Cheron Reports on the 2015 Rotary International Convention

Our guest speaker at our regular lunch meeting on June 25th was one of our own members, Secretary-Elect, Cheron Calder. Cheron attended the Rotary International Conference in São Paulo, Brazil on June 6 – 9. Cheron reported that San Paulo was utterly gigantic (about 12 million in population) and that one of the first things she noticed as they flew in were all the helicopter pads on the rooftops of buildings. She soon found out why – the ground traffic was snarled and slow. But fortunately, much of the graffiti along the streets had been painted over with artwork for the 2014 World Cup, so at least there was something pretty to look at as you were stuck in traffic! She said there were about 14,000 Rotarians and guests in attendance at the convention. She said that the Carnival-style floats and costumes were fun, the speakers were inspirational, and she found friendly Rotarians everywhere. She also enjoyed São Paulo – especially the Botanical Gardens.

     Cheron talked about how she got involved in Rotary in 2010, in Cypress, and later became the Portland Area Coordinator for the Cypress Friendship program. In that role, she had the opportunity to work with PDG’s Mike Caruso and Deniel Banks, as well as Al Jubitz, a member of the Portland Rotary Club, who initiated the Rotarian Action Grop for Peace. With her keen interest in issues related to peace, Cheron attended the Rotary Peace Symposium while at the Convention. She said that several Rotary Peace Fellows were actively involved in organizing the Peace Symposium, noting that there there are now over 900 trained Rotary Peace Fellows, about 80 of whom were at the Symposium. One of the sessions that she said she found particularly compelling featured Steve Killelea of Australia, Founder of the Institute for Economics and Peace, which created a Global Peace Index. Learn more at www.visionofhumanity.org or at https://www.facebook.com/GlobalPeaceIndex. She waid she also enjoyed listening to Nobel Peace Laureate Oscar Arias, who talked about what we could do with the $1.77 trillion dollars the world spends annually on war.

     Cheron thanked the Club for making this trip possible, and also thanked Rob Musante, who swapped conventions with Cheron. (Cheron went to São Paulo, and Rob will attend the Convention in Atlanta, Georgia in 2017). Cheron said she came back “really on fire” for Rotary, and promised that there will be benefits, actions and projects that flow from her experience.