Serving Bellingham for 80 Years

Meets every Tuesday Noon - Bellingham Golf and Country Club - Bellingham, WA

Bellingham Kiwanis Soundings

March 2, 2010

The meeting was called to order by President Jim Carney. Lyla led the group in the singing of "My Country Tis of Thee" and Jim led the Pledge of Allegiance. Jim Carney also provided the invocation.

Guests:

Guests included Dr. Lee Harmon, who was introduced by Mike Yeend & Bill Audley was introduced by Barb Audley.

Announcements/Committee Reports:

Happy Dollars:

Dr. Bob gave a happy dollar because he is going on a cruise with his kids and their families & also one sad dollar for not being able to be at the Big Brothers/Big Sisters project this Saturday.

Bill attended the CKI induction and praised their members for all the hours of service they put in.

Nancy Larsen enjoyed a night of dancing, but was sad that she lost part of her name tag at the meeting.

Mike Yeend gave a dollar for a fortune in his cookie forecasting a great trip in his future.

Vaughn was excited to see Meridian in the State Basketball Tournament

Marty was happy to be finally over his cold.

John Wilson is happy AAU Basketball is almost over but sad(?) that he is heading to Colorado to go skiing.

Rhonda is happy to finally have a garage sale scheduled at the Boys & Girls Club on March 27th. They need to raise money for their programs.

According to another cookie, Ralph has some good luck heading his way.

Elizabeth is happy that her friend Maggie is coming to visit, but sad that she can't stay very long.

Our guest Lee Harmon was kind enough to rat on Mike Yeend for attending a Rotary Club meeting.

Joan is looking for someone to adopt her friend's cat.

Drawing:

The drawing was won by Elizabeth, but she pulled the 10 of spades, so no big winner today.

Program:

Today's program was presented by Dr. Lee Harmon, who discussed the Rotary Polio Plus program. This is a 24 year old program that has designs on eliminating polio throughout the world. Aside from educating the public, raising awareness and fundraising, they are also taking a hands-on approach to fighting this still prevalent disease in many poor countries, especially India. Dr Harmon gave a brief history of the disease, including the outbreaks of the 1st half of the 20th century. Through the efforts of Rotary, the number of endemic nations was reduced from 125 to four by 2007 (although there has been some re-spreading of the disease over the past few years due to travel and imports & exports of the virus).

Polio is a virus that has a 7-10 day life span and can not be killed by antibiotics. There are also no antiviral available at this time. Polio is typically spread by contaminated water/dirt that is ingested by susceptible hosts. Polio countries typically have a prevalence of contaminated wells, open sewers or other unsanitary conditions. India is the country most affected by polio because of poor sanitation, a dense population, high illiteracy, contaminated water sources, and pathogen loading; which gives the population a partial immunity to vaccines, which limits their effectiveness.

With Polio, paralysis does not always occur, but when it does, it is permanent.

The Rotary's needs in this effort include courage, commitment, and cash. Rotary has committed to raising $200 million over 3 years and the Gates Foundation has also pledged $350 million to their efforts. For more information, go to www.rotary.org.

Next Week's Program:

Lance Calloway from the Whatcom Sports Commission