Anna's Inaguration Speech

Thank you everyone for coming, I would also like to thank all the participants in today’s Installation Ceremony – The Greeters – Bruce and Susan, Brother B, Babe, my sponsor, Karen John, our Master of Ceremonies none other than Larry Benjamin, President Elect Paul Davis, PP Erik Ackerson, our very own ADG Marston Winkles and Heflyn Royer for helping with the program.

To my parents and my daughter a special thank you for all your love and support

Thank you to the outgoing board and thank to the incoming Board and committee members

Words cannot express my gratitude and appreciation for all the support and encouragement that I have received from you leading up to today, your pledges for support for this Rotary year mean the world to me.

I stand before you today very humbled by the big shoes that I will be attempting to fill left by a legacy of Rotarians dating back to 1957, but I know that all of you will be there to help me fill those shoes. Every year it seems that RI and District 7020 raise the bar with higher and higher goals. RI President Ravi Ravinder has made this year a little easier because he chose Polio Plus as his area of focus. A few of you may know this already but Polio Plus has been my personal project since I was inducted almost 8 years ago, July 27, 2007.

So it seems fitting that during this 2015-2016 year we will get to finish this awesome task of eradicating Polio from the planet. It is my hope that this year we will put an end to the slogan we are this close " " and finally close the chapter on Polio Eradication. But to do this we all must do our part to contribute and take advantage of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledge to maximize every dollar we raise to finish the fight.

Over the past few years I have had the pleasure of attending a few District Conferences. This year in Jamaica I was filled with pride when I saw the map with Uganda in Lindsey Cancino’s presentation. Marston and I may have been the only ones who knew why it was there but we were the only club that did an International District Grant and knowing that it was us that stood out was very special. However, one of my few pet peeves is that as the 1st Club in District 7020 it seems that the younger clubs are running circles around us. So this year I want The Rotary Club of St. Thomas to go to the District Conference in Nassau and show the District that not only are we the 1st Club but that we are still the best club. To do this I am asking that each and every one of you help so that we can meet all the RI and District goals – Let’s show District 7020 what the Rotary Club of St. Thomas has to offer.

For you new Members, I want you to each think about a project that you would like us to do from Rotary’s avenues of service bring it to the Board, develop it, pick your own committee and lets run with it.

Anyone else with a project please bring it to our attention. We all have special gifts, talents, hobbies, interests, lets use them this year as Rotarians both locally and internationally to be our Gift to the World!

Thank you all.