I was about to turn 40 when I joined Rotary. The
timing was perfect. I’d wandered into a profession, computer software
development, where I was disconnected from any community.
I was developing a somewhat complex database program for betting on
horse races, based on 70 variables for each horse that enabled me and
my colleagues to determine its true odds of winning in any race, once we
entered all the data and did our modeling.(click below to read more)
My interaction was entirely with a computer screen. We didn’t have
customers or clients, so I had little opportunity to connect with other
humans. And I was living in Hong Kong, a long way from Pittsburgh, my
home. Our goal was to handicap every Hong Kong racehorse based on past
performance, track conditions, and so forth, and place strategic bets
based on the results. It was a huge amount of work – but profitable and
perfectly legal.
Our business lawyer, Gilbert Collins, invited me twice to join the
Rotary Club of Kowloon North before I accepted. I must have had some
trepidation; I’m not a joiner by nature. But before I knew it, I was on
my way to becoming a member.
Rotarians respect the dignity and usefulness of all professions.
There was no service component to mine, so I felt immensely honored to
have been asked. In the first year after I became a member, I learned
more about the Hong Kong community than in all the time I’d been living
there. Looking back, it’s not surprising that I would become deeply
involved in the club’s service projects.
Crumbling schools
I have a fondness and an aptitude for numbers, which helps – and,
as I discovered through Rotary, a passion for putting my skills to work
for causes I believe in. As the club’s international service director, I
was charged with reaching out to join forces with clubs in other
countries.
Bruce Stinson, past president of the Kowloon North club, had
already made friends with Sai-Hong Choi, past president of the Rotary
Club of Macau, and had visited impoverished Du’an County in southeast
China in 1999. He’d been moved to tears by the condition of many of the
area’s rural schools – the roofs and walls had collapsed, and there were
no desks or seats, he reported. The Macau club lacked funding, and
that’s where we stepped in.
I knew that it would be something of a gamble to make our way
through the Chinese regional bureaucracy and ensure that the money we
raised went where it was intended, but I’d been gambling successfully
for most of my adult life. As I got to know the Chinese government
officials in Du’an, my level of trust increased. They turned out to be
sincere and honest and grateful for our help.
The government agreed to put up half the money if we put up the
other half – a total cost of about $60,000 to rebuild each school. To
me, this seemed like a slam-dunk, and thanks to the success of my
business, I was able to donate a substantial amount of those costs on my
own.
The Kowloon North club teamed up with the Macau club to build the
first three schools in the region, and since then, our district’s clubs
have been able to fund many more. Putting the money into bricks and
mortar assured us we were creating something of lasting value, that the
money wasn’t being frittered away. It was my kind of gamble.
For me, one of the most rewarding results of these service projects
is to watch my perceptions bump up against reality. I expected China to
be a tyrannical place, even brutal.
Noticeable change
But my Rotarian colleagues and I learned a few things as we watched
the Long’an middle school in Du’an being transformed from a dilapidated
building into a functional structure. I asked the headmaster about
discipline. “Do you spank students?” I wondered. He looked at me
incredulously. “ Spank students?” He was shocked at the
suggestion. Teachers and administrators are forbidden to employ physical
punishment, he explained. “They do that in your country?” It was
inconceivable to him that we could even think that was possible. So much
for my concern about social protectors.
Now, about 11 years after the first schools were rebuilt, Du’an has
become a thriving region. When we visited in 2008, schoolchildren no
longer looked at our cameras in awe; they snapped digital photos of us
with their smartphones. There had been an amazing upsurge in prosperity.
Our first school project was dwarfed, in a good way, by high-rises all
around.
Did I ever expect to become involved in so many projects, or to
meet my wife, Vivian, in the Rotary Club of Kowloon North – she is a
past president of the Rotary Club of Peninsula Sunrise, Hong Kong – and
to marry for the first time at age 53? I wouldn’t have laid odds on any
of those things happening.
But computer programs, even mine, have serious limitations. They
couldn’t have predicted the adventures I’ve had or the personal rewards
that have come my way through Rotary. I donate to The Rotary Foundation
because I believe in its mission.
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