Each year, the Brush Rotary Club supports a variety of area causes benefitting Brush youth and others. The club currently is looking to expand its membership to keep the club viable in the long term.
The Brush Rotary Club is one of more than 34,000 Rotary Clubs throughout the world. So just what is Rotary? According to the Rotary International website, Rotary began with the vision of one man — Paul P. Harris. The Chicago attorney formed one of the world’s first service organizations, the Rotary Club of Chicago in 1905 as a place where professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas and form meaningful, lifelong friendships.
Rotary’s name came from the group’s early practice of rotating meetings among the offices of each member.
The Brush Rotary Club was formed in 1947. Larry Coughlin, a former mayor of Brush said he first became involved in Brush Rotary about 16 years ago when Elton Ingmire, then president of the Brush club, invited him to a meeting.
Coughlin said he decided at the time that becoming a Rotarian would be a “good thing for me to do.” Coughlin went on to serve as Brush Rotary president for one term and one year he and fellow Rotarians Bo Chapin and Dan Scalise shared a term as president.
Coughlin said he has always thought of Brush as “a community with a lot going for it” and that Rotary contributes to making it a great community in ways that many people are not aware of, including supporting a variety of programs and scholarships for Brush youth.
Brush Rotary
Youth Programs
Brush Rotary funds a program called Rotary Youth Leadership Academy (RYLA) for both students in the Brush Middle School and High School. Students who participate attend a week-long camp – the high school students at YMCA of the Rockies and the middle school students at a camp near Colorado Springs. RYLA students from all over the state participate in the camps. Coughlin said the students are interviewed before they attend the camps and he has seen firsthand how their participation benefits them.
“Some of the kids are very shy when we interview them,” Coughlin said. “Then when they come back they are full of life and a lot of them have carried through and become leaders in high school.”
The Brush Rotary also sponsors two college scholarships for Brush High School students, one for a four-year college and one for a two-year college. Coughlin said interviews are conducted with the applicants during which he said, “It’s interesting to find out a lot about kids at high school.” The club usually has many applicants for the scholarships and it’s hard to select just two recipients, he added.
There also is mini-Rotary club at the high school called the Interact club that is sponsored by the Brush Rotary Club. Coughlin said the club’s “big thing this year is helping kids with reading” at the elementary school. Interact also is working on an international service project that will provide supplies to troops overseas.
Another project for youth is the Four Way Test, which this year will be held February 5 for seventh graders at the middle school. The Four Way Test is part of Rotary’s guiding principles and is recited at Rotary meetings.
1) Is it the truth?
2) Is it fair to all concerned?
3) Will it build good will and better friendships?
4) Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
Coughlin said the students come up with a wide variety of questions and then assemble into small groups with a Brush Rotary member who facilitates discussion. Students draw a question, which they must answer using the Four Way test. Coughlin said in the past questions have ranged from “have you ever told a lie?” to “what should you do if a friend becomes pregnant?” The discussion is not only thought provoking for the students, but the Rotarians as well with Coughlin saying “most say they have learned a lot.”
An International Rotary high school exchange student is supported each year by the Brush Rotary Club, which provides the student with a monthly $100 stipend and helps find the student an area family to stay with during their year in the Brush area. This year’s exchange student is Beatriz “Bea” Martinez-Quintanill from Spain.
Supporting
area causes
Brush Rotary supports the Brush Young Readers of Colorado program, a literacy program which provides personalized books to young area readers that features the child’s name as a character throughout the book. Many Rotarians also personally donate to the program.
Brush Rotarians also have the opportunity to donate to Rotary’s International Paul Harris Fellowship. Donations come from Rotarians throughout the world. Coughlin said the fund spends only the interest earned on international service projects. Three years after a donation is made half of the money given by each Rotary District goes back to the district for use by its clubs.
Coughlin said the Brush Rotary Club used these funds several years ago to build the walking trail around Doty Pond and to erect several park benches. The club also is scheduled to donate some funds to the new skate park in Brush for landscaping and a walking trail.
International service
Many rotary clubs in the U.S. support international projects. Coughlin said the Brush club is currently supporting a food project in Kenya, which is teaching individuals how to raise their own crops.
Being of service
Although Coughlin said, “The first thing about rotary is service above self” he also said Brush Rotary “is a friendly club” that has a good time. He added the club would like to increase its membership because “the more members you have the more things you can do.”
“If you ever want to give back to the community, Rotary is a great way to do it,” He commented.
Kari Degeneress, who is the Nursing Home Administrator at Eben Ezer Lutheran Care Center, recently became a Rotarian after being invited to a club meeting by Dan Scalise, when he was still working as Eben Ezer’s Resident Services Director. She said she joined because Rotary is “based on the same principles that I operate on. I am highly involved in volunteer and service work.”
“It’s a great organization,” Degeneress said. “It’s interesting and I have enjoyed being part of it. It’s a great group of people.”
Degeneress, who is one of the younger members of the Brush Rotary Club, said part of the draw for younger people to join Rotary is that “it’s a great way to partner with other people in your field or industry.”
“It’s a good to make some good strategic connections in addition to serving,” she said.
The Brush Rotary Club meets on Thursdays at 11:30 a.m. at Eben Ezer. Each meeting features a club Rotarian of the week who arranges for a speaker from the area to provide updates on timely topics.
For more information about joining the Brush Rotary club, contact a Rotary Club member. To keep abreast of club news, visit the Brush Rotary Facebook page.
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