Rotary Reflections 2022
Wow, what a weekend we had in Atlanta! Hats off to Kate Stow for her “instigation” of celebrating our Founder’s Day 150th anniversary. I know many of us let her down (me, a quilt show), but it was still a very lively and fun day. A day that dawned bright and early for Rotarians as we got our 5K Run underway. Even though Curt had to be out-of-town, his wife Kendra did an outstanding job getting everything ready before 7 a.m. when runners were off down the street., We had an increased number of runners with a wider age span this year. We enjoyed some “stories” among our runners.
Diana Blackman came from Dallas to run on our streets because she used to run these streets when she’d visit her grandparents. Her grandfather was Dr. Ernest Grumbles who was one of the founding doctors at Ellington Memorial Hospital and Clinic. We had four WalMart runners who want to be involved in our community and 14 Interactors from Queen City High School who directed runners to turn when needed. Great directions! No one got lost! Thanks, too, to Kendra Clayton for helping to line up these teens, many of whom had quit dancing at homecoming a few hours before!
The top three men runners and their times are: Jordan Maxwell (22m,3s); Michael Dubisson (22m,29s); and Morgan Garrett (25m,7s); and for the women we had Jenny Mills (22m,33s); Diana Blackman (22m,54s); and Felicia Whatley (25m,6s). Folks, last year I did that same trek in about 63 minutes. Even our walkers beat me this year by three minutes. We had two runners who did the mile: Karlee Whatley and Madison Prince who finished in 11m,24s. This is a warning for the future…they’ll be in prime shape for a year from now! I want to publicly shout out a big thank you to our Atlanta Auxiliary police. First of all, they are volunteers. We in Rotary know what can be done with volunteers and these guys did a great job “shepherding” our runners through their paces. They help out in many ways by being seen at the Founder’s Day celebration and other events. Did you know they may even be driving through your neighborhood protecting you while you sleep? Thanks!
October is traditionally the time we focus on raising money for getting rid of polio in the world. Right now, so far this year, we’ve seen 14 new cases in Pakistan and 1 in Afghanistan .We dream of a day when polio is unheard of (which is the case for most of the world already.) Rotary International now calls the effort Polio PLUS because we have learned so much from trekking over mountainous terrain taking chilled vaccines to children in remote place (can you picture carrying a 6-pack ice chest very far?) During Covid many places were helped to teach hygiene and report on cases and other medical needs.
We’d love to see you at our Rotary meetings the third Thursday evening at 6 at Luigi’s. If you need answers before, call me (903) 691-9717. On Sept. 15 our District Governor, Carolyn Franks will drive in from Pittsburg, TX to share what’s happening in our District.