By Pedro Casadei, assistant Rotary public image coordinator, Brazil
I like to say I was born into Rotary. Long before I had a name, my parents were already wearing Rotary pins and serving together. They met in Rotaract, fell in love in meetings and projects, and my father was president of the Rotary club I belong to today while my mother was a Rotarian in the same club while she was pregnant with me, the Rotary Club of Tupa-Vanuire (São Paulo), São Paulo, Brazil.
I grew up hearing how she sat in meetings with a baby kicking inside her while my father rang the bell to open the session. Rotary isn’t just part of my family story — it is my family story.
The image that stuck with me most from my childhood in the late 1990s was my mother helping to teach elderly people who couldn’t read or write. They sat at simple tables, and she would guide an older hand across a page, turning shame into pride. That image has shaped my entire life.
Today, I’m a physician and researcher, and I serve as a preceptor, teaching young doctors in a state hospital. Every time I walk through a difficult case with a new resident, I think of my mother and her adult students. She taught them to read; I teach my students to listen to a patient, read a chart, and see the person behind the disease.
My own service journey began at age six, when I joined Rotary Kids in 2005. Back then, I was the child running around at district conferences, watching the adults and desperately wanting to be part of the action. They taught me that even children can help change a community.
Finding my voice in Interact
As a teenager, I moved into Interact and I was able to experience all of Rotary’s youth programs. I spent a year in Turkey as a Rotary Youth Exchange student. Seeing Rotary global health projects up close helped solidify my path toward medicine. I also joined Interact, serving several roles, including as my district’s Interact representative. Reviewing district projects, it was the first time I looked at a world map and felt that our youth work in one corner of Brazil could echo across continents.
Soon after, I became president of the Interact Multidistrict Information Organization (MDIO) in Brazil, the only Interact MDIO in Rotary since 1999. We coordinated a national Interact response after the Mariana (Minas Gerais, Brazil) dam disaster on 5 November 2015, which occurred in the middle of World Interact Week. Interact clubs across Brazil mobilized to support one of the worst environmental tragedies in our history. I had the unwavering support of my parents in all the trips and activities I was able to undertake; even as I prepared to enter the highly competitive medical school.
In Rotaract, I served as club president, chaired the Rotaract Council of the Brazilian Filiated Association of The Rotary Foundation (ABTRF), and helped organize the first national Rotary Foundation seminar for Rotaractors. Later as a Rotarian and member of the RI Youth Advisory Council, I had the irony of joining RI President Jennifer Jones on her visit to the Rotary Centenary in Rio de Janeiro … with my parents!
As a kid, my playground was the district conference floor. From that time on, I was at almost every District 4510 conference and seminar, sitting quietly in the back or running down hotel corridors with other Rotary kids. Over time, those rooms multiplied. Because of Rotary, I have visited 29 of the 31 Rotary districts in Brazil attended six Rotary International Conventions, moderated breakout sessions at conventions in São Paulo and Melbourne, and taken part in nine Rotary Institutes in Brazil, currently serving as a learning facilitator.
Every time I walk into a meeting, I still think of my parents falling in love in Rotaract and of holding a tiny Rotary banner in my hands. Rotary youth programs are designed to help young people grow through service and leadership, moving from one stage to the next in the Rotary family.
Pedro Casadei is a physician and researcher, a member of The Rotary Foundation Cadre of Technical Advisers, a past president of Interact MDIO Brazil in 2015-16; and 2025–28 assistant Rotary public image coordinator and 2022–25 assistant Rotary membership coordinator in Region 31 (Zones 23 and 24).
https://blog.rotary.org/2025/12/19/from-interact-to-rotary-regional-leader/