Bill Patchett, a 16-year Rotarian, was voted District Governor recently at the Rotary International Convention.

Mr. Patchett says he received 100 per cent support from the Cobourg Rotary Club for the position.

"I am quite thrilled and pleased to be able to represent district 7070," says Mr. Patchett, a Cobourg businessman.

The last district governor from Cobourg, Dr. Bob Scott, went on to be a vice-president of Rotary International and chairman of the Polio Advocacy Committee. Presently he is an incoming trustee of the Rotary Foundation.

"It is quite an honour to have a governor in your club," says Mr. Patchett.

District 7070 stretches from Alliston in the west to Picton in the east.

As District Governor, Mr. Patchett will attend Rotary International's annual conference. He will also be visiting every club in the district and giving a 20-minute presentation about Rotary.

Most recently Rotary International has been actively involved in the eradication of polio worldwide, says Mr. Patchett. It is their hope, he says, to have polio eradicated by 2005.

In 1985, Rotary's members vowed to make the world polio-free. This 20-year commitment to end polio represents the largest private-sector support of a global health initiative to date, says Mr. Patchett.

With the help of hundreds of thousands of Rotary volunteers to promote and carry out national immunization days in polio-endemic countries, nearly two billion children worldwide have been immunized, according to Rotary International.

Today, there are only a few hundred polio cases worldwide, a 99.8 percent reduction since 1988, when polio paralyzed more than 350,000 children a year.

Another fund-raiser Rotary is undertaking is called Healthy Beginnings. The goal of this campaign is to raise money for children's literacy, feeding children in schools, and children's health.

Rotary will also be starting an AIDS campaign, says Mr. Patchett, where they hope to raise public awareness about the subject.

Throughout the world, Rotary International raises millions of dollars for the community. Rotary is an entirely volunteer-based organization, says Mr. Patchett, and every dime raised goes back into the community. Rotary makes no profit from the fund-raising, he says.

Mr. Patchett has been an avid volunteer in the community for many years.

Currently he is working on Northumberland MP Paul Macklin's fund-raising campaign to bring new doctors to the community and doing fund-raising for the Humane Society.

Most recently he chaired a fund-raising campaign for Northumberland Hills Hospital, Ontario's newest university, UOIT, and worked on the benefactor program in which people leave $1,000 to Rotary in their will when they die.