Service Above Self in Puerto Penasco, Mexico

TODAY IN ROTARY Gil Trujillo, Richard Isom, Linda Sappington, Ted Dodge and Collin Davis reported on their week in Puerto Penasco, Mexico where they provided "service above self" for 4 days prior to the District Conference.

During his year as District Governor, Mike Wells, a longtime member of the Rotary Club of Tooele regularly told the nearly 1800 members of 47 clubs in Rotary District 5420, "if it's not fun, you're doing it wrong!"  So, its no surprise, when this dentist-by-profession proposed his 2014-15 district conference be held - not in their home state of Utah - but up to 1000 miles south in Mexico, those who know what part fun plays in his life, simply said, "where do I sign up?"

This memorable District Conference was held June 12-13, 2015 in Puerto Penasco, Mexico, but the fun actually began 4 days before the conference when more than 750 Rotarians, family members and friends came together to complete about 50 humanitarian service projects in this little town, approximately 200 miles from Phoenix.  The conference and service activities took a year of planning and about $12,000 in Rotary grants and 3 times that much again in individual club contributions but in a week's time, District 5420 accomplished a Herculean amount of work including:

·                providing dental care (extractions and fillings) for 293 people

·                building 3 2-bedroom, 2-bath cinderblock houses (which will be completed by others for “gifting” around Christmas time)

·                furnishing and gifting 4 homes to qualified families in need of safe housing

·                cleaning the hard drives, downloading appropriate software and donating 65 iMac computers for use in the Escuela de Rotaria Elementary School and another 80 pc’s to Escuela Numero 27 (comparable to a U. S. middle school)

·                landscaping a new dialysis center

·                paying for and delivering an ambulance for the dialysis center (a cost of about $14,000)

·                paying for and delivering 4 school buses

·                creating a computer lab with tablets and a flat screen TV for training high school students on the use of technology

·                donating a year’s worth of internet service to these schools

·                donating “a truckload” of school supplies

·                delivering and distributing about 125 t-shirt dresses for little girls, shorts for little boys and a bunch of wooden toys from the Happy Factory in Cedar City

·                building a 12x20” addition on the Piñata House where young people with disabilities, from blindness to cerebral palsy make piñatas to sell to local souvenir shops to earn a small income

·                working with employees of the Pinata House, completed 200 pinatas which will fund the program for almost two years

·                created a library at a local elementary school

·                distributing 1500 pair of prescription glasses and sunglasses

·                painting the Escuela de Rotario school a beautiful pumpkin orange and installed fencing and donated playground equipment for the kids

·                refurbished 50 school desks

Of course, in this beautiful community located on the Sea of Cortez, it wasn’t all work!  After an average of 5 hours a day in the hot sun with humidity almost equal to the temperature, Rotarians, their family and friends enjoyed swimming, shopping the street markets, socializing, shrimp the size of your fist and a Fiesta with music, dance, food and fireworks, organized by the 1-year-old Mar de Cortez Rotary Club, based in Puerto Penasco.

No question, there were a few naysayers and certainly not every Rotarian in Utah attended, but those who did are changed forever.  None of those 750 attendees, despite their age and background, will ever say, "it can't be done" because DG Mike Wells proved a small contribution of time can make a huge difference in addressing overwhelming needs.  It can truly be said, District 5420 took up the RI challenge for 2014-15 to "Light Up Rotary" during one week in June and made the impossible happen.