Lunchtime speaker – District Governor – Mike Thorn

Our speaker this week was Mike Thorn who is our District Governor. He is a member of Cheam & Sutton
Rotary Club. We also had some guests from Woking High School, which is becoming a corporate member. These
were Dean and two pupils who are members of the Gardening Club and gave us a short talk on it. We have
given it some purple crocus bulbs. We are giving the school a grant towards a new gazebo to be used at
lunchtime and as an extra teaching space. Mike produces monthly videos that you can view on Facebook (see
Rotary Mike) and are very interesting. He asked us what we liked about our club. Members replied that they
liked the people in the club and what we are able to do to help our local community and also overseas. Some of
the things we do are hands-on like the Childrens’ Fun Day and the Mizens Railway event or collecting tools and
books to send to Africa. We also give money to local charities raised through our fundraising. This is usually to
finance a project. This year we sponsored a student to attend the RYLA course. For overseas projects, such as
sand dams, we have been able to get grants from Rotary Foundation and they usually involve a number of UK
clubs working together. Spearheaded by our President Carol Cheesman, the Club has recruited some corporate
members. These include the Woking & Sam Beare Hospice, Woking Football Club and West Hall Care Home. The
Club has also recruited a number of new individual members. Mike said one his jobs as Governor is to inspire
clubs to do more and look at more flexible ways of meeting together. Mike gave us an update on the Global
Polio Eradication campaign. When the campaign was launched in 1985 polio was endemic across the world with
350,000 cases. It now endemic only in Afghanistan and in the parts of Pakistan that border it. Pakistan is doing
well, but Afghanistan has slipped back under the Taliban government since vaccination is now carried out in
vaccination centres rather than in homes, which was more effective. The main non-governmental funders of the
campaign have been Rotary Foundation ($2.9bn), and the Gates Foundation ($6bn), which has provided 2:1
matched funding. Rotary has pledged a further $450m for 2027-9. It is important to continue vaccination
across countries such as India to prevent it returning. Carol thanked Mike for his interesting and inspiring talk.
We also found the accompanying discussion very useful and rewarding.
President’s Notes
Our next social event is the Christmas party on
Tuesday 2nd December. There is also a trip to the
Rhoda McGaw Theatre on Friday 27th November to
see WAOS Musical Theatre’s production of Singing
in the Rain a trip on Monday 1st December
evening to Wisley to see the RHS Glow. We will be
accompanied by some visitors from the French
rotary club Clamart, Le Plessis-Robinson, Velizy
who are also coming to our Christmas party event.
Monday 16th November