[D9640general] [eFlash_Rotary] Digest Number 677

[Garry & Anne Krischock]

  Messages In This Digest (3 Messages) 
  1. 1318: In Salt Lake City, a convention of firsts From: Sunil K Zachariah 

  2. 1319: Gates asks Rotarians to think big and reach out to global neig From: Sunil K Zachariah 

  3. 1320: Final plenary inspires Rotarians to serve From: Sunil K Zachariah 
Messages 
  1. 1318: In Salt Lake City, a convention of firsts 
Posted by: "Sunil K Zachariah" sunilkzach at yahoo.co.uk   sunilkzach 
Thu Jun 21, 2007 5:29 pm (PST) 
In Salt Lake City, a convention of firsts

By Marla Donato and Ryan Hyland

Salt Lake City - The 2007 RI Convention in Salt Lake City drew to a 
close 20 June, capping off a four-day celebration of the many faces 
of Rotary service, from peacemaking to grassroots projects to 
international friendship. 

Calling it the "single most important thing you can do to ensure 
Rotary's second century," incoming RI President Wilfrid J. Wilkinson 
sent RI convention-goers home on Wednesday with a directive to "found 
new clubs wherever the soil is fertile."

"Without new members, nothing else matters," he said during the 
closing plenary. "It will only take a few decades for Rotary to 
disappear." 

The largest convention ever to be held in Salt Lake City, the event 
drew more than 16,500 Rotarians from 147 nations, some from as far 
away as Katmandu, Nepal. 

The first RI convention in Utah since 1919 was also the site of 
several other Rotary firsts: the Rotary Foundation's first-ever 100% 
Major Donor Club and the first Rotary World Peace Symposium, held 
just before the convention. 

Peace was also a theme in the House of Friendship, where a 16x32 
foot "Peace Wall," inspired by the fallen Berlin Wall, was erected. 
Attendees of all ages painted a kaleidoscope of colorful messages of 
peace on the wall and received friendship passports. 

Rotary Foundation alumni who now work as diplomats played a prominent 
role at the event. Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Philip 
Lader was awarded the Foundation's highest alumni honor, the Global 
Service to Humanity Award. And Francis Moloi, a South African 
ambassador to India, who also spoke during a convention plenary 
session, credited his Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship with opening 
his eyes to a new world of possibilities. 

Inside the Salt Palace Convention Center, the House of Friendship 
provided a forum for fellowships, action groups, and project booths, 
while outside, the Rocky Mountains served as a scenic backdrop to the 
American western-themed convention that featured a rodeo, dances by 
Native Americans, and lots of homegrown hospitality. 

Trustee Chair Luis V. Giay joined RI President William B. Boyd to 
present the Polio Eradication Champion Award to William Gates Sr., 
the keynote speaker at the third plenary. Gates co-chairs the Bill & 
Melinda Gates Foundation, which has been a major ally in fighting 
polio alongside Rotary and its partners, contributing US$150 million 
to the polio eradication effort. 

Emine Yüzay, a young woman from Turkey who learned as a teen to read 
through a Rotary-sponsored Concentrated Language Encounter program, 
drew applause during the final plenary when she recounted how after 
she delved into the world of books, she laughed and cried and felt as 
if "books are like an ocean and I am in a small boat in the middle of 
it floating in all directions." Yüzay, who now teaches others to read 
and write, was born without arms, and learned to write with her feet, 
but recently the Rotary Club of Istanbul arranged for Yüzay to be 
fitted with prosthetic arms, which she is still learning to use. 

Yüzay's story was one of thousands that were on the lips of Rotarians 
as they left the convention hall to head back to their communities 
with a new sense of purpose and inspiration for the year ahead. 

Source: Rotary International News
Courtesy: eFlash_Rotary


2. 1319: Gates asks Rotarians to think big and reach out to global neig 
Posted by: "Sunil K Zachariah" sunilkzach at yahoo.co.uk   sunilkzach 
Thu Jun 21, 2007 5:30 pm (PST) 
Gates asks Rotarians to think big and reach out to global neighbors

By Marla Donato 

Praising Rotarians for their "mind-boggling efforts" to "dramatically 
change millions and millions of lives," honorary Rotarian William 
Gates Sr. called on Rotarians to "think big" and finish the job of 
polio eradication.

"Now, due mostly to your astounding, 20-year campaign, the world is 
right on the brink of eliminating polio entirely," said Gates, the co-
chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, closing the third 
plenary session Tuesday in the packed Salt Palace auditorium. 

Just moments before Gates gave his speech, Foundation Chair Luis Giay 
and 2006-07 President William B. Boyd presented Gates with a Polio 
Eradication Champion Award. 

Gates, a retired Seattle attorney and father of Microsoft founder 
Bill Gates, introduced himself as "just a guy from the little town of 
Bremerton, Washington. Yet somehow, I have spent the last decade 
traveling around the world, thinking about monstrous problems."

Since its inception in 2000, the Gates Foundation has helped fight 
polio alongside Rotary, contributing US$150 million to the polio 
eradication initiative. 

"All the money in the world doesn't matter if it isn't spent the 
right way," Gates said. "[Rotary] gives people a way to convert 
their resources into results for the people who need them most."

He recounted how his connection to the polio fight began early on, in 
the days prior to the introduction of the Salk vaccine and following 
the 1952 polio epidemic in the U.S., when his wife was pregnant with 
their first child. 

"It is almost impossible to fully appreciate how successful Rotary 
has been in fighting that disease," said Gates, who added that Rotary 
members use three things efficiently: wallets to fund initiatives, 
legs to drive them, and lungs to spread the word.

And Rotary sets an example as one of the "finest organizations on the 
planet," he said. "You are an army of activists who place Service 
Above Self."

Gates, an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Seattle, said as the 
world shrinks, Rotarians are turning their attention to what he 
called the global neighborhood. "You understand that in our century, 
you are called to serve new neighbors [in countries] that once seemed 
far away - people who once seemed so different from us."

The shrinking world and spirit of international cooperation was also 
the subject of the talk session's second speaker, Brigitta von 
Messling, a Rotary World Peace Fellow who traveled to Salt Lake from 
Berlin, Germany, where she is working for a nonprofit organization 
that focuses on conflict resolution in the Balkans. 

A former inner-city Brooklyn, New York, school teacher, she described 
her study time in Bradford, England, that has left her with friends 
in "Angola, the Congo, Indonesia, Nepal, Jamaica, and Japan. [Such 
fellowship is] an integral tool in peace-building around the world."

She closed her speech by paraphrasing Be Here Now author and 
contemporary spiritual thinker Ram Dass: "Just as billions of tiny 
acts of ignorance, greed, violence, and exploitation have created 
most of the suffering and breakdown that exists, so the billions of 
tiny acts of compassion.heal the situation."

Source: Rotary International News
Courtesy: eFlash_Rotary


3. 1320: Final plenary inspires Rotarians to serve 
Posted by: "Sunil K Zachariah" sunilkzach at yahoo.co.uk   sunilkzach 
Thu Jun 21, 2007 5:34 pm (PST) 
Final plenary inspires Rotarians to serve

By Jenny Llakmani 

Salt Lake City - On the last day of the 2007 Rotary Convention, the 
plenary session showcased the variety of service opportunities 
Rotarians enjoy, from working on grassroots projects to serving at 
the highest levels of Rotary International's leadership.

A young woman from Turkey, Emine Yüzay, gave a moving speech 
highlighting how the results of Rotarians' service can expand and 
multiply. Five years ago, Yüzay, who was born without arms, was an 
illiterate 17-year-old. Then she took part in a Rotary-sponsored 
Concentrated Language Encounter program in her working-class 
neighborhood of Istanbul. 

After learning to write with her feet, Yüzay now teaches other women 
to read and write, demonstrating the ripple effect that so many 
Rotary programs have. "I tried to do my best to pass what I had 
learned in CLE courses to other women," she said. "I have never felt 
so proud and confident in my entire life."

This spring, the Rotary Club of Istanbul arranged for Yüzay to 
receive prosthetic arms, which she is still learning to use. She said 
that she was astonished recently when she heard of a recent RI theme: 
Lend a Hand. "Now," she told the assembled Rotarians, "your hands are 
mine, and my hands are yours."

Vikram Sanghani of the Rotary Club of Rajkot Midtown, India, spoke 
about his club's decision to build a US$600,000 dam to provide clean 
water to 150,000 people living in poverty in his city. Admitting he 
had no idea how to go about building a dam, he said, "I think there 
is a saying, `Rotarians rush in where angels fear to tread.'" Despite 
an earthquake and other problems, the project was completed on time 
and on budget. The success of the project has also brought 50 new 
members into Sanghani's Rotary club.

Hyrum Smith, a member of the Rotary Club of Salt Lake City and co-
founder of the consulting firm Franklin Covey, inspired Rotarians 
with his talk about what he called the abundance mentality. "When you 
can look in the mirror and say, I have sufficient for my needs, at 
that moment, you are wealthy," he said. Smith encouraged Rotarians to 
decide whether they have more than they need, and if so, to use the 
difference to do good in the world.

It was also an important day for Rotary's leadership, when President 
William B. Boyd and General Secretary Ed Futa presided over the 
election of the new RI officers. The highlight came when the voting 
delegates cast their ballots for Dong Kurn Lee of the Rotary Club of 
Seoul-Hangang, Seoul, Korea, for president of RI in 2008-09. Lee, who 
will be RI's first president from Korea, expressed his thanks and his 
confidence that 2007-08 will be an enjoyable and successful year. 

"When I look around me here today, I see men and women from all 
countries, joined together in our desire for a better world through 
service and fellowship," Lee said. "I am humbled to have been asked 
to lead this great organization, and I promise to do my very best to 
live up to your confidence in me, with the help of all of you."

Also elected today were the RI directors for 2008-10, the district 
governors for 2008-2009, and the 2007-08 officers of the General 
Council of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland.

Ray Klinginsmith, chair of the 2008 Convention Committee, was on hand 
to invite Rotarians to join him next June in Los Angeles. He noted 
that more than 3,000 people had already registered at the L.A. 
convention booth, a new record for on-site registration.

Source: Rotary International News
Courtesy: eFlash_Rotary 
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