Month: June 2012

Just a reminder that the Rotary Foundation’s offer of double points for those enrolling in the recurring giving program ends June 30. The Rotary Direct program has options for monthly, quarterly or annual contributions. Rotarians accumulating 1,000 points earn a Paul Harris Fellowship.

Club coordinator Heather Farr recaps this first year of Rogers Rotary’s
involvement in Junior Achievement at Hassan Elementary.

Rogers Rotary made it possible for each 3^rd grade class to participate
in Junior Achievement this year. Four Rotarians volunteered their time to teach the “Our City” lesson plans. The volunteers worked with the students once a week for five weeks to teach the students about careers, skills needed for specific jobs, and how businesses contribute to a city. 

Thank you to Chuck Christian, Michael Vetter, Dave Christian, Floyd Ingersoll, and Hiram Stratton for volunteering during this first year! To continue during the 2012-13 school year, we will again need four volunteers. Interested? Email heather@visionstaffingsolutions.com.

Junior Achievement  empowers young people to own their economic success. The volunteer-delivered program supports K-12 to foster work

readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy skills, and use experiential learning to inspire kids to dream big and reach their potentials.

Despite the dramatic drop in polio cases in the last year, the threat of continued transmission due to funding and immunization gaps has driven the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) to launch the Global Polio Emergency Action Plan 2012-13.

The plan aims to boost vaccination coverage in the three remaining polio-endemic countries — Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan — to levels needed to stop polio transmission.

India, the nation facing the greatest challenge to eradication, was removed from the list of polio-endemic countries by the World Health Organization. Outbreaks in previously polio-free countries were nearly stopped.

However, polio outbreaks in China and West Africa, due to importation from Pakistan and Nigeria, threaten resurgence. Failure to eradicate the disease could lead  to paralysis of as many as 200,000 children per year worldwide within the next decade.

“Polio eradication is at a tipping point between success and failure,” says Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of WHO. “We are in emergency mode to tip it towards success — working faster and better, focusing on the areas where children are most vulnerable.”

For STRIVE students, it’s the ultimate goal — winning a scholarship for improved GPA. For Rotarians, parents and teachers, the year-end banquet is a celebration of motivation and improved life skills — things money can’t buy.

Come to the STRIVE Scholarship Banquet on Wednesday, June 6 at 9:30 a.m. (following graduation rehearsal) at Broadway Pizza. Congratulate the grads, the STRIVE facilitators, and all who encouraged these youth to complete the 2011-12 program.