
Rotary
president Kalyan Banerjee unveiled the RI theme during the
opening plenary session of the 2011 International Assembly, a
training event for incoming district governors.
He urged
participants to harness their inner resolve and strength
to achieve success in Rotary.
"In
order to achieve anything in this world, a person has to
use all the resources he can draw on. And the only place
to start is with ourselves and within ourselves,"
Banerjee said.
Once
Rotarians find their inner strength, he continued, they
can accomplish great things in their communities and
around the world.
"Discover yourself, develop the strengths within you,
and then unhesitatingly, unflinchingly, go forth and
encircle the world, to embrace humanity," he said.
Banerjee
emphasized the family as a starting point in serving
others. "The communities we live in are not built of
individual people but of families -- families living in
homes together, sharing their lives and their resources
and their common destinies. Good families lead to good
neighborhoods, and good neighborhoods build good
communities."