|
 What
is Rotary?
By
Vikki Patiño - Rotary Club of
Sebastopol, California
We have just heard about Rotary’s extensive accomplishments during
the past century. We
know that Rotary exists to improve communities locally and around
the world and to advance international understanding.
In the three years since I was inducted I have often been asked
about Rotary - what it is.
Typically I answer by explaining that Rotary is a group of
individuals who get together to perform public service.
I sometimes add that it’s a way to have more of an impact on
the local community because by working together we can achieve a
greater good.
But besides its official definition, what really is Rotary?
How do you define that which motivates women and men to march
to the tune of service above self?
A fellow Rotarian friend of mine defines it by explaining that
Rotary is a group of people interacting symbiotically with
synergistic results.
Indeed! Not quite the
answer to my search for its soul.
In my opinion, Rotary is the collective good of a group of
individuals working together to reach a common goal which is simply
to better the world. It
is the good deeds of many.
Rotary is friendship.
What binds us together is our desire and purpose to serve humanity.
By working together, friendships blossom, validating Paul
Harris’ vision of harnessing the power of friendship to help do the
world’s work.
Locally, it’s being able to reach 90 friends with the expectation
that they will at least listen to what you have to say and at best
attempt to come up with solutions.
Globally, there’s a million friendships waiting to blossom.
Foreign countries don’t seem so alien anymore because Rotary
is there.
Rotary is ideally the principle of service above self.
I believe a true Rotarian embodies this principle in all
aspects of his or her life.
It is not a theory practiced occasionally to earn points in
the Karmic scoreboard, but it’s a belief that becomes an intrinsic
part of a true Rotarian.
Rotary is the medium that allows us to act on behalf of the
common good.
By working on the present, Rotary is the future.
It is an open road where the avenues of service come together
leading to numerous destinations.
It is up to us to select which path to take in the Rotary
world, and therefore Rotary is freedom.
It’s our ability to pursue a worthy cause and succeed at it
because we are not going at it alone.
Rotary is a sense of accomplishment – a teaching aid in the
classroom, a baseball diamond worth more to a Little Leaguer than a
real diamond, a gift to the community that shows we care.
It’s satisfaction, going
home after volunteering all day knowing that you did your share,
contributing just a little bit to the benefit of humankind.
Rotary is the vehicle that makes it happen.
It’s faith in our youth, fairness in our dealings, our hope for the
future. Rotary is a
legacy. It started in
1905 with Mr. Harris and continues with each of us.
So how do you describe all this to someone who asks to know what
Rotary is? To attempt to capture Rotary’s definition in one or two
sentences is cursory at best, as if trying to paint a detailed
picture with the strokes of a wide brush.
You, nonetheless, start by saying that it’s a group of individuals
who get together to perform public service, and you plant a seed
that you hope will flourish.
We have come a long way since the first service station was built in Chicago in l906, and we
should be proud as we celebrate our centennial.
Rotary’s greatest strength will continue to be the soul of
the individual Rotarian, whose vision put to action brings hope to
the world.
|