Events - Edwin Velarde selected to participate in the Tournament Rose Parade
Posted by Walter Stephens
Edwin A. Velarde, a proud member of Rotary Club of Westlake Village since 1994 where he served as President in 2012-2013, has been selected to represent District 5240 in this year’s Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena. Edwin will ride on the Rotary Rose Parade Float with the theme of Changing Lives Through Clean Water.
Partnering with Rotary Club of Makati South, Velarde developed “Water for Life and Health in Marinduque Island”. Coordinating with the local government and engaging local Filipino workers, this project provides clean water access to hundreds of poor families in 8 villages in Marinduque Island and 4 villages in Pampanga Province. Waterborne diseases are now being prevented from infecting many families and young children improving the quality of their lives and their health.
Velarde developed and managed Rotary humanitarian projects in the Philippines. “Changing Lives through Wheelchairs” providing mobility for the physically challenged and “Investment for the Future” that helped a super-typhoon damaged school by providing math, science & technical books, a computer lab and latrines.
In cooperation with Rotary Club of Westlake Village and the City of Westlake Village, for 5 years Velarde is the organizer of Run/Walk for Global Clean Water in Westlake Village, California, creating awareness on the global water crisis in the community and helped support Rotary clean water projects in countries such as Thailand and Honduras.
Rotary Rose Parade Float Committee Tournament of Roses Float Entry
This year the Rotary Rose Parade Float Committee’s entry into the 2015 Tournament of Roses parade focuses on our projects that give communities the ability to develop and maintain sustainable water and sanitation systems and support studies related to water and sanitation.
For millions of people throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America, getting clean water is a daily struggle. In fact, more than 80% of all sickness in the world is attributed to unsafe water. Nearly 1 billion people are without access to improved water sources and every 8 seconds, a child dies because of this crisis. Rotary Club members join together to provide clean water and sanitation to literally save lives!
The need is significant: Proper hand washing with soap and water can reduce diarrhea cases by up to 50 percent. 783 million people don’t have clean drinking water. Six hours per day is spent by women in some rural parts of Africa collecting water from a remote source.
Primary activities undertaken by Rotary Clubs seek to: Improve sanitation facilities by providing toilets and latrines that flush into a sewer or safe enclosure; Promote good hygiene habits through education; Implement rain water harvesting systems to collect and store rainwater for drinking or recharging underground aquifers; and, Build wells to extract groundwater from underground aquifers.