A great big thank you to the community for their enormous support of our polio plus dinner that was held on October 24th. It was a beautiful evening, with great camaraderie and enormous fundraising for a very worthwhile cause. Every year we ask that you support this cause of the eradication of polio worldwide and every year you come through with flying colors! I am still waiting for the bottom line to the amount of money we raised that night, still have some bills to pay and a few ticket sales to collect but we know it was highly successful. A great portion of the money raised that night will go to the polio cause and the rest of the money will go to fund local needs. A huge thank you to George and Susie Stavros for their kind donation of three cabin stays, one in Christopher Creek and two in Flagstaff. These three vacations raised a lot of money in our live auction segment of our event. Our Rotary exchange students were also highly successful in their sales of 50-50 tickets and we were able to raise over $1000 for the club and give away that same amount to one lucky winner.
This year we were able to donate a large amount of money to the dialysis center. It is very hopeful that we can get this facility opened so that individuals living in our community can take care of their medical needs right here at home. This is not an easy undertaking, but to improve the quality of life in our community it is very necessary. We will be working on this all year and hopefully will be able to report in the not-too-distant future that the center will be open to the people of Puerto Peñasco.
We recently held an open forum to anybody interested in becoming a Rotary exchange student. It was very well attended. In fact, we had over 18 young people that would like to pursue this endeavor. We are also working on ways to offset the cost of this activity for young people that cannot afford it. We are trying to find some scholarships and funding that will allow all students to apply regardless of their family’s income. We are hoping to partner with some Rotary clubs in the United States that can assist us with this financial support. The cost is close to $10,000 for each Rotary exchange student to spend a year in another country. This is money well spent when you think of the goodwill and better understanding that happens when each student completes this experience.
We soon will have three beach wheelchairs up and running. These have been very popular and we were pleased that we’ve been able to expand the accessibility for our community. We hope to continue to grow this resource as it makes a big difference to many of our handicap residents and visitors…we want everybody that comes to Rocky point to enjoy our gorgeous beach and Sea of Cortez.
This year we will be pursuing establishing a literacy program for adult residents and a Clean-Up Rocky Point initiative. There is so much going on and so many opportunities to make a difference. I hope that some of you readers will join us in this effort. If you would like to get involved, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.
