Rotary International Convention in New Orleans
Glenn Hood and his wife Ann are currently attending the Rotary International Convention in New Orleans! Glenn sent the following about their adventures…
Our habit is to attend the plenary sessions (about 3 -4 hours a day) and MAYBE a workshop or two. So that leaves us all afternoon and evening to do as we want.. Today we walked from the convention center to the St. Louis cathedral, and the French market, and then back through the French Quarter to our hotel on Carondolet St.
We will eat lunch with our Danish friends on Wednesday, and dinner at Brennans with some other friends.
Ann Hood enjoys a worm!
We went to the Audubon Insectarium yesterday……lots of bugs! http://www.auduboninstitute.org/visit/insectarium Ann (and I) ate crickets, mealworms etc. just to say we did….Here is a pic of Ann eating a BBQed mealworm. (It would take a lot of these to make a meal!)
We have heard lots of great music in several jazz clubs, and also at our sessions. We heard the King’n Trio (Rotarians who sing the “Four – Way Test Song”) Ronnie Kole (he is a famous pianist – - statue in a Jazz park here), Irvin Mayfield, Lacy J. Dalton, Michael Martin Murphey, and two “young people” choirs, one of Rotary Youth Exchange Students (0ver 200 of them!) and another of a South African school choir – incredible!!!
We have eaten at some of the best restaurants in NO…..Mother’s, Deanies, Grand Isles, Sammies, Red Fish Grill, Gumbo Shop, and will eat at Brennan’s Wednesday night. Prices are not cheap at any of these places – - lunch today at Grand Isles was 1 po’boy (shrimp), an appetizer of onion rings (piled about 6 inches high on a large plate) and a couple of adult beverages…..$40.00 including tip. However, we probably won’t eat dinner at all, and breakfast is included in our room rate.
Glenn Hood with friend, RI President Ray Klinginsmith
The best part of any international convention or event like it is meeting people from all over the world – we have much in common as Rotarians so conversations come naturally. I have connected with Rotarians from Ghana and from Guatemala and Malaysia, and expect to hear from them about working on international projects in their country. Last night we stood in line at the Gumbo Shop for about 30 minutes waiting for a seat (there are TWO conventions here this week and each has about 18K people). While in line we struck up a conversation with a couple who spoke very little English – - they were from Quebec. Turned out they were NOT Rotarians, but just on vacation, but we invited them to join us for dinner and they did. We sat and talked for about 2 hours and made some new friends! It has happened numerous times this week already!
Tomorrow Bill Gates speaks to us and we are being told that there will be something special….check the RI website for updates on the convention.
Packing Up Buddy Backpacks
Ed McCormick helps fill backpacks every week and then drives the packs to the Lilligton-Shawtown Elementary School
Every Friday morning during the school year, a group of people gather at the old CCCC-Harnett campus building to put together more than 550 backpacks of food for school children in need. These backpacks, which range in size from very small to a good size for high school students, will end up holding enough food to feed one child for a weekend. The children’s names are not known to the people, nearly all of which are old enough to be their grandparents, but they show up every week and make sure the elementary students, to which these backpacks full of nourishment are distributed, do not go hungry.
Rotarian Leon McKoy volunteers regularly to help fill backpacks and fills in for Ed to take the packs to Lillington-Shawtown Elementary School
The ritual is very organized; take a backpack, call out the number to the person with the paperwork, walk the length of a table while picking up one of each of the food items in the large plastic containers on top of the tables and placing it into the pack, then, at the end of the line, hand the pack to the gentleman who keeps them organized and ready to send out to the schools. Once all the packs are filled for one school, they are transferred to a volunteer’s car and driven and delivered to the school where the students in the program will pick them up before going home. On Monday, the child will return the pack to the school, a volunteer will pick up the packs about mid-week, and then the process starts all over again on Friday.
Tom Woerner showed up to cover the story for the newspaper and found himself helping out too!
Ed McCormick is a very dedicated Rotarian. He volunteers at every opportunity, and Buddy Backpacks is one of his passions. Ed encouraged us to come and visit the packing location in Western Harnett, and three of our club members came and helped out for the morning. We learned a lot, and we had a good time.
Buddy Backpacks survives off of the donations from grocery stores, generous funding from individuals and organizations, and the hard-working volunteers who show up and help out. If you’d like to volunteer, check out their website at www.buddybackpacks.com.
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Chartered on October 23, 1937, the Rotary Club of Lillington has helped to make a better community. Working with the schools and helping build facilities for civic clubs and other events, the Rotary Club of Lillington has been a supporter of youth and education in our community and in the world.