2011.09 01 Trading Banners in Prague and Munich

Two representatives of the Rotary Club Praha met with Dennis and Christiane at the Imperial Hotel in Prague on Monday, August 29th, and escorted them to Maria Theresia restaurant for a traditional Czech evening meal. Over dinner, Past President Josef Lebl and current club Treasurer Jaroslav Masopust shared examples of club projects and how they are carried out, and Dennis and Chris did the same about our Buena Park club. Mr. Lebl is a Sr. Advisor at Czech Invest and Mr. Masopust is Executive Director at Spedia, a packing and shipping service company. Banners were gladly traded, and gifts exchanged.

On Thursday, Sept. 1, Dennis and Chris attended the Munich-Bavaria Rotary Club, held at the Ratskeller at Marienplatz in downtown Munich. Club members Gabriela Bracklo and Yukari Kurita gave a presentation of the current International Project for Literacy in Japan, whereby they partnered with two Rotary districts in Japan to resupply Library books to schools affected by the earthquake and tsunami disasters. Over $100,000 was raised through humanitarian matching grants and generous donations, and the project was approved within a span of 5 months.

The Saltses traded banners with Club President Henning Scheele, and enjoyed a memorable meal.

Gabriela Bracklo, book publisher, presented the book “Dank des Kranichs”, a translated Japanese fairy tale, to author Christiane Salts, who reciprocated by presenting her with the biography book she has written about Cordelia Knott. The story of the collaboration effort which resulted in the publication of “The Grateful Crane” book was one of the Insider features in the June, 2011, issue of The Rotarian magazine.