October 2024 - In Conversation with Past President Carole Ford

Q. When and why did you join Rotary?

A. I joined Rotary in 1999 when a work colleague invited me. I truly had no idea what Rotary was all about!

Q. What roles/positions have you held in the club?

A. I was Club President 2005-6 and have held various District positions including Assistant Secretary and Safeguarding/Protection/Equality Officer.

Q. Being a member of an international organisations can open many doors for overseas service. Can you tell us about your volunteering abroad?

A. Rotary has offered me some wonderful opportunities to volunteer overseas including the Jaipur Limb Centre, administering polio vaccinations in India, helping to rebuild The Yorkshire School in Sri Lanka post tsunami and working at a fistula clinic in Sierra Leone.

Q. In which countries have you attended Rotary meetings and is there a difference to Club meetings in the UK?

A. Whenever I travel abroad I always try to visit a local Rotary Club and so I have been to several European and African Clubs as well as those in Canada, USA, India, Nepal, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Somewhat surprisingly, I have found that although the members may be younger than those in this country the meetings tend to be more formal. I shall never forget going to one American club and being required to SING my national anthem and several other Rotary songs! I have also enjoyed attending Rotary International Conventions in Australia, Birmingham and in Chicago to mark Rotary’s centenary. I have joined Rotary meetings onboard cruise ships in the Artic and Alaska and have hosted international Ambassadorial Scholars.

Q. What do you see as the current challenges facing Rotary?

A. Rotary has many challenges but probably the greatest is how to be flexible in a changing world whilst maintaining core values. Let’s not “throw the baby out with the bath water”.

Q. Can you share your favourite Rotary moment to date?

A. It is hard to select one favourite Rotary moment. It could be being selected to go to the Houses of Parliament to represent Rotary’s polio eradication effort, or being chosen as the only female Rotarian on a Rotary Mission Challenge Team of 12, but actually I think the best moments are when someone gives you that gentle smile to let you know that you have in some way enhanced their life.

Q. What occupies your time when not involved in Rotary?

A. I am something of a ‘professional hobbyist’ and have tried many hobbies over the years – silver smithing, rock climbing, yarnbombing, painting and genealogy etc but at the moment it’s textile art. I also keep busy as a Freeman of York,  as a volunteer at Thirsk Community Library, with English Heritage and on the children’s bereavement team with Herriot Hospice.

Q. If you could change one thing in the world, what would that be?

A. I don’t think I can beat John Lennon ‘Imagine all the people living life in peace’.

Thank you