Summer 2022

club news and updates from our president

Hi everyone. Can you believe it’s already October? I can’t! Here’s what has been happening since our last bulletin.

Our first meeting of September was held on the 1st. I started off the meeting by saying ‘rabbit rabbit,’ and quickly learned that no one in the room knew what I was talking about. Here’s a little reading for you about why it’s good to say ‘rabbit rabbit’ on the first of every month (https://www.farmersalmanac.com/rabbit-rabbit-35150 ). It must be the New England girl in me! We all want/need a little good luck every now and then right?

To kick off the month, we had a presentation by Rebecca Saltzman, the BART Board of Directors Vice President. She shared information about how BART has weathered the pandemic and plans for the future.

Thanks to Bill’s efforts, we got tickets to go to the A’s game on September 8. Unfortunately, hardly anyone went but, the few of us that did, had a fabulous time!

Moving onto the 15, we had guest speakers from Eden Housing, my former employer. Near and dear to my heart, we heard about the new housing development across from BART. This property will provide much-needed affordable housing for its future residents. It was great to hear from Eden on this exciting project. We also heard from our very own Bruce – he shared a little history of our club and some special moments for him throughout his time in Rotary. Stay tuned for more on that. He came dressed to impress and brought his family to join in the fun. THANKS Bruce!

September 16 was my birthday.

On September 22 I was out of town so many THANKS to Wayne for filling in. Our guest presenter, Justin Osler from The Martin Group (developer) shared news about the Centro Callan (old CVS site) housing & commercial development in SL Downtown.

On September 25, Area 4 held our first-ever combined service project. Nearly 150 Rotarians, family, and friends, packaged meals for Kids Against Hunger (https://kahbayarea.org ). There were also 26 Interactors that helped out. All in all our crew packaged enough food to feed 37,872 hungry kids. How about that! Pretty amazing what a group of Rotarians can accomplish in just a few hours. The plan is to schedule future similar events so if you missed out this time there will be other opportunities.

On September 29 we got our steps in. A group of us walked the course of the San Leandro Marina. It was a beautiful day in the Bay and great to catch up over a nice walk.

This past Wednesday, October 5, Emma, San Leandro Rotarian, and Building Futures staff, shared how the grant we awarded her organization was used to support families with children in their San Leandro shelters, specifically monetary support while families are at the shelters, e.g., gift cards for new clothing items.  She also brought us up to date on one of their newest initiatives - the "Move-in-Kit Campaign."

Jennifer Reed
President

this week's meeting

This coming Wednesday, October 13, our guest speaker will be Tom Liao, Community Development Director for the City of San Leandro. He will be talking about development projects and housing in San Leandro. 

If you are unable to meet us in person, you can meet us via zoom. Check your mail for the zoom meeting info shared by Jennifer on a weekly basis.

future meetings and events

Rotary Foundation updates

OCTOBER 24 IS “WORLD POLIO DAY”

Eliminating polio is Rotary’s number one goal.

There remain only two--that’s right, only 2!!—cases of wild polio virus* in the entire world, one in Pakistan and one in Afghanistan!

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will match your donation to PolioPlus 2 to 1!  Your donation of just $100 for this worthy cause will transform into $300 for needed vaccines and support infrastructure to deliver them to the world’s children.

To donate online, go to endpolio.org/world-polio-day. 

If you prefer to donate by check, please contact Kristina for additional information.

Thank you for your generosity and for making the world a better place,

Mike Jones and Kristina Seher

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* Rotary also addresses polio infections called “vaccine-induced infections”.  There were 1103 cases of these in 2020, and only 179 thus far in 2021.  Because the oral polio vaccine contains a live but weakened virus, this can circulate in under-immunized or unimmunized populations for a period of several years.  Eventually, it can revert or mutate to a form that causes paralysis. These cases happen where children miss vaccinations.  More than 90% of such cases were concentrated in the areas that were inaccessible to PolioPlus vaccinators due to the Taliban’s having banned house-to-house polio campaigns.

More good news:  the World Health Organization recently granted permission to use a new polio vaccine which has been under development for 10 years.  It has greater genetic stability, making it less likely to regress or mutate to a form that can cause paralysis when circulating in unimmunized populations.

Do you have any news or events from organizations you partner with? would you like to share them with the Club? Send an email to Marta Alejandro (aleffin@yahoo.com) for inclusion in our bulletin.

District 5170 Updates

For up-to-date district information, please visit District 5170 webpage.

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