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GREETERS: John Glasgow and Walter Reed
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Joyce Knauff
ATTENDANCE: Rob Davis
GUESTS:
Carolina, our Club’s exchange student who attends Loyola Academy
Marcie Goldstein, prospective new member who lives in Wilmette
Lali Watt, former Wimette Trustee, guest of Joanne Aggens
Anna Callahan, daughter and guest of WHRC President Elect Carol Wells
BIRTHDAY: Rob Davis – November 11
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Membership Chair John Glasgow hosted a Membership Moment and brought up to the podium member Tom Ryan, who recently celebrated his 2nd anniversary as a member of the WHRC, to ask about Tom’s involvement in Rotary. Tom’s friend Herb McDowell, a Past President of the WHRC, nominated Tom to join Rotary. Prior to joining Rotary Tom was not familiar with Rotary’s various service and fellowship initiatives other than Rotary’s efforts to End Polio. Since becoming a Rotary Tom has become a very dedicated and active volunteer at the Club’s various service events, including the Soup Kitchen. In recognition of Tom’s dedication to Rotary he was recently invited to join the Board of the WHRC.
John Glasgow distributed a “Prospective Member Contact Sheet” to all “WHRC members in attendance, kicking off the Club’s New Member Campaign. Each member is to provide the names and contact information for three individuals whom they believe would love Rotary, just as much as we Rotarians do.
Walter Reed, a multiple times Paul Harris Fellow, congratulated President-Elect and Polio Plus Coordinator Carol Wells for earning her second level Paul Harris Fellow recognition and presented Carol with a gemstone to be added to the Paul Harris Fellow lapel pin she earned with her first Paul Harris Fellow recognition. Paul Percy Harris, a Chicago lawyer, founded Rotary in 1905. Today, Rotary is a service organization with 1.2 million members worldwide. Paul Harris Fellow recognition is awarded to a donor or his/her designee each time a Rotarian donates cumulatively $1,000 over a 6-year period to the Annual Programs Fund (unrestricted), or Polio Plus and other designated programs of The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International. Contributions enable The Rotary Foundation to fund projects and programs that improve and invigorate the lives of people around the world and enhance international friendship and understanding. This is the second time that Carol has reached this level of giving to The Rotary Foundation. Congratulations Carol!
Walter reminded members that an anonymous donor in our Rotary District 6440 has agreed to match a member’s donation of $500 to the Rotary International Foundation, bringing the total donation up to $1,000 and entitling the member to recognition as a Paul Harris Fellow.
Carol thanked fellow members Ellen Falkof and Rob Davis for introducing her to Rotary.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Fundraising Committee Chair George Pearce announced that on Monday, November 11th from 5:30 – 7 the Bottle Shop, located at 1148 Central Street, Wilmette, will host a Wine Tasting at which the selected red and white wines to be sold at the WHRC Fall Fundraiser can be tasted. Also available for tasting is the caramel popcorn product also offered for sale in this year’s Fall Fundraiser. Cost to attend the fundraiser is $15 per person, which cost is waived with the purchase from the Bottle Shop of $25 or more. Please reimburse George Pearce for your $15 tasting charge if you attend the Wine Tasting and do not make a purchase of $25 or more.
Paper Order Forms for the WHRC Fall Fundraiser were distributed to Club members in attendance. John Bowman will circulate to members an electronic order form. Turn your completed paper order forms into John Bowman. All orders are due by Saturday, December 6th. Members can pick up ordered product on the morning of Saturday, December 13 from Bob Meeder’s garage at 906 Glenayre Drive in Glenview; home ph: 847/724-0681.
George announced the financial expectations for fundraising in the WHRC Fall Fundraiser. Members are expected to sell or purchase $800 worth of products, or make a cash donation of $400. Without full participation by all Club members we will not be able to continue funding at previous levels (approximately $20,000 in 2012, 2013 and 2014) community service grants awarded to several not-for-profit organizations that support the health and welfare of youth, elderly, disabled, homeless, unemployed, and impoverished citizens and environment on the North Shore and North Side of Chicago. Listed on the 2014 WHRC Fall Fundraiser Order Form are the names of the 20 not-for-profit organizations that received community service grants in 2014 from the WHRC.
Each member of the Fundraising Committee consisting of George Pearce, Barry Miller, Joyce Knauff, Jim Bowman, John Bowman, Hank Hufnagel, Walter Reed, Bob Meeder, and Sheri Miller has been assigned to a group of 8 members of the Club to help coach and assist members in meeting their fund raising goals.
GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS:
Member Jim Griffith will undergo hip replacement surgery next week.
Member Joan O’Neil just returned from a church mission trip to Haiti
SHENANIGANS:
Al Dolinko, in anticipation of Veterans Day next week on November 11, 2014, spoke about the origins of the celebration of Veterans Day in America. Armistice Day, which coincides with Remembrance Day and Veterans Day, is commemorated every year on November 11th. Armistice Day commemorates the ending of hostilities between the Allies and Germany on the Eastern Front with the signing of the armistice which ended World War I on the 11th hour of the morning on the 11th day of the 11th month of the year, November, 1918.
PROGRAM: POLIO PLUS
Rotary’s Polio Plus Initiatives presented by WHRC President Elect & Polio Plus Coordinator Carol Wells and her daughter, Anna Callahan, a specialist in infectious diseases, who earlier in her career worked for Rotary International, and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Burkina-Faso in West Africa where she worked in public health clinics. Anna is a graduate of New Trier High School, the University of California-Berkley, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Polio is the oldest documented virus on record. It dates back to Ancient Egypt and was transmitted through sanitation systems. But from the years 400 BC up until 1950 the polio virus went virtually dormant. Polio is a disease with high morbidity and low mortality, which means that its negative affect on the quality of human life are dramatic - irreversible paralysis and disfigurement, but it doesn’t cause death to most of those infected. Today it is mostly children under 5 years old who become infected with polio. It is transmitted through fecal matter or orally. It kills motor neurons in the brain. Once infected, symptoms are not immediately apparent. You can excrete the virus for up to 40 days.
There exist today two different types of Polio Vaccines:
The Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) was invented by Dr. Jonas Salk in 1955 is an inactive form of the polio virus. After receiving 3 doses of IPV in the arm 99% of those vaccinated become immune to the virus.
The Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) was invented by Dr. Albert Sabin in 1961. It is a weakened, but live form of the virus. The oral medicine is digested in the stomach from where the polio virus can spread. One in 750,000 persons vaccinated with the Oral Polio Vaccine can/will develop polio.
While the OPV is still used in many parts of the world, it has not been used in the United States since 2000. Using IPV eliminates the small risk of developing polio after receiving the live oral polio vaccine.
Why can polio be eradicated? Three reasons:
1. An effective intervention is available to interrupt transmission of the virus – the two different types of polio vaccines.
2. There exist practical diagnostic tools to detect infection, which in turn can lessen transmission of the virus.
3. Humans are essential for the life-cycle of the virus. Polio does not infect animals.
In sum, we should endeavor to vaccinate as many people in the population as possible. And by making those vaccinated immune to the virus they in turn will not be able to transmit the virus to an unvaccinated individual who remains susceptible to the virus. Unvaccinated individuals are indirectly protected by vaccinated individuals, as the latter are less likely to contract and transmit the disease between infected and susceptible individuals.
“Herd Immunity” or “Community Immunity” is the term used to describe a form of immunity that occurs when the vaccination of of a significant portion of a population (or herd) provides a measure of protection for individuals who have not been vaccinated and therefore have not developed immunity. Herd immunity theory proposes that with contagious diseases that are transmitted from individual to individual, chains of infection are likely to be disrupted when large numbers of a population are immune or less susceptible to the disease. The greater the proportion of individuals who are resistant, the smaller the probability that a susceptible individual will come into contact with an infectious individual. Vaccination acts as a firewall in the spread of the disease, slowing or preventing further transmission of the disease to others.
1952 was the worst year of polio infection. 57,000 cases of polio were reported in the US and 3,000 deaths were caused by polio.
In 1988 The World Health Organization, Rotary International, UNICEF and the Centers for Disease Control launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in response to 350,000 reported polio cases that year affecting 120 countries.
In 2007 the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged to Rotary International $100 million to match 2-to-1 RI’s funding of polio eradication. That matching program continues in effect today.
To date in 2014 there are three countries where polio continues to infect people. In Afghanistan 12 cases of polio have been reported, mostly among migrants from Pakistan. In Pakistan 220 cases of polio have been reported, and in Nigeria 6 cases have been reported. But Rotary is projecting that more cases of polio will occur in Nigeria.
Rotary International has renamed its End Polio Now campaign Polio Plus. Why? Because although polio has been eradicated in most countries of the world, there exist in the world today outbreaks of other highly communicable diseases for which Rotary’s Polio Eradication infrastructure can be used effectively, efficiently, and quickly to help support the public health needs of affected nations. Rotary’s initiatives in the Polio Plus Campaign can continue to fight the spread of polio in those countries that continue to have polio outbreaks, but they can also be used to combat contagious diseases like Ebola.
Unlike polio, however, Ebola can never be completely eradicated, because Ebola can be carried by humans and animals alike. When and if an Ebola vaccine is available, Rotary’s polio eradication infrastructure could be used to vaccinate populations. In the meantime, the Rotary’s polio eradication infrastructure can be used to perform “Contact Tracing” to help prevent a wide scale Ebola outbreak in countries like Nigeria.
Carol and Anna recommended two books for persons interested in learning more about polio and other disease eradication.
Non-Fiction: “Polio: An American Story” by David M. Oshinsky (winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in History)
Fiction: “Nemesis” by Philip Roth
NEXT WEEK’S PROGRAM: Lydia Zopf, Threshold Veterans Project
NEXT MEETING CLUB DUTIES (Nov. 12, 2014):
Greeters: Carol Wells & Walter Reed
Thought for the Day: John Wertymer
Shenanigans: Tom Ryan
Set-Up: Gil Gilbert
Attendance: George Pearce
Scribe: Jim Bowman
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