A group of roughly 20 members of the Rotary Club of San Francisco attended the Rotary International Convention in Toronto, Ontario from June 23-27, 2018.
The Convention allowed 24,000 Rotarians worldwide to come together in celebration of the past year’s successes and to look forward to the next year’s theme, Be the Inspiration.
We heard from many engaging speakers, most noteworthy being former First Lady and educator Laura Bush, who spoke on the impact of literacy, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who strongly acknowledged the work Rotary International has done to eradicate polio.
The House of Friendship is a large exchange of ideas on initiatives and service projects from around the globe. Our Club had three organizations represented there: Alliance for Smiles, Roots of Peace, and Rotaplast.
Our Club members participated in activities from Jazz at the Aquarium to soaring to the top of the CN Tower to assembling with others across our District and Zone for wine, food and conversation. Breakout sessions allowed us to hone our skills in membership activities, to better understand water projects, and to tell our Rotary Story.
Preparations are well under way for next year’s convention, which will be held in Hamburg, Germany from June 1-5, 2019. For those interested in sharing this experience with our members and a host of others, go to www.riconvention.org/en/hamburg. You will come away with an even greater pride of what it means to be a Rotarian.