Birmingham Report

John had photos of Rotarius with airport customs officials, at the changing of the guard, in a taxicab, at a chamber-of-commerce-created beach in Birmingham, checking in at the convention, touring Warwick Castle, watching bagpipers, enjoying a jousting match, visiting Henry VIII, greeting Jay DeCou of Atascadero, being held by various and assorted dignitaries, including past presidents D.K. Lee and Rick King. Jay DeCou has his own version of Rotarius. Rotarius even managed to get temporarily detained by British Bobbies. President John says Rotarius is a real attention-grabber, which none of us would deny.

John was impressed by the number of countries represented at the convention. There are only a few countries in the world without Rotary, and the full impact of that hits you at the convention when 17,000 people from over 100 countries gather together in Friendship Hall. Many Rotarians wear their country's native costumes, and the swirl of colors and babble of many languages is really impressive. Rotarius had a marvelous time with all of that.

John and Christine attended several workshops to learn about Rotary and its many worldwide projects. We all have to raise $200 million to match some of the $355 million donated by the Gates Foundation. One talk featured a young man who donated $1,200 to Polio Plus, because he was so impressed with Rotary's efforts. He isn't even a Rotarian and that money was his entire life savings.

President John also showed a photo of an iron lung. It is very scary to contemplate how common iron lungs were in this country in the 1950s and 1960s. I saw one in a museum in Flagstaff when I visited with a friend who has post-polio syndrome. She greeted the iron lung as an old friend, saying it was the only thing that kept her alive for a couple of years when her respiratory system was paralyzed. She was a 22-year-old college student in Panama when she contracted polio. Hopefully we will be able to invite her to speak to us about the devastating effects of post-polio syndrome.

President John found Chungsam Doh running the World Choir and hanging out with his friend, D.K. Lee.Chungsam is the very first American District Governor from Korea.

President John learned that there is a Rotarian Fellowship for every activity under the sun, from ham radio operators to RVers, from musicians to motorcycles.

Some of the speakers included primate researcher and humanitarian Jane Goodall and Honorary Rotarian actress Mia Farrow.

Andrea Klipfel wanted to know what the most compelling moment was. John responded that he learned that Rotary really does care. Convention participants show what Rotary does. They show how much poverty there is in the world and the impact that Rotarians have on their fellow man. We face enormous challenges in the world but we face them with a huge organization that really cares about solutions.

President John said the food was really good, although it was a little odd to have baked beans with breakfast. It took 27 hours to get home, which was a bit much. They enjoyed their tours of the Tower of London and St. Paul's Cathedral.They did a lot of walking.