District Governor Deborah Walters speaks to Auburn-Lewiston Rotary Breakfast Club
On Wednesday September 21st the club was honored to have a visit from current District governor Deborah Walters, Ph.D. Her presentation included comments about this years theme. RI President Kalyan Banerjee from India’s Theme is: “Reach within to embrace humanity”. The following includes excerpts from her talk.
We can think of this logo as three levels that correspond to the three priorities of the RI strategic plan. These we can express simply as: Be it. Do it. and Tell it.
Start at the inner level, the heart of Rotary. Be strong clubs with engaged Rotarians. President Kalyan Banerjee asks us to think about continuity and change. Keep doing those things in our clubs that make us strong, and be open to change in ways that will make our clubs even better.
The heart opens to the next level. Do it. Do the service that is the essence of Rotary, and..
The last level is fully open. Tell it. Tell our Rotary story to others. The more we share our Rotary story, the more we will inspire others to join us in our service, and the more we can do to change our communities and the world.
She then continued by explaining this year’s There are two parts to the district project, and both are part of a larger multiyear program. The first is bringing clean water and improved sanitation to a village, and we have already submitted a global grant for that part. The second will be building a school, working with CRCID. There are two communities that need a new school and a brief description was provided on the communities. After DG Walters has met with all the clubs in the district she will announce which community was selected by the majority of the clubs. This portion will start after we have raised the money from the clubs. Because of matching from the Rotary Foundation and CRCID, and additional contributions from other sources, every dollar that your club contributes to this year's district project will become $5.51. I love Rotary math were 1 plus 1 equals 5.51.
The first part of the district project is a clean water and sanitation project in the mountains of Guatemala. We have been organizing this project over the past year, and have visited the village of Chipastor twice. We travelled for hours on dirt roads to get to the village. This is in the mountains, and there is no flat land, so the houses are built along ridges. There is no water in the village. The women and children carry water up a dirt road to the village. It is a 30 minute walk each way, and they have to make three trips a day. The jugs are heavy! And this is only the small jug that the children carry. The water source is the river, down in the valley. It runs through a boulder field from a recent flood. The river is so polluted the fish have died. Just upstream the women were washing their clothes. The water does not even look clean, but I watched as a mother scooped up the water in a plastic coke bottle and gave it to her toddler to drink
They asked me to join a village meeting under a tree to talk about their water problem. The women told about their struggles to collect water, and asked for our help. The village has been working hard for several years to find a solution to their water problem. They showed their plan. They have purchased land with a spring 7 km above the village. Land has been donated for a distribution tank. They will provide the labor themselves. They just need the money for pipes, cement, bricks, etc.
An invitation from DG Walters was given to join her for a service trip to Guatemala as we partner with the people of Chipastor to fulfill their dream of clean water and sanitation.
The money the Rotary Foundation provides us for our international and our local projects, is the money we have given them three years ago. So the more money we donate to the Rotary Foundation now, the more money we will have back from them to do projects three years from now.
We can imagine our giving as climbing a Rotary Foundation Giving Ladder. The first basic step is to make any size donation. The next step is to be a sustaining member, where you give $100 every year. The third rung is being a Paul Harris Fellow. Next we have Benefactor, Bequest Society, Major Donor, and Arch Klumph Society. It is not so important how much you give, but that you get on the ladder and move up from where you are. But before I can ask you to that, I had to do it myself. I already was a sustaining member, PHF and a benefactor. I have no pension and live frugally on income from my investments, and have no money to spare, so what could I do? Fortunately, I am going to die someday. So my options were to leave something to the Rotary Foundation in my will, or to give some money to the Rotary Foundation now, and then they give me the income from it for life. So I decided to become a major donor, and not only was it painless – it turned out to be a sound financial investment for me and helps Rotary as well.
So please join me in challenging yourself to move up the ladder, and if you are not on the ladder yet – it is easy to get on the ladder with a small gift to the Rotary Foundation
Now how about that third focus – Tell it. Just because we know that we do great work in Rotary and have fun doing it, does that mean that others know what we do? Not so much. I heard someone talk about Rotary – Isn't that a group of old people – and their parents? Ouch. But what about the people in developing countries? What do they say about Rotary? Well, let me tell you a story.
I was flying back from Guatemala last year, and sat next to a Mayan woman, in her colorful traditional clothing. When the stewardess handed out the customs forms, the Mayan woman looked at the person next to her, and then looked at me, and asked me to help her fill out the form. She gave me her passport and a little slip of paper with the address of her son she was visiting in Texas, and I filled it out. Then I gave it to her to sign. And she said – “No, I don't know how to sign my name.” What should I do? I knew the immigration agents could be difficult, so I wrote her name, and then under it put signed by Deb Walters. Then I asked her, would you like to learn to write your name? Her face lit up! So I got out a pad of paper and a pen. I suggested she learn her first name and last name. She said “No, all four names”. And they were all long names. So I wrote them out in block letters, and she copied them. At first she couldn't keep track of the order of the letters, and was painfully slow in drawing each letter. But she spent the entire flight copying, and by the end she could write her name! She turned to me and said, “Thank you so much. No one has ever given me such a wonderful gift – knowing how to sign my name.” I was very touched, but I was also curious. So I asked her: “Why did you ask me to help you, with my poor Spanish, when the person sitting on your other side speaks Spanish so well?” She smiled and pointed to my lapel, and said. “I saw your Rotary pin, so I knew you would help.” For so many people in the developing world, they know what Rotary does. For them, when they look for the light at the end of the tunnel, it isn't a star they see – it's the Rotary wheel.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if more people in Quebec and Maine would see the Rotary wheel and know what we do?
This year, to help us tell our Rotary story, we will join with neighboring districts for a large public relations grant from RI. This is another case of Rotary math, where each dollar we contribute will become $4.20. Did I mention I love Rotary math!
I also want to extend a personal invitation to our district conference to be held on the coast of Maine, June 1-3, 2012. We will be meeting at Point Lookout, a deluxe resort on the top of a small mountain right on the coast, between Camden and Belfast. We have negotiated a great rate, so that this year's district conference will be affordable and family friendly. We will have inspiring speakers, and roundtable workshops where you will share your Rotary ideas, and learn from other clubs. I do hope you will come join us!
So I ask you to: Be it! Do It! and Tell it!
I ask you to Reach within to Embrace Humanity!
Finally, there are many disadvantaged children and families in our communities and around the world.
At this very moment, many of them are standing at the edge of all of the light that they know....staring out into the darkness. Looking for the light at the end of the tunnel.
Many of them have exhausted every possible avenue of hope...
… and their only hope might be you.
If you do everything you can to have the best Rotary year you can...
...you might light the candle that will pierce their darkness.
If you do that...there may be a child or a family alive on June 30, 2012 who otherwise might not be.
I ask you to light as many candles as you can.
I ask you to reach within and embrace humanity.