By Tammie Mulvey
Houlton Rotary
HOULTON — Rotary District 7810 Governor Michael Walsh was the guest speaker at the Monday, July 14 meeting.
Walsh was born in Stratford Ontario and spent his younger years there with his large family of 10. In his early years, he moved to Moncton, N.B., where he attended Moncton High School. After high school, Walsh moved into the retail business with a large international chain. After being transferred all around the Atlantic Provinces, he ended up with one of the largest stores in the country.
Contributed photo/Michael Clark
SPECIAL GUEST — Rotary District 7810 Governor Michael Walsh, far right, was the guest speaker at the Houlton Rotary Club Monday, July 14. With Walsh are his wife Francine, middle, and Rotary President Amy Hocking.
Always enjoying investing, Walsh ventured to move into the world of finance when he became a broker with a large brokerage firm. He enjoyed the field so much he went out on his own in 1980 and remained in the industry until he sold his company in 2007.
Walsh has been happily married to Francine Fournier-Walsh since 1978. Both Mike and Francine have done extensive volunteering in their communities. Walsh has been involved with many different charities from treasurer and chairman of his parish council to chairing the N.B. March Drive for the Kidney Foundation. He served on the board of a high profile charity in Moncton for many years. He was president of Moncton Headstart Recycles for eight years. It was an organization to help socially challenged and people from the correctional system integrate into society. He also served on the Headstart Foundation Board of Directors for five years, which resulted in his nomination as N.B. Volunteer of the Year.
Walsh joined Rotary in 1995 and has not looked back, having held almost every position in the Moncton West and Riverview Rotary Club. He was The RYLA District Chair for three years and New Generations District Chair for two.
Walsh was named Rotarian of the Year in 2008-09. He has been the N.B. Ambassador for Shelterbox for the last six years and has traveled extensively with Rotary including a friendship exchange to South Africa. One of his most enjoyable things to do is visit Rotary clubs in different countries.
Francine was born and raised in Ste Jean De Baptiste in Northern New Brunswick. She attended Universite de Moncton and after university she became a professional puppeteer. She and her troupe represented Canada at the World Puppet Championships in Prague where they placed second.
She was with the Public Service of Canada for 30 years, the last 20 years as executive assistant to the president of an Atlantic Development agency. She sat on the board of Mapleton Teaching Kitchen for five years. Francine was awarded special recognition from the Government of Canada for her support of stranded passengers on Sept. 11. She hosted people from five different countries. Francine was on the organizing Committee for The World Micro Credit Conference with dignitaries from around the world. She ended up introducing Queen Sophia of Spain to other dignitaries, but that’s another story. Recently she spent five years on a national committee called Chez Soi / At Home. Its goal was to help integrate people with mental illness into society without using group homes.
In August of 2013 Francine became a Rotarian.
Michael started his term as Governor July 1. He discussed many things that Rotary International has done and continues to do. He encouraged everyone to visit www.rotary.org to find more information. Michael discussed the world is very close to eradicating polio, but efforts must be kept up. There is only one other disease that has been eradicated and that is smallpox, so it is now time for the eradication of polio!
Michael gave a brief overview of the History of Rotary, which was very interesting. Apparently Rotary assisted in forming the United Nations, which is something I did not know about.
Michael’s logo for this year is Light up Rotary, we are a beacon of peace throughout the world so be proud! Michael was very impressed with all that our club has done and continues to do. He said that you cannot drive around Houlton and not see Rotary every where. He then asked where would Houlton be with out Rotary? I thought that was a great question, we have lots of wonderful organizations in our area with many terrific individuals but for me at least it boils down to our motto Rotary is service above self and it shows not just in Houlton, or the county or our country, but across the world.
Michael also talked about having each club be a fun club, I think we do pretty good at that but we can certainly do more. If you are interested in Rotary, and you really should be, please visit our website, Facebook and ask a local Rotarian about how to become a part of something so much more. Our current president is Amy Hocking, vice president Jane Torres, secretary Deb Clark, sergeant of arms Matt Nightingale, treasurer Paul Callnan.
