Service clubs step up efforts in pandemic
Butler County service clubs are emphasizing community service as they put their skills and resources into supporting front-line health care workers and first responders during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It's in line with a move by Kiwanis International, Lions Clubs International, Optimist International, and Rotary International joining together to maintain connections with each other to cope with and overcome the effects of COVID-19.
The service organizations are leveraging the strength of their combined networks of 3.2 million members to provide comfort to those feeling the effects of isolation and fear.
And they are focusing their collective skills and resources to support front- line health workers and first responders battling this disease.
On a local level, whether providing meals for emergency room workers or children, making masks or providing hand sanitizer, Rotarians, Kiwanis and Lions Club members are finding ways to help their communities.
In some cases, this is literally their first order of business.
The Satellite Rotary Group of Boyers & Harrisville, an extension of the Slippery Rock Rotary Club, has only been in existence since May 7, but its 11 members are already buying and donating hand sanitizer, according to chairwoman Michelle Marlowe.
“We're new, but we made an impact by distributing letters of encouragement to police and fire departments, funeral homes and nursing home personnel,” she said.
Her group also presented the Autumn Grove Care Center in Harrisville recently with 36 bottles of Aloe-based hand sanitizer that had been shipped from Texas at the expense of the Satellite Rotary Group.
“This was done to accommodate the ongoing needs of hand sanitizer in our care facilities topped with limited quantities in this area,” she said.
Vic Nieto, president of the Butler Rotary Club, said the club is also working to protect front-line workers in the pandemic.
“We donated $1,000 to Butler Memorial Hospital to buy protective equipment for their workers. We're planning to make donations to Lifesteps for equipment they need to protect their workers,” Nieto said.
Butler Lions Club members haven't been able to hold a meeting since March 3, but its 70 members have been keeping busy making and distributing masks and continuing to be involved in the Thursday community meals at St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church, 201 W. Jefferson St.
Mike Winkler, club secretary, said Janet Flecken, club president, has put together a mask project.“She's got a group of 20 individuals cutting out patterns,” he said.Some members are sewing the masks while others have been distributing them at the Blind Association of Butler and Armstrong and handing them out with the food at the weekly Katie's Kitchen meals, which are all to-go these days.Winkler said the Lions have also donated 100 masks to the Visiting Nurses Association.While the group's 70 members haven't met physically since March, Winkler said its 18-member board of directors scheduled a meeting Tuesday at the Blind Association.“It's not going to be open to members because we are trying to keep it below the 25-person limit,” he said.“We don't know how long we're going to be in the yellow phase obviously,” he added, but Lions Club members are planning to resume their adopt-a-highway program June 13.Members are planning to clean the two-mile stretch of Route 8 from Trinity Church south to North Cemetery, even if they have to continue practicing social distancing.“That's probably going to be our first project that puts us back on a regular schedule,” Winkler said.The Freeport Kiwanis hope to get back to a regular meeting schedule in June, but until then its 16 members are fulfilling the club's commitment to children by helping the Feed Freeport program.Club secretary Carol Hale said the program was set up when the area schools closed due to the pandemic. Geared to families using the schools' free lunch program, Feed Freeport serves 350 lunches Monday through Friday at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, 323 Fifth St.“Two of our members have spent hundreds of hours helping cook the meals 5 days a week for many weeks now,” Hale said.“One of our members has baked cookies a couple times a week for the program since it began, and our club made a $450 donation to the program,” she said.Another Kiwanis member has made 170 face masks so far which are offered free on the club's Facebook page.The six Rotary clubs in Butler County have also been active during the pandemic.According to Lee Dyer, a member of the Evans City Rotary Club and past district governor for Rotary District 7280, which covers 43 clubs from Cranberry Township to Erie, all area clubs have been involved in feeding Butler Memorial Hospital emergency room staff, post office personnel and fire departments.“They've made and donated masks, and we've donated food, money and volunteer time at food cupboards in the county,” Dyer said.“We have a high school program called Interact for future Rotarians. These students have volunteered baby-sitting services for emergency workers,” he said.Ken Bonus, president of the Butler AM Rotary Club, said his 50-member group has been keeping up its 7 a.m. Tuesday meetings in a virtual setting as well as raising money to create masks.“We've also given money for food for those impacted by the pandemic, and we've created a Go Fund Me page to raise money for corona(virus) relief efforts,” he said.Rotary club efforts during the pandemic are an example of the group's motto, “Service Above Self.”“I am so proud of Rotary and their efforts. None of our people are paid. We have paid employees but we are basically a volunteer organization,” Dyer said. “We are doing what we've done for 105 years, simply taking care of people.“That's what the Lions Clubs do, that's what Kiwanis does, we are taking care of people,” Dyer said.
