The Marietta Metro Rotary Club located in Rotary District 6900, in Marietta, Georgia, reaches out in service and fellowship to serve a world of people ranging from the local community to the international sector. Our organization exists to serve and make a difference in the lives of others. Individually, members realize an immeasurable sense of fulfillment which stems from the motto "He profits most who serves best."
The Rotary Club of Marietta Metro was chartered on May 18, 1978. Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Marietta, under the guidance of Sidney Clotfelter and Henry Hill, the club consisted of 39 members, several of whom remain active. Fred Aiken was chosen as the club's first president.
The Rotary world in the years since 1978 has witnessed significant changes, including the PolioPlus program; the admission of women into Rotary; the advent of the Internet and widespread use of electronic communication; the expansion of Rotary into the countries of the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, and the Asia/Pacific region; HIV/AIDS education and prevention programs; an emphasis on literacy; projects and programs to improve the environment; and the Rotary Peace Programs.
Since its inception, the Rotary Club of Marietta Metro has been a microcosm of both our community and the Rotary world. Locally, the intervening years have brought about rapid growth of both Marietta and Cobb County, the addition of five new Rotary clubs in the county, formation of the Cobb Rotary Council to facilitate communication among the seven Cobb County clubs, and new emphases to address the needs of our changing community.
Over the years, our club has met in several different locations, including four restaurants, the Dobbins Air Force Base Officers' Club and the Naval Air Station. The club now meets on Mondays at noon in the Marietta Conference Center. Membership has expanded to its current total of more than 74.
Our weekly publication, the Metroliner, has been with us
since the club's founding. Charter member and former Delta pilot Bill
Callaway "borrowed" the name from United Airlines Metroliner flights.
The publication has earned several "Best Bulletin" awards at District
6900 Conferences. The bulletin keeps us up to date on activities of the
club, District 6900, and Rotary International. In recent years we have
added the E-Metroliner, an expanded electronic edition of the Metroliner (5 to 7 pages), distributed to all members and "Friends of Rotary" with e-mail addresses.
Our club website, http://www.mariettametrorotary.org , with links to District 6900 and Rotary International websites, keeps members up to date on current and future Rotary events, membership rosters, committee assignments, weekly meeting duties, and club historical information.
District awards have been plentiful through the years to our active and dynamic club. In addition to the "Best Club", Best Website, Governor's Citation and "Best Bulletin" awards, we have earned recognition in nearly every avenue of service. We also have consistently earned the coveted Presidential Citation from Rotary International.
Leadership of the club has been outstanding. Our presidents have served with capable and dynamic presence at the podium, guiding us with the help of competent directors and committee chairs through exciting and successful club, community, vocational, international and youth service projects. As such, they have been instrumental in our prominence as a leading club in the district.
Fundraising projects through the years have included softball tournaments, barbecues, bed races, used book sales, wine tastings, children fun fairs and golf/tennis tournaments. Through these efforts, the club has been able to contribute more than $250,000 to Tranquility, the WellStar hospice center. As well, we have contributed to numerous local, national and international charitable causes.
The club continues to participate in many worthwhile community
projects. We have held blood drives for the American Red Cross;
collected sports and duffel bags for the Department of Family and Child
Services; supported Cobb Christmas with donations for needy families;
judged Boy Scout Jamborees; assisted at the Georgia Special Olympics;
played in the Tommy Nobis Golf Tournament (to benefit the vocational
rehabilitation center for disabled adults); collected goods and funds to
assist with hurricane and flood relief; helped build Habitat homes; and
contributed our pocket change once a month to the Coins for Alzheimers
Research Trust. In addition, we donate toys to the annual Toys for Tots
program and Cobb Christmas, support MUST Ministries, Calvary Children's
Home, the Center for Children and Young Adults, Good Samaritan Center,
and participate in various other endeavors within the community.
"Go Red for Women" has become a signature event each year to raise
awareness in our club and community about women's heart health.
In 2001-2002 we received a Community Assistance Program (CAP) grant
from The Rotary Foundation to provide carpeting to a first grade class
at Park Street Elementary School. In 2002-2003 we received a second CAP
grant to provide recreational equipment to the George Hartman Center for
at-risk youth.
As part of our Preserve Planet Earth effort, the club has
participated in a clean-up of Lake Allatoona, clearing litter from a
designated section of Roswell Street on a quarterly basis as part of
Marietta's "Love the Loop" program, undertaking stream clean-up
projects, and assisting every year in the "Bring One for the Chipper"
Christmas tree recycling program. In past years, we also have taken part
in the city's spring and fall recycling collection.
AIDS awareness/education programs have become an important part of both our community service and youth service efforts. In conjunction with AIDS Atlanta, our club sponsors such programs each year in several Cobb County high schools.
Club Service directors and chairs have worked tirelessly behind the scenes to provide the kinds of solid internal support functions that are crucial to an active and growing club.
Among their many initiatives has been creating a new tradition of
donating a book to a student at Park Street Elementary School in honor
of guest speakers at our meetings. Toward that end, the club purchased a
large number of books authored by Lynne Cheney, wife of Past Vice
President Richard Cheney. Entitled "An American Primer," each book
contains a specially designed bookplate signed by the author. More
recently the club has purchased dictionaries to be signed by the guest
speaker each week, which then is given to a student at the school.
By way of Vocational Service, the club presents an award to an
exemplary employee of the Tommy Nobis Center each quarter. Each year we
also recognize outstanding Marietta police officers and firefighters.
Our key employees are honored at an annual Employer/Employee luncheon
and club members participate in vocational days at Marietta High School.
Our literacy endeavors have included not only the books for students at Park Street Elementary School, but also shipments of books to schools in Africa. Our Centennial Community project in Rotary year 2004-2005 involved donating more than 600 audio books to Park Street Elementary School. Members of our club, along with our Interactors and other community groups, read books from the school's library onto audio tapes, which then were presented to the school. More recently, members of our club have participated in an after-school tutoring program at A.L. Burruss Elementary School.
The club's participation in
International Service projects has markedly increased through the years.
Working with the Rotary Club of Coban, Guatemala and several other
partner clubs, we were able provide a handicap-accessible van to EDECRI,
a school for disabled children in Coban. We also undertook a
cooperative effort, along with partner clubs in the U.K. and South
Africa, to build and furnish Makaphutu Village, a home for AIDS orphans
in Bothas Hill, South Africa. Currently, we are working with our
Makaphutu partner clubs to establish smaller care centers for AIDS
orphans in tribal villages surrounding Bothas Hill.
Along with the Rotary Club of Quito
Occidente, we completed a project in Quito, Ecuador to assist indigent
residents of that city to grow fruits and vegetables for their own
sustenance, utilizing vacant city lots. We also have formed a "Sister
Club" relationship with the Quito Occidente club, not only for the
purpose of joint cooperation on service projects, but also to enhance
our communication, exchange Rotary-related information, and strengthen
the bonds of friendship between the two clubs.
In partnership with our newest
Sister Club, the Rotary Club of Izmir Dokuz Eylul in Turkey, we have
helped to establish a music education program for low income students to
help productively occupy their time after school, on weekends, and in
the summer. In addition, we have helped to fund a water well drilled in
Luanshya, Zambia so the residents of that community can have access to
clean, fresh water.
Other projects have included a large
water harvesting effort in 47 villages in northern Thailand; providing
medical/dental equipment and supplies to a rural hospital in Tonga;
establishing "Kidz Clubs", an after-school mentoring-tutoring program
for at-risk children in Nigeria; providing an ambulance and mobile
surgical unit to a mission hospital in Zambia; and sponsoring a large
medical mission to Kenya, through which 10,000 children in the slums of
Mathare and Mukuru received medical, dental and/or optical care.
On behalf of our International
Service efforts, we have received Carl P. Miller Discovery Grants to
send small teams of our members to Coban, Guatemala, and Quito, Ecuador.
As well, we have received several Matching Grants from The Rotary
Foundation.
Our International Service endeavors
also have included hosting several Group Study Exchange teams and
sponsoring an outbound GSE team member. In addition, we have sponsored
one inbound and three outbound Ambassadorial Scholars.
Club members are generous donors to The Rotary Foundation. Most are Paul Harris Fellows, several are multiple Paul Harris Fellows, others are Foundation Benefactors and Bequest Society members, and one is a Foundation Major Donor. Nearly 100% of our members are Paul Harris sustaining members. In 2004-2005 the club completed our pledge of more than $18,000 to the Polio Eradication Fundraising Campaign.
In Rotary year 2006-2007, New Generations officially became the Fifth Avenue of Service. This avenue of service recognizes the positive change implemented by youth and young adults through leadership development activities, involvement in community and international service projects, and exchange programs that enrich and foster world peace and cultural understanding.
Long before that, however, our club was heavily involved in service to the youth, as evidenced by both our community service and international service projects.
In addition, our club sponsors three
very active Interact clubs: one each at Pope, Lassiter, and Marietta
High Schools. We also provide RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards)
scholarships to selected high school students to enable them to
participate in leadership training, recognize a Student of the Month
from each school, and award a college scholarship to a student from each
school.
Our participation in the Georgia
Rotary Student Program (GRSP) began in the club's second year by sharing
a student with another club. A few years later, we were able to fund a
scholarship for one student without the assistance of another club. We
have hosted a student nearly every year since then.
The club also has supported the GRSP Endowment with proceeds from our wine tastings, weekly raffles and personal contributions, along with meeting a five-year $16,500 pledge. In 2002-2003 we completed an additional three-year pledge to the Endowment of more than $26,000. Several of our members have become Will Watt and Hue Thomas Fellows.
The Marietta Metro Rotary Club located in
Rotary District 6900, in Marietta, Georgia, reaches out in service and
fellowship to serve a world of people ranging from the local community
to the international sector. Our organization exists to serve and make a
difference in the lives of others. Individually, members realize an
immeasurable sense of fulfillment which stems from the motto "He profits
most who serves best."