May 4th shone with all the glory that the sunshine can bring. We were in Terrace along with our friends from Skeena Valley and Terrace Rotary Club, keen with expectation, we had all been told how GREAT Rick King was as a speaker. Happily, Rick saw Terrace at its best. Even more so, credit goes to Chris Oatway for 'going for it' and asking "will you come?" Well done Chris, because the answer was 'yes'.
I know there were tears as we were touched by the story of Rick's R.I. president friend, whose tiny grandbaby had been born, fought for life in hospital, was on a machine with tubes everywhere, a so, so helpless. They word came come see her, we don't know whether she will last. And they did. The cry inside his friend's heart went out, help, help her, anyway I can but how. And then he looked at the machine, and in a small corner there was a Rotary wheel, and a plaque. The machine had been donated by his own Rotary Club.
Of such is Rotary.
There was humor in the tales, of Las Vegas, and a young Rick working both ends of the stick, a talented singer on stage in Vegas, and a lawyer starting off in his fiend in those early days. Rick moved his story through his first involvement through our organization, his role as our Rotary International President, how he knew our own Art Erasmus, our District 5040 president, the year he orchestrated the wide world of Rotary.
What a privilege and pleasure it was to hear Rick's story and to have this opportunity meet him. Chris's committee chose to decorate the tables with origami Peace Cranes, such a nice reflection of this year's theme Pease Through Service.
We had several of our members present that evening. Sincere thanks go to our Rotary friends in Terrace for the invitation to join in this celebration evening.