District Newsletter for June 2024 (Jun. 01, 2024)

District Governor's Message

By: DG Marion Cheney, Dover RC

As this Rotary year ends. I want to thank all of you who helped me navigate through our district. It has been an honor and privilege to serve as your District Governor.

I‘ve had the opportunity to personally witness the wonderful things our clubs accomplish and the dedicated Rotarians throughout our district. I learned early on the size of the membership and the coffers don’t have to be large to serve in extraordinary ways.

I encourage all our clubs to share their accomplishments and vision for 2024-2025 at our June 29^th District Celebration on Star Island Isles of Shoals. All of our clubs will have a chance to showcase their club’s projects and programs.

The Ferry leaves Portsmouth at 8:50 AM and we asked you to arrive by 8:15AM.

The one-hour narrated trip is the beginning of a 7-hour adventure. You will arrive on the island at 9:50. Grab a hot beverage and treat and head to the meeting.

The welcome, roll call, and business meeting will start at 10.

Drew Kessler, will give the keynote address. He will be followed by Gregg Dowty and our Poland Outreach Team. They will give an update on their recent trip.

Our Foundation Forum participants, Marty Helman, Mike McGovern, Drew Kessler and Facilitator Dave Underhill will be giving updates regarding the Share Forever Challenge.

Then participants will have some free time to tour the island, play tennis, corn hole, swim, kayak or chill and enjoy the scenery.

We end the day with a changeover and warm goodbyes.

If you are planning to stay in the Portsmouth area, please make reservations ASAP. Hotels fill quickly in the summer.

Cost is $45.00 per person and that includes round trip on the ferry, welcome reception, business meeting. buffet lunch, changeover, program and access to all amenities and tours of the island plus snacks on the return to the mainland.

This is a family friendly event. The island has Pelicans (young adults) who will help engage kiddos with games, the art barn, marine lab and activities.

$35.00 kids 4-12 and $0 under 4.

Check out the video and registration link.

Looking forward to seeing you on June 29^th.

Click HERE for the video and HERE for the link to buy tickets.

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

In Memorium

(l-r) Dr. Albert Sabin and Dr. John Sever

The passing of Dr. John Louis Sever – Farewell to a Legend

April 11, 1932 – April 25, 2024

Obituary information for John Louis Sever

Farewell to a Legend - We've all heard of Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, but John Sever? Dr. John Sever, who passed away recently, was a Rotary District Governor and just as importantly, he was the chief of the Infectious Diseases Branch at the National Institutes of Health in the 1980s. In anticipation of celebrating Rotary's 75th anniversary in 1980, the Rotary Foundation developed a 3-H Fund (Health, Hunger and Humanity) and they wanted to tackle a big project. Then RI President Sir Clem Renouf asked Dr. Sever if there was a disease that could be eliminated, and his reply was "If a single vaccine were to be selected for the 3-H program, I would recommend poliomyelitis." And the rest is history! But it wasn’t that simple.

In the early years of Rotary’s fight to eradicate polio, the chief opponent was not the virus itself but the skepticism of the global public health community that a mass immunization campaign could be effective. Had it not been for the efforts in the 1980s of pioneers such as Dr. Sever, Dr. Sabin and RI President Carlos Canseco, chances are that polio would still be rampant in many countries. For those interested in the fascinating story of the early years of the polio campaign, I highly recommend Rotary and the Gift of a Polio-Free World, volume I (Click HERE for Chapter I )

Dr. Sever’s contributions to our efforts have been nothing short of amazing. In his obituary, it is asked that a donation to The Rotary Foundation to PolioPlus be made in his honor to help finish his good work.

Note: Are you a member of the PolioPlus Society, but haven’t met your pledge for this year? This is the last month of the current Rotary year, and we appreciate you keeping your pledges up to date. For all who have made their donations, or are about to, we thank you!

This article was submitted by Nancy Hawes of the Rotary Club of South Portland-Cape Elizabeth