Whoop~Up Bulletin
Vol.86, No.7, September 9, 2003
Upcoming (Meeting days in black)
Bernie Presiding
Bernie's Top Ten Reasons why you should join Rotary
#3 WORLD UNDERSTANDING:
Rotary members gain an understanding of humanitarian issues and have a significant impact on them through international service projects and exchange programs of RI and its Foundation. The promotion of peace is one of Rotary's highest objectives.
Library Van Run
This year's schedule for the library van run for the next 3 months looks like this:
Sept 24 Wed
Sept 25 Thurs
Oct 29 Wed
Oct 30 Thurs
Nov 26 Wed
Nov 27 Thurs
The time requirement is 9:00 am - 11:00 am.
Here's a big thanks to the people who have participated since NOV02; Wayne Hawthorne, Don Drummond, Dick Turner (2), Murray Anderson, Duncan Rand, Dale Merchant, Austin Fennell, Jack Reynar, Peter Green, Kevin Willoughby, Beatrice Milner (2), Robin Hood.
Call :
Kevin Willoughby
Tel: (403)331-6588
Fax: (403)331-6590
HSBC Bank Canada
Email: kevin_willoughby@hsbc.ca
Tuesday, September 9, 2003
Special Rotary Meeting with Richard King, Past President of Rotary International.
President Bernie presiding:
Becky Killoran led in both U.S. and Canadian national anthems
Special thanks to Don Robb, Ken Lewis, Ron Garrett, Marlee Grant and Lee Spielman quintet, playing delightful melodies during the cocktail hour.
Welcome to our special guest speaker, Past President Richard King. Also welcome to our exchange student Isabel Käser, and Catholic Central High School Interact members Jamie Prindle and Stephanie Duguay. Also welcome to Rotarians attending from Medicine Hat, Brooks, Cardston, Raymond, Coaldale, Lethbridge Sunrise and Lethbridge East.
Guest Speaker
In view of our low-budget meeting, Richard contributed a song to begin his presentation. He used to perform in Las Vegas in the evenings and flew back to California to sue people in the daytime. He tells of getting a doctor on the witness stand and saying: "I love to question doctors on the stand, because I feel I am getting back for all those prostate exams I've had over the years. Now doctor, can you tell me if the man you autopsied was dead?"
"Yes, he was dead."
"How do you know that, did you check his heart rate, his pulse, his breathing, how can you be sure?"
"I know he was dead, because his brain was in a jar on my desk."
"Isn't it just possible that he was still alive without his brain?"
"Oh sure, he was probably practicing as a trial lawyer."
"No further questions, your honour."
A video of Rotary
International Wheel Chair volunteers and recipients led up to Richard King's
program. People from many disadvantaged nations were shown receiving new
red wheel chairs that gave them a new, elevated outlook on life and got them out
of the dirt.
To symbolize the worldwide distribution of wheelchairs to those in need, RI President Rick King and Kenneth Behring, Chairman and founder of the Wheelchair Foundation, presented wheelchairs to Jonathan Collaulo and Soralla Siera at the 2002 Rotary Annual Convention in Barcelona.
Richard King is the Executive Director of the Rotary Wheel Chair Foundation. He joined the Fremont, California, club in 1966. "A member said it wouldn't hurt to visit his club, so I did, and when I walked in, it felt good, they were nice people and it would be doing something to make the world a better place, so I accepted the invitation to join."
Deflating Experience
Richard tells of a meeting in Nairobi 15 months ago: "I was feeling a little confident one night as I finished my speech, particularly when several people came up to the podium to shake my hand. One by one they told me how much they enjoyed the speech, and I was particularly pleased to see a 10-year-old boy patiently waiting in line to shake my hand. I thought to myself, "Isn't it wonderful that a 10-year-old boy would take the time to come and hear my speech, and then to have the presence of mind to come up and tell me he enjoyed it!" He stood right in front of me, held out his hand and with much self-esteem said, "Mr. King, that's the worst speech I ever heard in my life!" I was somewhat taken back by this, but then I thought, "What the heck, he is only 10 yrs old. What does he know?"
A few more people shook my hand, and then I was surprised to see the same boy standing in line a second time. I assumed his mother had told him to come back and tell me he was sorry for what he said. The boy stood in front of me again, and with a firm voice said "I want to make sure you heard me the first time, that's the worst speech I ever heard in my life!" I was somewhat upset by this, but just as I was about to chastise the boy, a PDG took my hand and said, "President Rick, don't pay any attention to this boy. He did not even hear your speech. He just likes to go around the room listening to what other people are saying and he likes to pass it on!"
MANKIND IS OUR BUSINESS (origins of 2002 slogan)
Charles Dickens put it thus: "But you were always a good man of business, Jacob," faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself. "Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"
Honk if You Like Paul Harris
That was a slogan, Mankind is our Business was a slogan, and various annual theme hats, t-shirts and Rotary underwear have come to light over the years. While Richard was touring in Como, Italy, he was impressed with a business that produced scarves and ties, so he had his own special neck tie commissioned for his year as President. However, he still has about 1000 ties left over which he stores under the bed at home. They are hard and lumpy to sleep on, so his wife begs him to take some on his travels to give away. Bernie is now sporting one of those ties.
People Who Cannot Walk
Richard has visited over 100 countries--many, more than once. He says India is not like any other country, with its teaming millions and exhibiting every problem known to the human race. They have many different languages, a new one every 25 miles, which makes communication a real challenge. While visiting a small Rotary Club on the border of Pakistan and India, he traveled with the members for their weekly visit to a small village where the members provided books, taught the people, immunized against disease, provided medicine and gave those people a reason to carry on. Richard was chauffeured in to the village with a U.S. flag on one front fender and the Rotary flag on the other, making him feel a bit like the President of the U.S.A.
The children of the village had hollow cheeks and rib cages poking out, but children don't know how poor they are. "They made me the Maharaja, gave me a crown, and wanted pictures taken with me. Later, as I was led off to visit a blind woman living in a cow-dung hut, I noticed a little boy crawling towards me on his bloodied elbows with his useless legs dragging in the dirt. He wanted his picture taken, so I waited for him and he grabbed my ankles and waited for me to take a photo. I don't take very good pictures, but here it is, I have carried it with me for the last 25 years. You can't see his legs, but maybe we are not meant to see them."
The boy's family had discarded him because he was not able to join the other kids who are sent off at 4 years to work in carpet factories to make carpets for tourists. They work 16 hours a day for 30 cents a year. While money, degrees, acclaim, and success are used to measure our worth, this is the most rewarding: this..this business of humanity, this business of mankind.
Deja Vue all over Again
Twenty five years later in Shanghai on a trip with the Wheel Chair Foundation, Richard watched as Ken Behring distributed wheel chairs. Along came that boy again..well, of course he was not really the same boy, but there he was pulling himself along on his elbows with his useless legs dragging behind. He just wanted to get into line with the people waiting to get a new red wheel chair. They are red, because we all know how excited kids can be when they are going to get a new red wagon. There were far more people than wheel chairs, but this boy was picked up by volunteers and sat on a new wheel chair. What an amazing transforming experience to find he could move himself by pushing on the wheels and sit up high out of the dirt. The boy was having the time of his life for about an hour, then he got off the chair and started crawling away. Volunteers looked at each other in wonder, then went after him and carried him back. An interpreter asked why he crawled away, and he explained that his time must be up, and somebody else should take a turn. "You should have seen the look of disbelief and joy when he was told the wheel chair was his to keep."
"I have had the joy of seeing people with a new water-well in Ethiopia where a half glass of fresh water was the most they had to drink over two days. I have fitted a boy in Africa with a Jaipur Limb..a boy whose father came home in a drunken rage had hacked off his leg. But I will always know the gift that boy in Shanghai gave to me when he learned that he could keep the wheel chair.
On talking with Richard King after the meeting, a guest said, "Richard, you made me cry." Richard replied, "Sure, and you would cry when you see the hardship that these people go through in those poor countries, so I cry when I tell the story. I thought at one time that maybe I shouldn't cry, but then, I couldn't tell these stories, so I decided it's okay, I'll just wipe my eyes and keep telling the stories."
How to Give a Wheel Chair
The Rotary Club of Red Deer East has raised the money for six containers of wheel chairs valued at $18,000 each which are going to Ukraine. For $75 USD, a donor gets a certificate with a photo of the new wheel chair owner. One Rotarian gave six certificates to his kids and grandkids for Christmas to teach them that Christmas is about giving, not getting. His 13 year old grandchild wrote him a letter saying it was the best Christmas present he'd ever received. That gift of thanks was forwarded to other Rotarians, so we all win, we always win. For each $75, The Rotary Foundation provides a matching grant.
One and a quarter million Rotarians from a diversity of cultures, races, and politics in 206 countries have formed the largest band of volunteers the world has ever known. As President Eisenhower said of Rotary, "Governments seldom solve problems; people solve problems and Rotary has the best track record of all private citizen groups for doing that.
What Goes Around . . .
Recently Richard accepted an invitation to speak at a Rotary Club in Orange County. He flew down from San Francisco and was met by his host at the airport. He was not his usual enthusiastic self so Richard questioned: Why? The man had spent an emotional 10 days with his wife and kids after the birth of their first grandchild. At first, the baby was determined to be unlikely to survive, then on day seven, the prognosis was raised to 50/50 and they were invited to visit the children's wing. There, the baby was lying, hooked up to tubes and wires. "We cried, we prayed, we wanted to will this child to live. Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw the Rotary wheel on the machine my grandchild was hooked up to. Here was a machine that our Club had purchased. I remember when another member told us of the need for this million dollar machine. I wrote a cheque, I sold beer and hot dogs over 30 years of projects, and last Sunday it all came back to me and our grandchild came home from the hospital on day ten. How did we ever get to be so lucky, that it always comes back to us?"
When Can We Quit?
"Sometimes when a Rotary member tells me they have done enough and they are going to quit, I ask them if the Lord has quit. Then I tell them, they can't quit until he does. It always comes back to us, so just keep giving.
Invite somebody to join Rotary
Contribute To Rotary
Fund a Wheel Chair
Tim Waters rose in the spirit of giving to pledge $1000 USD to the Wheel Chair Foundation and challenged Rotarians to match him.
As the second President of the U.S. said: "There are two kinds of people; those who make commotments, and those who keep them." Rotarians are counted on to do both.
Door Prize Draw
Isabel drew Bev Atherstone Müendel as winner of $25.00. Bev in the spirit of giving, buys a ticket on the Rotary Summer Lottery.
A big thanks to all who made the evening a fantastic success, and special thanks to Richard for a world-class presentation.
"We endeavor to tell the truth in all reporting."