Kiwanians Jean and Roger Bajorek with collected supplies
Over 115 years ago, Rotary International formed the world’s first service club in Chicago. Today, millions of people worldwide belong to service clubs like Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions, and Optimists. People join local service clubs for various reasons, whether for business networking, making friends, fellowship, or learning about their community through thoughtful speakers. Still, surveys have shown that giving back to the community is the primary reason most people join a service club.
For the second year, the Rochester and Rochester Hills Kiwanis Clubs, the Rochester Rotary, and the Rochester Hills Lions jointly sponsored a community-wide service project. Each organization focuses on slightly different tasks; however, community service is the common factor.
In 2021, the international parents of these organizations encouraged local clubs to collaborate to demonstrate this commitment to community service. The Kiwanians, Rotarians, and Lions gathered school supplies for foster children this year. President of the Rochester Kiwanis Club Chuck Bissell said, “We are overwhelmed with the community response to this project!” The club took a van full of school supplies to Samaritas, which serves the Detroit metro area.
“Foster children experience great stress being separated from their birth families and friends, for whatever reason,” said David Meyers, President of the Rochester Hills Lions Club. “A new backpack, crayons, pencils, pens, rulers, and notebooks mean a lot to these students.”
The combined service clubs collected 80 backpacks, 300 pens, 218 packages of pencils, 148 filled pencil pouches, 110 glue sticks, 53 packages of highlighters, 84 spiral notebooks, 70 boxes of crayons, 48 packets of lined looseleaf paper, erasers, scissors, protractors, paper punches, report folders, rulers, index cards, construction paper, and looseleaf dividers.
“Through this project, we harnessed the power of these service organizations and local businesses, all of whom share a passion for taking action and creating lasting change,” said Rotary President Kyle Johnson. Eugenia’s 3rd Street Hair Gallery was again highly generous in allowing the public to drop off items. “We were happy to support this community project,” said Kris Liebzeit, owner of Eugenia’s.
Individuals interested in joining one of these service clubs can get more information on membership on each club’s website; www.facebook.com/KiwanisClubOfRochester; https://e-clubhouse.org/sites/rochesterhills/; or www.rochesterrotaryclub.org.