On Tuesday, June 6, our lunch speaker will be our own club member Cort Vaughn, giving us an update on Rotary’s efforts to eradicate polio. In 1988, Polio paralyzed over 350,000 people per year in 125 countries, mostly children under the age of 5. Rotary stepped in to lead the effort to vaccinate every child and create a Polio free world. There have only been 3 cases of Polio this year in just 2 countries. That is the good news. The bad news is that we had case of Polio in New York last year, so Polio is only a plane flight away! Signup for lunch here.

About Cort
Cort Vaughan is a Polio survivor. He and his wife Tonya have two sons and two grandsons.

Cort joined the Rotary Club of Greater Bend to help eradicate Polio. He founded the Pints for Polio fundraiser in 2012 to raise money for global Polio eradication and to increase local awareness regarding the need to vaccinate all children according to CDC guidelines. Pints for Polio has raised nearly $210,000 for the PolioPlus Fund including matching funds from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Cort is Past District 5110 PolioPlus Chair and past Zone 27 End Polio Now Coordinator covering 10 Districts and nearly 800 Rotary Clubs. Zone 27 includes most of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Northern California, and British Columbia.

Cort Vaughan contracted Polio in 1954 during a global pandemic that crippled over 35,000 people each year in the United States, mostly children under the age of 5. Polio paralyzed Cort’s right leg.

Cort and Tonya spent 3 weeks in India in January 2020 on a NID to vaccinate children against polio. They also met with WHO and UNICEF, visited a polio rehabilitation clinic and toured several Rotary projects. Join us in hearing Cort’s inspiring story of growing up with Polio, learning about polio eradication in India, and Rotary’s efforts to wipe out Polio.

This meeting will both in-person at the Riverhouse (restaurant side, Deschutes North), and virtual.

Join the Zoom Meeting here: RCGB Zoom Link

You can also call in to the meeting at (669) 900-9128 and enter meeting ID: 692 491 9146. If you’re asked, the passcode is 5110.

We will record the presentation for others who aren’t able to attend at noon.

On Tuesday, May 23, our lunch program will be our local high schools’ Athletic Directors, giving us an update from the 2022/23 school year. Signup for lunch here.

This meeting will both in-person at the Riverhouse (restaurant side), and virtual.

Join the Zoom Meeting here: RCGB Zoom Link

You can also call in to the meeting at (669) 900-9128 and enter meeting ID: 692 491 9146. If you’re asked, the passcode is 5110.

We will record the presentation for others who aren’t able to attend at noon.

On Tuesday, May 16, our speaker will be Daniel Seddiqui–the real-life version of Where’s Waldo.

He’s widely known for his journey of working 50 Jobs in 50 States — an expedition he created through struggles to land a job after college. Inspired by curiosity and the will to discover, Daniel’s ambitious endeavors garnered worldwide media attention, earning titles like World’s Most Ambitious Job Seeker and named by USA Today as the Most Rejected Person in the World.

Featured on many national and international media outlets, such as CNN, Fox News, NPR, Today Show, AP, MSN, Yahoo!, C-SPAN, World News Tonight, WSJ, and MSNBC, Daniel has earned his spot as a job seeking expert and cultural analyst contributor. He has been invited to keynote national career conferences, like National Career Development Association and Cooperative Education and Internships Association. He’s keynoted on many college campuses; Stanford, UC Berkeley, Harvard, Columbia, Virginia, USC, Ohio State, Minnesota, and Missouri. Other organizations include TEDx, Department of Ed, Rotary International, and MENSA.

Signup for lunch here.

This meeting will both in-person at the Riverhouse (restaurant side), and virtual.

Join the Zoom Meeting here: RCGB Zoom Link

You can also call in to the meeting at (669) 900-9128 and enter meeting ID: 692 491 9146. If you’re asked, the passcode is 5110.

We will record the presentation for others who aren’t able to attend at noon.

On Tuesday, May 9, please join us for what promises to be one of the most fun and inspiring programs of the year! Dr. Steve Cook, Superintendent of Bend-La Pine School District, will lead us in our annual High School student recognition lunch. The Rotary Student Recognition Lunch honors seven outstanding students who have been selected by their high school as best exemplifying the Rotary ideal of “service above self.” Signup for lunch here.

This meeting will both in-person at the Riverhouse (restaurant side), and virtual.

Join the Zoom Meeting here: RCGB Zoom Link

You can also call in to the meeting at (669) 900-9128 and enter meeting ID: 692 491 9146. If you’re asked, the passcode is 5110.

We will record the presentation for others who aren’t able to attend at noon.

On Tuesday, May 2, 2023, our lunch program will consist of presentations from some of our local non-profits. Our own club member, Lauren Olander, will talk to us about Ronald McDonald House, where she is Chief Development Officer. Heather Dion, Executive Director of CASA Central Oregon, will speak to us about CASA (one of our Duck Race beneficiaries this year).

Signup for lunch here.

Lauren has been with Ronald McDonald House since 2018. Prior to that, she served as Director of Gift and Estate Planning for the American Cancer Society for 5 years. She received her Doctor of Law from Pepperdine, and a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from Boston University.

Heather came to Bend in 2017 from the Willamette Valley, where she spent several years working in nonprofit communication and fundraising. She has a bachelor’s degree in communications from Lewis and Clark College and an MBA from Portland State University. Heather is thrilled to work for CASA because she believes that community advocacy and action can give every child a safe and permanent home. In her spare time she enjoys hiking, kayaking, cooking, and spending time with her family.

This meeting will both in-person at the Riverhouse (restaurant side), and virtual.

Join the Zoom Meeting here: RCGB Zoom Link

You can also call in to the meeting at (669) 900-9128 and enter meeting ID: 692 491 9146. If you’re asked, the passcode is 5110.

We will record the presentation for others who aren’t able to attend at noon.

On Tuesday, April 18, 2023, we’ll be having lunch at the Boys & Girls Clubs office at 500 NW Wall St., not at the Riverhouse, and our speaker will be Dr. Roger Sabbadini. Signup for lunch here or you won’t get any food.

Roger Sabbadini’s presentation is an untold and compelling true story of his father – an Italian refugee, Alessandro (Alex) Sabbadini, who escaped Fascist Italy to America on the eve of WWII only to return to fight in Italy with the U.S. 5th Army. He was with G-2 Intelligence and was one of the “Ritchie Boys.” Alex joined the fight for personal reasons – to liberate Italy and his Jewish family who were being pursued by the Fascists and the Nazis. The Sabbadini saga is also presented in the context of the long and rich history of Italian Jews. Alex Sabbadini’s personal photographs and other documents have historical value and contribute greatly to the unique character of the story.

Roger Sabbadini is an Emeritus Professor of Biology at San Diego State University and Co-founder of SDSU’s Institute for International Security and Conflict Resolution. Dr. Sabbadini is representing the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education (OJMCHE). Dr. Sabbadini now lives in Bend, Oregon.

This meeting will both in-person at the Boys and Girls Clubs offices at 500 NW Wall Street, Bend, OR 97703, and virtual.

Join the Zoom meeting here: RCGB Zoom Link

You can also call in to the meeting at (669) 900-9128 and enter meeting ID: 692 491 9146. If you’re asked, the passcode is 5110.

We will record the presentation for others who aren’t able to attend at noon.

On Tuesday, April 11, 2023, our lunch program will consist of presentations from local charities who’ve applied to be the beneficiary of our club’s share of this year’s Duck Race proceeds. Heidi Wright and the donations committee received a lot of great applicants, and have whittled that list down to just a few, and those will be pitching us on their programs/projects. Signup for lunch here.

This meeting will both in-person at the Riverhouse (restaurant side), and virtual.

Join the Zoom Meeting here: RCGB Zoom Link

You can also call in to the meeting at (669) 900-9128 and enter meeting ID: 692 491 9146. If you’re asked, the passcode is 5110.

We will record the presentation for others who aren’t able to attend at noon.

Join us on Tuesday April 4, 2023 at our normal meeting spot for new member biographies. This is your chance to hear all about our new members. Where they come from, what they did, where they going on their journey through life.

On Tuesday, March 14, 2023, our lunch speaker will be Dana Whitelaw, Executive Director of the High Desert Museum. Dana will be speaking to use about the High Desert Museum’s 40th Anniversary and masterplan.

Dana has been at the High Desert Museum for 14 years. In her previous life, she studied lemurs in Madagascar and studied non-human primates in South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia and China. Through this work, she earned a PhD in Biological Anthropology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. A native Oregonian and self-described museum nerd, Dana became inspired by the work museums do to energize and engage visitors with the learning and discovery of academia.

Under Dana’s leadership, the High Desert Museum has become a Smithsonian Affiliate, experienced record attendance and was a 2018 finalist for the prestigious National Medal for Museum and Library Service. Dana serves on the boards of the Western Museums Association, the Central Oregon Visitors Association, Oregon’s Cultural Advocacy Coalition and Art in Public Places. She lives in Bend with her husband and two sons, and in their free time they ski, bike and run together.

Signup for lunch here.

This meeting will both in-person at the Riverhouse (restaurant side), and virtual.

Join the Zoom Meeting here: RCGB Zoom Link

You can also call in to the meeting at (669) 900-9128 and enter meeting ID: 692 491 9146. If you’re asked, the passcode is 5110.

We will record the presentation for others who aren’t able to attend at noon.