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Two local Rotarians have received international awards at the annual Rotary District 6400 conference held last week on Mackinac Island in Michigan.
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Past President of the Rotary Club of Essex and Assistant Governor, Kim Spirou, received the Donald MacRae Peace Award. The award recognizes outstanding achievement by an individual who has made an outstanding contribution through international humanitarian service.
Spirou received the award for efforts in Central America and West Africa for helping to provide educational and health services to those in poverty. She has organized six missions that included 114 Rotarians and other volunteers, plus raised more than $1 million and invested these funds in projects in all six Rotary priority areas.
The work has included construction of several schools, providing school uniforms and textbooks, plus backpacks filled with supplies, toiletries and clothing. Spirou also worked to improved access to clean water in Ghana, along with construction of five sanitation facilities with flush toilets, sinks and showers.
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Along with husband Christos, a local physician, they helped launch baby health clinics, provided malaria prevention mosquito nets, plus clinics for eye exams, glasses and dental care.
Also recognized was Past District Governor Neil McBeth who received the Service Award for a Polio Free World. I have received the award for outstanding contributions to the effort by Rotarians to eradicate polio from the planet.
McBeth helped raise significant funds within D6400 for the End Polio Now campaign and has traveled internationally to participate in National Immunization Days to mass vaccinate children against polio.
Only two countries in the world, Afghanistan and Pakistan, still have endemic polio with only five cases of the disease identified this calendar year. The eradication of polio would make it only the second disease following small pox to be eliminated from the world.