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Foundation Newsletter

Dear Rotary Colleagues:

We are – right now – in the worst worldwide financial crisis since the great depression.  If we (the business, professional and community leaders) are hurting, think of what is happening to others.  November is Rotary Foundation month and this year it is not only important but necessary to dig deeper to help.  Support Our Foundation!

Peace and human rights advocate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu is to be the keynote speaker at the Rotary World Peace Symposium in Birmingham, UK.  Pleas e see pages 10-16.
We are sharing a late breaking addition to the article on page 20.  This economy is affecting all – both rich and poor and Pepsico had to reduce the amount of funding likely to be made available to WASRAG.

Group Study Exchange (GSE) is a Rotary Foundation program, which enables Rotarians to Advance World Understanding, Goodwill and Peace. Please read a heartfelt article (“I learned we are all citizens of the world”), written by a GSE team member from Colombia on pages 34-35.

It seems that this newsletter has grown into magazine size — please don’t be put off  — for the typesetting is large, the articles are brief and there is lots of open space.  Enjoy!
Click here:  http://www.rotaryfirst100.org/foundation/newsletter/index.htm
Then please click on the DECEMBER 2008 issue.

Please pass this FOUNDATION NEWSLETTER onward to your clubs, districts and zones.

Very truly yours,
Eddie

Dr. Edward Blender,
Editor, Our Foundation Newsletter
Chair:  Rotary Centers Major Gifts Initiative
CIO: Disaster Relief Rotarian Action Group
Health and Hunger Resource Group 2006-2009
EBlender@aol.com

Why am I a Rotarian? – Trevor Wilkins, PP Rotary Club of Cape Town RSA

It is when you stand at the airport waiting to meet you wife – there is a tap on your shoulder and a person neatly dressed in a suit with a great warm smile on his face greets you…….Wow! but a few years ago he was a gangster in a squatter camp and now through a development pro gramme initiated by myself he is in a stable job and a proud youngster…

It is when you spend time with disadvantaged young people who have just completed a sailing circumnavigation of Africa….all these youngsters from disadvantaged communities…and you learn of their progress and development.

It’s the time when one has nurtured a young girl who lost her father and had no money for university – the moment when she graduates as a doctor, is invited to dinner and meets her benefactor, an old Rotarian, over 90 who she had been caring for and never known that he was the Rotarian who had sponsored her.

Its when you switch on the TV and there in your lounge is the smiling face of a young girl who came from a iron shack with no electricity, water, sanitation …with a candle to study and a wet floor in the winter…a person who we as Rotarians took by the hand and walked with. She blossomed, completed her education and today is a South African presenter for major sports events – even the Olympics were covered by her.

It is the years of working with young folk on youth exchange and the post graduates from the Ambassadorial Scholarship programme – then the time when you meet them after they have returned, settled down and are now contributing to their own community when you share once again in their formative experiences for which Rotary has made so much of a difference in their lives.

These and the working with families in the squatter camps are the “return on the sweat equity investments” that recharge my batteries and keep me going. Thank you Rotary!

Trevor Wilkins
PP Rotary Club of Cape Town RSA

Why one member joined Rotary

When I went to my first Rotary lunch in 2001, my host asked me to join but couldn’t give me too many details about what exactly Rotary was so I went home and looked it up on the internet.

Reading the mission statement, the object of Rotary, the Four Way Test and what Rotary was doing around the world grabbed me and said, “This is you, this is what you’ve been looking for all your life, you have to be a part of this, these people think the same way you do.”

I never knew there was an organization like Rotary that believed in serving others, working together across borders and cultures; all the things that I held so dearly. I immediately called my sponsor and said, “Yes, I can’t wait, I want to be part of Rotary!”

In the past six years I have never been disappointed. Rotary is everything it claimed to be and more. I have found the best of friends, both in my community, across the U.S. and internationally.

My family has jumped right in with me; my oldest daughter is Past President of our Interact Club and helped start an EarlyAct Club at my youngest daughter’s school so she too could be involved.

All of us traveled to the Chicago convention where we met so many people who believe in Service above Self. Our family has visited an orphanage in Mexico and delivered school supplies, books and games, sundries and food.

We have been warmly welcomed in Rotary Clubs in other cities during our travels. We have painted purple pinkies and given away dictionaries and Thanksgiving food baskets; we have done RYLA, assemblies, and conventions. We are living the family of Rotary and couldn’t be happier!

SANDY FLECK,
Twentynine Palms, CA Rotary Club – District 5330
Secretary, 2002-2004
President, 2005-2006
Assistant Governor, 2006-2007

What Arch Klumph Said…

“There are tens of thousands of Rotarians who will look upon this opportunity (to build the Rotary Foundation) as a real privilege, men who feel that Rotary has done much for them, who sincerely believe in its purposes and objects. Then there are other men who are seeking ways and means of leaving some part of their wealth where it may do the greatest good for humanity.

What better equipped organization or institution than Rotary International can be found to be entrusted with such funds?”

What Paul Harris Said…

“There is a growing number of men (and women), however, who possess sufficient character to enable them to master their own destinies, to turn abruptly in their tracks when the time comes to give up the pursuit of the almighty dollar and devote themselves to their second business: attention to the world’s needs. The larger this number becomes the easier it will be for others to follow. The progress of civilization depends upon these men (and women) of character.”

Paul P Harris’ message to the RI Convention in Los Angeles 1922
read more here  http://www.rotaryfirst100.org/presidents/conventions/1922/index.htm

Why Join Rotary?