Why I Am a Rotarian

Rotary can be described in just three words, “service above self,”

The motto speaks volumes about the mission of the 1.2 million-member international service organization. Rotary bills itself as “neighbors, community leaders, and global citizens uniting for the common good.” In fiscal 2012-2013, it spent $176.5 million on PolioPlus, its historic campaign to eradicate polio worldwide, and other programs that brought clean water, medical care, and economic opportunities to millions of disadvantaged people around the world.

But, what does this mean for Pleasanton? Why do about 160 local residents come together each week for a lunch or dinner meeting as members of one of the city’s three Rotary club chapters: Rotary Club of Pleasanton (also called the Downtown Club), Pleasanton North Rotary (PNR), and Tri-Valley Evening Rotary?

Helping Students Succeed

For Kevin Greenlee, PNR adds substance to the realization of his dream for early retirement. The 56-year-old, former McKesson Healthcare executive now serves as PNR’s youth services coordinator for various programs including Pleasanton Foothill High School’s Interact program. The club, which encourages students to participate in community outreach projects, has tripled in size with Greenlee’s help. Incentives for participation include an opportunity to win a scholarship to Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA) camp, an intensive leadership training program. PNR has award 30 RYLA scholarships allow winners to attend the five-day camp since Greenlee joined the club in 2010.

Greenlee has also helped establish a new Interact chapter at Pleasanton Middle School, coordinated local competition for Rotary’s annual high school speech contest, Foothill High Student of the Month and annual memorial scholarship programs, and international Rotary youth exchanges between Pleasanton and communities in Germany, Spain, and Japan.

A long-distance runner, Greenlee finds additional exhilaration through Rotary. “Because of Rotary, I’m making the world a better place.”

Raising Funds for Worthy Causes

Bob Shapiro, a retired sales and marketing executive who was recently appointed co-chair of ValleyCare Foundation, joined the Downtown Club in 1986 to give him a way to help raise money for charitable causes.

“It is a wonderful organization in that Rotarians have a common cause and beliefs,” he said.

The whole Rotary experience has been greater than the sum of the parts for Shapiro. It has broadened his understanding of the world and people in general.

“It just makes me a heck of a lot better as an individual,” he said. “It is amazing to see everything the 100 people in our club have done.”

The Downtown Club’s annual Father’s Day Spirit Run has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for academic scholarships for graduating seniors at Pleasanton’s Amador High School. It is a long-time supporter of the Pleasanton/Tulancingo (Mexico) Sister City Project and is the source of financial and hands-on support for the construction of a bicycle pathway under the Pleasanton’s Tulancingo Bridge, a holiday dinner for local seniors, bleacher construction at Ken Mercer Sports Park, tree plantings at Pleasanton public schools, and Rotapolast International, which flies surgeons to sites in the developing world to perform corrective surgery on children with facial deformities caused by cleft lips and palates

Changing Lives with Wheelchairs

Bob Silva, a civil engineer and former Pleasanton park and recreation commissioner, joined Rotary because his father was a long-time Rotary member in Los Banos. His commitment to Rotary strengthened from its close association with the Wheelchair Foundation, an organization founded by real estate developer Kenneth E. Behring to build and distribute durable wheelchairs to disabled people in developing countries around the world.

Pleasanton’s Rotary clubs have been involved with wheelchair distributions since 2003. In collaboration with Rotary clubs in host countries, they have provided a source of mobility to more than 10,000 disadvantaged people in more than 20 countries primarily in Latin America.

A trip to a high-mountain community in the Peruvian Andes was especially poignant for Silva. It was obvious that each chair presented during ceremonies would forever alter the life of its recipient.

“It was amazing to see the look of gratitude on the face of a woman as she was placed in a wheelchair after being carried up the street and into the room by her husband,” he said.

Performing Services in a Consistent Way

Licia Morrow, a member of Tri-Valley Evening Rotary, was attracted to Rotary for its consistency. “I am committed to always having service in my life, and Rotary allows me to do that in a consistent way,” she said.

Morrow also enjoys the social aspects of Rotary. “We are the smallest club (in Pleasanton), but we have the biggest heart,” she said.

Rotary has also helped Morrow during her career transition. Her fellow members have helped her identify job opportunities while management projects for the club have helped sharpen her professional skills.

Service the Community He Loves

For commercial real estate developer Brad Hirst, membership in Rotary of Pleasanton fulfills his belief that everybody has a responsibility to help improve their community and his desire to associate with independent business leaders and senior managers capable of positively affecting change.

“Personally, it has given me the satisfaction of working on community projects that I wanted to work on,” he said. “Professionally, it is really important to realize that while Rotary is a networking organization and has those capabilities, you should not join Rotary to improve your business. You’re giving, not taking. That’s the benefit you get.”

Enjoying the Commaradarie

Dominic Pipitone has had a similar experience with PNR. He joined the club in 2000 to find new customers for Complete Business Systems, his office equipment sales and service company, but he remained a active member and would serve a year as its president because of the club’s personal impact.

“It is an extension of my family. When I’ve had different things happen in my life, it has always been reassuring to share it with the club,” he said. “Rotary contributes greatly to the small town feel of Pleasanton. I can’t go downtown or go to an event in the city without seeing someone I know through Rotary.”

Pipitone especially enjoys the hands-on experience of work projects, such helping build houses for Habitat for Humanity or home maintenance projects for REACH, a non-profit organization that owns about a dozen houses that facilitate independent living for developmentally disabled adults.

One of Pipitone’s favorite projects involved volunteers from PNR and other Rotary clubs that assembled a prefabricated gazebo at a City of Livermore public park.

“It was a case of too many chiefs and not enough Indians,” Pipitone remembers. “It took longer to figure out how to erect the kit than for actual assembly, but the whole experience was fulfilling and fun.”

Reaching Out to a Lonely Child

For Christina (Tina) Case, the human disaster of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 convinced her that community services should become part of the new life she was building for herself after divorce. Case could not afford take time off from her job as a real estate transaction coordinator to join the relief effort in New Orleans, so at the urging of a friend, she joined PNR to act both locally and globally on her desire to lend a hand. The social camaraderie she found through Rotary was a bonus.

“I came to a meeting, and it was like coming home,” Case said. “It was family. It was comfortable. Between being newly single and needing people to hold on to and how they give back to the community, it filled an important place in my life.”

Case would go on to also become an important person for 85 orphans at El Oasis, an orphanage that was the focus of Christmas holiday giving for PNR for many years. PNR members would visit its remote facilities about 180 miles east of Ensenada, Mexico, during December to distribute clothes and Christmas gifts to the children and perform a hands-on project, such as installing a computer laboratory or painting a group home on the property.

In 2011, Case distinguished herself by distributing colorful scarves she had sown herself for the children. Still, because of language barriers, Case felt she had not made personal connection until 2012 when a young boy named Christian expressed what she meant to him.

“Somehow, he made a connection between his name and my name because he came running up to me after school. He put his hands to my face saying, ‘Christina! Christina!’ I think he was just amazed to see that someone from far away would return to him.”

Such memories are indelible. “I really love Rotary,” Case said.

You are encouraged to attend a meeting of any one of Pleasanton’s three Rotary Clubs to explore possible membership. Meeting times and locations are as follows: Rotary Club of Pleasanton. Thursdays at 12:15 p.m. Hap’s Original Steaks and Seafood, 122 W. Neal St., Pleasanton. Rotary of Pleasanton North. Fridays at 12:15 p.m. Handles Gastropub, 855 Main St., Pleasanton. Tri-Valley Evening Rotary Club. Thursdays at 6 p.m. Castlewood Country Club, 707 Country Club Circle, Pleasanton.

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