District Governor visits Rotary

PRESCOTT – Rotary District Gov. Sherry Taylor was in town to visit members of the Prescott Rotary Club Tuesday afternoon.

She talked to the members about Interact and Rotaract clubs, students working with Rotary to do community activities, saying it builds strong youth leadership. Taylor said there are online training programs for both Interact and Rotaract, and it’s important to get proper permission before taking any photos with the students.

She said Rotary needs to offer an “irresistible” experience to get people interested and involved. The local Rotary board said the Prescott Club is working to help the elderly and those unable mow their yards and remove brush from around their homes, does food boxes with the food going to local food banks, and is planning to do monthly community feeds, along with donating to Imagination Library.

Taylor said the club’s public image is important, adding this year’s theme is “The Magic of Rotary”. Rotary, she continued, is like a family as the members work together to get things done. This was her first time visiting Prescott and she told the club it’s busy making a difference locally with the different projects it does.

Seminars, she said help give clubs time to network and talk about what they’re doing in their hometowns.

She pointed out Rotary International is giving a $37,000 scholarship to a student from the Mary Doyle Scholarship to study in another country. The students involved is from Hendrix and has already been in Japan. He will be using the scholarship to study in Sweden. Taylor added the district now has a district disaster readiness coordinator who knows who to contact in the event of an emergency.

Bouncing from topic to topic, Taylor talked about how work done in the districts goes around the world to help make it a better place. She also talked about a peace pole, saying she heard about it while in Houston, decided she wanted one, found out where to get one and began talking to the district board about buying one for Fordyce. What was supposed to be a surprise was spoiled when the Fordyce representative signed in to a Zoom call and heard what was being talked about. Fordyce will be getting a peace pole and it was discovered someone in Monticello could build them cheaper than what was originally found online. She said one of the district goals is promoting peace, adding the peace pole isn’t a Rotary thing.

Club members are being asked to give $61.70 more this year, as the district is 6170, with the money to be divided into different Rotary projects.

She said Rotarians need to be active and engaged to get others interested.