Who Needs Rotary?

Going to Rotary meetings at District level can usually be relied on to give me a lift about why I’m in Rotary and yesterday’s District Assembly was no exception. Around 280 of us squeezed into the Majedski Theatre at Reading University to go through how our District intends to support us over the coming year and what particular emphasis is preferred. We saw evidence of the power of Rotary in the words of Bill Gates – see video footage of his announcement of a further $250 million of support for our work towards the eradication of Polio worldwide and his passion for helping us achieve this goal – and this is man who isn’t even a Rotarian – he just believes in the integrity and worth of our organisation. We were also reminded by incoming Rotary International President John Kenny that the work of Rotary is rooted in the strength of each and every Rotary club – kind of makes it seem quite important that those of use taking up office in July do something worthwhile, then!



We also saw a video clip entitled featuring the work of Rotary, particularly with children around the world, to “You Raise Me Up” – brought a tear to my eye – and I was not alone – when we’ve checked the copyright use I’m hoping to include it here.

Update - the video has now been remastered with a different track to overcome copyright issues. Watch this - oh & by the way - have that box of tissues handy!!


I’ll be saying more about the specifics of the worthwhile things we’ll be attempting for the next year during the coming weeks, together with more about our continuing work on Polio.