Rotary
International President Ron Burton's December 2013 Message
Dear fellow Rotarians,
RI President's message - December 2013
One winter day, Rotary founder Paul Harris
took a walk down a well-kept street just outside Chicago. Watching
children sledding down a hillside, he recalled his own boyhood in
New England. At that moment, he decided that if he ever were to
own a home, it would be on top of that hill on Longwood Drive. In
1912, Harris and his wife, Jean, made that dream a reality. They
named their new home Comely Bank, after the street where Jean grew
up in Scotland.
Over the years, the Harrises hosted Rotary
meetings and entertained visiting dignitaries, surrounded by objects
they had collected on their travels throughout the world. The trees
they planted in their friendship garden still grace the yard. In
1947, Harris died there; Jean sold the home not long afterward and
returned to Scotland.
The property changed hands twice more before the Paul and Jean Harris
Home Foundation purchased it in 2005. Through the efforts of that
group, and with the help of the Rotary clubs of Chicago and Naperville,
the Harris home has been saved from demolition. Now, it is up to
us to protect the home for posterity, as a place for Rotarians to
gather in the spirit of friendship and service.
The RI Board has agreed to loan $500,000 to
the Paul and Jean Harris Home Foundation to assist with the restoration
of this irreplaceable piece of Rotary history. A goal of $5 million
has been set for the project, to complete the necessary renovations
and to provide an endowment fund to allow the property to operate
as a museum and historic site.
I am committed to the restoration of the Paul
and Jean Harris Home and hope you agree that this project is worthy
of your support. My wife, Jetta, and I have made a contribution
to our Rotary Foundation to establish a donor advised fund to accept
contributions from anyone who shares our love of Rotary history,
and our desire to preserve Rotary's past.
If you would like to join us, please go to
www.rotary.org/daf and click on "How to Contribute." Include
the account name, "Paul Harris Home Preservation," and
number, 474. A gift of any size is welcome, and naming opportunities
are available in the home and garden for those who are considering
a larger gift. We are excited to have the opportunity to celebrate
the spirit of Paul Harris in this special way. Together, we can
save his home for generations of Rotarians to come.
Ron Burton, President, Rotary International
A year of major accomplishments
Rotary International President Kalyan
Banerjee (left) and Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair William B. Boyd
provided leadership throughout the 2011-12 year.
The 2011-12 Rotary year was a time of striving
for change in the context of Rotary continuity. We challenged ourselves
to Reach Within to Embrace Humanity — while Doing Good in
the World. In this annual report, you will see just a few examples
of the ways in which 1.2 million Rotarians worldwide worked to improve
the lives of people in need.
Tremendous strides were made toward the eradication
of polio. We made history on 13 January, when India marked one full
year without a single new case of the disease. Long considered the
toughest nut to crack, India has now been removed from the list
of polio-endemic countries — leaving just Afghanistan, Nigeria,
and Pakistan. Also in January, we were able to announce that Rotary’s
US$200 Million Challenge had been surpassed, six months ahead of
schedule. On 30 June, the Challenge closed, having raised over $228
million for polio eradication, thanks to the generosity of Rotarians
and friends of Rotary around the world. We are confident that Rotary
will continue to lead the way toward the momentous achievement of
global polio eradication.
During 2011-12 we also looked to the future,
through our new Future Vision grant model and the RI strategic plan.
We expanded Rotary’s reach in new and effective ways by entering
into partnerships with Mercy Ships, UNESCO-IHE, ShelterBox, the
Global FoodBanking Network, and Youth Service America. And we built
on our record of humanitarian service by continuing our strong relationships
with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative spearheading partners
(the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, and UNICEF) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation;
USAID; Aga Khan University; Oikocredit; Goodwill Industries International;
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library; the International Reading
Association; and the Rotary Peace Centers.
As we move forward into a new Rotary year
of building Peace Through Service, we can be proud of all that Rotarians
have accomplished — day by day, week by week, throughout the
world, together.
============================
Rotary
International Foundation Chair D. K. Lees
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