I am honored to serve as your president for the 2011-2012 Rotary year.

As I thought about the message that I wanted to share with you, the Rotary mottos came to mind.  “Service Above Self” is the motto that we are all familiar with, but actually there is another motto that was adopted at the same time, “One Profits Most Who Serves Best”.

Approximately seven years ago my friend Ute Turner came to me and asked if I would help her and a few others start an evening Rotary Club in Woodland.  At this time I actually knew very little about Rotary, but Ute’s enthusiasm was contagious and my inability to say “no” had me quickly inducted into the new Luna Vista Rotary Club, Woodland.

We were an aggressive, productive group that got good things done almost immediately.  We put a beautiful new courtyard in St. John’s Retirement Village, restrooms at the Gibson Museum, and we had two great international projects, Project Amigo in Mexico and a dental clinic in Tanzania, Africa; all in just about two years time.  (Luna Vista continues to support both of these international projects.)

About three years ago I was invited to a preliminary meeting at the Yocha Dehe Golf Course Clubhouse, investigating the possibility of starting a Capay Valley Rotary Club.  This effort was lead by Fire Chief Mike Chandler and given that I worked right there at the casino, this was a very exciting prospect for me.  A small group of us got busy and started recruiting members and we chartered our new club, the Rotary Club of Capay Valley, Brooks in April 2010.  In July 2010, Pat Scribner became our new club president.

In the short time that our club has been in existence, we have provided the small town of Madison with a back up electrical system, allowing them to have water (well and pump) during power outages, we have started a Student of the Month program, assisted the Resource Conservation District and the Western Yolo Grange in planting over 2000 indigenous plants at Nichols Park in Guinda, refurbished our Gateway to Capay Valley highway sign, sent $1500.00 to the Japan Tsunami Relief Fund through Rotary International, and most recently, we are working with Yolo County to purchase and install a new irrigation system for Nichols Park through our fundraising efforts and the hope of matching district funds which we have applied for.

Again, I belong to another dynamic team of doers and we have accomplished some great things in a very short amount of time!

Now, I want to talk about “what Rotary has done for me”.  How I have “profited” through my service.

In the beginning of this article I start with “I am honored”.  It is the journey that has brought me here, to this new position as Club President that watermarks those words with honest heartfelt emotion.  I had no idea seven years ago when I joined Rotary that it would be one of the great experiences of my lifetime.

To start, the fellowship that I have felt and is present at each and every meeting that I have attended, no matter where it is.  Being in a room with people of different ethnicities, personalities, politics, religions, yet are bound by their same desire to serve has reinforced for me that no matter the differences, you can always find common ground.

The opportunity to be a part of the “solution”.  This has never been more real for me then when I sat in the New Orleans Convention Center and listened to Bill Gates talk about how close we are to the eradication of polio.  This is HUGE and I am humbled by the fact that each and every one of us as Rotarians has had some small part to play in that reality.  We are “this close” and we will eradicate polio from the face of this planet and we will do it while I am a Rotarian!  What an awesome feeling that is.  I can not wait for the next challenge!

The feeling of great satisfaction and accomplishment that I experience as I work side by side with fellow Rotarians on a project that I know is going to make all the difference to someone else’s life; whether it be the simple beauty of freshly planted trees for personal enjoyment or the seriousness of an electrical system enabling fresh clean water during power outages for a small community.

The skills that I have learned or reinforced as treasurer, secretary, sergeant at arms, or the committees that I have joined or chaired, proved to me that you are never too old to learn or try something new.   And, there really is nothing that scary about standing up and talking to a crowd, especially if in that crowd are your friends.

The selflessness that I witnessed as I walked the halls of the House of Friendship at the International Convention.  The endless aisles of service projects that were thought up and brought about by normal, everyday people like you and me.  And, the lengths that they have gone to, to get their projects recognized, sponsored and funded is for me the epitome of humanitarianism and hope. These people are Rotarians.

My wish for you my friends and fellow Rotarians is that you too “profit” from your experience as a Rotarian.  And, as the new Club President I am committed to making this experience of Rotary a great one for each and every one of you.  I hope that my enthusiasm is contagious and my words inspiring as we renew our commitment to the ideals of Rotary.

"The Object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster:

FIRST. The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service;

SECOND. High ethical standards in business and professions, the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations, and the dignifying of each Rotarian’s occupation as an opportunity to serve society;

THIRD. The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian’s personal, business and community life;

FOURTH. The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service."

Again my friends, it is truly my honor to serve with you this year.

Yours in Rotary,

Anna Del Castillo

Rotary Club of Capay Valley, President 2011-2012