'Rotary Opened Opportunities for Me' the words of our new President Fiona Hinds delivering her remarks during the historical 2020-21 Virtual Installation Ceremony held on July 2, 2020:
"With the protocols having been established, I invite you tonight to join me on a Rotary journey of thanks and gratitude – of progress and friendship; of service and fellowship; a journey of commitment to our core values of integrity, service, diversity, leadership and fellowship it is a journey of Rotary and a journey which resonates the theme of this 2020-21 Rotary International year: ‘Rotary Opens Opportunities’.
In starting our journey tonight, I open with the words of our own Paul Harris who said “Rotary changes us and those we serve. I believe we can change the world one life at a time”
We are a We. We are a Team. We are a people of action and a people of service; we are a people who work together for the betterment of our societies and we are a people who will not be defeated by negatives.
We live by a test that asks four simple questions: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned; Will it build goodwill and better friendships; and Will it be beneficial to all concerned.
A test which empowers us in our Rotary journey to together say to any adversity: "be gone"; to any form of oppression or war or injustice: "be gone" and even to disease: "be gone; we have shown in our global fight against polio that we can say to disease: "be gone" and as we globally regionally and locally work to find ways to mitigate the crippling and adverse effects of the novel Coronavirus - Covid19 disease we hope that one day we can also tell this disease and or its adverse effects: "be gone".
Rotary Opens Opportunities - We open opportunities thanks to our fund raising projects which include but are not limited to our signature Carols by Candlelight, our Pride of Workmanship dinner, our RotaGames all of which afford us the opportunity to raise funds so that we can continue to serve our community. We thank those persons who have patronized our events and or donated over the years to them as you are part of our Rotary journey and make this journey possible. While some projects may vary from year to year, all projects are for the betterment of those in need and we assure you that each year with the funds raised at our fund raisers or by donations, we are able to put a smile on the faces of our Senior Citizens as we treat them to afternoon tea at Government House or on the faces of the children of the children’s homes when we treat them to days away from the home whether at the Wildlife Reserve or Harrison’s Cave or at their Children’s party in January or their beach party usually in May; we are committed to the wellness of our existing projects.
Our past makes us who we are and we tonight remember the many Rotary International themes from years gone which have allowed us to open opportunities: to name a few, in 1980-81 our Rotary theme was 'Take Time to Serve' – and we did and do! in 1995-96 our theme was 'Act With Integrity, Serve With Love, Work For Peace'; and yes, we did and do that also and in 2019-20 our theme was 'Rotary Connects the World' – and so it did.
So yes, even before this year’s theme was scripted our Rotary journey to open opportunities had commenced and was a journey of service of others with a smile, a journey of fellowship, a journey of integrity.
This year our mandate from our District Governor is to open opportunities to strive for peace and in the fight against childhood obesity. We have embraced this theme in our plans for the upcoming year and are committed to working with those in our communities who have dedicated much of their time to fighting childhood obesity.
On our journey this year we join with other Rotarians in recognizing the importance of the environment. Our club has over the years always recognized the importance of the environment and has embarked on many projects geared at sustainable living or protecting the environment and we are committed to continue.
We are also committing to continue our blood awareness programme “blood is one of the most precious gifts that anyone can give to another person – The Gift of Life – per the World Health Organization. We will continue our drive to educate our community on the importance of sustaining the blood bank and urge all of our members and our friends who can give - to give and open opportunities for others by simply the gift of blood.
Our youth - we recognize, learn from, and salute our young people – our Rotaractors, Interactors and EarlyActors and our children at the Schoolhouse for Special Needs, all of whom are part of our Rotary family.
We remain committed to our children everywhere and as such in our donations of time money and indeed tablets we will also not forget the children in need at our own Schoolhouse for Special Needs are committed to continuing to open opportunities for them so that they may dream big, be inspired to serve and in turn open opportunities for others.
Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation are part of our journey. Tonight I ask you to join with me in opening the opportunity for others in the world by giving to Rotary International and to The Rotary Foundation so that the Foundation may continue its work in promoting peace in the advancement of goodwill, improvement of health, support of education and alleviation of poverty.
On a personal note I would have to say that Rotary opened opportunities for me. I thank my father Patrick Hinds ( now deceased but a member of this club) and my mother Marcia Hinds who was his partner-in-service who together showed my sister Michele, my brother Ian and myself the joys of Rotary fellowship and the importance and joy of giving to others. We grew up in a home where giving to others was ingrained in us. We grew up in a home where other Rotarians dropped in to say hi or to offer support in times of need. We grew up understanding the Rotary journey.
Yes, I am a Rotary Baby and yes, I together with my siblings proudly joined hands with our parents in 1979 in this club’s national chain link project which reinforced the importance of community and fellowship.
I also recognize and thank my children Joshua and Dominique Lafond - who have also opened opportunities for me – none is ever too old to learn or to grow and children teach you that. My children have shown me that age is not a deterrent in opening opportunities for others as they too continue to serve in their own way in their communities and constantly teach me how to be a better person. They give me ideas on inspiring others, and I thank them for this. To be fair, they also are my sounding board and listen and critique my speeches with the hopes that I would not be boring (if I am--all me--and to them, apologies).
Finally, Rotary Opens Opportunities - Rotary opened the opportunity for tonight. with the inception of the COVID-19 protocols we had to adjust – our weekly face to face meetings were changed to weekly virtual meetings and so we, the club, learned how to use Zoom and zoomed our way to tonight. Tonight, we learned how to celebrate and enjoy a magnificent virtual installation ceremony–on Zoom.
Our Installation Team worked tirelessly to make tonight’s virtual ceremony the best ever and a "wow" moment for each of us it has been.
To Rotarian Keri Mapp, job well done. From the moment you started until now I have been at "wow". You have successfully coordinated this event together with your team comprising PDG David Edwards, PP Peter Williams, PP Elvin Sealy, Secretary Ermine Darroux and Immediate Past Sergeant-at-Arms Peter Arender.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
To all of you present tonight - thank you for your support and attention and I hope that you have appreciated this Rotary journey and are inspired to join us Rotarians as we continue on this journey.
May you each be empowered to open opportunities for others so that at the end of this Rotary year you may join with us and say yes, we opened opportunities - yes, we helped.
I thank you. I now bring this meeting to a close and ask that we raise our glasses to a toast to Rotary International. To Rotary International!
Our past makes us who we are and we tonight remember the many Rotary International themes from years gone which have allowed us to open opportunities: to name a few, in 1980-81 our Rotary theme was 'Take Time to Serve' – and we did and do! in 1995-96 our theme was 'Act With Integrity, Serve With Love, Work For Peace'; and yes, we did and do that also and in 2019-20 our theme was 'Rotary Connects the World' – and so it did.
So yes, even before this year’s theme was scripted our Rotary journey to open opportunities had commenced and was a journey of service of others with a smile, a journey of fellowship, a journey of integrity.
This year our mandate from our District Governor is to open opportunities to strive for peace and in the fight against childhood obesity. We have embraced this theme in our plans for the upcoming year and are committed to working with those in our communities who have dedicated much of their time to fighting childhood obesity.
On our journey this year we join with other Rotarians in recognizing the importance of the environment. Our club has over the years always recognized the importance of the environment and has embarked on many projects geared at sustainable living or protecting the environment and we are committed to continue.
We are also committing to continue our blood awareness programme “blood is one of the most precious gifts that anyone can give to another person – The Gift of Life – per the World Health Organization. We will continue our drive to educate our community on the importance of sustaining the blood bank and urge all of our members and our friends who can give - to give and open opportunities for others by simply the gift of blood.
Our youth - we recognize, learn from, and salute our young people – our Rotaractors, Interactors and EarlyActors and our children at the Schoolhouse for Special Needs, all of whom are part of our Rotary family.
We remain committed to our children everywhere and as such in our donations of time money and indeed tablets we will also not forget the children in need at our own Schoolhouse for Special Needs are committed to continuing to open opportunities for them so that they may dream big, be inspired to serve and in turn open opportunities for others.
Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation are part of our journey. Tonight I ask you to join with me in opening the opportunity for others in the world by giving to Rotary International and to The Rotary Foundation so that the Foundation may continue its work in promoting peace in the advancement of goodwill, improvement of health, support of education and alleviation of poverty.
On a personal note I would have to say that Rotary opened opportunities for me. I thank my father Patrick Hinds ( now deceased but a member of this club) and my mother Marcia Hinds who was his partner-in-service who together showed my sister Michele, my brother Ian and myself the joys of Rotary fellowship and the importance and joy of giving to others. We grew up in a home where giving to others was ingrained in us. We grew up in a home where other Rotarians dropped in to say hi or to offer support in times of need. We grew up understanding the Rotary journey.
Yes, I am a Rotary Baby and yes, I together with my siblings proudly joined hands with our parents in 1979 in this club’s national chain link project which reinforced the importance of community and fellowship.
I also recognize and thank my children Joshua and Dominique Lafond - who have also opened opportunities for me – none is ever too old to learn or to grow and children teach you that. My children have shown me that age is not a deterrent in opening opportunities for others as they too continue to serve in their own way in their communities and constantly teach me how to be a better person. They give me ideas on inspiring others, and I thank them for this. To be fair, they also are my sounding board and listen and critique my speeches with the hopes that I would not be boring (if I am--all me--and to them, apologies).
Finally, Rotary Opens Opportunities - Rotary opened the opportunity for tonight. with the inception of the COVID-19 protocols we had to adjust – our weekly face to face meetings were changed to weekly virtual meetings and so we, the club, learned how to use Zoom and zoomed our way to tonight. Tonight, we learned how to celebrate and enjoy a magnificent virtual installation ceremony–on Zoom.
Our Installation Team worked tirelessly to make tonight’s virtual ceremony the best ever and a "wow" moment for each of us it has been.
To Rotarian Keri Mapp, job well done. From the moment you started until now I have been at "wow". You have successfully coordinated this event together with your team comprising PDG David Edwards, PP Peter Williams, PP Elvin Sealy, Secretary Ermine Darroux and Immediate Past Sergeant-at-Arms Peter Arender.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
To all of you present tonight - thank you for your support and attention and I hope that you have appreciated this Rotary journey and are inspired to join us Rotarians as we continue on this journey.
May you each be empowered to open opportunities for others so that at the end of this Rotary year you may join with us and say yes, we opened opportunities - yes, we helped.
I thank you. I now bring this meeting to a close and ask that we raise our glasses to a toast to Rotary International. To Rotary International!
I invite each of you to join with us for our post meeting fellowship immediately following. " President Fiona July 2, 2020