Focus on youth

After picking up my first copy of The Rotarian, I realized that the main focus of the magazine is Rotary itself, showing Rotarians or even helping them get involved in helping their society and promoting goodness throughout the world. I think it would be wonderful if you would publish a special edition on how Rotary helps young people.

The best way to have a future is to start with the youth. I attended a Rotary Youth Leadership Awards camp four years ago. I can’t put into words what a difference it made in my life and how I was able to grow in just one short week into the person I never knew existed. I have just recently finished my position as head junior counselor for the RYLA camp in Colorado, USA.

Kaycie Artim
Littleton, Colo., USA

GSE team blogs trip

Our lives revolve around technology, and a Group Study Exchange team from District 9450 in Western Australia tapped into this great opportunity. The team, which I led, created a blog to tell the story about their journey, reporting each day on what the team did. It kept loved ones and friends in touch whilst the team was away but also shared and extended the journey with the people from District 5330 (California, USA). It meant that no one person was responsible [for writing it], and we have a great way of promoting Rotary and the program in an avenue that appeals to the target market. The blog address is www.gse2007.blogspot.com.

It would be great to see more teams using technology like blogs to not only document their journey but also continue to promote Rotary in a positive light to a generation that is technologically savvy and are the future members of Rotary.

Rebecca Moore
Perth, Australia

Publicize action groups

At the RI Convention in Salt Lake City, I had my first exposure to Rotarian Action Groups. Why had I never heard of these before? This seems like a good focus for an upcoming issue of The Rotarian.

As best I could tell, there are groups for most or all of the types of assistance projects that Rotary is known for, and they seemed to be a way for individual Rotarians to support their specific interest, whether or not their club is involved.

I would like to see articles about some of the different Rotarian Action Groups and how they fit into the overall scheme of doing good around the world. I’ll bet there are plenty of other Rotarians who don’t already have this information.

Carole McWilliams
Bayfield, Colo., USA

Keep RI out of population control

There have been several letters in the past few months proposing that Rotary get involved in population control to preserve our scarce resources. The only true resource on this earth is human beings. Curiosity, imagination, and technical learning as it exists in people, the resource. Iron ore would merely be pretty red rocks up in the mountains had some people not figured out how to make them into iron and steel and a myriad of worthwhile products.

For those Rotarians who believe that population control is a good thing, let them join organizations that are dedicated to population control. Please don’t let them change Rotary.

John G. Arch
Pittsburgh, Pa., USA

Rotarians help Rotarians

Our club, the Rotary Club of Rancho Bernardo Sunrise (San Diego), Calif., USA, was hit hard by the recent firestorms in the San Diego area. We are a club of 65 members, and four lost their homes and one member’s son lost his home. From the moment we could mobilize our members, we epitomized Service Above Self and formed teams to assist our Rotary family members in recovering anything of value from the ashes and rubble of their homes.

I am so proud of our club’s members. When disaster hit other areas of our Rotarian world in the past several years, we contributed in the relief efforts; when disaster hit in our backyard, our members stepped up to the challenge. Rotarians share, and in this time of great loss, my Rotary club proved that we take care of our own as well as others throughout the world. I am so proud to be a Rotarian.

Carl Kruse
Poway, Calif., USA