Letter: Rotary changes world

EDITOR,
The San Lorenzo Valley celebrates its contribution to the community on Rotary International’s 107th anniversary by providing scholarship support to selected graduates of San Lorenzo Valley High School, gifting dictionaries to all fourth-grade students in the San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District, conducting an annual speech contest for high school students, maintaining landscaping at the Felton Community Hall and providing volunteer assistance at the Roaring Camp Railroads Thomas the Train event every summer.
Rotary, a global network of community volunteers, is one of the largest and most influential international humanitarian service organizations worldwide, founded in Chicago on Feb. 23, 1905. Today, more than 1.2 million members belong to 33,000 Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas.
Rotary members, as volunteers, conduct projects to address today’s humanitarian challenges, including illiteracy, disease, hunger, poverty, lack of clean water, and environmental concerns, while encouraging high standards in all vocations. Rotary members strive to build goodwill and peace and provide humanitarian service in their communities and throughout the world. The San Lorenzo Valley Rotary Club joins Rotary clubs around the world to recognize the day, also known as Rotary’s “World Understanding and Peace Day.”
Rotary’s top philanthropic goal is to eradicate polio worldwide. To date, Rotary has contributed nearly $850 million and countless volunteer hours to the protection of more than 2 billion children in 122 countries. Rotary is working to raise an additional $200 million toward a $355 million challenge grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. These efforts are providing much needed operational support, medical personnel, laboratory equipment and educational materials for health workers and parents. In addition, Rotary has played a major role in decisions by donor governments to contribute more than $4 billion to the effort. For more information, visit www.rotary.org/endpolio. The San Lorenzo Valley Rotary Club meets every Wednesday at 7:15 a.m. at the Mount Hermon main dining room. For information: www.slvrotaryclub.org.
Charles Johnson, president, SLV Rotary Club