Greetings, Changemakers Rotary Club. I am your new president for 2024-2025. I am looking forward to meeting each of you this year and I invite you to reflect on how you can serve others through Rotary.
On Wednesday, June 12th I had the pleasure and privilege of attending the Madison Downtown Rotary Club meeting with special guest 2023-24 Rotary International President Gordon McInally of Scotland. President McInally was very gracious and down to earth. He started by saying that in reflecting on his year as president his belief was affirmed that the work of Rotary is done by every club and member. He reminded us that Rotary has been offering service and hope since 1913. This past year’s theme chosen by President McInally was “Create Hope in the World”.
He talked about three individuals he met this year that were given hope and helped by Rotary. A man fro
m Pakistan received the polio vaccine; a girl from India attended a school funded by a grant from the Rotary Foundation; and a 46-year old woman from a rural area in India who traveled to the big city for cataract surgery. Thanks to Rotary she can now see her grandchildren for the first time. On a visit to the Genocide Memorial in Rwanda, President McInally was asked, “Is peace possible?” In 1994, a million people were killed in one hundred days. There are thousands of photos of the victims. President McInally visited a peace reconciled village sponsored by Rotary. He said, “Peace is indeed possible.”
President McInally said that there is so much to do in this world. We hold the future in our hands. It is up to us to continue hope in the world. There are 46,000 Rotary Clubs and it is our responsibility to make sure people know what Rotary is all about. We are people of action. Let’s make the Changemakers Rotary Club 2024-25 a year of action and creating hope in the world. We know that Rotarians are people of action and service.
What can each of us do? There are many opportunities in this club for service.
What can you do? We need a President-elect who will be President in 2025- 26, a President-nominee who will be President in 2026-27, a Treasurer, and a Foundation Chair, who would serve as liaison between Changemakers and the district 6250 Foundation. We presently have one committee The service committee meets virtually on the fourth Tuesday of the month from 5 to 6 pm. Everyone is welcome to attend or to join this committee. We are currently fundraising to support the Ukrainian Refugee School inaugurated in September of 2023 by the Rotary Club Budapest-City. We also need a Membership Committee Chair. The sky is the limit. If you have an interest and/or a skill that you would like to share and put into action, we encourage you to establish a new committee.
I look forward to seeing you all this year on Zoom. Our next monthly meeting will be on Friday, July 12. Social time starts at 7:30 am followed by our club meeting from 8 am until 9 am. Our speaker is Fran Wargolet from ShelterBox U.S.A. Shelter Box is an international disaster relief charity established in 2000 that became Rotary International’s first Project Partner in 2012.
I would like to thank all of our 2023-24 officers and chairs: Valerie Wachuta President and Secretary, LeRoy Kemnitz Treasurer and Past President, Peter Groth Public Relations and Social Media Chair, Cathy Statz and Sharon Bradish Service Committee co-chairs and Liaisons to Sun Prairie East High School Interact Club. Thank you to Gayle Lunder, District 6250 Interact Chair, for encouraging us to sponsor the new Sun Prairie East High School Interact Club and for helping us through the process. Thank you to Petra Roter for serving as Membership Chair and to Dwight Heaney for serving as Service Committee Chair and Foundation Chair.
meeting from the 5th to the 12th so that everyone can celebrate the fourth of July weekend with their families.
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