Reimer Priester

I introduced Reimer Priester to the Rotary Club of Greenville in July, 2008. At 27, he was one of the youngest members ever inducted into that club. He resigned in July, 2009.

Reimer truly understood what Rotary was all about. After graduating from Duke University, Reimer joined the Peace Corps. He was assigned to Guinea, in West Africa. He spent two years living in a mud hut. There was no running water. The latrine that he used did not have a door. He ate the same food as the natives, and went hungry when they went hungry. There were cockroaches the size of mice. His mode of transportation was walking and a bicycle. The language was French, with some 41 variations among the natives.

He said in one of his e-mails that the days “get hotter and hotter, and when you leave the shade, you feel like a heat lamp is one inch above your skin. But eventually you start to see things differently – sensing the way nature feels in the absence of concrete, cell phones, electricity and all the things that make you forget that bugs are normal and dirty clothes never killed anyone. “

And what did he do? He organized a chicken farm collective to create a sustainable enterprise and an affordable source of protein. He conducted health training for HIV/AIDS, water sanitation, nutrition and malaria prevention.

And, he built a library – the first constructed library in the 40 year post colonial history of Guinea. He raised the funds to build, stock, organize, electrify and train personnel. It was the largest project ever completed by a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guinea.

And he did this while Guinea was becoming politically more unstable. In 2005, the Prime Minister on a trip to Paris asked for political asylum because of corruption and atrocities by the President. Six months after Reimer left, the Peace Corps pulled out of Guinea.

Ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

After the Peace Corps, Reimer became Development Director for the Greenville Symphony. He resigned from the Rotary Club of Greenville when he accepted the job of Development Director for the Louisiana Philharmonic. Last week he joined the Rotary Club of New Orleans, the 12th oldest Rotary club in world. He said that it was twice as expensive as Greenville, but he joined anyway. Good luck, Reimer, and best wishes for a lifetime of Service Above Self.