By: Intern / Jillian Flanagan
Today I attended my first Rotary meeting as a guest of Cynthia Ericson with the Greater West Chester Sunrise Rotary Club. Everyone was very welcoming to my fellow intern Amanda Koser and me and seemed genuinely excited to share the club’s purpose. I learned that at every meeting the club members have the opportunity to participate in what they call “Happy Dollars”. Each person, with a dollar, gets the floor to speak upon something they are thankful for or address what is happening in the community. For example, one member spoke on behalf of a family dealing with a terrible illness. People brainstormed how the club could contribute. They decided on signing up to provide meals so the family would have one less thing on their plate (excluding food of course). This was a small act of kindness that hardly took any time at all to organize, yet it would make a huge difference in this family’s daily life. That is what I will associate with the Rotary from here on out: making change on the small and large scale without batting an eye.
This meeting inspired me to do more research on the club’s history. I was surprised to learn how long the Rotary has been around—since 1905! Since then they have accomplished so much with UNESCO and international club expansion. For the Greater West Chester Sunrise Club, I expect them to continue to grow and obtain an exceptional diversity to better represent their community. They have the potential to have a massive outreach. I hope they continue to effectively use this potential to benefit the greater West Chester area and to inspire others to contribute to the positivity they spread.
