Bakersfield Life

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While Bakersfield is a community of giving people, but these four stand out as leaders of Rotary clubs around town. They raising awareness and raising funds to help a variety of causes locally and abroad.Tom BurchEast Rotary, 18 yearsRoger AllredSouth Rotary, 15 yearsMichael Rubiy,West Rotary, nearly 7 yearsDuane KeathleyDowntown Rotary, 10 yearsWhat would you tell someone interested in becoming a Rotarian?      Tom: Rotary is the oldest service club in the world, currently at about 1.2 millionRotarians worldwide. We have been known for years for our humanitarian and community service support. Rotary, along with the World Health Organization, has taken on the daunting task of eliminating polio from the face of the earth. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $500 million toward our effort, and Rotary has pledged to match it with $200 million of our own dollars ... I’m happy to report that we are more than halfway in reaching our goal!     Roger: Please come to one of our meetings so we can show you how 1.2 million Rotarians worldwide work to address illiteracy, disease, hunger, lack of clean water and to promote goodwill and peace.Michael: I would tell someone that is interested in becoming a Rotarian to go to several different clubs and get a feel for what projects and how involved the club is in community service. Every club is different and has varying degrees of commitment.     Duane: In my opinion, Rotary is the greatest service organization in the world. Last year, Rotary raised over $70 million for humanitarian and education programs around the world. The Downtown Club is 90 years old this year. There are seven clubs in Bakersfield alone, and 12 in the county. They each meet once a week, at different times during the day. Almost everyone should know a friend or have a contact who is in Rotary. Ask them to take you to a meeting.How is your club serving the community?     Tom: We do many community service projects, including providing 650 backpacks to three organizations — Bakersfield Homeless, CASA, and the East Bakersfield Kidz Club — for kids to start school with. In addition we support Noble Elementary School including clean-up days, and providing readers to listen to the children who are challenged readers. We work closely with the Boys & Girls Club, and provide many things such as computers and tech support. Recently, we provided the Young Marines with four computers and a laptop, which they will use in their training and scheduling. Plus we are providing money for scholarships to allow those who are invited to special camps but can’t afford the tuition to go.     Roger: The major focus of Bakersfield South Rotary is helping to improve the education of local students through college scholarships, textbooks and dictionaries for underprivileged schools, high school student seminars and training sessions, and support of organizations that provide a learning environment for abused children.     Michael: Our club has given out $70,000 so far this year. We do various things, like give underprivileged kids a $100 gift certificate to purchase clothing for back to school. We have done this for about six years. We also collect gifts at holiday time and give them to the needy. This year was Jameson Center and other various organizations. We provide fuel for the Gleaners to go to Laval Road — where there is a McDonald’s distribution center — and pick up bread that is in turn used in the Gleaners warehouse and Ronald McDonald House. We pick several Interact students and award them scholarships.      Duane: We have a number of programs in Bakersfield that have been in place for years. We have a Rolling Readers program, which has Rotarians reading to young children. We have our annual Leadership & Ethics Conference for our high school age students. Our Bridging Program places students in our Rotarians’ workplace for work experience. Advancement Via Individual Determination is a mentoring program for our high school students. We are involved with Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, which is a leadership and personal growth program for young adults and teenagers. And each year, we provide a number of scholarships to CSUB and BC students.What is your club’s next big event?     Tom: Our largest fundraiser of the year is coming up April 30 at the Bakersfield Museum of Art. We call it our Festa Di Pasta. This year our proceeds go to our foundation, the Grossman Burn Center at San Joaquin Hospital, and the Valley Fever Americas project. (Bakersfield East was the founder of the Valley Fever Americas project, seeking a vaccine against valley fever.)     Roger: We celebrated 47 years of service to the community at our Charter Night in February. We will also have a garage sale on April 3 to help fund our community projects.     Michael: Our next big fundraiser is Cioppino on March 6. For those that don’t know, it’s a highly seasoned fish stew that originated in San Francisco. This event is a blast to attend and the proceeds this year go to the Boys & Girls Club, Ronald McDonald House, H.E.A.R.T.S. Connection, and the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Memorial Hospital.     Duane: For our club locally, members Tracy Kiser and David Dobbs planned a wonderful evening at Imbibe for late February. Recently we sent members Jeff Johnson and David Plivelich to India as a part of Rotary’s End Polio Program.What’s your biggest goal for your club?     Tom: Early on I set a goal of achieving 30 community service projects for the Rotary year (July 1 to June 30). In just seven months, I’m happy to report we’ve just finished project No. 32!     Roger: Bakersfield South Rotary will leave a legacy of service to our community and, through Rotary International, the complete eradication of polio from the earth.     Michael: One of the biggest goals of mine for my year as president was to have a project, which we completed in January. Our club, along with several others, helped secure a matching grant from Rotary International, which in turn we were able to send money to Moradabad, India, that will in turn use the money for polio reconstruction. We also have another one for cataract surgery in the same location. That doesn’t mean that we’ve forgotten all the people that have a need. Remember that service begins at home.     Duane: Our club’s foundation is working on a major project in downtown Bakersfield, which we should be able to announce soon. Our last major project was the Houchin Blood Mobile.