FEB 19, 2013 ROTARY IN REVIEW:
William Cope Moyers

Posted by James S. Kosmo 
on Feb 19, 2013
 
The giant Crowne Plaza Ballroom was filled to capacity as a giant flock of westerners from Minneapolis Club #9 skated across the frozen Mississippi River for our annual joint meeting. Initially it appeared to be more of a British invasion as President Dan McKeown and Minneapolis Rotary President Sharon Bloodworth portrayed characters from the wildly popular British television show “Downton Abbey.”

President Dan stood tall and straight as the very proper butler, Carson, while President Sharon, a true Brit, was none other than the sharp-tongued, straight-laced Dowager Grantham. Chrisopher Takaylo, president of the University Rotary Club, rounded out the cast as they focused on membership and challenged each member to bring in one new member during the coming year.

Amid the chaos and frivolity the meeting managed some semblance of order with assistance of the following:

- Greeters – Tom Farnham, Doug Bruce and Minneapolis member John Schrager.
- Scribe – Jim Kosmo
- Song Leader – DG Joe Kovarik
- Piano Player – Doug Hartford
- Invocation – Carol Bufton
- Introduction of Guests – Trixie Golberg
- Happy Dollars – Sarah Kolar

We observed a moment of silence in honor of long-time Rotarian Gage Colby who passed away last week.

Co-chairs Doug Hartford and Clyde Nelson announced sign-up for the April 27-28 Feed My Starving Children packing event at Mark Stutrud’s Summit Brewery, our 4th annual packing event. Hartford also revealed updated statistics on thesuccess of “Fancy Nancy” the semi-trailer truck St. Paul Rotary purchased for FMSC.  Since Nov. 2009 “Fancy Nancy” has:

- Hosted 106 Packing Events in 15 states (includes 9 Rotary events)
- Acquired 129,880 volunteers (65,000 youths)
- Packed 28,633,820 meals
- Fed 78,448 kids for a full year

He emphasized that every St. Paul Rotarian was responsible for 424 children eating and living a year.

William Moyers Captures Eyes & Ears

The Honorable John Guthmann then introduced former St Paul Rotarian William Cope Moyers who captured everyone’s attention with his riveting story of survival.

Moyers told how a speech to our club in 1997 launched a career of telling his story around the world to thousands of audiences.  A highly successful newspaper and CNN television reporting career had disintegrated when Moyer accepted that he was an alcoholic and checked into Hazelden. Success was not immediate; he went into treatment four times in five years until his sober day, Oct. 12, 1994.

“Rotary rebooted my career,” he said explaining that his appearance 17 years ago this week launched his highly successful speaking career. This also didn’t pop right away.

“I want to talk to you today about a disease that has no cure,” he told St Paul Rotarians in 1997. As he rolled on with his prepared text Moyer scanned the crowd and realized he was losing them. “It’s never easy to give a speech after lunch at an organization were attendance is mandatory, interest diminishes as food gets digested, and people either fall asleep or head for the door.” As heads bobbed he considered packing up and departing, but instead changed directions, tossed his prepared remarks, stood taller and barked into the microphone.

“This disease is alcoholism and drug addiction and I have it. This is what one looks like. Take a good look at me.” The room fell suddenly silent. The whispered conversations and clinking of silverware faded away. A prominent businessman who was making his way to the exit stopped in his tracks."

His talk Tuesday was no different. Every eye and ear was fixed on William Moyer who today is vice president of public affairs at Hazelden Foundation, an internationally acclaimed speaker, and author of two compelling books: “Broken” and “Now What?”

“You all gave me the power to tell my story. I owe a great debt of gratitude to Ron Clark and Andy Boss who helped me expand my horizon in the same way Rotary helped me. I used my St Paul Rotary experience to find my place in the world.

“Addiction does not discriminate,” he said as he explained his mission to assure people who struggle with addiction that they are not alone, they are not lost, and there is hope.

“Treatment works and I’m living proof. But, it only works when the person wants it to work.  You can’t force a diabetic to take insulin or a hypertension victim to exercise and stop eating red meat. I went to treatment four times before it worked for me.

Our success rate at Hazelden is 55%. If that sounds low consider that it is equal to the compliance rates of programs for hypertension, diabetes and asthma combined.  The difference is that the public has no tolerance for alcoholics and addicts.

For more details:  www.Hazelden.org.