Rotarians found themselves in the midst of some national hysteria on Tuesday with sensible members being asked to search for an emotional response. Sandy Ketler was asking us why we love Rotary. This was especially difficult for grumpy old white guys like me, (who are averse to expressing our emotions), having to write down our favorite Rotary moments. Remember this; keep your head! Valentines Day is an apocalypse du jour.
Thankfully, Rotary rejects the reigning cliché of the day, that “in order to love others one must first learn to love oneself”. The Oprah effect! Thankfully, as a club we looked outside ourselves and declared overwhelmingly that international and community projects and fellowship are areas we embrace. We have a whole culture that has developed over the past 50 years, based on individualization and self love. This formulation—love thyself, then thy neighbour—is a licence for unremitting self indulgence, because the quest for self love is endless. By the time you have finally learned to love yourself, you’ll find yourself playing golf with Dennis Campbell at Leisure World, having out lived those you might have loved. Good job Sandy.
I would like to thank Sharron Simpson for her excellent presentation on the History of Kelowna. Her book intitled “The Kelowna Story an Okanagan History” is an excellent read, filled with notable characters and events. Salacious in spots and entertaining, I would highly recommend it to all those historians and pantomath’s in the club.
Bruce Henderson was kind enough to submit this bit of Rotary history for us.
When the Depression struck, the Kelowna Rotary Club, very much the community club, responded with local efforts. As early as 1929, the club instituted a relief fund, and in 1931 a special bank account was set up for assisting in the relief of local hardship. In 1933 a school soup kitchen was funded and in 1938 milk was bought for teachers to distribute to students. By 1935, all of the area’s relief agencies were combined and run jointly as the Kelowna and District Welfare Association in a consolidation engineered by the Rotary club. With this consolidation, relief work could be directed to where it was most desperately needed without various organizations working at cross-purposes. And, this new arrangement was certainly more cost effective. The Rotarian magazine in May of 1936, stated that “only one campaign for funds was necessary, and the cost of administration of the fund was reduced through the establishment of one distributing centre.” In September of this year the Kelowna Rotary club was the subject of a second story in the Rotarian magazine. “Because Kelowna’s major industry is fruit raising”, the article states,
And because that industry closes, for the most part, from Fall until Spring, unemployment during the Winter months is forced upon many of its citizens. To give them tangible help, the Rotary Club of Kelowna has within the past year established a relief agency which it calls the Kelowna and District Welfare Association… Every case is sympathetically investigated: deserving people may do something worthwhile in return for necessities and thus keep up their morale.
This last refers to the Welfare Association’s practice of having those who needed help run the food and clothing depots.
Bruce’s historical account is another example how the name Rotary suggest the best in human achievement. Rotary is defined by collective moments where we are grabbed by something in those difficult dilemmas that are never going to be reduced to a formula or a number. Since its inception Rotary has asked, answered and responded to challenges through common effort on the far side of selfless service. Rotary has become a celebration across all societies, in every country.
Murli Pendharkar will turn 89 on Tuesday February 19, grabbed by something, he remains on the far side of selfless service.