Our district’s two newest Interact clubs are the Interact
Club of Jenkins High School sponsored by the Whitesburg Club and Interact Club
of Boone County sponsored by the Rotary Club of Florence. Interact Clubs extend the ethical framework
and service of Rotary to young people at a critical crossroads in their lives. The Rotary Club of Pikeville has a new
Rotaract club underway for the medical students of Pikeville College who will
use this as a venue for medical service.
A special thank you is in order for all the clubs in our district that
sponsor and participate with the Interact and Rotaract clubs of our
district. We are planting seeds for future leaders of
our communities and our Rotary clubs.
Let us not forget Youth Exchange. Youth exchange is a vibrant and life changing
program that we share with the youth of our district and the world. Youth Exchange
is especially impressive when you think of the gift it gives to the exchange
student, allowing them to be fluent in another language and comfortable in
another culture. At the Otterbein
meeting for our outgoing students, I met a young woman who had just returned
from Turkey. She had already been
contacted by the US State Department because of the new language skill she had
acquired. Our Youth Exchange Chair,
Jack Lundy, has been tireless in his promotion of Youth Exchange and plans are
underway to develop a short term exchange with Brazil this year. Stay tuned for this exciting adventure we may
offer our district youth this summer.
As I visit the
clubs I am impressed by the efforts made by every club in our district for
youth beyond the New Generations programs of Rotary. RC Lexington Sunrise has adopted Arlington Elementary
School, RC Whitesburg is providing the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, and RC
Nicholasville distributed ten $1,000 scholarships, while teddy bears are a gift
of comfort for hospitalized children hospitalized from RC Louisa. The long term
potential of the achievements of the youth in our district that have been
impacted by Rotary and Rotarians is astounding.
Let’s keep
working for New Generations programs to create new Rotarians.
Yours in
Rotary Service,
Kathryn Hardman, District Governor
Rotary International District 6740