rotarian volunteers. A Book Sale volunteer wind-up was attended and some received unexpected honours.
Verne Saunderson, Jane Neil and Trudy Hemstad were given the Paul Harris award for community service. This is Rotary's highest honour.
Verne Saunderson has volunteered at the Rotary Book Sales for 3 years. His dedication to serving Brandon literacy is well noted. He not only picks the books up at Co-op Heritage Grocery twice a week, he also goes to the “Palace” and sorts donated books. He has been “on call” for sundry jobs that Marty may ask him to do. This includes, going with Marty to pick up extra-large book donations or free pallets in Oak Lake!
Jane Neil offered to help Trudy with the Book Sale volunteers. She was able to set up the email lists and also the required email communications that were sent out before the Fall and Spring sales. As my “assistant” volunteer coordinator, she frequently reminded me of the required communications. In additions, Jane manages the Third Age Learning Cooperative’s website and has been very active documenting street signage in Brandon as it relates to the Women of Brandon. The Riverbank’s Bee Friendly flowerbed began as a project she worked on as a member of the Bee City Committee. Jane Neil is working to keep our Brandon Community strong. Congratulations Jane!
President Alan Moulin, who has kept Rotary strong though COVID is in the background.
Trudy Hemstad (left) is a Rotarian who has been the go to person for Book Sale volunteers for many years, managing the scheduling, as well as organizing other aspects of the sale like washing the aprons and ensuring COVID requirements were met at the most recent sales. In order to find volunteers during COVID, she used her connections from the Rotary Grants committee. Trudy phoned every organization Rotary had made donations to, and requested support which she was very successful in finding. The book sale email list now has 163 volunteer contacts 58 of whom worked at the most recent sale!
While on the Grants Committee, she spent hours with organizations, helping them complete the required Grant Request forms and visiting the facilities before and after grants were awarded. Congratulations Trudy!
Verne's wife Lynda who has also spent time volunteering is next to Trudy.
Volunteers from Ashley Neufeld Softball Park have been supporting the Book Sale for years now and this year was no different! Thanks for your support once again it is much appreciated.
Jane speaks with former Rotary Exchange student Chris who moved to Brandon from Australia. He understands the good that Rotary does, first hand!
Past President Chuck LaRocque and Bernie Chrisp enjoying some Rotary fellowship at the volunteer event.
One of the ways a Rotarian receives a Paul Harris, is by donating to the Rotary International Foundation and PolioPlus programs. The RI Foundation allows clubs around the world the opportunity to use donated funds to increase the community impact by matching the funds raised by local or international clubs. Marty Snelling, the Rotarian who stepped up 3 years ago to manage the Book Sale has done just that. In fact, he had donated so much in the past year that he received 2 pins.
In addition, he has chaired the Book Sale Committee that ensures that the necessary work that goes on all year and the two book sales happen without a hitch. He named our book storage building “The Book Palace” even though it is barely warm enough to sort books in! He has given us the direction and support needed to make the Spring Book Sale the best one ever. This Rotarian understands Rotary's model of Service above Self, he is truly the King of the Palace! Congratulations Marty!
Congratulations to these incredible volunteers and many thanks to all who made the work of actual sale light work.
The book bins are back
* Heritage Co-Op Grocery - Richmond Ave
*Sobey's West End
*Home Hardware
*Co-Op Gas Bar on 18th Street
(north side of the building)
*Superstore
Thanks so much for dropping your books off and
for shopping at the
Spring Rotary Booksale.
It was one of our best ever!
Thank you to all who volunteered, your help was appreciated!
The Next Rotary Booksale will be
September 8, 9, 10th 2022
Polio Eradication
A Rotary Success Story
Every year Rotary Clubs around the world celebrate World Polio Day on October 24 as global experts and partners share our progress on the road to polio eradication.
Rotary has been working with a public-private partnership led by national governments with six partners – the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Gavi (the Vaccine Alliance) as part of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative to eradicate polio for more than 35 years. Our goal of ridding the world of this disease is closer than ever.
As a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, we’ve reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent since our first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979.
Rotarians have contributed more than $2.1 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect nearly 3 billion children in 122 countries from this paralyzing disease. Rotary’s advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by governments to contribute more than $10 billion to the effort. Locally, our Club in Brandon has contributed to this campaign annually since its inception in 1985.
Rotary’s participation in the program, known as Polio Plus, was formally started in 1985 through the Rotary International Foundation and continues today. Two drops of serum on the tongue of a child at a cost of $3, protects a child for life! The scope of the annual program is reflected in the numbers from 2017 when 430 million children were vaccinated in 39 countries.
Today, polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But the caution is that it’s crucial to continue working to keep other countries polio-free. If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyze as many as 200,000 children each year.
Information on Global Polio Eradication Initiative is accessible on the initiative website (https://polioeradication.org/who-we-are/). My thanks to the Brandon Sun for providing us the opportunity to share this Polio Plus program information with your readers and my thanks to all who support our club in our many community service projects.
Alan Moulin
President 2020-22
Rotary Club of Brandon #1344
Congratulations to Amenti Wakjira for winning the Rotary Club of Brandon's ACC Bridging Bursary in 2021
Rotary club’s display cases in the Main Concourse of the Keystone Centre club’s display cases.
The cases, gratefully provided to the club by the Keystone Centre, now offer the public updated information about our club and its ongoing activities in Brandon and Westman.The display also contains some of the club’s cherished artifacts, such as our original Charter, signed in 1921.
“If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to check it out, possibly you might find some time to take a look,” says Don. “I think you will find it interesting. The display cases graphically encapsulate just how active The Rotary Club of Brandon #1344 is.”
Any questions or comments are welcome, contact Don 204-729-7188
Ripple Effect is a Rotary District 5550 program through which Rotarians and other organizations and individuals in Canada can reach out to countries where children’s education is at risk. The program works in partnership with Rotary Clubs and communities in Guatemala to help build, equip and support schools for children in grades K to 6. Your donation to the Ripple Effect Program will help build and/or equip a school in Guatemala.
The Rotary Club of Brandon, along with other Rotary Clubs in Ontario and the Prairies have worked together to build a school in San Miguelito, to help reduce the incidence of illiteracy and poverty among the people of the area. Guatemala is not only one of the poorest countries, (Guatemala is geographically south of Mexico), but has the lowest literacy rate in Central America. The school has taken several years to build, with all work done by local people and supervised over all by local and Canadian Rotary clubs. Presently there are 5 classrooms, a computer lab, kitchen, washrooms, principal's office, storage along with a cemented playground, fencing and retaining walls. Needless to say, the school has become the meeting place of the town with a market and place for sports and recreation.
The ShelterBox program is an unbelievable program to give the opportunity to an individual or a group to be able to step up and give a huge amount of help to people in need.
For example, the Shelterbox provides sustained shelter for people dealing with disaster in the Philippines.
Shelterbox already has two response teams on the ground in the Philippines who are working with the help of Rotarians to provide emergency shelter and lifesaving supplies in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Haiyan.
ShelterBox delivers, the tent boxes shown above, or specific Shelter Toolkits for areas where repairs to homes are needed.
Some 90 countries have received ShelterBoxes. And more than 130,000 ShelterBoxes have been deployed since the Rotary Club project since 2000.
For some more info, see: http://www.shelterboxcanada.org/
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brotary1344@gmail.com
brotary1344@gmail.com
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RI President Shekhar Mehta is urging members to become more involved in service projects, saying that caring for and serving other is the best way to live because it changes not only other people’s lives, but also our own.
Service Above Self
Brandon, MB
Canada