Posted by Jo Holt
It was an action-packed meeting of the Rotary Club of Marana this morning! We’re always excited to have guests, and today we were joined by Aleta Weiner, Pres of the Dove Mountain Rotary Club, David Romero, Associate Principal of Tortolita Middle School, and our speaker, Dr. Aminata Kilungo. We were also joined by honorary member Kathleen Neighbors, director of the Tortolita Interact Club. Club President Mary Straus thanked John Dooling for arranging a grant from the Allstate Insurance Foundation to the Marana Rotary Club Foundation for $1000, and noted that Allstate makes a 15% match to John’s donations to the Club Foundation as well.
 
A very special event this morning was the induction of a new member, Mr. Joseph Farr from Bank of the West. Joseph has been in the banking industry for 13 years and has always enjoyed being engaged in community service activities. He is currently involved in the Bank of the West’s financial literacy program for first through sixth grades. His next program is coming up this May. Welcome to the Club, Joseph!
 
Our speaker, Dr. Aminata Kilungo, is a lecturer in the College of Public Health at the University of Arizona. She also works with SERI, the Sonora Environmental Research Institute. She spoke to us about the desperate need for latrine installations in Tanzania due to continuous outbreaks of cholera. Although construction of toilets is fundamentally important, the villages must have safe water! In addition to training communities in water filtration methods, an emphasis has been placed on digging wells and particularly on harvesting rainwater. Dr. Kilungo pointed out that similar situations exist along the US/Mexico border. We thank her for an excellent presentation and for her hard work!