Our guest speaker this week was DG David McPherson.
 
David is a member of the Rotary Club of Deniliquin and has been a member of many service clubs. He is also a keen sportsman and has represented Australia at the Paralympics and the Commonwealth Games. He is a medical scientist by profession but has now retired to put more time into Rotary.
 
David told us about the new Rotary logo and its colours.
It was designed by Australian indigenous artist, Riki Salam. 
The circle represents the meeting circle, our connection to others; the seven dots are the people and the seven Rotary areas of service. The solid line is the digging stick which does the hard work. The colours have various interpretations.
 
The new International President is Jennifer Jones, the first woman to attain this position. Jennifer emphasizes respect, caring, empowering women and girls, raising the profile of Rotary, encouraging new Club models eg. Satellite, Passport, Corporate or Cause - based. Jennifer’s video encouraged us to consider all the above in our everyday activities.
Diversity is an aim of Rotary. We try to recruit people of many cultural backgrounds, ages, genders, interests and abilities.
 
David’s experience as a paraplegic since childhood has made him very aware of the benefits of inclusion. David’s message was that we should celebrate the past but look to the future.
His family project, along with his children Lily and Liam, is to help provide wheelchairs for children in disadvantaged countries, world-wide.   See: https://wheelchairsforkids.org/ 
They are made in a factory in Perth where volunteers construct simple adjustable wheelchairs which are perfect.