On October 3, 2023 after having been introduced in detail by Assistant District Governor Bev Heikes, District Governor Mark Merriam gave a great presentation about Rotary's response to the Maui wildfire disaster, how Rotary in general was doing and how we as Rotarians could move forward in a positive way. Within two days the three West Maui Rotary clubs had met and began planning ways to help everyone impacted by the fire. At the district level, a request for help in donations was sent to Rotarians worldwide. Within 2-3 weeks nearly 2 million dollars had been raised from 5000 donors from all over the world! A committee of Maui Rotarians and local leaders has been assembled to disburse funds. Nearly every day, Rotarians have volunteered to go to several locations in West Maui to set up Starlink stations so that local folks can use the internet to contact family and more.
With respect to Rotary in general, the number of Rotarians is growing but slowly. And many clubs in Hawaii have reduced numbers of active members because of the Covid pandemic which basically crushed in person meetings. And we have members who although technically active are not active meeting attendees. Mark suggested that we each contact a few of those individuals and talk story with them to see if coming back to meetings on a more regular basis would work for them.
Mark also talked about this being Polio month with October 24th being World Polio Day. Every donation given that day will be matched 2 for 1 up to 150 million dollars!