Planning for RYLA coming up on May 12 to 14

RYLA( Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) is a leadership program for students in high school. Students plan and execute the program. In preparation for the RYLA program at Camp Hazen on May 12 to 14 the facilitators, co-facilitators, leadership team(3 students) and Rotary advisors(Justin and Dave) gathered on Laurel Island for a day and a half of discussions and review of the plans. As always there was much work to be done. Each RYLA is special and the attendees invariably comment that it was life changing for them.

The Polio Story at this Time

The Polio story is that we're almost there but there's still a way to go.

Polio this week as of 12 April 2017 Headlines:  The Polio Research Committee (PRC) is meeting this week in Geneva, to continue to provide guidance to the eradication effort’s research agenda. Research underpins polio eradication, evaluating new strategies, products and solutions to long-standing operational, epidemiological and virological challenges. Afghanistan:  No new wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases were reported in the past week. The total number of cases for 2017 remains three, and for 2016 remains 13. The most recent case had onset of paralysis on 21 February, from Kunduz province.  Pakistan: No new wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases were reported in the past week. The total number of WPV1 cases for 2017 remains two, and for 2016 remains 20. The most recent case had onset of paralysis on 13 February, from Diamir district, Gilgit Baltistan. Nigeria: No new cases of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) were reported in the past week. The total number of WPV1 cases for 2016 remains four. The most recent case had onset of paralysis on 21 August in Monguno Local Government Area (LGA), Borno.

District Training Assembly

The District Training Assembly occurred on April 1(no fools) 2017. It was well attended and the feedback was very positive, people learned a lot and had a fun time. The Four Way Test Speech contest finals were held and were quite remarkable. Each presentation was unique and well done and the range ot topics was quite wide. From shouldn't our country be more welcoming to the clothes we should wear, all with good use of the Four Way Test.

Here is District Governor Elect Trish Pearson with District Governor Paul honoring the Four Way Test Speech contest entrants. The tall fellow was the winner.

Lynda Hammond gave a Paul Harris Fellow to Mike who is starting an Interact Club at his school and graduated from St. Martins and was an important part of that Middle School Interact Club. He is also one of the student directors at RYLA.

There were 170 or so Rotarians in attendance.