A new perspective

Thank you for the June issue. The photographs are extraordinary. As an optometrist, I have looked into thousands of eyes in more than 50 years, but I have never seen the inside of the eye as photographed by Rotarian Lennart Nilsson.

Paul Slaton
Hopkins, Minn., USA

Familiar faces

As I was looking at all of the wonderful photos in the June issue, I was surprised to see some familiar faces on the bottom of page 63. Although the Rotarians in the photo were identified simply as “volunteer sergeants-at-arms,” I recognized Anthony and Marina Kasenda from my Group Study Exchange trip to Brazil in 2005. Anthony was the district coordinator from District 4590, who hosted my team from southeastern Massachusetts (7950). He and all of the Rotarians from that district showed us the most amazing time. The exchange made such an impression on me that I became a Rotarian the following year. I wanted to let everyone know who these two dedicated folks are and to say to them, “Muito obrigada!”

Colleen Garrett
Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., USA

Newsletter help?

On page 6 of the June issue is an invitation to subscribe to the Membership Minute. The URL takes you to the Member page, but no Membership Minute or way to subscribe can be found. Help, please.

John Challender
Cumberland, B.C., Canada

Editor’s note: Go to www.rotary.org/newsletters. From there, you can subscribe to the Membership Minute and other e-newsletters too.  

Safe blood saves lives

I want to thank everyone involved in the Safe Blood Africa project in Nigeria featured in the April issue. More lives have been saved courtesy of the blood bank donation. I donated blood for the first time in my life about three months ago at a Rotary club that had it as a project, and I am sure it is not going to be the last.

Johnson Badejoko
Ibadan, Nigeria

Heartbeat history

I have been the secretary of the Rotary Club of Ludhiana’s pacemaker bank ever since its inception in 1986. I was dismayed that your article “The Beat Goes On” [May] makes no mention of Rotarian Henry D. McIntosh, the first president of Heartbeat International, who started the organization and nurtured it for a number of years, with the support of Past District Governor Roy Asbury and others. He devoted his postretirement life to this cause.

K.K. Dhir
Ludhiana, India

Kudos

Congratulations on the improved – and improving – magazine. The subjects are fresh and imaginative, the writing is excellent, and the photographs are very good. Keep up the good work.

Cliff Smoot
Ukiah, Calif., USA

Proud Rotarian

We here in South Africa, at the bottom of the world, are not always aware of Rotary International’s reach worldwide. What a wonderful surprise I had when I watched the BBC News on 16 May. As the proceeds of donated goods for the Burma disaster were “flashed” around the world, what did I see? A ShelterBox with our Rotary wheel on the side. In short, it made me feel very proud of being a member of such a humanitarian organization.

Hansine Wagner
Vanderbijlpark, South Africa

Convention suggestions

Bravo to Caralyn Bell Percy for her renditions of the U.S. and Canadian national anthems at the 2008 RI Convention, and bravo to all participants of the preplenary entertainment groups. Suggestion: Let us find a way to help Rotarians learn how to respect our guest entertainers who are performing as we enter the conference hall. Perhaps a large banner at the hall entrances requesting “Quiet: Entertainers Performing.” Also, let us consider a tradition of all Rotarians singing “Let There Be Peace on Earth” at the convention closing, with words provided on the visual screens, both in English and in the language of the host country, and including the joining of hands throughout the audience.

Norm Peters
Georgetown, Texas, USA

Route 66 sites

Mark Mitchell’s journey along Route 66 was intense and colorful, but he stopped reporting about Rotary clubs long before the highway brought him to the West Coast. If he hadn’t called it quits near the Nevada border, he would have encountered the Rotary Club of Glendora, Calif., which meets at a restaurant right on Highway 66. In fact, Glendora was one of the first cities in the nation to rename an existing street with the number moniker. Further exploration within the community would have revealed to him the Youth Hut building constructed in the central park by the club and the pedestal clock downtown erected to commemorate Rotary’s centennial celebration in 2005.

Keith Van Vliet
Glendora, Calif., USA

Magic of a Rotary pin

During a recent lecture tour in the United Kingdom, my host took me to a home for dementia patients in southern England. In the garden, we encountered a patient, dressed in a suit and tie, sitting with a beautiful young woman. I was told that this man had been a successful bank officer, and the woman was his daughter. She would visit him once a week, and he thought she was his wife, who had died years back. When I was introduced as an overseas visitor, he greeted me and then his eyes fell on my Rotary lapel pin. “Are you a Rotarian?” he asked. I was taken aback! His daughter explained that he had been a devoted Rotarian for over 25 years, never missed a meeting, and had been his club’s president. This was years before, yet he had a strong memory of that part of his life while forgetting other aspects. A small pin, insignificant to many casual onlookers, was a part of his life he had treasured. How many of us, still in possession of our memory, have that feeling, and really care about the spirit and essence that the pin stands for?

Madhav Chaudhary
Akola, India

Unusual meeting

While attending a business conference in Scottsdale, Ariz., USA, five other Rotarians and I decided to make up a meeting with the Rotary Club of Scottsdale Papago, which meets at 7 a.m. at a local restaurant. As we were waiting for the restaurant to open, I saw few cars in the parking lot. But also waiting there to attend the meeting were a Rotarian from France and another from Tampa, Fla., USA. When a local Rotarian with a badge on his lapel entered the restaurant through a side door, we all rushed in behind him. The restaurant employees were surprised to see the nine of us, as that week’s meeting had been canceled; the man with the name badge was the only one who hadn’t gotten the message. Undiscouraged, our group (from eight U.S. states and France) took a table and conducted an impromptu program, which consisted of all of us talking about Rotary in our lives. At the end, the Texan volunteered to pick up the tab, but we didn’t forget to extract some money from everyone at the table. Because we were all obviously happy, we each gave two “happy dollars” to the local member for his club’s charity fund. And the meeting ended with everyone reciting The Four-Way Test.

Edna C. McCall
Crystal Lake, Ill., USA

Korean ambassadors

Your articles “Heart and Seoul,” “A legacy of leadership,” and “Rotary in Korea” [July] were excellent. They provided a wonderful glimpse of this great country and marvelous insight into the life and the goals of our new RI president.

You failed to mention one of Korea’s leading “exports”: the many charming young lady golfers who are having such an impact upon the LPGA tour. They are wonderful ambassadors for their country.

Bill Sturtz
Albert Lea, Minn., USA

Kudos

Congratulations on a wonderful article about the Mother Road written by Mark Mitchell [“Road Trip,” May]. Mitchell, however, missed seeing two outstanding landmarks on this highway just east of Oklahoma City. In Arcadia, there is the historic Round Barn building and Pops Restaurant and gasoline venue. My son, Aubrey, built Pops last August. It has a 66-foot-high lighted pop bottle in front, over 7,500 filled bottles of pop in the windows, and more than 525 brands of soda pop in the coolers. Pop sales are over 2,000 per day. The Web site is www.pops66.com.

Joe McClendon
Oklahoma City, Okla., USA