Today is a great day, the sun is out and it is the 116th Anniversary of Rotary. Also, the first dose of vaccine for Polio was administered to children today at Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, PA in 1954.
March is Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Month. So many good things that Clubs are doing and have to possibility to do. There are projects all over the world working with Clubs that are helping to bring clean water and sanitation stations to communities that need it. The CDC estimates that worldwide 780 million people do not have access to an improved water source. An estimated 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation (more than 35% of the world’s population!). An estimated 800,000 children younger than 5 years of age perish from diarrhea each year, mostly in developing countries. This amounts to 11% of the 7.6 million deaths of children under the age of five and means that about 2,200 children are dying every day as a result of diarrheal diseases. These statistics are staggering and we are and will continue to work on reducing these deaths and improve access to improved water sources and sanitization.
Speaking of water and the importance of clean water, I hope you and your Club will join me on April 24th for the Rotary Great Lakes Watershed Cleanup. Any amount of clean up helps with keeping trash out of our waterways which all flow to the Great Lakes. Approximately 20% of the freshwater of the world is located in our Great Lakes. This is a precious resource that we need to protect and with The Rotary Foundation’s new focus on the Environment starting on July 1 in the new Rotary year, we believe the clean-up will be a great kick start to the year.
To pick out any special occasion or moment in my year as Centennial District Governor would be difficult. The whole year, as we celebrated the 100th year of Rotary was amazing.
I recall the Club meeting where PDG, Bruce Dewhirst, and the directors of our club, encouraged me to run for the 2004 -2005 District Governors position. I was a bit hesitant, as I felt somewhat unqualified, but Bruce had a way of encouraging someone to be a leader in our District.
We started the training at 2 Zone Insitute's because our District was in 2 zones at the time, and then to International Assembly in Anaheim California, when I realized what a privilege and honor this was to represent our District 6290, as Centennial Governor and what a year it was.
The R.I. president was Glenn Estess, the theme that year was Celebrate Rotary, and that’s what we did. The International Convention was held in Chicago in June of 2005 and many of our Rotarians from our District attended. If you were part of our District Conference that year, you will recall that the conference was held in the fall of 2004 and that we held it on the train that runs north into the Agawa Canyon. You didn’t have to move from session to session, you just stayed in your seat and the speakers moved from one coach to the other.
There are many things in the Centennial year that I was proud of. But one that stands out more than others was The Seabrook Challenge. This was a fundraiser for every Rotarian in the district to support the clean water initiatives We committed to place 1000 bio-sand water purification systems in homes in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Honduras. With the leadership of Jim and Sue Bodenner from the Rockford club, and other committee members, we were able to accomplish it and more. Benjamin Franklin once said, "When the well is dry, we realize the worth of water."
What I am most proud of are all the Rotarians in our District that stepped up and supported the cause. There were a number of districts's around us who also joined in to support The Thirsting to Serve water initiatives continued on for many years after.
I was privileged to join Rotary in the fall of 1977. My employer was a Rotarian and I was working as a manager in his Automobile Dealership. I was invited to a meeting by one of the Rotarians and 2 weeks later was inducted into the Rotary Club of Sault Ste Marie North. I've been a Rotarian for 44 years now, with perfect attendance for the last 34 years. I served in many positions in our club. I was President of our club in 1999/2000 and will be President again for the 2021/2022 year. Over the years we hosted many exchange students and it was through that, and their desire to serve, 3 of my 4 children joined Rotary. Carolyn our oldest, is employed by Rotary as The Major Gifts Officer for the Rotary Foundation and her husband Richard is a member of the Ancaster Ont. am club. Both of their children were exchange students. Rotary is a big part of my life, It gives me the opportunity to give back and serve others in our community and around the world.
Over the years our world changes. Rotary changes also. But one thing that never changes is the words of the 4-way test. It was what Rotary was founded on and it will carry us through these difficult times.
Remember our theme for this year Rotary opens Opportunities and there are going to be many opportunities as we move forward in this coming year from this Pandemic.
Cara Galbavi is the Rotarian that the Spring Lake Rotary Club would like to highlight. Cara has been an absolute Rockstar for our club in the midst of a pandemic. When covid hit, she jumped right in and came up with a solution for our club to still be able to meet weekly via Zoom. At the same time, she took over the role of president-elect for our club. We all know how difficult being a president-elect is even in a normal year with no pandemic. She has found a way to put an amazing speaker in front of our group every week. Our club attendance at Zoom meetings has been steadily increasing since the beginning months of Covid, and I believe that is in large part because of Cara's dedication to the club. Cara is always one of the first people to step forward for our club in times of need and helps anyone she can. She truly is one of the main reasons our club has been able to keep moving forward even in these difficult times.
Betty Carpenter is one of White Cloud Rotary’s longest-serving active members. Many would tell you that our club would have folded without her dedication and commitment. She was inducted in 1993 by then-District Governor Norm Valiquette. Norm lit a fire in Betty for the Life Leadership conference and she has been the club’s Chairperson ever since. She works with the high school to ensure we have two students every year and even drives them herself if necessary. Betty says “it so rewarding to see the students return with such excitement and hope for their futures”.
Except for three years, Betty has also been the club Secretary every year! That is an amazing feat in itself! Our club celebrated its 50th year anniversary in 1996 and appropriately Betty was President that year. She also organizes our annual February Rotary Anniversary Dinner and helps with every project she is able to.
Betty has always been an active leader in the community. She has been a board member for the Newaygo County Tourist Council for 20+ years as well as organizing the first Relay for Life event in Newaygo County while President of the Newaygo County Cancer Society. While on the board of Habitat for Humanity she donated both land and many hours of labor.
Betty and her husband, Jerry of 28 years were married in what is now White Cloud Rotary Park. She is excited that the club has adopted the park and built a pavilion and replaced the landscaping there, “people need to see as well as hear about all of Rotary’s good works”. Betty has three grown sons and is retired from a long successful career in Real Estate. She is truly an example of someone who puts service above self.
Margaret Potter worked for International Business Machines (IBM) her entire career, first in Lower Michigan as a Systems Engineer and finally as the Director of a Global e-business Technical Solutions team in Dallas Texas.
Margaret joined the Metroport Rotary Club of Southlake in 2009. She was a member there for 10 years. She was the Public Relations Chair, Secretary for 3 years, and President in 2013-14. She also worked for the Region as an Assistant Governor for 6 clubs and as a member of the Regional Foundation team. Margaret moved to Charlevoix and joined the Rotary Club of Charlevoix in 2019. She began Secretary there in 2020-21. She is a Rotary Major Donor and member of the Paul Harris Society
The Great Lakes Watershed Cleanup initiative is an effort to focus attention to the Great Lakes and to all the great work that is being done to cleanup our lakes, streams, and waterways. Through the coordination of many associated clean up events, to be held around the week of Earth Day, our goal is to make this the single largest series of linked clean up events ever planned and held during this one period of time on the Great Lakes.
Trash, plastics and other littered items plague oceans, lakes, and rivers. This trash poses a threat to terrestrial and aquatic life, often becomes microplastics and harmful toxins, and pollutes one of the most precious and limited natural resources.
According to a report from the Rochester Institute of Technology, more than 22 million pounds of trash and plastic pollution ends up in the Great Lakes each year. Globally, each Earth Day over a billion people worldwide work together in their communities. The Great Lakes contains almost 20% of the world’s freshwater and the Great Lakes System is arguably the largest source of fresh water on the planet.
Each spring, numerous cleanup events occur in the US and Canada throughout the Great Lakes watersheds to remove accumulated debris and waste that has collected. Shopping carts, tires, furniture, trash, numerous foam cups, plastic containers and aluminum cans can be found along our waterways and greenways. These cleanup events remove thousands of pounds of garbage from the environment each year. Unfortunately, after each cleanup, this debris continues to accumulate through on-going littering and illegal dumping.
Cleanups from numerous NGOs, community groups and individual volunteers are critical to reducing the amount of garbage that collects in our watersheds each year. In order to track our success, the second goal of this effort will be to tabulate the amount of debris collected from each of the individual clean-up events. And the final and most important goal of this event will be to educate the public to the importance of protecting our waterways, to instill a sense of stewardship towards our Great Lakes.
The individual Great Lakes Watershed Cleanup events will be planned to be held between Saturday April 17th and Saturday April 24th, to coincide with the celebration of Earth Day which falls on April 22nd.
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John Smarge has been a proud member of The Rotary Club of Naples, Florida
since 1982. His classification is Moving and Storage.
John served as President of The Rotary Club of Naples in 1992-93 and as District 6960 Governor in 1995-96. He was a member of the Rotary International Board of Directors in 2010-2012.
Throughout his many years of Rotary involvement, he has been a Member and Chair of multiple RI Committees. John served as the Aide to the 2018 - 2019 Rotary International President. Currently John is a member of the Shaping Rotary's Future Committee and will serve as the Chairman of the 2022 RI Convention Committee (Houston, TX). John is a founding member of HANWASH - which stands for Haiti National Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Strategy - which will be his topic of discussion today.
John is a past Board Chairman of the Naples YMCA and served as Director on the boards of the Boy Scouts of America, Shelter for Abused Women and Naples Girls Sports Foundation. John and Cindy have three daughters and two grandchildren.
