On January 14, 2020, PE Kathi Perkins spoke to us about her late father Ed Hall, PDG of District 7910.  In 2017, District 7910 established an award called the Ed Hall Outstanding Foundation Achievement Award and Ed was its first recipient in June 2017. This award is given to a District 7910 Rotarian who has shared unselfishly of his or her time, talent and treasure, through the Rotary Foundation, to make the world a better place for humanity.
 
Rotary was a very important part of Ed’s life and the lives of his whole family. He joined the Rotary Club of Worcester MA in 1963 and immediately became interested in world service. He had a broad range of interests in solar power, livestock, medical issues, education, housing and water, across a broad range of countries. However, he had a particular affinity for Haiti.
 
His first project was collecting and shipping used medical equipment from local hospitals, doctors and dentists. For years, his kids could go into the basement of his business warehouse and see the room full of donated equipment. He next worked on a school project to improve nutrition and the Foundation also provided funds for materials for school desks that were made on site.  
 
Both Ed and his wife worked on collecting eye glasses, conducting vision tests and dispensing eyeglasses.   He worked with eye doctors to create a simple test to match people with available eyewear. Kathi recalled accompanying him on one trip during which she tested people and provided eye glasses giving them with the means to read.
 
However, it was solar water pumping that really captured Ed’s imagination.  Lots of planning with Rotarians in the US and Haiti both before and during each project made every trip successful. He worked with local contractors and laborers to install and test the equipment, then trained them to maintain the pumps.  Ed was also able to obtain “expired” seeds from US producers.  These were packets leftover from a previous growing season in the US, but still good.  With plenty of clean water, communities worked hard at tending gardens and growing produce for themselves and their communities. At one point, Ed tried to determine how many people in one community were being fed from their gardens.  The answer was that they didn’t know.  Once a family had more than they could use, the gave the extra to neighbors, to schools for noon meals, and regularly provided fresh vegetables to housing for the elderly. In the end, over 30 solar powered water systems were installed across Haiti using Foundation and district 7910 funds.
 
Ed traveled to Haiti 20 times with 7 different family members and 13 different Rotarians serving 51 communities across the island. With his help, Foundation projects were completed in several other countries including Guatemala, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Peru and Sri Lanka. He was a Major Donor to the Rotary Foundation, received the Foundations Meritorious Service award and the Service Above Self Award.
 
Kathi expressed how proud she and her family are of this legacy. It should be noted that his son, Dick Hall, is our current District Governor Elect of District 7780.
 
Edward C Hall
1922 - 2019