The Rotary Club of Pakenham hosted a very successful evening on Thursday at
The Pakenham Racing Club to celebrate the Centenary of The Rotary
Foundation. Rotarians from 9 Clubs and their guests attended and would like
to thank The Racing Club for their assistance and service on the evening
The Feature Race on the evening was named The Rotary Foundation
Centenary Handicap. The race was won by Nic Nac, trained by Greg Eurell and
had 19 owners in the Syndicate. The race trophy, generously donated by the
Pakenham Racing Club was presented by The Rotary 9820 District Governor,
Lynne Westland.
The Rotary Foundation started in 1917 with the aim ‘to do good in the world’.
Since the first donation of $26.50 the Foundation has spent $3.4 billion making
the world a better place. By far the largest programme is Polio Plus, aimed to
rid the world of Polio, which commenced in 1988. Since that time The
Foundation has spent in excess of $1.5 Billion on the programme. Over the
years other organisations have joined the effort to eradicate polio. In 1988
there were 350,000 cases of polio worldwide, 37 in 2016 and 3 to Feb 28 this
year, two in Afghanistan and one in Pakistan.
The Rotary Club of Pakenham has used Foundation Grants, to develop Rotary
Park and the facilities along the Toomuc Creek pathway. Internationally the
club obtained a grant to build a three classroom building in a school in
Zimbabwe. Also, the club has hosted children from SE Asia who came to
Melbourne for major surgery. Mainly cardiac surgery that could not be
performed in their country of origin