Presumpscot Scribbler 10-29-2017 (Oct 30, 2017)

Nov 07, 2017

Kate Wight

Classification Talk

Nov 14, 2017

Abigail Cioffi - Director Downtown Westbrook Cltn

DWC Update

Nov 21, 2017

In-Meeting Service Project

More Details to Follow

Nov 28, 2017

Dave Perron - Executive Director

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Maine

Dec 05, 2017

Club Assembly

Dec 12, 2017

Christmas Party at the Reidman's

No Lunch Meeting

Dec 19, 2017

Jana Allain -Marketing & Recruitment Associate

Woodford's Family Services Foster Care Prog

Dec 26, 2017

No Meeting - Merry Christmas

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Paint the Trailer!!

Rear of WRVC

Nov 04, 2017
9:00 AM – 11:00 AM

Nov 2017 Board Meeting

WRVC Board Room

Nov 07, 2017
10:30 AM – 11:15 AM

Christmas Tree Sales Lot Set Up

Westbrook Municipal Parking Lot

Nov 24, 2017
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Dec 2017 Board Meeting

WRVC Board Room

Dec 05, 2017
10:30 AM – 11:15 AM

Tips for Charity Luncheon

Westbrook-Warren Church

Dec 08, 2017
11:30 AM – 1:00 PM

Christmas Party 2017

Home of Judith & Ed Reidman

Dec 12, 2017
5:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Jan 2018 Board Meeting

WRVC Board Room

Jan 02, 2018
10:30 AM – 11:15 AM

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The Four Way Test

Of the things we think, say, or do:

First, Is it the truth?

Second, Is it fair to all concerned?

Third, Will it build goodwill & better friendships?

Fourth, Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

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Rotary's Six Areas of Focus

* Promoting Peace

* Supporting Education

* Growing Local Economies

* Fighting Disease

* Providing Clean Water

* Saving Mothers & Children

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Next Board Meeting

11/7 10:30AM at WRVC

All members are welcome at Board Meetings

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Milestones

Mike Sanphy - Birthday 11/3
Jason Beever -Rotary Anniversary 11/1 - 22 years
Wayne Lopez - Rotary Anniversary 11/1 - 38 years
Dan Willett -Rotary Anniversary 11/1 - 16 years

Upcoming Opportunities

Socktober - Final week!! All Westbrook schools are in need of socks for students. The school staff and nurses have identified socks as the number one needed item right now in all grades K-12. To help, pick up a pair or two on your next shopping trip. Socks can be dropped off at any school or brought to our meeting this week. Let’s help get socks on those little feet before the cold weather really hits.

The Locker Project - Fresh food and baked good distribution at Westbrook High School in the cafeteria. One volunteer needed for each of three dates in November to work with Kiwanis volunteers. 1-2PM each time. Wednesdays November 1, 15 and 29. If you can help on any of these dates, please contact Christine Johnson.

Christmas Tree Sales Trailer Prep & Painting - This week: Friday November 3, time TBD, prep for painting. Saturday November 4, 10AM painting at WRVC (in one of the work bays). Come join us in getting our trailer ready for upcoming Christmas Tree sales. For more info, contact Kate Wight.

LaRoux Kitchen Knife Sharpening Day for a Cause - Saturday, November 4. LaRoux Kitchen will host their annual knife sharpening day for a cause. This year is for the Locker Project. Bring all knives you're dying to get that cutting edge on. First knife sharpened for free. Up to 3 more knives for a donation of $3 each. 2PM- 5PM, 448 Payne Rd., Scarborough.

A Toast to Main Street – Celebration of Westbrook Downtown Coalition and Maine Development Foundation as Westbrook becomes an accredited Downtown Main Street Community - $30. November 9, 2017. Presumpscot Place, Foster St, Westbrook. Doors open at 5:00. Featuring keynote speaker, Ed McMahon, chair of the National Main Street Center, making the case for the power of preservation in economic development, plus awards and celebration of new Main Street communities. Register at http://www.mdf.org/events/A-Toast-to-Main-Street/941/

Coats for Seniors - Baxter Memorial Library in Gorham is a drop-off location for the Coats for Seniors program. Collecting until Nov. 30^th. Donate your clean, gently used winter coats today. LL Bean will contribute an additional $5 for every coat donated. Visit http://maine4a.org/ for more information.

Crutches 4 Africa Load the Container – Saturday November 18. 20 Gooch St, Biddeford, ME. FIRST TEAM: 15 people to arrive at 9:30 and work until 11:30 to get things organized and start loading around 10 AM. Any extra people will work on packaging several crates of inbound crutches for a future shipment. We are loading crutches, wheel chairs, walkers and canes. SECOND TEAM: 10 people to arrive at 10:30 and work until about 12:30 to continue the loading and packaging. Contact: Dennis Robillard - Cell 468-0043 of Saco Bay Sunset Club.

Tips for Charity Luncheon – Tickets available now for the annual luncheon to benefit Westbrook Food Pantry and Good Samaritan Fuel Fund. Friday December 8, 11:30 or 12:20. Let’s make the Rotary table the highest donor table again this year and make it three in a row!!

Clean Water for 100 Families in Guatemala– For $35 per family you can provide clean drinking water for one family in Guatemala for two years through an Ecofiltro unit. Scott Linscott has set a goal of helping 100 families by Christmas. Use the Easy Tithe app to make your tax-deductible contribution through FBC Westbrook by going to https://app.easytithe.com/g3/, click on Quick Give and use the drop down to choose the option Clean Water for 100 Families. You may also write a check to FBC Westbrook and hand to Scott at a meeting. Put “Clean Water” in the memo line.

Toiletries for the High School - Ongoing - Collect those tiny bottles of toiletries you are paying for during your next hotel visit and bring them home to help students in need of personal hygiene products. The HS Pantry and the HS Nurse are always looking to restock these basic supplies. You can always drop items off during the school day at the HS main office, or bring them to a meeting.

Donate to our Club's Charity through Amazon Smile – Ongoing - If you order items from Amazon.com, even if not very often, you can help Westbrook Gorham Rotary Club Charities. Go to http://smile.amazon.com/. Search for our Charity and select it. You may need to login to your Amazon account before being able to finalize your selection. Then, when you shop Amazon.com (always starting from http://smile.amazon.com/) a portion of every purchase will be donated to our charity.

Can Tabs for Ronald MacDonald House – Ongoing - While Pat & Cliff are in Florida, let’s keep collecting those can tabs! Let’s see how many we can save over the winter months.

CLYNK for Literacy - Ongoing - Don't forget to keep filling those bags to help fund the children's books we ask our speakers to sign for the Baxter and Walker Libraries. Extra bags are always available at our meetings.

A Brief History of the Fight Against Polio

We were pleased to welcome Past District Governor, Sanford-Springvale Rotarian, and District Polio Plus chair Lawrence Furbish to our meeting on World Polio Day. Lawrence gave us a quick history of this ancient disease and Rotary’s role in taking on the challenge to eradicate it from the world.

Hippocrates, a Greek physician often called the father of Western medicine, described a disease that people got in the warmer months. Ancient tablets from Egypt and India make reference to a disease that was most likely poliomyelitis. In the US, there was an epidemic occurrence of polio starting in 1905 and peaking in 1910 and 1916. Throughout the first half of the last century, polio remained a threat in the US, striking the poor and wealthy alike. A notable example is Franklin D. Roosevelt who contracted the disease at his summer home on Campobello Island in 1921.

The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis was founded in the 1938 by a friend of FDR with the aim of combatting polio. This organization was renamed March of Dimes and now focuses on preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality.

Cases of polio in the US grew throughout the 1940s, peaking in 1952. Two key virologists were working on vaccines. Jonas Salk’s approach was with dead virus while other researchers worked with live virus. Salk’s injected vaccine became available in 1954 when one million kids were vaccinated in a trial that proved it was effective. The Albert Sabin oral vaccine was released in 1961 as the incidences of polio were declining rapidly in the US. The oral vaccine was and is much less expensive than the injected vaccine, but in a small number of cases it can cause polio (vaccine derived polio vs wild polio virus). While other virologists in other countries were also working on an oral vaccine, the Sabin strain was determined to be most effective and was adopted for worldwide distribution.

In the 1970s, Rotary 3H Grants, the predecessor to Global Grants, were started to provide funding for projects greater than a single club could afford. It was through a 3H Grant that the polio eradication effort in the Philippines was funded. In 1985, Rotary took on the fight against polio as a “corporate project”. Rotary approached the World Health Organization (WHO) to form a partnership and were initially rebuffed since Rotary is not a health organization. However, once Rotary demonstrated the level of funding that could be made available, the partnership was launched with WHO, the CDC and UNICEF. In 2013, the Gates Foundation joined the partnership.

The efforts of this partnership have driven the number of polio cases down from about 350,000 in 1988 to 12 so far in 2017. Only two countries have reported cases in 2017, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Most vaccinating is done by local health care workers – polio workers whom our donations help pay for. Rotarians administer a small number of vaccinations, but our key role is to continue to raise awareness and advocate for support to get the job done.