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 What do you do when you stumble across a commemorative stone (pictured left) and notice that your Rotary club’s name is on it? You ask a question of the one Rotarian who knows! After walking through the Japanese Garden in Delaware Park, Buffalo, I checked in with a well known 7090 leader – Greg Norton. He told me this story. It is a perfect story of the “power of Rotary connections”. In Greg’s words:It all was an outgrowth of my Rotary Youth Exchange year that I spent in our sister city Kanazawa Japan in 1985-86. When Jill and I returned to Buffalo in 1994, we had been living in Houston for several years, I soon filled the role of President of the Buffalo-Kanazawa Sister City Committee (now the Buffalo Japan Society). I was suggested for the role because of my personal connection from youth exchange year. Dr. Takako Michii (former RC of Buffalo Sunrise member) was also involved with the group. Another active member on the Sister City committee was - Dick Malo (current member RC of Buffalo Sunrise)- as his company did a lot of business with Japan. As things progressed, we were able to rekindle the rather dormant Buffalo-Kanazawa connection and I made a trip over to Kanazawa and my Youth Exchange connection to the seven Rotary clubs there proved helpful as well. I also met with one of those clubs, the Rotary Club of Kanazawa Kohrinbo, about creating a sister club relationship with Buffalo Sunrise. | ||
The Sister City committee eventually arranged to have Mayor Anthony Masiello make a trip there. Dick and Dr. Michii also went on the trip. 
During our visit, the topic of the Japanese Garden came up. People in Kanazawa were aware of their sister city relationship with Buffalo and that there is a Japanese garden here, that was originally constructed in 1970. An interesting side note, Dick learned about the work of Rotary when I dragged him along to a meeting with our sister club of Kanazawa Kohrinbo.
During our visit, the topic of the Japanese Garden came up. People in Kanazawa were aware of their sister city relationship with Buffalo and that there is a Japanese garden here, that was originally constructed in 1970. An interesting side note, Dick learned about the work of Rotary when I dragged him along to a meeting with our sister club of Kanazawa Kohrinbo.To finalize our sister club relationship, a group from the Kanazawa Kohrinbo Club came to Buffalo in 1997 and we took them to the Japanese garden, which at that time was in very bad shape. One of the Kohrinbo members owned a landscaping company and he offered to bring a group of his skilled gardeners to plant and repair the area. After returning to Kanazawa, they spoke to the then Mayor Yamade, who said the city would donate the stone lanterns, except for the arched one on the island, and stone slabs that are the benches. That stone comes from the Asano River that runs through Kanazawa.
In addition, Dr. Michii learned of some grant money through the Japan World Exposition Fund that could be used for Japan-US goodwill projects and she spearheaded a $200K application that was used to cover constructions costs associated with dredging the lake, rebuilding the islands, shoring up the stone around the islands and installing the stone lanterns from Kanazawa.
When construction was about half over, the gardeners came from Kanazawa along with some members of the Kohrinbo Rotary club. So, in short, it was a group effort, as is evidenced by the list of names on the commemorative stone.
As for the sister club relationship, here are some photos of the document we signed during their visit and is currently on display in our home. Sadly, however, the sister club relationship has since gone dormant.
So that is the story – one of seeing a need and creating a meaningful response across a generation and across the globe. To be sure, this is the power of Rotary!