As I embark on this journey as President of the Rotary Club of St. Croix West, 2021-2022, I look forward to working alongside my fellow Rotarians, to serve our community and to change the lives of its citizens for the better.  

 

The past year was very challenging due to the disruption we all experienced from the novel Coronavirus.  My education and training is in Mathematics and Science, so the word that comes to me is momentum (“mv”).  President Cheru Ross was tireless in her Presidency as she guided our Club through this difficult year, which was confirmed by the award of distinction that was received in District 7020.  President Ross adapted easily to “remote” meetings, which itself was a challenge.  She continued the “momentum” of Rotary and, thanks to her efforts, is transferring a club which has achieved tremendous success and, despite the challenges this year presented, has a lot of momentum.   By observing her demeanor, I learned to stay calm when everything around us was in chaos.  During the past year, she guided the Club through many projects which were successful and had a positive impact on our community.  

 

Past President Cheru, thank you for your hard work and commitment to Rotary and may God continue to bless you.

 

Looking ahead, I will be pleased to work with the Executive Board, committee chairs and fellow Rotarians; and, I look forward to interacting with our members as we serve the community of Croix, District 7020 and Rotary International.

 

A quote from Mahatma Gandhi comes to mind: “the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members”.  Applying this to our maxim, “Rotary Has Heart”, my hope is to expand our projects to help the young and the elderly; to continue our annual service projects which include feeding the homeless; to follow up with our youth on conflict resolution and our BMI project; to care for our lignum vitae tree; and to sponsor a health fair with the Frederiksted community garden project.  Finally, I hope to perform a mother and child project, helping mothers to give their child a healthy start, even when presented with challenges that we all recently experienced.

 

The theme for 2021-2022 is “serve to change lives”.  I am here to work with you to change our fellow citizens’ lives for the better.  Rotary has two official mottoes: Service Above Self and One Profits Most Who Serves Best.  My hope is to put these mottoes into action as we work together to achieve the goals I aspire to achieve.

 

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to serve and to keep the wheel of Rotary turning.