Marion Rotary looking for a few good members

Marion Rotary looking for a few good members

Be a part of an organization doing something positive in the community

ralphhardin@gmail.com A couple of questions…

Have you ever thought, “What can I do to help out in my community?”

Have you ever wondered, “What exactly is the Rotary Club?”

Well, if you’ve ever asked yourself either or both of those questions, then you might be happy to know that the answers are pretty closely related.

Marion Rotary Club has been a mainstay in the community for years. Rotary sponsors a number of civic events as well as scholarships for high school students. While the Rotary is still actively involved in Marion, membership numbers have dwindled. To address that, Rotary treasurer Matt Thompson is reaching out to anyone who has a heart for their community and might want to join Rotary to be a part of the organization.

Thompson’s first order of business is explaining what Rotary is and what they do. And the answer may come as a bit of a surprise.

“A lot of people, when they hear ‘Rotary Club,’ they picture a bunch of old folks sitting around eating lunch,” said Thompson.

“But we actually skew a lot younger than that. Most of our members lean closer to 40.”

And Rotarians don’t just sit around eating lunch — OK, they do eat lunch together, twice a month at the Marion United Methodist Church — but they are also actively involved in a number of facets of life in Marion.

“It’s a lot of charity work,” said Thompson. “We have a few major events each year. We had our annual golf tournament in June, which raised over $6,000.

We had our steak dinner fundraiser in April… that was about $3,000. All of the proceeds go out to local charities and organizations.

We sponsor scholarships.

We give to the Boy Scouts, Ronald McDonald House.”

The Rotary recently gave the city Parks Department $5,000 to put up a new set of bleachers.

“We were originally going to have them put in at K& R Park,” Thompson explained. “You may not know this, but ‘K& R’ stands for ‘Kiwanis and Rotary,’ so if our name is going to be on it, we felt like we should support it.”

Ultimately, after being told that MYSA was phasing out using K& R for youth baseball, the group decided to have the bleachers installed at John Robbins Field where the Marion High School baseball team plays. The bleachers are expected to be installed this fall.

“But that’s the kind of thing we want to do — support community programs that need support,” said Thompson. “Some other places that our money is going is local law enforcement and first responder donations, our literacy program that reaches out to third graders at Marion Elementary,

Hope for the Holidays, and sponsoring high

school students to attend RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards). So, whoever wants to be a part of a positive influence in the community, to revive and grow our city, we’d like to invite them to come check it out.”

Marion Rotary Club meets the second and fourth Wednesday each month at noon at the Marion United Methodist Church Youth Building, 81 E. Military Rd. Membership dues are $35 per month. Find out more on the Rotary’s Facebook page at Marion AR Rotary Club.

By Ralph Hardin