Canton NY Rotary - A Message from the Club President

As you may be aware, the year 2007-2008 was a special and great year for our CantonRotary Club. The CantonClub had the opportunity to see new members joining the club, bringing our membership total to 47 Rotarians. Additionally, for the first time in the history of District 7040 and the CantonRotary Club, our two Ambassadorial Scholarship candidates were selected to represent District 7040 abroad.

As part of this year’s agenda, we will make every effort not only to retain our new members but also to add new names to the roster. Our new members are integrating themselves very well with the established Rotarians and they bring new ideas and great enthusiasm that is needed to cultivate and elevate the interest of both our membership and the community at large.

The success of the Ambassadorial Scholarship for the year 2007-2008 has given us the incentive to open the program to all students of our Canton High School by starting when potential applicants demonstrate interest and then having them complete applications when they reach the junior year at their university. Utilizing our successful applicants to serve as ambassadors of the program also helps to promote the concept.

Attending the World Community Service (WCS) meetings has made us aware that small projects can have a significant impact in providing the basic needs for clean water and modern sanitation that we take for granted on a daily basis. We can, and must, continue to pursue advanced projects that will enable our club to take its place among all of the other Rotary Clubs that promote international service through projects at the local level.

We currently have an international program with the Shelter Box and the Group Study Exchange but this is not enough. The CantonRotary Club can, and hopefully will, work to become involved in establishing a project relationship with another Rotary Club in Africa or South America. Basic projects like safe drinking water, sanitary septic systems, education projects or even hospital projects to insure lower mortality rates are synonymous with the Rotary mission. Some communities abroad need our help and we can play a pivotal role in improving the basic standard of living in these third world countries.

During 2007-2008 the CantonRotary Club realized significant growth and advancement. We anticipate that in 2008-2009, we will realize even greater growth and opportunity for new programs, due to the extraordinary talents and commitment of our members. We fully intend to make this a banner year for the CantonRotary Club.

We will not forget our local community, and we hope to provide to our Humanitarian Organization all the help that we can muster for them.

Serving everyone here and abroad, while remembering our motto of “Service above Self” is something that all members of our CantonClub can embrace and implement during this next membership year.

We thank all of our members for their support and dedication.

Yours in Rotary,

Rene-Paul Forier, Canton Rotary Club President

Linda McQuinn, Canton Rotary Club Vice-President

JULY 2008