MESSAGE FROM THE DISTRICT GOVERNOR
The Rotary Foundation is the heart of Rotary and an integral part of what we do as clubs on a daily basis. Our district, alongside districts around the World, will be celebrating all of the vibrant, meaningful, useful strategic work The Rotary Foundation does. We celebrate this in a couple of ways, by honoring our clubs and our members for all of the great projects we’ve been able to offer our communities, both locally and across borders.Not a day goes by without some involvement with the Foundation to support our club and district projects. For over 100 years, the Foundation has supported and strengthened our service to our local and global projects that improve the lives of people around the world. Each and every Rotarian has the ability to create and implement projects with the help of the Foundation that will make a difference in the lives of people. From the eradication of Polio worldwide to sewing machines in Cambodia the Foundation is there to support Rotarians.
The Rotary Foundation raised over $300 million during its centennial year, exceeding the goal set for the Foundation. As 2017 comes to an end, now is excellent time to assess your personal financial situation, your charitable goals for the year, and the potential benefits of doing tax planning before year-end. Contributions to the Foundation will help you meet that charitable goal and give you a tax deduction at the same time. But more importantly, the funds collected this year will come back to district in multiples in three years to support different projects created by district Rotarians. So the bigger the sum raised now, the bigger the sum the district has for projects in three years. Now is the time during Foundation month to support The Rotary Foundation.
We also celebrate by hosting events, bringing our communities together, and educating ourselves and our members about how the Foundation operates. As a part of my commitment to Rotary and The Rotary Foundation, I want to set a reminder that it is not just in outcomes that we measure our success as Rotarians. The journey we are on, and indeed the process that we go through in cultivating service projects, fundraising, and fellowship around the World, are part and parcel of our success as members, clubs, and districts. Often we get bogged down in the processes of fundraising, losing sight of the possibility inherent in the work we do. Our day to day minutia, the processes we go through offer hope for a world that needs the best of humanity to survive.
So this month, as we prepare to honor our Foundation, let us embrace the process of all we do in service to our clubs and communities. Engaging mindfully and with presence in the processes of our Rotary goals will ensure us fabulous outcomes. Doing the right thing each day, in our work, in our meetings, in our service projects, and in fellowship takes care of the results of our efforts.
I often ask myself, by way of reminder, why I do Rotary. For me, and perhaps for all of you, Rotary affords me opportunities for service and networking. I know that the two cannot be extracted from each other or else failure is inevitable. I invite you to ask yourself why you are a Rotarian, to remind yourself to engage deeply in the process of the work you do, and be present with each step of the complex processes we undertake. We then build a network for humanity that recognizes in each of us, and in our communities the basic human needs for love, recognition and to help us all remember why it is we do what we are doing.
This November remind yourself why you joined Rotary and what keeps you coming back, and let that revitalize your efforts so that your Rotary journey is not one from point A to B, but one that celebrates all the possibilities in between. And remember to celebrate the vital work of our Foundation through fellowship, fundraising, service and fun.
DG Abbas Rajabi and Hugh Radke, District Rotary Foundation Fundraising Chair
TRAINING & EVENTS