By Deb Cox, Springfield VT Rotary Club President
The Springfield Rotary Club has been in existence since 1927 serving the residents of Springfield and the greater community. You may be asking what does Rotary do and what does it stand for?
The Object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideals of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster the following; FIRST The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service; SECOND High ethical standards in business and professions, the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations and the dignifying of each Rotarian’s occupation as an opportunity to serve society; THIRD The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian’s personal, business, and community life; and FOURTH The advancement of international understanding, goodwill and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.
Locally we work hard to help stamp out food insecurity with the “Stuff-a-Truck” or “Fill the Cart from the Heart” events supplying food for the Springfield Family Center Food Shelf. “Rotary Youth Weekend Food Distribution Program” and the “YMCA Weekend Food Bags for Summer” supplies food through the year.
This year will be our 3rd Annual Butterfly Release program. We will be selling Butterfly’s in memory of someone you love for $10.00 at the Chester Summer Music Series Thursday nights July 11- August 8th and Comtu Park in Springfield, Friday nights August 2nd, 9th, 16th. Release Date is August 23 (rain date 8/24).
You may have noticed all the new TREX benches about town! We have been collecting plastic film from local businesses and have a collection site at the Springfield Library. Thanks to all, our collections have resulted in the removal of over 2-3/4 tons of plastic film from the waste stream and the installation of our 7th bench in town. This is an incredible program keeping our rivers and streams clean and turning every 1000 lbs. collected into a TREX Bench! Other local Rotary clubs have taken this idea from us and started their own plastic collection programs in their communities.
Rotarians participated in the local Green Up Day. The Diaper Drive provided 3000 diapers for the Springfield Parent & Child Center. We helped beautify the town with Rotary Flower boxes on the bridge coming into town. Rotary reads annually at Union Elementary School and books are donated. A silent auction was held selling Little Library’s that Rotarians constructed & installed around the town that raised money to benefit the Springfield Library’s media expansion. We brought holiday cheer to the Kurn Hattin Students at Christmas with Christmas gifts from Santa, Mrs. Claus, and the elves.
Internationally we promote fitness health for Pine Ridge schools, Breast feeding Project in Brazil, contributed to the website upgrade for the BEAR Project, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and contributed to Polio.
This year is our 70th Annual Penny Sale! We are so very thankful to the businesses and community members at large that make this annual event such a success. We will be collecting donations and selling tickets soon. Look for the posters in town! All the proceeds go to support the programs, donations, and scholarships to Springfield High School students.
This year the Chester Rotary Club members joined the Springfield Rotary Club. We will be expanding our efforts in the Chester community to keep many of the Rotary programs established there ongoing.
The Springfield Rotary Club meets on Tuesdays at noon at Maybelline’s Restaurant and we have monthly social events at the Fullerton Inn in Chester or the Crown Point Country Club in Springfield. We are a club of 40+ and are actively looking for more members.
If you are interested in becoming a Rotarian, please contact any of our Board Members; President Debra
Cox, President Elect Sue Dana, Treasurer Michelle Chamberlain, Secretary Marty Cohn, Directors Jeff Mobus, Patti Putnam, Bill Dakin, or Past President Emma McGuirk. For more information, please visit our web site www.springfieldvtrotary.org
