Brad Boerger

January 16, 2007

Several months ago, Brad Boerger was ready to tee off. He had selected his No.1 wood to drive some 340 yards to the green. He had checked the wind direction and speed. He addressed the tee and focused all this attention on the golf ball.

But the casual talk in the background broke his concentration. Someone said Gary Young had missed several Rotary meetings in recent weeks.

"Oh, he's in Tajikistan." someone else explained. "He's after the Marco Polo sheep."

Boerger had never heard of Tajikistan, or the Marco Polo sheep. "These guys are trying to mess with my head," he thought. He returned his attention to the golf ball.

A second voice broke in dreamily, "Yes, you know the Marco Polo is the greatest of the big game sheep."

Boerger swung and sliced deep into the rough.

But when Gary Young came to tell Putnam Rotarians about his expedition from Teays to Tajikistan, Brad Boerger was there to learn more about the largest wild rams in the world.

And in Rotary, Brad Boerger met author , motivational speaker, and business consultant Chet Marshall, and Boerger learned how a small group of business leaders in "little Putnam County in West 'by God' Virginia" had brought books, and teaching supplies to a school in Uganda through a combination of private donations and a club international project.

He met Olga Petrosyan, a refugee from ethnic extermination who worked her way to an American college degree -- and who is scheduled soon (February 13th) for a return visit to friends in Putnam Rotary.

The litany continued to include projects in local communities: support for scholarships, a bathhouse for the Tri-County Y camp, and dictionaries for adult literacy -- and multiple other projects.

"I found that Rotary was more than a weekly luncheon meeting," he said. "I found a fellowship of community leaders sharing problems, and networking for success -- who wanted to make the world a better place.

"I'm not much different from other people," the freshman Rotarian admitted. Boerger wants the good life. He wants to provide the best for himself and his family.

"But, how do I want to be remembered?" he asked rhetorically. "I want to be remembered as someone who tried make the world a little better. I want to be part of an organization that helps me to leave the world a better place. And I have found that opportunity in Rotary," he said.

"I want to put 'Self Above Service,'" he told the group. "But that is changing.

"Little by little, Rotary is teaching me how to put 'Service Above Self'".

Brad Boerger is a District Manager for C. H. Robinson Worldwide Logistics with local offices at Corporate Centre in Teays Valley.

Gary Young also has offices at Corporate Centre, and sometimes Gary and Brad might get together for a round of golf.

And sometimes on the links they might talk about stalking the elusive Marco Polo rams in distant Tajikistan.

And then sometimes they would also talk about the inspiration of service and fellowship through Putnam Rotary.