Upcoming
December 3 - Seniors' Christmas Dinner - Entertainment: The Bamboo Guppies
December 9 Jim Horsman (former Alberta Intergovernmental Affairs Minister & Medicine Hat Rotarian) will talk about what he and Peter Lougheed have been doing on the Alberta government's behalf regarding the Kyoto accord.
December 10 - Rotary Festival at Southminster Church, 7:30 p.m.
December 16 - club elections
December 23 - Christmas sing along
December 30 - no meeting
December 31 - New Year's Bash at Pincher Creek
January 6, 2003, at the Lodge - joint meeting with Kiwanis, Guest Speaker: Faye Hleucka, Regional Coordinator for KIDS HELP PHONE.
January 13 Meeting MOVED to Bankok Restaurant, University Dr, N. of Safeway
Proposed Members - first notice
Steve Miles
Steve Shrout
Seamus O'Shea
December 02
The Vasilator is at the podium,
Lottie Austin at the Piano for a spirited rendition of Oh Canada
Dale Martin Jr., Greeter
Guests:
Dianne Hoopfer, Sunrise Club
Fran Leggett, Lethbridge East
Steven Janz
Steve Shrout
John Fergusson
Kelvin Nelson
Rotarians had the pleasure of meeting new friends at assigned tables.
Sergeant At Arms Report
Kendall extracted happy bucks from Dawna who is happy she got a grant, Bernie C is happy his son brought home silver, John Hoopfer is just plain happy on short notice, Dianne Hoopfer is happy she passed her mutuals exam, Elizabeth is sad that Hanski is going, but happy she is going to Anderson's. Karlin is happy it's Monday?, Lottie is happy her niece Alexandria is doing well at a Rotary exchange in Germany. Dale is happy that Beatrice (don't call her Bea) Milner and Mike Marcotte are going to be the next greeters. Pat Killoran is happy he never got caught on the weekend. David C is happy his son made the honour roll, has a car and a girlfriend, all at the same time. Ralph G was happy to put up his Christmas lights while wearing shorts. No doubt the neighbours were glad he was wearing them too. Dick Turner was barely audible, but happy that seven grandkids were in Saturday's Santa Claus parade, and one grand-daughter is out of intensive care.
A fine thing to do
The Sergeant charged each table with the duty of fining one Rotarian.
Mike M fined Frank and Dale M for the ventriloquist and dummy act. Lottie was fined for playing so fast that Dick T almost collapsed. David C fined Chris for being late. Murray tried to fine two empty chairs, then had to pay for both of them himself. Russell was fined for leaving early. Bernie fined Robin for being too generous. Dianne fined the other Hoopfer for making her go back to school.
TV advertising
Rotary International will begin a TV ad campaign in 2003.
Club Elections
Mike McGuire has pre-election ballots if you cannot attend on December 16. "Vote Early And Vote Often", says Doug McArthur.
Seniors Supper
Tom DeJager will be waiting for everyone at 5:00 p.m. at the Lodge. You are guaranteed a job, so be sure to come help serve 600 seniors.
Rotary Carol Festival
Myles B is the MC for this December 10 event.
Who's On The Roof?
Dallas Harty is again camping on his store roof. All donations gratefully received.
Children's Xmas
Nancy Walker announced the December 16 Rotary Christmas at the Lodge in conjunction with Lethbridge East and Lethbridge Sunrise.
Come Ring My Bell
Karlin has four Christmas bell ringing volunteers lined up, thanks.
New Rotarians
Bob Carey, General Manager at the Lethbridge Herald transferred in from Red Deer Downtown Club. Welcome aboard Bob, what job are you volunteering for?
Richard Hebert comes with a very long list of glowing recommendations from David Cassidy. Richard has a wife Ursala, and three kids, Sean, Megan and Ashley. He is CEO of the YMCA which has tripled its membership since he arrived. Did I hear Richard volunteering to help on the Membership Committee? David will be Richard's mentor.
New Year's Revolution
Frank patted his corpulent investment and promised to join Richard's club in January.
Guest Speaker
Liz Rossnagel introduced Fran Leggett from Lethbridge East who did a presentation on the Polio Plus program.
Fran is the Past President of the Lethbridge East Rotary Club, and is now the District Area Co-ordinator for South Alberta for Polio Plus. Fran noted that the Rotary goal is still to have polio eradicated world-wide by 2005, and this year, 2002/03 Rotary has set a goal of raising $80 million to help bridge the shortfall in funding to reach this goal. As she noted, we are all aware of these targets so she spoke about the history of polio as her main theme. Polio has been noted in history for about 3000 years. It was documented in Egypt about that time. In 1789 polio was described as a disease in England, and in 1918 it was recognized as being caused by a virus. There were major epidemics of polio in the 1890’s and 1950’s, in the summer time. Polio strikes many, but paralyzes only about 1% of the population. Most cases of the disease are asymptomatic, is transient self-limiting, and most people don’t even know they have it. Many of the people who were affected by polio in the 1950’s are now suffering post-polio syndrome. Vaccines for polio were developed by Dr. Jonas Salk in 1955, which was a serum of dead polio virus, and in the 1960’s Dr. Albert Sabin developed an oral vaccine which utilized live polio virus. This oral vaccine is no longer used in North America as it has been known to cause polio symptoms in some of the recipients. It is still used in most 3rd world countries because of its ease of use.
There are deterrents to reaching the goal of total eradication by 2005. Most of these are politically related, including civil war, and the will of governments not recognizing this disease as a priority any more. Another deterrent is the funding gap. The Rotary endeavour is this cause is assisted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank, and the United Nations. The money raised is needed to purchase vaccines, fund National Immunization Days, and surveillance to ensure polio is really eradicated. Each country in the world has to be free of polio cases for 3 years before they are certified "polio free".
A donation to Polio Plus counts towards a Paul Harris sustaining fellowship.
Hanski Says We Are Finnish
Pronouced Hoova Yolla, means Merry Christmas
Hanski tell us that Christmas in Finland starts about the first weekend in December with a "Little Christmas" which is celebrated with parties at work and school. The Christmas tree is not set up until December 20, and is "Never a Fake Tree". Until ten years ago, real candles were used in decorations but for safety reasons they are mostly replaced with electric bulbs. Tree decorations are make of wood. On December 24, at 5 or 6 p.m. a meal of meats and fishes precedes the gift giving. Christmas church starts at 6 or 7 a.m. followed by breakfast of almond soup and rice porridge enjoyed with relatives. Hanski thinks she will be better able to tell us the differences after she experiences a Canadian Christmas.
Rotary Draw
$10 Dick Beck
$5 Steve Shrout