More than 180 Fort Collins Rotarians, CSU Roteract and Rocky Mountain High School Interact members participated in the 6^th annual “Purple Pins for Polio” event at Chipper’s Lanes on January 31^st.    It was great fun, great fellowship and we raised  $13,000!   Combining this with the double matching funds from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,  the Fort Collins Rotary clubs contributed nearly $40,000 to the Rotary Foundation PolioPlus program.

Of the 167 bowlers, 54 were sponsored by the Foothills Rotary Club including  7 Interact students from Rocky Mountain High School.     Foothills Rotary Club also funded 12 of the 31 total Lane Sponsorships.  We want to recognize and thank our Lane Sponsors: 

• Brad Bischoff / State Farm
• Bill Brayden / Brayden Automation Corp.
• John Busby / Adams Bank & Trust
• Marcia Donnan
• Dale Gorsky / Merrill Lynch
• David Joyce / Supermarket Liquors
• Denise Juliana / Eide Bailly LLP
• Charles Kaine / Qualfon
• Chip Newton
• Chris Otto / EKS&H
• Mike Sanders / Great Western Bank
• Wynn Washle / The Group, Inc.

We also thank the many additional donors  from the Foothills Rotary Club who raised pledges and made personal contributions totaling  more than $4,000.   We couldn’t have done it without you - Great job!

Rajan Bawa with Sakuji Tanaka (President of Rotary International) at a Jan 4, 2013 talk given by Tanaka-San in Fort Collins, CO, USA

My reason for being a Rotarian is because of my daughter Sonia Bawa. Sonia was a peace activist who battled cancer for most of her life. From the age of 3 when she was diagnosed with a rare meningeal sarcoma through surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and several bone marrow transplants Sonia never lost her compassion, her sense of fairness and ethics and above all her advocacy for those beings (human and animal) who did not have a voice. Before her passing in 2005 at the tender age of 15 Sonia started a campaign from her hospital bed and named it the “thousand points of life”. She wrote then President George Bush to put the war in Iraq and Afghanistan on hold for a month and use the savings to double the total cancer research budget of the US for a year. President Bush wrote her back and Sonia unsatisfied with his response mounted a campaign to collect 1000 hand written letters from around the world petitioning the US President by echoing her call. Even prior to her relapse (we had an Indian summer of 11 years free of cancer), Sonia spearheaded several campaigns to raise money for social good including the Measles Initiative and buying school supplies for girls in war stricken Afghanistan.

In addition, Sonia started a web page www.peaceisthecure.org (please feel free to visit it), where she posted her original letter to President Bush, his response and all the letters that she collected from around the world. Sonia passed away when she had collected about 895 letters. But the letters kept pouring in. We collected over 1000 (her original goal) but have not yet realized her dream of hand carrying them to the President. I firmly believe that even though I were to die and be reborn 1000 times, I cannot equal the compassion, caring, social awareness and sense of fair play that Sonia embodied in one short 15 year lifetime. My joining Rotary is an attempt to mingle and team up with socially conscious fellow beings in order to disseminate compassion, caring, honesty, fair play and thereby do some good for humanity before I leave this planet.

During Tanaka-San’s visit to Fort Collins, I had the honor of meeting, talking and attending to the simple needs of a man whose own message of “Peace Through Service” echoes Sonia’s untutored intuitive philosophy. I look forward to enlisting the support of all my fellow members of the Foothills Rotary Club in helping me carry forward Sonia’s mission of Peace & Compassion to improve the lives of the disadvantaged worldwide.

Rajan Bawa, Ph.D

CEO Careresearch LLC www.careresearchllc.com  (Preclinical CRO – Contract Research Organization testing the safety of new drugs and devices for the betterment of human and animal health)

and Colorado Histo-Prep www.histoprep.com  (Histopathology, haematology and clinical chemistry lab, conducting research & development on new drugs and devices)

I’m happy to be joining Fort Collins Foothills Rotary, thanks for the warm welcome. I’m transferring my membership from Columbus, Nebraska. I’ve been a Rotarian for about seven years.

My wife, Jeannine, and I moved here in October of 2015 after 17 years in Nebraska. Our three kids are University of Nebraska grads and we became devoted Husker fans over the years. Our two sons and one daughter-in-law live in Omaha. Our daughter lives in Minneapolis. Jeannine and I met and started our family in Seattle. I moved there from California after graduating from California State University, Chico, and she after graduating from Eastern Washington University which isn’t far from her hometown. I completed my MA from City University in Seattle. Jeannine is a quilter and plays French horn in the Foothills Pops Band. I enjoy cycling, running (more like jogging these days!) and touring with Jeannine on our Harley. We’ve settled in Wellington.

I work at Platte River Power Authority here in Ft. Collins as the Human Resources Manager. In Nebraska I was Vice President of Corporate Support for Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) overseeing HR and other support functions such as safety, security, facilities, aviation etc.  I “retired” from NPPD to accept the position here and we love everything Northern Colorado has to offer. Columbus is a town of 20,000 and it is easy to get involved there. I was on the United Way board, an adult literacy tutor, and coached American Legion baseball. I’m looking forward to doing my part to contributing to the club, the community and to the other worthwhile causes supported by Rotary.  

March is Rotary's focus on clean water and sanitation.  Here's a great project taking place right now in District 5440!

In July 2013, Scottsbluff-Gering Rotarian Joe Schon went to Meru, Kenya with 4 other Rotarians an 5 Mission folks from Trinity Methodist Church in Lincoln.  We met with Meru Rotary Club, PP Catherine Kimathi, and initiated the First Phase of a 3 Phase project bring Clean Filtered Water and Basic Sanitation to 68 Rural Schools serving over 21,000 students. This was Phase 1 of $60,000 Global Grant 1412820 – Kenya Clean Water.

I’ve been to Meru with Rotary and Mission folks each July since then, and am headed there for July 2016 again.  Our Partners (PEAK and the Colorado Partners) from Fort Collins, have visited Meru each January, as well. Since July 2013, Clean Water and Basic Sanitation Systems had been installed in 45 schools serving more than 19,000 students.  The number of schools has continued to grow as the word gets out of the benefits Clean Water is having on the performance of the students at installed schools.

During each trip, we visit all of the schools to do an Assessment of need, develop a Budget for the project and Prioritize the “next 30 schools” that will be installed in the next 12-18 months as part of the next Phase.  The cooperation and support of the Meru Rotary Club, the Meru District Methodist Church and a local Water and Community Organization contractor is important.

The Rotary Partnering with the Methodist Church and other Faith Based organizations both as donors and as Participants in this project is the best way to assure the success and long term Sustainability of this project.  Most all of the rural schools in this Project are located in rugged and mountainous countryside along the equator.  The Faith Based Partners in this project bring school supplies and food, sewing and craft materials and most important, medical clinics (doctors, pharmacists, dentists and the drugs for treating patients).

This project does not drill or dig wells, but rather improves and utilizes the current water sources and supplies by providing improved “gathering’, storage and providing Filter Systems, and clean water storage for Point-Of-Use.  Hand Washing is taught as part of the Basic Sanitation Training for all students and Teachers.  Head Teachers must commit to a program of continued education for each new schools Term.  Phase 1 for $60,000 was closed in Fall 2014, and brought Clean Filtered Water to 27 schools serving 7793 students.  Phase 2 for $73,000 will be completed in March 2016, for another 26-28 schools serving almost 9000 students.  Phase 3 for $81,750 for another 28-30 schools serving 9000 students.

The Kenya Clean Water System has several requirements: All components must be locally available; No electricity required; No maintenance required; No moving parts.  The system we found had been developed at CSU Fort Collins, and approved by Engineers Without Borders.  Further PEAK partners had already installed several of these Systems in the Meru Area. The system uses patented Bio-Sand Filters, licensed to Running Water International (RWI) in Nakuru, Kenya.  We coupled these filters with the roof- gutter-tank storage system known throughout Kenya. We added Hand Wash stations and Clean Water storage pails for the Basic Sanitation part of the System. And Training Program for all students and Teachers on the Importance of Clean Water, and Hand-Washing to improved lives.  RWI has improved on the Bio-Sand Filter, now utilizing plastic containers which eliminate the breakage that we experienced from transporting the concrete filter shells, and in some cases, when the source water is too turbid, micro-filters are utilized.  The Parents or School Community must provide the Storage Tank Bases or other “equity” so they have involvement and Buy-In.

We have also established a Clean Water System Training Center at the Meru Methodist Guest House, where visitors can be educated in the system, and the Community Health Workers (CHW) can be trained.  As part of the Documentation and Sustainability of this Project, we are utilizing the CHW to visit each installed school, at the start of each term (3-Term School System), to complete a survey on the status and performance of the installed Clean Water Systems, and to learn the Standard Test Results for Each Class from the previous Term, and the health status of the students.  We have completed 3 terms of surveys so far (the 4^th is in the works at this time), and the results are promising.  The number of days missed due to “Stomach Illness” has significantly reduced, as well as the need for De-Worming of students.  Further, the MOE Standard Test Scores for almost every class and every grade have “increased” each term since the systems were installed.  We will continue to conduct these surveys as part of this Project for 5 years.

Coincident with the start of this Project in 2013, Districts 5440 and 5450 initiated a VTT with East Africa District 9200 (now 9212), for Clean Water and Sanitation.  The recommendations from this Study, Training and Exchange, were to Develop an Action Plan to focus on Training a Cadre of workers and trainers to install Clean Water and Basic Sanitation Systems in schools throughout Kenya and East Africa.  The YMCA of East Africa has agreed to Partner with Rotary on this project.  The Districts have arranged a WASH Symposium for March 19, 2016 at the Denver Campus of University of Denver.

(Photo: Isaac Soita of RWI with new Micro-Filter
System and Clean Water Containers.)

For this project, Scottsbluff-Gering Rotary Club received the District 5440 “World Service Award” for 2013-2014. 

But this is not just a Kenya problem.  The Project will not be finished until all who need it have Clean Water and Basic Sanitation. 

We welcome other Rotarians to join us on our Project and Mission trip to Meru in September 2016.  If you are interested, contact Joe Schon: 308-641-5140 jschon@agromac.com