Editor's page (November 2007)

It figures that Wanda Arakaki Leopold is a Rotarian. She’s the type of person who starts out with a small idea, trying to do just one thing right. Then, despite any obstacles, she follows through with so much daring conviction that her idea invariably leads to myriad positive outcomes.

Take her current job, for instance. She’s president of a small suburban Chicago company that she started after having an epiphany one day at an event for family farmers.

When that happened about two years ago, Leopold was working as a court reporter. She also was trying to help her son in his quest to get his school vending machines to sell healthy food instead of junk food. And it occurred to her that there was a need for a conduit to link small, organic producers with the increasing number of consumers, schools, and restaurants looking for natural, wholesome products. Organic Networking Limited was born.

About the same time, Leopold was invited to join the Rotary Club of Mount Prospect Sunrise. It wasn’t long before she took on organizing and fundraising duties, combining her growing business expertise with her club’s needs. Selling natural cheese and sausage packages for a holiday fundraiser, described on page 25, is just one of Leopold’s ideas.

She also has helped her club raise money by selling organic, fair-trade chocolate. That’s because Leopold says it’s important to support ethical producers, especially small ones that are struggling to create a quality product.

You don’t have to travel half a globe away to meet people engaged in this struggle. Many can be found in our own neighborhoods or on the outskirts of our urban areas. Consider as just one example the dairy farmers who supply the milk for the specialty cheese that Leopold’s club sells. They are among only a handful of small, family-owned dairy operations in a northwestern Illinois county that only a few years ago was home to hundreds of them.

“It’s a whole social justice issue for me,” Leopold says. “That’s the only reason I’m doing this. I didn’t have a sales background. But for me it’s a passion to support these farmers. There’s people looking after corporate interests. But who is looking after the family farmer?”

Rotary is full of heroes like this – people doing what’s right on every scale. In this issue highlighting The Rotary Foundation, we salute them – the Rotarians who give in both large and small ways. Many are unsung heroes, but they all have something in common: They know that small ideas can turn into something big, especially when you follow through with daring conviction and combine your efforts with like-minded others.