That Rotary Attraction!

What a way to end a year as president of the Rotary Club of West Kauai.
We were once again located in the charming, artistic ambience of Aloha-N-Paradise in Waimea Town. Our guest speaker Hans Peter (Pete) Faye spoke about the history of sugar plantations- with great authority, of course, because his grandfather and namesake was one of the original Norwegian pioneers who established the sugar industry in Hawaii!

Before the meeting, a lovely lady wandered in- saying she was new to the neighborhood but not new to Rotary, having attended meetings in other parts of the island. We immediately invited her in to enjoy Rotary fellowship.
Another friend of the speaker's family, a professor emiritus from Stanford University, who has been "avoiding Rotary for many years", was able to feel comfortable in our "laid back" west side atmosphere and looked like he was enjoying himself.

After the meeting, a person mentioned that a Rotarian friend of theirs was afraid of fines- especially in times of financial stress. We were able to share that in our club, we do "happy and sad dollars" so that people can feel free to be generous or frugal - as the situation warrants. No pressure, no embarrassment - except for the purely fun kind!

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GREAT NEWS from the International Rotary Conference in Birmingham, UK!
District Governor Ayman El-Dakhakhni emailed us:

Aloha from Birmingham, England!
 
I am writing to you from the 100th annual Rotary International convention.  Today in the first session in front of thousands and thousands of people, I was honored to be recognized as one of the top ten district governors in the world and the top district governor in North America.  The President of Rotary International, D.K. Lee had called us the "Leaders of the Leaders" and "The Worlds Best".  I just wanted to share the good news with you.  It’s very rare that a district receives this kind of distinguished honor.  As you know, there are over 530 districts worldwide and they all look forward to such an honor.  I would like to thank you for a great Rotary year and I would like to tell you that this honor was bestowed upon me because of you and your hard work.  As I said in our conference, you guys did it--I didn’t do it.  I was there to witness it and to cheer you on.  So, please accept my congratulations to all of you and please pass this great news to all our club members as they all participated in this great year.
 
Let’s look forward to another great year under the leadership of our District Governor Elect, Lisa Foster.
Ayman

Truly, DG Ayman and his District staff have been the wind beneath the wings of all our Clubs. He is an amazing leader in Service above self.