In The Community: Workday at Midway Shelter
Spring is inspiring, and for Alameda Rotarians it meant the inspiration to organize another Community Workday. This time we had a Painting Party at Midway Shelter, a crucial safety net for families in need. Painters were washing down walls, taping trim and painting on fresh soft yellow and sage paint into common areas while others focused on trimming back trees and shrubbery or repairing leaking plumbing fixtures. The day was proof that Service Above Self brings smiles for all - as well as some great exercise!
In The Community: Spring Egg Scramble
Alameda Rotarians and Interactors, working with East Bay Regional Parks and Alameda Park and Rec, brought smiles, fun activities, and an awareness of Rotary in the community to an estimated 1,500 residents attending the Spring Egg Scramble on Saturday, April 7, 2012. Despite being rescheduled due to a rain-out the previous week-end, attendance and spirits were high.
Since its beginning, Rotary has sponsored this event each year, held with assistance from the EBRP and the city's Park and Rec department. Next to the Crab Cove Visitor's Center, whose classrooms also were sponsored by Alameda Rotary in prior years, famlies gather for crafts, games, stories, music, and opportunities to visit with the Easter Bunny or sign up for Alameda's Let's Move! program. Filled with fun, the event also provides Rotarians and Interactors with an opportunity to talk with others about our work in the community and invite them to join us.
With a record number of Rotarian and Interactor volunteers this year, this is a favorite event for members to work. And the weather was perfect for it. A special thanks to Alameda Interact leader Carrie Huang for bringing the Interactors out to join us and David Mears for his wonderful photography! See more fun photos in the Spring Egg Scramble album (photo albums are near the bottom of the center column on our home page).
Sterilizer Enables Surgeries Saving Sight
Patients travel for days to the eye surgery center at La Hospital de la Familia in Guatemala. Yet even with surgeons and supplies available, necessary surgeries could not be performed due to the simple lack of adequate sterilization equipment.
Today, thanks to the generous donations of Alameda Rotarians and those who attend and support our local and international fundraising events, those surgeries have resumed. Hundreds more people are receiving the surgeries they need to repair their sight.
At the program where long-time Rotarian Phil Gardener has spent over a decade volunteering his vacation time to perform long days of critical surgeries, all but one of the sterilizers were broken. This important program was limited simply by the lack of adequate basic equipment.
Phil went into action, sharing the program's need at a club business meeting, and things took off. Within a couple of months a sterilizer was on its way to Gautemala, funded by a matching grant from our club with the hospital. On its arrival, 128 surgeries were performed in just a week, a feat that would have taken over 17 hours a day for sterilization alone - but now takes just 7.
"Phil, please express our most sincere appreciation to the members of your Rotary Club for their great contribution to the success of our Eyes Medical Missions," writes Clara Meneses. Yes, thank you Phil, for sharing Rotary's spirit of Service Above Self with Alameda Rotary and the Eyes Medical Missions.
See the photo albums at the bottom center of this page for more about this Alameda Rotary Endowment Foundation project.
Alameda Rotarian Ending Polio Now
Thank you for making sure any End Polio Now pledges for Phil's grueling 109 mile ride on November 19 are fulfilled. Your check, payable to "Rotary Foundation / Polio Plus" will help to match our Challenge Grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and will be credited toward your Paul Harris Fellow.