THE ROTARY FOUNDATION
By Bob Barber
         
President David opened the September 18, 2007, with his customary "Rotary fact." In Health and Happiness Worth Williamson reminded us that "Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of experience comes from bad judgment." David Erdman led the club in singing "Kansas City" by Wilbert Harrison, the third in David's series of famous songs from Mecklenburg County.
 
President David led off a program that was entirely devoted to the Rotary Foundation. President David stated that the Rotary Club of Charlotte has a well-deserved reputation as a very generous group; however, although the Rotary Club of Charlotte is the largest club in District 7680, it does not generate the largest total contributions to the Rotary Foundation. President David then introduced Donald Haack.
 
Don reported that in his 17 years in Rotary, his two years as the club's Rotary Foundation chair were his most gratifying. Among his remarks, Don related that thousands of men, women, and children in Third World countries die every day due to preventable or curable causes such as polio, AIDS, malaria, poor water supplies, poor sanitation, and starvation. Our contributions to the Rotary Foundation help prevent some of those deaths, but more is needed. Don turned the podium over to Tom Robertson.
 
Tom reminded the club of the activities of the Rotary Foundation aimed at promoting international peace and understanding. The Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship Program is the largest private scholarship program in the world. It is compared to the much better known Rhodes Scholarship and Marshall Scholarship programs. Since its inception, 47,100 scholars from 110 countries have received scholarships for graduate study in other countries.
 
The Rotary Group Study Exchange program, founded in 1965, provides funding from the Rotary Foundation for travel expenses for groups of young professionals to visit other countries for the promotion of international goodwill and understanding. Since its inception, 57,000 young professionals (non-Rotarians) have participated in 12,000 teams visiting over 100 countries. Over the years, numerous teams have come from and come to Charlotte.
 
The Rotary World Peace Fellowship Program, funded by the Rotary Foundation, offers world-wide, competitive fellowships to up to 60 qualified, non-Rotary-connected candidates for study at one of the Rotary Centers for International Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution. The fellowships are awarded to one of the six centers, two of which are in North Carolina at UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University, and are expected to result in award of a master's degree in peace and conflict resolution.
 
The Rotary Grants for University Teachers Program provides funds to higher education faculty to travel abroad to teach at colleges and universities in developing countries. Since its inception in 1985, 431 university teachers have been awarded these grants. Tom turned the microphone over to Herb Harriss.
 
Herb talked about the Rotary Foundation grants and matching grants programs. Smaller grants are funded and approved at the district-level while grants over $25,000 are competitive and are centrally approved. Herb reminded us that in one of our local projects some modest contributions from clubs in District 7680 were leveraged into a total of over $46,000 for the placement of laparoscopic surgery equipment in a developing country. Our water project in Arequipa, Peru, is being evaluated for a matching grant from the Rotary Foundation. Herb reminded the club of several important reasons to contribute to the Rotary Foundation: 1) it is a program funded by Rotarians, managed by Rotarians, and implemented by Rotarians; 2) grants are always to Rotary Clubs for the benefit of their community, never to potentially corrupt governments; 3) none-not $1-of our contributions is spent for administration, only the interest earnings on the contributions are used to fund the administrative processes; and, 4) the Wall Street Journal has lauded the Rotary Foundation's Polio Plus Campaign to eliminate polio as the most successful program of its type EVER!
 
President David then returned to the theme of his opening remarks by congratulating the club on its cumulative total gifts to Rotary Foundation of over $890,000. David related that on average members of the Rotary Club of Charlotte contribute $117 per member. While that is good, David compared our performance to that of other clubs in District 7680: Charlotte West, $163 per member; Charlotte East, $204 per member; Cabarrus West, $491 per member; and Dilworth, $495 per member.
 
Each member was provided with a summary of his or her personal gifts to date and the balance required to earn a Paul Harris Fellowship, reach the next level of Paul Harris Fellowship giving, or earn enough points to be able to honor someone else with a Paul Harris Fellowship. He also announced that as an incentive, the Board will award 100 points in addition to the normal points earned for any new PHF pledge of $100 or more or any increase in PHF pledge of $100 or more.
     
Head Table: Sadler Barnhardt, Bill Underwood, David Zimmerman, Rex Welton, Tom Robertson, Don Haack, Herb Harriss
Invocation: Leroy Mayne;
Visitors & Guests: Luther Moore; Health & Happiness: Worth Williamson; Song: David Erdman; Piano: Thomas Moore

• Welcome new members Gibb Heilman and Gail Norman. Bill Meanor introduced Gibb, who is president of GeoSpec Environments, a hardscape and site furnishings company. Contact Gibb at gibbh@geospec.com. Gail Norman was introduced by Mark Norman. Gail is president and CEO of the Arthritis Foundation Carolinas Chapter. Contact Gail at gnorman@arthritis.org.
        
• CMS School Board candidate Trent Merchant was featured in this week's Observer. Over the weekend, Trent and City Council contender Edwin Peacock were referred to as the new young leaders involved in Charlotte politics; Lynn Erdman (David's wife), senior vice president of the American Cancer Society, hosted a Pink Tea for breast cancer survivors; Tim Newman participated in the Carolinas Walk Now for Autism Kick Off Breakfast.
     
• FLU SHOTS wil be given at the hotel on October 16th. The cost will be $25. Please mark your calendar.

• John Johnson thanked everyone for supporting School Tools. Approximately twenty-four tons of school supplies valued at around $235,000 were collected for this year's effort. The value of supplies collected through Charlotte Rotary was almost $4000. John also recognized fellow Rotarians Karen Calder, Classroom Central and Bill Anderson, Communities in Schools for their leadership as School Tools partner organizations.

• WTVI provided invitations to the preview of Ken Burns' documentary, The War, which will be shown at Levine Museum of the New South on Thursday.