You may have heard that there is a pandemic going on. World-wide.  And Rotary is responding.
 
Last year, in response to requests from Rotarians, the Trustees of the Rotary Foundation, established the Disaster Response Fund.  This Fund is designed to fund districts’ need as they respond to local disasters.  Districts may apply for a grant of up to $25,000 to use in response to a disaster.  No district match is required; it is a straight out grant.  Currently, the fund is practically depleted because districts around the world have been applying for grant money and TRF has been responding primarily to respond to COVID-19 needs like PPE, masks, test kits and the like, all around the world.
 
Right now there are over 100 district requests for grants in the queue awaiting funding.  District 7390 (that’s us) is one of them.  Grants will be funded as money becomes available.  If $25,000 comes in, it gets applied immediately to a grant request.  Grant requests are handled in the order in which they were submitted.
 
But, as noted above, the fund is out of money. 
 
So now there is a plan.
 
Coming up soon, Rotary International will conduct a telethon in order to raise money for the fund.  It will be held on Saturday, May 2nd, starting at 11:00 a.m.  Details will be published closer to the date.
The Disaster response fund meets a critical need in this time of pandemic. 
 
I encourage you to participate and to make a donation.  If you don’t want to wait until May you can go to https://my.rotary.org/en/donate and make a donation to any of the funds.
 
Speaking of which:
 
The Polio Plus fund is still important.  Polio vaccinations and monitoring have been suspended for now. However, the resources are being redirected to combating COVID-19.  Monitoring, testing, and teaching are going on by the Polio teams, especially in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria.  Once we are though this dark tunnel of COVID-19, Polio vaccinations and monitoring will start up again. Funding of Polio Plus is still important.
The Annual Fund still matters.  It is how we in the district get money back for club projects and global grants. Currently, global grants that are designed specifically for responding to COVID-19 response are on the fast track for approval, usually within three days of receipt at TRF.
 
Things are tough right now.  But we are Rotarians, and we put Service Above Self. And right now we need for you to help support all of our Foundation Funds.