District Governor John Hutcherson was our speaker today! He is a member of the Fredericksburg Morning Rotary Club. He shared with us a little of his background with Rotary. Three years ago his wife, Judy, was District Governor. In 2002 John joined the Fredericksburg Rotary Club which meets at 6:45 a.m. The reason John joined Rotary is because their main goal is to eradicate the Polio virus around the world. When he was in the 5th grade a classmate, Geraldine Miller got polio. Geraldine's cousin also got polio and from diagnosis to her death was 6 short weeks. He shared that at one of their meetings "there was a guy from the Kerrville Rotary Club that bugged them to served." John wondered "Why should they want to do anything different since everything was going just fine as it was?" John Peterson was Governor at the time and asked John to be the Polio Plus Chair. Judy was President of the club before John was. Jason Fritz was District Governor and asked a probing question: "When did you become a Rotarian? When did it sink in?" John and Judy traveled to India with Rotary in 2009 to participate in National Immunization Day and actually helped administer the polio vaccine drops. They participated in service projects while they were in India and he observed some men digging ditches - turned out they were Pharmacists from France - doing service projects, laying bricks. John was a little offended that the Brits were in charge (not Americans)! He was impressed by the fact that people from around the world like France, India, Canada and the US were working together on service. John said "Rotary, through service builds peace." John drew our attention to Rotary International's top ranking with Charity Navigator.
"Charity Navigator, the largest independent evaluator of U.S. charities, ranks the 10 top charities from the more than 8,000 organizations it reviews each year. Rotary International is Ranked #1 with a Score of 100" To find out more click HERE!
“Charitable givers should feel confident that these national institutions put their donations to good use.” – Charity Navigator
As is our custom, a book will be donated to the Locke Hill Elementary School in honor of our speaker today!
Thank you for coming to our meeting today, John! We hope you have time to visit us again soon!
Donate to sponsor DG John Hutcherson on the 37th El Tour de Tucson. Participants will ride 100 miles in support of Rotary-Ride to End Polio. The goal is $50 Million Dollars. Rotarians are required to log-in to My Rotary to donate.