Empowered families strengthen Rotary image - Week of January 7, 2008

Empowered families strengthen Rotary image – Celebrate the family!
By Maureen Vaught
Rotary International News - 10 December 2007

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Note: This club has/had only 10 members! If a club of this size can make a difference, then so can we! Share Rotary!

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After 75 years, the Rotary Club of Garrettsville-Hiram faced a declining membership and dwindling enthusiasm. But by celebrating family, the club’s 10 members not only strengthened their club, they also helped their community.

Empower the Family Service Project. The Empower the Family service project, now in its fifth year, supports activities that engage and honor families while enhancing Rotary’s image. Its centerpiece is the annual Family Week Celebration, which includes a music festival, carnival, and school-sponsored art, essay, and speech contests. In addition, residents of this small Ohio, USA, town are encouraged to Put Family First one evening and spend time exclusively with their families.

According to club member Amy Crawford, the project has succeeded on many levels:

-- “We have more community involvement with the club.
-- We’ve brought people from surrounding areas together.
-- And we’ve attracted newer, younger members with children of their own to the club.”

Community involvement. It’s also cultivated working relationships between club members and community leaders. Local businesses, churches, governments, libraries, and schools collaborate with the club to sponsor activities throughout the week.

World Peace Parents. Convinced of the project’s global appeal to families and Rotarians alike, Vibert Kesler, chair of the first Family Week Celebration and a former member of the Garrettsville-Hiram club, created World Peace Parents in 2003. This nonprofit organization helps Rotary clubs worldwide carry out similar events in their communities.

To date, clubs in Minnesota and Pennsylvania, USA, have organized family celebrations. And the Rotary clubs of Bombay Bandra, Maharashtra, India, and Muyenga and Port-Bell, Uganda, are working with World Peace Parents to adapt the concept to their cultures.

“This program works especially well for smaller communities and smaller clubs,” Kesler says. “It can really rejuvenate your club.”

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