The Rotary District #5970 conference was held in Decorah, IA May 2-4. The meeting was attended by about 75 people, including Rotary Exchange students, members, past, present, and future District Governors, and others. We began Saturday morning with a presentation from Patricia Kennedy Davanzo, who told us how Rotary and the 4-way test changed her life. She told us how her father who was a Rotarian for many years, insisted she go off to New Zealand as an exchange student when she was in high school. That experience changed her life, and she knew she wanted to be involved with travel as a career. She went to work for Northwest Airlines, now Delta Airlines, after college. Today, 30 years later she has moved all over the county and successfully moved up the ranks at Northwest. Throughout here career she had a 4-way test plaque sitting on her desk and she tried to follow it every day, especially in difficult situations.
We then participated in a Gratitude Scavenger Hunt. We were split into about 10 teams and given $100 in cash. Our goal was to go out and spread joy and tell others about Rotary in about an hour. We started on Main Street, and we gave money to a family who was on their way to buy some hot chocolate for their two young children. We then headed down to the Farmer’s Market and met a local farmer and his young daughter, who runs a farm with everything from chickens to cows to potted plants. We treated his family to a future dinner out. It was a lot of fun to see how surprised people were when we gave them cash for a treat.
The last speaker was Tim Felton, a retired County Sheriff’s deputy from Winneshiek County. He told us of several trips to Ukraine in the last 4-5 years in which he has gone over and trained their local fire and police forces on how to deal with trauma and PTSD in the warzone. It was an interesting and inspiring talk and reminded us of how luck we are to live in a county where we take peace for granted.
The day ended with pizza from Mabe’s and family trivia.
Cathy Nicholas
2024-2025 Waterloo Rotary President
