The club’s list of accomplishments is extensive
Published in the May 27-June 9, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Marty Cheek
Photo by Marty Cheek
From left: Rotary Club members Troy Benson, Roger Malech and Laura Perry and club president Peter Anderson celebrate the Morgan Hill Rotary Club’s 60 anniversary May 13.
The Rotary Club of Morgan Hill’s 2,940th meeting May 13 was a special one. Many of the service club’s members met at the Community and Cultural Center for a special 60th birthday party celebrating the club’s accomplishments. With an impact both locally and internationally, the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill has for six decades been going strong in addressing education, health and senior citizen quality of life issues.
Club President Peter Anderson has been a member for 25 years and called them “the best year of my life” because of the friendships he has developed with people who share a common goal of making the planet a better place for humanity.
“The Rotary Club of Morgan Hill provides me with the vehicle to do my own personal philanthropy, it gives me the opportunity to go out and do good in the world,” he said. “Doing it as an individual alone, it’s much more difficult. And besides, with the family that we have (with club members), it makes it so much more rewarding. You’re sharing the pleasure of service with your friends, your family.”
The list of accomplishments for the club is extensive. Among them are drilling six wells that are now providing disease-free drinking water in the city of Lagos, Nigeria, a major reconstruction and refurbishment of an orphanage in Oruro, Bolivia, and the construction of a bocce ball court at Morgan Hill’s Senior Center last year. This year the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill purchased a delivery van from the Ford Store of Morgan Hill to donate to Martha’s Kitchen so that the organization could enhance its delivery of food to the churches that feed the poor in the community. Morgan Hill Rotarians have a sister club connections with the Rotary Club in Ameca, Mexico, partnering with its members on humanitarian projects as well as youth student exchange programs.
Most notably, the Rotary Club organization has worked on the project to eradicate the disease polio from humanity, a goal that the Morgan Hill club has participated in through donations.
“Each Rotary Club in the whole world has its own jurisdiction to do whatever it wants. We do have a commonality in the program to end polio, and we will,” Anderson said. “It’s going to take another four years and $5 billion. They’re forecasting for 2018 for polio to be wiped out. I’m confident it will happen.”
Rotary Club of Morgan Hill members stand in front of a Ford Store of Morgan Hill van the club donated to Martha’s Kitchen.
Photo courtesy of the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill
Anderson has visited other Rotary Clubs throughout the Bay Area as well as in Mexico, Spain, Argentina, England and Portugal. The Morgan Hill club has a special camaraderie, he said.
“I don’t sense there the feeling of solidarity, the feeling of family that we have here,” he said. “It’s stronger here than it is in most places.”
Much of this has to do with the humor that infuses the club members. The weekly Wednesday lunchtime meetings at the Community Center often have members poking gentle fun at each other.
“It’s a bonding element,” Anderson said. “We don’t mind being made fun of among our peers because we know we’re going to get even with that guy next time.”
Morgan Hill resident Roger Knopf joined the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill in 1976. He was member No. 27 at that time. He is No. 3 in terms of longevity for members. Member Doug Downer has been in the club longest in terms of longevity and Bob Foster comes in second. Knopf got his first glimpse of the Rotary when he was in the Future Farmers of America program at Los Gatos High School and the Los Gatos group invited him as a speaker.
“Our Rotary Club of 122 members is a great cross-section, or a microcosm of the community of Morgan Hill,” he said. “The community has 40 plus not-for-profit organizations that do lots of great community service and philanthropic work. Our emphasis is probably youth and then senior, and those who have less than others, both in the community and across the world.”
Club members are involved in local schools, providing scholarships, setting up speech contests, and getting students at Sobrato, Live Oak and Central high schools engaged with the Interact program, a service club modeled on Rotary, he said.
There is a social aspect of the club that keeps members working together on the various Rotary projects. Many of them meet at a no-host open house at people’s homes called Front-porch Friday.
“There’s that informal camaraderie association. You spend an hour, an hour and a half, two hours. You get a little closer, you get to know people a little better,” Knopf said.
Mario Banuelos is one of Rotary Club of Morgan Hill’s newest members, joining in December 2014. He had recently retired from the City of San Jose, and thought that joining the Rotary would allow him to work with others in a fun group serving other people.
“I knew a lot of people in Rotary and they were doing great things, so when they asked me to come and look at the programs and participate, I was really impressed,” he said. “I’ve had the philosophy that if you’re fortunate in life, give back to your community. They are just so involved in so many aspects of our community that really help a lot of people.”
At the 60th birthday part, Rotary member Laura Lundy described why she has been involved with the group, serving as club president two years ago.
“I’m proud of the club because of the feeling of community and what we’re giving back to the world,” she said. “It’s everything including our projects. We’re one of the groups of people that make things happen. And I like the friendships and the camaraderie that I’ve developed.”
The Rotary organization across the United States until 1988 did not allow women to join. That year, a Supreme Court decision opened the doors to females joining, which Lundy believes has enhanced the organization by getting it involved with more aspects of the community. The women members came up with the idea of holding a fashion show fundraiser called Dazzle, which will be held at the Clos LaChance Winery on May 29.
“Dazzle has become a major fundraiser. It came from a fundraiser fashion idea and now it has a comedy aspect to it and more fun, and I think it took a woman’s touch to make it happen,” Lundy said.
The Rotarian philosophy is to be inclusive of all people who might like to be involved in giving of their time to serve humanity, she said. The local club has a balance of leaders from many professions and personal backgrounds.
“It’s all age groups, it’s all ethnic backgrounds, it’s all religious backgrounds”, she said. “That’s one of the things I love about Rotary is that there are no boundaries as far as politics, religious or ethnicity. We don’t think about that. We see it as humanity and our work to help make the world better for everybody.”
