Rotary District Governor likes what she sees in Wasilla, Palmer

WASILLA — Rotary District Governor Michelle O’Brien was in the Mat-Su Valley last week, checking in on the many clubs in the Wasilla and Palmer area.

She first arrived for last Saturday’s ‘Let’s Go to the Movies’ fundraiser, coinciding with the premiere of Doctor Strange at the Valley Cinema, and stayed through Wednesday before departing to Anchorage and ultimately back home to Ketchikan.

“What I do is help all Rotaries be successful in their community, guide them through how to grow the club,” O’Brien said. “I’m available to all of the clubs. We do a lot of webinars, with the nature of the geography here, but one of the responsibilities of being an executive officer for the district is to travel to each club and get to know the club, the community and really offer any sort of assistance. The great news for the Valley is that the Rotary Clubs here are very strong and healthy.”

O’Brien’s district is about as vast as they come, covering all of Alaska and the two clubs in Whitehorse, Yukon.

“We are somewhat connected with the Lower 48 in the sense we have, for incoming presidents of clubs, one of the largest in the world president-elect trainings in Seattle, in conjunction with nine other Rotary districts, all over the Pacific Northwest, western Canada and Alaska,” she said of the event, the next of which will be Feb. 24-26. “We have about 300 people there every year.”