CHARTER NIGHT
By Greg Lynch, President
(2003-2004), Rotary Club of New York
The Salmagundi Club is an old brownstone
mansion, classically reminiscent of an era of stylish carriages and foot men,
located a short walk from Washington
Square Park.
I imagined it to have been the setting for an Edith Wharton novel, perhaps the
home of Mrs. Peniston, the star-crossed Lily Bart’s aunt in The House of
Mirth. Today 47 Fifth Avenue
houses a private club best known to the public for its art exhibits and
catering to a membership who enjoy both fine dining and the avid pursuit of
billiards.
It is to this setting that we came a recent,
balmy May evening to the “Charter Night” of the Metro NYC Rotary Club. The Club
was founded in 2002 and this was their second anniversary celebration. They
have twenty members all of whom may be around thirty years of age. Most of the
members were in attendance, as were a number of Rotary Club Presidents from the
area, including myself, some friends, and a past District Governor. The dinner
was set in a ground floor room looking directly out onto Fifth Avenue with the
pseudo-colonial feel of an eighteenth century public house, as re-interpreted
some time between the 1920s and the 1950s. Down the corridor was the spacious
billiard room.
The current President is a woman I greatly
admire, Kirsten Edstrom, who had been an original member of the Rotaract Club
at the United Nations. That Rotaract Club had been sponsored by my own Club,
the Rotary Club of New York, when Horst Schneider was our President
(1995-1996). A few short years ago, those Rotaractors responded magnificently
to an earthquake disaster in Turkey
and were later named the Rotaract Club of the year at the Rotary International
convention. So Kirsten and her crew had the talent, energy and a lot to live up
to when, having come of age, they embarked on founding their own Rotary Club.
It was not all smooth sailing.
I was just now asked by a potential new member
if is there was much competition among Rotary Clubs. My response was a clear
“no”, followed by an explanation of how Clubs understand one another and
cooperate. At the same time, there was a little click in my head that said
“yeah, sometimes”, and I was thinking of our relationship with the Metro NYC
Club. Our Club had historically supported expansion in Manhattan and had sponsored the Chinatown
Club and the Upper Manhattan Clubs. We also always understood that Rotaractors
must one day leave the Rotary movement (which we do not want) or move to a
Rotary Club. We attempted to induce them into our Club but we are a bit “highfalutin”,
so we should have clearly conceived that they might start their own Club.
Regrettably there were some outside forces which tried to jam that option down
our throats. So we choked, and eventually did not sponsor these fledgling
Rotarians. That was sad, and wrong, and it has taken us time to find a rapprochement.
Last night, for me, was the moment of finding
that place of acceptance and trust. I discovered that the high
point of the charter party was to be a special welcome to a young
man who had come to New York,
sponsored by the NYC Metro Rotary Club and by Gift of Life. For those who do
not know about this important Rotary Project, Gift of Life is a local and
international program that identifies young people with serious heart disease
gets them the medical attention they need, even if it’s half way around the
world, and gives them a new lease on life - no, really, a new life. So it was
that last night we met Patricio from Ecuador
who is to enter the Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx
in early June to have just such a life giving operation. Patricio is fifteen
years and last night he was accompanied by his older brother. While he doesn’t
speak English, he was happy to chat with us through his Rotary very capable
interpreter, Hedy Marin-Manzke of the Bronx Rotary Club. He was friendly and
outgoing as he told us about his village, Progreso, near the city of Cuenca, Ecuador.
He is a brave guy. I know I’d be very a bundle of nerves in a new country with
a language I did not understand about to have my heart operated on! Patricio
loves volleyball, soccer and swimming. Thanks to Gift of Life and to the
members of the Metro NYC Club, he’ll be able to practice those sports, and a
lot more, like never before.
Yeah, I understood that I was among real
Rotarians. My own Club may not have actually sponsored these “up-starts”, but
we should be very glad they are around. Kirsten asked me to bring a banner last
night. So, we exchanged banners after the meal, ours with the big number “6”
(that stands for Club #6, founded in 1909 with Paul Harris as an Honorary
Member) emblazoned in orange and blue, theirs with a picture of Lady Liberty.
As I pinned our New York pin on Kirsten’s
lapel, I told the group, in all sincerity, that we had not been sure we wanted
another Rotary Club in Manhattan
but, based on what I had that evening witnessed, I was very glad that they were
sharing the Rotary experience with us on the island we both call home.
Greg Lynch
President (2003-2004)
Rotary Club of New
York