Dale Pinkerton of Butler was district governor of Rotary District 7280, which includes Butler County, from June 1997 to June 1998.

Part of the duties of each district governor is to take on a project during his term. For Pinkerton's project, he and the clubs in the district raised $15,000 to drill a water well in Peru. The well was for a clinic near Iquitos, Peru, which is run by an American, Dr. Linnea Smith.

The clinic was built by a Rotary Club from Michigan. There was no plumbing for the clinic, though. Water had to be hauled from the river up to 10 times a day for the clinic. The need for a well was obvious.The clinic itself is staffed by Dr. Smith, several people from the area who have learned to be nurses, and a part-time person provided by the government.The clinic has three rooms to see patients, an operating room, a room for the family to wait in, and the porch serves as the patient waiting room. The clinic is supported a great deal by Rotary.Dr. Smith sees around 1,200 patients a year. The clinic serves not only the small village it is in, but also other villages from 10 to 20 miles away. Patients travel by boat on the Amazon River to reach the clinic.

Dr. Smith does a little bit of everything. She treats snakebites, broken bones, pulls teeth, delivers babies, and performs minor surgery such as removing an appendix. She also treats dysentery, which is common in Peru.Pinkerton, his wife, Millie, and nine fellow Rotarians traveled to Peru to visit the clinic and see the new well they provided. They also delivered two bags of medicine donated for the clinic. Medicine was hard to come by and expensive in that area of Peru, Dale Pinkerton said.When Dr. Smith saw the bag, she commented, "This is better than Christmas," he said.In Peru, the Rotarians lived and traveled on a boat, and they spent five days on the Amazon River visiting villages and seeing the wildlife in the rain forest.

One of their visits was to a school where each grade, one through six, had only one book for all the students in the grade to share. After seeing the school, the group went to a store and bought books for each student in each grade, Pinkerton said.In return, the children created a colorful poster for the Rotarians in thanks for the books."I got more out of the trip than I put in," said Pinkerton.