Rotary International

Leaders highlight the power of gratitude at The Rotary Foundation Donor Summit When she reflected on her experiences at The Rotary Foundation’s 2026 Donor Summit in Taipei, Taiwan, Vicki Puliz thought of “one simple word.” That word was gratitude. “Gratitude for each of you. For your generosity, your leadership, and the way you show up for one another and for the world,” said Puliz, the vice chair of The Rotary Foundation Board of Trustees.

Loading component... Photo by Monika Lozinska/ Rotary International Growing up in the mountains of Tennessee, USA, Dolly Parton had little time for reading. Before and after school, she and her 11 siblings had chores: fetching water from the well, cooking over the wood-burning stove, and tending the vegetable plot. Her father, a tobacco farmer, never learned to read.

A few days ago I was in Chicago, where Lake Michigan extended beyond the horizon and a steady stream of traffic coursed along all eight lanes of DuSable Lake Shore Drive. But now, early on this October morning, I am the only traveler on another Lake Shore Drive — and I’m on foot. I’m in Lake Mills, Wisconsin, strolling along what might generously be called a two-lane byway. Big old houses line the road on my right, and to my left is legendary Rock Lake.

If you’re seeking solid ground, one bit of advice rises above others: Don’t go through it alone Loading component... Loading component... Loading component... Contact Rotary magazine Voice your thoughts Questions or thoughts to share? Reach out to Rotary via email at magazine@rotary.org. We'd love to hear from you! Digital letters corner Drop us a digital note for the magazine! Share your thoughts or feedback by emailing us at yourletters@rotary.org.

If you’re seeking solid ground, one bit of advice rises above others: Don’t go through it alone When Tia Coppus’ husband, Ethan, died of cancer, a fog came over her. At just 38 years old, she felt as though she’d lost half of herself. Then came the silence. This was October 2021, and for 19 months, it had just been her and Ethan locked away from the world to keep COVID out. During that time, she’d forgotten how to be alone. And she’d forgotten how to be around other people.

Loading component... If this were a movie it would be a Hollywood salute to grit and gratitude, an inspirational biopic in which a determined woman survives life in a homeless shelter and repays the service organization that rescued her. Here is Janelle Hall, mid-2008, in her worn pink shelter robe, jobless after a turn mopping floors at a laundromat, a refugee from an in-law’s tiny apartment with her then-husband and four young children.

At a clinic in the city of Coimbatore in southern India on a recent afternoon, a 29-year-old man with tuberculosis comes in for his medication and receives something extra: a small white tub of powder. It’s a nutritional protein supplement, one that’s vitally important, as malnutrition is closely linked to the lung disease. The man is severely underweight at just 38 kilograms (84 pounds) with a dangerously low body mass index.

Loading component... Rotary’s new peace fellows converged on Istanbul’s Bahçeşehir University from countries thousands of miles apart: Egypt, Bulgaria, Kenya, Jordan, and beyond. But they lost no time in finding out what they had in common. “Where else on Earth would I have met with an Israeli participant and sat and talked and debated and laughed together?” says Suaad Abdo, a Yemeni fellow who now lives in Germany.

Loading component... As a teenager in southern Italy in 2005, Maria Vittoria “Mavi” Gargiulo was “kind of forced” to join an Interact club that her father’s Rotary club was trying to reestablish. The students wore suits (or at least coats and ties), and the atmosphere was very formal. “Everybody was pretending to be adult while I just wanted to be 15,” she recalls.

Loading component... Cleo the two-toed sloth, cute enough to break the internet, was blowing Megan Marrero’s mind. She and a small group of fellow Rotaractors were visiting an aquarium in the tourism hub of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and marveling at the slow-moving, upside-down tree-hanging creature. It especially captured Marrero’s imagination.