P&W Construction worker Nick Pierce works on the top of the roof of the new pavilion at Rotary Park in Butler on Thursday February 21, 2019.

The Rotary of Butler PM has worked to improve local parks, playgrounds, raise funds for food programs and support veterans. Rotarians work together to meet the needs of their communities.

“I really enjoy looking at these finished products that we get done and (seeing) what we give back to the community,” said Jim Ferguson, the Butler club's treasurer and a 22-year member. “We make it a better place to live.”

In 1940, the Butler community was without a park. The Butler Rotary Club sponsored an effort to unite the three service clubs, the Kiwanis, Butler Rotary and Lions Club to meet that need.In an attempt to create a fund earmarked as a post-war park and recreational fund, the joint committee put on a horse show at the Butler Fairgrounds.The show raised $5,000 in October of 1944. They held two more shows in 1945 and 1946, raising a total of $13,000 for those three years.Of the $13,000, $7,000 was given to purchase a farm which later became Butler Memorial Park. The remainder of the money went to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy to help create McConnells Mill in Lawrence County and later what is now Moraine State Park, 16,725 acres spanning five townships in Butler County.

In 1955, long-time Rotarian Dick Patterson, a former Butler County commissioner who died in 2009, led the club in building the Rotary Shelter in Butler Memorial Park. This was the beginning of the club's working to build and sustain parks in the city. That tradition continues today.In 1972, the Chestnut Street playground and park, in the former Connoquenessing Creek bed, was laid out and constructed by Rotarians to benefit the city's Island neighborhood. It's now called Rotary Park.In the last five years, the club made additional improvements to the park, which is also bordered by West Cunningham and Shore streets.“Partnering with the YMCA summer food program over the years helped Butler Rotary identify which parks needed improvements,” said Dennis Baglier, owner of Baglier Buick GMC, who joined the Butler Rotary in 2003.Club members donate time, equipment, money and materials to park and playground improvements throughout the area, including parks in Institute Hill and South Hills neighborhoods.“Members act as project managers, foremen and laborers to get the job done,” Baglier said.

The Butler Rotary women partnered with the Butler County Community College Foundation and the Butler Public Library to launch the Luncheon for Literacy in 2010.The event, where volunteer groups decorate tables following themes from favorite books, and patrons purchase tickets to have lunch at elaborately decked-out tables, proved to be an amazing and unique fundraiser, according to the organizers.The event supports adult literacy programs at Butler County Community College, and was started by Rotarians Joan Ferraro, a self-employed payroll administrator, and Amy Wilson, a communications strategist.In addition to lunch, where even the dishes compliment the selected tome, the event includes special favors, entertainment, basket auctions and more. It happened for the first time in 2010 and was resurrected in 2019 and 2020.“This event raised over $10,000 the very first time it was held,” Ferguson said.The 2020 luncheon for literacy raised $12,000, increasing the Rotary club's contribution to BC3's program to $32,000, according to a Butler Eagle article on Feb. 3, 2020.The Butler club also raised $50,285 in a 30-day campaign to keep the Butler Area Public Library open during the summer of 1993, when a funding shortfall threatened to close it. This fundraising ensured the library could operate as normal during the summer months. The effort was spearheaded by Rotarians Ron Vodenichar, then general manager and now publisher of the Butler Eagle, and the late Dale Pinkerton, former county commissioner and owner of Pinkerton Goodyear.

The club began its history of honoring veterans when it entertained the members of the Grand Army of the Republic every year on a Monday proceeding Memorial Day, which continued until 1941.In the last 10 years, the Rotary club hosted a clay shoot to benefit Wounded Warriors and Robin's Home, which provides transitional housing for women veterans and their children.“A few Rotarians were interested in shooting, and the matchup with an organization like Wounded Warriors for a fundraiser seemed like a good idea,” Baglier said.The annual Clay Shoot continued to support Wounded Warriors for about five years.When Robin's Home was created in 2019, it needed a fundraiser to help it sustain its programming and facilities.“The Butler club worked with Robin's House to help them relaunch the Clay Shoot and set them up to take it over going forward,” Baglier said. The event happens annually in October.

Launched in 1991 by Pinkerton, the Rotary Turkey Roundup has raised $520,000 for county food pantries and community meals.“It's our longest-running program that we have taken on as a club,” Ferguson said.Every year during the month of December, Butler PM members solicit monetary donations in many ways.The event began as a small gesture of a $100 check to another club's food pantry program.“Dale started wondering how many other people were going hungry when a pantry program only needed $100 or $10 to feed them,” said Millie Pinkerton, Dale's wife and a past club president. “The problem woke him up every night for a week.”On the last night, Dale Pinkerton woke up with a clear idea of what to call the event and who he needed to get help from to make it successful.Vodenichar and Jud Stewart, now retired from Armstrong, both agreed to support Pinkerton's efforts.“(The Roundup) supports the churches in the area that provide meals, St. Vincent DePaul, Salvation Army, Lighthouse and Meals on Wheels,” Millie Pinkerton said. “The goal is to give money to people who are giving meals to those who need them.”

The Butler Rotarians' work to improve the community reached out in different ways.In 1923, its first year, the club advocated for the improvement of Route 68 to Portersville. One hundred years later, the club still does its highway cleanup on Route 68.The club purchased the New Castle Street Stage, which was used by Butler Downtown for Friday Night concerts and events around the city in the years before the coronavirus pandemic.The events using the stage featured local artists and bands. Food trucks and other vendors would set up near the stage and welcome spectators.In 2000, the club raised $17,000 for an osteoporosis scanner for Butler Memorial Hospital's Women's Imaging Center, according to a Butler Eagle article that year.Club efforts often included a personal touch. Before the YWCA Personal Care Home closed its doors, the Butler Rotary hosted special dinners with music and dancing for the residents there.

NEW ROTARY SHELTER NEARLY COMPLETED - Director of Parks and Public Properties Victor A. Campbell reprts the new Rotary Shelter in Butler Memorial park is nearing completion by Contractor C.T. (Tip) Dumbaugh. Campbell said the shelter features four fire places, constructed of natural stone, and electric stoves, which work on a meter. It will accomodate 200 persons, and reservations are being made with City Clerk Alice S. Johnston for dates after May 20. The architectural firm of Howard, Burt and Hill contributed their services for the building, which cost about $14,000, Campbell said. Blacktop walkways will be a new feature.

PUTTING PARK INTO SHAPE — Rotary Park, a welcome green space at the corner of South Chestnut and West Cunningham Streets, became the scene of hard work when 15 members of the Rotary Club and the Armco Management Club gathered to build play structures for children in 1975. With materials donated by Armco, West Penn Power, Western Pennsylvania Water, United Telephone and organizations, the volunteers constructed things to crawl under, over or through or just to admire. Working are, left to right: Gary Reay and Lorin Service of the Management Club, Stan Rider, Clint Moon, and planning consultant Malcom Strachan. Watching their playground brighten up are, from left, James Marshall Ochaba, Traci Wolf and Shawn Blatt. Strachan reported that a plan for the park calls for the planting of trees.

ROTARY SHELTER DEDICATED — Butler Rotarians in June 1965 dedicated the rebuilt version of the original Rotary Shelter, which was destroyed by fire. Gathering at Butler Memorial Park for the ceremony were Rotarians DeWitt Richards, Calvin E. Biesecker, R. Glenn Thompson, Councilman Victor A. Campbell, Dr. William J. Armstrong, Stanley O. Rider and John J. Chiprean, in the front row, and Kenneth A. Christy, Richard Patterson and David Andre, back row. At the time the original shelter was built in 1955, Patterson was president of Rotary and Rider was vice president. Councilman Campbell supervised the rebuilding of the shelter, and was on hand to give a brief history of Butler's three parks: Butler Memorial, Ritts Memorial and Pullman Memorial. The first Rotary Shelter was built primarily by club members.

DONATION MADE — President Robert Smith and Jen Xu from Slippery Rock University, Michael Pueler and Dale and Millie Pinkerton were on hand in 2009 for Pueler's presentation of a $1,000 check to Dale Pinkerton for the Rotary Turkey Roundup.