Memorial Day Rotarians

Over fifty veterans lined up receive lapel pins with over half coming from Essex County including some our Rotarians… .Retired Air Force General C Norman Wood was presented his Vietnam Veteran Lapel Pin.  Tommy Neuman also a member of USMC Detachment 1062 places the Marine Corps League wreath at the Essex County War Memorial.

Big Croaker T-shirt Art Contest

As part of the Tappahannock Rotary Big Croaker annual tournament, the club seeks participation in the design of the t-shirts that are handed out to each tournament contestant. Beth Rohne (right) is the Youth Services Specialist at the Library and kicked off the contest with a fish printing workshop, A total of 13 school students attended, representing 4 different Essex County schools. Beth took the lead role in this first ever partnership between Tappahannock Rotary and Essex County Library headed by Dana Smook (2nd left). Entries had to pertain to the Rappahannock River and croakers. There were 12 total entries judged by a committee of several Rotarians. Amanda Hudgins (3rd left) won $25 for the age group and an additional $50 for being grand prize winner. Verna Zhuo, a 5th grader at EIS, won in her age group. Check was presented by JoAnne Ruffa (right), Youth Services with Tappahannock Rotary Club.  The Big Croaker art is currently on display in the Essex Public Library.

Rotary Big Croaker Big Fun Raiser!

Tappahannock Rotary Big Croaker Tournament $2,000 check for first prize is presented by (from left to right) Carl Strock - Tappahannock Rotary President, Hong Nguyen, Ba's son Khang Nguyen who won second prize of $200 in the youth division, Ba Nguyen (center), My Ho and Loc Truong  of Springfield VA with his family and (right) Jim Wawner Tournament Weigh-Master. Not pictured Jay Brimmer, Tournament Chair. The biggest croaker this year was 1.05 lbs!

The Amazing Life of Michael Faulkner!

I'm just bowled over with the skill and talent of Michael Faulkner who presented his program about dog show judging and dog breeding. Since the age of nine Michael has been a breeder and graduated to show judging including Westminster and developed his judging skills for many breeds and show categories! And at the same time being director of the Ledwith Lewis Free Clinic! What a stellar series of accomplishments and amazing life! To read more about Michael, visit his impressive dog show page at https://wds2018.com/michael-faulkner-us/ With Michael is Carl Strock, Rotary Club President and Emerson Hughes, Program Chair. 

Richard Lewis Talks Polio

Richard Lewis, chatted with us about Polio and Rotary's campaign to eliminate that awful disease. When Polio Plus was begun in 1985 there were about 1000 cases of polio every DAY in our world. Today, there are just 3 countries where polio is still around...Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Nigeria has been polio free before but refugees from Syria brought the disease back. In the last 3 years there have been less that 10 new cases of polio in our world. How did this project begin? In 1979 Rotary brought out a new division of RI, the 3H Program...grants were available for Health, Hunger, and Humanities. One of the first large 3 H grants was to help eliminate polio in the Phillipines. That 5 year program was successful and so were the ones in Haiti, Morocco, Bolivia, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia. Men who were to serve a RI presidents, Matt Capras and Carlos Conseco spearheaded the elimination of polio campaign which began during Conseco's year as RI president. Dr. Albert Sabin was a special consultant to the committee. By 2005, polio had been reduced by 99%. Amazing. Rotary's original goal was to raise $120 million...Rotary raised $240 million and through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, we have added countless dollars more. We now stand on the threshold of adding polio AND small pox at a major disease that is seen no more. What will Rotary do after polio is wiped off the face of our earth? It is anybodys guess.... Great program Dr. Lewis…

Collecting Duck Decoys

Larry Sisson, formerly of Nomini Creek and now an Essex County resident has been a duck decoy collector for over 50 years. Larry has a collection of several hundred valuable decoys and showed the Rotary Club a sampling of a dozen decoys including Madison Mitchell, Paul Gibson, Ward Brothers of Crisfield, Lloyd Tyler, Dodge, Mason and Stephens. Decoys are made from cedar, pine, cork and balsa, or papier-mâché, and then painted. Decoys are now relatively valuable and worth anywhere between $100's to $100,000+. From left to right, Bill Croxton, Assistant Governor, Larry Sisson, and Jim Wawner, program chair.