It was an add in the newspaper, which indicated women were welcome, that inspired Bev to attend a breakfast meeting of the Rotary Club of Burlington. She had no sponsor even though she has a brother in California who is a life long Rotarian who always wore his Rotary pin proudly She was plainly visible in the community as a member of the Burlington City Council, owned a business, and was the business manager of the Burlington Chamber of Commerce, yet no one had ever invited her to a meeting. She says she was warmly welcomed!
Soon after joining, Bev attended the Rotary International Convention in Salt Lake City. Because she new that one of her club president's goals was to start an Interact Club at Burlington High School, she attended a session on an organization called "Youth Link". She took the idea back to her club to start a program for youth to engage in international projects. The Burlington Club adopted her idea and the program is known as Youth Engaged in Service (Y.E.S.). It was adopted by the District as one of it's youth programs in 2012.
In partnership with Youth Linc, the first YES team of 3 youth traveled to Santa Rosa village in Peru, teaching lessons they had created for the school children in Spanish and demonstrating infant CPR to the adults. In 2008 YES partnered with Hands for Peacemaking after some of the Burlington Rotarians were involved in building a school in Guatemala. The team traveled to the remote village of Nuevo Santiago, Guatemala where, along with the villagers, they built a pig barn and purchased several pigs to provide a long-term food source. In the 14 years since its inception, about 100 youth have been active in the program
Bev has accompanied the students on 8 or 9 of the international projects. She described the students' experiences as "life changing" when, for example, they see a family in Guatemalan village living in a one room mud hut, with a dirt floor, a plastic tarp for a roof, and an open fire inside used for cooking.
Before embarking on the international project, participants must complete 80 hours of community service and participate in leadership development training. It has been Bev's goal since just before the pandemic hit to extend the Y.E.S. program to the clubs in Snohomish County. To learn more about the program check out the information on the District 5050 website by clicking HERE.
Returning to her theme of connecting, Bev introduced us to a "We Connect" exercise. Cards with questions were placed on each table. None of the questions were the typical introductory ones such as "where do you work". Each member was asked to pick up one of the colored cards and go to a nearby person with a different color card. Each asked the question of the other to find out their answers to such things as "What is a risky thing you've done in your life". The idea is to go much deeper than idle chat. As an example, Bev used this exercise with the District's leadership team and learned that Governor Elect Raj had climbed to one of the base camps on Mt. Everest.
This will be one of the lead exercises at the District Celebration to be held at the beautiful Semiahmoo Resort in Blaine, Washington, May 13-15, 2022. It's being called a Celebration instead of a Conference because it will be bringing District Rotarians together in person for the first time in 3 years. There will be motivational speakers:with presentations by the inspirational
Jordan Harrison and the founder of Days for Girls
Celeste Mergens, and "edutainer",
Rebecca Murray. You won’t want to miss the exciting International Bazaar, or the Saturday evening gala entertainment by the
Killer Keyz Dueling Pianos. To learn more about the presenters click on their names. For additional information on the District Celebration, including the International Bazaar click
HERE.
DG Bev ended her presentation with a take off of the RI President's charge of "Each One Bring One", with her own charge of "Each One Keep One". This recognizes the challenge of keeping members engaged. As a family would do, if someone isn't engaged, ask them why? She quoted an author with the these words of wisdom: "Nothing shapes our lives so much as the questions we ask, refuse to ask, or never dreamed of asking."
