One of Blytheville’s hidden gems is the work of the Rotary Club of Blytheville.
Saturday’s Bingo Night just reinforced why I am proud to be a Rotarian.
Around 150 participated in the fundraiser, which helps our civic club provide five $1,000 scholarships to local seniors each year.
Rotarian Dr. Matt Jones did an outstanding job organizing the event once again, and everyone seemed to have a good time raising money for a worthwhile cause.
Blytheville is fortunate to have Dr. Jones, who represents our community well by winning such awards as 2017 Young Optometrist of the South and serving on boards like the Burlsworth Foundation.
Rotary’s motto is Service Above Self and he certainly embodies that mantra.
Our club is full of service-oriented folks, ranging from physicians to educators, pastors, business owners and bankers.
It has a wide-range of causes as well.
Rotary International’s mission is to rid the world of Polio, and since RI’s first project in the Philippines in 1979, the disease has been reduced by 99.9 percent. Polio remains in only Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan.
Locally, Rotary has a major literacy component, which includes providing a book to each first grader in Mississippi County every year. Its Little Free Library program allows members of the community to take a book from one of the 35 the little blue and yellow boxes around the county.
The Rotary Club of Blytheville sponsors two Blytheville Baseball Softball Boosters teams, as well as provides funding to Boy Scouts, Oddysey of the Mind and students attending Boys and Girls State, among others.
Last year, the club sent five Blytheville High School Interact students to the Rotary Youth Leadership Academy (RYLA) at Ferndale Camp in Little Rock, with one of them, Dominique Moody, earning the esteemed Four-Way Test Award.
At RYLA, students learn leadership skills, meet new people and have a blast at the camp. Most leave teary-eyed because they become so close to their new friends.
It’s a wonderful experience for our future leaders. The students selected are members of the Blytheville High School Interact Club, which has seen a steady growth the last several years in both numbers and contribution locally and internationally.
Blytheville has one of the most active Interact Clubs in District 6150, with 53 high school and middle school students. Full disclosure, my wife, Kristy, is the sponsor of the local Interact — the high school version of Rotary — and to her credit, she has taken the program to another level.
In the last couple of years, BHS Interact has helped build two water wells in Africa, raising about $1,500 for the projects. They’ve walked the Chili Cookoff with donation buckets in hand, solicited money from fellow students and organizations.
There are recognitions online with the BHS club’s name on them, thanking the local students for the contribution to providing safe drinking water to those in need. Through those efforts, they have played a role in providing clean water to the Kivani Community, impacting about 500 lives there. The other water project was the Essumba Primary School Rainwater Catchment Project, which serves another 500 people who now have clean water.
The Interact Club is also currently supporting another water project in Kenya, raising money to ensure more have access to clean water.
The BHS club has also held coat drives, collected toys for the needy, to name a few local projects.
The local Rotary Club also contributes canned goods and money to the Blytheville Food Pantry each year and supports various other causes.
I could go on and on.
The Rotary Club of Blytheville does a lot of great work in this community, truly putting Service Above Self.
At the end of each weekly meeting, Rotarians recite the Four-Way Test: Is it the truth?; Is it fair to all concerned?; Will it build goodwill and better friendships?; Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
I’m proud to serve as secretary/treasurer of such a great organization.