Efforts aid world
Promoting peace and goodwill among peoples of the world is a core mission of Rotary International.
To work toward this goal, Rotary of Butler PM supports exchange programs for young professionals, youth and businesspeople.
“There is a lot of fellowship, exchange of ideas, growth within yourself because of this adventure called Rotary,” said Ron Fodor, retired district manager of the Butler County Conservation District.
Butler Rotary participated in many international initiatives and programs over the years. From student and group study exchanges to golfing events and relief campaigns, the club has demonstrated service of self and promoted peace.
One example is the club's work to provide disaster relief after a tsunami hit Sri Lanka in 2004. Butler Rotary raised more than $100,000 for relief efforts and rebuilt one of the communities affected by the tsunami. Another is the $33,200 it help raise through the Butler County Cares initiative for earthquake victims in Haiti in 2010.
“Fundraising for Sri Lanka was the largest international project we took on as a club,” said Jim Ferguson, club treasurer.
In 1962, a friendship between Kenneth Christy, a hair stylist from Butler, and Peter Jackson of Dundee, Scotland, launched the Jackson Christie Porridge Bowl Golf Tournament between the Butler and Dundee Rotary clubs. It later became a golf competition between District 7280 and District 1010 of Scotland.Many friendships and goodwill have been generated by this competition, out of which grew the international golfing fellowship, Rotarians said. These annual meetings of golfing Rotarians from all over the world began in 1964.Mitch Ufner, owner of Delco Quality Foods and Little Luigi's Pizza in Butler, and John Weir, a Rotarian from Scotland, started the Annual Couples Golf Exchange. The event brought hundreds of Rotarians and spouses together for fun, fellowship and golf. Ufner died in 2013.
The student exchange program encourages youth to visit and live in another country while learning about the local culture. The Butler club hosted students from other countries and sponsored students from Butler.Rotary student exchanges are traditionally for high school students. Students apply or are nominated to go abroad. Rotary families across the world apply to host exchange students in their home countries.“Visiting other countries with Rotary shows you Rotary in action and expands your worldview,” Fodor said.In 1966, the Butler club joined the District 7280 student exchange program and was host to Par Broge of Sweden for a year.In 1968, the Butler club sponsored Linda Schrieberg of Butler for a year in Sweden. She went on to be a financial analyst for Cabot Corp. in Virginia and completed her doctorate degree in Soviet studies. After teaching at Butler County Community College, she taught English to students in different countries online. Schrieberg died in 2021.In 1970, the club hosted Jorge Avila from Mexico. In 1995, Lorena Mendez from Bolivia spent a year with the Ron and Linda Vodenichar family.
In the 1950s, the Butler club began a history of supporting Foundation Ambassador Scholars through monetary donations to the program. This program allowed students from a club's community to study abroad.“Rotary contributes to the world and promotes a greater understanding of other countries,” Fodor said.Barbara Weaver, daughter of Rotarian Charles Weaver of Butler, was awarded a Rotary Foundation Fellowship to study French language and literature at the Universite de Grenoble, France.After she returned to the United States, Barbara taught French at high schools from 1957 to 1961 in Titusville, Pa., and from 1961 to 1963 in Bradford, Pa. In 1963, she joined the Peace Corps and taught English as a foreign language at the Lycee Gaston Berger in Kaolack, Senegal.After serving her community and raising her family for several years, Barbara returned to teaching French from 1982 to 1986 in Hoosick Falls, N.Y., and from 1986 to 1988 in Greenwich, N.Y.In 1990, she earned a Master of Library Science from SUNY Albany and served as director of the Watervliet Public Library for 11 years. Weaver died in 2014.In 1967, club members sent another ambassadorial scholar, John Walker, to Germany. Also representing the Butler Rotary were Karen Ford in Argentina in 1970, Paul Clark in Scotland in 1977 and Charles Knox III in Bolivia in 1997.
Over the years, the Butler club has hosted professional groups from Australia, India, England, Switzerland and Germany.Groups sponsored by Rotary clubs with participants coming from Butler have gone abroad to places such as the Philippines, South Africa and Kosovo.In 1987, Ron Fodor of the Butler club visited South Africa. At the time of the trip, Fodor was a professional in Butler, but not yet a Rotarian.“The trip to South Africa was life-changing,” Fodor said. He shared that five young people plus chaperones were selected for the trip. For six weeks, they stayed with a Rotary family in the Johannesburg area. They traveled to all of the clubs in the area, about 50 total.At that time, South Africa still had apartheid. Apartheid was a system of institutionalized racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa, now Namibia, from 1948 until the early 1990s.“They did everything they could do to educate us about South Africa, the good and the bad,” Fodor said. “We saw Rotary projects in action where Rotary was providing water for a number of tribes.”Clubs also provided aid to fight tuberculosis and funding for orphanages.“We got to see Rotary in action,” Fodor said.Upon his return, Fodor was invited to Rotary clubs and schools all over District 7280 to share his experiences and educate others about South Africa. He completed more than 60 presentations.After the trip to South Africa ended, a group from South Africa came to visit Butler. Fodor and other Rotarians showed them around the county and shared the different projects the Butler club had completed.“It was like being an ambassador for Rotary,” he said.Fodor said his experiences showed him what it means to be a Rotarian and what Rotary can do in a community and around the world.
In 1998, the late Dale Pinkerton, a long-time Rotarian and former county commissioner, organized a campaign to supply needed medication, medical supplies, and potable water to Dr. Linnea Smith, a doctor from Wisconsin living along the Amazon River in Peru, who built a clinic there.In the following year, he organized a trip to Peru with fellow Rotarians and his wife, Millie Pinkerton, to visit the doctor and the well that had been drilled with their help.“I still get a newsletter from Dr. Linnea Smith about what is happening in her clinic in Peru,” Millie Pinkerton said.While on this trip, Dale Pinkerton was introduced to a teacher in a village who spoke English. Millie Pinkerton shared part of their conversation.“If you could have anything you wanted in the world, what would you want?” Millie Pinkerton recalled Dale asking the teacher.The teacher responded by saying, “I'd like to have a book for each of my students in every class.”Dale Pinkerton worked with the other Rotarians in the group to collect all of the money needed to pay for the books for the students. By the time the group had left Peru, the books had been delivered to the village school.“We have a big poster that all those little kids signed thanking us for all those books,” Millie Pinkerton said.
