The title of president for the Rotary Club of Cochrane and Area will soon change hands.
After a year of leading the club, current president Kevin Shier will hand over the role to his fellow Rotarian, Clark Drader, at the Rotary Club’s 2022 President’s Hand-over and Year-End party on June 28.
Leading the club since last July and as COVID-19 restrictions began to lift was a “unique time,” Shier said.
“What I found very interesting was our club didn’t slow down during the pandemic,” he said. “We didn’t stop projects, we never missed a meeting, and we switched to Zoom immediately.
“What I basically took away [from that experience] is that the Rotarians we have in our club are incredibly dedicated and are willing to go the extra mile, where other groups may have had people who backed off at that time.”
In Cochrane, the Rotarians started planning and fundraising to establish a multi-purpose Indigenous Centre in collaboration with the area’s Indigenous community in the last year.
Around the world, Cochrane members also continued to work on service projects in Belize and Pakistan.
While some of their international efforts were held back slightly by pandemic-related travel restrictions, Shier said they never “dropped the ball” on those they made a pledge to help.
“Both of those projects are kicking into high gear again … we didn’t walk away from them and that’s critical because most people have a lot of reliance on when we come in and say ‘Hey, we’re gonna do this for you and help you with these things to develop your community,’” he said. “It’s really easy to have excuses as to not doing it when you’re on the other side of the world.”
Shier said he was first inspired to join the Cochrane service club when his family began hosting Rotary Youth Exchange students. He was then a club member for seven years before being nominated to become president.
The Rotary mission of “service above self” was an initial lure, Shier said, but he was also drawn to the club’s flexibility.
“There’s no overarching expectation of someone else’s mandate and that’s one of the things that is really unique is that it has the flexibility to work with youth, or internationally or within a community,” he said.
The Cochrane club currently has 37 members and is always looking for more people to join.
“We want people to come in and discover Rotary and see what Rotary is all about,” he said. “It really truly is service above self and it takes a special kind of person and a special time in life to be a Rotarian.
“We encourage people to come and see if it’s something that they want to make part of their life because it’s a fantastic group and we’ve got lots of great people doing all kinds of great things in the community.”
Shier will stay on the board of directors for another year as past president and continue working alongside Drader, who he says is “very happy to be leading the club.”
Drader will officially become president July 1.
