In 1992, two remarkable things happened for this week's guest, Mary Stitt.  She retired, and the Olive School was renamed in her honor;  and  she joined Rotary. Since then Mary has been around the world, and welcomed the world into her home.

 

Mary’s early international trips were with Elder Hostel and her church. While travelling, she made a point to visit local Rotary Clubs, and from those visits, she made contacts, discovered needs, and got to work. She described the challenges of doing her first matching grants (overcoming language barriers, and communication issues). Once she got the hang of it,  she went on to do many more, including a water well in India that Wendy Davis and I have visited.

 

Among her other adventures, Mary participated in a Friendship Exchange with South Africa, first hosting visitors here, and then travelling to “J-burg” and Krugar for several days.  While there, she saw a need for school books, so she came home and collected 640 boxes of books which she shipped back to a South African school.   She has hosted Youth Exchange students and Group Study Exchange visitors from England, Poland, Ecuador, Russia, Thailand, and the Philippines, and participated in 9 polio immunization trips.   Many have remained in contact throughout the years.   Mary is an avid Facebook user, she says it helps her to stay in touch with all of her distant friends.