133 Rotarians, partners, and guests gathered over the weekend in Kirksville for the District 6040 Conference.

Our host was A.T. Still University, which is the birthplace of Osteopathic Medicine. The chair of the conference was Ruth Bowers of the Kirksville Club, with a lot of help from the entire Rotary community in Kirksville. One conference highlight included Happy Bucks for PolioPlus (we presented a “big check” of over $8,000) towards PolioPlus, driven primarily by a garage sale effort from the Kirksville club. Additionally, we heard from Past District Governor Duante Benton about “What Would Ray Say?”, and he had a lot to say about the Rotary experience.

Not to be outdone, Rotary Foundation Trustee Vice Chair Larry Lunsford not only led the Shoes for Orphan Souls campaign this year, bringing the all-time total over 24 years to over 450,000 pairs of shoes, but he also continues to lead our district in the Legacy Campaign that had a goal of raising bequests and outright gifts to the Rotary Foundation’s Endowment of at least $1,000,000. We were pleased to report at the District Conference that this campaign is now up to $2,206,842. This campaign will continue through 6/30, so if anyone is interested in learning how to participate, please let me know.

The conference also provided a chance for participants to learn about the Global Grant project led by Cassy Venters, “Rwandan Nurses Saving Lives”, which worked to train school and health care workers to catch early signs of infectious diseases such as strep throat to reduce rheumatic heart disease. Our next step is to try to expand this program into Zambia.

Rotarians also like to have fun (a couple of our clubs, Kirksville Thousand Hills and St. Jospeh South Side even add it to their 4 way test), and we had several excursions into Kirksville ranging from boat rides on the lake, a Truman State University tour, golfing at the country club, A.T. Still University tours, hiking the FLATS trailhead, and a literacy service project.

Closing out this year’s District Conference was the debut of the audio-only version of A Candle Against The Dark, a polio play, with Carl Chinnery playing himself. Powerful.

It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve your district as governor for the 2024-2025 Rotary year. I’d like to thank everyone for your hard work, contributions of time, talent, and treasure, and your dedication to Rotary, to your communities, and our world.

Erik McGuire