March 26, 2008

The Deposit Rotary Club is always busy preparing for its next community project. At our lunch meeting on March 5, Nancy Zacharias took charge in the absence of our president, Harry Dilello, who is currently visiting his son in Costa Rica. During the meeting, Nancy smoothly orchestrated the discussion, allowing us to begin organizing some of our upcoming events.

First of all, Rotarian Tina Strong is busy preparing for the annual Easter Egg Hunt. This year, the hunt will be held on March 22 at Fireman's Park. Rotary members have already begun donating plastic eggs and candies with which to fill them. The Easter Egg Hunt looks to be another fun event for local kids and their families. I will be sure to bring you more information soon and remind you of the event!

We also began planning for our annual activities at the Lumberjack Festival this summer. As many of you know, Rotary is one of the most active groups during the annual festival, providing the big tent that serves as the principal focal point and main meeting place for festival patrons on the field through the entire weekend. Whether folks are buying beer, clams, or shrimp from us, or those legendary barbecue beef sandwiches offered by the Order of the Eastern Star, or beer from the VFW, both of whom share our tent, just about everyone finds their way into the Rotary Tent to relax, eat, chat, or meet up with long-lost friends. In fact, most DCS classes that have planned their reunions during the Lumberjack Festival all meet up in the tent.

The Lumberjack Festival is crucial to the economy of our community, benefiting local businesses and especially all our local nonprofit organizations, which rely on the festival to provide them a solid base for significant fundraising efforts. Rotary is no exception as the monies we raise during the festival from our tent and, of course, our famous duck race in Oquaga Creek are vitally important to sustaining our absolutely innumerable service projects that we conduct throughout the year. In case you have missed all of my previous columns, the Deposit Rotary Club is responsible for the international youth exchange program, raising and donating literally thousands of dollars to the Food Pantry, distributing free hardcover dictionaries to every DCS fourth grader, sending high school juniors to the incredible RYLA conference every year, and trick-or-treating for UNICEF, all the while supporting Rotary International's global charitable endeavors, and giving to countless groups in countless ways right here in our own hometown. I have neglected some other really huge benevolent work our club does, but I would need the space of an entire issue of the Courier to just name them all. To find out even more, check out the Rotary Blog at depositrotary.blogspot.com to read my past columns which discuss some of Rotary's doings just since I proudly became a member in September. I am humbled and inspired by simply being one part of this amazing organization and I encourage everyone to stop by one of our meetings for lunch or, better yet, to join us by becoming a Rotarian.