Remember the 4th of July and why we celebrate!!!
The bittersweet last meeting of my Presidency. We are a family, sometimes we are a little dysfunctional, however, the love, commitment and the focus on a common good trumps all of these familiar qualities. I had the most amazing year being the President of our club. I learned a lot of things, I had a lot of help from everyone and grew as a Rotarian. From the executive committee which helped formulate ideas to the Board who tried to keep me on the straight and narrow we had fun. We did an amazing amount of work this year for our community from helping out with Das Auch Fest, the car show, Emmaus Halloween Parade both in it and cleaning up after it, the Miracle (thank you Uncle Bob Halsey) League, helping the 3 families at Christmas from our school district, working together as Area 1 partners with Second Harvest Food Bank, planning how to feed the East Penn Students this summer and on and on. We are a group of like minded individuals that come together once a week to be educated either on another Rotarian (classification talk) or on a charitable group trying to make their common goal known and asking for our help.
We do have some differences, but I am glad to say for the most part we can work through them and remain a family. The Rotary family is unlike any other family. You will find (if you look hard enough) a Rotarian almost everywhere you go either in this country or another. We are everywhere, 1.25 Million strong.
I am very proud of our family, we work hard together, we play hard and we get things accomplished. Thank you to each and everyone of you for participating in our club for this Rotary year. Thank you to the best board ever, the best group of hard working volunteers I have ever had the pleasure of serving with and continue to serve with. 2018-19 was very good and we get to give Steve a gift of 95 people that want to help him continue on this journey of Service Above Self.
Next week is the fourth of July, enjoy the moment, remember what the day is all about and then embrace your individual families and thank them for being a part of your life. We are all truly blessed in one way or another and for that I give thanks. Enjoy, and I will see you in the next Rotary year when on July 18th our new President will give his first quarterly club assembly.
Thank you for the ride.
Yours in Service
Rick Zayaitz