Rotary is a worldwide organization of more than 1.2 million business, professional, and community leaders. Members of Rotary clubs, known as Rotarians, provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world.
There are over 32,000 Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas. Clubs are nonpolitical, nonreligious, and open to all cultures, races, and creeds. As signified by the motto Service Above Self, Rotary’s main objective is service — in the community, in the workplace, and throughout the world.
THE FOUR WAY TEST of things we think, say or do.
1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned.
THERMAL BELT ROTARY CLUB HISTORY….2/20/1989…2008
North Carolina’s first Rotary Club was formed in Raleigh on August 1, 1914; becoming the 124th club in the World. Now there are more that 13,000 Rotarians in North Carolina. Thermal Belt Rotary Club was chartered on February 20, 1989. It is part of Rotary District 7670. Mr. Ed Britton was the first Charter Member President of the Thermal Belt Rotary Club.
The Thermal Belt Rotary Club was named after the “thermal belt” or temperature inversion, which occurs in many locations in Western North Carolina. This describes cool nights and lovely warm days in Polk County North Carolina.
The Club met initially at the Western Steer Restaurant in Columbus NC. Meetings now are at the Chamber of Commerce Building in Lynn, NC. Meetings begin at 6pm each Monday evening. Thermal Belt Rotary in one of very few Rotary Clubs that does NOT include a meal with the meeting. A social hour begins at 5:15pm and includes sumptuous hors d’oeuvres provided by a designated Rotarian.
In the early years of the Club many projects involved youth activities in Polk County. A noteworthy project was construction in 1997 of a playground at Harmon Field. Outreach Ministries, Youth league baseball and football, Steps to Hope, Boy and Girl Scouts , Big Brothers and Sister Association and Special Olympics are just a few of the many other activities that Thermal Belt Rotary supports.
In 2005 the Club organized and worked with the Tryon Rotary Club to create The Rotary Clock Tower Plaza in downtown Tryon. In 2007 the Club donated funds to purchase a scoreboard for Harmon Field ball diamonds.
Fundraisers to generate money to sponsor these endeavors have included: Thermal Belt Rotary Giant Potato Bake, Annual Golf Tournaments, Valentines Day Dance, Holiday Peanut Sales and The Fabulous Fourth Bike Tour. Everyone in this rotary club gets involved and rolls up their sleeves to help out.
Thermal Belt Rotary sponsors the Interact Club at Landrum High School in Landrum, SC. (7 miles away). Two academic scholarships are awarded each year to these high school students. Two students are chosen to represent the club at the Rotary Youth Leadership Award Camp.
These accomplishments were only within the “small” confines of their own community!
The Thermal Belt Rotary Club was the lead Club (with assistance from Clubs in France and Canada) in a project to provide drinking water to an improverished village in Guatemala. Just recently the Club funded a project in the Dominican Republic to help mothers of new-born babies to better care for their infants. The Club also participates in the Polio Plus campaign and the Wheelchair Foundation projects.
The Thermal Belt Rotary Club annually recognizes a Rotarian of the Year and a member who is given a Paul Harris Fellow in recognition of club service. Presidential Awards are given to those individuals who made a major contribution in the Four Avenues of Service.
The accomplishments just continue to grow each year with each Rotarian giving Service Above Self.
The Thermal Belt Rotary Club in action……………
“There is nothing intangible about Rotary: It is reality itself. To give is to receive; to lose oneself is to find oneself; to be happy is to serve. These are old truths…for the individual and the mass, whether application be in the exchange of goods, toil, knowledge, or love.” Crawford C. McCullough, THE ROTARIAN, November 1921.
Steve Rosenberg
