A high-five for every effort

Ni hao, Rotarians!

I hope you are making plans for the upcoming Rotary International Convention. Rotarians who live near the Pacific Ocean are especially excited! Next year’s event is in beautiful Hawaii, and I know everyone is eager to make the journey to that island paradise.

So “give me five” by signing up right now for the Honolulu convention if you haven’t already — and make a plan for how you are going to help The Rotary Foundation reach new heights in 2019-20. We are transforming lives everywhere, and it’s all because of you.

We remind you often about the importance of giving to the Annual Fund. These donations are making the world a better place, not just by helping to end polio now and forever. Your donations make every type of Rotary grant around the world possible.

But many of you don’t know something just as important: Contributing to the Rotary Endowment ensures our future. I hope you will consider creating your own legacy by making a gift to the endowment. The idea behind it is simple and very powerful. Rotary’s Endowment supports Foundation programmes today and into the future.

We have a goal of $2.025 billion by 2025. We will reach that goal with your support. And once we do, amazing things will be possible. Just by drawing from the annual investment earnings, the Foundation will have about $100 million every year — year after year — for all kinds of life-changing and lifesaving projects. This will be an amazing accomplishment and will truly secure our Foundation long into the future.

This month, I want to give out two very special high-fives. The first goes to the Rotary Club of Taipei Roundtable. Members collected and donated $10,000 to End Polio Now during the installation ceremony for club president Jeff Lin. Then, during a changeover ceremony a few days later, District 3750 in Korea inducted six new Arch Klumph Society members, bringing its total to eight. Congratulations on the outstanding job by new District Governor Yun Young-Jung!

The generosity of Rotarians continues to give my life great joy and purpose, and I hope it does for you as well.

Gary C K Huang
Foundation Trustee Chair