Rotary Club of Northlakes Toukley In Touch June 2014 | Page 4

RI President Message

built around making sure that we give people a reason to be in Rotary. I believe that if we can get prospective members to help us with a project – it could
be reading to kids, or working in a soup kitchen, or
picking up trash along the highway – the rest will take
care of itself. They will realize that they made a difference in someone's life. And they'll also realize that
when you give through Rotary service, you get so
much more in return.
I also asked each one of you to make a gift of some
amount to our Rotary Foundation. All of our governors did that and became the first class in the history
of Rotary to make that commitment.
Sometimes we get comfortable in going to our club
and not having any responsibility. Maybe it's because
we haven't been asked to be more engaged. And, of
course, it's great to go to your meeting and see your
friends. But if you want to get fired up, you need to
be doing projects. Hands-on projects are great equal-

Rotary International President

izers. When you're unloading boxes off a truck,

Ron D. Burton

you're just like the next person, and that person is
just like you. When everyone's serving together,
there's a camaraderie, and that's how you keep peo-

JUNE 2014

ple engaged.
Rotarians sometimes don't realize all that Rotary is

We have a saying in Oklahoma that you need to leave
the woodpile just a little higher than you found it. To
do that, I needed to ask you to get involved. Involvement is what our theme this year – Engage Rotary,
Change Lives – is all about. And, as each of us has
done that – as each of us has gotten up out of our

doing and is capable of doing. If they could witness
the impact of the projects I have seen this year, it
would change their lives. They would understand that
they belong to an organization whose members have
a common desire to do something good and who,
working together, accomplish incredible things.

chairs and truly engaged Rotary – we have