Celebrating 15 Years of New Albany Rotary Club Past, present and future club presidents share the impact of Rotary club
By Helen Widman
Photo courtesy of New Albany Rotary Club
R
otary International is a servicebased organization that encourages members to partake in service projects and leadership roles throughout the community, both providing a social and businesslike aspect to the club. The Rotary Club of New Albany is a chapter of Rotary International. The Rotary Club of New Albany celebrated its 15th anniversary on April 5, 2021. According to the NA Rotary website, it took some time before the club began to gain traction within the community back in the day because many
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members were unsure of what a rotary club entailed. “Our purpose is to bring the community together to promote peace and to promote fellowship, to promote high ethical standards in business and in personal relationships,” Dawn Justen, president-elect, club service chair and youth exchange organizer says. According to Justen, some of the club’s most notable acts of service include raising funds for LifePump, which helps underserved communities around the world access clean water, the Dictionary Project, which gives dictionaries to all third-graders at New Albany Pri-
Cary Hager, left, Steve Cox, Michelle Davis and other District Rotarian at the New Albany Rotary service project event at Design Outreach.
mary School as well as the annual golf event the club hosts in July. Michelle Davis, former president and active club member, says that the Dictionary Project has been one of her favorite memories of the NA Rotary. In her first year as president, Davis spoke to an assembly of New Albany Primary School third-graders after distributing the dictionaries. “I got to tell them about Rotary, why we were giving them these books and just seeing, you know, the looks on their 25
