District Governor Visit
Posted by Gary O'Rielly on Nov 09, 2016
Scott Dudley, our District Governor and his wife Christine trekked from Oak Harbor last Friday to visit our Club. Our District Governor was introduced by Assistant District Governor Marc Baker, member of the Rotary Club of Everett. DG Scott joined Rotary in 2001 and manages an investment office in Oak Harbor. He and Christine have five children and are new grandparents. Besides managing his investment office, Scott is a proud grandfather, deejay, and promoter of the Seattle Seahawks and Rotary.
Rotary has changed Scott's life dramatically. When he joined, he became a member of the Oak Harbor morning Club, meeting on Wednesday mornings. He always ate their breakfast, always willing to lend a helping hand and posed the question of whether he was a Rotary Club member or a Rotarian. His first venture into becoming a Rotarian was a trip to Mexico to distribute wheel chairs. They delivered these wheel chairs to outlying areas and he commented that when these people received their wheel chair, it was like winning the lottery. The delivery of the wheel chairs changed his life forever.
When does a Rotary Club member become a Rotarian. Scott commented that we win the lottery just because we have so much to be thankful for in our life. He was getting ready to travel to Haiti in the aftermath of a major disaster delivering shelter boxes when a political uprising stopped Rotarian's from making the trip. Unwilling to stay at home after his trip to Haiti was canceled, Scott decided to visit 13 Rotary Clubs in Canada. When he stopped by the Rotary Club of Haney on a Wednesday evening he was directed to sit at Table 1. During the Happy/Sad Buck period Keesha Rosario talked about her 37 year old husband dying because he needed a new kidney. Her had polycystic kidney disease (PKD) something very familiar to Scott, as he has three family members with the disease. After the meeting, Scott pledged to this Rotary Club member to donate one of his kidneys to her husband. In Canada, to get on the new kidney donor list takes about eight years. Time her husband did have because he would die soon without the transplant and a new kidney. The result: an American donated a kidney to a Canadian four and a half years ago. Phil Roisario is the husband of Keesha and the recipient. Phil's mother was at the hospital during the transplant from Scott to Phil to thank him for saving her son's life. The procedure and story was on GlobalTVBC and during the recording, Scott never stopped talking about Rotary and Rotarians. What a compassionate story to share with our club. This was the time that Scott went from a Rotary Club member to a Rotarian.