THIS WEEK:
President Elect Bill Royer will call to order our second weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Bethlehem in the 2022-2023 Rotary Year. Imagine Rotary!
This will be a Zoom meeting. Please spread the word and the link below:
- Dial by your location +1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
- Mark Walter will be your Zoom host - thanks Mark!
- We look forward to hearing from keynote speaker, Terry Burger, Director of Infection Control and Prevention, Lehigh Valley Health Network. She will make a presentation on Monkeypox and provide an update on COVID.
LAST WEEK:
We had an in-person meeting, the third time in the KingSpry conference room at the corner of Broad and New Streets. The keynote speaker was 37-year Rotarian and a Past President of our Club, George Mowrer, talking about another of his adventurous trips walking the Camino de Santiago, 528 miles in 38 days in Spain. He returned home two weeks ago. The memories were as fresh as they come, and the presentation was most insightful. George shared a sampling of the 1400 photographs he took on the Camino de Santiago. As a purist, he chose to limit the weight of his backpack to 15 pounds plus water, and he took along a lightweight leeping bag. Fortunately, the dry weather presented no surprises. The mornings were rather chilly. Here are three surprises he shared with us:
- Northern Spain was more beautiful than expected.
- His body responded pretty well to getting up each morning to walk. Ibuprofen and Merino wool were his proven friends. His choice of footwear (ALTRA Olympus 4 trail running shoes) was an amazing success and he wore them out!
- Relationships with people were deeper than expected.
Quoting St. Ignatius’ loving indifference—the capacity to let go of what does not help us to love God or love others, while staying engaged with what does—George gave us glimpses of his insights from the pilgrimage. He made good use of a rest day in each of the four the major towns along the journey. It could be said that his only misfortune was arriving at the celebrated free wine station at 8:30 in the morning. An evening of absolute joy came when he picked up a guitar and led a group sing-along of international favorites in English. After arriving at the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, George kept going an additional three days to the “End of the world.”
Welcome home, George. Thank you for making the perfect presentation to launch a new Rotary year! We were delighted to have your dear wife, Betsy, as a guest at our Club
meeting as well. Service above self!
And please think about volunteering to help create a memorable and successful Tastes & Tunes 2023. The banner below will appear frequently.
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