WAUPACA COUNTY POST

January 23, 2003

 

Rotary Club Celebrates 10 Years in Waupaca

By Robert Cloud, Post Editor

 

            Rotary Breakfast Club in Waupaca celebrates its 10^th anniversary this week.

            The local club was chartered on Jan. 23, 1993, after more than a year of organizing activity had attracted 25 members.

            “I thought it would be a good idea to have a Rotary Club in Waupaca,” recalled Ron Reynolds.

            A longtime member of a Rotary Club in downtown Appleton, Reynolds was commuting from his home in the town of Farmington to his company, Schlafer Supply Company Inc. in Appleton.

            “I was looking ahead to my retirement,” Reynolds said.  He sold his company in 1995 and hoped to remain active in Rotary after retiring.

            “It’s an enormous amount of work to start a club from scratch,” Reynolds said.  He had helped form a new Rotary Club in Appleton after the downtown group became too large.  Reynolds brought his experience in recruiting members to form a new club with him to Waupaca.

            “In Appleton, there had been two clubs prior to that, so Rotary was well-known,” Reynolds said.  “It was a little tougher here because people didn’t even know what Rotary was. We had to get down to the basics and educate people about Rotary’s mission.”

            Reynolds began meeting with Ralph Roisun, who was manger of Waupaca Country Club at the time, and compiling a list of possible candidates for Rotary in late 1991.  The Rotary Club in Appleton sponsored a series of breakfast meetings and presented videos on Rotary programs such as Polio Plus, Group Study Exchange and scholarships.

            At first, the Waupaca Rotary Club had provisional status as it continued to recruit members.

            After enough members were recruited, a Charter Night was held at the Waupaca Country Club on Jan. 23, 1993.  Two days later, the fist official meeting of the Waupaca Rotary Club was held.

            Reynolds was Waupaca Rotary Club’s first president, serving the organization from January to June 1993.  He was followed by Doug Ware, who served as president from June 1993 to June 1994.

            Ware was also responsible for playing the piano when members sang club songs at their breakfast meetings.

            “Rotary is a service club, not too much unlike Lions, Kiwanis, or Optimists,” Reynolds said.  “They all do good deeds in their communities. Rotary is different in that it wants a cross-section of the professional and business community in its ranks.”

            Reynolds said Rotary recruits business owners, professionals in a wide variety of fields and community leaders.

            Rotary offers members four avenues of service – community, international, vocational and club.  Rotary in Waupaca has focused much of its efforts on education.

            In addition to the monthly Service Above Self Award presented to middle school students and the scholarships presented to high school graduates, Waupaca Rotary has adopted the entire Class of 2009.  Rotary members are flowing the students from kindergarten through high school graduation.

            In 1996, Dr. James Fico, a founding member of Waupaca Rotary, suggested that club members follow the academic careers of every student who was expected to graduate from Waupaca High School in 2009.

            Rotarians mentor the students of this class and visit the classes these students attend every other month during the school year.  They put together educational and entertaining programs, scheduling visits from a Weyauwega woman who competed in a dog sled race in Alaska and experts on model trains, model airplanes and horseback riding.  They read stories and hope to encourage confidence and a sense of community service in the youths.

            Reynolds recalled how Waupaca’s Class of 2009 project received national attention after it was mentioned during a press conference by Colin Powell.

            “I got calls from all over the country,” Reynolds said.  “Powell had give a speech in Appleton about America’s kids, and I sent a letter about our program.  Two weeks later, he talked about it on TV.”

            As part of its international service, Waupaca Rotary donated $1,000 in 1994 to the Southern Africa Medical Project, organized by the Rotary District 6220.  That project was the result of a Group Study Exchange with members of a Rotary district in Africa. The Wisconsin Rotarians found a shortage of medical supplies and equipment, and a growing AIDS epidemic.  They spoke of this problem to Rotarians, and members of District 6220 raised enough funds to send nearly 6,000 pounds of surplus medical supplies and equipment to Zimbabwe.

            Since becoming a chartered club in Waupaca, Rotary has hosted Group Study Exchange teams.  In May 1994, Waupaca Rotary hosted a team from Brazil, who toured Waupaca Foundry, Filter Materials, Rawhide Boys Ranch and the Wisconsin Veterans Home.

            Rotary also played an important role in establishing the Sister Cities program with Nio, Japan.

            Beginning in 1996, Waupaca Rotary became involved in the international Rotary Youth Exchange program.  Each year, high school students from overseas spend a year living in Waupaca County and attending an area high school.  The foreign-exchange students live with three different families during their year, learning about this country and its culture.  The learning experience is reciprocal, as the families and Rotary has an opportunity to learn first hand about the students’ native countries.

            During its 10 years, Waupaca Breakfast Rotary Club has hosted students form Japan, Mexico, Germany, Belgium, Slovakia, Denmark, Brazil and Australia; sponsored an outbound exchange student to Mexico; sponsored an Ambassadorial Scholar to Australia; sponsored Group Study Exchange teams to Brazil, Japan, the Cayman Islands and India; and hosted and trained a group of hotel owners and managers from Russia.

            “In my opinion, as a former district governor, Waupaca has one of the best Rotary Clubs in Wisconsin,” Reynolds said.  “We’ve grown from 28 members to more than 50 members, and our members are active.”

            While Reynolds was district governor; Waupaca was chosen to host the district convention.  Members of the local club worked for more than a year on the project.

            Reynolds also discussed the growing role of women in Rotary, both in the U.S. and in Waupaca.

            “For years, the members were all men,” Reynolds said.  “Now, women make up about 10 percent of the membership nationwide.”

            Rotary began accepting women as members in 1987, after a Supreme Court ruling opened traditional service clubs to women.  Reynolds said a Rotary Club in California defied the ruling, refused to allow women in as members, and they were disenfranchised.

            Nationwide, there are about 1,900 women who have served as club presidents. In Waupaca Deb Johnson is Rotary Club’s current president, and Cindy Oerter is the immediate past president.

 

Editors Note:  Historical information for this article was provided by Marge Goerman.