Club Rotario Centenaria Selflessly Serves Ensenada Communities
text & photos by connie ellig
first published in baja times newspaper

Rotary clubs are comprised of business and professional leaders whose goal is to improve their local community and build world peace and understanding by partnering with clubs in other countries. The purpose of a Rotary club is to initiate projects that deal with humanitarian concerns like education and literacy, health care, poverty and hunger, environmental improvement, and the plight of children at risk and disabled persons. Clubs are encouraged to seek out the most critical needs in their own communities that are not being addressed, and then to fill that gap.

In the mid-1980s, Ensenada’s Club Rotario Centenaria saw a need for professional medical treatment for underprivileged children with cleft palates and craniofacial deformities. Seeking help in forming a field surgical clinic at the Cruz Roja (Red Cross) Hospital in Ensenada, the club approached Thousand Smiles Foundation, a non-profit organization conceived in 1985 by a group of Rotarians from the San Diego area who were involved in a cleft palate surgery project. The response from Thousand Smiles Foundation was positive and ever since 1988, Club Rotario Centenaria has been hosting free Thousand Smiles clinics every year on the first Friday of February, May, August and November. By scheduling the clinics on a regular basis, Thousand Smiles is able to take a long-term approach to patient treatment by providing proper follow-up and care. In 2002, the Foundation acquired a permanent locale on Av. Mexico near Av. Diamante where exams and minor operations are now conducted on Friday. Major surgeries take place on Saturday at Ensenada’s General Hospital.

At the Thousand Smiles clinic held on May 6 & 7, 2005, the field surgical team consisted of 100-150 volunteers from Ensenada and all parts of the United States, and included surgeons, anesthesiologists, dentists, orthodontists, dental assistants, audiologists, speech pathologists, nurses, interpreters and support staff. Approximately one third were Rotarians representing nearly a dozen Rotary Clubs. The joint effort also involved volunteers from two Ensenada service clubs – Compañeros de Baja Norte and La Sociedad de Vecinos de Punta Banda – who furnished snacks and lunches each day for the Thousand Smiles team.

During the two-day period, Thousand Smiles Foundation saw nearly 150 patients between the ages of 3 months and 18 years for treatments and follow-up care, and performed approximately 200 dental, prosthetic and orthodontic procedures and almost a dozen major surgeries. An estimated total value of the weekend’s procedures, operations and professional services would be in the tens of thousands of dollars, but everything is provided free of charge to needy children with maxillofacial deformities that would otherwise go untreated. Because of Rotary partnerships on both sides of the border, Thousand Smiles Foundation has been able to affect the lives of Ensenada’s children, “making a difference one smile at a time.” For more information about Thousand Smiles Foundation (“Fundación Mil Sonrisas”), call U.S. tel. (619)470-2885.

In addition to hosting the Thousand Smiles clinics, Club Rotario Centenaria has been consistently active in numerous other community projects throughout the years. Most recently, the club delivered 620 packages containing staple foods and a blanket to families and elderly people in Ensenada’s poorest neighborhoods on January 6, Mexico’s Día de los Santo Reyes. Last September, the club provided 650 individual packets of school supplies to students at two elementary schools in El Zorillo and Valle de Trinidad.

Club Rotario Centenaria has working relationships with nearly a dozen Rotary Clubs in Central and Southern California. In September 2004, the Pasadena Sunrise Rotarians donated two surplus ambulances to Club Rotario Centenaria that they presented to the Cruz Roja in Valle de Guadalupe and to Ensenada’s General Hospital. In turn, the General Hospital donated one of its older ambulances to the community of Ejido Eréndira, 45 miles south of Ensenada.

One of Club Rotario Centenaria’s main projects for 2005 is to provide fully functional restrooms for twelve schools in Ensenada’s rural areas. Presently students are forced to use substandard sanitary facilities with no running water that are little more than outhouses. Another of the club’s current projects is to furnish a library and computer room for a “Plaza Comunitaria” in Ensenada’s Colonia 89, located near Zamora Dam. The building for the community plaza will be supplied by the city government, which also will provide a literacy program.

Club Rotario Centenaria is well known throughout Ensenada for its creative, fun-filled annual fundraising events. In June the club presents its annual “Casino Night” fundraiser with roulette, black jack and prizes in the Salón Casino of Ensenada’s Riviera Cultural Center. Every September the club sponsors a “Festival Taurino” with bullfights, live entertainment, food and wine at L.A. Cetto Winery in Valle de Guadalupe. In November, the club organizes a “Noche Bohemia” at Hussong’s Cantina that features diverse musicians and entertainers. Admission donations directly benefit the club’s current projects.

Formed in 1982, the year of Ensenada’s centennial, Club Rotario Centenaria is the second oldest of Ensenada’s four Rotary Clubs. It is comprised of 41 local businessmen between the ages of 35 and 70, of which approximately 90% are bilingual. The club meets every Wednesday at 8pm in the Salón Rosas of San Nicolás Resort Hotel on Av. Lopez Mateos & Guadalupe. The public is welcome to attend.

For more than two decades, Club Rotario Centenaria has been instrumental in serving the needs of Ensenada and its communities. For additional information about the club or tickets to its events, contact 2005-2006 International Service Chairman Lou Hernandez at (646)177-4987 or e-mail José Antonio Borbolla.

Born in England, Claire Millward was a twentieth century Renaissance woman, pursuing and excelling in multiple capacities and careers. She began as a flight attendant and later studied nursing. She married Bob Millward, living in England, Germany and then the United States. In Southern California, Claire worked at an Alzheimer’s facility in Imperial Beach for 20 years, at the Police Academy in El Cajon for 10 years, at the San Diego probation academy for 7 years, and also counseled pregnant women and drug addicts at the San Diego Police Academy. In Baja California, she attended the University of Tijuana Medical School for 5 years, and also worked at the Cruz Roja (Red Cross) in Ensenada for 16 years as a paramedic, riding in the ambulances.

In 1986, Claire helped to found the Thousand Smiles Foundation, which provides cleft lip/palate surgery and dental services for needy children in Ensenada in conjunction with Ensenada’s Club Rotario Centenaria. Claire was not just a nurse; she wore many hats. She was also an administrator and a liaison between the hospital, patients, volunteers and Rotary Club members. Her commitment and dedication to the program meant many long hours of hard work, always with a smile on her face and a kind word for all, both in Spanish and English. She had a talent for finding much-needed donations, and bringing people from all walks of life together for the greater good of the children. She helped to establish a second cleft palate surgery clinic in Juarez, Mexico, working there, in addition to Ensenada, for several years.

Claire had a zest for life that included animals of all kinds. She lived with her “family” that was comprised of a golden retriever, three Siamese cats and three birds. She routinely became the best friend of every friend she made in life, both human and animal, and would just as easily stop on the street to help a stray dog as a homeless woman.

In 2002, Claire was made an honorary Rotarian by the National City Rotary club and was recently made a member of the Paul Harris Society by the Auburn Gold Country Rotary club in recognition of her dedication and hard work on behalf of needy children. The Chula Vista Rotary club and Ensenada’s Club Rotario Centenaria have also honored her accomplishments.

Claire Millward will not only be missed by the Thousand Smiles Foundation, but also by those whose lives she has touched on both sides of the border. In lieu of flowers, her wish was that donations be made in her name to Thousand Smiles Foundation, 5261 Central Ave., Bonita, CA 91902, tel. (619) 470-2885 or donate online.

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