Page 6 - 2021 Impact Report Utah Rotary

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PRESIDENT, ROTARY INTERNATIONAL

Rotarians of District 5420:
At different moments in this past year, I have quoted both the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre
and the wizard Gandalf from “The Lord of the Rings,” both who wisely advised us to focus, not on
the nature of the times we are living in but our special role in making the most of them.

Rotarians have done just that! You have been forced to take a tried-and-true structure of face-to-
face meetings and convert them into digital connections over screens. We’ve given up travel but
Service Impact Report
added more regular meetings with Rotarians and Rotaractors around the world. We have kept up
our historic commitment to End Polio Now and taken on the monumental current task of helping
the world cope in the COVID-19 pandemic and become fully vaccinated as quickly as possible.
We have achieved much together – from maintaining membership numbers amid fears of seeing steep losses, to becoming
more cost-efficient at every level of our organization. We have enthusiastically embraced a new Area of Focus in support
of the environment and declared Africa Wild Polio Free. As we all know, change is inevitable … but you have embraced
change faster than anyone could have imagined.
District 5420
The need for change will not ease when the pandemic finally passes. Rotary will still need to do more to live up to and
embrace our core value of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Our future will depend on reaching new groups of people we
may have traditionally overlooked. And we must do this while making sure everyone who joins Rotary is in a club where
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they fit and feel they belong.
You are encouraged to remain active advocates for change across Rotary. This means using the new tools we developed
during the pandemic and makin them a permanent part of what we do. It also means rethinking everything about our
organization and looking for opportunities in every future challenge.

Rotary is not just a club you join. It is an invitation to endless opportunities.
Thank you for sharing this opportunity, together!

Sincerely,
Holger Knaack, President, Rotary International 2020-21
DISTRICT GOVERNOR-ELECT

DGE Judy Zone has been a Rotarian for nearly 20 years. She was Public Relations Chair for
three Past District Governors, a three-time RYLA facilitator, and Assistant Governor for PDG
Bev Christy, District newsletter editor, and served as Chief-of-Staff for District Governor John
Hanrahan (RY2019-20).

Her top Rotary experience – so far – was serving as Volunteer Chair for the 2007 Rotary
International Convention in Salt Lake City which involved organizing 2100 Utah Rotarians and
their families to welcome the world to Utah. She has written more than a dozen Matching Grants
and one Global Grant for clean water, sanitation and other projects in Kenya, Mexico, Peru and
Thailand. The relationships she has built with Rotarians in those countries are not only dear to
her, but they have also helped her see the very big picture which is Rotary International. She helped charter a Rotary
Club in Kenya, and here in Utah, she chartered the Millcreek Rotary Club (her club).
Her nascent goals for her year as District Governor include emphasizing a grass roots approach to Rotary in our state. She
wants to hear from as many Rotarians as possible about their ideas for strengthening service and fellowship in the district,
known by and more appealing to non-Rotarians of any age.

Judy is a lifetime educator, a former high school and college teacher and in founding and growing the Utah-based nonprofit
YouthLinc, she feels she ran a service leadership school for nearly 20 years. Through the local and international service
offered to Utah youth through YouthLinc, she has come to know and cherish the friendship of hundreds of Utah Rotarians.
Judy retired in 2016. Since then, she has been an active volunteer for Rotary and YouthLinc, and an involved
grandmother. She is married to Dr. John Zone, former Chair of the Dermatology Department at the University of Utah
Medical Center.