Rotary Service — A personal perspective from from Ken Groteweil

Giving books to every child in selected elementary schools has been the most rewarding of all the local Rotary service projects with which I have been involved. I admit that personal reward is not what drives Rotarians to put their time into such projects in the first place. However, the looks on kids’ faces when they get to pick out a book and keep it for their very own is, well, priceless.

Giving out these books affects me in an even bigger way as well. The assortment of black, brown, white faces will be the faces of our country in not so many years. These are important kids, in fact, they are the future of our country.

Yet, as personally rewarding as this all is, I have wondered on occasion about the value of these and other local Rotary service projects. As big as Rotary is and with as many resources as it has, the country and world is even bigger. However, there were no such doubts the day we delivered books to the kids at Lowman Hill Elementary.

One of the 2nd grade girls came up to me and told me that her favorite book was the one she got last year due to the Rotary book project. She said she reads it all the time. Some of the 4th grade kids remembered that we had come a few months earlier to give them dictionaries. They talked about how often they used them. These un-solicited testimonials give me reason to believe that these books do indeed make a difference in the lives of these children.

Of course, no project like our elemen-tary school project comes about just because of a few people. Most impor-tantly you need books, and that’s why we appreciate the help of Linda Spra-gue who systematically sorts books for each grade level at each school. Then there are the school liaisons who work with each school: Wayne Probasco, Joe McFarland, Vicki Peterson and myself.
This year, Glenda DuBois is the service coordinator for our club and she came to Lowman Hill to put the Rotary bookplates in the books, organize them by grade, and be there when the kids came in to pick out their books. Thanks Glenda for all you do! Also joining us that day was Joan Lewerenz who helped out as well.

Rotary is about Service Above Self. It’s good to remember that local service projects are an im-portant part of reaching the Rotary’s global goals of increasing understanding between peo-ple and encouraging world peace.

Editors note: Ken Grotewiel recently moved to Lawrence and resigned membership in our club. Ken was a frequent contributor to the Rotopeka and I want to personally thank en for his hard work and dedication to Rotary.

Message from the President

Dear Fellow Rotarians:

At the board meeting earlier this week, we looked at a number of reports that showed our progress during this Rotary year. It's hard for me to be-lieve that my year as president is three-quarters finished, and our next president, Kirk Johnson is already making plans for his year which begins in July. But, we still have a quarter left in which to finish up some of our work. There are still service projects and social activities to plan before our June banquet which formally concludes the Rotary year.

We have done a good job both in raising money for the Foundation, and participating in projects funded by the Rotary International Foundation. Gordon Lansford, who chairs the club’s international service projects, re-ported to the club that Rohan Radhakrishna won one of the two Rotary Ambassadorial scholarships from our district. Our candidate made such an impression on the judges with his presentation that he won handily. His $23,000 scholarship will enable him to study in India for a year between his 3rd and 4th year of medical school, which will greatly broaden his knowledge. He will be a true ambassa-dor for Rotary. Rohan grew up in Topeka and graduated from Washburn Rural High School before attending Stanford University for his bachelor’s degree. He is currently attending the University of California Medical School in Berkley/San Francisco and will join us at a future club meeting. Ro-han’s letter to our club follows in this issue.

By the time you read this, our GSE team from South Korea will have come and gone. Thanks to Staci Williams, they were well cared-for during their visit. The purpose of Group Study Exchange teams is to promote international understanding and good will. Certainly, these visitors will have lasting memories of their Kansas visit and of our Rotarians that hosted them. The club thanks David and Lynette Beck, Webb and Julie Garlinghouse, Maggie and Dale Warren and George and Rita Webb for serving as host families.

Our membership is really fluid. We have brought in 17 new members, but have lost 21 due to death, moving from the city, changes in job duties, and a host of other reasons. The biggest challenge to Rotary clubs across the country is to maintain their membership. Won’t you ask a colleague if they would like to join Rotary? Invite them to a meeting (the club will buy the lunch) and then give them an application form. Rotary opens up a whole new avenue of opportunities for people, but we have to reach out to them first.

Won’t you help?

Joan Wagnon

From the Editor

Okay, I have to admit, when I started this issue on a Friday night just before my deadline, I was looking for an easy way out. It sounds bad, I know. I mean, how much easier can it be to devote an issue to the activities of RI. Just visit the website, re-print a few articles and photos and I can have this issue knocked out in about an hour. But a strange thing happened along the way.

You have to understand something from the outset. Rotary inspires me. I look at all of the wonderful things that Rotary does around the world and I see an organization that I am proud to belong to. As I look at the articles and pho-tos on the RI Website, I see something far more than just words on a screen. I see real changes and real people that we as Rotarians are helping across our planet.

So as easy as it would have been to pick any five articles online, I carefully chose the stories and probably spent more time selecting those stories than I usually do writing. I got lost in many of the stories I read, amazed at the work of fellow Rotarians. It is truly an example of Rotary Shares and I hope you take the time each month to read through The Rotarian and you visit the RI website from time to time. While it is important to attend our club’s meetings, you are shortchanging your Rotary experience.

April is Magazine Month, a time to celebrate the global network of Rotary’s official magazines, which provide valuable information to 1.2 million Rotarians.

And speaking of Rotary publications, last January I submitted a letter to the editor about how the Rotopeka is using RSS feeds and the Rotopeka Blog to share our club’s stories on the internet. That letter finally ran in the May issue which arrived in your mail about a week ago.

I hope you enjoy this month’s look at Rotary International.

Update from the Editor

This past month has been very hectic, but I just about have the April Rotopeka published and you should have it in your mail box this next week. The focus is on Rotary International.