June 2024 Connecting the Dots
By: Sarah MacGillivray, Secretary, and Public Image Coordinator, District Foundation Committee, RC of Bath Sunrise
As the Rotary year comes to an end, it is a wonderful time to make sure you and your club have met your annual giving goals. You have just one month left to do so, plenty of time! With the ease of Rotary Direct (https://my.rotary.org/en/rotary-direct) it is as simple as setting up your payment on-line. You direct where the funds are donated, and rest assured that your donations, in part, return to our district. Think of the good work that will be done locally and around the world if we all help by donating to OUR Rotary Foundation!This Rotary Year, just over 500 district Rotarians have made donations totaling over $200,000 to OUR Rotary Foundation’s Annual Fund. Thank you to all who have donated! Well over 200 of our district Rotarians have earmarked their donations totaling $54,000 to PolioPlus. We hope both of these numbers will grow over the month as clubs and Rotarians make their final donation during this Rotary year and meet their pledges and goals.
These donations are separate from those that are being made to our District 7780 ShareForever Challenge. We have exciting news there too! We are so close to meeting our goal of $1,000,000, which will be matched by a generous donor in our district. If you haven’t finalized your plans, or still have questions on how this all works, we have a wonderful recording of the webinar that took place last month. You can watch it by clicking HERE
As most of you know, our Rotary district, just like your club, is run by volunteers. The Foundation Committee is an active committee that for the last 3 years has been chaired by Dave Underhill from the Portsmouth Rotary Club. Dave and the whole committee have done a wonderful job and are to be congratulated on their hard work, and thanked for their dedication to OUR Rotary Foundation. Dave is leaving the committee in the good hands of Aileen Dugan, also from the Portsmouth Rotary Club, who will take over as chair of the committee on July 1. We are excited for Aileen to begin and look forward to seeing the good work she and the Foundation Committee will do for District 7780.
The Rotary Moments that we’ve been sharing each month are a great way for club Foundation chairs to spread the good work that OUR Rotary Foundation does. Stand up at a club meeting and take the few seconds to read these, you never know who will be learning something new, or just need to hear the good news in order to help them understand just how important it is for all of us to support OUR Rotary Foundation!
Rotary Moments for June:
WHO South-East Asia Region celebrates 10 years certified polio-free
March 27th marked 10 years since the World Health Organization certified the South-East Asia Region free of wild poliovirus. This milestone would not be possible without the tireless efforts of health workers, national and local leaders, our partners, and, of course, Rotary members like you from all around the world. Thank you!
Rotary's Partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Rotary and the United Nations Environment Programme have launched a new strategic partnership to protect, restore, and sustain waterways worldwide. RI President-elect Stephanie A. Urchick, Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair-elect Mark Daniel Maloney, and the UNEP’s Rafael Peralta announced the initiative, Community Action for Fresh Water, at Rotary’s International Assembly in Orlando, Florida, USA, in January. This collaboration unites Rotary’s community-based solutions with UNEP’s technical expertise.
Community Action for Fresh Water builds on the success of a pilot program, Adopt a River for Sustainable Development, started in 2020. The new program will draw on Rotary and Rotaract club members’ volunteer power and UNEP’s guidance to create projects with lasting environmental impact. Are you ready to take action? For more information click here: https://www.rotary.org/en/rotary-unep-partnership We can also take Rotary’s lead and think about a local organization that our own Rotary clubs might make a partnership with!
Just how does a Global Grant Work?
Rotary Project Supplies Clean Water in Zimbabwe
Located about 160 kilometers (99 miles) from Harare, Zimbabwe, the villages of Musekiwa and Mushaki have been drastically affected by the country’s water shortage. Residents once walked five kilometers (three miles) or more every day to find water.
That changed when members of the Rotary Club of Saint Helena, California collaborated with the Rotary Club of Harare CBD, Zimbabwe, on a Rotary Foundation Global Grant. The grant provided two wells, solar-powered pumps, and a water piping system while training residents to maintain the equipment and teaching them about hygiene. Rotary has awarded 1,247 global grants for WASH projects since 2019. Has your club considered working on a Global Grant?
What can a $100 gift to OUR Rotary Foundation do?
A $100 donation to The Rotary Foundation provides textbooks for one elementary school in Zambia, hearing aids for a child in Pakistan, de-worming tablets for 112 children in the Philippines, cataract operations for three people in India, or 230 blankets for elderly people in Korea.
Can you commit to donating $100 or more per year to the Foundation to do good in the world? How has your club used Foundation funds to support a District or Global Grant?
And last but not least, I’d like to leave you with these wonderful videos that you might also like to use at a club meeting. They cover all of Rotary’s 7-Areas of Focus. Click HERE to watch them.