COMMUNITY SERVICE

If Rotary was a watch - COMMUNITY SERVICE would be the mainspring. Every Rotary Club, large or small, in every country is engaged in a community project of some nature. This Avenue of Service is where clubs and members exercise their community leadership. They see a need - they act - in working with and sponsoring youth centers, Boy and Girl Scout Troops, cultural development, community beautification, fire prevention, home safety, assistance to the aged, etc. The list is endless - only limited by the imagination and desire to serve by the members in a Rotary Club.

The Rotarian Magazine each month describes and pictures COMMUNITY SERVICE world-wide - U.S. Clubs promoting free enterprise through essay contests and seminars for students and teachers - Clubs in Mexico raising funds for construction of a home for mentally retarded children - camps operated in England for handicapped children with special therapy equipment and trained staff. The list goes on and on.

A community survey by a committee from the local Rotary Club will result in a list of many areas where help can be used - where people (the young, the handicapped, the aged) will be so receptive to a service that persons like Rotarians can furnish. Some projects may require money and a matching drive to obtain funds must be devised - other projects require only time or thought and the desire to serve others. Do not think that everyone is taken care of now by Government agencies - the person-to-person concern that can be shown by individuals and Clubs of Rotarians will never be equalled by a bureaucracy.

Playgrounds furnished - parks built - bicycle safety classes - driver training - drug abuse information - the list grows: vision and learning testing in the schools - athletic programs - citizenship and patriotism essay contests - weekly flowers to a retirement home - legal and medical advice clinics - take an old-timer to a ball game - or take that same old-timer to get his hair cut or his wife to the beauty salon.

There is no Rotary Club anywhere that does not have a talent-laden membership who can easily fill a community need!! The list is endless.