Tags
Colleen Bonadonna, District 7600 Foundation Committee, Fighting Disease, Ghana, Ghana Global Water Grants, PDG Chuck Arnason, PDG Stephen Beer, Prince George Rotary, Providing Clean Water, Schools, Shel Douglas, Walter Hughes, Water & Sanitation
Clean water, toilets, & schools, oh my …
Rotary District 7600, clubs in the district, as well as districts and clubs throughout the US and in Ghana, have committed funds and volunteers to a series of water and sanitation global grant projects in Ghana.
These grants, spearheaded by Walter Hughes of District 7570 and greatly aided by grant writer, Shel Douglas, Past President of the Prince George Club and Assistant Governor of Area 6, will also include basic school buildings complete with libraries filled with books. There will be volunteer work trips, one of which is coming up in late January and three of the volunteers on that trip will be Walter, Shel, and Past District Governor Stephen Beer.
Walter visited the Rotary Club of Prince George County on December 12 and provided the club with information about the water & hygiene grants in particular, but also about the Rotary Water & Hygiene Area of Focus (or Cause, if you will). On hand were PDG Stephen, PDG & current District Rotary Foundation Chair, Chuck Arnason, District Polio Plus Chair, Colleen Bonadonna, and non-Rotarian visitors and guests interested in health, education, clean water, and sanitation.
The presentation is provided here as a video and runs about 20 minutes. Watch it if you can, but if not, know that the gist of Walter’s message is that access to sustainable potable water, hygienic sanitation, education, and maintenance training, not only fights disease but also provides economic development opportunities for isolated areas. These opportunities build the ability of communities to continue improving their own facilities, resources, and futures.
The takeaway, oft repeated in the plenary sessions was “Membership, it’s the only thing.” 35+ Rotarians in the Membership seminar were led capably by District Membership Co-Chairs, Mike Jallo, and Shel Douglas. LaShonda Delivuk also spoke in this session about the synergy between membership and public image. No one will know our Rotary stories unless we have members to share their stories and unless our members share them.
vitality … send as many club members as possible to be exposed to and ride the rockets that will send your club to the #STARS.
tablets, or laptops got the chance to engage with live videoing of the topics presented by the superior Foundation leaders on August 5. After turning their volume down on their devices they were invited to join the live videos, adding comments, and posting “#rotary7600” periodically. There were a few amusing discoveries, e.g., one must have a Facebook account to join in, but a couple of folks signed up that day. Others were delighted to see how easy it was to join in on the fun on their smartphones.
Chuck Arnason, incoming District Rotary Foundation Chair, introduced his 
