Over this past weekend two of our Rotaractors, Terry Thompson and Susan Dalessandro attended the President-Elect Training Seminar as prospective future e-board members. They had a wonderful time and learned quite a bit! Here's what they had to say about it;
It was more than a priviledge to be a part of this event! As a fresh Rotaractor, it was inspiring to see what the possibilities are when sticking with Rotary. The speakers that attended spoke in a way that resonated with its listeners on topics regarding the great strides Rotary has made with the permanent elimination of the Polio virus, how to improve Rotary, how to lead like a Rotarian, and others including personal "Rotary Moments". I was handed so many Rotary cards with names and contact information on them from many smiling faces as they stated, "Let me know if I can ever help you out." I can go on and on, but all in all it was a rewarding experience that I will forever remember and look back on when I am going through my time as a Rotaractor and eventually, an official Rotarian.
Viva Rotary!!!
-Susan Dalessandro
Over this past weekend, March 7-8, I had the most fantastic
opportunity to attend a PETS conference.
PETS, President-Elect Training Seminar, is where the newly elected
Rotary Club Presidents in the districts go and learn what their job in the
upcoming year will entail. At this
particular conference there were many speakers, each with their own advice
about how to become a great President in your respective Rotary Club and many
other things that are important to the whole Rotary International organization. After attending a small breakout session with
the Presidents of my district, 7280, I enjoyed a wonderful dinner, at which I
was able to meet with President-Elects from other districts and ask them what was
going on in their area. Fundraising and
membership were hot topics that evening, of course, and I am happy to report
that with the knowledge I gained over the weekend, I have some really great
ideas for the upcoming semesters with the Slippery Rock Rotaract. One of the best parts of the weekend, however,
was not learning about fundraising (although that is very important!). My
favorite part of the weekend was hearing a speech at the end of the first day
by Dr. Peter Salk. For those of you who
do not know, Dr. Salk is the son of Dr. Jonas Salk, the man who discovered the
polio vaccine. He was able to give an
in-depth lecture about his father’s study of the disease and subsequent
research done to create the modern polio vaccine. It was also much to my surprise that on the
following day I was able to sit down and eat lunch with him. Dr. Salk is a very kind and humble man, and
also extremely knowledgeable. To learn
from him about the intricacies involved in getting the cure for polio was truly
something I will cherish all my life.
At the
conference we were also able to meet some of the past Rotary International
Presidents. It was Friday evening when I
was riding the elevator down to the hotel lobby that I happened to join Wilf
Wilkinson, Rotary International President from 2007-2008. Having never seen him before, I had no idea
who he was, nor did he know who I was.
But, that did not matter to him, we talked on the way down and into the
conference room about Rotary and where we were from. It was not until later that I learned just
who this kind man was, and it hit me.
Rotary is full of people who care, no matter where each one of us comes
from. What unites us all is that we
care, not only about each other, but others, oftentimes more than for
ourselves. That is, after all, why we
are a service organization, is it not?
We have so much that we take for granted, that we would be remiss not to
share what we have with people who may not have as much. That is why we Rotaracters do our annual
Dump-N-Run fundraiser and why over this semester and the past one we have been
helping to raise money for clean water in Uganda. Rotary is about service, it is where other
leaders can unite and lead on to help others not only locally, but globally.
-Terry Thompson, Jr.
