
December 2020 Newsletter



When you make a donation to The Rotary Foundation, you are helping Rotary members make a difference in the lives of millions of people around the world. Here are five reasons to make Rotary your charity of choice on Giving Tuesday, 3 December, or any time of the year.

We partner with other organizations to increase our impact and make your donations work even harder. When you give to PolioPlus, for example, you have the satisfaction of knowing that every $1 Rotary commits to polio eradication is matched by $2 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Thanks to this partnership, all donations to end polio (up to $50 million per year) are tripled, providing critical funding toward creating a polio-free world.


1. The COVID-19 FatalityRate
Rallying to vaccinate every child in Somalia against polio
Community mobilizers build trust with communities ahead of crucial vaccination campaigns.

Fahima Ahmed Hassan is a 25-year-old community mobilizer who goes the extra mile to ensure parents of children under the age of five are informed of Somalia’s polio vaccination campaigns and are ready for their children to be vaccinated.
Fahima and the other mobilisers are from the local community and they lay the groundwork for vaccinators ahead of campaigns. They work tirelessly to reach every house, speaking to families to help them understand, trust, and accept the vaccine.
On a mid-October morning, children and their families are waiting anxiously. They have been informed, by Fahima and through loudspeaker announcements, that a team of vaccinators will be visiting their community.


- Turkey Drive in Maryvale (Nov2020)
- Food basket delivery in Guaymas, Sonora (May 2020 &ongoing)
- Food basket delivery in Quiriego, Sonora (October2020)
- Food drives in Maryvale (July, August2020)
- Diaper drive for adult nursing home in Hermosillo, Sonora (September2020)
- Food Drive with United Food Bank (September2020)
- Laptop giveaway to students in Tolleson, AZ (March2020)




- As individuals, we try to understand the other side’s point of view, even if we don’t agree with it.
- In our communities, we engage those we disagree with, looking for common ground and ways to work together.
- In politics, we support principles that bring us together rather than divide us.

2020 is definitely a challenging year for Interact clubs around the district, and the ones that are allowed to meet are rising to the challenge. We have featured three Interact clubs on our district council Instagram account: BASIS Scottsdale, Canyon View High School, and Barry Goldwater High School. BASIS Scottsdale has been full steam ahead collecting mobility devices for the Crutches 4 Africa project. We are doing as much as we can to collect and send mobility devices when we can. Applications for the Ambassador teams are open, and we are adding new Ambassadors to the current teams.
Canyon View High School has facilitated several canned food drives and Meals for Joy, a meal packing event for seniors. Meal packing and canned food drives are great examples of service events that can be done socially distant and significantly impact the community.
Barry Goldwater showed their gratitude and had a card making event for our healthcare workers. It can be a breath of fresh air to have your hard work acknowledged in a time of so much uncertainty and conflict.
Raveen Arora - Rotary Club of Tempe South, Jessica Cox-Atha Rotary Club of Winslow, Don Boucher Rotary Club of Mesa West,
Debbie Gonzales Rotary eClub of the Southwest USA, Fred Gorrell Rotary Club of Paradise Valley
Todd Harris - Four Peaks Rotary Club, Aishwarya Kasturia Rotary Club of Thunderbird, Jon Lyons Rotary Club of Sun Lakes,
Dr. Vincent Pellegrino Gilbert Rotary Club, Jim Schermetzler Gilbert Rotary Club, Patricia Schermetzler Gilbert Rotary Club,
Jim Schmidt - Rotary Club of Mesa West, Annette Valentine Rotary Club of Sun City.


OUR FOUNDATION
Three ways to support our Rotary Foundation
Every November, we celebrate The Rotary Foundation. Your support and generous gifts to the Foundation make it possible for us to be people of action and engage in life-changing projects worldwide. Here are three ways you can help maximize the effectiveness of our year-end giving campaigns and increase the amount of good we can do:
1 Encourage your members to make a gift to the Foundation on Giving Tuesday, which is 1 December. Share our video message
2 Give the gift of Rotary this holiday season. Share our digital flyer with members and potential donors.
3 Learn more about our new peer-to-peer fundraising tool, Raise for Rotary, where you can create fundraising pages that are easy to share with family and friends through social media and email.
Feel the Energy in Taipei
Our potential to create lasting change is limitless. And there’s no better place to explore your full potential than the 2021 Rotary International Convention, 12-16 June in Taipei, Taiwan:
• Discover the many aspects of Taipei, from its tranquil temples and abundance of colorful hydrangeas to its jubilant festivals and lively night markets.
• Find new opportunities for service by learning practical skills and exploring innovative ways to make a lasting impact in your community.
• Experience the invigorating city like a local when you attend exciting host-ticketed events.
• Take part in motivating breakout sessions to learn new skills and get ideas for projects, fundraising, and more. Help us build a breakout program that celebrates Rotary’s diversity! Submit your breakout proposal by Wednesday, 30 September.
• Explore the Rotary Fellowships at the House of Friendship to build relationships, collaborate, and ignite inspiration.
Want more reasons to attend? Watch our video about Taipei or download the promotional kit and use the materials to invite friends to join you in attending.

Our speaker this week was Robin Isquith, the owner of Stones Throw Travel. We learned that education and certification of travel agents is something that we should look for in selecting the person to assist us in booking our vacations. We also learned that it is no more expensive to book through an experienced travel agent than it is to boost things for yourself online but the risk to the consumer is a lot less. Robin explained the importance of buying travel insurance to cover medical needs abroad because US insurance is not accepted and that you could have to pay up front out of pocket and your passport could even be taken. Travel insurance also covers lost and delayed luggage and unforeseen trip cancellation costs. She could not stress the importance of travel insurance strongly enough.
We learned that if you book through a travel agent then it is your agent who spends the hours on hold to rearrange things and take care of any issues that arise instead of you. We also learned that through partnerships and alliances she has access to upgrades and incentives not available online.