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| L-R: Marion, Bobb, Joe, Leslie at our wedding in 2010 |
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| Visiting the Stafford Castle In Stafford, England over the Rotary Link Weekend |
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| Rotary Link Weekend: Scholar Maica from Germany, Hosts Barbara and Joe, Steven |
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| Picture of Stafford downtown |
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| Scholar coordinators: Lois and John Thorpe |
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| Scenery from Rotary's Weekend Away in Eastbourne, England |
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| 2011-2012 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars |
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| Eastbourne, England |
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| Sunrise at Eastbourne, England |
Keeping on topic about the scholarship, with the Kirkland Rotary Club generously sponsoring my education at King's College London (KCL), Heather and I will be spending a year here in London. Really the best part about this scholarship is that it certainly places a lot of emphasis on academics, but it places an equal emphasis on the "Rotary experience." While in London, as Heather has talked about already, I am hosted by the Rotary Club of Edmonton. They really are a fantastic club and they have been incredible about making both Heather and feel at home and a part of their club. Just in the short few months that we have been here, we have done so much with the club and that includes Heather! She already mentioned going to a local park in Enfield where the Edmonton Club manned the gates selling tickets for a carnival/festival that was taking place; baking brownies for a fish-and-chips dinner party put on by the club for local folks which included, what sounded like an intense game of Bingo. Heather has had so much fun and she has been incredibly supportive. For awhile there, she was attending more Rotary events and get togethers than I was, but luckily I was able to lock in a routine schedule with school and have been active ever since and it really has been a blast!
The first opportunity that I had to meet most of the members of the Edmonton Club was at a garden party which was incredibly nice given that it was so informal and laid back. John Thorpe, who is my host Rotarian and has been wonderful in helping Heather and I adjust, provided the food and catering for the event. Over a delicious spread of salads, meats, desert, and cheese and biscuits (this was my first experience having cheese and biscuits as a part of desert), I got to meet most of the club members. Luckily it was only going to be a few days until I got to see them during one of their weekly meetings.
One of the major characteristics of my Rotary experience is the chance I have to speak to a number of clubs in the London area about myself, why I applied for the scholarship, and what my goals/what do I hope to learn from my experiences. All this is achieved by giving about a 10-15 minutes presentation. For me, the easiest way to show someone who you are is by showing them pictures....they are worth a thousand words right? Only a few days after the Garden party, I had the opportunity to speak to the Edmonton Club. Heather came along and right away, like the garden party, we felt immediately at home. They brought us in, talked to us about the club, about themselves, and just made us feel relaxed about being there. Rotary meetings have a certain ceremonial characteristic about them, but I truly enjoyed, like the Kirkland Rotary Club back home, how the Edmonton Club blended ceremony with light heartedness. We laughed as we heard about the notes from the previous meeting, upcoming events and various other announcements. You truly get how important the sense of family is to the club as they take the time to announce those members who are currently ill or absent for that week. Then it came to be my turn...
I have to admit I was a bit nervous about my first time speaking with a club in England. From the time that I put in my application for the scholarship, it has been asked where I see the connection between Rotary's emphasis on peace studies and conflict resolution, amongst a number of other important priorities, and my profession as an officer in the Marine Corps. Coming to England, I worried that people would be even more critical of this relationship, but this was not to be the case. Going back to the meeting with the Edmonton Club, I felt perfectly at ease describing what I thought was an important link between Rotary and the Marines. There is absolutely an element of "Service above Self" and I know, from my experiences, the reality of war and would want to see the end of any war or conflict. Through my first presentation, I really hope I was able to convey this desire as well as many other connections. From the feedback I received, I think I was able to convey what I wanted to.
Outside of the garden party and my first presentation, the months of September and October have been quite busy with regards to Rotary. As I am not the only Ambassadorial Scholar in London, or in Ireland and the UK for that matter, we have been given a number of chances to meet with the other scholars.
The first chance was during a "Link Weekend" where I traveled to Stafford and got to spend two days with all the other scholars. Two of us were put up for the weekend by local Rotarian and her husband and I had a wonderful time getting to know both of them and their families. I even went for a run with Joe on Saturday morning. For activities, we spent some time in a Victorian era coal mining town, which was pretty interesting. That night we learned a bit about traditional English dancing though much to Heather's dismay, I am still a terrible dancer. I did have a lot of fun as we were able to spend more time getting to know each other.
The last thing I want to talk about is a trip Heather and I went on this last weekend. We had the chance to attend our first Rotary Conference. The London district put on a conference in Eastbourne, a wonderful Victorian era town just right along the southeastern coast of England. It was an incredible weekend as we were able to spend more time with the Rotary Club of Edmonton. We also heard from the many speakers Rotary brought to present with the members of the district. Two speakers in particular
really stuck out to me. Rosalie Swale Pope was this incredible woman that experienced the loss of both her parents at a young age and then lost her husband early to prostate cancer. Her response to this loss was to run literally around the world which she did in five years in order to raise awareness for prostate cancer. The other was Gary Skyner who overcame so many challenges in order to do incredible things that many told him he would not ever be able to do. Born with disabilities due to thalidomide, a drug given to expectant mothers to overcome morning sickness, Gary proved everyone wrong by learning to drive, to fly, and took on the British government in order to get compensation for those affected. Overall it was an incredible weekend!
