What some have to say about Rotary

Weekly Elixir – Rotary Club of Parry Sound
…for the week of July 27, 2009

What some have to say about Rotary –

“For 75 years, Rotarians have been ‘torchbearers,’ lighting the way to a better life for many people in many countries. Like Olympic runners, we received a torch from those before us – a torch of service that brings light to the shadow areas of mankind: intolerance, ignorance, disease, and hunger…Let people know that Rotary cares – and acts.”

-- James L. Bomar, Shelbyville, Tennessee, USA (RI president, 1979-80)

“Hope is the expectation of better things – a polio-free world, a world without hunger, universal peace. It is the spark that keeps a man going, whatever his station. Without it, life is nothing more than existence in despair.”

-- M.A.T. Caparas, Manila, Philippines (RI president, 1986-87)

“The contribution of Rotary is more than money. It is the commitment of individual Rotarians to polio eradication which has made this initiative a unique collaboration between the public and private sectors.”

-- Hiroshi Nakajima, director-general World Health Organization

“Of all the partnerships that we developed while I was at the CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), none has been more impressive than the partnership with Rotary International and the other partners working on the global eradication of polio.”

-- Dr. David Satcher, former CDC official and Surgeon General of the United States

“Rotary has won a place of respect in the global village – in fact, Rotary has helped make the world a global village.” (Rotary International was the first organization to be awarded UNICEF’s Audrey Hepburn Child Advocate Award in 1995).

-- Carol Bellamy, executive director, UNICEF (1995 RI Convention in Nice, France)

“People everywhere – each of them our cousins by blood – want peace…But people draw distinctions about nations and races different from their own, which give rise to suspicion and distrust. I urge each of you as a Rotarian to bring to a club meeting a non-Rotarian who is of a different race, a different generation, or social background.”

-- Hiroji Mukasa, Nakatsu, Japan (RI president, 1982-83)

“Into the hands of the United Nations we have placed the heritage of freedom for which countless generations of people have struggled. We depend upon the UN to pass that heritage on to generations yet unborn…Each of us can help strengthen the UN…in his own home… in his own community…The United Nations is an instrument that we can use for demonstrating far and wide the opportunities for service.”

-- Angus S. Mitchell, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (RI president, 1948-49)

Bridges of friendship could be built
Where in war men’s blood was spilt
Bridges built in Rotary’s way
Bridges built to speed the day
When peace and concord will hold sway
That man may reach his long-sought goal
Neighbors all from pole to pole
One human race with ties that bind
One humane world, one humankind.

-- From After All by Harold T. Thomas, Auckland, New Zealand (RI president, 1959-60)


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Source: David C. Forward. A Century of Service. The Story of Rotary International. Copyright 2003 Rotary International.