It’s time to work and time to relax!

The 4-day visit of DG Ted Trueblood to Omsk in August 5-8 was eventually coincided with main city

holidays: Siberian International Marathon and 295th city Anniversary! However the tight scheduling of the

visit allowed the time to everything - to solve business issues and take part in the festivities!

The key mission and the main business purpose of the DG visit in our town was the beginning of the

preparing process for the District Conference witch will be held in Omsk in June, 21-24, 2012. The entire

last day of the visit, August 8, was dedicated to this goal. But tell everything in order…

DG Ted Trueblood and his assistants Faina

Barsegyan and Elena Taktesheva arrived to

Omsk on August 5, and immediately held the

traditional meetings with Boards of Directors of

Rotary clubs "Omsk" and "Omsk-Dostoevsky".

On the same evening he met with Omsk

Rotarians and Rotaraktors at the enlarged

meeting of three clubs. The meeting was held in

a festive atmosphere, with the "long table" in

the restaurant. After his traditional speech he

has served his honorable mission: admitted two

new members to Rotary club “Omsk” and

awarded the most active Rotarians of "Omsk-

Dostoevsky" for special services. A pleasant surprise for all was the arrival of Rotarians and Rotaraktors

from Novosibirsk, headed by District Secretary Michael Kunitsyn.

And between these working days he was lucky to participate in two main city holidays!

On August, 6 he had gone to the start of the XXII Siberian International Marathon! However, as a fan…

Siberian International Marathon (SIM) - one of the major marathons in Russia, it is on the third place in the

number of participants. Every year thousands of runners go on marks of the Marathon, the strongest

athletes of the world come to Omsk!

During the Marathon our

Rotary and Rotaract club

“Omsk-Dostoevsky” usually

organize and hold the project

“Make the dream real”. We

provide the participation of

deaf children from special

boarding school #7 in the

Siberian International Marathon

with special awarding among

them of diplomas and prizes.

This year the project was held

for the 3rd time!

The main task of the project - to

organize for these children with disabilities a real sports holiday. And the holiday is made up of several

components: feeling of being "equal" among the crowd of thousands Omsk citizens that came to the track

in one of the main city celebrations; and the support of fans along the way; and even simply

communicating and cheerful picnic after the race! And, of

course, the award ceremony - well-deserved diplomas and

prizes!

This year, as usual, there are Rotarians and Rotaractors ran with

the children in the race, and all of them were friendly supported

by the fan-group led by Ted Trueblood! After the race we all

went to the recreation center - the beach "Pirate Island" to

continue the holiday: a picnic, award ceremony, fun games and

contests. The absolute winner of the race of our sponsored

children was a 13-year-old Sasha Ustinin! He won the main prize

- a bicycle. Sasha lives in a boarding school all the time, he is an

orphan. His teachers told us after the event: he wanted a bike for

a long time! His dream came true…

But nobody left without presents: except the main prize all

Marathon’s participants received certificates and sports awards:

roller skates, skateboards, balls and

backpacks. Even DG Ted got the

original souvenirs: Marathon T-shirt

and membership number!

The project "Make the dream real!"

is actually one of the favorite

projects of our club: so much fun,

happiness and inspiration we all get

at this day! Would you like to see it

and share our joy? Welcome!

The Siberian International Marathon

takes place every year on the 1st

Saturday of August.

The next day, August 7, was a special day

- the greatest holiday of the city – its

birthday. Omsk was founded in 1716,

and this year it celebrated its 295th

anniversary! On that Day all the central

city streets are pedestrian, the citizens

walk with flags and balloons, dressed in

incredible hats and wigs.

On every crossroads is some street

scene, where you can watch and listen to

performances of local actors and

musicians. On every corner you can meet

the artists dressed in costumes, in all the

city parks and historic squares there are

crafts fairs, festivals of national cultures and even medieval

knight fights! At noon the Carnival procession starts from the

main Cathedral Square, which involved companies and

organizations, Educational and sports facilities, representing all

socio-economic foundation of the city.

The holiday ends late at night with grand fireworks.

Thus, for this one day Ted had the unique opportunity to see and

learn all about Omsk! He walked on holiday city streets, visited

the carnival procession and historic Omsk fortress. He even

managed to go to the Achair monastery - extraordinarily

beautiful and spiritual place famous of hot mineral spring.

Lots of miles by foot, the second half of this hectic day guests

spent at barbeque in the cottage with Omsk Rotarians.

On the last day of the visit, August 8, DG Ted visited meeting venues for the upcoming Conference, met

with managers of hotels, and also held the first

meeting of the Organizing Committee.

District Conference in Omsk 2012 will be truly

historic. Both for the content - due to the

formation of the new Russian Rotary District

2225, and for the scale - the quality and number

of participants. Most of the PDG-5010 has

already confirmed their participation in the

Omsk conference, the president of RI Kalyan

Banerjee and members of the Board of

Directors are also expected.

Ted was very pleased with what he had seen in

Omsk. The city has High-level facilities according

to the scale and significance of the upcoming

international event.

Meeting with the Conference Organizing

Committee was very productive. The District

Governor announced a lot of important and

useful information for us.

Great work lay ahead, so let our work always be

as interesting, useful and fruitful, as in those

four days in Omsk! And good luck!

Tatiana Igumnova,

secretary of Rotary Club ‘ Omsk-Dostoevsky’