Welcome to 2005, a very special year for Rotary and doubly
special for Morgan Hill Rotarians.
Welcome to 2005, a very special year for Rotary and doubly special for Morgan Hill Rotarians. On Feb. 23, 1905, Paul Harris and three of his business acquaintances started Rotary in Chicago. Now, 100 years later, there are more than 1.2 million Rotarians in over 31,000 Rotary Clubs in 166 countries around the world.
Fifty years after the founding of Rotary, and 50 years ago, the Morgan Hill Rotary Club was chartered. So we in Morgan Hill have two anniversaries to celebrate this year and we want all of our neighbors in the Morgan Hill community to join with us. Mark on your calendar Saturday, April 16, when we will be throwing a community “Sock Hop” that will be the grand affair that a celebration of dual anniversaries of our community and world service organization should be!
In the spirit of Rotary, we will also be using the Sock Hop event as a fund raiser to help further our support of the Morgan Hill community. All funds raised – 100 percent of them – will go back into the community in support of so many worthwhile causes.
We are going to put on one heck of a party, and that in itself should be quite a draw. In hopes of motivating you to increase your involvement beyond just attendance by possibly becoming an event sponsor or supporting us with auction items, etc., here are some of the many ways the funds raised will help serve our community, including one $2,000 scholarship and 10 $1,000 scholarships for seniors at our three high schools.
Every month, Rotary honors two students as the “Student of the Year” from their school. And at our three high schools, Rotary advisers work in concert with faculty advisers to Interact Clubs, the high school implementation of a service club modeled after Rotary, providing leadership and service opportunities to our local kids.
We provide a significant amount of funding to a non-profit organization called “Young at Heart” that provides live musical concerts at many venues for senior citizens. Because of our funding, Morgan Hill seniors enjoy over 60 concerts a year at the Senior Center, convalescent homes and other venues. These concerts brighten the lives of those entertained and kept – “young at heart”!
Annually we have a midday “dinner” to honor and recognize our Morgan Hill seniors. This year’s dinner is coming up next month, Feb. 12 at the Buddhist Temple. We serve a full meal of salad, barbecued steak and chicken, vegetables, desert and beverages to about 300 attendees. We have entertainment (including a Young at Heart concert), horse-drawn carriage rides and many raffle prizes for the attendees.
We do several community projects every year. Recently we installed a fence at the Community Center Rose Garden and benches, tables and a drinking fountain at Paradise Park. Coming up we’ll be doing more work to enhance the landscape at the Morgan Hill House. We help decorate downtown for Christmas, do the barbecuing for the Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation Center’s fundraising event and will be helping Upward Bound Youth upgrade some playing fields at the Boy’s Ranch this spring.
And, through an application process, we make financial contributions to deserving organizations for worthwhile causes. Some of our more “regular” donations are to: YMCA, Magic Ship of Christmas, Live Oak Foundation, IDI/Fourth of July, El Toro Youth Center, Community Solutions, RotaCare, Relay for Life, Art a la Carte and Leadership Morgan Hill. We also make special donations to deserving individual events or causes that come up.
Rotary also supports and serves many, many causes outside the community, like our current effort to raise money for water purification equipment for victims of the tsunami. But the funds raised from our local celebration will be earmarked for local community support only.
Wow, what an impressive organization Rotary is! How much we are able to do! And your support will enhance our capability to serve. Please plan to attend our April 16 Sock Hop Celebration, and get involved now as a sponsor or donor by contacting Ken Hulick at ke********@*ol.com or 779-4880. And you are always welcome to contact me about anything to do with Rotary at st*******@*****er.net or 779-6992.
Steve Tate is immediate past president of Morgan Hill Rotary.
