Message from College Park Club President

If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a Rotary Club to keep the village going, and whether it's College Park or the global village, we have important roles to play, mostly for people who not only don't belong to Rotary, but who may never have heard of us.

We support many important activities in our community, some financially and some with action. I hope that we can continue to find participatory opportunities for service in addition to raising money for worthwhile causes.

I'm thinking of things like the Dictionary Project, where we go into the schools and visit 3^rd graders as we distribute books that will help kids further their educations. I'm thinking of things like the renovation projects we've done at St. Anne's Infant and Maternity Home, where we painted and hammered and hung curtains and all sorts of things that required our personal involvement in making things better-projects where members' kids and spouses also pitched in, making it a real family affair. I'm thinking of things like cleaning up trash in a stream that runs into the Anacostia that runs into the Potomac that runs into the Bay. And bringing toys and baby clothes for Dr. Bear's Closet at Children's Hospital. I don't mind writing checks, but I especially like projects like these where I'm somehow touching things. I hope you like projects like these, too.

We also get involved in supporting our youth as they learn and practice leadership skills in Interact and RYLA, as we give scholarships and encouragement to middle schoolers, graduating seniors, and Ambassadorial Scholars. You never know how this might influence someone's life. I got cash scholarships from Rotary and other service clubs when I was headed off to college, and they really helped-because my family had NO money to spend on my college education. And look where I ended up-in the Rotary Club of College Park! Certainly one of the motivations many of us have is that we want to give back the help we've gotten along the way, and to share our time, talents, and funds with those who need a helping hand.

Some of our projects are international, like the worldwide Polio Plus project to eradicate polio, where Rotary involvement has been so crucial. But at the club level we have projects like our effort to help crippled children in Nigeria to get surgery that will enable them to walk normally and participate fully in a society that doesn't have handicap accessability laws. We'll probably never meet any of those kids, but we have been fortunate to have one of our Nigerian Rotary counterparts visit and give us updates on how things are going, and I understand that Chuka Ndubizu may go back to Nigeria this coming winter and check things out, too. Without the network of Rotary clubs here and in Nigeria, and the support of the international organization, it would be almost impossible to make things like this happen.

The bottom line is that we all support this club because we do value Service Above Self, and I hope that each member will be fully engaged in at least a couple of projects during the coming year. You ask what one person can do? Each of us is just one person, but by combining the bits that we can do into a larger whole, we can change the world.

And if along the way to changing the world, you run into another like-minded person-invite them to join our club.

Rotary is the world’s first service organization, founded in Chicago in 1905. Its primary goal is to unite individuals worldwide to make a difference: promoting peace and goodwill, assisting those in need through humanitarian projects, and contributing in positive ways through its local clubs, such as the Rotary Club of College Park.

We are a dinner club that meets on Wednesdays, at 6:30pm, at the Sir Walter Raleigh Inn on Greenbelt Road in College Park in College Park, Maryland. Please go to our website at howtofind.html, for location and directions, and come by to visit!

Our members give their time and energy to helping the local community by working as volunteers for ....

Drop by a meeting! Enjoy dinner and programs with other community leaders and individuals who care about giving back. And, help us support the 2008-09 Rotary International theme: "Make Dreams Real!"