Stories

has recognized Rotary with Global Humanitarian Service Award.

The Doylestown Bookshop will host an online discussion about the history of the poliovirus, the effort to eradicate it, and the similar challenges posed today by COVID-19. This virtual event, titled “Passion, Patience, and Perseverance: "A Discussion Comparing the Polio Health Crisis to the COVID-19 Pandemic” will be held on Tuesday, Oct 13th at 7:00 pm  EDT.

• A three person panel of 2 Rotarians and a well-known historian (and Polio Survivor), will discuss how the pandemic we face today is not unprecedented. The world has come together for the eradication of Polio, and it can come together to manage the realities of COVID-19. This event has been designed to engage those attending in historical perspectives surrounding the two. 
• There is NO charge for this event.
• PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED: Click HERE to register

The hope for this event is that it will help Rotary reach its goal of eradicating polio and help people come together for the new fight against COVID-19.

• There is NO charge for this event. 
• The one hour presentation will feature: 
  • Polio Historian – Dr. Daniel Wilson, PhD., Professor Emeritus Muhlenberg University
  • Mike McGovern – Chair, International PolioPlus Committee at Rotary International
  • A member of the communications team from Rotary International World Polio Day Activities Rotary District 7430 2020 
• Every attendee will receive a (PDF version) copy of the story: Passion, Patience and Perseverance: How The World Came Together To Fight The Paralytic Polio Virus, By Shawn Herron (Rotarian and local author) 

Statement from Rotary International

At Rotary, we have no tolerance for racism. Promoting respect, celebrating diversity, demanding ethical leadership, and working tirelessly to advance peace are central tenets of our work.

We have more work to do to create more just, open and welcoming communities for all people.

We know there are no easy fixes and that challenging conversations and work lie before all of us. Rotary’s strength has long been our ability and commitment to bringing people together. We will tap into that strength now as we stand with those who are working for peace and justice. 

Rotary will do our part to listen, learn and take action to ensure that we continue to contribute to making positive change.

Due to a cancellation we are able to add two people to participate in the outbound group to District 1030 in Northeast England.  Dates are Aug. 29 to September 10, 2018.

District 1030 is next to the border of Scotland and along the coast with Newcastle Upon Tyne the largest city in the district.  We'll have a chance to visit Hadrian's wall and castles as well as seaside towns.

If you like meeting new people as well as learning about new cultures plus able to travel within a short time frame email me directly : deeleng@gmail.com if you are interested or have any questions.

Travel expenses are paid by the participant although we are hosted in Rotarians home with some meals included.

Participants are also asked to have their club host when District 1030 comes in the spring of 2019.

At the moment tickets to Edinburgh airport which is 1 1/2 hours away by train is about $700 for economy and train tickets are about $30 one way.

My contact info:

Dee Eng

RFE chair

deeleng@gmail.com

cell:610-428-3355

1. Ham, Cheddar, Lettuce, Tomato on Ciabatta 
2. Turkey, American, Lettuce, Tomato on Ciabatta
3. Hummus, Spinach, Tomato, Roasted Red Pepper, Cucumber on Ciabatta

• Aerial photography / UAV Services
• Subsurface Utility Location (SUL)
• 3D Laser Scanning, 3D Modeling and 2D Drafting
• GIS & Asset Management
• Traditional and Construction Survey

Come to Centennial Park on Sand Island and help our club celebrate the newly redesigned and revitalized Centennial Park:

11:45 - Box Lunch for Rotarians in the Ice House

Cost is $10 each to be collected at each weekly meeting prior to the 18th.

Choices: (All choices below come w/Fruit Salad & Potato Salad, Soda and Water)

Ciabatta roll w/Turkey Breast & American Cheese

Ciabatta roll w/Roast Beef & Swiss Cheese

Hummus Wrap w/Lettuce & Tomato

12:30 - Ribbon Cutting in Centennial Park and cake

Please feel free to invite members of the community to the ribbon cutting.

Outbreaks of vaccine-derived polio have been reported this month in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Syria, according to the World Health Organization. Why do these happen? Vaccine-derived cases are rare, and differ from polio cases caused by the virus living in the wild. Here is what you need to know about these outbreaks. 

At the Rotary International Convention in Atlanta this week, global leaders and key donors affirmed their commitment to ending polio. The historic pledges of new funds will go toward drastically shrinking the $1.5 billion gap in the funding that is needed to reduce cases to zero.

Read more
Read about Bill Gates' keynote speech on polio

The Presidential Peace Conference kicked off today with Dr. Bernice A. King, chief executive officer of The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, addressing Rotarians on the role they play in contributing to peace and international understanding. The two-day conference celebrates all that Rotary does to promote peace.

Read more

The Rotarian’s annual photo contest is back and, with the enhanced graphics capacity of our new website, looking better than ever. The 2017 contest drew 600 entries from 40 countries, judged by veteran photojournalist Steve McMurry. See the nine breathtaking images he selected as this year’s winners and start getting ready for next year’s contest.

For more than 90 years, the Rotary Club of Kansas City, Missouri, USA, has been rallying all corners of the community to help thousands of kids attend camp. The club, whose members model Rotary’s passion for taking action, gave the first donation to The Rotary Foundation 100 years ago.

The discovery of the poliovirus in Nigeria last summer shocked eradication efforts. Here’s how Rotary is making sure it doesn’t happen again.

Rotary uses virtual reality to inspire others

Rotary is working with Google’s virtual reality team to offer an experience that showcases the impact of compassion to a global audience. A three-minute virtual reality film that emphasizes the two themes of polio and peace will premiere at the Rotary Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, 13 June

Members of the Rotaract Club at Moratuwa University, Sri Lanka, opened a library and science lab to help local students prepare for college entrance exams, and launched a weaving cooperative for female entrepreneurs. The project’s broader goal is to improve the quality of life in the community by stimulating economic growth. Learn why this effort was selected for the 2017 Rotaract Outstanding Project Award, and read about six regional projects also honored.

DANCING WITH THE LV STARS
Includes our own Bryon Grigsby!

For the third year, just like the TV hit, Dancing with the Stars,  6 Lehigh Valley “celebrities” will partner with professional dancers from Utah Ballroom Dance Company! Our favorite local star - BRYON GRIGSBY will be dressed up in glitzy costume performing his routine and YOU can help pick the winner with your vote the night of the show! Part 2 of the show features the professional dancers in action until the winner of the famous Mirror Ball is announced at the end of the show! Your tickets support the non-profit FREDDY© Awards program, so come out and support our favorite celebrity.

How can a road trip inspire engagement with Rotary? Ask the group of Rotary members and Rotaractors who traveled 2,400 miles across the West Coast to spread the word about Rotary’s good work. Over two weeks they stopped for service projects in five states and, along the way, illustrated the value of hands-on service and community partnerships.

Read the full story

When was polio last in Europe? If you guessed 2002, the year the region was certified polio-free, you’re wrong. The last time polio affected a child in Europe was 2015. Outbreaks like the one that occurred in Ukraine that year are why, although we are so close to eradicating polio, we still need $1.5 billion more to finish the job. Learn about the steps needed to ensure polio is truly gone forever.

Rotary members in a small town of Nova Scotia, Canada, took action to bring two families from war-torn Syria to their country, where the refugees are starting a new life.

What do you get when a handful of young leaders put their heads together and “dream big?” Apparently, you get a 14-city, 2,400-mile road trip that provides 2,500 hours of service by more than 500 volunteers. The Connecting for Good Tour of the American West Coast was organized by San Francisco Rotary member Danielle Lallement, and inspired by brainstorming that took place at a Young Professionals Summit in 2014. Read more about the massive Rotary road trip.

In St. Joseph, Michigan, USA, Rotary members have been matching high school students with mentors in their dream careers, providing valuable guidance as they explore their options after graduation. The exposure to community service has led students to start Interact clubs at six local schools, and has cemented the club’s connections with its community. Meet some of the students helped by the program and the members behind it all.

What motivates everyday women to do extraordinary things? Three Rotary members answered that question at a celebration of International Women’s Day hosted by the World Bank at its Washington, D.C., headquarters on 8 March.

Blooms of poisonous blue-green algae threaten the western basin of Lake Erie, the source of drinking water for millions of people. Read more about how Rotarians are joining the fight.

Rotary clubs around the world are marking Rotary’s 112th anniversary by holding fundraisers, illuminating famous buildings, and hosting events of all sorts. Check out our gallery of club activities and send us a photo of your own.

Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will speak at this year’s Rotary International Convention June 10-14 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The convention is expected to attract 40,000 Rotary club members from over 160 countries, and inject an estimated $52.3 million into Atlanta’s economy.

• Read more about speakers
• Register
• Learn about host events

Dispatched to Ghana with a fellow British Rotarian to scout club service opportunities, Roger Frank hadn’t planned their visit to coincide with National Immunization Days. But the pair – Frank and Dr. Carl Hallam – jumped, unhesitating, into the thick of inoculations. Frank has built his own iron lung replica to teach a new generation about polio. Read more of the story.

Canadian Joel Dzuba credits his Rotary Youth Exchange year in Lower Saxony, Germany, with inspiring him to pursue a career in International Affairs and Policy. Says Dzuba, “my exchange year played a fundamental role in forming and shaping the person I am today.” Read more of Dzuba’s story.

Rotary has released another $35 million in grants to support the global effort to end polio. Nearly half of the new funds, $16.15 million, will support emergency response campaigns in Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin, where four cases were detected last year after Nigeria had previously gone two years without a case.

• Read more about the grants
• Help us end polio

RI President-elect Ian H.S. Riseley urged incoming district leaders to seek gender and age parity and protect the environment in announcing the 2017-18 presidential theme Rotary: Making a Difference at the International Assembly in San Diego, California, USA.

• Learn more about the theme
• Read reactions from participants

After decades of investing in literacy projects, experts have realized that simply getting children into the classroom — either by removing attendance barriers or providing supplies — is not enough. Before students can succeed, the quality of the teaching in that classroom needs to improve. Discover how Rotary is mentoring and coaching teachers to solve illiteracy.

There’s still time to make your year-end gift to The Rotary Foundation. Your gifts help fight disease, support education, grow economies, provide clean water, save mothers and children, promote peace, and end polio. Why put it off til next year?

• Read more about what your gift can accomplish
• Make a gift today

In January, visitors to Rotary.org will discover a new, contemporary site that tells Rotary’s story in a fresh and exciting way. Rotary staff offer a look at the site’s features: a modern design, increased use of imagery and graphics, and better organization to help readers – especially newcomers – find out who we are and what we’re doing.

• Read more about the web refresh project

On a warm day in October, Ingrid Schwab and a team of Rotary staff members join a group of dancing and singing children in Khera Khurd on the outskirts of Delhi, India, for an immunization day rally. “We are greeted with beating drums, beaming smiles, and fragrant flower garlands … we smile and laugh and our delight is captured on camera. Quite a celebration.”

• Read Schwab’s full description of the trip on Rotary Voices
• Learn how you can help end polio

Rotary is thankful for the hard work of dedicated donors and volunteers who make it possible for The Rotary Foundation to make a difference in communities around the world. Staff took time during the fifth annual Thank-a-Thon last week to send notes to donors and volunteers.

The Association of Fundraising Professionals selected The Rotary Foundation for its annual Award for Outstanding Foundation for 2016, a recognition that honors organizations that show philanthropic commitment and leadership through financial support, innovation, encouragement of others, and involvement in public affairs. 

Rotary General Secretary John Hewko and a team of staff will join Rotary members to bike up to 104 miles in El Tour de Tucson, an annual bicycle race in Arizona, USA, to raise funds for PolioPlus. Your district could earn a visit from Rotary International President-elect Ian H.S. Riseley by contributing District Designated Funds (DDFs) to support the team’s fundraising goal.

Join the party as we celebrate 54 years of service and leadership through Interact, 31 October through 6 November. Show the world how your Interact Club makes a difference by taking part in our annual Video Awards, or join the conversation on social media.

Watch an update on our progress toward creating a polio-free world. Top global health experts and Rotary's polio ambassadors gathered at the headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, on World Polio Day, 24 October, to hail progress made by Rotary and its partners.

Join us on 24 October for World Polio Day and share your voice that we are closer than ever to creating a polio-free world. Rotary will host its fourth annual World Polio Day: Making History live stream event at 18:00 EDT (UTC-4) from the headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The event brings together the biggest names in the global fight to eradicate polio. Watch live on Endpolio.org

Rotary members have been working with Rotary’s project partner for disaster relief, ShelterBox, to respond to the humanitarian needs that have arisen following Hurricane Matthew’s destructive path through Haiti and along the coast of the United States, impacting communities in Florida, Georgia, and South and North Carolina, USA. ShelterBox is currently sending supplies to help with a cholera outbreak in the southern region of Haiti. Learn how you can help.

A team of specialists from India spent eight days in Kigali, Rwanda, performing hundreds of surgeries and teaching cutting-edge surgical techniques to local physicians and medical students. The medical mission was the fourth between Rotary districts in India and Rwanda, and one of dozens to Africa over the past two decades, extending healing care to patients who otherwise would have to wait months to see a surgeon.

The Rotary Club of Yola-AUN is located on the campus of the American University of Nigeria, smack dab in the region where Boko Haram is most active. Club members, who include a good number of University professors and staff, know the importance of peace. The club is working with Rotary members from New England to help families living in a refugee camp, displaced by the violence.

Nations observe 21 September as International Day of Peace, a “day of global ceasefire and nonviolence.” Rotary’s commitment to building peace and resolving conflict is rooted in the Rotary Peace Centers, which yearly prepare up to 100 fellows to work for peace through a two-year master’s degree program or a three-month certificate program at partner universities worldwide.

• Learn how you can support the Rotary Peace Centers
• Discover 5 reasons to apply for a Rotary Peace Fellowship

Minda Dentler is the only female handcyclist to complete three Ironman Triathlons. The polio survivor recently returned to her native India to draw attention to continued immunization efforts in the country, which hasn’t had a new case since 2014. Now aRotary polio ambassador, Dentler shares her story with The Rotarian.

A ShelterBox response team is working with Rotary club members in Italy to provide shelter and supplies to those affected by the magnitude 6.2 earthquake that leveled towns in the central region of the country Wednesday.

In Peru, women suffer higher rates of poverty and unemployment than men. About 50 percent of Peruvian women in the Sacred Valley region, which lies outside Cusco, will suffer severe physical or sexual partner abuse during their lifetimes. In 2012, members of the Rotary Club of Boulder’s New Generations pilot satellite club came up with a plan to address all of those problems by concentrating on empowering local women – specifically in their ability to make and act upon their decisions. Read more about the club’s efforts

In April, Rotary members from around the world met at the Council on Legislation, taking action to grant clubs greater flexibility in their meeting schedule and membership. These changes took effect 1 July.

• Learn more about the changes
• Watch a video from RI President John F. Germ

If we are so close to eradicating polio, why do we still need $1.5 billion to finish the job? Find out in an article from the latest issue of The Rotarian, and discover the steps needed to get from “this close” to done. Read more.

If you can teach children to garden, you teach them life skills. That’s the basic philosophy behind a global grant project in Korea, where Rotary members built a greenhouse and train more than three dozen students with special needs the fundamentals of growing lettuce, packaging and transporting crops, and selling vegetables to nearby businesses. Read more about the project.

More than 43,000 attendees left the Rotary Convention in Korea inspired to end polio for good, to celebrate The Rotary Foundation's centennial, and to champion changes that will help Rotary appeal to a broader audience. On the last day, RI President K.R. Ravindran shared a personal story of his mother’s triumph over polio.

Read the story
Register for the 2017 Convention in Atlanta

The Rotary Foundation is turning 100, and that’s definitely something worth celebrating. Visit our Centennial website to see what’s being planned, pick up ideas for your own celebration, and brush up on your Foundation history in our interactive timeline. There are also a few other surprises. Visit the website and join the excitement.

More than 42,000 Rotary members from over 100 countries will come together beginning 28 May to celebrate Rotary at our annual convention in Korea. Follow the action with our live blog, photo, and video coverage, and on social media at#rotary16. Learn more about the convention including recently added speakers.

The Rotaract Club of Bugolobi, Uganda, launched a program to provide free health clinics, school supplies, and clean water to villagers in rural Kanabulemu. The club’s 1000 Smiles project has been selected as this year’s International Winner of the Rotaract Outstanding Project Award and will be honored at the Korea Convention in June. Learn more and read about all the winners.

More than a million refugees from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan streamed into the European Union last year. The sheer number of refugees has spurred a backlash in Austria against the Union’s largely open-door policy. But Rotary members in a small Austrian town have been looking at the refugees as people, not problems. Learn more about what they have been doing to help.

Institute equips regional leaders to advance Rotary’s story

Regional leaders from around the globe gathered at Rotary World Headquarters in Evanston in early March to learn how to help members strengthen clubs, enhance Rotary’s image, advance humanitarian projects, and tell Rotary’s story. Many of the participants were impressed to learn about new tools available on Rotary.org. Read about the four-day training event.

Rotary has given Clara Montanez a platform to mentor young women as they balance career and family. Jackie Huie has used her Rotary connections to create a program that matches high school juniors and seniors with a mentor in the career they would like to pursue. Learn more about how Rotary inspired these two women and read Montanez' blog post on the five concerns facing professional women today.

Don’t miss a rare opportunity to celebrate Rotary with Pope Francis during the Jubilee of Rotarians in Rome, 30 April. This special Jubilee event, called on by Francis, is a commitment to serve with joy and in peace across the world. The registration deadline is 15 March. Learn more about the Jubilee

Clubs worldwide marked the 111th anniversary of the first Rotary club meeting this week by holding an event, hosting a fundraiser, or lighting a notable building. More than 70 clubs sent us photos of their events. See a selection of the photos, let us know how your club celebrated, and share your images on social media. See the gallery

The Rotary Peace Centers are Rotary’s long-term response to conflict resolution. By endorsing a Rotary Peace Fellow candidate, your club builds goodwill and cultural understanding. Watch how one applicant began her journey as a peace fellow and how a Rotary club helped her on the way.

SUPPORT THE PEACE CENTERS

RI President-elect John F. Germ called on incoming district governors to promote Rotary’s good work as he unveiled the 2016-17 presidential theme, Rotary Serving Humanity, during Rotary’s annual training event for future leaders in San Diego, California, USA. Learn more about the theme and read reactions from district governors-elect.

GET THEME MATERIALS

Rotary is releasing $35 million in grants to support polio immunization activities and research in nine countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan. The funds will build on last year’s historic achievement of stopping the transmission of the wild poliovirus in Nigeria and all of Africa. Read about the grants.

Schoolchildren in India have desks to sit at. Women and children in Monrovia, Liberia, are being saved from AIDS. And poor women in Esmeraldas, Ecuador, are starting small businesses to provide for their families. When you give to The Rotary Foundation, you support projects like these all over the world. Discover how your gift to the Foundation does a world of good, and find out how easy it is to give.

Physically disabled people in Mexico often face discrimination and find it difficult to be productive members of society. Rotary members in Mexico and the United States have teamed up with Autonomy, Liberation Through Movement to provide vocational training, encouragement, and equipment.

In Montserrado and neighboring counties in Liberia, health care workers are learning techniques to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV and improve their ability to diagnose and treat infected women. Learn more about the global grant project, and read a blog post from Marion Bunch, whose experience losing a son to AIDS prompted her to start a Rotarian Action Group.

Rotary General Secretary John Hewko and eight RI staff members bicycled in El Tour de Tucson on 21 November. Together, they raised more than $2.9 million for Rotary’s fight to eradicate polio. When matched 2-to-1 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the funds the team raised will total nearly $9 million. It’s not too late to contribute District Designated Funds to the team. Read more about the ride.

Chulalongkorn is unique among the six Rotary Peace Centers in packing intensive coursework and field studies into a three-month program aimed at professionals already working in fields related to peace. In its first decade, the center has graduated 355 peace fellows from 69 countries with certificates of professional development. Read more about Chulalongkorn and join a discussion on peace.

Rotary’s Global Women of Action discussed their projects during the annual Rotary Day at the UN in New York City on 7 November. These Rotarians have organized and led efforts that have improved the lives of thousands around the world. Read more about the Global Women of Action.

Through a series of global grants, the Rotary Club of San Nicolás de Los Garza in Nuevo Léon, Mexico, and Rotary members in Austin, Texas, USA, have been expanding free health care in rural communities in three Mexican states. Your gifts to The Rotary Foundation support projects like this one, which involves mobile health units. Read more

Celebrities like Emmy Award-winning actress Archie Panjabi and Grammy Award-winning singer Angélique Kidjo joined health officials like Anthony Lake, executive director of UNICEF, in celebrating recent progress in the fight to end polio during our World Polio Day update 23 October. You can still watch the update and help us end polio by supporting the Miles to End Polio team.

Rotary’s partnerships put books into the hands of children in Ecuador

Rotary and the United Nations have always enjoyed a special relationship. Rotarians were present at the chartering of the UN, and today, volunteer RI representatives serve as liaisons to a host of UN agencies and other international organizations. In Ecuador, connections between Rotary and the Organization of American States enhanced a literacy project that trains teachers to use technology in the classroom and also provides books for children.

• Read more about the literacy project and RI representatives
• Learn about this year’s Rotary Day at the United Nations
• Read a blog post about the Ecuador literacy project

Rotary General Secretary John Hewko and a team of staff members aim to raise $3.4 million for polio eradication by cycling 104 miles in El Tour de Tucson. Your district could earn a visit from Rotary International President-elect John Germ by contributing district designated funds (DDFs) to support the effort. Get thecontribution form and meet the team.

More than 6,000 people leave Syria every day, fleeing the civil war that has been raging there since 2011. Rotary members are working with our project partner, ShelterBox, to supply basic aid and supplies to those displaced by the fighting. Learn more about Rotary's response to the humanitarian crisis and how we work with partners.

Rotary and the international advocacy organization ONE joined other event partners in downtown Chicago last week to demonstrate a commitment to ending extreme poverty and inequality and to promoting action on climate change. The event, dubbed Under One Sky, took place on the eve of the United Nations launch of its Sustainable Development Goals, and was one of more than 150 held around the world. Read more about the Chicago Under One Sky event.

The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced that it has officially removed Nigeria from the list of countries where polio is endemic. It’s been 14 months since a case of polio caused by the wild virus was reported there. That leaves only two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, where transmission of the virus has never been stopped. Read more about the WHO’s announcement.

Since graduating from the Rotary Peace Center at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Wendy Coulson Catalán has made her home in San Miguel de Allende, a small community in central Mexico. In honor of the International Day of Peace, which is Monday, 21 September, Catalán is joining local Rotary members in hosting a celebration that includes a rap tournament to reach youths, who are often left out of the city’s many cultural events. It’s just one way Rotary Peace Fellows are building peace. Read more and learn how you can support the Rotary Peace Centers.

Nigeria and the continent of Africa have gone a year without a polio case caused by wild poliovirus. But as significant as these accomplishments are, we have not yet reached our goal of a polio-free world. To mark World Polio Day, Rotary will host a streamed global status update on 23 October, sharing information about these recent milestones and focusing on the work that remains to be done.

• Learn how you can participate
• Add the streamed event to your calendar
• Download the World Polio Day tool kit

Rotary Youth Exchange has been providing intercultural exchange opportunities for high school students since the 1920s. Students become cultural ambassadors for as long as a full academic year, while host families also build peace and international understanding. During a bus trip through the United States in July, Youth Exchange students told us how the program has changed their lives.

• Read the students’ stories
• Learn about starting an exchange
• Read blog posts by Rotary Youth Exchange students

For more than a decade, Rotary clubs in the United States and Mexico have been investing in children’s education in Nayarit, providing scholarships, building libraries, and rehabbing school buildings. Carolina Gonzales Rivas, a scholarship recipient and now a Rotary member, talks about how Rotary has influenced her life.

• Watch the video
• Read about the project
• Discover how other Rotary members are supporting education on Rotary Showcase

The kindness and support of host families in Japan hooked Jennifer Jacobson on Rotary. A police constable in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, Canada, Jacobson went on a Group Study Exchange and then was accepted into the three-month Rotary Peace Centers program at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. After that, she says, she knew she had to join. We recently asked members around the world to share their reasons for joining.

• Read some of the responses
• Tell us your story on Facebook
• Discover a dozen ways to make a difference

Tuesday marked a year since the continent of Africa has reported a new case of polio caused by the wild poliovirus. This is the longest the continent has ever gone without a case of polio and a critical step on the path toward a polio-free Africa. But continued support is critical before Africa can be certified polio-free.

• Read more about this milestone
• Read how our members played a key role
• Help Rotary advocate for a polio-free world
• Download a toolkit of ways you can help

Australian accountant Ian H.S. Riseley, a member of the Rotary Club of Sandringham, Victoria, was selected by the Nominating Committee and will become the president-nominee on 1 October if there are no challenges from other candidates. Riseley has been a member since 1978, and has served Rotary as treasurer, director, trustee, RI Board Executive Committee member, task force member, committee member and chair, and district governor.

• Read more about Riseley’s selection
• Learn about Rotary’s leaders

August is Membership and New Club Development Month, which means it’s time to celebrate your Rotary club, its members, and the good you do in your community and around the world. Discover twelve ways to make the most of your membership.

• See the list
• Share your story of why you joined Rotary on Facebook
• Join a Twitter chat on membership with General Secretary John Hewko
• Read how Pakistani Rotary members are making a difference

Today marks one year since Nigeria last reported a polio case caused by wild poliovirus. The country is on the brink of eradicating the paralyzing disease. If no cases are reported in the coming weeks, the World Health Organization is expected to remove Nigeria from the list of countries where polio is endemic, leaving just two: Afghanistan and Pakistan.

• Read more about the milestone
• Watch a video message from RI President K.R. Ravindran
• Read International PolioPlus Committee Chair Michael McGovern’s blog post
• Advocate for a polio-free world

Students at the Shaftesbury Rodeo Academy in rural Queensland, Australia, know they have to attend school and complete their work if they want to take part in the weekly Friday night rodeo, eight seconds of heart-stopping bull-riding action. Through the school, Rotary members are providing basic academics and farming skills to Wakka Wakka Aboriginal children with troubled backgrounds.

• Read more about the project
• Watch the video
• Browse Rotary projects that support education
• Join a discussion with Rotarian educators

• The $1,025 we've collected thus far buys 41 tickets for Northeast Ministries, Boys and Girls Club and S2L kids.  
• Our Goal is $2,475 turned in to the Phillies by July 21st 
• We need 99 more ticket purchases ($25 each) to meet our obligation. 
• Please call Gerry Long (610) 625-5105 if you would like to give a fun night to these kids.

As a member of Rotary, you’re part of a global network of community volunteers who are making a positive difference. The new Member Center gathers all of the many benefits and resources available to you, including Rotary Global Rewards, which features discounts on travel, hotels, dining, and entertainment.

• Visit the Member Center
• Discover your Rotary Global Rewards
• Watch a video of RI President K.R. Ravindran introducing the new program

K.R. Ravindran’s life has been molded by family, country, and Rotary. Serving as Rotary president is his way of giving back to each of them.

• Read a profile in The Rotarian
• Watch the video
• Learn how your club can earn a Presidential Citation
• Plan on attending one of five presidential conferences

Rotary is releasing $40.3 million in grants to support polio immunization activities in 10 countries, including Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan, the three countries where the disease has never been stopped. The funds come at a critical time and will build on gains Rotary and its partners have been making in the fight to eradicate polio. Nigeria, the last polio-endemic country in Africa, is approaching one year without a case of polio.

• Read more about the latest polio grants
• Learn how you can help us eradicate polio
• Support a polio fundraiser in Scotland
• Join a discussion about ending polio