Worldwide Community
Jennifer Linn wasn’t necessarily looking to become a volunteer extraordinaire.
When she moved to Butler in 2004, she was a new lawyer in a new town wanting to make contacts with business leaders, so she went to a Butler Rotary Club meeting.
“I was the youngest member at the time and almost immediately they made me president,” Linn said.
Linn is an attorney, who shares a practice with her husband, Doug, and is mother of an active 6-year-old daughter. Linn’s parents didn’t push her to volunteer, but after joining Rotary, service has become an important part of her busy life.
What she likes about the organization is that Rotary is a place to network with community leaders as well as others around the world.
“But it also leads service projects for the Butler community, but also has worldwide goals, such as the eradication of polio,” Linn said.
Polio eradication is a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
On the community level, the Butler Rotary Club holds fundraisers for nonprofits, such as:• The Pancake Festival on Election Day for Lifesteps;• Turkey Roundup, which starts in November and continuing through December to provide holiday meals to low-income families;• Farm-City Night at which Butler County farmers are recognized for their work with a dinner at Butler County Community College;• Golf ball drop in September for Stand Tall, anti-drug education campaign;• The Dictionary Project, in which Rotary members distribute dictionaries to fourth grade students in schools.Then there are times Rotary members respond to specific events or disasters, such as the tsunami that hit land from the Indian Ocean during the Christmas season in 2005, killing thousands and leaving millions homeless.“The Rotary formed the Rotary Foundation, a 501-C3, so that it could collect tax deductible donations to help build a village in Sri Lanka,” Linn said.The Butler Rotary raised more than $100,000 and built 20 houses in a former fishing village that lost all its men in the killer waves.Besides the service to community, Linn said she likes the feeling of belonging the Rotary gives its members.“You can go anywhere in the world and attend a Rotary meeting, be a part of a larger family,” she said.On Montserrat, an island in the Caribbean, which has been nearly destroyed by volcanic eruptions, Linn attended a Rotary meeting with the island’s 20 leading business owners.“I learned more than your average tourist,” she said, something that has happened to her and other Rotarians before, and will happen again.In coming years, Linn said she would like to work on getting more hands-on service projects for Rotary members.“Its good to donate money, but its good to get out there and really do something, too,” she added.
<B>Butler County area:</B> There are 12 clubs in this area: Butler AM Rotary, Butler PM Rotary, Chicora-East Brady Rotary, Cranberry Rotary, Cranberry Township Sunrise Rotary, Evans City Rotary, Grove City Rotary, Parker Rotary, Portersville-Prospect Rotary, Rich-Mar Rotary, Slippery Rock Rotary and Zelienople Rotary.<B>Services: </B>Locally, clubs pick projects that benefit the community and groups. Internationally, clubs have joined with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to eradicate polio worldwide.<B>Info: </B>On the Internet, go to www.district7280.org, and click on the clubs page for a list of district clubs in and around Butler County.
