Guest Speaker - Richard Fox
Eric introduced Richard who is a past director and very knowledgeable about Rotary. Richard talked about the 6 degrees of separation and all levels of Rotary. Paul Harris was the founder of Rotary born in Wisconsin and moved to Wallingford, VT. He later went to UVM and then went out west, became a cowboy, and eventually became a lawyer and relocated to Chicago. However, Chicago was very fast paced, and Paul wanted to find his sense of community. Therefore, he got together with other people for fellowship and to do something better as a group of people. They worked on community projects, and their first project was a public restroom.
Next, Richard talked about the Peace Centers around the world where they held international conventions in 1940 during WW2. Then in 1948 in the Declaration of Human Rights, 90% of language from the Rotary Convention was used. This was similar for the Charter for the United Nations. (Side note, there will be a new Peace Center soon, but the location is TBD somewhere in the Middle East or North Africa).
Richard also talked about how Polio Plus started and one of the 1st cases was right outside of Stowe, VT. In the Philippines in 1958, the community was tired of seeing their children die and wanted to fight polio. They sought out a RI grant and millions of dollars went to the Polio Vaccine. This was the largest Public Health Effort started by Rotarians. Rotary went back to the United Nations and World Health Organization for support and now we are nearly 99.9% Polio Free besides the Pakistan and Afghanistan regions of conflict.
Lastly, Richard talked about the Rotary Foundation and how it derived from left over funding (about $26 from an event). The group decided to use this as seed money that could be used in the future as a legacy to fund other initiatives. This fund has grown to millions to give back to communities. In fact, in 2011 Vermont received about $413,000 from a global grant to support those devastated by Hurrican Irene.
Richard ended by saying that what we do over coffee matters. It is more than fellowship. Our communities are better off because of what Rotary does here! "Good people do great things."
Thank you, Richard!
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