KAILUA-KONA — Rotary club members from across West Hawaii gathered Tuesday at Teshima’s Restaurant to hear a message on the “why” of Rotary. ADVERTISING KAILUA-KONA — Rotary club members from across West Hawaii gathered Tuesday at Teshima’s Restaurant to hear
KAILUA-KONA — Rotary club members from across West Hawaii gathered Tuesday at Teshima’s Restaurant to hear a message on the “why” of Rotary.
District Governor Clint Schroeder offered a presentation to help focus objectives for the upcoming year and inform members of the organization’s various service projects happening on a global scale.
“(The Rotary International Foundation) has invested $3 billion in global service projects in the last 100 years,” Schroeder said. “Even here, the Big Island of Hawaii was the recipient of one of those direct, reverse global grants right after the hurricane. Grants do a lot of great things for recovery and relief efforts.”
Rotarians focus on six areas: clean water, child and maternal health, peace and conflict resolution, community building and rebuilding, disease eradication and literacy.
Evidence of these initiatives on a local level can be observed in work done by the roughly 130 members across four Rotary clubs in West Hawaii. They have contributed to work on the Queens’ Lei Project, planted trees, cleaned up and renovated parks and worked with the humane society.
But local chapters across the country and the world also contribute to grander aspirations geared toward affecting positive change. The Polio-Plus Program, initiated 31 years ago, was a primary focus of Schroeder’s presentation as the Rotary International Foundation has contributed mightily to an effort to eradicate the disease from the face of the planet.
According to Schroeder’s facts, there are currently only 19 known cases, two in Afghanistan and 17 in Pakistan. While it has proven difficult to reach the local populations of mountainous villages in war-torn areas, an increased emphasis is being placed on the program as the world nears rendering Polio an affliction of the past.
Another focus of the meeting was increasing outreach to swell Rotary club ranks across Hawaii.
“Numbers have sort of plateaued, as we seem to lose as many as we bring in,” said Donna Hiranaka, assistant governor for West Hawaii. “The reason we want to grow is the more members we have, the more manpower we have to do our projects and the more ideas we (generate) for different projects.”
Schroeder agreed the numbers have levelled off somewhat, but pointed out such is also the case for most service and civil organizations. He said there are around 2,000 Rotarians across the state, adding that efforts to grow membership are always important because Rotary clubs can help focus the desire of community members who wish to contribute.
“We’re all pulled in a zillion directions,” Schroeder said. “I think, intrinsically, everyone wants to do good, but people have a hard time trying to find exactly what (their efforts) should be. We want to be that logical choice. We want to be in front of people. We want people to understand what we do. It’s not a fraternal organization. We exist only to serve our community and the global community as a whole.”
