Happy Holidays, All
Best of the Holiday Season to all from Team Miss Vicky!
Many have asked how our 1931 Model A is doing after the misfortune of an engine failure. Enroute to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, last Fall and just 10 miles short of the Canadian border, a brand new (but flawed) piston came apart, leading to a rather abrupt halt to further travel! The good news is that repairs are coming together nicely with the goal of making exhaust just after the Christmas Holiday. After a successful thousand or so break-in miles, we intend to restart the Edmonton Adventure on the 12th of January so that Miss Vicky (and drivers) can attend their first ever hockey game experience at the Oilers Game for PolioPlus on Saturday, January 17th. From there, Fort McMurray, Yellowknife, Harrison Hot Springs, Whitehorse… and Lloydminster(!), are in our sights.
Many folks have also asked: “Why are you tormenting a 94 year old automobile (and yourselves!) with a 700 mile journey to Edmonton in the dead of winter?” The answer for us in the Miss Vicky is simple: just like completing the 10,000 mile Peking-to-Paris Endurance Rally, then rallying 7,500 miles from Anchorage to Cabo San Lucas, we wish to prove that difficult things can be accomplished… even ridding the world of the polio scourge, once and for all.
Winston and I have presented the Miss Vicky Challenge for PolioPlus to many, many Rotary Clubs north and south of our common border. We’ve discovered that fully two thirds of those attending have no, or very limited, appreciation of the forty one year history of Rotary’s signature project known as PolioPlus. The Miss Vicky Challenge and Rotary’s PolioPlus quest is indeed like climbing a mountain: the closer to the summit, the steeper the climb and the closer the possibility (or likelihood?) of failing to achieve the goal. In the twenty five minutes of a typical Rotary presentation, we emphasize the history, some science and the consequences of failing to reach the summit. Therefore, the challenge for Miss Vicky is ultimately to educate, motivate and incentivize fellow Rotarians to continue, step by step, our mutual journey to the summit of a very high mountain: a polio-free world. Join us in January as we restart our journey to “Mount Edmonton” by continuing to contribute generously to The Miss Vicky 2026 Challenge for PolioPlus. This link takes you directly to the Miss Vicky raise.rotary.org website.
Happy Holidays, Lee and Winston