The Elevator Speech by Gary Bogle

Posted by Terri Smith 
 

You have heard of an elevator speech. But, have you

heard of an elevator Global Grant Project?

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(A success story started on an elevator during the 2010

Rotary International Conference in Montreal).

 In the summer of 2010 I met Rotarian Gebregzeabher Bekele on an elevator at the R.I. International Conference in Montreal, Canada. I had wanted to meet an Ethiopian Rotarian because my daughter was born there in 1972. We talked as we traveled the three minutes from the first floor to the third floor. He had a meeting to the left and I had one down the hall to the right. We exchanged business cards and promised to communicate.And communicate we did. After several emails, we decided to develop a joint Rotarian venture in his hometown of Gore, Ethiopia. Gebre lived in Gore until he finished his high school education. He then moved to Addis Ababa for university and a work career.

Three years later the global blueprint has been approved by Rotary International and we are prepared to “break ground”. A ten stall public latrine with running water, hand washing basins, Turkish style toilets, electric lights, and showers is the project to be completed. It was only a little over 100 years ago that the first Rotary endeavor in Chicago was the installation of a public toilet. And now we are building one in Gore. How exciting and challenging the preparation has been. In early December 2012 Rotarian Gebre and I will travel to Gore to insure that the plans and designs of the task are as Rotary has approved it.

Now another challenge begins….transferring funds, building, monitoring, sweating, completing, and paying. The city requested this project, provided the land, and the Women’s Affairs Group of Gore will oversee the education and care of the public toilets.

Although an undertaking of this nature takes a great deal of patience, tenacity, and hard work, the final outcome brings a great deal of satisfaction to all.

The creation of this public toilet has truly been a Star Trek Mission:

“To go where no man has gone before.”

Rotarian Gary Bogle

The Rotary Club of Holland, Michigan