Rotary Club members in Butler County take in international guests
BUTLER TWP — The flight from Albania to Washington, D.C. was more than 10 hours long, but when members of the nation’s Rotary clubs stepped off the airplane on Friday, Oct. 17, they felt like they were entering their second home.
Twenty-one people from Albania and Kosovo are spending the week in the U.S., mainly Western Pennsylvania, with members of Rotary Clubs up and down this side of the state. On Monday, Oct. 20, the international Rotarians met with members of several Butler County Rotary clubs to tour the county and exchange ideas on how to live the Rotary motto of “service above self.”
According to the governor of Rotary District 2485 Albania Kosovo, the two nations have a lot in common when it comes to views on public service.
“We see this as a win-win partnership because we have something to give to our friends and brothers in the United States and a lot to take from you,” said Butrint Batalli, the Albania Kosovo club’s district governor. “Family bonds back there are so strong. Volunteerism is so strong.”
Batalli and the rest of the international travelers started their week with a breakfast at the Evans City Public Library before heading to Alameda Park to convene with the Butler AM Rotary and the Rotary Club of Butler PM. Each of the visitors also had a place to stay with a local Rotary Club member for the nights they were scheduled to be in the Butler area.
According to the local Rotary members, this was not the first time they had spoken with many of the Albanian and Kosovo members, who all meet on a virtual basis weekly through the “Keystone International E-Club.”
“Every Thursday, we have a meeting online with people from all over the place,” Mark Wilson, Forward Township supervisors chairman, said. “It's nice to be able to associate names and faces... It helps bond the friendship.”
Batalli said he has been to the U.S. many times over the past 10 years, which is around when the E-Club he is part of began. He explained that Albania and Kosovo have good relationships with the U.S. dating back to the 20th century when the U.S. supported Kosovo in its conflict with Serbia. Similarly, the U.S. backed Albania in the early 1900s.
According to Batalli, modern-day residents of both nations still have an appreciation for the U.S.
“We have three Flag Days — one is the independence of Kosovo, the other one is Albanian Flag Day and the third one is the Fourth of July,” Batalli said.
Because of these good relations, members of the Albania Kosovo Rotary District are eager to work with their U.S. counterparts and have even invited Butler County members on tours of their homeland.
One of these Albania-Kosovo tourists is Jim Thompson, a past president of the Butler AM Rotary Club, who traveled to the European nations last October. He said he got to stay with Rotarians of Albania and Kosovo while he was there and they showed him and about a dozen other Butler County travelers some projects completed by the countries’ Rotary club.
“We saw a lot of culture. We visited schools, a blind association, a cancer society, everything that Rotary helps support and fund,” Thompson said. “A lot of the clubs do the same thing. They were (building) basketball courts and we just saw what they were working on.”
Thompson also said he noticed minimal difference in culture between the U.S. and Albania and Kosovo, and the ways in which the Rotary Club operated were more or less the same as they are domestically.
While meeting Butler County Rotary Club members Monday, some of the international visitors said they felt the same. Florentina Dushi, the Albania Kosovo club’s district governor elect, said the talks between the club members demonstrated their views on community service are the same.
“We also believe it is Rotarians who make a difference in communities,” she said. “This is usually an experience for the visit and (to) socialize. It has that impact, but it also has moments that we reflect and how we can improve doing good in the community.”
Wilson said talks between Rotary Club members from different countries has led to an exchange of ideas.
“Every week we have a different project that comes up as far as what we would like to do,” Wilson said of the E-club’s weekly virtual meetings. “It's a very diverse group if you think about our international groups, and there's no shortage of ideas.”
The 21 Albania and Kosovo Rotarians were scheduled to leave Butler County Tuesday morning to head for Grove City, where another Rotary Club was ready to take them on a tour of Mercer County. Thompson said the international travelers would spend the rest of the week making their way north to Erie, meeting with Rotary Clubs at each stop along the way.
Wilson said the Albania and Kosovo Rotarians had already spent the weekend in Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh. The tour of Western Pennsylvania was meant to give the international audience an idea of how industry affects life in the nation.
“It's a meet and greet and a presentation on the local area,” Wilson said. “Give them an idea of how Butler County is changing. Particularly how Western Pennsylvania heavy industry is being replaced by education, health care, robotics, engineering. The gas industry is changing to energy for AI and such.”
Lee Dyer, a member of the Rotary Club of Evans City, said the Albania and Kosovo Rotary Club is not the only international organization the Butler County clubs have worked with. He said in the 1980s, U.S.-based Rotary organizations helped raise $100 million to provide polio vaccines to people in Europe and Africa. Rotary International and the World Health Organization launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988, which is a diplomatic effort that Dyer said continues to this day.
“We are looking for ways to collaborate, looking for ways to help each other,” Dyer said.
At their meeting in Alameda Park Monday afternoon, leaders of the Butler County Rotary clubs exchanged gifts with the Albania Kosovo club members, giving them tote bags for the Butler County Cultural District and offering rubber ducks, which are associated with Jeeps. The Albania Kosovo Rotary District members in turn gave Butler County’s Rotary leaders their nations’ flags.
Batalli said he was enjoying his visit to Pennsylvania and agreed with Dushi that part of the mission of their visit was to show people are alike all over.
“We had been helped by our Rotary friends here and we share the same values in integrity, leadership and service above self and friendship,” Batalli said.
