DE PERE – The Rotary Club of De Pere is celebrating its 100th anniversary. The Rotary Club, founded in 1906 by Paul Harris, is the oldest service organization globally, predating Kiwanis, Lions and Optimists.
Despite many challenges and changes, the club is proud of its anniversary.
The 100-year anniversary of the Rotary Club is a testament to the perseverance of the people who came before and have continued since, according to Dave Stellpflug, a member of the club.
The biggest thing they are proud of is that the club has made it through thick and thin, good times and bad, from all the world wars and the different challenges that have come to light in the last 100 years.
“We’re in a world now where it’s more and more difficult to get people to join things, to join churches, to join civic organizations, whatever it might be, and we’ve overcome that challenge and sustained that through 100 years,” said Stellpflug.
The challenges this club experiences are growing membership.
Stellpflug alludes to a book named Bowling Alone, which talks about the lower participation in bowling leagues nowadays.
There are still as many people bowling, but they are bowling alone because they’re not joining clubs or groups.
Stellpflug compares the book to how the community is now, and says it’s difficult to recruit people.
He’s not saying it for money or by actually recruiting people, but by having people celebrate the 100 years of existence.
“We could do so much more if we had more members. If you have a club of 20 members, which is what we have right now, you can’t do as much as if you have a club of 45 members,” Stellpflug starts. “I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to 45, but the biggest challenge goes back to that Bowling Alone concept, just getting people engaged in promoting the work that we’re trying to do.”
The reason that they called it Rotary was that they originally rotated the meetings among the different members of the club.
Providing service to the community is the club’s main priority, their slogan, according to Stellpflug, being “service above self.”
The club is there to serve others and to meet the needs of the community.
The club has been doing Outstanding Student Awards since 1950, and has had a scholarship program since 1968. They have awarded 261 scholarships totaling $287,000 since then.
“Currently, we are awarding $9,500 a year,” Stellpflug said. “We do three scholarships of $2,500 to students who are from De Pere to the 54115 zip code, $2,500 scholarships to three students attending a four-year college, and two $1,000 scholarships annually to students who are attending a two-year program.”
The Rotary Club has also presented an award called Roses for the Living, named after a brief poem written by one of their members, since 1951.
The award recognizes a community member for their outstanding service.
The Rotary International also has the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, a week-long leadership development camp held at Camp Manitou Wish, a sponsor of the club.
“Some of the other things that we’ve done over the course of the club were that we were quite involved in the Redbird stadium entrance and concession stand project, both in terms of funding and expertise,” Stellpflug said. “Rotary on the international level gets involved in one of our club initiatives. Actually, our club is now joining in with Rotary International to support team mental health issues.”
The Rotary Club has been working with school mental health professionals and the Department of Health, trying to figure out ways that we can help deal with the mental health crisis among teenagers.
Some of the club’s regular activities include working at the deeper Christian outreach every month for the intake of their donations annually, as well as decorating the NEW Community Shelter entrance for Christmas.
One of the biggest changes in the Rotary Club was in 1989 when the once all-male organization opened membership to women.
“I don’t know where our club would be without our women members, but that’s where we had our first woman president in 1989,” Stellpflug said. “Now our current club president is a woman, our incoming club president will be a woman and they’ve certainly taken a prominent role in our club since 1959.”
From scholarships and stadium projects to new efforts around youth mental health, the Rotary Club’s goal will be the same idea that carried them through the first: Showing up for their community, together.
Pass It Forward™ editorial is sponsored by Packers Give Back, Nicolet National Bank and the National Trust for Local News.
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