RI President Wilfrid Wilkinson

Wilfrid Wilkinson, whose volunteer work has allowed him to meet leaders from multiple nations, spoke in Rochester tonight to an expected audience of about 800 Rotarians from the northeastern states and Canada at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center.

"When you have clean water, you have more chance of good health," he said in an interview Tuesday, one day after having breakfast with the prime minister of Korea. Better health allows people to work and learn, which leads to better literacy, said Wilkinson, 77, of Trenton in Ontario, Canada.

Wilkinson spends about 70 percent of his time traveling during his 30-month volunteer position with Rotary International. One of his favorite trips was in February to Pakistan, where he met President Pervez Musharraf, who honored Rotary for its work in October 2005 after a major earthquake in Pakistan-administered Kashmir killed more than 70,000 people. Besides money, the Rotary contributed volunteer effort by medical and disaster relief workers. The Rotary also is building seven schools there.

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