Putnam President Chet Marshall (left) stands in awe of the rare assembledge of Governors for RI District 7550: (l to r) DG Nominee Larry Nelson (2011-12), DG Elect Mary Keely (2010-11), and DG Ray Pollard (2009-10)

Ray Pollard began his tour as District Governor with an inspirational challenge to Putnam Rotarians during their luncheon today at Scarlet Oaks. "You know the difference between a resumé Rotarian and a real Rotarian," he told the group. "Be a real Rotarian. The future of Rotary is in your hands."

Pollard is the leader for 2009-10 of RI District 7550 which includes twenty-eight clubs across the southern part of the state.

In his first official visit as Governor, Pollard was accompanied by Mary Keely and Larry Nelson who are slated in turn to become District Governors over the next two fiscal years. Keely is a member of the Putnam Club.

"The Rotary Club -- and this especially true from what I've seen of the Putnam County Club -- Rotary Club is an asset to your community," said Pollard. "And you are in Rotary Club for a reason, because you are assets not only to the Rotary Club, but you are assets to your community. You wouldn't be here if you weren't. Your successes in your business and in your profession -- you're an asset to the community, and Rotary wants you. But don't check your skills at the door. We see that too often.

"If you've got skills, bring them to Rotary. Bring them through the door. Use them in Rotary. There's a reason you are here. And there's a reason you've developed those skills. Don't be afraid to use them in Rotary.

Putnam President Chet Marshall (right) recieves a banner from District Governor Ray Pollard.

"You do good things in Putnam County. I want you to continue to do good things in Putnam County. But let's think beyond Putnam County to West Virginia, to the world.

"If I ask you, do you want Rotary to be in this community, to do things when your children grow up, when your friend's children grow up and when this community develops in the future, everybody would say yes. There's nobody that would say, 'Nah, we don't want any help in the future for those people.' Nobody's going to say that. So, we've got to perpetuate the club.

"How do you perpetuate the club? That guy that's sitting next to you at work, say, 'Hey, come on over to the Rotary meeting.' That's all you've got to do. Bring them to a Rotary meeting. You don't have to put a hard sell on. You don't have to explain everything about Rotary. They'll see that. You have people who will be able to do that. Just ask somebody to come to your club. Best way I know to perpetuate the club. Ask a friend to come.

"The immediate past president of the Ceredo-Kenova Rotary Club played football with me in high school. I saw him one day at a school meeting. And I said, 'Dennis, why don't you come on over to Rotary?' He said, 'You know, nobody ever asked me.' But he said, 'You know, I've been thinking about doing something in the community.' Well, now he is immediate past president of the club. All you've got to do is ask, to perpetuate your club. Perpetuate the good in the community.

"There are a lot of problems in the world," said the District Governor. "We all know that. There are problems in the state, in the nation, and in the world.

"And you're tempted to say, 'What can I do? I mean, this is so big, I can't do anything.' You're wrong. You as a Rotarian and you within Rotary can do a lot in this world. You really can. Let me give you two examples.

A Rotary International president -- in 1984, I think -- was traveling. He was in a little village in the Philippines, and they were administering drops to the children there. And he said, 'What's going on?' And they said, 'Well, these are polio vaccine drops, and we're trying to get rid of polio in the village and this part of the Philippines.'

"And he thought about that a little, and he said, 'You know, the eradication of polio is not a medical problem. The medical part of it has been solved. We don't have polio in the United States anymore.

"Some of us can remember polio. When I was a kid, it was scary. You couldn't go to the swimming pool. You couldn't go to summer camp. You couldn't do a lot of things because your parents were afraid you'd get polio. Polio was a dread, dread disease. Bill Gates's wife's aunt had polio. Been paralyzed for years. My wife's cousin has polio. Paralyzed for years.

"And we don't have it in the United States anymore. We eradicated it in the United States. But the international president looked around and said, 'It's all over the world. We can do better. We can inoculate all the kids in the world. So he set out as a Rotary project to do that. And you know what? We're just about there. Four countries left -- Pakistan, Afghanistan, northern India and Nigeria. Four countries left. Handful of cases compared to where it was twenty years ago.

"Eradicated in most of the world. And we can put an end to this disease. Just like we ended smallpox, we can end polio. Bill and Melinda Gates have contributed $355 million from their foundation to do this. He has gone to the governments of the United States, and U. K., and Germany, and raised another 500 million. And he's asked Rotary to do matching funds to 200 million. That blew us away out in San Francisco, and he was personally there. And he has been to Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nigeria. He has administered the vaccine himself. And, he is personally involved in this.

"But that's our polio challenge for this year. But that's also what a Rotarian was able to engender. Now you say, 'Well, that guy was a Rotary International president.' Still a Rotarian.

"But I'll give another example which you're familiar with -- that you helped with. Walter Hughes is a Rotarian in Roanoke Rapids, Virginia. He was on Methodist Church mission in Ghana, and he noticed they had a clinic that was treating thousands of kids for something they called guinea worm.

"If you've never seen the pictures, you don't want to see the pictures. The worms go in the body. They come out. They eat away the flesh. They go back in. It's a terrible, terrible disease. The kids couldn't go to school. The kids couldn't play. Kids couldn't learn. It's also very painful.

"So, how do they get it? Well, they drink the water. They wade in the water. And the water is also the water that the cattle wade around in, and the sheep wade around in, other animals are in. No purification. They wash their clothes in the water. They use it for drinking water. It's a terrible situation.

"You say, 'Why don't you use the well?' 'Well, the well doesn't work.' 'How long has your well not worked?' 'Twenty years. Can you fix it?'

"Now you put yourself in Walter's shoes. I mean, he's just an ordinary Rotarian. He's standing in the middle of Ghana, and somebody said, 'Will you fix our well?'

"Do you know how to fix a well? Raise your hand. Well, he didn't know how to fix a well either. But Walter's a kind of a man of action. So he went out and found some parts. He found somebody who knew how to fix a well. He brought them in, and he fixed their well. Good deal, huh?

"So they said, 'Can you fix all the wells in northern Ghana? Can you drill new ones? Can you bring in water purification plants?'

"Well, Walter is a man of action, so he said, 'Maybe I can do that through Rotary.'

"Do you remember the water project that you had a couple of years ago that had the plastic jugs and we all put a buck in here and a buck in there and raised $35,000 in the district? Well, he took that $35,000 and he found clubs from Texas to New York to match up with it. And then he got a Rotary matching grant to match up with that. And then he got a Carter Foundation grant to match up with that. And a World Peace grant to match up with that. And by the time Walter had finished matching things up, he had $700,000, and undertook a team to put wells, water purification systems, and dig new wells in northern Ghana.

"Did it work? Well, the clinic is closed. The clinic is closed because there are not enough kids getting worm. Fewer than 100 cases last year versus 9,000 when he started.

"Walter Hughes, a Rotarian, with your help -- and your help, and your help, contributing a dollar in a water jug -- Walter Hughes eradicated a disease in a part of the world. Amazing!

"And if you talk to Walter Hughes, it's just another day, another dollar. 'We're still putting wells in.'

"It's amazing what a Rotarian can do. It's amazing what you can do by contributing your dollar. One dollar into Rotary Foundation for Polio Plus is three inoculations -- at twenty-seven cents apiece. Three and a half inoculations. Three kids somewhere in India are going to get an inoculation for your buck.

"There's something you can do. There's something you can do as a Rotarian. There's something you can do through Rotary. And keep that in mind. When you see things bad, we can do something. Rotary is powerful. Rotary can do something.

"Contribute to the Foundation. I don't care if it's a buck. I don't care if you're a Paul Harris Fellow. I don't care if you're an Arch Klumph Fellow -- $250,000.

"Contribute to the Foundation. It's rated as the best Foundation in the world. It's the one foundation that no money goes for administration. The interest off the first three years goes for administration, and after that everything goes to projects. Contribute to your Foundation. It's the best there is, and they - do - good - work.

"John Kenny says, 'The future of Rotary is in your hands.' It's a good Rotary theme for this year.

"I had to think about it when we first heard it. What the heck does he mean by that?

"Well, Rotary doesn't ask much of you. What Rotary asks of you is to be here. I can't ask this guy to do anything [indicating an empty chair], because he's not here. But I can ask Don [Broyles] to do something, or I can ask Don to make a contribution, or Don can hear something that inspires him to do something for Rotary.

"Be here. Your Rotary Club has a pretty good attendance record -- 65 percent or so. Most of the Rotary clubs don't have that kind of attendance record.

"It's easy to be here if you set your mind to the fact that you want to be here. I've got 18 years of perfect attendance. It can be done. I attend on the road. I've attended in Alaska. I've been to Rotary meetings in Germany.

DG Ray Pollard

"And if you're in Timbucktu, make it up at the old Timbucktu Rotary Club. You'll find it's fascinating. You go into a Rotary meeting -- I don't care where in the world -- and you'll recognize yourselves.

"We were in that meeting in Germany, and they gave a technical briefing, and the questions started coming. They were all in German, and we don't speak German. And I said to my host, 'That guy is a lawyer.' 'How do you know that?' 'That guy is an engineer.' 'How do you know that?' 'That guy's something else.' 'How do you know that?' 'Because I know my Rotarians [back home]. And I know who would be asking similar questions, and what their body language is when they ask the questions.' You'd be surprised how many similarities we have among our differences. So, make up a meeting. Go to Rotary. You can't be a Rotarian if you're not here.

"Work on projects," Pollard said. "I know most of you work on projects. I work on the Ceredo-Kenova spaghetti dinner, the golf tournament, the Applebee's breakfast, the river sweep. And I counted up the hours I put in working on projects in Rotary, not in the District Governor business but just in my club last year, and -- you know what? -- I put more time in Marshall tailgates. It doesn't take that much time. Put the time in. Occasionally, when you run your projects, when you're doing a golf tournament, help out. That's all they ask.

"And, above all, if you're in Rotary, have fun. Make the things enjoyable.

"I ask you to be real Rotarians. Do the Rotary things. Assist your leadership. Build a better club. Help the community. Live 'Service Above Self.'

"You know the difference between right and wrong. You see all of the excuses out of Hollywood, New York - Madoff and Hollywood stars and all that sort of thing -- 'It's all their fault, it's not my fault'. It's nonsense isn't it? You know the difference between right and wrong.

"You also know the difference between a resumé Rotarian and a real Rotarian," Pollard repeated as he concluded his remarks. "And I ask that you be real Rotarians. The future of Rotary -- here, and world-wide -- truly, is in your hands."