Why I Am A Rotarian
DECEMBER 12, 2006
 I
joined Rotary in 1971 to get away from medicine for an hour and
a half a week. Up to that point in my life everything had
centered on my profession as a physician and orthopedic surgeon,
including my friends and my social life.
Rotary opened up
a new world of friendships, with business and professional men
and now women from all walks of life.
These individuals were men and
women of integrity and compassion who were the leading citizens
in my community. They soon became the people I turned to for
advice and assistance in my world outside of medicine.
Through Rotary I also became more involved with service to the
less fortunate in my community. After serving as a club
president and a district governor, my circle of Rotary friends
then extended far beyond my community to communities throughout
California, the western United States and eventually the world.
Rotary then gave me the
opportunity to use my professional skills to serve the Rotary
Foundation as a technical advisor to the 3-H program in the area
of health, and to serve as a medical officer at International
Assemblies. With the help of Rotarians in my club, my district
and The Rotary Foundation I was able to develop a prosthetic/orthotic
clinic in Santa Ana, El Salvador (population 500,000), that
previously did not have a facility to make artificial limbs and
braces for the medically indigent in that community.
Rotary has enriched my life in
ways that I could not have imagined 35 years ago when I attended
my first Rotary meeting.
That is why I am a Rotarian.
Michael W. Abdalla, MD
Trustee of The Rotary
Foundation, 2004-2007
Rotary Club of Orange,
California
D-5320
|
