Ass’t Governor, Cyril Bernier introduced District Governor Jeff Coleman from Pflugerville who is most proud of his 9-year stint as Pflugerville’s Mayor. He hails from Corpus Christi and moved to Pflugerville in 2001 to open a State Farm Agency.
DG Jeff commended RC South Austin’s many different service projects and said that we have over 50% of our members at today’s meeting!! He was also glad to see our innovative fundraising initiative.
His focus is Creating Lasting Impact. His example of ‘Eva’, a 14-yr Ugandan girl that a Pflugerville Rotarian, Trudy, who was visiting Uganda, ‘found’. Eva was begging with her brother and her blind grandmother. Trudy is a retired teacher and saw a need for not only health needs but also education needs…. she asked Rotarians for help…and Rotary stepped up by assisting to create libraries, now numbering 30 and numerous health resources which has changed so many lives in Uganda…creating a lasting impact.
Jeff stated that Rotarians “change” themselves by seeing a need to change a community. And making that change changes us. So, when we do our ‘dirty hands and sore back’ projects, we change the world and subsequently change ourselves.
So, Jeff asks us…why are we in Rotary? What gives us purpose?
One thing about ‘Changing the World’, it takes money….and that is being done through the Rotary Foundation. Our club has done a very generous job of contributing to the Foundation, but DG Jeff is asking us to do ‘better than our best’. He introduced Rotary Direct, a platform for Rotarians to set up recurring online giving:
Link: Rotary Direct | My Rotary
DG Jeff has three impact actions for Rotary to ‘do something’!
October 24---World Polio Day….plan a fundraising walk. The District will have a district wide walk, but clubs are free to have their own in their club area
May 15---National Rotary Service Day---plan a service project on that day
Outreach Program—Water System to Tanzania…this is DG Jeff’s project to provide clean water with at least ten filtration systems costing about $5,000 apiece. He would like to take 20 but will need clubs to commit to the funding ….these 20 filters will change the lives of 12,000 individuals!
The Governor is asking each club to commit to at least one of the three impact action items. DG Jeff relayed the story about PDG Billy Archibald who gave him a $100 bill with the caveat “grow this”! DG Jeff is setting up a challenge to Rotarians to contribute a $100 bill for the water project. He has two; he wants 48 more ($100 bills) to purchase one of the filtration systems.
He closed with two questions:
What’s your purpose?
Whose life will be different because you are a member of this club?
