Welcome back, everybody. It is always a great time of the year when our winter guests begin to arrive back in Puerto Peñasco…We missed you! Our local Rotary club has been busy this summer making plans for Fall activities that will benefit our community. We have also been taking care of obligations that occur year-round. We recently crowned a new Rotary queen and had a lovely event to welcome her. The Rotary queen this year is Miranda Urias Inzunza. We also welcomed a new Rotary exchange student from Brazil and sent one of our outgoing students to Japan. It will be fun this year to follow their experiences both as an incoming exchange student and as an outgoing exchange student.
We have been busy planning our annual World’s Greatest Meal…The goal is an ongoing effort to eradicate polio around the world. Everybody, mark your calendar for October 15 and plan for a fun night. There will be live music, dancing, raffles, a live auction, and a very special surprise guest/performer. You will have to attend to see what we have in store; it promises to be spectacular.
The polio plus dinner is on October 16 and will be a Mexican buffet at Las Palomas. The cost will be 800 pesos or $50 each. Please come and help us keep this horrible disease of Pollo dormant.
I recently saw an article about Martha Ann Lillard, and it reminded me of the horrors that existed in the 1950s regarding the polio disease. Martha was the oldest living survivor of using an iron lung to breathe. She died at age 78 after a struggle with long COVID and the breakdown of her decade-old iron lung. Martha was diagnosed with polio on her fifth birthday and relied on the iron lung machine to survive till age 78. She acquired the disease two years before the vaccine helped eliminate cases in the United States. It so happens that new respirators could not work for Martha, and she continued to use the iron lung to stay alive. Her body eventually gave in to the disease, and because the iron lung was so old, it was hard to get parts, and they could find nobody who could work on it to fix it. When I think of the horrible disease of polio, it reminds me of how far we have come thanks to the miraculous Polio vaccine.
Recently, there have been some cases of polio in some Third World countries, and it is necessary for Rotarians to continue our fight against this disease. The majority of the funds received from our ticket sales go to this worldwide cause, so please help us support this with the purchase of a ticket for this event.
As we gear up for ways to benefit our community, we graciously accept recommendations from our readers. If you know of something that needs some special attention, please let us know.
We are presently working with the Montana school, which is a local school that educates some of our severely handicapped students. In the past, we have partnered with other Rotary Clubs to provide playground equipment, computers, school supplies, and other necessary items. Our partnership with the Scottsdale Rotary Club has helped so much in this effort. This summer, we have also helped some of our past exchange students as they have taken on the responsibility to fundraise and assist with needs around the world. A former exchange student, Rosa Maria Bermudez, raised some funding for a music camp in Romania, and we were able to help.
Our Rotary club in Port Penasco continues to meet every Wednesday morning at 9 o’clock. We would love to grow our membership and would love to have more Americans become a part of our club. If you have any interest, please don’t hesitate to attend a meeting or give me a call; the information is at the bottom of this article. Like I have said so many times before.” Service Above Self”, which is the Rotary motto…Is a wonderful way to live!
