District Governor, Karin Gaffney made her "annual official visit" to the Shrewsbury club on September 18th. She was accompanied by our Assistant Governor, Elliott Rittenberg.DG Karin, who loves tasteful jewelry displayed the "tasteful" Rotary necklace that her husband gave her as a birthday gift (see photo!). Using the necklace as an illustration, she reminded club members that we are all gears on the wheel. When she took a leave from her job last March in order to assume the office of DG, her friends and relatives thought she had "gone over the cliff," but their remarks gave her opportunity to explain what Rotary does. She said that she might describe Rotary in terms of service projects, fellowship and meetings but—at the heart of it all—she said that in Rotary "we change lives."
This year's theme logo declares, "Rotary: Making a Difference" and it pictures people of all shapes in sizes encircled by a circle symbolizing the globe. She opined that we are here in Rotary for a variety of reasons, but at the heart of it all, we are people who have a heart for service and, she said, "Those are the kinds of people I want to be around."
DG Karin also spoke of the contagious Rotary Fever seen in the array of service projects at an International convention. She went on to describe exciting things being done by clubs in our district such as building ramps to homes for handicapped persons, offering job training for prison inmates and providing crock pots and food for low income families. To hear about these kinds of great service projects is to be infected with the fever.
The 3 foci for this year in the district were offered by the Governor. Those are: 1) to increase service projects, 2) to raise awareness of Rotary, and 3) to bring in new members. These three foci reinforce one another; service projects raises visibility/awareness, which brings in members, who—in turn—add to the service projects that can be done. And so the wheel goes on-and-on!
Finally, the DG announced the 5 District Conference that will be held from May4-6 at Mt. Washington.