PRESS RELEASE

CHANGING THE FUTURE OF 75 FILIPINO CHILDREN

A Colorado-based nonprofit organization is coordinating its 22nd medical mission to the Philippines to provide free surgeries to indigent children

Uplift Internationale, a Colorado based nonprofit organization, is ready for its 22nd medical mission to the Philippines to provide surgical repair of cleft lips and palates to an expected 75 impoverished children at no cost. “Without our assistance, these children will likely live a life burdened by debility and shame. Most die as they were born, with their deformed faces untreated” said Dr. Jaime Yrastorza, President and Founder of Uplift Internationale.

The mission team of 34 self-funded volunteers is led by the Head of Mission, Steven Krebs M.D. This year’s activities will be conducted at the Provincial Hospital in Roxas, Philippines from February 19 – 27, 2011 at the Roxas Memorial Provincial Hospital, Roxas City, Capiz, Philippines. The volunteer mission members are from Colorado, Wyoming, California, New York and the Philippines. Partner hosts are the Rotary Club of Roxas, D3850 and sisterclub Rotary Club of Forbes Park, City & Provincial Government of Capiz and the Capiz Medical Society, respectively.

The project itself, named Operation Taghoy, started in 1989. Over 560 self-funded volunteer medical personnel have participated in the missions since its inception. The team efforts have provided 1,198 surgeries to children in the Philippines through Operation Taghoy. It has since become an annually organized mission of a one-week period, conducted at eight host-hospitals that are visited on a rotating basis. Locally, the support groups include Rotary Clubs, the Medical Society, and the invitation of the Provincial governance.

Five years ago, Uplift Internationale started a “sharing ownership” program with Filipino healthcare peers and supporters to establish year-round community based Taghoy Facial Cleft Clinics. Through this project, an additional 24 mending care surgeries are performed each year at the Taghoy Facial Cleft Clinic at Ormoc at no-cost to the children’s families. Uplift Internationale is in the process of creating additional clinics so that many more children may receive the life-changing care.

Uplift Internationale is supported by a local Board of Directors, donors, Rotary Clubs, foundations and a partnership with the Smile Train.

# # #

If you would like more information or to schedule an interview with Dr. Jaime Yrastorza or Dr. Steven Krebs, please call Beth Shepherd, Executive Director, at 303-707-1361 or email Beth at info@upliftinternationale.org and or PP Megs Lunn @ +63 9285540086, Exec Coordinator, Taghoy Phils.

Rotary's 106th Year of Service

CELEBRATING ROTARY'S 106th YEARS OF SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY

February 26, 2011

MABUHAY & WELCOME

OPERATION TAGHOY - MEDICAL MISSION 2011
Roxas Memorial Provincial Hospital
Roxas City, Capiz, Philippines
February 19-26, 2011

In partnership with the

Province of Capiz, Capiz Medical Society,
the Rotary Club of Roxas, R.I. D3850 &

sister club Rotary Club of Forbes Park, Makati.

Thank you to our other sponsors and the people of Capiz!!!

TAGHOY HOTLINE: +63 928.554.0086

An Inspiration from PP Gil

I am sharing here with you An open letter to the Incoming Presidents of District 3820 written by a good friend from Rotary Global History Fellowship and a PP/member of RC Batangas, D-3820- PP Gil.

Hope this, too, can help give inspiration to all Presidents-Elect/Incoming Presidents D-3850.

Recent college graduates have spent four years, more or less, in study and preparation for a career. Now they go out into the work force, ready to employ what they have learned, but probably a bit fearful about the adequacy of their preparation.

As an incoming Rotary Club president, you may identify with those feelings: both anticipation and anxiety. Like a college graduate, you have had a time of preparation, of observing and learning, of organizing and planning. Now you face the opportunity to demonstrate your leadership skills.

Your selection to be club president in Rotary Year 2011-2012 was a vote of confidence by your fellow Rotarians, but they rightfully expect that you will do more than just hold the office and preside at meetings. You must lead your club to enjoy its fellowship, to enlarge its membership, and to expand its service functions. If your club members were to summarize what they expect of you, it might go something like this:

Organize. You have already identified board members and committee chairmen, but they deserve your ongoing leadership and counsel. They need a clear understanding of what is expected of them, a defined set of goals and activities for the year.

Delegate. An effective leader is not one who can do the job better than others, but one who challenges others to accomplish what the leader alone could not do. Once tasks are defined for your team members, express your confidence in their abilities and their Rotary dedication. Trust them to excel.

Motivate. Leadership is not power, but influence. If you first identify the opinion leaders in your club, and enlist their support of your plans, they will extend your influence beyond what you alone could accomplish.

Consult. There is great benefit in group-think, and your leadership team will be complimented to be asked for their input. Recognizing that no leader can have perfect vision, you will benefit immeasurably by the simple act of listening.

Decide. A leader is ultimately responsible for decisions decisions that are intelligent, consistent, practical, and defensible. While it tempting to make quick decisions based on wishful thinking, valid accomplishments are the result of thoughtful analysis.

Reach. You are privileged to build on the solid foundation laid by your predecessors. Your reach is higher because you stand on the shoulders of those who went before you. Past-presidents will continue to be a valuable resource, offering a seamless transition and an ongoing source of knowledge and experience.

Yes, your fellow Rotarians have chosen you to be their leader. You bear a heavy obligation to be the best president you can possibly be. Your response to your club members, and especially to your past presidents, can perhaps best be expressed in the chorus of this song
:

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up... to more than I can be.

You have been raised up to be more than you ever thought you could be. Rotary leadership is ordinary people, called on to do extraordinary things. This is your opportunity. This is your challenge. Your members elected you. Your members support you.

Note: PP Gil was the one who brought my attention to RGHF proven to be so informative and inspirational if you want to learn more about Rotary history, etc. . Thank you PP Gil for all the motivation and inspiration. Now we are paying it forward so others may know, too. (http://www.rghf.org/)

ROTARY INFORMATION Feb. 3, 2011

WORLD ROTARY DAY

February 23 is the historical date of the first meeting of four men who then
formed what we know today as ROTARY.

First gathering, on Thursday, 23 February 1905 in Chicago, Illinois, USA by
Attorney Paul P. Harris. Young Harris, fresh from a wild five years as a
reporter, actor, cowboy, seaman, granite salesman, fruit picker and hotel clerk,
five years building a successful law practice, then had an idea. It was
regarding observations of success and respect which could come from organizing
professional acquaintances. More years past. He had given this much thought by
the time he and Silvester Schiele walked over to Gus Loehr's office in Room 711
that cold winter night in 1905, almost 9 years from his arrival in Chicago.
Several weeks later, Schiele was elected president of Rotary when the meeting
was held in his office. Harris suggested several names, one of them being "
ROTARY ".

Paul Harris was born 19 April 1868 and died 27 January 1947.

ROTARY'S ONWARD MARCH

1905 - Rotary founded in Chicago by Paul P. Harris.
Membership limited to one man from each business or profession.
Name "Rotary" adopted, originating from practice of holding meetings
in rotation at different members places of business.
1906 - New club grows in membership. Intimate first-name acquaintance promotes
fellowship.
Rotary "wagon wheel" emblem adopted, the first of many varieties of "wheel
emblems" to be used by different clubs, until 1912, when a geared wheel was
adopted, this to be followed by authorization of an official emblem (1924), a
wheel of six spokes, twenty four cogs, and a "keyway".
1907 - First community service: Public comfort restroom installed in Chicago's
city hall
1908 - Second Rotary club is organized in San Francisco.
1909 - Club Number 3 organized at Oakland, California, which becomes first club
to hold weekly luncheon meetings regularly.
1909 - additional clubs are started in Seattle, Los Angeles, New York City and
Boston.
1910 - Wide interest beginning to be manifested in new service club. Year marks
organization of sixteen existing clubs into a united body: The National
Association of Rotary Clubs.
Rotary "principles" adopted in form of five objectives, subsequently to be
changed from year to year until (1921) when a new objective was adopted "to
emphasis the international influence of Rotary," forerunner of Rotary's famed
"Fourth Object."
Rotary became international when club is started in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Rotary Anniversary Week . . . . February 21 - 27 , 2011

Involved your club by doing a simultaneous project this Rotary Week ( Feb.21-27,
2011) in your community.

OPERATION TAGHOY - Feb. 19-26, 2011 - Roxas City Memorial Provincial Hospital, Roxas City, Capiz

CELEBRATE ROTARY'S ANNIVERSARY - 106 YEARS YOUNG

Building Communities. . .Bridging Continents

" Seeking to serve Rotarians, by doing great deeds wisely and well
inspiring the same tradition of service in the next generation "

WELCOME UPLIFT INTERNATIONALE, MENDING FACES ONE AT A TIME!!!

Note: from PP Gil's contribution in the Rotary E-group.

ROTARY DISCON 2011

A Make-Up Attendance

PP Megs Lunn (District Chair Rotary Volunteers RY 2010-2011) was warmly welcomed by RC Bacolod North led by Pres. Roy during her visit in the city.

PN Biboy Jocson usherred PP Megs to meet the rest of the members of the club, afterwhich, they visited the on-going RYLA hosted by the same club, led by PP Louie Gonzaga at Nazareth Retreat house. Met environmental enthusiasts and one of their speakers, Mr. Paul Lizares of Bacolod City.

It was a worthy fellowship as fortunately, guess who was in town, too? DG James Makasiar flew in to grace the unveiling of Public Image project of RC Bacolod North and visited the rest of the clubs, too while in the city.

Rotary Information - Jan. 29, 2011

Bill Gates webcast on polio next week

Rotarians are encouraged to watch a webcast featuring Bill Gates, cochair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and a panel of experts including Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Oshinsky, Monday, 31 January, at 9:30 a.m. EST at www.gatesfoundation.org. The webcast, titled “Polio Eradication and the Power of Vaccines,” will be moderated by ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer.

Gates also will presenthis annual letter on Monday, in which he will mention Rotary as a key partner in the polio eradication effort. Rotarians are asked to promote this important recognition by sending the letter to their local media and highlighting Rotary’s commitment to eradicating polio. Read more about the webcast at www.rotary.org or

http://echo4.bluehornet.com/hostedemail/email.htm?h=bfd9a8dc3cb7d08e6ee69ece0232e31e&CID=12716572117&ch=C6D7AC38101F9885CA3D26FC1A6A3293

ROTARY AWARENESS TALK

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”

- Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa is an inspiration from her personal commitment to social responsibility. It seems that her wide service to the poorest of the poor needs to be continued as most of the population anywhere in the world are still below poverty line. One organization who are socially responsible in doing service to the community for over a hundred years now is the international service organization - ROTARY INTERNATIONAL.

NEED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY?

PP MEGS LUNN - DISTRICT 3850 CHAIR ROTARY VOLUNTEERS, will speak about Rotary International's service organization as a model of peoples who are socially responsible during the 1ST REGIONAL COMMUNICATION AND LEADERSHIP CONGRESS, sponsored by Toastmasters International at the University of LaSalle, Bacolod City - January 28-30, 2011.

ROTARY INTERNATIONAL THEME FOR 2011-2012: "REACH WITHIN TO EMBRACE HUMANITY".

RI President-elect Kalyan Banerjee will ask Rotarians to Reach Within to Embrace Humanity during the 2011-12 Rotary year.

Banerjee unveiled the RI theme during the opening plenary session of the 2011 International Assembly, a training event for incoming district governors.

He urged participants to harness their inner resolve and strength to achieve success in Rotary.

"In order to achieve anything in this world, a person has to use all the resources he can draw on. And the only place to start is with ourselves and within ourselves," Banerjee said.

Once Rotarians find their inner strength, he continued, they can accomplish great things in their communities and around the world.

"Discover yourself, develop the strengths within you, and then unhesitatingly, unflinchingly, go forth and encircle the world, to embrace humanity," he said.

Banerjee emphasized the family as a starting point in serving others. "The communities we live in are not built of individual people but of families -- families living in homes together, sharing their lives and their resources and their common destinies. Good families lead to good neighborhoods, and good neighborhoods build good communities."

Rotarians can focus on projects that support families, such as those that provide safe housing or improve maternal and child health, he said.

Continuity in Rotary’s work, including polio eradication, is also important, Banerjee said. "There are so many things we are indeed good at: working for clean, safe water; spreading literacy; working in so many ways with the New Generations, our youth, in our newest Avenue of Service and assisting them to become the leaders of tomorrow."

Citing Mahatma Gandhi’s call to "be the change you wish to see in the world," Banerjee said Rotarians should also focus on change.

"If we wish for peace, we start by living in peace ourselves, in our homes and in our communities," he explained. "If we wish environmental degradation to stop, if we wish to reduce child mortality or to prevent hunger, we must be the instrument of that change -- and recognize that it must start within us, with each of us."

Courtesy of Rotary International, posted 17 January 2011 by Jack Selway
.

Rotary Information

TO ALL ROTARY LEADERS CONCERNED:

Please take note of the following:

1. ASSISTANT GOVERNORS/DISTRICT TEAM TRAINING SEMINAR
- MARCH 5, 2011 (SATURDAY), ILOILO CITY (specific venue & program to be
announced later); NO REGISTRATION FEE; host: RC CENTRAL ILOILO CITY

2. PRESIDENTS-ELECT
- MARCH 18, 2011 (SATURDAY), BACOLOD CITY (specific venue, program &
host club to be announced)

3. DISTRICT ASSEMBLY (FOR ZONES IN PANAY & NEGROS OCC.)
- MARCH 19, 2011 (SUNDAY); BACOLOD CITY (specific venue, program & host
club to be announced)

4. DISTRICT ASSEMBLY (FOR ZONES IN MINDANAO)
- MARCH 31, 2011 (THURSDAY); ZAMBOANGA CITY (specific venue, program &
host club to be announced)

Please relay the said schedule to those who are unaware.

For clarifications and other details, please get in touch with DGE MELVIN DELA SERNA.

Thank you.

From the Editor

January is designated by the Rotary International as the Rotary Awareness Month. How can we be able to share our advocacy on making Rotary known in our community?

There is our friends from the media - (print, radio and tv). We can take the advantage of Public Service in between their programs to be able to share a quote or two, a brief information/details about Rotary event in your club or district and or share some pictures with caption and the project title as part of Rotary minute on air, print or tv.

In many provinces there is Ati-Atihan in Aklan, Dinagyang in Iloilo and Sinulog in Cebu that we come and visit and take part of the celebration. While we do street dancing, we can carry along our club banner, wear Rotary t-shirts or caps and share Rotary brochure along the way as a way of doing our share in making Rotary known in our circle of friends and the community that we serve.

How about you? Do you have any idea that you can share with us? If so, please share your comments here and we can all join together in sharing Rotary awareness where we are now.

One good example of Rotary Awareness is yourself. You are a walking Rotarian, wherever you are and whatever you do. Carry along a Rotary calling card, a Rotary pin in any of your attire during the day and many others.

Just today, I was at a shop and when they learned I am Rotarian, all of sudden, they blurted out, "Oh! Rotary!!! Is it an International Club? .." and the rest is history. It made my day great!

Do your share without efforts. It just comes out naturally to you when you know your organization well. See you around!

The RI president’s monthly message

January 2011

Test time!

We are at the halfway point in this Rotary year, and now is the time to test the strengths and weaknesses of our clubs. Perhaps a strange idea for some Rotarians, but how else will we learn how the activities and programs of our respective clubs match up to those of other clubs in our districts – and around the world? Therefore, I encourage all Rotarians – not only the club officers – to become involved in evaluating their clubs during the month of January.

The Presidential Citation program for 2010-11 has been designed as a score sheet for all the Avenues of Service. It also is a checklist for many of the activities and programs conducted by most clubs. Club presidents are required to complete the score sheets and submit them to their district governors by 31 March 2011 for their clubs to be eligible for the Presidential Citation awards. The scores should be shared with all club members either as written reports or as presentations at club meetings.

Starting work on the Presidential Citation test in January will provide an opportunity to correct any discovered deficiencies in club activities before the submission deadline of 31 March. It also will cause the club leaders to notice that a new Presidential Citation with Distinction award is available this year for clubs with a good balance of activities in all Avenues of Service.

This year I am recommending that all clubs review their practices and procedures to see if they are truly best practices or merely traditional practices. Annual evaluations of our clubs are certainly best practices, and more Rotarians than usual need to be involved in the evaluations for their clubs. The Presidential Citation score sheets are a good place to start the process. How else will we know if our clubs really are becoming Bigger, Better, and Bolder?


RI President
Ray Klinginsmith

www.rotary.org

JANUARY - ROTARY AWARENESS MONTH

Message from the chair


January 2011


Raising awareness of The Rotary Foundation

Awareness is an important part of The Rotary Foundation’s work. It is important that members are aware of The Rotary Foundation Goals 2010-11: polio eradication; the Future Vision Plan; Every Rotarian, Every Year; and the Permanent Fund.

We must also be aware of the Rotary Centers Major Gifts Initiative in support of our Rotary Centers for International Studies in peace and conflict resolution and our USD 200 Million Challenge.

It is important to know that we are 1.2 million Rotarians in approximately 200 countries or geographical regions. Also that we are divided in geographical zones, each of which has one or more regional Rotary Foundation coordinators, assistant regional Rotary Foundation coordinators, and Rotary Foundation alumni coordinators. Furthermore, that The Rotary Foundation finances are totally separate from those of Rotary International and that The Rotary Foundation has its own board of 15 Trustees, headed by a trustee chair. And there are seven regional offices in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, Korea, and Switzerland. Together with the headquarters in the United States, they are available to serve not only Rotary International but also The Rotary Foundation.

Another part of The Rotary Foundation awareness is the sharing of information outside our organization. We are a group of leaders with a superb network. It is time for us to let the world know about all good things that we have accomplished over so many years. Rotarians have the opportunity to create – and must create – awareness regarding world problems and how they can be solved by Building Communities – Bridging Continents through Service Above Self.



Carl-Wilhelm Stenhammar
Foundation Trustee Chair

www.rotary.org