Not all Rotary events are solely to raise funds for charity -
sometimes we like to remember we're human and "just" enjoy
ourselves. This is a report from one of our members' most recent
jaunts...
Janet’s trip to the Rotary Convention at Chicago 2005
As
Conventions only last 4 days, there’s every excuse to extend an
overseas trip and visit other places. So we spent one week with
Anne & Bill Robertson before the four of us went to Chicago.
They are both PDGs and you may remember they came to the Club
about 5 years ago?
Staying with Bill and Anne
is a very laid back experience. They have a lovely
bungalow which they had built about 8
years ago and much to Keith’s chagrin, they insist on growing trees
to cut out the sunlight! They had a lot of birds in the garden –
here’s the Ruby Throated Humming
Birds.
take us to their own Rotary Club! We never knew why! They live in
Fulton, Kentucky, a town of about 2,750, and it reminds me of a
1950’s film set. Its hey-day was when the railroad was in full
swing with the banana trains coming through. They used to stop at
Fulton to pick up fresh ice to keep the bananas in a healthy state
before they went further north. Since then, nothing very much has
happened in Fulton except it has sprung the biggest Wal-mart you
could imagine. We couldn’t believe why it would be built there
until we were told that the neighbours from Tennessee came to shop
because the Kentucky taxes were lower than Tenneessee’s!
Fulton Rotary Club is a bit
like the town very friendly but not exciting. However whilst we
were there, the Railroaders Baseball Team arrived, as it was their
annual 3 week tournament, and they came to the Rotary Club for a
free lunch. I don’t know whether you know but in America,
Rotarians love to sing at the beginning of their meetings – they
have song books. So what did we all sing? We’ve been working
on the railroad.
The speaker at that meeting
was giving the arguments for and against having hog farms in Fulton
County! What a contrast to any speaker we would have at Daybreak!
Our week with Anne and Bill
very quickly came to an end. It had been a joy seeing lovely
countryside, eating marvellous meals and catching their habit of
indulging in bourbons! No problem there!
But that’s not quite the end
of quaint old Fulton! Anne had decided that we should all travel
to Chicago by train. This entailed leaving Fulton at 1.04 am and
arriving at Chicago at 8.45 am. The train was terrific. We went
on the upper deck and had endless leg room – it really was
comfortable and we were only travelling in the standard seats.
However, Fulton station
was a
different matter – really just a shed and this is on the main line
from New Orleans to Chicago. As there was no platform at Fulton,
out came an upturned crate which helped us to board. There are no
taxis in Fulton and should you arrive at the station at some very
late hour and you are stranded, you can ring up the local police
station and they’ll collect you and take you home – what a service!
This is Anne & Bill with me waiting at the
station and here’s a picture of the
train arriving at Chicago Union Station.
When we arrived at the hotel
– the Hilton Garden Inn – they said we could have our rooms
immediately at 9.15 am. That was wonderful as we could unpack
before hunting out some breakfast.
No one had slept much on the
train but we decided to keep going and we went to
McCormick Place where the RI
Convention was being held. It was absolutely huge and very
rambling – we walked miles to get from one place to another!
When we had registered, we
have a ritual to head for the House of
Friendship to the concessions to see what bargains we can
pick up! The aisles between the popular ones were so full of
people we got stuck in gridlock but we did manage to grab a bargain
or two!
By 4.00 we were feeling
weary so it was back to the hotel for bourbon and to hunt out a
meal. People eat early in America – restaurants are full from 5.30
– so we had difficulty finding anywhere. The hotel had their
Webber Grill on the pavement so we went there. The food was fine
but it was noisy due to heavy traffic and there was a pong of fumes
from buses! The next 4 nights we were much better organised,
booking up restaurants early in the day.
The next day, Sunday, Keith
and I went on the ‘Race to the Finish’. This was a sponsored run or
walk to end polio with over 4000 participants. We chose the walk!
The walk started at 8.15 am from Soldier Field, the home of the
Chicago Bears. Here’s the start line
& here’s Keith No. 1634
And finally here’s a picture
of the walkers spreading out
and you
can see the stunning Chicago backdrop.
In the afternoon we went to
the Convention Centre for the opening ceremony. We met Bill and
Anne in the House of Friendship for lunch. There were some 40,000
at the Convention so there were 3 sittings of the Opening Ceremony
to cater for everyone.
One statistic I think worth
mentioning is that there are now 168 nations in Rotary and 161 were
represented. It is traditional, at the opening ceremony, to have a
parade of flags from every country. The number of flags we didn’t
recognise and the number of countries we’d never heard of put us to
shame.
On Monday there was an RIBI
breakfast at the Marriott Downtown Hotel. Over 630 people from
Britain and Ireland were there and it was good to meet up because
all the rest of the time we are meeting other people from at least
some of the 161 countries there!
We didn’t spend much time in
the plenary sessions as we wanted to do some sightseeing, including
an Architectural cruise up the Chicago River and then on Lake
Michigan passing the fabulous building on
the waterfront. What’s so amazing to me is traffic
management. If Chicago runs out of roads they seem to
build another on top of an existing one,
ditto railway lines and then they actually build condos on
top of railway tracks and the people in the buildings neither hear
nor feel the trains go underneath them.
Our sightseeing included the
Museum of Science &Industry and we managed to find our way back on a
bus! The museum turned out to be very popular so the queue to get
in was long. The staff members couldn’t believe how everyone in
the queue talked to everyone else in the queue until we explained
that talking is what Rotarians do best! To us that’s the best part
of the convention meeting so many people from different countries.
On Wednesday there was a
fairly short closing ceremony, followed by entertainment. We heard
about next year’s convention which will be in Denmark. Keith & I
think we’ll give this one a miss and save up for 2007 when the
Convention will be held in New Orleans – we’d really love to go
there.
There were some very good
exhibitions about the work that Rotary does and I was particularly
interested in Micro-credit by which very small loans are given to
women who are very poor and the loans, which they invariably repay,
helps them to set up their own small businesses. I am hoping we can
think about this.
It was a very colourful time
– great entertainment, some good talks, fabulous restaurants,
wonderful weather, scenery etc – an experience Keith and I will
always recommend.
Finally, did you hear about
the Rotarian who became President of his club for a second time?
Not particularly surprising as a lot of clubs have to re-cycle their
Presidents. Where this was different was that this Rotarian was
president of Rotary Club of Phoenix Thunderbird in the 1935-6.
Last year, Earle Frank became President for a second time round when
he was 100!
Just to show the range of
our members activities, recently this was achieved...
LANDS END TO JOHN O GROATS
Naomi Crosby set out on
her bike from Land’s End, the most southerly point of Britain, for
John O’Groats, the most northerly point. The distance is 1000 miles
and she spent 3 weeks cycling.
Naomi raised funds for
two amazing charities.
Derbyshire Children’s Holiday
Centre. Find out more from
www.helpforkids.co.uk
Vision Aid Overseas .
Find out more from www.vao.org.uk
