It was a tremendous momentous experience for the Rotarians of District 3080 to meet with their world leader in person, face-to-face. Down-to-earth, focussed, and very sharp...Ray Klinginsmith flew in to Chandigarh after a long 20-hours journey from USA accompanied by RI Director K.R. Ravindran.. He was received at the airport by Past Rotary International President Rajendra K. Saboo, RI Director Elect Yash Das, District Governor Madhukar Malhotra, and their respective aides, PDG Parmod Vij and PDG Yoginder Dewan. After catching a few winks at Hotel Taj, he spent an hour with the participants of District 3080 Leadership Academy, whose 10th batch was on. In the evening, he mingled with the RI officers, and then over 300 Rotarians from all over the District in the auditorium of Chandigarh Judicial Academy.
After recognising the contributors to The Rotary Foundation and the volunteer doctors and Rotarians of Rotary Medical Missions, 'Rahat', he left the podium, and gracefully walked into the centre of the stage that established a great contact with the audience immediately.
He commended the Rotarians for their humanitarian work. "Thank you for being a Rotarian and doing what you do," he said.
"You're succeeding on the polio eradication remarkably," he added, "and it is the Rotarians in India who would win most of the credit for eradicating polio from the world."
Referring to the difficult time that the world economies went through in last couple of years with dwindling resources, he reiterated, "Rotary would not have been what it is today, without India."
He reminded every Rotarian to be proud of being a Rotarian, for "your efforts in contributing US$ 1 billion to polio eradication efforts worldwide, for the fellowship, for helping people in other countries."
"Keep in mind, Rotary is making the world a better place...and no one does it better," Ray concluded.
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