President Elect, Kristin Keller called the meeting to order.
Kevin Courtney offered the prayer and led the pledge to the flag.
Announcements:
Kristin is filling in for President Lynn King who is in quarantine due do her family contracting Covid-19. Affected are Lynn's husband and her parents with her mother having been hospitalized. Best wishes for a speedy recovery for all.
The raffle is going well. If you need more tickets, let Kristin know. The drawing will be on December 22.
Comments were made as to how very well run the Thanksgiving basket pick up was handled. Great job. December 22 will be our Christmas basket distribution.
Steve Stauffer announced that the Past Presidents committee, will be meeting to finalize the board nominees for next year.
Jon Eggert, membership chair, reported that proposed new member Joah Etchell's application for membership has been approved by the board. This is Joah's first posting. Beth Kuzmick who has attended two previous meetings has also submitted an application. All members are encouraged to invite potential members to our meetings and contact Jon with any who show an interest in joining.
Sergeant at Arms Suzi Oliver collected Happy $$
Speaker:
PDG Bernie Riedel, District 7770 Polio Chair and a member of the Hilton Head Island Rotary Club was our speaker.
photo credit Barry Davis
Bernie began by sharing the great news that Nigeria has been declared wild polio virus free. A country must go three consecutive years with no cases and then be certified free. The entire African continent is now declared wild polio virus free. There are still two countries that are wild polio endemic - Afghanistan and Pakistan.
There is a serious problem with circulating vaccine derived polio as the above slide shows. Bernie discussed the difference between wild and vaccine derived and the different types of polio.. He also explained that oral vaccine is cheaper than injectable, which requires medical personnel to administer, and costs ten cents a dose. There is a new oral vaccine - NOPV2 which is genetically stable and approved for emergency use to address Type 2 outbreaks. Because of Covid-19, a lot of resources were redirected from polio vaccine administration so it was expected that polio cases would go up.
VLR's polio goal last year was $1800 and we surpassed that. This year's goal has not been met as yet as shown in the above slide. Our district was number one in polio giving of seventeen districts in Zone 33. District 7770 was also number one in zone 33 in contribution to the annual fund. PDG Bernie thanked the VanLandingham Rotary Club for our support of the Foundation and specifically for our contributions for the eradication of polio.