[D9640general] [eFlash_Rotary] Digest Number 824

[Garry Krischock]

 Messages In This Digest (2 Messages) 

1.         1557: <>  Beijing club accommodates Rotary Olympic goers From:
Sunil K Zachariah 

 

2.         1558: <>  Keepers of the Olympic flame From: Sunil K Zachariah 

 

  

Messages 

1.
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eFlash_Rotary/message/1475;_ylc=X3oDMTJxNTFjM
HJmBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE1BGdycElkAzI3ODYwNzYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDY0MDg2BG1zZ0lkAzE0N
zUEc2VjA2Rtc2cEc2xrA3Ztc2cEc3RpbWUDMTIxOTM5NTg1OQ--> 1557: Beijing club
accommodates Rotary Olympic goers 

 

Fri Aug 22, 2008 1:23 am (PDT) 

Beijing club accommodates Rotary Olympic goers By Ryan Hyland
[http://www.rotary.org/SiteCollectionImages/News/080821_olympic2.jpg]
Rotaractor Bernardo Garcia (right) trains with the Chinese wushu team
during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Photo courtesy of the Rotary
Club of La Rioja
After the Chinese wushu team invited Bernardo Garcia to train with them
for the Wushu Tournament Beijing 2008, the Argentine Rotaract club
member and the Rotary Club of La Rioja, La Rioja, Argentina, reached out
to Beijing Rotarians for support.

Garcia didn't receive financial support from the government of Argentina
because wushu, a full-contact sport derived from traditional Chinese
martial arts, isn't an official Olympic sport; it is a recognized
International Olympic Committee competition.

Not wanting to waste a great opportunity, he raised enough money to make
the trip to Beijing. However, finding accommodations during the Olympic
Games is no small feat.

Nidia Acuña, president of the La Rioja club, contacted Gilbert Van
Kerckhove, a member of the Rotary Club of Beijing, to see if he could
help Garcia upon his arrival. Van Kerckhove, an investment promotion
adviser for the Office for Beijing Olympics 2008 Projects, came through
with the gold, finding a hotel room for Garcia.

"Obviously, these are hectic times in Beijing," said Van Kerckhove. "But
our club is good at arranging logistics, and we managed to find a
low-cost hotel that was close to transportation."

"Van Kerckhove and the Beijing club were a great help," said Acuña.
"I really appreciate the importance of an organization like Rotary,
which made it possible for two different cultures to come together in
order to help an athlete like Garcia fulfill a dream."

The Beijing club also found a five-star hotel for the Belgian Olympic
Committee and helped Rotarians traveling abroad get competition tickets.
The club hosts a hospitality cocktail hour for visiting Rotarians every
Thursday evening at the Hilton Beijing during the Olympic Games.

Source: Rotary International News / Courtesy: eFlash_Rotary




2.
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eFlash_Rotary/message/1476;_ylc=X3oDMTJxM25ja
GgwBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE1BGdycElkAzI3ODYwNzYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDY0MDg2BG1zZ0lkAzE0N
zYEc2VjA2Rtc2cEc2xrA3Ztc2cEc3RpbWUDMTIxOTM5NTg1OQ--> 1558: Keepers of the
Olympic flame 

 

Fri Aug 22, 2008 1:40 am (PDT) 

Keepers of the flame
by Brad Webber 

Citius, altius, fortius. Swifter, higher, stronger. The Olympic motto 
embodies the pursuit of excellence with no thought of reward. Those 
who have been touched by both the Olympic Games and Rotary 
International say: Helping others is as rewarding as the thrill of 
the finish line. Rotarians and Olympians are torchbearers, one and 
all.

The rower
Alan Forney
Rotary Club of Bellevue Breakfast, Wash., USA 

Despite winning a silver medal with the U.S. coxless four rowing team 
at the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles, Forney prefers to downplay 
his athletic achievements. Still, he loves to talk to schoolchildren 
about his experience at the Games. "My medal shows a little bit of 
wear because of a lot of the handling it gets," says Forney, a 
Seattle-area banker. "To me it's worth every bit if one kid out of 
all those kids gets a benefit out of it."

The organizer
Frank W. King
Rotary Club of Calgary South, Alta., Canada 

King, who stood on the podium as chief executive of the 1988 Winter 
Olympics in Calgary, calls Rotary and the Olympics the "two greatest 
do-it-yourself movements in the world" because of their global reach 
and volunteering spirit. "It's the nature of their objective: You 
define what is right and what is wrong, and the development of the 
person and the body to its ultimate. 
 Why would one want to be a 
Rotarian? Why would anyone want to be an Olympian? The opportunity to 
do something truly world-class."

The sprinter
Sir Walter Menzies Campbell
Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar, 1966-67 

Sir Menzies, a member of Parliament in the United Kingdom, was one of 
the world's swiftest sprinters, finishing the 200-meter run in the 
1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and holding the British record for the 
100-meter run (10.2 seconds) until 1974. The former leader of the 
Liberal Democrats credits his Ambassadorial Scholar experience at 
Stanford University with shaping his political aspirations. "The 
fellowship changed my life. 
 I spent a year in the extraordinary, 
stimulating academic environment, surrounded by all of the tumult 
that the Vietnam War created. It was a time for growing up." 

The volleyballer 
Michael F. O'Hara
Rotary Club of Santa Monica, Calif., USA 

O'Hara, who was on the U.S. men's volleyball team at the 1964 
Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, recalls the daunting Eastern Bloc squads, 
stocked with full-time athletes. "All the communist countries had 
taken a game we had invented and made it their own. It was like UCLA 
playing the Lakers," he says. The U.S. volleyballers didn't win a 
medal, but the Olympics still built confidence and friendships, says 
O'Hara. Since then, this consultant, commentator, and sports 
impresario has put the zing back into the American game by promoting 
beach volleyball, now an Olympic crowd favorite.

The hockey player
Kristin King
Scholarship winner, Rotary Club of Piqua, Ohio, USA 

King's hockey career, nurtured on the ice at Dartmouth College, which 
she attended with the help of her scholarship, includes a bronze 
medal with the U.S. team in Torino, Italy, in 2006. "There's the 
Olympic creed about participating in your sport for the betterment of 
community," says King. "That's the same thing with Rotary 
International – helping the community, helping families in need." 

The torch carrier
Carl Kruse
Rotary Club of Rancho Bernardo Sunrise, , Calif., USA 

Keeping the flame lit is a passion for Kruse, who has carried the 
Olympic torch three times – in 1984, 1996, and 2002. "Even though I 
had done it before, you never lose that sense of awe and being part 
of a special moment," says the serial torch bearer, who has passed 
along his passion to his daughter, Tisha Voeller, who carried the 
flame in 2004.

The swimming legend
Duke Kahanamoku
Rotary Club of Honolulu, , Hawaii, USA 

The spirit of the late Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku 
looms large in Hawaii. Regarded as the father of surfing, Duke, who 
died in 1968, was also one of the world's best swimmers, winning 
three gold and two silver medals in three Olympics between 1912 and 
1924 (he also played on the USA water polo team in the 1932 
Olympics). "Duke is the most famous Hawaiian," says Bob Sigall, an 
author, historian and current member of the Rotary Club of 
Honolulu. "His character, his personality were so positive and kind. 
He was a very generous person and an ambassador to the islands."

Source: The Rotarian / Courtesy: eFlash_Rotary

 

 

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