Pizza for Polio Fundraiser - Martin Cheung

Last Friday was World Polio Day, the perfect day for us to hold our annual Pizza for Polio fundraiser on Locust Walk. We sold pizzas from eight local restaurants on the University of Pennsylvania campus to raise money for polio eradication efforts, ending the day with a total of $339.60 to pay for polio vaccines. People also had the chance to vote for their favorite pizza, and the winning restaurant (Axis Pizza) was advertised as Penn’s favorite pizza place.

World Polio Day is sponsored by Rotary International, whose PolioPlus Project is an initiative to completely eradicate polio, a crippling disease that once affected almost 350,000 children a year. Thanks to immunization campaigns, polio is now only endemic in two countries today (Pakistan and Afghanistan), and we are close to eradicating it entirely. Anyone interested in this worthy campaign can visit www.endpolio.org or like their Facebook page.

Over the last few weeks, we contacted over a dozen local pizza restaurants to see if they were interested in contributing pizzas to this worthy cause. Although we encountered difficulties in communication, we eventually secured the support of eight vendors. We also created a Facebook event page to publicize Pizza for Polio to the Penn community. The day of the fundraiser, we picked up the pizzas around 11am and set up our table on Locust Walk near the compass.

It actually turned out to be a great day for us to sell pizza. With a football game the next day and parents visiting for Family Weekend, there were a lot of booths on Locust Walk and many people who passed by our table. We sold pizza for $1/slice, $5/all-you-can-eat, and $12 for a whole pizza. Pizza for a dollar was too good a deal to pass on, and many people stopped by to buy a slice and learn about our fundraiser’s purpose. After running out of pizza around 4pm, we raised a total of $339.60, almost $60 more than last year! The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation generously triples every donation made, so every $1 pays for 5 vaccines.

I was the photographer for the event and reserved a Canon 70D DSLR Camera from Van Pelt Library. Click here to view the entire album on Facebook.

Thank you to the eight restaurants who donated pizza, without whom this fundraiser would not have been possible! All of them are within walking distance of the University of Pennsylvania campus, so check them out.

Allegro Pizza and Grill: Website / Facebook

Axis Pizza: Website / Facebook

Colonial Pizza: Website / Facebook

Ed’s Wings and Pizza: Website / Facebook

Evan’s Pizzeria: Website / Facebook

Royal Pizza: Website / Facebook

New Style Pizzeria: Website / Facebook

Zesto Pizza and Grill: Website / Facebook

End Polio Now

New Board Members

Here is the Rotaract board for 2015-2016!

Co-Presidents: Claudia Cheung and Michael Coyne

Vice President: Jordan Doman

Secretary: Raluca Gaina*

Treasurer: Andrew Parambath

Local Service Director: Allison Siegenfeld

International Service Directors: Stephanie Valdivia*

Professional Development: Helena Chen* and Kayvon Asemani*

Membership Director: Patrick Dinh

Webmaster: Martin Cheung*

*denotes new board members

Trip to the Ronald McDonald House - Allison Jegla

        Friday, November 16, members of the Rotaract Club of Philadelphia volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House of Philadelphia.  Several members had never been to the house before, so one of the staff members took us on a brief tour of the historic Swain mansion that now houses up to 45 families per night.  It was incredible to see all of the work that gets done primarily by volunteers, and how dedicated everyone is to making the families’ stays as pleasant as possible.

        When the families finished eating, a few of the children wandered over to make tissue paper flowers, snowflakes, Indian hats, and paper hand turkeys with the Rotatacters.  The kids were eager to do the craft projects, and they excitedly displayed their creations to their parents.  Later in the evening, Rotaracters had a chance to interact with some of the parents as well, as they joined in on the fun and assisted some of the youngest children with the craft making.  It was immediately clear how thankful the families are that the Ronald McDonald House exists, since it allows them to stay in the same city as their ill children.  It was so inspiring to hear the families talk about their experiences in the Ronald McDonald House of Philadelphia, and the Rotaracters were all happy to have shared the evening with such amazing people.      

Allison Jegla

Rotary District Conference - Ross Carrington

             Our Rotary district held its annual conference this past weekend in the beautiful Lafayette Hill, right outside of the city. A group of us represented Rotaract Philly among the many other Rotary and Rotaract clubs in District 7450 and got the chance to learn about very important issues Rotary is getting involved in.

             The day included two very interesting lectures: one on clean water initiatives and another on efforts to stem child slavery. We were first introduced to an organization called Water Missions International, which undertakes clean water projects in 49 developing countries, mainly throughout Latin America and Africa. The organization builds clean water systems for public use that provide a safe alternative to the contaminated water that has plagued communities with disease.

            After some time set aside for mingling with Rotarians/Rotaractors from other clubs, we saw a very moving presentation on child slavery. It was very sobering to realize that the phenomenon was so endemic throughout the modern world, and that the United States was not immune. The lecture ended on a positive note, however, with a segment on rescue organizations that were making headway in stemming back the tide.

           The most inspiring, and most awaited, presentation of the day was given by Ramesh Farris on polio eradication. Born in India, Farris had contracted polio at six months of age and was paralyzed from the waist down. Farris’ mother, unable to provide the resources her son would need, gave him up to an orphanage. He was then adopted by a Canadian family, after initial opposition from the Canadian government based on the fear that Farris would place too much strain on the country’s healthcare system.

        The presentation was moving from the very beginning, when Farris crawled through piercing silence from the back of the auditorium to the stage and began to tell his story while sitting on the floor. The discomfort quickly gave way to disbelief and cheer as Farris rose up and began to walk across the stage.  In Canada, Farris had undergone numerous surgeries, eventually allowing him to walk with the help of leg braces. He has been traveling across the world recounting his experience, in the hope that there will one day be no more “crawlers.”

         All in all, the conference proved to be, as always, an immeasurably enriching and inspirational day. I would greatly recommend that every Rotaractor try to go at some point. You don’t want to miss out!

Jane Williams Tribute - Ross Carrington

We walked into the front door and were immediately overwhelmed. The number of people who had come to celebrate Jane's years of service as the District Rotaract Club Committee Chairperson was simply astounding. The room was filled with Rotarians and Rotaractors of all ages, from college students like ourselves to much more experienced (but really just as young) adults. Luckily, we had gotten there early enough to mix and mingle with members from other clubs - a rare occasion to see some familiar faces and meet completely new ones. It wasn't long, however, before the evening got started and attention turned to where it belonged for the night: on Jane Williams and her years of dedication to Rotaract.

As a tribute, it was fitting that the evening's program consisted mainly of different individuals giving their testimonies on how Jane touched them as Rotarians/Rotaractors and as people. Person after person stood up and shared how Jane had gone out of her way to make them feel welcome when they were new to the club, or had inspired and guide them toward higher leadership roles within the organization. What really made the night special was the sincerity that could be heard in their voices. It wasn't just a ceremony that had to be carried out for a high-ranking member; they were speaking from the heart. At the end of the testimonies, Jane was presented with a plaque and some big news: she had been nominated to the National Women's Hall of Fame! Better yet, to everyone's surprise, Jane was related to Susan B. Anthony, which made the nomination all the more meaningful.

The evening concluded with carnival-style games that the different Rotaractors had brought in order to raise money for Rotary's polio initiative. Not to brag, but our game was quite a crowd-pleaser. We put together an entertainment trivia game, covering movies and tv shows from the 1950s through the 1990s. People got so worked up while playing that we will definitely have to find an occasion to use it again. 

All in all, it was an incredibly fun and inspiring evening to celebrate the work of a very special woman. Her tenure as Chairperson may be up, but this is just the beginning of a brand new chapter for Jane.

MANNA Food Preparation - Youssouf Camara

Manna is a Pennsylvanian non-profit organization that focuses on providing nutritional meals for a number of communities but particularly, those at acute nutritional risk due to life-threatening illness (such as Cancer, HIV/AIDS, and other illness). Volunteers work alongside Manna’s chefs to prepare and package >3,500 medically appropriate meals each weekday.

True to its word, preparing and packaging food is exactly what Emily, Stephanie, and I did. Around 10, we arrived and got a few minutes to chill and talk to other volunteers (cookies were provided). As soon as we got settled, it was off to work. And not surprisingly, there was always something to do. Part 1 was the conveyor belt – starts with an empty container and ends with sealed packaged food. Now, it was pretty fun to get there, meet the other volunteers, chat with your friends while packaging food. Emily and Steph were both at the fruit station and I took the opportunity to make the activity unnecessarily competitive and see who could scoop faster (Steph won). Part 2 was washing and chopping celery. If you’ve seen the pictures of us at Manna, you’ll notice that we went through an impressive amount of celery. It’s a fairly monotonous task made fun by witnessing your friends’ cutting skills: from slapping a knife to the board while praying that your fingers and celery make it out ok to cutting slowly timidly enough that your celery might actually make it out in one piece. Part 3 was clean-up which took all of 3 minutes and then we said our goodbyes.

We worked out an arrangement with Manna where the Rotaract Club could go regularly to 23rd Street, every other week, and only need to fill out a waiver ahead of time. It’s the simplest way I can imagine of getting some valuable community service and spending time with your fellow Rotaractors.