Rotary District 6270 kicked off Rotary International's newest Area of Focus with its "Environmental Days of Service" during October 4-10. Local clubs were encouraged to do anything they wanted during that week with an environmentally-focused theme.
Adding the "Environment" as a new area of focus provides Rotary International with the influence needed to continue sustaining humanitarian projects in the long term while also actively working to make the planet cleaner and safer for the communities it serves. This proactive approach to climate change ensures that Rotary International will be able to handle the inevitable changes arising from a warming planet amid increasing levels of pollution, deforestation, and extinction. Rotary is not alone. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a partner of Rotary, has also added climate change to its top issues. Humanitarian organizations like Rotary have the network and resources necessary to help vulnerable communities adjust to environmental changes that are on the horizon.
RI District 6270 boasts of having been awarded the first Global Grant Scholarship in the new Area of Focus. Alaina Eckert of Sussex, WI, is the recipient. Working towards completing dual masters degrees simultaneously and currently in Germany, Alaina has been forced to adjust slightly her sequence of program studies. The Government of New Zealand has again delayed the issue of student visas until mid-2022. Alaina has therefore procured a three-six month internship with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Society in Panama, beginning in January 2022, and will hopefully proceed afterwards to New Zealand for a semester of studies at Lincoln University.
