When the folks at Edith Rankin Memorial United Church created 50 young girls’ skirts to send to their partner church in in San Salvador, they had a problem.
The cost of shipping the dresses to the Church of Iglesia Bautista Emanuel and its minister Pastor Miguel proved prohibitive for the Kingston church.
Fortunately, Rotarian’s in Kingston, who were members of Edith Rankin Memorial were able to see an opportunity for other local Rotarians to help solve the problem.
One of the advantages of joining a local service organization is the opportunity it creates for members to use each other’s skills and knowledge, for personal business to business advantage. At times however, such networking also provides an opportunity to put their motto “Service Above Self” to good use to help others. That is what happened in this instance.
In this case, Gordon Sinclair, a member of the Edith Rankin Church, who had also once also been a member of The Rotary Club of Cataraqui Kingston knew that the church’s treasurer was still an active Rotarian with the Kingston Club. As a result, he asked Peter Merkley, if there was anyway The Rotary Club of Kingston’s members could help out.
As it was the holiday season, the clubs were pretty well closed down so a formal request for Club funds was out of the question. In the process of making inquires however, Merkley learned that immediate Past-president Elsabe Falkson and her husband Conrad were driving to Florida during the same period. He also knew that two other members Peter Burrell and his partner Carol Cartier were already wintering in Florida but in mid-January were flying to San Salvador to attend a Regional Rotary Conference.
Contacting both parties, Merkley was pleased when the Falkson’s agreed to drive the suitcase of dresses to Florida and deliver them to Burrell and Cartier who at their own expense c ould get them to San Salvador and deliver them to pastor Miquel and his parishioners .
Citizen’s overwhelmingly join club’s like Rotary because they want to give back to their own community. One of the things that Rotarians eventually learn however, is that international organization’s like Rotary International also view the “local” community to encompass all of the World’s people and that we have a responsibility to make that community better too.
The Falkson’s, Peter B and Carol C took advantage of their personal time at minimal personal inconvenience to put their networking to good use when they helped Anne Byron, the Edith Rankin Memorial member who drove the creation of those 50 dresses.