Oriental Rotary Club

ORC Relay for Life…Next week Captain Larry will report on ORC’s contribution to the 2009 effort. Due to the team’s stellar efforts at per capita fund raising ORC brought home a platinum plaque.

Bright lights big city…Sam Alitto and Per Erichsen have their sights set on Broadway after their razzle-dazzle, sizzling Oriental Repertory Company performance in “Monster Bash” this past Friday and Saturday. Set during a Halloween party, the Play involved a grave digging scheme gone haywire. Theatre goers agreed that Sam and per delivered a comedic tour de force.

An exceedingly wacky Halloween tradition occurs in Boulder, Colorado…Your editor was reviewing the 31 October Wall Street Journal for her customary serious news when she spied the headline…”Boulder’s Naked Halloween Streak May be Coming to an End…Runners are Out of their Gourds, Wearing Just a Pumpkin: Police Chief Calls it a Crime.”

For over a decade scores of men and women would pour into downtown streets for a late-night jog, wearing only jack-o-lanterns on their heads and sneakers on their feet. The Police chief says things are out of control. Swat teams will patrol and arrest the gourd-topped streakers. The ACLU has accused the police of violating citizen’s constitutional rights to express whatever it is they’re expressing when they place hollowed-out pumpkins over their heads and race buck nacked down the Pearl Street pedestrian mall in Boulder.

Wow…In comparison, Oriental’s Halloween high jinks are positively, yawningly staid.

Not to be Overlooked On 24 October, Rotarians around the world celebrated World Polio Day. (Ending polio has been Rotary’s top priority since 1988, with the launch of the global Polio Eradiaction Initiative, in collaboration with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.) The number of polio cases has been reduced by more than 99 percent; five million cases of childhood paralysis and 250,000 deaths have been averted.

The following is a list of well known people who have had polio:
Alan Alda, actor
Arthur C Clark, science fiction writer
Judy Collins, singer and songwriter
Francis Ford Coppola, director, producer, screenwriter
Mia Farrow, actress, activist
Dorothea Lange, photographer
Joni Mitchell, singer and songwriter
Jack Nicklaus, professional golfer
Itzhak Perlman, violinist
Franklin D. Roosevelt, U.s. President
Margarete Steiff, toymaker and founder of Steiff company in Germany
Donald Sutherland, actor
Neil Young, singer and songwriter

About Interact
Interact is Rotary International’s service club for young people ages 14-18. Interact clubs are sponsored by individual Rotary clubs, which provide support and guidance, but they are self-governing and self-supporting. Club membership varies greatly. Clubs can be single gender, or mixed, large or small. They can draw from the student boy of a single school or from two or more schools in the same community.

Each year, Interact clubs complete at least two community service projects, one of which furthers international understanding and goodwill. Through these efforts, Interactors develop a network of friendships with local and overseas clubs and learn the importance of:
-Developing leadership skills and personal integrity
-Demonstrating helpfulness and respect for others
-Understanding the value of individual responsibility and hard work
-Advancing international understanding and goodwill.

As one of the most significant and fastest-growing programs of Rotary service, with more than 10,700 clubs in 109 countries and geographical areas, Interact has become a worldwide phenomenon. Almost 200,00 young people are involved in Interact.