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July is Literacy/ Numeracy Month in Rotary. Literacy, of course, has 2 human components- student and teacher. This explains our choice of Guest Speakers. Last week we had a student, Charlie Cruz, one of the Ten Outstanding Students of the Country. Today, we welcome Dr. Wilhelmina Borje, a teacher, the Principal of the Special Education ( SPED ) School and also the North Central School in Barangay Tanqui.
For those who were not present during our Induction, our club has adopted the SPED School and the North Central School for Rotary Year 2000-2001. We, the club officers have already made preliminary talks with Dr. Borje regarding the needs of her students and now we have invited her to speak before the general membership of our club.
My first two weeks as Rotary President have rather been hectic for me. I had barely warmed my seat when the typhoon season which usually hits us during August and September, struck, requiring us to immediately respond and do our share for the calamity victims. Tornadoes, which last hit La Union more than 10 years ago, suddenly appeared - rendering a number of families homeless including several in barangay Carlatan, which is very near the place I call home. Again we had to respond. And of course there is a battle raging in far-away Mindanao. We here in Northern Luzon might be miles away from this conflict but we should get involved. As Leon Trotsky, the Russian revolutionary who was literally axed by the goons of Lenin put it, " You might not be interested in War, but War is interested in you." So we again had to do our share as members of a concerned NGO.
I now hope that our activities for the next two weeks and the weeks to come, will fall into the category of what we doctors call Elective, as opposed to Emergency, operations. It is much nicer to be undertaking projects, which are planned in advance and not forced upon us by immediate circumstance.
Some of the plans which we hope to accomplish for the next two weeks are career guidance seminars in two high schools, book and magazine distribution in at least one elementary and one high school, a feeding program for young children, the distribution of educational toys to disadvantaged kids and the Medical-Dental Mission to Sibuan-Otong - postponed to next Sunday, July 30, upon the request of three members of our Board.
For the benefit of our Guest for today, we also wish to emphasize to our club members that we are sponsoring an affair of the SPED and North Central school this coming Friday, July 28, from 8 A.M. to 12 noon. July for the DECS is Nutrition Month and the students of Dr. Borje will have a Nutri-Quiz and contests in Poster and Slogan Making and Cooking and Snack Preparation. Please be there.
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