Polk County News
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • August 30, 2017 5A
ONE PROJECT AT A TIME
Rotarians work to build a better world through local, international service projects
By Jolene Guzman
Make a difference
The Itemizer-Observer
DALLAS — You see Dallas
Rotarians hard at work dur-
ing Summerfest’s Breakfast
in the Park and Tom Newton
Car Show every year.
But did you know the club
is active in student ex-
changes hosting foreign stu-
dents in Dallas and sending
Dallas students overseas? Or
that club members handed
out more than 300 diction-
aries to fourth-graders in
2017?
Also, the club honors out-
standing Dallas students
monthly and granted schol-
arships to three graduating
seniors during the last
school year.
Rich Wolcott, the club’s
Community Service Com-
mittee chairman, said the
club is adding a few more
projects to its plate.
“Our goal is to become
more involved in communi-
ty service events, not that we
haven’t been in the past,” he
said. “We want to expand
the global (projects).”
Recently, club members
helped renovate the kitchen
in Dallas City Park in time to
use it for Breakfast in the
Park, but also for other
events.
Rotary District 5100 (to
which the Dallas Club be-
longs) provided a $1,500
grant for equipment, and
the Dallas Rotary club
matched that amount and
added in volunteer work re-
painting the kitchen.
“We spent a whole day,
with about seven people,”
Wolcott said. “We had so
many that everyone got in
everybody’s way. We painted
the ceiling, the walls.”
He said in addition to Ro-
tary, 60 to 70 different
groups use the kitchen dur-
ing the year for reunions,
wedding receptions and
other events.
“It’s just so much nicer
and cleaner,” Wolcott said.
“We were thinking, too, like
everybody else is thinking,
of the eclipse. We knew that
What: Dallas Rotary
Club.
When: Tuesday, noon.
Where: Dallas Civic
Center.
Of note: The M-I Rotary
Club also is accepting
new members. The club
meets at noon on Thurs-
days at First Baptist
Church, 1505 Monmouth
St., Independence.
Dallas Rotary Club /for Itemizer-Observer
Bob Timmerman, left, and Todd Brumfield prepare pancake batter for Breakfast in the Park in the park’s kitchen.
the kitchen is going to be
used more this summer by
the public.”
The city of Dallas installed
the new equipment and put
in its own money for new
lighting.
Not just focused on Dallas
City Park, Rotary members
spend time at the city’s dog
park, Central Bark, putting
down bark, and the club
“adopted” a section of the
Rickreall Creek Trail to help
maintain.
Also, the club is helping
pay for installing the long-
awaited pickleball courts
across the street from the
Dallas Aquatic Center.
Wolcott said the club is
taking more action outside
of Dallas.
In partnership with Ro-
tary Club of Salem, Dallas
Rotary helped support a
project to provide safe
drinking water and sanita-
tion to four villages in Haiti.
The project improved living
conditions for 25,000 people
in the hard-hit nation.
“If any country needs
help, that country needs
help,” Wolcott said. “You can
imagine what their water,
and especially what their
sanitation is like right now.”
Dallas Rotar ians are
working with Rotary Club of
Keizer on a project in Thai-
land to reduce hazards asso-
ciated with burning rice
fields by building shredders
to encourage composting
the debris.
A club in Lampang, Thai-
land, developed the “Rotary
Shredder” to shred crop
residue into small pieces
and add microbes to convert
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the material into fertilizer.
The fertilizer is added to
the soil before the next crop
is planted.
Bob Ottaway, a Dallas Ro-
tarian and member of the
Rotary Foundation Club,
went to Thailand to help
work on the project.
“It’s been a pretty active
year for Rotary,” Wolcott
said. “I’ve been a member
for 14 years and every club
has their up and down
years.”
This would count as an
“up” year, and Wolcott
would like to see that con-
tinue.
The club is recruiting
more members, and would
like to have more women,
and people 30 and younger
join the club, he said.
Anyone interested in visit-
ing the club can contact
Susan Morrill at 503-623-
3119, or any club member.
Help and encouragement after the death
of a spouse, child, family member or friend.
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Tuesday, Sept. 12 • 6:30 pm
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For more information
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call Kate or visit our
website.
503-917-1625
www.crossandcrownministries.org
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