When we moved to Denver we didn’t know anyone. Spencer joined the local Rotary Club of Highlands Ranch to meet people. After a few months he brought me as a guest to one of their meetings. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming, but there was a part of me that felt I didn’t belong. There were many business men and women and I was wondering how I would fit in. But then the meeting started and I began to see that that wasn’t the point at all.

 

The Community chair got up and sent around clipboards to each table, each one was a volunteer event and you could sign up to help. Well, this was a life changing moment for me! There were opportunities to sort medical equipment for Project CURE, sort food at the local Food Bank, put together backpacks for school children, distributing dictionaries to 3^rd graders. I put my name on every clipboard.

 

 I quickly realized that Rotary is an ideal mix of neighbors who are also community leaders with integrity, purpose, and experience. , around the world, across every continent there are Rotary meetings taking place.  There are breakfast meetings, cocktail meetings, meetings in 5 star hotels , meetings in warehouses and and meetings on ships.  Even meetings on the internet! I get goosebumps when I think that I am connected to 1.2 million people who have the same values, and commitment to improving our communities. The club is the heart of Rotary;  all that is done in Rotary starts  in a club.

 

Each week I come to our meetings and I see people wanting to do good things in the community, I always leave feeling so happy, I leave knowing there are really good people who come together to use their strengths to create lasting change and improve the lives of others around the world. This is what Inspires me to reach for more.

All the speakers talked about how Rotary has changed peoples lives, is changing and will continue to change peoples lives around the world.

Helen Clark, former PM of NZ talked about gender equality and the crucial link between environment, poverty, hunger and peace.

 

Her Royal Highness Princess Anne, who by the way, is an Honorary Member of the Rotary Club of Elgin, and president of Save the Children UK, expressed her thanks to Rotary for taking a central role in working to eradicate Polio. She said that Rotary, with its “astonishing global reach,” and its extensive understanding of cultures and languages, and its members’ “endearing habit of leaving their egos at the door,” the organization ingeniously overcame obstacles that baffled others. In doing so, Rotary, along with its partners, has brought polio nearly to full global eradication. 

 

Via video, Hatian President Jack Guy Lafontant announced the creation of HANWASH. A collaboration between Rotary and the Haitian Governments water agency with a goal of everyone in Haiti having clean water and improved sanitation by 2030!

 

PM Justin Trudeau accepted Rotary’s Polio Eradication champion award. In 2017 it was announced that Canada will contribute $100 million over three years to the Global Polio Eradication Initiatives’ Endgame Strategic Plan, which seeks to wipe polio out for good by 2020. Canada had already delivered on its pledge.

 

John Hewko, Rotary’s general secretary and Caryl Stern, president and CEO of UNICEF USA told powerful personal stories. Both had parents who fled Europe as refugees during the war. John said that there are 34,000 people fleeing violent conflicts every day who have to leave everything behind. Although Rotary has done so much in our first century, there’s still much more to be done about the challenges that mankind still faces — especially in the area of peace and conflict resolution —He said Rotarians all need to be bold and think differently about the future — allow new club models to flourish, bring new ideas to the table, open our arms to younger generations who also believe in Service Above Self.

 

Marie Paule Attema, whose family fled from genocide in Rwanda in 1994 to Canada. She said special people who aided her family helped her shift from, “Why me?” to “Why not me?” She is currently completing a Rotary Peace Fellowship in Brisbane, Australia. She talked about a teacher in her first Canadian School who didn’t give up on her and encouraged her to talk about her anger and survivor’s guilt.  According to her the beautiful thing about Rotary is that it is an organization of individuals who strive to make a difference.

 

 

And finally..........I asked RI President to sign my banner.......