By BOB AUDETTE / Reformer Staff
Friday May 14, 2010
BRATTLEBORO -- For the past 60 years, the Brattleboro Rotary Club has been serving the local community.
On May 4, the Brattleboro Selectboard proclaimed the week of May 10 through 16 as Brattleboro Rotary Week.
The Brattleboro club is part of Rotary International. The Rotary name derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members’ offices.
The Rotary Club was founded in 1905 and by 1921, it had members on all the continents except Antarctica. Today, 1.2 million Rotarians belong to over 32,000 Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas. There are 90 members in the Brattleboro area.
The Rotary Club’s motto is "Service Above Self," and the Brattleboro club has lived up to that standard.
In 2009, the Brattleboro Rotary Club and the Sunrise Rotary Club, which was founded by the Brattleboro Club in 1995, conducted an "Indian Film and Food Festival," which raised $8,500 towards the matching grant.
Rotary’s efforts are also focused on literacy and providing clean water.
The roots of Pure Water for the World began in Brattleboro in 1994 when Peter Abell, a member of the Brattleboro Rotary Club, volunteered to go to a small Salvadoran village to provide medical services.
With the support of the local club, Abell decided to help the people by providing rural villages with potable water.
This year, the Brattleboro Rotary Club is partnering with the Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende-Midday in the State of Guanajuato, Mexico, to support Casita Linda, which builds adobe brick homes for families who are among the poorest of the poor in San Miguel de Allende and the surrounding areas.
Locally, the members of the Brattleboro Rotary have supplied elbow grease for projects benefiting the Reformer Christmas Stocking, Habitat for Humanity, the Gibson-Aiken Center, Living Memorial Park and Youth Services.
The Rotary Club also awards annual Gateway Scholarships to the region’s high school graduates.
Rotary International was the world’s first service club when it was formed in Chicago on Feb. 23, 1905, by Paul P. Harris, who became a resident of Wallingford when he was 3 years old.
Harris, who eventually became an attorney, founded Rotary International in an effort to capture what he had learned while growing up in Wallingford.
"Vermont farmers were tenacious," wrote Harris, in "The Story of a Boy, a Vermont Community and Rotary." "Having once gotten a grip on a place they could call home, only the direst of calamities or death could break it."
Harris was also impressed by the fortitude of the state’s residents.
"When Vermonters have a purpose in mind, they are not easily discouraged," he wrote.
Harris was born in 1868 in Racine, Wis. Three years later, he, his brother and their father moved to Vermont.
In 1886, the University of Vermont "indefinitely suspended" Harris from the school after he was wrongfully accused of hazing another student. In 1919, UVM awarded him an honorary Bachelor of Arts degree and presented him with an apology for his expulsion. It awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws in 1933.
In 1891 he received his law degree from the University of Iowa and in 1896 he moved to Chicago to practice law. He died in 1947 in Chicago, shortly after he wrote his autobiography.
Things haven’t really changed in Vermont in the 63 years since he wrote his story.
"While the majority of the newcomers to my New England valley are retired business folks who wish to spend their remaining days in the restfulness of the country, there are a considerable number of writers, artists and educators who have no intention of retiring," he wrote. "They are attracted to the mountains by their love of beauty and their desire to rid themselves of the useless complexities of life in order that they may apply themselves more effectively to their chosen tasks. Vermont has attracted more than its proportionate share of these folks."
As it grew, its mission expanded beyond serving club members’ professional and social interests. Rotarians began pooling their resources and contributing their talents to help serve communities in need.
May 21 is the deadline to apply for one of the eight $3,000 Gateway scholarships. Submit applications to: John C. Mabie, Esq., c/o Corum Mabie Cook Prodan Angell & Secrest, PLC, 45 Linden St., Brattleboro, VT 05301.
And on June 10 at the Brattleboro Country Club, the Rotary is hosting its 35th Annual Charity Golf Tournament. Proceeds from this year’s tournament will benefit three local projects: The Vernon Recreation Department Playground Restoration, the Boys and Girls Club of Brattleboro and the Gateway Scholarships.
While regional Rotary clubs are putting together teams for the tournament, members of the public are encouraged to participate either as a golfer or a sponsor.
The cost is $125 for an individual and $460 for a foursome.
To register for the tournament, e-mail Rotarian Cathy Coonan or call her at 802-251-3782.
Bob Audette can be reached at raudette@reformer.com, or at 802-254-2311, ext. 273.
http://www.reformer.com/localnews/ci_15083311
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