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4th Annual Church Dinner for The Gift of Life
Click here for Pictures from the Church Dinner
Each year, The Forked River Rotary Club holds a dinner to recognize the outstanding community service work provided by the churches in Lacey, Ocean & Barnegat Townships. Proceeds from this event are donated to The Gift of Life Program. The dinner was held at the Village Lutheran Church in Lanoka Harbor. Our guests had a choice of Prime Rib, Chicken Florentine or Salmon. All the food was cooked by our fantastic Rotarian chefs. Other Rotary club members, with the help of the Lacey Township Interact Club, served our guests their dinners. Past Rotary District 7500 Governor and member of our club, Richard E. Ritchie was the Master of Ceremonies. Each Church had an opportunity to speak about their community service accomplishments and Rotarian Mike Beyers spoke on behalf of the Gift of Life. As of May 7th, there were currently five children flown in from other countries who were either undergoing or rehabilitating from their heart surgery. The Gift of Life is a worldwide human assistance program for the purpose of helping needy children requiring corrective heart surgery so that they may live. The concept for the program began in 1974 when the Manhasset Rotary Club responded to a request for help from the Kampala Rotary Club in Uganda. The response brought five-year-old Grace Agwaru on a 5,000-mile journey from Uganda to Roslyn, New York. On November 15, 1974, Grace underwent a successful four-hour open-heart surgical procedure to close a hole between two lower chambers of her small heart at St. Francis Hospital. Grace was released from St. Francis on December 2nd with a gift of new life through the miracle of open-heart surgery. What began as a response to help one small girl from a faraway country developed into a dynamic worldwide movement involving not only hundreds of Rotarians and their families, but also countless other community based service and fraternal organizations as well as the support of numerous American ethnic community groups. Over 1500 children from 30 countries ranging in age from infants to 17 years have been sponsored for corrective cardiac treatment. A parent or a guardian has accompanied most of the children. District 7500 established its "Gift of Life" program on July 1, 1997 under District Governor Michael Colasurdo, Sr. (97/98). Many children have received successful open-heart surgery since the program started. Additional children are being evaluated weekly and are being scheduled for surgery. We know the program will continue because it has received Club support at the 41-grass-roots' level with direct people to people contact from all parties that are sponsoring the child both here and abroad. A special "Thanks" goes out to Forked River Rotarian Lou Embriaco for organizing the event this year.
Please send inquires and contributions to: Rotary District 7500 Gift of Life Foundation 6 Casablanca Court Toms River, NJ 08753 Or e-mail us at giftoflifeinfo@forkedriverrotary.org
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