Held at Quigley’s Restaurant
573 Columbia Turnpike
East Greenbush, NY 12061

Members Attending (14): Phil Kellerman, Murray Forth, Dick Drumm, Bill Dowd, Jim Leyhane, Peter Brown, Debbie Brown, Pat Bailey, Andy Leyhane, Carol Orvis, Ray Hannan, Dean Calamaras, John Justino, Becky Raymond.

Guests (10): Martha Lepow, Past DG John Mucha, Nina Mucha, Dustin Moore, Aubrey Racz, David Phillips, Bill Nathan, David Palmquist, Nicole MacFarland, Gary MacFarland.

MEETING NOTES: President Phil presided, welcoming members and numerous guests. … Danes Rotaract President Dustin Moore, just returned from a work-study project in Ireland, and Rotaract member Aubrey Racz, a Castleton native who is about to participate in a Peace Corps-affiliated work-study project in the West African nation of Sierra Leone, were among the guests. They announced that Rotaract’s latest drinks social at Wolff’s Biergarten in Albany will be held at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday (October 29), with $1 from the price of each drink purchased going to the Freedom From Fistula Foundation. Past District Governor John Mucha also was among the guests. …

… Phil reminded everyone that next week’s dinner meeting has been cancelled because Quigley’s is closing early for Halloween. … Dean Calamaras, our Gift of Life liaison, reported that the scheduled November 4 arrival of our latest child for heart surgery has been postponed because of problems with the mother’s travel documents. … Members were informed that at Tuesday’s meeting of the SRC Board, it was voted to indefinitely postpone any further work on the proposed 2020 Rotary Run.

PROGRAM: 7th annual World Polio Day

Dr. Martha Lepow and John Justino presented information and thoughts on the status of Rotary’s ongoing battle against polio.

Martha was a pioneering expert in pediatric infectious diseases who was part of the early research that resulted in the Salk polio vaccine. John, an SRC member, is director of the Center for Global Health and clinical associate professor in the UAlbany School of Public Health.

As noted, the announcement that Nigeria no longer is an indemic polio country reduces the list of countries yet to eradicate polio to two — Pakistan, which has had 62 cases this year, and Afghanistan, with 16 cases this year.

Periodically, an isolated case of polio does occur, but there now is only one type of wildpolio virus remaining globally.

After their remarks, attendees were welcomed to view a video from RI that had been released earlier in the day. It is available on our club website.