On Tuesday, April 2nd 2019, our lunch program will consist of an update on the campaign to eradicate polio, presented by our own Cort Vaughn. Cort has just returned from an International meeting, where all Polio Plus Zone Directors gathered to learn about the final stage of the project. Cort Vaughan is a Polio survivor. He and his wife Tonya sold their home in Bend, Oregon and are currently exploring North America by RV. They 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. Pints for Polio has raised nearly $180,000 for the PolioPlus Fund including matching funds from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Cort is Past District 5110 PolioPlus Chair and current Zone 25 End Polio Now Coordinator. On July 1st Cort will become the Zone 27 PolioPlus Coordinator covering 14 Districts and nearly 800 Rotary Clubs. Zone 27 includes most of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Northern California, and British Columbia.

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

Join us in hearing Cort’s inspiring story of growing up with Polio. Cort will also update us on the worldwide effort to eradicate Polio and what it will mean to live in a Polio free world.

On Tuesday, March 12th 2019, our lunch program speakers will be Dan Steelhammer, regional ambassador for Shelter Box USA, and Club member Shon Keeley from the American Red Cross. They will join us for lunch to discuss international disaster response.

Dan Steelhammer is a native Central Oregonian, a graduate of Crook County High School and the University of Oregon (BS, JD). Dan practiced law in Eugene and then in Bend for 15 years before changing careers to real estate. He has been an active Realtor since 1997, specializing in Commercial Properties throughout the state. Multifamily, industrial, and office sales and leasing are his primary areas of focus. His wife Jill is a recently retired teacher, and they have three children, Henry, Tom and Molly, all in their early 20’s, all products of the Bend La Pine public school system and Oregon higher education programs.

Dan is a member and past President of Mt. Bachelor Rotary, and is on the Board of Directors for Central Electric Cooperative. He enjoys fly fishing, hiking and being outdoors in Central Oregon.

On Tuesday, March 5th 2019, our lunch program speaker will be George Lepp, Field Editor, Outdoor Photographer Magazine. One of North America’s best-known contemporary outdoor and nature photographers and a leader in the field of digital imaging, George Lepp is the author of many books and hundreds of nationally and internationally published articles about the creative, ethical, and technical aspects of nature photography.

George is field editor of Outdoor Photographer magazine, where his “Tech Tips” column has been read for more than 30 years. His photography is extensively published and exhibited, and represented by Getty Images, Corbis, AgStock, and Photo Researchers. Lepp is one of the first members of Canon USA’s Explorers of Light program, featuring the industry’s most influential photographers. He has presented hundreds of lectures and led workshops all over the world, and often serves as a judge of international photography competitions. A founder and fellow of the North American Nature Photographers Association (NANPA), Lepp has won many awards for his work, including Photo Media’s Photography Person of the Year and the Photographic Society of America’s prestigious Progress Award. First trained in wildlife and wildlands management, Lepp later earned a BA and honorary MSc from Brooks Institute of Photography. George and his wife and collaborator, Kathryn Vincent Lepp, live in Bend, Oregon and can be contacted at http://www.georgeleppimages.com/.