Official Newsletter of District Governor Al Bergsma May 2011

INSIDE THIS ISSUE 2 DG Al’s Message Cont’d 3 DG Al’s Message Cont’d 4 Shelterbox and Rotarians Respond 5 Graduation at APU 6 4 Way Speech Contest Results 7 Rotary Everest Trek 2011 8 Rotary Everest Trek 2011 12 Monthly Attendance Report—March 2011

Push is on to END Polio Now

District 5360

Rotary International

Well spring has finally ar-rived. After a brutal winter that would just not quite go away, spring has shown its presence. And when spring arrives, Rotarian’s thoughts turn to ……….. Golfing! A number of clubs are host-ing tournaments in the next few months. For those of you longing to master the greens here are invitations to three of those events.:

Rotary Club of Canmore June 17th. Click here to regis-

ter Rotary Club of Sylvan Lake, June 22nd, email Bonnie

Ganske at bonnieganske@yahoo.com. Rotary Club of High River, July 21st, email Tasha or

click here. Gates Polio Plus Challenge: A number of people have been asking where we are glob-ally with regards to the Gates Polio Plus Challenge. This information is just in and indicates that we are at $168 million with roughly 14 months left to go in the challenge. The other chart tells you or the number so polio cases worldwide in 2011 thus far. With this level of success, polio eradication is within reach.

RISING TO THE CHALLENGE

US$168M

*As of 26 April 2011

For the latest on the number of polio cases,

progress reports on polio-endemic countries,

and other information, go to

www.polioeradication.org.

Polio Facts & Figures

Area Number of cases in 2011

Afghanistan 1

India 1

Nigeria 8

Pakistan 33

Non-endemic coun-tries 77

Total 120

(Data as of 26 April/World Health Organiza-tion)

Click

here to read the

End Polio Now

May 2011 Newsletter

2 Building Communities Bridging Continents

District 5360, May 2011

Rotary International

DG Al’s Message Some of you may be asking why the newsletter is late this month. It is late so that we could share some of the highlights of the district c o n f e r e n c e . About 375 Rotarians and guests converged on the Capri Center on Friday April 29th to hear Danny Catt talk about his experiences as a Rotary GSE team mem-ber and ambassadorial scholar. He has spent time on several continents and on several ocean cruises, but many of the photos he shared were of the endan-gered Mountain Gorillas. On Saturday morning PDG Steve Allen introduced us to Amanda Lindhout. Amanda was the photojournalist who was captured in Somalia in 2009 and held for 15 months in darkened cells. She shared her daily struggle with torture and malnutrition as she looked within to find a reason to re-main alive. And yet she was able to survive by forgiving her captors and to find a way to support the women of Somalia through her

Global En-r i c h m e n t Foundation. Both Danny and Amanda were pre-sented with a Paul Harris Fe l l owsh ip as part of

their willingness to give back to society. A do-nation was also made to each of their respec-tive charitable foundations. Saturday afternoon, we were mesmerized with the pictures of Mount Everest and the climb to base camp. Byron Smith of the Sir Edmond Hillary Foundation invited us to “Meet him at the Top”. Rotarians have been invited to par-ticipate with the Rotary Everest Trek in April of 2012. For more information go to www.rotaryeveresttrek.com.

Samantha Terry was also in attendance to tell us her story of raising funds for the “Room to Read” project in Nepal. Brad Howard was the Rotary International Representative along with his wife Marcia. Not only did they have a great time with us, they shared their many stories about projects they had been involved with. Brad pre-sented 2 Major donor awards

at the DG Ball and a “Service Above Self Award” to Walter Haessel. All were well de-served. In addition to the three great keynote speak-ers, there were 20 breakout sessions that were well received. Topics dealt with included major ongoing projects in our district, sev-eral committee member re-ports, the 4 Way Speech Contest and a number of “New Generation presenta-tions”. Early indications are that the conference was a great success.

Al Bergsma, Walter Haessel, and Brad Howard

3 Building Communities Bridging Continents

Rotary International

DG Al’s Message

District 5360, May 2011

New RRFC for Zone 24 West Bernie Carriere will take over as RRFC for Zone 24 West on July 1 2011. Bernie worked in the Canadian Cable Television industry for 18 years, both as a Controller and Gen-eral Manager in Kingston, ON, Este-van and Weyburn, Sask. & Lethbridge, Alberta. For the past 15 years he has been working with Sun Life Financial Services of Canada. Bernie first joined Rotary in 1987 & joined the RC of Lethbridge in 1990. He served Rotary as DG of D5360 in 2007-08, Zone Treasurer, RLI trainer and ARRFC. He traveled to West Africa in 2004 and participated in a Polio NID. He has imple-mented service projects in West Africa. He continues to serve as President of the Rotary Club of Lethbridge Society, and proud that his club has implemented other service projects in Russia, Fiji, Ukraine, Burkina Faso and a host of others. He is active with many community groups. Bernie has been married to Susan since 1977, and has 3 adult children. Susan is a Project Coordinator with Alberta Health Services. Contact Bernie at: bernie.carriere@sunlife.com

Add creative Rotary content to your website

Build your website with public relations in mind. Make sure your home page has something to offer non-Rotarian visitors, including web videos, high-resolution images, and news about club activities. Your club’s online presence directly affects its public image, so focus on showing what the power of Rotary can do, both in your community and around the world. Read more tips

Here is a great story about one of our outbound students Trevor Hlynski.

Trevor Hlynski, Cameron Houser, and Christian Moller, inbound Youth Exchange students in District 3140, help

build a house through a Habitat for Humanity project in India.

At a recent district confer-

ence in India, inbound Youth Exchange student Trevor Hlynski of Canada

heard philanthropist Ra-jashree Birla, an honorary Rotarian who has donated

more than US$4.2 million to The Rotary Foundation for

polio eradication, speak about a Habitat for Humanity pro-ject to build homes for the less fortunate in rural villages in

Maharashtra. Inspired to get involved, Trevor and fellow Youth Exchange students Christian Moller of Denmark and Cameron Houser of the United States spent two days

helping to build a house brick by brick in Karjat. They got to know the woman who would live in the house as well as other local residents, and they experienced village life

firsthand. The young volunteers received help from their host district, District 3140, and the Rotary Club of Karjat. “In the past, I had gone on projects with my Rotary club

and visited children in orphanages around Mumbai, but this was my first opportunity to see a traditional Indian village,” Trevor says. “It was great being able to interact

with the peo-ple who lived in the village.

This was a great experi-ence.”

Youth Exchange students in India are Building Com-munities — Bridging Continents

4 Building Communities Bridging Continents

District 5360, May 2011

Rotary International

Shelterbox and Rotarians Respond to Disaster in Japan

On Friday, March 11 one of the largest earth-quakes the modern world has ever known struck off the north east coast of Japan. The earthquake triggered a massive tsunami that, when it reached Japan’s coast, was more than 10m high and travelling at speeds close to 500km per hour. The wall of water swept away whole towns, claimed the lives of more than ten thousand peo-ple and left a quarter of a million people home-less.

As always, Rotarians have responded with actions and contributions! Last month this newsletter featured The Rotary Foundations “Rotary Japan Disaster Recovery Fund” which will support long-term recovery projects. The other Rotary option is for immediate disaster relief with ShelterBox. The first ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) of Ro-tarians arrived in Japan less than 24 hours after the earthquake. Now, more than 1,500 Shelter-Boxes have been committed to Japan and Shel-terBox Response Team members have been working with the Japanese authorities and Rotary Clubs to bring immediate aid to those families in most need. Canadian ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) member and Rotarian Ron Noseworthy recently returned from volunteering in the hardest-hit re-gions of northern Japan, providing ShelterBoxes

to families that lost their homes and all their pos-sessions. Among the families Ron has helped were this mother and her three children. She was at home at the time of the earthquake and, after hearing the sirens, ran outside and saw the wave com-ing. She ran with her three children ahead of the wave to find higher ground. The family survived but lost everything, including their home. D2520 District Governor Naoki Narayama com-mended ShelterBox. He has been receiving re-quests every day for more boxes from many Ro-tary Clubs in his district who want to help distrib-ute ShelterBoxes in devastated areas.

Our fellow Rotarians are making a difference in responding to the most immediate needs in Japan and helping ShelterBox to prepare for future dis-asters when they occur. Donations to ShelterBox can be sent to the Dis-trict 5550 World Community Services Foundation. For more information about ShelterBox you can visit www.shelterboxcanada.org .

Submitted by Kent Fraser

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Rotary International

District 5360, May 2011

Graduation at APU

Christie Johnson (right) joins Memory Chazeza, (left) co-founders of the Malawi Girls On The Move School, in preparing for the first ever graduation from their school on June 25, a remarkable accomplishment by all accounts! In 2000, a young teacher, Christie Johnson wanted to do something to help arrest the cycle of poverty in Africa. Volun-teering at a school in Ma-lawi, she was moved by the plight of 24 young women enrolled at the school that went bank-rupt part way through the year. She, and local vo lunteer , Memory Chazeza, made a pact to continue to assist those girls, with Christie returning to Canada to raise money and Memory going on to teacher training college. Christie spoke to any individuals or groups that would listen and she found enough sponsors, many of them Rotarians, to help the original 24 girls complete their high school. In-deed five have gone on to higher education. But Memory had a dream to found a local school for disadvantaged girls, a school with buildings big enough to house hundreds of students. And Christie was committed to helping her. Christie and Memory, with the help of dozens of individuals and Rotary Clubs in Zone 24 and Ma-lawi, founded Atsikana Pa Ulendo (Malawi Girls on the Move), a residential school near Lilongwe, Ma-lawi, at which Memory is head mistress and Christie, who is now working at Lester B. Pearson College in Victoria, continues to do community and school presentations.

Opened in 2006, APU has since built classrooms, dor-mitories, staff residences, and a cafeteria. On the first state wide exams written two years ago, all 100% of the class passed; a remarkable feat, in a country where usually fewer than 25% of the female students pass.

In the past year electricity and running water reached the school and soon, a library and science labs will soon be completed. Plans for a teach-ers’ college are also being made. Many opportunities still exist for American Rotary members to sponsor a girl or donate to the building fund. Canadian Rotarians will be pleased to

hear that APU Malawi Education Foundation is now a charity with income tax receipts available. To find out more please check out the school website: www.malawigirlsonthemove.com

Submitted by Ken Haywood

Rotary International

6 Building Communities Bridging Continents

District 5360, May 2011

4 Way Speech Contest

This year’s speech contest went a little better than last year. We had 5 Clubs participating, 2 clubs had wanted to but one student had an-other commitment and Olds Club always send-ing their winner at the club level to “Adventures in Citizenship” and unfortunately it was the same weekend as the convention. During the break, we discussed ideas with the spectators on how to get more clubs in-volved. Yes I did bring up Multi-media and was at first given the thumbs down, but when I went around the room talking to clubs that did-n’t participate and asked why not and I ex-plained why it was so important to get students involved, there was a change in attitude. The number one issue is to promote the 4 Way Test and ethics to students. If it is the only way that students are interested is by doing it with multi-media and we are successful in getting them to participate – WE HAVE ACCOMPLISHED OUR GOAL. Speech is important, but helping to promote ethics should be our main goal. I’m not crazy about going to allowing “rap” music etc but we have to change. Our first prize winner, spoke on the charity “The Right to Play”, he used words like imagine a life with no play for children, if he had had a power point slide show with his speech the whole room would have been crying. I think we should move to allowing “Power Point” slide shows as an addition to the speech. I asked Colin if after exams if he would consider making a slide show with his speech as an over lay to use as example and he has agreed. I am working to get a corporate sponsor to the tune of $5,000.00 to change the prize struc-ture. I know it was discussed at PETS about promoting it through the school districts, but at this point one step at a time, we’ll leave it with the clubs.

I want to thank the following Judges for a hard job well done; Gerry Winia – Red Deer Asha Paul – Calgary Heritage Phil McDowell – Calgary Olympic The winners were;

Colin Elliot – sponsored by the Banff

Club $700.00 Heidi Upham – sponsored by Calgary South

$500.00 Karim Kurji – sponsored by Calgary West

$300.00 Jo McDowell RC Calgary Olympic

Submitted by Jo McDowell, RC Calgary Olympic

Club Image/Membership Seminar

All incoming Public Relations and Membership Directors, Pres-Elects will be interested in the District video conference being presented in four locations this year, Medi-

cine Hat, Lethbridge, Chestemere and Innisfail, for the Central Alberta Rotarians. The Seminar will focus on developing strategies preparing us to handle our 2011-2012 club program. Strategies will include Rotary Day celebrations, Public Image surveying, the district wide Five for One membership building pro-gram, in addition to strategies dealing with our retention challenges. and Member Satisfaction Surveying. The video network will allow participants to share Best Practices/concerns from all clubs which will enhance the total ex-perience. Members are encouraged to register on the dis-trict website at a location of their choice to ensure hand-outs and lunch arrangements are adequate. The seminar cost is $30.00/person and runs from 9:30-2:45 on June 4th, lunch included.

7 Building Communities Bridging Continents

Rotary International

District 5360, May 2011

Rotary Everest Trek 2012

Submitted by Karl Herzog

AS SEEN AT THE

2011 DISTRICT

CONFERENCE!

Visit www.rotaryeveresttrek.com for more information and to sign up or email Karl Herzog (Click on his name to email)

8 Building Communities Bridging Continents

Rotary International

Rotary Everest Trek 2012

District 5360, May 2011

**Monthly Attendance Report ** March 2011

Building Communities Bridging Continents 9

District 5360

Rotary International

NR

Member Count Last

Year

Member Count March

Gain/Loss March

YTD Gain/Loss

YTD Gain/Loss %

Last Year Attendance

% March Atten-

dance % YTD Atten-dance %

March Rank

YTD Rank

Meetings Held

March Airdrie 33 35 1 2 6.06% 82.25% 104.00% 68.86% 1 16 5 Banff NR 0 0 0 0 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 32 44 0 Brooks NR 0 0 0 0 0.00% 48.67% 0.00% 34.67% 32 42 0 Calgary 257 260 1 3 1.17% 51.72% 42.75% 48.65% 30 34 5 Calgary Centennial 48 51 0 3 6.25% 80.23% 63.30% 65.80% 21 21 5 Calgary Chinook 96 89 0 -7 -7.29% 59.39% 63.45% 67.30% 20 20 5 Calgary Crowchild 21 21 0 0 0.00% 36.78% 49.52% 49.18% 29 33 5 Calgary East 33 30 -2 -3 -9.09% 72.19% 66.46% 70.00% 16 13 5 Calgary Fish Creek 27 25 0 -2 -7.41% 54.89% 65.63% 60.60% 17 25 4 Calgary Heritage Park 50 50 1 0 0.00% 78.51% 78.24% 81.39% 6 2 4 Calgary Millennium NR 20 0 0 -20 -100.00% 69.39% 0.00% 57.45% 32 28 0 Calgary North 56 61 0 5 8.93% 64.24% 77.09% 69.16% 9 15 4 Calgary Olympic NR 25 0 0 -25 -100.00% 65.34% 0.00% 44.71% 32 38 0 Calgary Sarcee 0 33 -1 33 0.00% 7.02% 53.37% 57.13% 28 29 5 Calgary South 170 174 0 4 2.35% 75.22% 78.82% 75.17% 5 6 5 Calgary West 76 76 0 0 0.00% 63.20% 68.18% 68.81% 14 17 4 Canmore 79 87 -1 8 10.13% 68.78% 72.54% 68.52% 12 18 5 Cardston 20 21 0 1 5.00% 68.92% 80.00% 87.89% 4 1 5 Coaldale 15 14 1 -1 -6.67% 32.08% 70.00% 48.44% 13 35 4 Cochrane 29 28 0 -1 -3.45% 80.40% 70.00% 73.67% 13 7 5 Drumheller NR 0 0 0 0 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 32 44 0 Fort Macleod NR 18 0 0 -18 -100.00% 53.92% 0.00% 43.78% 32 40 0 High River 84 87 -1 3 3.57% 54.48% 58.05% 58.00% 24 27 5 Innisfail 58 55 0 -3 -5.17% 67.82% 75.59% 71.86% 10 9 5 Kananaskis NR 0 0 0 0 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 32 44 0 Kindersley 24 28 2 4 16.67% 62.43% 54.29% 59.31% 27 26 5 Lacombe 50 41 0 -9 -18.00% 80.02% 85.71% 80.22% 2 3 4 Lacombe Daybreak 0 26 0 26 0.00% 0.00% 81.54% 47.59% 3 37 5 Lethbridge 124 116 -1 -8 -6.45% 57.45% 57.79% 56.55% 25 30 4 Lethbridge East 31 27 -1 -4 -12.90% 73.58% 68.00% 71.22% 15 11 4 Lethbridge Sunrise 32 33 0 1 3.13% 68.49% 78.13% 76.34% 7 5 5 Lethbridge Urban Spirits 0 37 1 37 0.00% 59.00% 77.27% 47.85% 8 36 4 Medicine Hat NR 93 0 0 -93 -100.00% 73.71% 0.00% 54.86% 32 32 0 Medicine Hat - PACE 0 22 0 22 0.00% 0.00% 42.73% 44.32% 31 39 5 Medicine Hat (Saamis) 28 28 -1 0 0.00% 73.60% 65.03% 67.65% 19 19 5 Medicine Hat Sunrise 40 39 -1 -1 -2.50% 68.28% 73.80% 72.30% 11 8 5 Okotoks 0 31 0 31 0.00% 40.75% 58.22% 61.38% 23 24 5 Olds NR 35 0 0 -35 -100.00% 82.98% 0.00% 70.05% 32 12 0 Pincher Creek 32 33 1 1 3.13% 61.81% 56.97% 63.67% 26 23 5 Ponoka 0 0 0 0 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 32 44 0 Raymond NR 0 0 0 0 0.00% 32.50% 0.00% 0.00% 32 44 0 Red Deer NR 104 0 0 -104 -100.00% 69.09% 0.00% 55.19% 32 31 0 Red Deer Centennial 23 21 0 -2 -8.70% 84.34% 60.95% 71.30% 22 10 5 Red Deer East NR 38 0 0 -38 -100.00% 89.83% 0.00% 80.00% 32 4 0 Red Deer Sunrise 35 36 0 1 2.86% 67.80% 65.45% 69.69% 18 14 5 Rocky Mountain House NR 18 0 0 -18 -100.00% 69.48% 0.00% 43.61% 32 41 0 Stettler NR 0 0 0 0 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 21.22% 32 43 0 Swift Current NR 0 0 0 0 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 32 44 0 Sylvan Lake NR 22 0 0 -22 -100.00% 81.59% 0.00% 65.29% 32 22 0

Totals 1944 1715 -1 -229 -17.01% 48.74% 40.05% 49.09%