We welcomed visiting Rotarian Dr. Ray Lange from the Lake Havasu Rotary Club. We also welcomed back after a long absence, club member Mirza Fareed Baig and his wife Anjah Goss. Our speaker Frank Mwinyelle was also a guest of the club.
The golf committee met on Sept 2 and will meet next on Sept 23 after the weekly meeting.
The Board will meet on Sept 16 after the weekly meeting.
Sharon Stinard passed around a clip board to sell tickets and get sponsors for the CAAFA fundraiser "The Giddy Up Gala" on Saturday, October 17 at Dolce Vita Resort.
Jacquie Smith invited people interested in helping the Save Our Schools effort to come to the weekly meetings held from 6-8 PM at Cobb's Restaurant in AJ. They could use helpers.
President Matt announced that the District received a 2015-16 Rotary Global Grant to support microcredit efforts in Mexico.
There was some trash talking about whose alma mater is going to show they are the best football team. Matt supports Michigan and Mike Dungan supports Oregon State. Nebraska and BYU got into the fray as well.
Matt and some others are working on the speaker schedule. You can help out by suggesting names for future speakers.
Aaron McDermid served as our Sargeant-at-Arms.
Ben Fellows won the drawing and $10 but drew the 7 of clubs.
President Matt Ruppert introduced our speaker Frank Mwinyelle.
Frank was born and raised in Ghana. He came to the U.S. in 2007, going first to Minot, ND and finally ending up in Arizona. He trained to become a nurse. Currently he works for Integrity Hospice Care in Gold Canyon as the clinical services director and has his office in the same building as Matt Ruppert.
Frank told us of his personal experiences with polio immunization in Ghana. Ghana started its drive in 1986 to rid the country of polio by 2003. Rotarians played a key role in the effort. His mother was the village doctor and was in charge of the immunization drive in the region where they lived. She asked Frank, who was 16 at the time, to assist her. Frank and his mother walked from village to village, house to house, doing the immunizations. They walked forty miles over two weeks. The first year they did shots but the next year and afterward the oral vaccine was used. The biggest challenge was keeping the vaccine cold. They tried to get done by noon before the ice had all melted. The country is 49 % Christian and 30% Muslim. Interestingly, the resistance to the vaccine was strongest from some apostolic Christians who believed that no vaccine was necessary because God would heal them if they got polio. The Muslim population was cooperative in receiving the vaccine.
Frank knew children with polio and saw their suffering. He expressed his personal gratitude to Rotarians everywhere who helped the people of Ghana be rid of this terrible disease.
