My Rotary Pin and the Stranger at Central Park

Greg Lynch - July 31, 2003

It was a warm spring morning, a Monday. I was walking on Central Park South. Suddenly, a total stranger walked toward me with a look of recognition in his eye. Quite tall and a sharp dresser, he saluted me with a characteristic deep voice and enthusiastic manner, “Say, you’re a Rotarian”. Startled and pleased, I mused: How does this gent know I belong to Rotary? Was it a lucky guess? Did I know him? The answer was simple. I was wearing my Rotary pin. Since it’s a fixture of my wardrobe, I’d kind of forgotten it was on my lapel. So who was doing the asking? Well, it was Frank Devlyn, then President of Rotary International. He was actually going to be visiting our Club the next day, and I probably would have met him then. Yet the fact that we ran into each other spontaneously, in a crowd on a Manhattan street, has stuck with me. It also created a kind of bond between the two of us. It might be at a joint club meeting on Staten Island to hear Frank promoting the Avoidable Blindness program and his book. It might be on a mountain top overlooking Brisbane, Australia, at a party for Frank’s Amigos. Whatever the occasion, Frank and I always have a few moments to chat and I always recollect the day we met. By the way the full title of his book is Frank Talk – How you can make a difference in your career, your community and your world through membership in Rotary.

My encounter with this Mexican super-Rotarian provided me with an important lesson: the importance of wearing my Rotary pin. It’s a status symbol. It sets the wearer apart as a person concerned with his or her community, an ethical person – probably active and knowledgeable about business, and it silently speaks the words all Rotarians know “Service Above Self”. When I see an unfamiliar face wearing a Rotary pin, I now make it a practice to say “Hello”. I’ve done so in supermarkets and bazaars; at the airport; during intermission at the opera; and on the streets of a country town. The reaction is always positive. The encounter may be a brief moment of salutation or result in an invitation home to have dinner with a Rotary family. The important part is that it creates a connection. It’s part of our bond as members of Rotary; it’s a symbol of the strength of who we are.

Recently, I had an appointment with a professional adviser. I told her I was a member of Rotary. She asked me if we Rotarians “wore funny hats”. I told her “no” but explained that we did wear the Rotary pin, like the one I wore on my lapel. I also told her what that meant. She may never become a Rotarian but she has heard a bit of our message. And she’s heard it one-on-one. That kind of public relations, you just cannot buy. So wear you Rotary pin with pride and don’t be afraid to say hello and to tell folks what it means. If you don’t wear your pin, you’re cheating yourself out of one of the best parts of Rotary – the experience of sharing.