“Rotary on the Road,” dedicated to her late Uncle Hamish Taylor of Glasgow, Scotland, is a program by Kirsty Halliday, a member of the Rotary Club of Livingston, that she recently presented regarding her Rotary Club experiences through the lens of her travels.
In 2001, Halliday participated in a group study exchange when she and three other young ladies from Scotland went to the western province of South Africa and Namibia through Rotary International.
Several years later, she came to America to work for an environmental packaging company in Philadelphia where she joined Rotary Club in 2009. She told of attending Rotary “make-up” meetings worldwide, including Cape Town, Edinburgh, Seattle and Cozumel, and attending Rotary Conventions in Los Angeles, Montreal and New Orleans.
Halliday rented a Class A motorhome in 2010 and drove her aunt to Graceland to see Elvis’ home and to Tupelos, Miss. to see Elvis’ birthplace. They also drove the Natchez Trace Parkway.
She celebrated her 40th birthday in 2013 with the purchase of her very own RV, clocking 29,000 miles and 20 states in 16 months.
Halliday soon discovered the Rotary Club locator app, which she said is very easy and user-friendly, and allowed her to make friendships on the road.
She has visited 23 clubs, Rotary International Headquarters and the district assembly in Fallon, Nev. and remarked how fulfilling she found it, popping in to various Rotary Club meetings. She has now traveled 121,000 miles in 40 states in 13 years and proudly sports decals of the Rotary wheel logo on her RV.
Halliday said she enjoys learning things and regarding her travels, said she learns something about all the places she visits.
“In the end, it’s the people that make the place,” she concluded.
