Rotaract President Kimberley Baird

Past President John Ardley welcomed Rotaract President for 2018/2019 Kimberley Baird as our speaker.

Kimberley is finishing third year at St Andrews University where she has been studying maths with emphasis on statistics.   She told us about living close to Bathgate and showed us pictures of her family with whom she is particularly close.  Her grandfather who is a Rotarian gave her knowledge of and interest in the organisation.  When she was younger and at secondary school she learned about a Rotary Project where instead of taking a gap year out she could apply to study in Georgia USA funded by Georgia Rotarians.  She was successful in her application and told about meeting so many students from different countries and cultures.  It was clearly an enjoyable experience.  Rotarians laughed when she explained how the various course marks were given for attending a certain political event.   Following her trip to the USA she joined second year at St Andrews University and has been involved in many organisations including St Andrews Community Council where she was surprised to find the obsession some individuals have apparently for quite trivial items.

Kimberly explained about the many varied Rotaract meetings and events she had organised.  She also mentioned the Rotaract India Project of sending two students to teach in a school for disadvantaged children in India.

When she was 3 years old she started Taekwondo and won a gold medal age 9 when she competed in Hong Kong.  This is something she loves and is now a black belt holder and a qualified teacher.  Another of her passions is cake baking and she showed us pictures of the beautiful cakes she had made for birthdays and Easter etc.  They looked amazing and she delighted the Rotarians by presenting everyone with a specially made cupcake featuring the Rotary symbol and most delicious and appreciated they were.   It was suggested that she could made a good living baking cakes, but she prefers a job in the financial industry where she has an internship lined up this summer.   Concluding her speech, she wished to thank Colin Mitchell who works very hard for Rotaract and has been very supportive to her in her year of office.

The Vote of Thanks was given by Dave Murdoch who thanked Kimberly and wished her well for the future.