District Governor Linda Young Visits Doylestown

Posted by Rich Newman on Sep 07, 2016

Doylestown Rotarians welcomed our District Governor, Linda Young to our evening meeting of August 31, 2016.

President Amy Parenti introduced Linda by pointing out that Linda’s life is one of service. Linda was a charter member of the Rotary Club of Saucon Valley in 2007 and was Assistant Governor of Area 6 for three years. Amy mentioned that Linda had a 40 year career in nursing management, which meant a great deal to Amy, as she had been a nurse before changing careers.

Before Linda gave her presentation, we had the good fortune of having her induct our newest member, Rose-Ann Blenman-Abange.

Linda then shared with us the following:

Linda wanted to focus on three things in her presentation: membership; foundation; and service.
Linda said that her goal this year is to have a net increase of 100 members in the District. The District has had a steady decline in membership recently (of course, that is certainly not the case with our Club!!).
There are 43 Clubs and 1739 members in the District.
Linda would like to start two new clubs this year. She would like to have the first Club chartered in December.
This is the 100^th birthday of Rotary’s Foundation.
Linda pointed out that doing good for people is the main goal of Foundation.
She asked us to consider Foundation as our charity of choice. She reminded us that 50% of the funds donated come back to the District for local grants.
Linda reminded us that the biggest accomplishment of Foundation is their work in eliminating polio.
One of Linda’s goals is to have everyone in the District donate at least $26.50 (which was the amount of the first donation in 1917).
In what city will this year’s District Conference be held.
Linda wanted to impress upon us the importance of service by sharing her story of when she went to Venezuela in 2008 to take part in the Rotaplast program. Rotaplast International, Inc. is committed to helping children and families worldwide by eliminating the burden of cleft lip and/or palate, burn scarring, and other deformities.
Linda said that her group went to Venezuela while Hugo Chavez was President, even though they were specifically warned not to go.
When Linda saw how families were so happy and appreciative of the work done she realized that we are all alike no matter what race, nationality or religion we are.
She said that she would never have had that experience had she not been a Rotarian.
Lastly, Linda told us that her slogan for the year is: “Every Rotarian Makes a Difference and is a Shining Star.”

Thank you Linda. It is always great to hear from our District Governor and we look forward to a successful year in our District under your stewardship.