Do you know who your local Rotarians are and what they do? Springfield Rotarians work to “Serve to Change Lives” of those less fortunate in our community and in the world.
The Springfield Rotary Club is more than just an assembly of business professionals that meet weekly for a social lunch. Our members range from retirees to independent business professionals to CEOs. The goal of the Springfield Rotary Club is to carry out the mission of Rotary International (RI), an organization of business and professional leaders united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. The Springfield Rotary is one of 61 local clubs in District 7870 in Vermont and New Hampshire.
Locally, our members raise funds to enhance the quality of life in our local community. A sampling of our ongoing outreach includes:
- Working with local artists, Rotary constructed and donated six little libraries to Friends of the Springfield Town Library. This effort not only raised $2800 for the FOSTL but also furthered the goal of increasing literacy in the community.
- Springfield Rotary Club tackled food insecurity with a Weekend Backpack Program for YMCA summer campers, two food drives, and raised monies to build shelves for the Springfield Family Center
- The 68th annual Penny Sale raised monies for local scholarships. The total scholarships donations resulting from the Penny Sale exceeds $205,000.
- A Springfield Rotary Club fundraiser “Live Butterfly Release” to remember and honor our friends and family raised monies to support local community projects.
The club has also provided support to a variety of international initiatives such as End Polio Now. After over 35 years of hard work, Rotary and its partners are on the brink of eradicating this tenacious disease. Additional efforts have been put forth to support a range of international humanitarian projects. Springfield Rotarians have personally been involved with medical and educational projects in Honduras and an orphanage project in Mexico. And, along with eight other clubs in Vermont and New Hampshire, the club provided a local children’s hospital with a pediatric bronchoscope in South Africa.
January is Rotary Awareness Month, and the club welcomes new members who share a passion to “Serve to Change Lives” by assisting those less fortunate in our community and worldwide.
If you are interested in learning about the club, visit the club website https://springfieldvtrotary.org/ or Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SpringfieldVTRotary. Or contact Springfield Rotary Club President Karen Longo at LongoKaren7@gmail.com.
Appeared in Eagle Times and Vermont Journal.