From the Damascus Gazette, Wednesday, October 19, 1994

Damascus Rotary Club
Raises Funds for Camp

by Jill Teunis, Staff Writer
Damascus Gazette

Left, Camp Friendship. Right, Carol Jean Foundation's Beverly Gough presents the Damascus Rotary Club with a statuette depicting an adult offering a child a helping hand.  (Damascus Rotary Club photos)

From the Wednesday, July 3, 1996 edition of the Damascus Gazette

Ukrainian Rotarians Stop Off in Damascus

by Jill Teunis, Staff Writer
Damascus Gazette

"

We had to overcome a lot of difficulties but someone gave [Mikhail] Gorbachev a Paul Harris Medal and he approved of the Rotary."

Alexei Kozhenken

July 3, 1996: A group of Rotarians and their wives from Ukraine were guests of the Damascus Rotary Club over the weekend. The Rotarians, who represented clubs in Kiev and Odessa, were on their way home after attending the annual Rotary International convention held in Calgary, Canada. (Story continued below photo caption.)

(Photo courtesy of Damascus Gazette)

Representatives of two Ukrainian Rotary Clubs enjoy the hospitality of the Damascus Rotary Club at a cookout. From left to right are Natalia Tkachenko, Yuri Volvach, Natalia Burlachenko, Igor Sergeyeva, Alexei Kozhenkin, Olga Sergeyeva, Georgi Kryuchkova and Irina Kryuchkova.

(Continued from above.) When Dan King of the Damascus Rotary Club visited the Kiev club in 1992, he began a link between the two clubs that has resulted in an exchange of information and donations of medical and dental supplies and expertise personally delivered by George Smerlis, a dentist in the Damascus club. King, Smerlis and other Damascus Rotary families hosted the Ukrainians in their homes over the weekend, forging another link between the clubs in the two countries.

Ukraine, once part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, gained its independence in 1991. A country the size of France with a population of some 52 million people, it is located in Eastern Europe north of the Black Sea. The capital city of Kiev is about 600 miles southwest of Moscow. Chernobyl, the site of the world's worst nuclear power plant disaster, is about 60 miles north of Kiev.

The Ukrainian visitors included Georgi Kryuchkov, a professor of French at the University of Kiev, and his wife Irina, who is a government economist. Kryuchov is the incoming president of the Kiev Rotary Club. "Rotary didn't exist in USSR," he said. "It can only exist in democratic countries. The first club in Ukraine was in Kiev in 1992. Now we have 14 clubs and several more ready to go."

The new president said his club's two top priority projects are Children of Chernobyl and Leaders of the 21st Century. The first program addresses the continued suffering among Ukrainian children following the nuclear disaster. The second supports an education program for international baccalaureate studies and promotes the study of English in Ukrainian high schools. English is considered to be the language of business an commerce.

Children born in Ukraine since the Chernobyl disaster have a disproportionate number of birth defects. Youngsters who were small children at the time of the disaster are now exhibiting a variety of radiation-related illnesses, including thyroid cancer.

"We help the children medically," Kryuchkov said. "And we send them to camp so they can rest."

According to the Ukrainian visitors, there is an urgent need for medicines, medical expertise and technology to help the victims of radioactive contamination. The Rotary program brings doctors to Ukraine to treat the children and also sends them to other countries for treatment not available in their homeland.

Alexei Kozhenkin, the outgoing president and a charter member of the Kiev club, said he first learned of the Rotary organization during a trip to Seattle in 1990 to pick up relief supplies for the children of Chernobyl collected by the US-Ukrainian community. He was accompanied by Vladimir Kulick, who went on to become charter president of the Kiev club. A chance conversation brought the two in contact with the Linwood Rotary Club in a Seattle suburb.

"The Linwood club was one of our sponsors," he said. "We had to overcome a lot of difficulties but someone gave (Mikhail) Gorbachev a Paul Harris Medal and he approved of Rotary. The first club was in Moscow, the second in St. Petersburg, the next in Irkutsk and we were the fourth." The medal is named after Paul P. Harris who founded Rotary International in 1905.

Kozhenkin, who is a partner in a high technology consulting firm, said Rotary International was also initially opposed to Kiev having a club, but with the help of the Linwood club along with clubs in .Shrewsbury, Mass., Clarkston, Mo., Toronto and Vancouver, Canada, and Edinburgh, Scotland, the Kiev club was established.

The club holds weekly dinner meetings and has 55 members.

Next to Hungary, Ukraine is the fastest growing home to new Rotary clubs in the world, with 14 clubs formed since 1992 and several more groups ready to become established.

Rotary International, which has a pledged to eliminate polio throughout the world, has just approved a $500,000 grant to the Rotary Clubs in Ukraine to finance a vaccination program that would immunize four million children against the crippling disease. Last year 34 cases of polio were reported in the country.

(See related story below.)

Dan King's 1992 Visit To Ukraine Repaid

		May 27, 1996: Dr. Helen Sokol (right) and Mrs. Katalyia Piroxhok, translator, arrived in Damascus.  Helen was Dan and Daria King's dentist host in Ukraine and shared her clinic and her family with them. Natalyia, a.k.a. Natasha, was their translator. She took them everywhere and explained everything. She even took them home to meet her family! Since the Kings' return they have enjoyed faxes, letters and phone calls with both Helen and Natalyia. Helen and Natalyia came to Rotary three days later. We had a great turnout to greet and meet these delightful people.
The club also arranged a variety of experiences for them — tours of Washington, Baltimore, the University of Maryland Dental School and, of course, observing dental work in George Smerlis's office. Back to Top

From the Wednesday, October 4, 1995, Damascus Gazette

Damascus Rotary nets $10,000 for charity by Jill Teunis, Staff Writer Damascus Gazette October 4, 1995: — It was one of this year's rarities — a wet day. But despite the persistent rain the ninth annual Damascus Rotary Club golf tournament held on Sept. 26 was one of the most successful ever, according to Mike Potter, who headed up the organizing committee. "We had 70 golfers show up in terrible conditions," he said. "The staff at Little Bennett golf course were wonderful. They gave the most extraordinary care and service. We really appreciate all they did for us."		Robert Burton of Mount Airy sinks a putt at Little Bennett Golf Course Photo: Brian Lewis, courtesy of Damascus Gazette
Potter said he expects the final totals to be more than $10,000, which will go to the Carol Jean Cancer Camp and to other local charities and groups supported by the Damascus Rotary Club. He said one of the reasons for the continuing success of the golf tournament is the generous support of Damascus area businesses. "We really want to thank them all," he said. "And we want to thank the participants and the volunteers who braved the elements to be a part of this event." Low gross winner was Bill Harrison with 75. Second with 77 was Nick Myer. Eric Gregson won the low net, with second place going to Mike Potter. Roy Green won the trip to Ocean City and Jerome Wilcom won the custom-made driver.

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