From the Presidents'

The author of the above quotation was raised on a reservation by parents who were Mormon Missionaries to North American Indians.  Early in life, Bob learned the value of caring for others.

Bob was one of my students in the Ph. D. program at the University of Tennessee.  We forged a friendship that has lasted to this day.  He became a very successful clinical audiologist in the San Diego, CA area.  In addition to a full schedule of clinical work including many hearing aid fittings each week, Bob writes a monthly column in one of our professional journals. 

In the latest issue of The Hearing Journal, Bob described a recent trip he took with several others (audiologists and physicians) to Cabo San Lucas at the southern edge of the Baja Peninsula.  Although this town is familiar to us as the location of several destination resorts, Bob's group didn't travel there for pleasure.  They were taking the gift of hearing and hearing health to the children of Cabo.  Children in the background, children whom the tourists seldom see. 

Over the several years duration of this program, more than 1000 hearing aids and earmolds, plus many accessories have been dispensed to the children of Cabo.  Hearing aids are donated by manufacturers and earmolds are provided by an earmold laboratory in Colorado.  The stories Bob tells are thrilling.  For, suddenly, communication and better hearing health were made available to children who previously had poor language skills and speech articulation problems if they had any speech and language capability at all.

We cite this as yet another example of how participation in well-organized and dedicated humanitarian projects can be vastly rewarding for receivers AND for givers.

My Dad had a saying: "You will never learn to play cribbage until you draw a hand.".  To have any clue into the meaning of this mysterious game and its strange math ("e.g. 15-2; 15-4; 15-6 and a run of three is 9"), one must participate or forever remain in wonder of what cribbage is all about.

"Participation".  That is the watchword of Rotary, too.  Although the project we described was not a Rotary project, it is certainly comparable to the hundreds of projects undertaken by Rotarians all over the world.  From your participation in our various projects will come extensive benefits to the recipients.  And, you will find there is a lot in it for you, too.

Our warmest good wishes, dear Rotary friends, 

JoAnn and Dave