Rotary International President Shekhar Mehta to visit Southeastern North Carolina

Shekhar Mehta, president of the 1.4 million-member worldwide Rotary movement, will speak to an audience of 300 Rotarians in Wallace on Jan. 11. His speech to a district-level Rotary banquet will be part of a three-day visit to Southeastern North Carolina, during which he will visit club meetings and several Rotary projects in Wilmington and Kinston.

The central event for Mehta’s visit is the annual Foundation Banquet of Rotary District 7730. The district includes 50 Rotary Clubs in the region stretching from Fayetteville and Lumberton on the west to Kinston,

Newport and Beaufort on the east. The banquet will recognize Rotarians and others who have made substantial contributions to The Rotary Foundation, the charitable arm of Rotary International. It will take place at River Landing Country Club off N.C. 41 east of Wallace.

Mehta will be Rotary’s president through June 2022. He is a member of the Calcutta-Mahaganar Rotary Club in West Bengal State, India, an accountant by profession, and head of a real estate development firm.

Among his best-known initiatives as a Rotary leader has been creation of a quick-response system that delivers “Shelter Kits” to people victimized by natural disasters.

His visit to North Carolina was arranged by Nancy Barbee of Maysville, a former district governor for District 7730, who has served as a representative for RI’s president both in the U.S. and abroad. She got to know Shekhar Mehta through her work with Rotary International, which has included numerous leadership roles as well as several trips to India. “Shekhar and his wife Rashi have been friends for many years,” Barbee said. “He attended my District Conference in 2010 as a RI Board director. We’ve done many projects together in India, from heart and eye surgeries and dialysis centers to toilets and wash stations in school. When I asked him to come to my district, he readily agreed.”

It is a special honor for District 7730 and its member clubs to have Rotary International’s president visit. Each year, the president can visit only a tiny fraction of Rotary’s more than 35,000 clubs worldwide. “We are so fortunate to have the President Shekhar Mehta and his wife Rashi attending our Foundation Banquet in Wallace,” said Ellen Deaton, district governor for 2021-22. “It is so rare for a sitting president of Rotary International to attend district events.”

Soon after arriving in Southeastern North Carolina, Mehta is scheduled to visit Rotary projects in Kinston that supply prosthetic limbs and personal protective equipment such as face shields to people in developing countries. He will also visit Wilmington’s Rotary Wheel Garden, a Rotary gift to the city, which is maintained by a consortium of Wilmington clubs. Other stops in Wilmington will include Rotary-supported non-profit agencies housed in the Harrelson Center, as well as the Miracle Field for athletes with disabilities.

As Rotary’s president, Deaton noted, Mehta chose the theme “Serve to change lives.” His top initiatives are:

Empowering girls through projects to improving their health, well-being, education, or economic security.

Days of service, by which Rotarians join with their neighbors for hands-on work to improve their communities.

Presidential conferences to nightlight humanitarian efforts led by Rotarians. Of the seven conferences world-wide, the nearest will be in Houston on June 3 and 4.

For more on Rotary District 7730, please see www.Rotary7730.org.