PHILIPSBURG:--- It was a wonderful evening of fellowship at the well-attended Change of Board celebration event that the The Rotary Club of Sint Maarten - Mid Isle held recently at the Rendezvous Lounge, Porto Cupecoy.
This event was a ‘World’s Greatest Meal to End Polio’ a collection was taken and all the proceeds will go towards the effort to ‘Eradicate Polio’. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will triple any donations collected for End Polio. This crippling disease has been eradicated 99.9% in over 30 years. There have been only 11 reported cases this year. There are now only two countries presently remaining with polio which are Pakistan and Afghanistan. Funds collected are not only used for purchasing the vaccine, but also used for transportation of the Polio Volunteers, Vests for the volunteers, vaccine carriers, purchasing of the purple finger markers, etc.
A raffle was also held whereby fifty per cent of the proceeds will go toward the polio effort and fifty per cent will go towards the club’s community projects.
Outgoing President Anjali Manek thanked the Club, Partners in Service and Sponsors for their continued support. Anjali presented two special awards which were given to Rotarian Denise Antrobus for her dedication and hard work this past Rotary year and for doing a fantastic job in multiple board positions. Rotarian Jeff Jhangani received a special award as a new Rotarian who is very active in the St. Maarten community and very hands on in the projects of the Club. The anticipated Rotarian of the Year Award was given to Rotarian Grace Linger for her exceptional service to the Club and community of St Maarten. She also presented the Outgoing Board with a token of appreciation.
After being installed as the President of Mid Isle for the Rotary Year 2018-2019 Denise Antrobus asked those present to join her in congratulating Past President Anjali under whose leadership along with her board and the Rotarians of Mid Isle under perseverance and adversity had a successful year and showed that Mid are ‘People of Action’ and have a made a difference within the community. This was clearly shown by the number of awards that the club received at the district conference in Haiti this year.
Her main focus’ for the year will be mental health – everyone was touched in some way or other with the passing of Hurricane Irma, and she would like to see the stigma removed for persons seeking the help of Mental Health Professionals to help them cope with the problems they have had to deal with, this includes children as well. She will also focus on kids at risk, which includes the children at Safe Haven and Eradication of Polio. The children are our future.
President Denise introduced her board for the year 2018-2019 Vice President and Social Media Anjali Manek, Secretary and Disaster Director Aernout Kraaijeveld, Foundation Director and Sargeant at Arms, David Antrobus, Treasurer Tony Da Cunha, Membership Director Louis Wever, Fundraising Director Jeff Jhangani, New Generations Director Jon Hart and Service Project Director Grace Linger.’’
In closing, President Denise shared the Rotary International vision statement: “Together, we see a World where people unite and take action to create lasting change – across the globe, in our communities and in ourselves”