Rotary club
Rotary club
Written by Beth Wade and Tiffany Young Friday, 11 April 2008
Rotary Club International, the world’s largest service organization with more than 1.2 million members, has five clubs in Georgetown, Hutto and Taylor. Georgetown has three clubs, while Hutto and Taylor each have one.
Georgetown’s clubs include Sunrise Rotary, Georgetown Rotary and Sun City Rotary.
Of the Sun City Club’s 55 members, almost 20 percent do not live there.
“If you don’t want to have service above self, don’t be in a Rotary club,” Sun City Rotary president William Miller said. “We are a service organization. We are people who want to do community service.”
Sun City members meet every week to support different efforts. This year the club co-sponsored a breakfast with Santa event with the Fire Department and Georgetown ISD. The event supported needy children and raised funds to give 85 children in Georgetown and Jarrell Christmas presents and 21 families $100 food gift cards for Christmas dinner.
The Hutto Rotary Club has only been serving Hutto for three years, but in that short time, the club has been able to help with Hutto community events and students, club president Chris Harris said.
“[For] most of our members, this is the first club they have been involved in. There was a real strong commitment to the community,” Harris said. “Everybody here wanted to do something to support the community and be a part of a service organization. I think that is part of why it has done so well.”
The club’s local focus has gravitated toward education. During its first year, the club gave two Hutto students $1,000 college scholarships. This year the goal is to give four.
To raise the money for these scholarships and other efforts, Hutto’s club has had several fund-raisers, including raffles, selling T-shirts, coupon books and tickets to the circus. In August the club will host a casino night, which Harris thinks could become the club’s top fund-raiser.
Taylor Rotarians have remained busy as well. The club recently hosted a spaghetti dinner at Taylor High School. The dinner, which was $7 a plate, served between 500 and 600 people. The fund-raiser will help provide scholarships for Taylor High School seniors that will be presented in May.
Taylor’s club has also been raising funds to buy defibrillators, which will be located throughout the city.
“We want to place these [defibrillators] in places where there currently aren’t any so they could potentially save someone’s life,” club president Johnnie Mikeska said.
Eradicating polio
While local clubs support their surrounding communities, they also participate and fund international Rotary efforts, such as the Rotary’s international goal of eradicating polio worldwide.
Last November, Beenu Deuja, a member of the Round Rock Sunrise Rotary Club, spent 12 days in Nigeria during Rotary’s National Immunization Days in which volunteers traveled to villages and immunized children. Deuja was the only Texas representative of about 90 volunteers..
“I always wanted to volunteer. Africa has always fascinated me,” she said. “Even if you can change just one life, that’s great.”
Originally from Nepal, Deuja said the trip to Nigeria reminded her of her origin.
“Having come from an underdeveloped country, it was a reminder [of the difference in lifestyles] because we tend to forget [what it’s like] since there’s a way to get everything here,” Deuja said.
Since her trip, Deuja has continued her international support by pledging to raise money for malaria prevention in Ghana. The money raised will go toward buying nets for children’s beds, which will keep mosquitoes away at night.
If you are interested:
- Georgetown Rotary Club
- Meets Fridays at noon at the First United Methodist Church, 410 E. University Ave.
- Contact: O.L. Davis Jr., 818-2799
- Georgetown Sunrise Rotary Club
- Meets Thursdays at 6:45 a.m. at Down the Alley Bistro, 118 W. Eighth St.
- Contact: David Weinthal, 818-3900
- Georgetown Sun City
- Meets Tuesdays at noon at the Sun City Social Center, 2 Texas Drive
- Contact: William Miller, 864-3723
- Hutto Rotary Club
- Meets Tuesdays at noon in the old middle school, 302 College St.
- Contact: Chris Harris, 828-7749
- Taylor Rotary Club
- Meets Thursdays at noon at Sirloin Stockade, 200 W. Lake Drive
- Contact: Johnnie Mikeska, 352-7641
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