Steve, 

You asked me why you should join Rotary.  Although not the definitive word, I will try to answer. 

 

We are a club of community leaders joined in fellowship to do good in our community and around the world. For the last 94 years, the members of our club have participated in most of the significant jobs that made our town a better place.  Tom Vandergriff was a president of our club as were many leaders at UTA, the city council, the school board, and the chamber of commerce. I don't know the exact number, but many members of our church are also Rotarians.

 

Rotary International and our club specifically are engaged in many good works. Rotary began working to eliminate polio in 1979. 2017 or 2018 will be the year we achieve that goal. (Polio devasted my family, so this is an important goal to me.) Our club began and then organized other clubs to bring clean drinking water to a remote area of Honduras. We have provided clean water and now sanitation to about 20,000 people with an ultimate goal of serving 80,000.  Locally, our biggest project is the adoption of John Webb Elementary School.  The late John Webb was a member of First Arlington. We send any child who graduates 6th grade at Webb and then later graduates high school to either college or trade school of their choice.  We also send the kids to camp, give them a personal book, and support them in many other ways.  Our activities there are complementary to the Big Hope Mentoring program run by Rotarian and church member, Jill Regina.  

 

I once attempted to make a list of all the service projects the Rotary Club of Arlington has ongoing.  I was never able to complete the list because our members are everywhere doing everything. For the last few years, we also do a small service project each month. These include supporting the Salvation Army Angel Tree program (and bell ringing), providing back