Saigon Rotary Connection

A small world indeed. I have become fast friends with a Rotarian here in Saigon named Sue McKinney, an attorney formerly from the SFO area that moved here over 15 years ago. Tori over at the District 5280 office put me in touch with Ted Wendorff of the Redondo Beach club. He gave a\me a list of contacts relating to Vietnam and various projects Rotarians have been indirectly involved with. One of thse was Sue. Officially, she is both an attorney and businesswoman. She operates a furniture import/export business here called the Red Door, which is just stuffed with the most elegant, unique and desirable furniture and accessories from this area. Unofficially, she is a champion for Rotary here, and while it is not yet 'legal' to operate a Rotary Club, there are still a number of great humanitarian projects Rotary can participate in.

Sue invited me to her home in the north of Saigon, far from the tourist areas. In fact, she is the only expat in her neighborhood. She is in the middle of staging her home for a Vietnamese architectural publiction, so I lent a hand at helping move furniture around as well as my non-pro interior design skills. By the end of the day, it was really taking shape, and I look forward to seeing the final staging both in person and in print.

We did take time to look at some of the projects available for Rotary Clubs to participate in, via another ápproved'operation in country. The most encouraging of these was the assembly and distribution of prosthetic hands for a total cost of $50 USD. I will publish photos and the YouTube video link so you can get an idea of how these work. Whether it is 1 hand or 100, there are other helpful hands here in Saigon to assemble and fit the prosthetics here. I will be pushing this both in my Rotry Club in Century City, as well as others within District 5280.

Thanks to Sue here in Saigon for befriending me and opening up the Rotary door to all these opportunities here.