Let's write about welcome and care for hard working American immigrants

Loving acceptance of a Venezuelan immigrant who finds belonging in a Texas Rotary Club.
Far from home and seriously injured, a young man finds comfort and renewed purpose among his Rotary family.

Far from home and seriously injured  a young man finds comfort  and renewed purpose among his Rotary family. 

Published in Rotary Magazine by Andrés Briceño

“¿Dónde estoy?” I thought, returning to the world, all white light, blurs of color, and muffled sound. “Where am I?” My lips were so dry. “¡Agua! ¡Agua!,” I cried, asking for water. I struggled to get up, but my mother told me to lie still. I was in the hospital. Those blurs of color turned out to be balloons. There had been an accident, my Jeep versus a tree. The tree won. I’d been in a coma for two weeks.

I tried to think back. I remember driving my car after a long shift at the restaurant where I worked. Then nothing: no crash, no tree, no ambulance. No three major surgeries to drill a hole in my skull to reduce pressure on my brain and to repair my broken left hip and right clavicle. The doctors said that I was lucky to be in a coma for only two weeks. It could have been months. I might never have woken up.

My life started coming back in patches. My name is Andrés Briceño. I was born in Venezuela, though today I live in Texas. I came to this country in November 2021 when I was 23 years old. I moved to The Woodlands, north of Houston, because an aunt and some of my cousins live here. But I also belonged to a larger, international family — Rotary — which I first joined when I was living in Venezuela as a member of both the Rotary Club of Las Delicias and the Rotaract Club of Las Delicias Leone Rossi.

When something is wrong, I want to change it. My dream was to see my country free. But freeing a country is not easy. When you defend freedom in a dictatorship, you become a target. Ultimately I had to leave.
A new club

After I arrived in Texas, I reached out to the Rotary Club of The Woodlands. It changed my experience as an immigrant. One month after my arrival in the United States, I attended the club’s Christmas party. I was far from Venezuela, yet the club’s members made me feel like I was home, that I belonged in their community. That was so valuable: being accepted, feeling like I belonged.

My accident was on 25 June 2023. The day before was a Saturday. It had been only three days since the Rotaract Club of The Woodlands, which I was instrumental in establishing, was officially chartered. I woke up very early. It was a hot summer day. Our club was helping the Woodlands Rotary club with an event for youth. It was like a scavenger hunt, with clues hidden here and there. The kids had fun, running around looking for them. That took most of the morning, and I went straight from there to work. Saturday is the busiest day of the week at the restaurant, and it was several hours after midnight when I was driving home. Five minutes from my aunt’s house, the accident occurred.

I spent 33 days in the hospital. For the first week, they didn’t know if I was going to survive. My mother never gave up hope — and the members of Rotary were there all the time for my mom, keeping her company and supporting her. Kay Boehm-Fannin, the 2023-24 president of the Rotary Club of The Woodlands, visited me in the hospital every day. Every single day, even though I wasn’t awake and didn’t know she was there. Other Rotary members would line up in the lobby, waiting for their turn to see me.

When I woke up, one of the nurses asked me, “Are you famous❓😇” I said no, not yet. Why❓ She said, “You have so many visitors, all the people coming every day. That’s not normal.” I felt so loved.

As did my mother. My dear friend Dr. Lucian Rivela, a member of the Woodlands Rotary club, frequently checked in with my doctors and shared any updates about my status with my anxious mother, who doesn’t speak English. The day I awoke from my coma was my mother’s birthday, and my Rotary family held a party for her in the ICU waiting room.

Four days after being discharged from the hospital, I attended a Rotary After Hours event and, two days after that, a meeting of the Woodlands Rotary club. I couldn’t wait any longer to be back among my Rotary family. I felt an urgent need to thank them. Which I did, tearfully.

The road to recovery

Right away I had to face the changes in the little things we take for granted. Things like using the bathroom or climbing the stairs — sitting on the steps and using my arms rather than my legs — to get to my room in my aunt’s two-story house.

I rushed too quickly into trying to get my life back. I didn’t realize the magnitude of what had happened to me. I learned that sometimes you can’t rush things. You have to take it one step at a time.

And every step I took, Rotary was there for me — even before I could actually take steps. I was in a wheelchair for months. My Rotary family provided the wheelchair, and the walker and the cane that followed. They even hosted a fundraiser to help me cover my physical therapy costs as I learned to walk again.

During my recovery, I had two wonderful therapists, Stephanie and David, who worked with me at a Houston-area clinic. Stephanie was an Interactor in high school and later spent a year studying in England as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. What she experienced over that year inspired her to come back to the United States and earn a doctorate in physical therapy.

Stephanie and I became friends thanks to that Rotary connection, and I invited her to accompany me to the elegant gala thrown in February 2024 by the Rotary Club of The Woodlands. The day of the gala, I decided I no longer needed my cane and left it at home. For the first time in months, I was walking freely. And that night at the gala, surrounded by my Rotary family, Stephanie and I danced.

Feeling as if I’d received a second chance at life, I returned to college this year. I’m studying political science and eventually hope to get a master’s in economics. I’m preparing myself to return to Venezuela and help rebuild my home country. Until then, I’m looking for work with a nonprofit here in the United States. My dream job would be helping others — just as I’ve tried to do ever since I have belonged to Rotary.

Andrés Briceño is a founding member and president of the Rotaract Club of The Woodlands in Texas.

This story originally appeared in the April 2025, issue of Rotary magazine.

Let's Writer about Celebration Day poetry

'He lived inside poetry’: Toby Jones and Helena Bonham Carter perform poems in memory of lost loved ones. Poems to Remember

"Poems “were like clothing” to his father, said Jones – he “wanted to live inside” them, and memorised a number of them, including Portrait of a Romantic."

Echo article published in The Guardian by Ella Creamer and Lucy Knight.

Actors including Asa Butterfield, Stephen Mangan and Susan Wokoma share poems as part of ‘Celebration Day’, a new annual moment dedicated to commemorating family and friends
Helena Bonham Carter performs Don’t Let That Horse by Lawrence Ferlinghetti – video

Tell us about a poem that reminds you of someone you’ve lost

Helena Bonham Carter, Toby Jones and Asa Butterfield are among actors performing poems in memory of family members and friends who are no longer with us, to mark Celebration Day later this month.

The initiative, conceived in 2022, by high-profile figures including Stephen Fry, Prue Leith, film director Oliver Parker and writer and poetry curator Allie Esiri, sets aside a day in the calendar each year to celebrate the lives of loved ones no longer with us, inspired by celebrations such as Mexico’s Day of the Dead. The first Celebration Day was held on 26 June 2022, and now it runs on the last bank holiday Monday in May, which this year will be 26 May.

Stephen Mangan, Nathaniel Parker and Susan Wokoma were also filmed reading poems at Abbey Road studios in London. The videos will be published exclusively on the Guardian website in the lead up to Celebration Day, with the first, which features Bonham Carter reading Don’t Let That Horse by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, available to watch today.

Wilfred Owen and Sheenagh Pugh are among the poets whose works were selected by the actors. Jones, known for his roles in Mr Bates vs the Post Office and Detectorists, picked Portrait of a Romantic by ASJ Tessimond, in memory of his father, who died a year after Jones introduced him to the poem.

Poems “were like clothing” to his father, said Jones – he “wanted to live inside” them, and memorised a number of them, including Portrait of a Romantic. “We deed to use the second stanza of this poem on his gravestone”, said Jones. “When I read the poem, inevitably I reflect on my Dad, and the huge influence he’s had on both what I do, and how I feel about what I do.”

Bonham Carter chcidose Don’t Let That Horse in memory of her grandmother, who was known as “Bubbles”. A painter who made “sort of fake Chagalls”, Bonham Carter described her grandmother as an “eternal child” who “always had a sense of play”. “We decided to use the second stanza of this poem on his gravestone”, said Jones. “When I read the poem, inevitably I reflect on my Dad, and the huge influence he’s had on both what I do, and how I feel about what I do.”

Bonham Carter chose Don’t Let That Horse in memory of her grandmother, who was known as “Bubbles”. A painter who made “sort of fake Chagalls”, Bonham Carter described her grandmother as an “eternal child” who “always had a sense of play”.

“She died at 89, but frankly she never really grew older emotionally than about seven. A good reminder that no matter how serious it gets, you’ve got to remember to have fun.”

Lost loved ones “remain part of our fabric, our internal world”, the actor added. “We need permission to stop – a day in which we can invoke them and remember them, and let them live again through us.” After losing somebody, “you might lose what you were when you were with them. And that relationship needs to carry on, somehow”.

The actors worked with Esiri, who compiled 365 Poems for Life and A Poem for Every Day of the Year, to choose their poems. Most of us reach for poetry at significant moments in life, like weddings and funerals, because poems “help us express things that most of us find really difficult to express”, said Esiri.

The language of poetry “gives you a path when you’re suffering eviscerating feelings of grief and you’ve lost your hold on the earth and everything’s very very fractured”, she added. The “great poet gives you words, and it’s sort of like holding your hand across time”.

Star pin badges will be on sale at WH Smith stores until 27 June, with proceeds going to charities Mind, the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, Make-A-Wish and Hospice UK. The public are encouraged to share memories of loved ones on social media using the hashtag #ShareYourStar.

Parker, who directed the videos, said the project “was a genuinely memorable experience”.

“Sometimes with a light touch, sometimes deeply moving, they are small, intimate acts of sharing, whether defiant, mournful or inspiring,” he said.

Post Script from Maine Writer:

In memory of my friend Caroline (obituary link here): 

A Rosewood Friend

Her middle name described a classic romantic,

What we learn about friends and loved ones in the end,

Often surprised by a gem of new personal insight,

Romaine certainly shared a regal heritage.

But the middle initial could also mean Rosewood,

To emphasize the point, her many friendships were everlasting,

Like the eternal beauty of Rosewood.

People notice when the luxury of Rosewood is in a room.

There is value in owning Rosewood;

And, so my collection,

Is thanks to her sharing creative advice. 

Romaine was a Rosewood quality lifelong friend.

Knowing Romaine and remembering her in my treasured Rosewood.

She will always be there. 

Her friendship met every purpose under the heaven,

Ecclesiastes.  ----Juliana L’Heureux

Let's Write About Peace Bells!

How bell ringing is a universal clarion call for peace in the world published in Rotary Magazine by JP Swenson
Ringing in a peaceful world (In Section: Profile)
A past Rotary district peace chair chimes in- with bells!🔔

Doug Sturomski Roary Club of Greater Newburgh, New York

In 1992, a few months after the Soviet Union collapsed, Doug and Martha Sturomski were invited to the United Nations Headquarters in New York City to perform their bell ringing routine. 

"A bell is one of the most ubiquitous instruments on earth," Doug Sturomski says. "It’s in almost every aspect of humanity, from communication to transportation, from science to religion."

In 2009, he founded the Peace Bell Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to planting peace poles, spreading messages of peace through handbell ringing, and moving humanity "from the love of power to the power of love." The couple have performed at Lincoln Center, the Harvard Club, and Carnegie Hall in New York and at over 1,000 school programs. Through his Rotary club, Sturomski has led a project to plant peace poles in his community. During Rotary Day at the UN in 2015, the club received a Peace Through Service Award from RI representatives to the UN for its efforts.

Sturomski takes a metaphysical approach to peace and encourages everyone to think about these questions: "Why are we here? Why am I here? What am I going to do about it?" When he was a child, his father suggested he become a priest. "I’ve been like this since I was a little kid," Sturomski says.

Now, with eight grandchildren, Sturomski is looking to the future, noting the negative outlook of the Global Peace Index, which ranks the number of conflicts at the highest point since World War II. He’s reminded of what’s at stake every morning that he takes his grandkids to the school bus. "Just to experience that wonder they have and the simplicity of it, the innocence of it. We have to understand that we’re just like those children."

— JP SWENSON