Rotarians do charity work in Mexico for disabled

By GREG A. COLLINS

Past President K Castles and her husband, David, were the guest speakers for the Kilgore Rotary Club on Wednesday.

The couple talked about their recent trip to Mexico where they assisted other Rotarians in delivering wheelchairs to needy people outside of Mexico City.

They drove to Houston where they met the other 28 people going on the trip. A good number of the Rotarians were from California, but there were also people from Washington, Indiana and a couple of other states. The Castles were the only Texans on the journey.

After arriving in Mexico City, the group went to their hotel and got settled. Mexico City, according to Castles, is the second largest population center in the world behind Tokyo. The area is mountainous, and the temperatures were fairly moderate while the group was there.

They were able to tour the city and see the wealth of monuments, the Cathedral, the Palace and some Aztec ruins. They also were treated to a fiesta every evening, complete with good food, great conversations with locals and entertainment.

It was also interesting to the Kilgoreites that, in a culture really dominated by males, the mayor of Mexico City is a woman and the District Governor for the host Rotary Club is also female.

The late takeoff was not the only problem they had while in the capitol city of Mexico, the couple said. There was a fire at their hotel which caused them to have to evacuate for a while — no one was injured and none of the Kilgore couple's belongings were damaged — but Mr. Castles did become ill while he was there and had to stay in bed for a while.

During their time there, the couple was taken to a rural city outside of Mexico City called Tizaylu. They were hosted by a Rotary Club in that city and took tours, were honored at fiestas, attended Rotary meetings and distributed wheelchairs to some imposherished areas and the needy people who lived there.

Upon arrival back in Mexico City, Mrs. Castles was able to take part in the large distribution of wheelchairs in a plaza in the city.

“We were under a tent, about the size of a football field, and there were chairs set up at the back,” she said. “We received instruction on how to put parts of the wheelchairs on and then worked extremely hard and extremely fast to get the chairs ready for the people.”

She said that, after a while of working, she looked up to see hundreds, maybe thousands, of people waiting to receive chairs.

“The people had to apply to get the chairs, and the person who needed the chair had to be there to receive it,” Mrs. Castles said. “No one could come and pick it up for them, so there were many instances where people were carrying others to the tent so they could receive a wheelchair.”

In other Rotary news, Ann Thrower of Kilgore College was honored as Teacher of the Month. She has been a math instructor at KC for about 15 years, and she is instrumental in assisting athletes who are in need of assistance to be proficient in their math classes. She is married to Terry, and they have two sons.

The Rotary Golf Tournament is one week from Monday at Meadowbrook Country Club. Hole sponsors at $50 each are needed, and there is room for nine more teams. It is a two-person potpourri including nine holes of best ball, nine holes of modified scotch and nine holes of scramble. Cash prizes will be given to the first and second place teams in low net and low gross. The cost is $75 per person, and the proceeds go to assist students to go to Kilgore College.

Dr. Charles Whiteside was honored for 24 years of perfect attendance, and Dr. Bob Baker reminded people that the Labor Day flag day is coming fast.