Peace Arch Journal Vol
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THE PEACE ARCH JOURNAL VOL. 30 ISSUE 09 MARCH 2017 DISTRICT 5050 Water and Sanitation Month Welcome to March! This year seems to be accelerating and My Rotary Club has been able to travel down to Honduras to provide before you know it we will be all together, not just at our District water filters to those whose drinking water source usually consists of a Training Assembly on April 1st, but we will be celebrating garden hose in a stream and their drinking water is as clean as together in Seattle at our District Conference the first week of whatever is upstream. While in Honduras, we have been able to provide May. outhouses to schools that have no bathrooms for their students. In Rotary, March is “Water and Sanitation Month”. It is not a surprise to me that this is and should be a major focus. When What is your Rotary 2,200 children under the age of 5 die every day of waterborne illnesses, and this is preventable, we can do much more to make Club doing on this that number zero. Area of Focus? When we have an estimated 2.5 billion people in this World who lack basic sanitation, which is the safe disposal of human waste, It might be providing water much more can be done. wells in Africa or better ways for those trying to I am so proud of our Rotary Clubs who have recognized the deliver drinking water back opportunity to improve our World and have taken on projects because the need is so great. to their village. If your Rotary Club is currently not My wife, Christine and I, recently returned from a trip that took us doing something on this to several locations and many Rotary Clubs. We were in Delhi, front, maybe you could be India for a week and while we were there we visited a couple of the Rotarian in your Rotary schools that were created by these Rotary Clubs. These schools and students lack so much. The only thing they do not lack is Club that initiates your next children with the burning desire to learn. As I look around at project. these schools, I quickly realize that there are no bathrooms for the children and that ends up being a focus from the Rotary There is so much we can do Clubs, but I can tell you that I take so much for granted until I see to improve “Water and situations like this firsthand. Sanitation” for others. I have Sand water filters As we were going from school to school, we also noticed that a faith that you and your Rotary Club can and will… installed in Honduras by lot of people in these areas get their drinking water from a big the Rotary Club of North water truck that will drive into their neighborhood and everybody Whidbey Island Sunrise. would bring their big blue plastic container down to it so they MAKE IT HAPPEN! could have drinking water for the next day or two. After our time in India, we eventually made it down to the Island of Seychelles which has a couple of Rotary Clubs. We visited one of them and when asked “What project are you currently working on?”, they were proud to tell us how they were providing a rain water catch basin for drinking water for a hospice center. A school that Scott and Christine visited just a couple One of the many houses that the North Whidbey Island of weeks ago in Delhi, India. This school is in a vacant Sunrise Club built in Honduras lot and thus has no bathrooms. DISTRICT 5050 PEACE ARCH JOURNAL 22 VOL 30 ISSUE 09 MARCH 2017 District Leadership GOVERNOR Scott Dudley Rotary Club of North Whidbey Island Sunrise 184 NW Delta Ct Oak Harbor, WA 98277 Res: 360-675-6561 THE Bus: 800-286-4560 Cell: 360-672-0566 Email: [email protected] PEACE ARCH GOVERNOR ELECT JOURNAL Lindagene Coyle Rotary Club of White Rock Peninsula VOLUME 30 | ISSUE 08 | FEBRUARY 2017 2789 Cranley Drive , Surrey, BC Cell: 604-220-6856 The Monthly Newsletter of Rotary District Email: [email protected] 5050 GOVERNOR NOMINEE SCOTT DUDLEY Linda Murray District Governor South Everett/Mukilteo 4943 Ocean Ave. Everett, WA 98203 This monthly publication is a service to district club Home: 425-347-6738 officers and members. It is intended as a source of news Work: 425 348-3850 Email: and opinion from throughout the district and beyond. [email protected] The mission of the Peace Arch Journal is to promote GOVERNOR communication, understanding, fellowship and fun beyond club meetings, in a manner complementary to shared NOMINEE ELECT efforts at placing Service Above Self. Brad Whittaker Please send news, articles and photographs to Rotary club of Chilliwack [email protected] by the 25th day of the 10013 Falcon Crescent month Chilliwack BC, V2P 7R3 Home: 604-792-6498 for possible inclusion in the next issue. [email protected] Long articles may be truncated and all articles submitted may be edited before publication. Not all articles and SECRETARY photos submitted will be published. Stuart Wilson Rotary Club of South Surrey EDITOR - PUBLISHER 14233 - 33 Avenue , Surrey, BC V4P 3M1 Mohan C. V. Mohanan Home : 604-542-1560 Rotary Club of Port Coquitlam Centennial Cell: 604-323-3622 Email: [email protected] Res: 604-941-3053 Cell: 604-618-5226 TREASURER Email: [email protected] Carlye Gillespie Rotary Club of Bellingham Bay 1621 Cornwall Avenue Bellingham , WA 98225 Ph. 360-756-1010 Email: [email protected] PEACE ARCH JOURNAL DISTRICT 5050 VOL 30 ISSUE 9 MARCHG 2017 33 Message from JOHN F. GERM ROTARY INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT Diversity is our strength Forty years ago, the Rotary Club of communities in more than 35,000 clubs. Duarte, Calif., admitted three women At the club level, we need men and members, in violation of the Rotary women of all backgrounds, ages, International Constitution. As a result, cultures, and professions; the club's charter was terminated by RI. internationally, we need clubs in every city, country, and region of the world. Undeterred, the club's members The better our clubs reflect their continued to meet. They put an X over communities, the better we can serve their Rotary insignia, made themselves them. Our diversity is our strength. new pins, and dubbed themselves the Ex- Rotary Club of Duarte as they continued It is difficult for most of us to imagine to fight for the right of women to serve as today why anyone argued so strongly more than ever, that for Rotary to Rotarians. Ten years later, a restored against the idea of women in Rotary. continue to grow, it needs to embrace the Rotary Club of Duarte sent Sylvia Looking back, I think that opposition world it serves – in all of its diversity, all Whitlock, Rotary's first female club came from a simple resistance to change. of its variety, and all of its evolving needs president, to a presidents-elect training Rotarians loved Rotary the way it was for service. seminar. Not long after that, in 1989, and couldn't imagine it any other way. Rotary's Council on Legislation The Rotarians of today owe a debt We still love Rotary as much as we ever permanently ended Rotary's status as a of gratitude to the Rotarians of did. We love the friendships and men-only organization. Duarte 40 years ago. Their connections we make there, and the determination, persistence, and Today, with more than 240,000 women ability Rotary provides us to serve enduring goodwill set the stage for in our clubs, Rotary is stronger than ever. humanity. We believe Rotary has the organization we have become: We are women and men from nearly tremendous value in our own lives and in Rotary Serving Humanity. every country of the world, serving our the world at large. And we recognize, make a change in the existing will not be funded by TRF. “I Group study policy. The amendment has now appreciate that some districts are been made and from “July 1, using their District Grants for exchanges back in 2017, we encourage you to plan such exchanges, of course group cultural exchanges, or subject to the rules of such a new cultural GCEs, which will be run under grants.” The RI staff at Evanston the banner of the Rotary were available to guide the clubs avatar Friendship Exchange Programme and districts on the rules. But RI President Elect Ian Riseley and it will include both Rotarians there would be flexibility on announced at the International and non-Rotarians.” whether these were funded from Assembly a modified and new Riseley clarified the districts district funds, the clubs or version of the earlier and would have the flexibility to individuals. And home-stays immensely popular GSE (Group formulate their own programmes would mean only travel cost, Study Exchange) programme. which would be “modest exchange partners… because and “that programme isn’t “Many Rotarians, myself compared to the benefits.” right now there is no process or intended to replace any other included, miss the cultural aspect mechanism for sharing this programme, such as the VTTs Riseley advised the DGEs to of the old programme. The information.” that the clubs presently appoint a Rotary Friendship opportunity to build world undertake. It simply provides Exchange Chair in their districts understanding and peace So the RI Board had debated another avenue for building world for this and urged them to make through a short exchange of our “how do we meet this need? How understanding, allowing us to full use of their time at the IA to best and brightest people.” Some do we make it happen?” Riseley again create an experience that identify partners, adding, “I am districts have continued with the said he found an opportunity for was of such great value to so very pleased and excited this will programme, he said, but “many such exchanges “already existed many.” be a tremendous experience we leaders within those districts say in a limited way under the Rotary But the RIPE made it clear that can once again offer in Rotary.” they have difficulty in locating the friendship exchange policy.” So he had requested the Board to the Group Cultural Exchanges READ MORE….