Rotary Club of Philadelphia receives Presidential Citation for opening opportunities in the lives of people worldwide
By Jay Pennie
In another one of the most challenging years for most organizations around the world, members of the Rotary Club of Philadelphia received the most significant award a club can achieve for their extensive work in 2020-21 for helping Rotary open opportunities in the lives of people all over the world.
Rotary Club of Philadelphia volunteers preparing meals at MANNA.
Each year, Rotary International’s president sets strategic goals for the 35,000 clubs around the world. “I want you to think about how we can grow Rotary organically and sustainably. How can we keep our current members and win new members who fit our clubs? Then, how can we make our organization stronger to face the challenges before us?” said President Holger Knaack.
Recognizing the importance of members and the vital work that they do around the world, Knaack set up four groups of strategic priorities for Rotary clubs pertaining to: Membership and Engagement; Developing Young Leaders; Service Projects; and Public Image.
On the first priority, Membership and Engagement, the Rotary Club of Philadelphia was recognized for achieving goals such as sponsoring new members, participation in service projects, and leadership development.
Why is this important?
Because we need a growing, engaged, and diverse group of members to do the good work both within our club and in our community. The more hands we have, the more good we can do.
On the second priority, our club received recognition for Developing Young Leaders through sponsorship of our high school Interact Clubs at Liguori Academy and West Catholic Preparatory High School and the Penn Rotaract Club for age 18-30 at the University of Pennsylvania.
Why is this important?
We need members in our youth clubs to become trained at an early age to give back, embrace service, model positive civic engagement, and learn to organize and mobilized to help their community.
Even more notable was in the achievement of the number and scope of Service Projects where our members logged in more than 400 volunteer hours at 23 events this past year. For example, service activities included: preparing meals at Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance for people with medical conditions; cleaning up Fairmount Park; distributing Thanksgiving dinners to the community at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children; and fundraising events to help stock local food pantries and financial support for Reading Allowed to help struggling young readers. Our Foundation supplied grants that provided nearly $30,000 to 21 local and international charities.
Why is this important?
Well, because we’re more than a social club. Yes, we’re that too. That’s a really important benefit to our members. But, we are part of one of the largest humanitarian organizations in the world. We actually do things.
Public image strategy featured in the June 2021 issue of Rotary magazine.
Finally, our club was recognized for its Public Image efforts which included developing a strategic plan and for communicating our social, humanitarian and charitable efforts to the public by utilizing Rotary International’s branding materials on the club’s website, promotional video, and social media platforms. Our club’s public image strategy was also featured in an article entitled, “Do a Refresh” in the June 2021 issue of Rotary magazine that goes to 1.2 million members around the world.
Why is this important?
We need to tell the world about the good work we are doing and the opportunities that we have in Rotary so that our membership grows. It’s that simple.
If you are a member of the Rotary Club of Philadelphia, take a few minutes to celebrate your remarkable achievements this past year. Thank you all for your good work and support!
If you are not yet a member, contact us to join.
Find out how you can become a member of the Rotary Club of Philadelphia or make a donation to the Rotary Foundation of Philadelphia.