Rotary International District Governors are required to make an Official visit to each of their District's clubs at the beginning of their year as Governor. During the visit the District Governor shares their focus and that of the Rotary International President for the year. On September 17th District Governor Robert "Bob" McKenzie made his official visit to the Rotary Club of Kittery. His presentation focused on substance abuse and recovery, and upon Rotary membership.
Assistant Governor Pam Gray introduced our 2024-2025 District 7780 Governor, Robert "Bob" McKenzie. Bob is the Police Chief of Kennebunk having served in the department for 36 years and as Chief since 2008. Prior to joining the police he was a Firefighter and and EMT. He has been a Rotarian for 17 years and he has been the leader in the District's work with substance abuse and recovery focus.
The many faces of DG Bob as he has become "the Face of Rotary in District 7780
Gift of his home Club
Knowing that DG Bob had been showing up at his official meetings in a very colorful shirt, our club members searched their closets to come up with matching attire. Bob did slip on his shirt ~ a gift of his own club as he started the District Governor Track , since he was now going to be the "Face of Rotary". ~ the shirt is all Bob!
On a very serious note, DG Bob shared his extensive professional and personal experience with individuals caught up in drug and alcohol addiction, both how they got trapped in it and for those who succeeded in pulling themselves out of it, what finally led to recovery. It was a very moving discussion as he shared his own reactions and efforts with people close to him. He shared that for him, joining Rotary was another way of reaching out and educating people about substance abuse issues and recovery support. The Recovery Conference being held September 28th at the Noble high school Auditorium is the Third that the District has hosted. He displayed and discussed the "Journey magazine" and Rotary's support of it, and he talked of the group "Family Restored" which supports families working with family members dealing with substance abuse " Support/Don't enable".
The second issue DG Bob emphasized was membership. He talked about the fact that many people do not really understand what Rotary and Rotarians do. He talked about using media spots to show Rotarians in action. Bob gave an example of hearing a commentator use a reference to something as being as "dull as a Rotary meeting" ~ which clearly shows we are not getting our word out clearly on what's really happening.
We are very grateful to District Governor Bob for sharing many very personal issues in making his points with us and making the issues very real..
The Club shows it's color (shirts) to match DG Bob's
A book will be presented to
the Kittery School libraries in the District Governor's name
