At our weekly meeting on December 2, District Governor Ben Bauer (left) presented the Rotary Club of Madison West Middleton with two Rotary Foundation recognition banners to Mary Beth Growney Selene (right), representing the Madison West Middleton Rotary Club.

The first was for our past and ongoing support of PolioPlus.  As our organization’s #1 priority, the Trustees of The Rotary Foundation have asked each Club to support the efforts to End Polio Now.  With only two countries (Afghanistan and Pakistan) left on the global endemic list, we are truly “This Close” to eradicating this dreaded disease.  Our Club’s Foundation supports PolioPlus with $1,500 annually, and many of our members make personal contributions to support the efforts.  Every dollar we contribute is matched 2:1 by the Gates Foundation.  Thank you all for your continued contributions.

Secondly, we were recognized as the #1 Club in giving, in District 6250, to The Rotary Foundation’s Annual Fund.  Our per capita giving was $467.18 with personal contributions totaling $29,695.00 and 171% of our $15,000 goal.  We should all be very proud of the good work that our contributions will do.  When you participate in the Every Rotarian Every Year initiative, you are supporting District Grants and Global Grants, of which our Club has been the recipient.  The most recent would be the Nancy Comello-led Global Grant on training Midwives in Guatemala – which we learned about at our meeting on December 9.  Without the support of every member of our Club, this grant, and so many others, would not be possible.  Thank you for your continued support.