Sunshine Coast Rotary clubs get together to install executives The clubs are excited to have Rotary International Director Dean Rohrs as chief guest for the dinner ceremony to install the new office-bearers.

Every year Rotary clubs around the world engage in a process of leadership renewal.

This renewal keeps clubs closely connected and involved with the communities they serve.

This year, three Sunshine Coast Rotary clubs (Canada, District 5040) are joining together to install their presidents and directors for the 2017-18 Rotary Year.

This is the first time that the Gibsons Rotary Club, the Sechelt Rotary Club and the Rotary Club of Sunshine Coast – Sechelt will join together for this occasion.

The installation dinner is planned for June 26 at the Blue Ocean Golf Club.

The clubs are excited to have Dean Rohrs attend the dinner to install the new executives.

Rohrs is a director of Rotary International and will become Rotary vice president effective July 1.

“Growing up in South Africa, Rohrs found herself at the centre of transformational change, and has jumped in to be part of that change,” Rotary said in a release.

“As a teenager, she joined African National Congress demonstrations in opposition to apartheid, ending up spending a week in prison.”

She was a nurse in Cape Town, South Africa, working as part of Dr Christiaan Barnard’s heart transplant team.

From 1959 to 1990, Rohrs was active in the Red Cross in South Africa.

Rohrs has been a Rotarian since 1989, joining Rotary immediately upon the Supreme Court decision requiring Rotary to admit women.

She has served as Rotary coordinator, regional Rotary Foundation coordinator, district governor and international director.

She is a Rotary Foundation benefactor, major donor and Bequest Society member.

She and her husband, Reinhart, are Paul Harris Fellows. Rotary is her life’s passion.

The Rohrs and their three children emigrated 26 years ago from South Africa to Canada.

The couple are members of the Rotary Club of Langley Central, and they own and manage a company involved in soil stabilisation.