Rotary Foundation
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Founded in 1928, The Rotary Foundation is the charity of choice for Rotary’s 1,200,000 members world wide.

Monies raised are directed in six key areas producing both local and global impacts. Our most successful and sustainable projects and activities tend to fall within the following areas: Promoting Peace, Fighting Disease, Providing Clean Water, Savings Mothers and Children, Supporting Education and Growing Local Economies.

Donations to The Rotary Foundation provide tax receipts and our Foundation consistently ranks amongst the best charities by www.charitynavigator.org nearly 88% of all funds raised is spent directly on programs with only 12% being used for administration and fund raising expense.

When Rotarians and their friends donate to The Rotary Foundation, some of the money may come back to our community in the form of grants from the Foundation and in recent years, some of these funds have been used to build Rotary Square at Town Centre Mall and the Rotary Water Park also in Tsawwassen.

Internationally, The Rotary Club of Tsawwassen has received funding from The Rotary Foundation for projects we have supported in Uganda, Liberia, and Zimbabwe.

Donations can be made by contacting Foundation Director John Lusted by calling 604-418-4335 or online by visiting the donation page of the Foundation Website

Since 1985 Rotary has partnered with various International Organizations to eradicate Polio. As of June 2014 there are only 3 countries in the world where there are still cases of Polio reported each year. Rotary's goal is to see polio wiped from the face of the world within the next few years.

In 2013 Rotary created the World's longest commercial as a way of drawing attention to this noble goal. Members of the Rotary Club of Tsawwassen can be seen participating in the commercial which is now in the Guinness Book of World Records. - See more at Rotary Foundation
 
World Polio Day was recognized by our club on November 10th, 2016.  We raised $5400.  This will be matched 2 to 1 by the Canadian government and the Melinda Gates Foundation, making our $5400 of donations now worth $27,000.  This money will go to vaccinate over 27,000 children world wide.
 
 
We also had the pleasure of welcoming Tim Maxwell to our morning meeting who contracted polio as a young child and told us of his experiences. Because of this disease he had to live with its effects resulting in multiple treatments especially in his early life. He has managed to live a full life with a career in the trades, first as an electrician and then as an instructor at a technical college. Tim has four children and one grandchild. As a widower he has become recently engaged to be marry a second time.
 
Many young people today are unaware of polio and its historical impact. In the early 1950's it was known as infantile paralysis because the disease affected mainly children under the age of five. Many were afflicted with it including celebrities Neil Young and Donald Sutherland. The disease was brought under control from 1205 cases in 1952 to but one in 1958. However these early victims still experience the after-effects known as post polio syndrome which includes a slowness of muscle movement, fatigue and general muscle atrophy. The effect of the syndrome depends on how strong the polio was in the first place.
 
Tim was born into a large family of  thirteen and until the age of seven a happy kid until he contacted the disease. The family moved to BC in 1958 and he came into contact with Dr Allen who took actions to deal with the discrepancy in the length of his legs by trying to induce blood flow into one and retarding the growth in the other. However the regular boys' play activities of swimming and bike riding were denied to him. Things improved for him with a summer at Easter Seal Camp where he was able to develop coping skills and confidence in himself. Getting a first place win against similarly afflicted kids convinced him that he was no longer handicapped. He carried on with life but was subjected to a series of surgeries often with continued pain. His final operation operation took place in 1973.
 
Tim married his wife Barb in 1975 who did not regard his limp as a problem. Similarly, his new fiancee has much the same attitude. He feels that he has led a near normal life minus the participation in contact sports such as football and hockey. He does remember kids in the 50's and 60's as being cruel with their teasing . He still feels emotional when he watches the Variety Club Telethon viewing children afflicted by so many diseases and syndromes. Tim managed to finish with a humorous story by illustrating a trick played on his younger son matching his limp with a fake shortened arm.
 
Garry Shearer thanked Tim for the presentation which put a face to polio and enabled us to  see it from the point of view of the victims and their families. The description of his personal voyage gives impetus for Rotarians to continue their support of the polio eradication programme.