Healing Species

At our July 23rd meeting, Lincoln, a white Lab, brought his friend Megan Mitchum to a meeting to talk about Healing Species;--how an abused dog later named Gravy and Cheri Brown Thompson together began an organization that would touch hearts around the country and around the world. Using dogs who have been abused and rehabilitated to health, Healing Species takes lessons of the heart to schools and Department of Juvenile Justice homes, in a curriculum they have shown decreases violence and increases attention and compliance among the students they serve. As they say on their website (http://www.healingspecies.org/),

Rescued dogs - dogs nobody else wanted - assist us in teaching children life-lessons in respect for the feelings of others. The dog is a living example of overcoming one's past, and returning nonviolent responses.

Also, President Ann and Secretary Penny told us about the July 21st board meeting. Among the decisions the board made is to hold off on RIDDE for a bit while the program is revamped. In the meantime, they discussed beginning a Rotary Reader program, in which Rotarians go into classrooms and read and discuss readings with students. Dennis Shay and Ron Lawson have been asked to head up our clubs participation in a Habitat for Humanity project, possibly in Santee, possibly in Orangeburg. Ann is also looking into ways of raising 3000 for Polio plus, possibly by organizing a Golf tournament with the help of other local clubs.


Don't miss the chance to stand and applaud the District Governor's presentation next week, July 30.

SafeKids Super Saturday is Sept. 6

July 16, Kathy Funderburk stopped by to tell us about her work with SafeKids. Did you know more children ages 1 to 14 die from accidents such as motor vehicle crashes, fires, drowning, poisoning and falls than any other cause? Accidents kill one million children each year around the world and permanently disable many more. Almost all of these injuries are preventable
Safe Kids was founded in Washington, DC in 1987 by Children's National Medical Center with support from Johnson & Johnson. In the United States, Safe Kids has contributed to a 45 percent reduction in the child fatality rate from accidental injury – saving an estimated 3Safe Kids has distributed more than 2.5 million bike helmets and 250,000 smoke alarms and has checked more than 740,000 car seats.
Saturday Sept 6 will be the 13th Safe Kids Super Saturday event in Orangeburg. Hundreds of children will participate!
Interested? Call Kathy at 803-395-2822

ROTARY RELIEF EFFORTS IN CHINA

In 1919, Roger D. Pinneo, the past president of the Rotary Club of Seattle, established the first Rotary club in Shanghai on 17 July 1919 with 35 charter members. Rotary admitted the club on 1 October 1919. The club met regularly until WW II. In 1951, the club was formally disbanded, as were all mainland China clubs by the end of 1952.

More than half a century later, in 2006, the Rotary Club of Shanghai returned along with the Rotary Club of Beijing (originally chartered n 1924; chartered again in 2006). Due to government restrictions, only foreign nationals may join.
Since the May 12 earthquake, Bill Chiang, a resident of Chengdu and an honorary member of the Rotary Club of San Francisco Golden Gate has been coordinating Rotary related relief efforts. Thanks to the efforts of Chiang and other Rotarians, ShelterBox and LifeBox, two disaster relief organizations with Rotary ties, have been able to ship aid containers to the region
The Rotary Club of Beijing raised US $8,600 to purchase baby formula and received $14,400 worth of additional baby supplies for an orphanage in Chengdu.
The Rotary Club of Shanghai plans to donate $21,000 raised from its annual charity golf tournament to earthquake relief projects.
Read more @
http://www.rotarychina.org/earthquake/earthquake.html