Moore earns Rotary Club’s Vern White award

In junior high, Rebeca Moore took a stand in her junior high physical education class.

Student captains would pick teams for activities, and of course, there were always a few kids left who nobody wanted–and everybody knew it.

“I marched into the P.E. teacher’s office and said, this is really unfair how we’re doing this… There has to be another way to make sure that everyone is included, and everyone feels like someone,” she said.

The teacher relented, and teams were never picked the same way again.

“A desire for fairness has always been hardwired into me,” she said. “I learned an important lesson from that moment. We have to stand up for each other.”

That innate sense of fairness and desire to work on behalf of others earned Moore the Rotary Club of Owatonna’s Paul Harris/Vern White Award. It honors a non-Rotarian who exemplifies the values represented in the Rotary Club’s Four-Way Test:

• Is it the truth?
• Is it fair to all concerned?
• Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
• Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

Moore, who was recognized during a Nov. 13 luncheon at the Owatonna Country Club, said she learned those values from watching her parents. Her father, Jim Gunderson, for years has shoveled snow for neighbors and mowed the lawn for his church. He’s also a member of the Owatonna Human Rights Commission.

Her mother, Kathy Gunderson, made and delivered meals to people from their church, as well as family members and friends, after a baby is born, after a surgery, or a death in the family.

“The tender care that she showed to people with a simple meal and a few minutes of encouragement left an indelible mark on what it meant to serve others,” Moore said.

While visiting when her mother was hospitalized during treatment for a second bout of cancer, Moore recalled, she saw notecards in her mother’s lap.

Fighting back tears, Moore said, “They were of all the people she was praying for, even though she was in the hospital truly battling for her life.”

“These were no acts of grandeur, but they are acts of putting others first, and this is simply how I learned to do life,” she added. “I have my parents to thank for instilling that in me.”

Moore said she is inspired by her family, friends, and many in the community who step up to help others, and those who work behind the scenes for the greater good.

“I am really inspired, though, by those who get out of their comfort zone and take a risk for the sake of others,” she said. “It’s not easy to put yourself out there, but it is necessary.”

While she acknowledged preaching to the choir, Moore left the audience with one challenge: “Where can you do good at today?”

“We can’t all be Vern White, but we can give back in ways that are unique to us, and that is our power,” she said. “Your purpose and your life story can certainly be a beacon to someone else, if you let it.”

Moore also encouraged people to consider where they haven’t looked, who they haven't seen.

“Can you imagine the goodness that would come if we all collectively banded together and did one good thing, right where we’re at? I am convinced we could change the world if we did.”