District Governor Rhonda Herrington Club Visit

Today our club was visited by our District Governor and Assistant District Governor.

Kelly introduced Bill Friebel who in turn introduced our District Governor Rhonda Herrington. Rhonda has been a Rotarian since 1998. Is a member of the Rotary Club of Palestine. Has served as president as well as other roles. She is a multiple Paul Harris fellow. She has hosted five Rotary exchange students in her home. She has two children and five grandchildren.

 

Rhonda started by describing her life and family. She has two daughters, oldest is a nurse who's husband is a Judge, with three children. Her other daughter is a dance teacher who's husband is a professional poker player, with two children. She has a masters degree in early childhood education. After 38 years in education she decided to retire, however it only lasted about a month before she was called back to rebuild the fine arts program.

 

Rhonda comes from a stage related family. Her grand parents used to make curtains and backdrops for stage productions. Rhonda was sewing curtains when she was 11 years old. She has 18 to 20 churches that participate in her community orchestra.

 

She said that the training and preparation to become a District Governor takes three years. The best part of being District Governor getting the chance to really know the members you are working with. Training is a strong commitment and you are not allowed to miss any sessions.

 

In the aftermath of Harvey we have had to be community minded. She said that Harvey has multiplied and fulfilled her life. She started getting all sorts of phone calls from Rotarians all over the world. Our District alone collected over $170,000. Even a school collected pennies and the Rotary Club matched the pennies. She even discovered what mucking out and wearing hazmat equipment meant for cleaning out houses after the flood. She visited all the areas in the district to see where she and the district could help. The money that was collected is now being used for restoration in the district.

 

Our responsibility is international as well. One of the best international trips she took to Pakistan dealing with water wells. She said it was an eye opener to see people living in cardboard shacks and barefoot children playing in effluent from wells. Our job is not done with Polio yet. We still have cases in Pakistan and Afghanistan.It is hard to get into those places because of Propaganda. The next project will probably clean water.

 

The last week of training is in San Diego where every District Governor gets to meet each other. If you don't show up for one of the sessions you get sent home. However, during this training her husband was taken to the hospital with pneumonia. Rotary arranged for her to go home and continued her training later at home. This shows the support of Rotary the Rotary family. It is very important to engage Rotarians. You are doing a wonderful job. You sent Melisa to RYLA. Barbara is increasing your members. We are Rotarians and we want to make a difference. We are no sure how we'll make a difference. If you want to know anything about Polio ask a Rotarian. If don't know anything about Polio thank a Rotarian.

 

At the end of the meeting our president Kelly presented Rhonda with a signed copy of the book on the history of Magnolia written by Celeste Graves.