TUPPER LAKE — Prior to spending a week-long reunion in the Adirondacks, six international Rotarians all had the same question: Is there anything other than New York City in New York state?
When the group attended the Tupper Lake Rotary Club’s meeting on July 16, several said the area was one of the most spectacular hidden gems they had ever traveled to in their time as Rotarians.
They were hosted by Brian Merriam, a Rotarian who splits his time between Tupper Lake and Schenectady. The group hailed from England, France, Poland and Australia, in addition to another American Rotarian from Texas.
The group originally met in India in January 2023 as part of an international motorcycle ride that was put together by a Rotary club there as a fundraiser. Invitations were sent far and wide, and in total, 42 Rotarians from 17 different countries rode approximately 1,200 miles, starting at the east coast city of Chennai, and finishing in Mangaluru on India’s west coast.
“We went through jungles and over mountains, and just had a great old time,” Merriam said. “Several of us became pretty good friends.”
The group subsequently held reunions in state of Georgia and the nation of Poland before Merriam’s sister, Sondra Russ, suggested he host the group at his Tupper Lake residence. At first, Merriam thought there was no way the international cadre would want to come to a place as remote as the Adirondacks.
Merriam sent the group photos and videos of the area, including sunrises over Lake Simond, some of the Lake Placid Olympic venues and drive-along footage of mountain scenery taken as a front seat passenger.
It didn’t take long for the interest to follow.
“They all said, ‘That looks beautiful. We had no idea that New York was keeping such a well-guarded secret,’” Merriam said.
With the reunion confirmed, Merriam got to work planning a full week’s itinerary. Stops by motorcycle included Great Camp Sagamore — located near Raquette Lake in Hamilton County — Fort Ticonderoga, the Olympic Jumping Complex, the Whiteface Memorial Highway, lunch on Lake Champlain, among other stops.
Most of the group left Friday, with a smaller contingency sticking around to ride from Tupper Lake to Montreal and back, stopping there for lunch. The group attended the Tupper Lake Rotary Club’s weekly meeting, held at the Tupper Lake Golf Club.
Merriam said that interspersed within the fun was the opportunity to discuss globally challenging and complex issues, and glean a perspective not from a news article or television segment, but from personal friends who live around the globe in an informal way.
“We would talk about different perspectives that we have,” he said. “One of the reasons why Rotary International exists is to promote world peace. and when you’re sitting around a fire talking about these issues, it brings the world to a really small perspective. … To be able to sit around a fire with a drink in your hand, where your hair is down and you can just speak as a fellow friend, that’s really eye-opening.”
Merriam said these sorts of discussions are deeply informative, even if there’s a bit of levity sprinkled in. Visiting Fort Ticonderoga was a perfect example, he said. It was built by the French, then captured by British forces, before Col. Benedict Arnold, Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys captured the fort for American forces on May 10, 1775, at the beginning of the Revolutionary War.
The fort fell back into British hands in 1777 after a successful siege by Gen. John Burgoyne. The fort flipped back to American hands after the Battle of Saratoga, which would hold through the remainder of the war.
“I had all three countries represented when we were walking through Fort Ticonderoga,” Merriam said. “To hear the Frenchman say, ‘Oui oui, we build beautiful forts,’ and then to have my British friend say, ‘Oh, but that didn’t stop us from taking it from you, did it?’ — that part was fun because it sort of represented 279 years of history between friends as we’re walking around, and I loved that.”
While making lifelong friends from around the world is invaluable, Merriam said his mission work in Haiti for the past 26 years is among the service he’s most proud of. Merriam has been a Rotarian since 1989. His father and grandfather were both members.
“It’s great because it gives me an outlet because I certainly want to solve problems that I see in my community,” he said. “And my community may be as little as Schnectedy, but it’s also as large as the world. … Rotary, to me, is the means of giving where I see need.”
Rotary International is a membership organization of community volunteers and leaders who work toward humanitarian service and the promotion of global peace. It includes over 1.4 million people across more than 35,000 clubs worldwide.