Rotary Club of 100 Mile House president Linda Jefferson says the club’s planning was delayed, but not forgotten under the absences and shortages during the wildfires this summer.
“Our goal is definitely to increase membership, but also to increase awareness of what Rotary does — and that will increase membership, because Rotary is an amazing group.
“[We] just want to enhance the town, and that’s my goal, whatever ways that we have to do it. We’d love to have new members, and if people want to help the community, or have great ideas, or whatever, membership is really, really important. We just want to help the community.”
Jefferson strongly wishes to see as many local improvements as her group can accomplish, including partnering with local governments to both find and fund these extras and features of benefit to the community, whether they be larger or smaller items, she explains.
One of Rotary club’s larger-scale project goals for some time now, building a pavilion/covered stage in the park for community use for events, is on the list of projects to discuss with the district, but unlikely to happen soon, she explains.
The new president says the membership barely got one general meeting in before they were “gone” when 100 Mile House was evacuated, along with many other member’s communities over the next two months of rampant wildfires all across the region.
“It’s still on our books, but it’s really expensive so I think we are just going to put that [on a back burner] … the wildfires definitely put a crimp in everything.
“I took over as president on July 1, and we were all evacuated [a few days later]. So we are actually just getting started … It set us back for months [in] our goals and fundraising.”
The Rotary Club is no longer strictly a business organization, but welcomes everyone of good standing with good intentions, she adds.
Today’s Rotary members do not need to own a business or to be a professional, she says. Rotary members include stay-at-home spouses and parents, and individuals who just want to help out their community with a good heart to do good things.
Jefferson stepped into the role midway through the year, from her president elect position with the local Rotary during the previous year (elections are normally done in early winter, and will be again at this year’s AGM in November, she explains.
“I wanted to join a [local] service group that had good values, that was worldwide … after all the years having children, I just wanted to start volunteering and helping out the community.”
Jefferson says while she never had any former desire to be president, she instead agreed to take on the role of secretary shortly after joining the club in August 2016.
When the club was looking for a member candidate to attend a president-elect, four-day training program in Seattle, Jefferson agreed to attend if the board accepted her going just to learn more about fundraising and service clubs, to which it promptly agreed with.
Once she met all the Cariboo-based Rotary club members and other representatives, she felt so engaged with them it encouraged her that this role was such a great fit, Jefferson explains.
“We all started chatting and having these meetings with our district area, the overall vibes, the people, the projects they were doing, I was just overwhelmed and thought … ‘this is the club for me, and this is what I want to do – and we really need a leader’ [as] we didn’t have a president-elect or a vice-president at that moment.”
By day two of the training, she’d said she was so engaged, she told everyone involved she would like to stand as president elect, Jefferson adds.
“It was so breathtaking, I was amazed … so I became the president elect [under a regular general meeting] membership vote.”
While Wolfgang Paasche was still the local club president at the time, someone would be needed to fulfill that role in July 2017, when he was due to step down, she adds.
This November, her club will decide if she will continue as president, or if another president elect is needed to take over on July 1, 2018. Meanwhile, she is more than happy to carry on with it for at least another term, Jefferson adds.
“It’s very rewarding to be able to help other service groups, or to help kids to play sports, or see changes in the community.”
Meanwhile, Jefferson and her executive and member volunteers are working with the district to plan what is important to the community.
“We always do our Senior’s Christmas Dinner, which is free, and we always will continue to do that.”
Watch for the dates to be announced for the senior’s dinner in December at the 100 Mile Community Hall.
For more information on membership, volunteering or fundraising with the Rotary Club of 100 Mile House, call Linda at 250-706-9662.
Folks are also welcome to attend a Rotary meeting as a guest, when members meet at the Red Rock Grill, twice every month, on the first Thursday at 7:30 a.m. and the third Thursday at 6 p.m., which she notes allows its members options for which they can attend.