George Finley

“Build bridges not walls” is easy to say but can be challenging to do.  In 1989 the wall between the two Germanys came down. In 1991 the Soviet Union was dissolved.  The people in those nations had spoken.  As a former US Army officer I was enormously relieved that barriers had come down and the Cold War was apparently over.  Soon it was reported that the former republics in the Soviet Union were seriously lacking supplies for hospitals and schools. The attempts at democracy were struggling.  They needed help and the possible chaos could seriously jeopardize the peace that had descended over Europe. In 1994 I became the president of the Rotary Club of Schwäbisch Hall, Germany where I lived with my family as a freelance artist.  One of the goals I set for my year as club president was to find a way to help the people in the former Soviet Union. The walls were down so now was the time to build bridges and reach out.  But how? I went there to find out using the contact with another Rotary Club in L’viv, Ukraine to help find an answer.  It was the closest Rotary Club to Germany in the former Soviet Union. After visits to schools and hospitals I saw their needs and was convinced that we could help.  With the backing of my German club and others we collected used but serviceable medical equipment and furnishings for hospitals as well as school supplies and equipment in Germany.  Over two years we shipped more than 60 tons of donated items to Western Ukraine.  Perhaps more important were the personal contacts between Ukrainians and Germans. We arranged for Ukrainian doctors, dentists and teachers to visit Germany.  Twenty Ukrainian German language teachers visited German schools for a week while staying in Germans’ homes; and then spent a week touring important historical and political institutions in 1997. We founded another Rotary Club in Rivne, Ukraine.  For these efforts I received the Service Above Self award from the President of Rotary International in 1998.  It is the highest Rotary award given to an individual Rotarian. In that year 200 Rotarians from a total of nearly 1.3 million Rotary members worldwide received the recognition.  I feel deeply honoured to have received the award and have continued support for Ukraine in order to keep the bridge intact that we diligently built years ago.