Alan Roberton invited me to speak at the Rotary Club of Herne Bay last night. Herne Bay is located along the Kent coastline, situated next to Whitstable which is famous for Oysters. Rochester and Manston are the nearest airfield and due to the weather i was unable to fly there.
My good friend Carl with me which was great. He has been following my interaction with Rotary and said that he learnt much about me and Rotary from the evening. He even said that he may consider becoming a Rotarian in a few years time.
What i found was that all the Rotarians for the first time felt connected to the Polio Plus programme. They have all give their time, money and other contributions to Rotary and they felt that i was the bridge that helped them to see clearly and understand how the campaign is run and how their money is spent.
One of the Rotarians came up to at the end and asked me if i knew about the Rotary Benevolent fund – “I don’t” i replied. Well what it is is people who wish to leave a financial donation to Rotary once they pass away. This Rotarian had lost faith in the organization for various reasons and withdraw his benevolent fund in his will. However, that after listening to me and learning about my experience with polio and my recent trip with RI in India – it had restored his faith in the organization and that he would redo his benevolent fund to Rotary.
I spoke about my past, a little about my work, a lot more about flying and why that is becoming my life and focused on Rotary International’s vision for a polio free world. They were all very captivated by the experience i shared with them from my time spent in India last year.
This is a very nice message i received this morning from one of the Rotarians.
“Your presentation last evening was brilliant, clearly the best we have had at Herne Bay for many, many years.”
