Kevin McDonnell with Wayne Milnes
IMMEDIATE past district district governor Wayne Milnes had a couple of surprises up his proverbial sleeve when he came to Palm Beach Rotary’s regular club meeting last week.
One was to present an assistantt District Governor’s badge to Rick Dawson. Rick had been given one earlier and this was a second one. The reason? The first one had the wrong district name name on its face.
The second surprise was an even bigger deal. Wayne said that at the beginning of every Rotary year, district governors all over the world send in material on clubs they believe merit a Rotary Citation.
In the past this recognition had been known as the President’s award but this had caused some confusion. It was actually awarded by the president of Rotary International but some thought it was awarded to the presidents of clubs which had achieved certain goals.
So the name was changed to Rotary Citation and it is a recognition of individual clubs’ achievements.
There are three levels of award, silver, then gold and finally the highest level, platinum.
This year 14 district clubs won citations but Palm Beach — then under the leadership of Kevin McDonnell — won a platinum citation.
Kevin was called up to received he award and said: “I did not know this was happening, it’s a real surprise.
“I know we worked hard — I know I worked hard — and it is good to be recognised.
“It is all down to this club, all who did the work, we deserved it!”