Rotary leader praises Hawai'i as top district
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
He sang, he cracked wise, he chided members who have become "bankrupt in the business of Rotary" and more than once he got choked up — but mainly Rotary International President Richard King came to praise.
Advertiser library photo
Speaking at a workshop and dinner at the Hawai'i Convention Center yesterday, King congratulated the Rotary's District 5000 in Hawai'i for leading the nation in the Global Quest membership campaign.
Rotary Club President Richard King has stopped membership decline since taking office last summer.
"This district has become one of the best in the Rotary world," King said.
The group's Hawai'i district governor, Hal Darcey, said Rotary, like most service organizations, experienced a decline in membership in recent years — 35,000 desertions internationally in the year 2000 alone.
But King took office as president last summer and Rotary has gained some 44,000 members worldwide in recent months.
"And our district is leading the United States in growth," Darcey said. "We are up 11 percent in this district. Everybody else is up by 4 or 5 percent."
The Hawai'i district has about 2,300 members.
With the straightforward goal of "doing good in the world," Rotary tackled such issues as violence, drug abuse,hunger and illiteracy.
Rotary International has more than a million members, men and women, in 163 countries. The most grandiose goal is the eradication of polio by 2005 — for which it has spent half a billion dollars.
King spoke about its latest effort at last night's dinner:
Rotary's role in combating global terrorism.
"Rotary is involved in the establishment of seven centers throughout the world which we call the Rotary International Centers for Peace and Conflict Resolution," he said. "They are at seven major universities."
King said Rotary had selected 70 scholars — 10 at each university — to be fully supported in the two-year master's degree program.
King, a California attorney, and his wife, Cherie, spent the last six months traveling to 48 countries. They decided to kick back in Waikiki for two days before flying to Nigeria tomorrow.
King was applauded, cheered, and at one point pelted with dozens of inflated plastic globes.
"I have had people throw tomatoes at me before," he said. "But this is the first time I've ever had the world thrown at me."
