Thank you, Pat!
Dr. Pat Armstrong interviewing PRIP Ian and Juliet Riseley about Rotary and the Environment, in a garden during the pandemic
The past three years have brought an exponential growth in ESRAG: members, task forces, projects, webinars, and online resources.
With love and brilliant systemic insight, Dr. Pat Armstrong has worked nonstop to make sure ESRAG has the structure and the teamwork we need to expand Rotary’s environmental impact.
She’s just completed an incredibly demanding year as ESRAG Chair, while supporting ESRAG’s Oceania Chapter in orchestrating unprecedented visibility and excitement for environmental action at the Rotary International Convention in Melbourne. She persevered through multiple Covid lockdowns in Australia and the utter transformation of ESRAG’s educational work through webinars and digital conferences. Pat’s leadership has been unflaggingly cheerful and bracing, despite illness, wildfires, and floods.
If you’ve been at a conference, webinar, or meeting with Pat, these images will evoke the spirit with which she infuses them: warmth, a wicked sense of fun, and utter dedication to saving us from environmental catastrophe. The first picture comes from her convivial chat about Rotary and the environment with Ian and Juliet Riseley in a garden.
Here’s Pat with PDG Joe Otin of Kenya and Lauren Marquez-Viso of the Rotary Foundation, giving a breakout session on global grants at a virtual Rotary International Convention during the pandemic.
Here she is rejoicing with ESRAG Director Franz Mueller at the House of Friendship in Houston, and wired with earphones on a Zoom call, her trademark dolphin in the background. Here’s one of her famous organizational charts: lucid logic in primary colors that delight the eye, so we’ll dive in and discover how to navigate to success.
“How would it be if you write down how you do that?” she’s suggested in countless meetings, with a sheepish grin. She’s a true teacher, and she’s absolutely right, and that’s why you say “Of course!” when she asks you to write it all down, and that’s why ESRAG now has an online record of how to get work done to save future teams from reinventing the wheel as we strive to equip people across the world to meet the climate crisis.
She’ll continue to bring all this wisdom and skill and glee to guide ESRAG’s educational work across Rotary. As Pat completes these unbelievably challenging years as Director and ESRAG Chair, we wish her health, joy, and much more time to bake chocolate cake with her beloved grandchildren and to hike the beautiful hills with cherished friends.