Bill MacKay introduced today's speaker, Adam Frisk. In February, Bill was going through some of his Rotary items collected over the last 42 years. As part of that collection was a CD of a documentary that was created by today’s guest speaker. Bill remembered the luncheon that Adam made a presentation to our club back in 2002, and thought, “I wonder what happened to him and where is he? What impact did his going to Cameroon for a Rotary National Immunization Day have on him and his view on immunization now that we have spent the last two plus years in a pandemic? And why won’t this CD from 20 years ago not allow me to retrieve the file?” A quick Google search soon revealed that Adam Frisk was working at CTV News, a network he had joined 2019, and that he was a national online journalist at Global News for more than seven years prior to that, specializing in covering breaking news and trending content, and worked in newsrooms at canada.com and canoe.ca. At CTV News, Adam is a generalist who works closely with local newsrooms across the country while focusing on bringing great, hyper-local stories to a national audience. Adam studied commercial photography at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ont., before earning a photojournalism diploma and a post graduate diploma in online journalism from Loyalist College. A passionate photographer, Adam’s photographs, syndicated by Splash News, have appeared in print and on websites around the world, including People, US Weekly, Hello! Canada and TMZ. As we recognize World Immunization Week, please welcome Adam Frisk to our meeting today.
Adam thanked the Club and in particular, Bill MacKay, for inviting him to speak to the Rotary Club about his experiences twenty years ago when he participated in World Immunization Week in Cameroon, West Africa, a ten day trip where he visited with other volunteers, six villages to administer two drops of the polio vaccine in a child's mouth. It changed his life. While there he met many Rotarians from around the world, all participating in the goal to eradicate polio worldwide. Rotary launched Polio Plus in 1985 and since then more than 2.5 billion children have received the oral polio vaccine. Polio cases are down 99% worldwide. Adam will be forever grateful that he had an opportunity to see first hand the far reaching impact Rotary had in eradicating polio and protecting a child for life, bringing hope to Cameroon.
Having gone through a serious health issue himself, Adam is very thankful for the skill and expertise of surgeons and medical staff who supported him through his ordeal in the middle of the pandemic and feels there is a connection to his experience twenty years ago to his more recent health scare. He is convinced that vaccines work because he has seen the effect in West Africa through to the outbreak of COVID worldwide. Adam shared a video of an interview he did with a Rotarian from Syracuse, New York, a polio survivor.
Dianne Spencer thanked Adam for his willingness 20 years ago to participate in World Immunization Week at personal risk, to document his experience and share with our Club and others. Definitely making an impact on so many, many people.