President Gale and the 2023/24 Board, Thank you very much for your sterling efforts! You have at once set a standard and provided a template for my Board to follow.
I am very pleased to let you know that my Board is populated with volunteers. Thank you for your commitment, Andre, Horace, Marcia, John, Michael, Errolyn, Ezra, Lisa, Anya, and Gale. PDG David has pinned you and sealed your fate.
However, the truth is that all of the members of this Club are committed volunteers. Our experience is that those who join for reasons other than charitable work and fellowship don’t usually stick around. Who are left, therefore, are the committed volunteers. I am looking forward to working with each of you this year – every Rotary West member – and to putting your diverse talents to great use for the sake of the local, District and International communities. This is important work! And I know that we will have lots of fellowship and fun while we go about doing it! I also look forward to heavy participation from the Partners-in-Service. Too often going unacknowledged, the Partners-in-Service are our secret weapon, usually working as the Intelligence Department behind the scenes but also as the Infantry on the front lines when that is where the support is needed.
We have roles in Training and Mentoring, Membership Recruitment and Youth Service (i.e., working with the Rotaractors and Interactors). And we have no shortage of roles on Community Service projects in Rotary’s every Avenue of Service, projects which include:
- Childhood Obesity Prevention,
- Feed the Needy,
- Red Cross Meals on Wheels,
- Christmas and Easter Hampers, and this year Back to School Packages for Underprivileged Children,
- Scholarship Program,
- Book Distribution,
- Model United Nations,
- Financial Literacy Program at Alexandra School,
- Dyslexia Reading Program,
- Nature Fun Ranch, and
- RCOBW Ellen Steinbok Hearing Project.
In addition to that, we have two special projects this year:
The first is a Humanitarian Trip from District 5280 South California
Of the 16 Humanitarian Trips District 5280 has done, only one of those has been to our District 7030, when they went to Trinidad & Tobago in 2009. So, this Trip is special.
The Humanitarian Trip to Barbados will occur from 29th April to 4th May 2025 when a delegation of about 100 Rotarians from 5280 will be in Barbados working alongside the three local clubs on hands on projects. Along with their visit, 5280 is working with the local Clubs on Global Grants, as well as other fundraising from their District 5280 Clubs, in order to fund several of our most impactful projects.
The other special project this Rotary year is preparing for the Grand Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of this Club which will occur during the next Rotary year!
It will be an opportunity to fully and properly document this Club’s history and to acknowledge the hard work done by so many members over the past 50 years, since August 1975.
Our Charter President Engineer Miles Rothwell was a bit of a maverick and maybe that is why Rotary West has been somewhat unconventional over the years. But it has worked for us, and the 50th Anniversary will be a time to celebrate the Club’s progress to date. It will also prepare us for the future, for the next 50 years, as we hand over the reins of running this Club from the Baby Boomers to the Millennials.
Thank you for your attention.
Gregory Hazzard