Disbanding after 26 years
A formal farewell dinner will be held
After 26 years of giving back to the community, the Springville Sierra Sunrise Rotary Club is disbanding.
The club recently informed Rotary District Governor Art Gaffrey of their intention to terminate their Rotary International Charter and end all club activities as of June 30, citing an aging membership and lack of new members.
The Springville club officially began on January 16, 1992 when charter President Dr. Frank Baughmann accepted the Rotary International Charter from District 5230 Governor Richard Neil at a black tie event at River Island Country Club.
Among the 31 members who received Rotary pins at the event were several doctors, a minister, a city manager, a police captain, a county supervisor and other civic leaders.
The club was sponsored by the Porterville Noon Rotary Club, which had grown to over 100 members at the time, to accommodate attendance. Noon club member Art Cardell organized and created the Sierra Sunrise Rotary, and is credited with securing its International Charter.
The club has met Wednesday mornings at River Island Country Club since it began.
In its 26 years, the club supported numerous community and civic projects with volunteer work and fundraising activities. They raised money for local schools, community projects and needy families.
Fundraising activities over the years included motorcycle raffles, golf ball drops at River Island, and what became known as the “Great Duck Race”— where rubber ducks were purchased, numbered and floated down the Tule River, with the holder of the winning duck’s number receiving a variety of prizes.
They were also very active in Rotary International activities like its foreign student exchange program and group study exchange program. Two of the club’s members qualified to lead study groups to Australia and Japan.
The club's most ambitious International project was “The Light for Children School,” a project that began in 2008 and would take years to complete. It would come to be known as the club's signature project.
The project began when a group of Rotarians from the Springville and Fresno Rotary clubs traveled to a small village near Kigali, Rwanda to repair an ailing bridge too dangerous for students to cross to get to school.
After repairing the bridge, the group found the local school was also in poor shape, with no water, plumbing or electricity. The Springville club purchased a one-acre parcel with a dwelling for $5,000 and raised funds to remodel it under Baughmann's supervision.
The new school provided 140 students with a place to learn equipped with modern plumbing and electricity, and a security fence was later added with a $20,000 matching grant from the Rotary Foundation.
The Sierra Sunrise Rotary Club has supported the Porterville High School Interact Club and Camp Royal and provided financial backing to local schools, including scholarships to high school and junior college graduates.
They have recognized a Springville School student of the month, provided a yearly meal for the PHS football team, purchased and installed the Springville Park Rotary Clock and provided gifts to needy families at Christmas.
In recognition of its accomplishments, the club was honored several years ago by Rotary International with the coveted Distinguished Club Award for being in the top one percent of over 130,000 clubs worldwide.
Some club members will end their Rotary careers after as much as 45 years of service, while others will migrate to other Rotary clubs to continue serving the community.
A formal farewell dinner will be held Tuesday, May 29 at 6:00 p.m. at River Island Country Club for Rotary members past and present. For more information on the event, call Sally Mailand at (559) 7892809 or (559) 784-9089.