
I had the privilege to meet our Rotary International President 2011-2012 Kalyan Banerjee at the President Elect Training Seminar and I was very impressed and touched by his speech:
“As you reach within yourself, you will find the presence of a small voice that cannot be heard by outside ears, the presence of a small light that cannot be seen by outside eyes. To hear that voice your heart is the ear, and to see that light your mind is the eye. These are no ordinary voice or light, small as they may be; they encompass the infinite power that will manifest through the heart and the mind, and your body will feel the awakening of a new magnetism, a new spirit, new energy — indeed, a new way of looking at life.
You may ask how does one touch or embrace humanity? It is so large, so varied, so diverse, so spread out. Humanity is composed of each human being, and your embracing one person or a cause that helps one person will have the ripple effect to spread to the entire society, embracing all humanity.”
Reach Within to Embrace Humanity. That will be the theme of my presidential Rotary year 2011-2012.
Isn’t that wonderful? It couldn’t be better! If I look at the logo I can only say that this is a perfect logo for this theme: It comes out of the heart it embraces, it’s colorful and more important it radiates love.
Through this theme and logo I will be your leader for the next year and I am thrilled and honored to be your president of 2011-2012.
In this year we will have three emphasis’s in our Rotary service:
First emphasis: Family
I invite everyone to join the Winchester Rotary.
Talk to your friends, your business partners, your clients, your neighbors. If you think you would like to be a Rotarian or they want to know more about Rotary I invite you to our lunch meetings on Thursday at the Parish of the Epiphany Church in Winchester. What do you get: a nice lunch, a nice social talk, a good speaker program and most important…you could mean a lot for the Winchester community.
Hope to see you all
Second Emphasis Continuity
To continue with the activities (Oktoberfest-Pancake Breakfast-Golf tournament) we have already organized and which were very successful to raise money for the needs in our community.
Third emphasis:Change
Rotary it is not only about attending the meetings every Thursday, it’s about engagement.
The more people we get engaged to Rotary the easier the service will get done.
My wish at the end of my presidential year will be that all my fellow Rotarians will say:
“Winchester Rotary is the best hour I spend in my week!!”
I hope that we will have a lot of fun by meeting each other talking to each other and doing all our services within the back of our mind:
‘Reach within to embrace humanity’
Carla C.M. Suijkerbuijk
President 2011-2012
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