Bulletins - 2007 - 01/310/2007
This Week's Bulletin Was Written By Karny Stefan
Despite rain and traffic delays, it was a packed house at the University Club as Rotarians from many clubs joined the San Diego Downtown Breakfast Rotary to hear our esteemed speaker – comedian, humanitarian, and Past Rotary International President, Mr. Cliff Dochterman. The morning started with an invocation by Sandee Rugg, pledge of allegiance lead by Susan Bleicher, and the extraordinary vocal talent of the entire club singing a remarkably on-key rendition of God Bless America.
The morning started with an invocation by Sandee Rugg, pledge of allegiance lead by Susan Bleicher, and the extraordinary vocal talent of the entire club singing a remarkably on-key rendition of God Bless America.
Pete McGuire welcomed many guests today. Also, a special welcome back to Cynthia Sener and Rachel Humphreys! Both Rotarians are returning from leaves of absence.
50/50 raffle of $72 went to the winner, Scott Carr, who showed his awesome commitment to Rotary by donating his winnings toward his Paul Harris Fellowship.
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A very sad reminder that Mary Dawe’s son’s funeral service will be held this Sunday, February 3rd, at 1:00pm at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Our hearts go out to the entire Dawe family.
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Our GSE Team Member R.J. Salas attended the meeting. He will be going to Africa in April. We will hear from him before his trip and after he returns.
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We received a thank you letter from the Wounded Warriors from Balboa Hospital that we hosted in December. We also donated 17 gift cards to the unit.
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We received a thank you letter from Nativity Prep for our donation stating they would use the money wisely.
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The BEST Rotaract Club in the World received accolades for their 6th annual Jazz for Juvenile Diabetes event and a check from our Club for $750.00. Kudos to another great year!
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We will be serving lunch on February 11 at the Senior Community Center. A sign up sheet was distributed. Call Jeff Hogue for more information.
Chris Carstens and Karny Stefan received a rare gift when they received their Paul Harris Fellow acknowledgements from Past Rotary International President Cliff Dochterman. Chris is a multiple Paul Harris Fellow, and Karny became a first-time Paul Harris Fellow.
Now on the BEST part of the morning … it was an extraordinary honor for our Rotary Club to host Past Rotary International President Cliff Dochterman who started with one hilarious joke after another. After much rousing laughter, Mr. Dochterman got down to business by posing the thought of when did you become a Rotarian? What experience did you have with your club, what service did you provide to your community, what happened that made you realize …
“Today, I think I became a Rotarian.”
Did you come back from an experience and tell your Club President that we have a problem in our community and I want to help fix it? Make me the Chairman of that committee, or put me on another committee, so I can effect change where it’s needed most. What was that moment for you? Was it the day you took some underprivileged children to the zoo? Was it when you administered those two drops of polio vaccine to a child? Were you passing out food to the hungry? Were you serving the orphans or giving a poor child their first pair of shoes? When did you truly become a Rotarian? He then quoted Albert Schweitzer: “True happiness comes through serving others.”
Mr. Dochterman shared many stories:
In 1987, Rotary International came up with an outrageous goal of raising $100,000,000 to fight polio. At the end of the campaign, we had raised $240,000,000. We approached the World Health Organization to ask them to join us. They laughed … until we mentioned that we had 1,000,000 volunteers and $240,000,000! Over the last twenty years, Rotary International has teamed with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the Center for Disease Control to eradicate a disease that once was found in 120 countries and affected 500,000 people each year, to 2006, where Polio exists in only four countries and there were only 2,000 new cases.
Mr. Dochterman attended National Immunization Day in Ethiopia, where the President of Ethiopia started their Polio vaccination program with 100 children in a large room filled with people. On the edge of that room were 45 children in wheelchairs for whom the vaccine came too late. Those 45 children stood up as best they could and sang a song to the room that said something to the effect that “it is too late for us, but don’t let others get Polio.”
In Lagos, Mr. Dochterman met 125 children at a school for the blind. Why was blindness so prevalent he asked the Headmaster? Measles was the answer. Rotary International provided the school with the first-ever Braille printing press in all of Africa.
He shared his experience with Ambassadorial Scholar Lalita from India who came to the U.S. to study at the University of the Pacific. Nearing the end of her year, she met with Mr. Dochterman asking for help to stay in America. Mr. Dochterman said, “I’m not going to help you stay in the U.S. Go home and serve the people of India.” Twenty-five years later, Mr. Dochterman was in Bangalore, India for the dedication of a heart pacer bank funded by Rotary International with over 400 other Rotarians. The hospital administrator approached him to say, “Thank you for telling me to go home.” Yes, it was Lalita. She had become the primary educator for handicapped children for all of India.
Mr. Dochterman’s theme for his year as President of Rotary International was this: Real Happiness is Serving Others. He ended with a Chinese proverb that went something like this: If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a week, go on vacation. If you want happiness for a month, get married. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help others.
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