By Dan May
Rotary Club of Orange
Dan May
Most people are somewhat aware of Rotary, as road signs bearing the Rotary wheel near the borders of most towns announce the presence of a local club. However, probably the most often-asked question of Rotary members is: what does a Rotary club actually do?
This is a bit challenging to answer, as Rotary is organized as a grassroots service organization and each club is a bit different, being geared to current members, club history and evolving community needs. For the most part though, clubs design, fundraise for and execute projects that serve the community at large and/or specific groups (such as youth or seniors).
All local clubs commit to Rotary’s humanitarian goals and motto of “Service Above Self” and often collaborate on projects with each other. But the nearly 60 clubs spread out along the coast of Connecticut from New York to Rhode Island are each a bit different in membership, culture, and in what they annually do.
This column will focus on the Rotary Club of Orange, starting with typical monthly activities for club members. In future columns here, I will discuss the club’s culture and member opportunities.
By Rotary standards, Orange has a mid-size membership (about 45 currently), mainly living and/or working in town. Orange club members are invited to weekly Friday meetings. Two of these are luncheon meetings, currently held at Orange Hills Country Club. One is a breakfast meeting at Valley Diner, and one is an evening social event at a local restaurant or pub or entertainment venue.
The luncheon meetings are the most structured, with an invited speaker giving a short 15-20 minute presentation followed by discussion. Speakers often are invited from other service organizations and provide a function of assisting members in identifying local or regional community needs and actions.
For example, a presentation by Susan Brown on the charity she founded in Milford, Purple Pantry, that helps provide food to those who are food insecure led to an ongoing collaborative project with Rotary clubs from Orange, Milford, Devon and West Haven. Clubs provide some funding to purchase food and volunteer to help distribute it to brightly painted purple pantries spread across the region from East Haven to Bridgeport.
Other speakers are more generally informative and/or address the international side of Rotary. Our Aug. 4 speaker described a driving trip in 2000 from Germany to India across Eastern Europe and the Near East. This fascinating talk dramatically highlighted how much the world has changed since Sept. 11, 2001.
The other half of lunch meetings and breakfast meetings in general focus on club business – mainly how club members are managing ongoing community and youth projects as well as upcoming events. Current activities include organizing a youth development day at Camp Hazen YMCA in September for middle school students from Saint Martin de Porres Academy; planning October projects that include shredding sensitive waste paper for Orange residents; assisting with a Special Olympics recognition event at the Yale Bowl; and identifying high school students to attend a multi-day Rotary Youth Leadership Academy. We are also gearing up for November events, including one of our main fundraisers: the annual Thanksgiving Day 5K Turkey Trot.
The Orange club has a busy year-round calendar, and most member activity actually takes part outside of regular meetings in support of projects and events. Collective projects build and maintain comradery. However, it is a club, too, and social exchanges among members at meetings is also important.
As one example, each breakfast and lunch club meeting closes with what we call happy/sad fines. Individuals donate small amounts to share notices of important events (anniversaries, birthdays, struggles, illness, death) that impact members and their families and friends. Recognizing significant moments in each other’s lives each week and sharing longer stories at our monthly club Friday night social events benefits both the speaker and the listeners.
Dan May is the president of the Rotary Club of Orange.