Mineola-Garden City Rotary represented in GREECE!

Posted by Jeanie Verdis
 
Jeanie Verdis attends her first meeting as a visiting Rotarian!

 

Dear Fellow Rotarians,

Where has the summer gone? Back in July, while on vacation in Greece, I had the privilege of attending the Rafina Rotary Club meeting. Many prominent business owners were in attendance and Mr. Takis Dalianis from Greece's Rotary International Headquarters was their guest speaker. His topic was about how to organize events specifically designed to help their community.

Rafina is a seaport with a lot of grace and charm It's approximately 30 minutes from the airport. Hundreds of thousands of tourists visit Rafina throughout the summer months, many board ferries to the Greek Islands, just as my family did when we visited Mykonos, which is just a two hour boat ride from Rafina.

Unlike its neighboring town of Nea Makri, whose Rotary club has had a long history and strong presence (partly because that town had a large American military base during the cold war), Rafina's Rotary club is still in its first steps, so Rotarians from Nea Makri regularly attend their meetings to help strengthen the club. The Rafina Rotary Club wants to complete a few projects that will increase their visibility in the community. They are currently working on the restoration and expansion of a children's playground and they can use any assistance they can get for this.

I have attached a few photos of that evening's event. The President of the Rafina Rotary Club, Ms. Maro, gave me their flag, as well as three books, one on the Athens antiquities (in English), one on the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 (in Greek) and a Greek Cookbook (in Greek and English).

Lisa Mueller made sure I brought along our Rotary flag, which I was happy to present on behalf of our club. As a visiting Rotarian, my short speech, in English, was as follows: "I'm very happy to be here and with my fellow Rotarians at Rafina which is my second home. I'm looking forward to meeting all of you in person and in the meantime please accept this gift from my home Rotary Club, Mineola-Garden City. This is a suburb of New York City. I hope to act as a liaison between the two clubs and help you get more things accomplished. Remember, now you have a friend in New York!"

The Rafina Rotary club has been so nice and welcoming, I would like to help them with their playground project. If any of you would like to help, please contact me.

I look forward to seeing all of you again, now that I am back home!
Take Care!

Jeanie Verdis