Why Rotary?
by Evan Walter
As a high school junior, I applied to be a long-term Rotary Exchange Student. It was going through the outbound preparation process that I learned what Rotary is about, and why the world needs Rotary.
As part of the preparation process, I began attending meetings of my sponsoring club, the Rotary Club of San Antonio, and participated in interviews with the Club’s Youth Exchange committee. I matriculated through an entire day of interviews with Rotarians and past exchange students. Once selected, I began attending prep meetings and a weekend retreat with current inbound students and members of my outbound class.
It was from this myriad of interactions with people from all over South and Central Texas, and ultimately all over the world, that I came to appreciate why the world needs Rotary.
Individually, these wonderful people were very different, shaped by their experiences, and their local communities. And it was Rotary that brought them together.
Rotary facilitated conversations that otherwise would have never taken place. As students, we learned to respect the perspectives of others, whether we agreed with them or not. We learned to listen more, talk less, and understand how another person’s experiences and the environment in which they live influenced their perspective on the world.
Whether we realize it or not, every Tuesday when we gather we have that same opportunity that I had when I was in high school. Our club is a mixture of people whose paths might never have crossed were it not for Rotary. When we share a meal together at our tables, we talk, and hopefully listen more, and allow our perspectives to bend a little as we absorb the different viewpoints shared by our fellow members.
Our Oklahoma City community, and communities all over the world, are strengthened each week following a Rotary meeting, and over time our global society is strengthened as Rotary grows.
Since high school, as a professional, I have participated on a Rotary Group Study Exchange Team to the Czech and Slovak Republics, my wife and I have led District 5750’s Wings of Rotary Team to Japan (coincidentally the same country where I did my yearlong exchange in high school), we have hosted inbound Japanese Wings students, and we are hopeful our high school-aged daughter will be able to participate in a future Rotary exchange program. BUT our most impactful accomplishment in Rotary is when we bring a guest to a meeting and recruit a new member to Rotary. Our club becomes stronger, Oklahoma City becomes stronger, and our world becomes that much better.
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