In honor of Valentine’s Day, The Rotarian asked for tales of romance, Rotary style. Club members responded with stories that show how pursuing Rotary’s mission can sometimes lead to true love. Here’s how Rotarian Bryan Dickson found his sweetheart. You can read more tales of love in the February 2007 issue of The Rotarian.

My story begins in 1966, when I traveled on a Rotary Youth Exchange sponsored by the Rotary Club of Bairnsdale, Australia. The scholarship sent me to Southern California as a guest of the Rotary Club of La Cañada Flintridge.

Nearly everything about my host community was unfamiliar – especially my coed school.

Fortunately, I met Cathy Hudnall. Cathy’s family was hosting a student from Switzerland, and we met during activities arranged for our school’s exchange students.

We dated a bit, and soon my host family feared we were taking things too far. They reminded me that as a Youth Exchange student, I’d agreed to avoid romantic relationships during my stay. Ever dutiful, I promised to slow things down. But how to break the news to Cathy?

That’s when genius struck. I decided I simply wouldn’t speak to her anymore. To my adolescent mind, it was the height of finesse.

That was the last I saw of Cathy for a long time. I returned home, took a job at Qantas Airlines, joined the local Rotaract club, and eventually joined the Rotary Club of Newstead in Australia. Cathy went on to work for Citibank and eventually settled in Pasadena, California.

Thirty-five years later, Cathy re-entered my life. In 2001, she found my e-mail address from our high school alumni Web site and wrote me to say she was having a birthday party in Los Angeles. If I was nearby, I should drop in. I was skiing in Canada at the time, but that was nearby enough. We reconnected and dated long distance until our wedding in June 2005. Today, I’m a happy husband and a proud member of the La Cañada Flintridge club – the same club that welcomed me 40 years ago. Truly, what goes around, comes around!