Rotary Club of Marlin: A people of action
Rotary is where neighbors, friends, and problem-solvers share ideas, join leaders, and take action to create lasting change. In Marlin, we have seen the results of such people in action. Last year, four scholarships were awarded to high school seniors and, more recently, wool blankets and socks were distributed to those in need.
To see Rotary Club of Marlin as a people of action is easy enough, but there is an almost hidden machine always at work to accomplish this. This machine, this synergism, is fueled by the individual caring, ambitious, persistent, creative, project-oriented, and highly energetic characteristics of each human being that sets resolve and dedication in unity to help his/her community, state, national, and global body.
No surprise that the motto of each Rotarian is “Service beyond Self.” Rotarians imagine an improved world for children, youth, women, men, and the elderly. The improvement they envision, plan for, and work towards is not for personal gain or satisfaction but unselfishly a donation of time, effort, and contributions for fellow human beings.
Rotarians set goals and solve problems. No challenge is too big. For more than 110 years, Rotarians have bridged cultures and connected continents to champion peace, fight illiteracy and poverty, promote clean water and sanitation, and fight disease. Families living on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona can now read, work, and study long after the sun sets, since the installation of more than 175 solar lights.
Each day, Rotary Club members pour their passion, integrity, and intelligence into completing projects that have a lasting impact. Rotary Club of Marlin acted on sustainable projects from home by contributing towards $333 million awarded for global service initiatives in 2020-21. These are sustainable projects; they are maintainable and last beyond the service date because its goal was not to be a charity model where it just gives things away. Its sustainability with respect to humanitarian work is the opportunity model, in which the people are included in the project planning. Alongside Rotary club members, local community leaders in a remote village in Ghana helped select the location, pipes and pumps, and learned to maintain their new water pump system. Women and children could now pump clean, uncontaminated water from a known location, without having to spend hours seeking out a water source.
Rotary unites more than 1.4 million members worldwide and with 16 million volunteer hours each year, members transform “home” – across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves. In February 2022, Rotary Club of Marlin hosted the Global Connections International End Human Trafficking trailer and presentation. The End Human Trafficking mobile education experience provided much-needed, substantive human trafficking awareness and prevention information to all Marlin High School students.
Sharing the vision of a world without hunger with 55 representatives from American Legion Post 31, Lions Club of Marlin, Marlin Independent School District Principals and Athletic Department Coaches, National Honor Society, MISD Athletics, Rotary District 5870, Rotary Club of Temple South, plus citizens from the Marlin community measured, weighed, sealed, and packed 13,174 meals. These meals were provided to men, women, and children in Haiti who had been displaced by two natural disasters in two days – an earthquake and a tropical depression.
Solving some of the world’s most complex and pressing problems takes commitment and vision. Rotary members believe that they share a responsibility to take action to improve our communities. Join us, so that we can make an even better impact – together.
If you are interested in Rotary International, please visit rotary.org.