After graduating from the University of Kentucky, she took a job at a radio station in Elizabethtown, Kentucky and met my father, stationed at Fort Knox. As they say, the rest is history. This city girl, raised in Winnipeg and Toronto, ended up on a farm in southern Illinois, five miles from a town of only a thousand people. I think it was not what she expected her life to be, but that is how I got my start on a farm in Southern Illinois.
I am also very excited that Calgary will be hosting the convention in 2025. I am looking forward to returning to Calgary as my wife and I attended the 1996 Rotary International convention in Calgary. We remember the flag ceremony on ice skates as being the most unique and exciting Flag Ceremony that I have ever seen at a Rotary International Convention. Following the convention, we took the time to visit with Rotary friends in Saskatchewan and Manitoba before coming home. I know Calgary will host another great Rotary International Convention in 2025, and I congratulate Mark Starrett and the team that put together a very successful bid that the board of directors years ago was pleased to accept.
This Zoom meeting is an unusual way for us to meet; however, these are extraordinary times. We are doing our best to achieve the goal set out in our Rotary action plan of increasing our ability to adapt, but I did not think we would be thrust into this so soon when we developed this action plan last July. As COVID-19 began to impact the world, we had to put aside our traditional ways of reaching out, but our need to connect has not waned. I have seen the ways the Rotary family has connected the world with compassion, and I have never been prouder to be a Rotarian.
The COVID-19 global pandemic continues to threaten our health and our way of life. While this crisis is unprecedented, we know this challenge is temporary, and we will get through this by working together and taking care of each other as Rotarians and Rotaractors do. I know this because Rotary Connects the World has never been just a slogan to me. I believe Rotarians achieve so much we invest in relationships. We make decisions grounded in evidence. We know how to mobilize our networks to create solutions that last, and we are always learning from our experiences and projects clubs and careers.
In early March, my wife and I had just finished travelling through Zimbabwe, and we were in the United Kingdom when the first wave of COVID-19 travel restrictions started to take hold. We were all set to continue our travels through Europe and Turkey and had plans to travel the next day to Zurich. However, we knew we had a higher duty to model public health behaviour.
Throughout our fight to end polio, Rotary has shown what we can do when we draw on our collective strength to improve public health globally. We have created solutions to match the people we serve, and we evaluate our results to learn from our successes and setbacks. Our partnerships have played a critical role in bringing us to this point. The global polio eradication initiative includes Rotary International, UNICEF, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, Gavi The Vaccine Alliance, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and governments of the world with the support of many others around the globe.
Because of our global leadership, people look to Rotary to lead in the area of Public Health, and we felt a special obligation to follow the advice of the World Health Organization to curtail our public meetings and travel at that time. Rotary has made difficult but essential decisions to model behaviours that protect the health of our members. Accordingly, we made the difficult decision to cancel the Rotary International Convention in Honolulu. We are now exploring ways to share some of the great programming. We had planned for the Honolulu convention across the world in the form of a virtual event. I will have more to say about that in upcoming weeks as we can reveal our plans for the 2020 Rotary International virtual convention.
The Rotary action plan calls on us to increase our ability to adapt. For clubs, that means finding new ways to connect and meet. We are looking to you for Innovation and are eager to share your best ideas. Please take the time during these online meetings to determine how your club can help us through this crisis. I know that we will rise to this moment because we are people of action.
What does that mean for us and all the organizations around the globe that partner with us? We answer that in our vision statement together. We see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change across the globe in our communities and ourselves. We have a proud legacy upon which to build this year, and we have furthered our legacy as Rotary connects the world. You will have a lasting impact on the world, but you will not do it alone. The Rotary family and our vital service partners around the world are going to harness the power of connection, just as our organization has done for 115 years.
We have a proud heritage, and we will continue to thrive because we are not afraid of change. Together we are united to stay safe and help others stay safe. We are joining to remain healthy and help others stay healthy. Together we are united to stay connected but also to help others to connect the world. We share the Aloha spirit. Join me as we take action to lead communities both near and far as Rotary connects the world.
Thank you, President Rick.
Following an informative question and answer session, Sid Mark thanked President Mark Maloney for his inspiring remarks.
