Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation

Melinda and Bill Gates on 60 Minutes in the USA.

The show to watch is the October 3rd show because of its interview with Melinda Gates, the CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, discussing what their Foundation was going to do with their money. She said “25% of the funds are going to help the American kids get the best education possible;” and then she said that the Foundation was tackling the following three diseases in this order: 1) HIV/AIDS, 2) Malaria, and 3) Mother to Child deaths BECAUSE THEY ARE THE DISEASES OF THE POOR, THERE WAS NO MARKET FOR THEM…no one was doing anything about it. They mentioned their fight of Polio with Rotary International as well.

Go to the start on 28 minutes unless you want to watch the whole show.

Thanks to Marion Bunch CEO of Rotarians For Fighting AIDS  RFFA

Our club with our Road MAPS to Africa projects including supporting RFFA is in good company.

District Governor Visits Coolamon

Our District Governor Neal Fogarty and Barbara Fogarty made the annual DG’s visit to our club last night.  It was a fun meeting and DG Neal gave us a spirited talk and praised the work being done by our club.  Although small we punch above our weight with local and international community service.

Posing for the DG

A full report will be published in this week’s bulletin.  Thank you Madison Durham for the photo.

Dolly Parton & RI team up to promote early childhood reading

Country music legend Dolly Parton says reading to a preschooler is the best way to prepare for the day when that child first heads off to school.

Parton was a speaker at the 2010 RI Convention in Montréal, Québec, Canada, in June, where she received Paul Harris Fellow Recognition and shared her appreciation for Rotary’s efforts to promote literacy. RI News caught up with Parton in Montréal for an exclusive interview. Watch the video above for the interview, and for more from her convention appearance.

Rotary International and the Dollywood Foundation’s Imagination Library are collaborating to promote early childhood reading. The Imagination Library provides preschool children with a free book each month from birth until age five. The program has received support from more than 115 Rotary clubs and has grown from its base in Parton’s home state of Tennessee, USA, to other communities in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Dolly Parton Teams Up with Rotary International from Rotary International on Vimeo.

Presentation to Marrar Public School

Grahame Miles with the Marrar School Captain Adam Wallace

Past President Grahame Miles was the main force behind our Rotary Community Day this year.  Grahame also drove the monster raffle and as a result we as a club were able to provide a total of $6,767  to most of our local schools in the Coolamon Shire.  Here we see Grahame presenting a cheque for $625 to the Marrar Public School Captain Adam Wallace recently.

Thanks for all that you do for the community Grahame and for being a Rotarian.

Tanaka is choice for 2012-13 RI president

Sakuji Tanaka

Sakuji Tanaka, a member of the Rotary Club of Yashio, Saitama, Japan, is the selection of the Nominating Committee for President of Rotary International in 2012-13. Tanaka will become the president-nominee on 1 October if there are no challenging candidates.

Tanaka said he would like to see Rotary “continue its vital work as the force to improve our communities.”

For 32 years, Tanaka was president of Tanaka Company Ltd., a wholesale firm that went public in 1995 and later merged with other leading wholesalers in Japan. Currently, he serves as vice president of the Yashio City Chamber of Commerce and adviser to Arata Co. Ltd., an animal feed and pet food wholesaler. He also chaired the National Household Papers Distribution Association of Japan for eight years. Tanaka studied business at Nihon Management Daigakuin and Tokyo Management Daigakuin.

Guest Speaker Terry Jones August 9th

Terry Jones in Full Flight

Our guest speker this week was Terry Jones from Bathurst:

Terry is currently Editor of the Bathurst Newspaper, the Western Advocate.  In the 1970s he was Editor of the Griffith Area News and has a wealth of knowledge of the events before and after Donald Mackay’s disappearance.  On the evening of July 15, 1977, Donald Mackay disappeared from a hotel car park after having drinks with friends.  He was never seen again.

Terry gave an inspiring and excellent talk on the events in Griffith from the early days, long before Don McKay was murdered, through to the latest drug busts etc.  Terry covered it so thoroughly that there were only two questions asked at the end.  98 people attended this special event in Coolamon.