When the Rotary Club of Herzliya contacted us recently to say they’d like to raise a toast to us today, April Fool’s Day, they weren’t joking! They were keen to continue a tradition at their Rotary club.
It’s usual for our club to end meetings with a toast to “Rotary the world over” – in honour of Rotary International and the thousands of Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries worldwide.
The other day, our President, Maxine Blades, received a letter from a Past President of the Rotary Club of Herzliya, Israel, in which he said his club would like to raise a toast to honour us. Like us, his club meets on Tuesdays, so would be having one of its weekly meetings on April Fool’s Day. He described how it has become a weekly tradition at his club (which is only 10 years old but has founding members with over 30 years of experience in Rotary) to raise an “international toast”, and he thought of us as April Fool’s Day is believed by some to have its roots in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. He wrote that his club’s members are “overjoyed when we receive a reply [to their messages].”
Maxine was pleased to provide him with some details of our club, including when and where we meet and the fact that our club is 103 years old and was visited by Rotary’s Founder, Paul Harris, back in 1928. She also gave some stats about our membership and mentioned our duck race and a little bit about Canterbury. Finally, she directed him to the news section of our website, where readers around the world can learn about our various activities and projects.
It’s little things like this that remind us Rotarians that we are part of one big “family” – with shared values, a sense of camaraderie, and a wish to help others.
Picture: Glasses at a table. Picture credit: wal_172619 from Pixabay
