Laurie Edwards served as president of the El Dorado Hills Rotary Club and Assistant Governor in district 5180.   She is a member of the Rotary Club of Cameron Park in district 5190, and is the club’s Foundation and PolioPlus Chair.  Laurie spoke about her passion, the Rotary Foundation and how its grants have helped people all over the world and locally.

Laurie strongly encouraged us to read the Rotary magazine and go online at www.myrotary.org to educate yourself and see the good works of Rotary through the Foundation and Polio Plus. Laurie reminded us of what RI President Jennifer Jones's logo and theme for the year was: "Imagine Rotary."  Those who knew something about Rotary's 7 areas of Focus were won prizes (a fun lottery scratcher).

Laurie described several of her inspiring and life-changing international trips (seeing is believing), including: 1) a trip to Siberia and Russia Far East to help expand Rotary; 2) a Maasai village in East Africa where newborns are not named until they reach the age of 2 or 3 years due to the high infancy death rate caused by waterborne illnesses; 3) a trip to India where she toured a factory that constructed and fitted amputees with prostheses, a ward giving polio "crawler" victims the ability to walk through numerous surgeries and intensive rehabilitation literally changing their lives, and participating in a National Immunization Day to help inoculate children in a slum.