Bruce and Carmen McTavish
We read about all the anger and devastation in this crazy world… along comes Bruce McTavish — read the letter below for inspiration. Bruce was thanked for doing a pilot project to eliminate polio as president of the Mabalacat Rotary Club in the Philippines. Today polio has been has made it 98% eliminated there.
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Dear Mr Sison,
I have enjoyed the editorial pages of the Phil Star since retiring here in 2000 after
teaching two years as a Visiting Rotary Professor at UP-Diliman. Being an active
Rotarian, I especially enjoy your columns featuring news of our great organization.
Prior to retirement here, I served as a president and AG (2 terms) in the US and
have attended several RI International Conventions.
I wanted to call attention to a story published in the monthly newsletter of ROTI,
Rotarians On The Internet, which told of the establishment of the pilot program of
Rotary for PolioPlus being established in the Philippines by RC Mabalacat and
RC Angeles. The president of the club at that time was Bruce McTavish…yes,
the same Bruce McTavish that continues to serve as a world-class referee for
professional boxing.
Here is an excerpt form the story.
Did you know the Rotary Polio Plus program began in the Philippines?
In 1983 the Rotary Club of Mabalacat under President Bruce McTavish conducted a
comprehensive drive that immunized thousands of children in Mabalacat, a city in the
province of Pampanga, one hundred kilometers north of Manila. With the success of
that initial drive, plans were made for future immunizations in later years.
In 1985 Rotary International announced its polio plus drive signaling the beginning of a
worldwide effort. In 1986 RI finalized their project plans and Angeles City/Mabalacat
was selected as a pilot area for polio plus in the Philippines.
On Sunday morning, February 15, 1987, workers at Mabalacat hospital began
assembling the drug packets that would go with each of the eighteen teams to thirty
immunization sites. Each team consisted of one Rotarian, several midwives, student
nurses, & barangay health workers. Each team leader had been briefed in advance,
received maps directing him to his barrio and had visited the site to insure all was
ready. Now, nearly twenty years later, the world has only a few places in which the
dreaded disease of polio still exists.
The entire article can be found at http://roti.org/news/polio.pdf
Bruce is now a member of the Rotary Club of Clark Centennial
Yours in Rotary
Ron
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