It's a very long trip from Nigeria to Salt Lake City, but Rotary club delegate Peter Adegbesan and his wife, Theresa, were willing to go the distance to join the 17,000 Rotarians meeting here at the Rotary International convention.
Adegbesan is from Rotary club 9110, in Lagos, representing some 75 members of his local club. This world convention is the only reason he has come. He and his wife are all business and don't plan to do any sightseeing before they leave Wednesday, the final day of the convention.
They enjoyed the pageantry and entertainment of the opening ceremony with the music, dancing, welcome from Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and performance by Donny Osmond. But Adegbesan is here to exchange ideas and make connections.
Adegbesan is making many of his connections at the gathering's House of Friendship, located in the lowest level of Salt Lake Convention Center, where hundreds of booths offer information of past successful and ongoing projects.
There are booths offering opportunities to "Adopt a Village" in Papua, New Guinea, to help fight malaria, build a windbreak in the South Gobi Desert and help advance literacy worldwide. There were innovative displays of water filters and solar ovens to help meet needs of families in developing countries.
The networking is a critical element of the Rotary convention. Each individual Rotary club, like club 9110, is autonomous but may have a project that requires more funding, expertise and manpower than they are able to provide alone. The connections and friendships developed during the convention help make projects possible.
Adegbesan's local club has been involved in the Gift of Life program treating heart ailments, developing water systems, surgery for the blind, providing artificial limbs and other projects for the disabled. The Rotary wheel symbol is a companion gear standing for just the sort of comradeship happening in the House of Friendship. Many Rotary clubs from the developed nations look for a sister club like Adegbesan's in a developing nation.
Besides networking, the convention offered delegates a chance to roll up their sleeves and join in the first-ever humanitarian service project during a convention. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Humanitarian Center had set up an area where Rotary members could assemble 16,000 hygiene kits to go into the center's inventory for needs around the world. Rotary International and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints split the costs of the supplies and Rotarians provided the labor to get the job done.
"We were hoping to have it done by noon, " said John Yancey assistant manager of the LDS Humanitarian Center. "It was a little slow at first, but I think we're going to do it."
A loud cheer went up from a group who had just completed a full pallet containing 112 cases of kits.
Adegbesan summed it up by simply stating, "The joy comes from service."
E-mail: dramsay@desnews.com