With a motto like "Service Above Self," you can bet that local Rotarians are spending much of their time helping communities at home and abroad.
At Anderson Hospital in Maryville one weekend in August, a group of Goshen Rotarians gathered to work in conjunction with the hospital in providing free physicals to children. Along with vision and hearing screenings and inoculations, the day was also filled with hat-making and balloon animals.
"Our Rotary is totally committed to helping children in the community," said Rotarian Debbie Schreiber. "We believe in the camaraderie of the group and we all want to give back what we have received."
Since it's inception, the club has provided over 1,000 children in Madison County with back-to-school physicals. They also sponsor youth sports teams, the YMCA and the Children's Museum as well as LeClaire Octoberfest and the Watershed Nature Center. The Goshen club also awards scholarships to senior students at Edwardsville, Metro-East Lutheran and Triad high schools.
If there is a need in Edwardsville there's a good chance Rotary is jumping on the bandwagon to help. The club's Web site,
www.edwardsvillerotary.org, contains a long list of recipients of the club's support. One example is Edwardsville High School, which has received support in everything from cheerleading to the Model U.N. club. The Rotary has also established foundations for the sports complex, the auditorium and numerous other projects.
Goshen and Edwardsville aren't the only local clubs focusing on children. Every month, the Granite City Rotary honors a student of the month at the high school level. The club also assists the Granite City High School after-prom committee in funding the annual event, and is currently working to establish an Interact Club.
"Interact is a high school-age Rotary Club," said Granite City Rotary President Dennis Wilmsmeyer. "They meet on a weekly basis in the high school and run their own meetings. We just have a designated member of our group attend the meeting to observe. It's a good way of establishing some sustainability to the Granite City Rotary, but it also instills moral values in high school students who may not otherwise be thinking along those lines."
Nearly every Rotary sponsors a student exchange program. In Collinsville, the club has welcomed Rotary exchange students from Zimbabwe, France, Japan, Finland and Brazil. The students spend an academic year at Collinsville High School. The most recent student came from Sweden and arrived in August to begin his year learning American culture first-hand. The club has also provided approximately $1,200 a year to purchase clothing for children in the Collinsville School
District whose teachers have recognized a need.
All of the clubs are also involved in the Group Study Exchange program, which sends a group of residents for a five-week visit in another country. The clubs also sponsor Ambassadorial Scholars for post-college adults who spend a year attending a university and learning about Rotary in another country.
Rebecca Dalton, 23, of Collinsville, was the district's 2004 scholar through the Collinsville club. She spent last year in Russia studying Slavic studies and political science.
"Rotary really offered me an opportunity to do things I've been interested in for quite some time," she said.
While in Russia, she found a job teaching English and planned to return there this month. She also planned on joining Rotaract, a Rotary for college-age students.
Although travel may not seem like a way to better the lives of others, Wilmsmeyer said making the world a smaller place is a Rotary goal.
"It's about realizing that people are human and although there are different customs, different cultures, different ideas, when it comes down to it, we are all human and we all have basic needs and requirements. Some of us are better off than others and Rotary is an opportunity to find out about those different cultures and customs and to help other people."
In witnessing the differences that hinder people's way of life, the clubs have attempted to do something about them - sponsoring a number of humanitarian projects in places where clean water and a meal three times a day is little more than a dream. Water wells have been built in Mexico, India and other areas thanks to funding and volunteers from Rotary.
The clubs donate food to pantries, sponsor adult literacy programs and the Goshen Rotary sponsors a winterization program that prepares equipment for cold weather.
The Edwardsville club has participated in numerous worldwide efforts, including an Amazon River project, free dental exams for people in Honduras and medical exams for those in Nicaragua.
The Granite City club regularly donates to the United Way, the Phoenix Crisis Center and the Community Care Center. They also help with the Patriots in the Park celebration and members volunteer their time to read to Mitchell Elementary School students.
Collinsville Rotarians have sponsored the Collinsville Ministerial Association and contributed to many projects for the betterment of the community such as the construction of a new historical museum and the CMT YMCA.
Schuetzenhofer said Edwardsville club members try to maintain a number of ongoing projects.
"That way we can fund those projects over a number of years," he said.
The club looks for projects that need funding but also require participation and community involvement.
Most recently, club members have honed their focus on the city's new YMCA. To help, they sponsored a bike ride on Saturday in University Park at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
The organizations all have provided funding and support for more projects, events and organizations to name, but then that's the point.
Collinsville Rotarian Dr. Steve Nuernberger said Rotary is a club of local businessmen and women whose purpose is to find ways to do good in the community and that their efforts often snowball into the district, the state and worldwide.
"The scope is unlimited," he said, "but the projects are local. We won't sponsor a school, but we'll help build one. We try to do things that will make a long-term impact."