My Rotary Year

Our Theme for this year “Rotary Connects the World”

 

One year ago, the world had not heard of Covid-19. We were free to travel to the grocery store without a mask, get on a plane, visit our grandchildren and freely go about our daily lives.

 

I began my Rotary year in May when Pat and I traveled to Europe for a mini tour before our Rotary International RI convention in Hamburg, Germany (June 1-5). Along the way we saw encouraging signs of Rotary. A Rotary Wheel in southern England. A chance encounter in Trafalgar Square the center of London that millions of tourists pass by, with a Rotarian from the East Coast bumping into a Minnesota Rotarian. A hotel manager in Dresden who was a Rotarian and proudly displayed our Rotary Wheel on the outside of his hotel. A tour guide in Bratislava introduced us to their meeting place and he was a former President of the local rotary group.

Hamburg was of course a highlight of our tour.  With about 30,000 global Rotarians you feel like Rotary does connect the world. We meet a vast majority of strangers who are friendly as we arrive in a convention center that reminds us of an airport hangar. Indeed, the site has to be large to accommodate so many. Our morning commute involved a walk to the local bus stop from our hotel, followed by a transfer to a trolley, which took us to the underground for our train to connect to another shuttle bus that would take us to the bee hive of the convention, We did feel a “buzz” and our days started early and ended late. We were all accomplishing and deeply involved ourselves in every aspect of rotary. Platform speakers in the morning to breakout sessions in the afternoon, trying to grab lunch along with 30,000 other folks, before our evening events (our hotel was too far out to go back and change) Our rotary day was 16 hours long of amazing experiences.

We returned to Rochester after rubbing shoulders with thousands of world citizens. No pandemic in sight. We started the year with music, and we will end the year with a virtual group of musicians. I have enjoyed being the president especially during our midday meetings that were held at the Mayo Civic Center. We hope to resume some type of non-virtual meeting format soon. We have had inspiring speakers, a visit from the district Governor Paul Perez where we hosted him on a beautiful evening in a local garden. Rotary contributes in so many ways.  At a local level we may see the volunteering at Quarry Hill, Channel One or the Salvation Army.

 

We may not see World Community Service in action, but they are silent heroes’, providing vegetables in raised beds in Guatemala, installing closed vent stoves to prevent pulmonary disease. Helping get water in Nicaragua and Honduras. We have also welcomed exchange students.

 

We have both an RI Foundation and a Rochester rotary Club Foundation. Maybe you cannot make it to Honduras, but you can donate which spreads your direct dollars to those places we may never go to.

 

I have had a great team support me, The Rotary club of Rochester board of directors a group of dedicated individuals who devote so much of their time. Our Administrative Director, Elizabeth Karsell deserves a medal for her support and tireless efforts to move our club forward. The many committee chairs who immerse themselves in the details of their area they are charged to lead. The volunteers like you who just show up not only for our weekly meetings but show up to help those in need.

 

We have modified our meeting schedule, due to cost functions but also changing demographics, not everyone can meet weekly at noon. We will continue our Casual Thursday after hours. Zoom functions are here to stay in some format. We long to get back together. We will take safe baby steps to get back to a covid-19 normal. Whatever that may look like I am confident Rotarians will be here to help mankind. Its been a privilege to serve you and look forward to living out

With gratitude, 

Colin Aldis, The Rotary Club of Rochester President 2019-2020  

 

(Take a look at Pres. Colin's year in pictures on the main page of our website.)