Club Meeting – February 2nd, 2017

Our speaker today was Dr. Tracy Fitzsimmons, who wore two hats, one as President of Shenandoah University and the other as a past Rotary Ambassador Scholar.  Dr. Fitzsimmons eschewed the dais to weave into the audience to make her speech.  Her prowess as an educator were self-evident.

Dr. Fitzsimmons wove her experiences, as a foreign student during Chile’s transition from a military junta to a democracy and as an university President, who found a way to honor a 10 year old cancer patient’s last wish, into a timely message for our club and country.

Life should not be taken for granted.  Existence, whether it be an individual’s or a country’s, is a process that characterizes and validates each till their end.  Dr. Fitzsimmons and her staff listened to a young girls last wishes, took them to heart and found a way to make them come true.  We hope that our country can equal the determination and courage shown by Gabriella .

In our country today, as in Chile, listening past the hyperbole and ad hominem attacks by politicians in order to identify and help coalesce the nation around the common needs of all citizens will characterize and validate our republic and serve as a positive symbol to the world.   

The club does not often give speakers a standing ovation.  It did so today.  

Thank you Dr. Tracy Fitzsimmons, that was a great class!

A special thanks to Robert Dementi for his photographic skills!