Rotary Club of Philadelphia receives Citation with Presidential Distinction
By Jay Pennie
In 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 to unite people and take action in 2019-20.
Each year, Rotary International’s president sets strategic goals for the 35,000 clubs around the world. “In 2019-20, it will be our challenge to strengthen the many ways that Rotary Connects the World, building the connections that allow talented, thoughtful, and generous people to unite and take meaningful action through Rotary service,” said President Mark Maloney.
Recognizing the importance of members and the vital work that they do around the world, Maloney set two groups of strategic priorities.
On the first priority, Uniting People, our club was recognized for achieving goals such as increasing the number and diversity of our membership and support of youth initiatives including establishing a new Interact Club at Liguori Academy, located in the Kensington section of Philadelphia. .
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. 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. The more hands we have, the more good we can do.
Rotary Club of Philadelphia members pack boxes for needy families during St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children’s Turkey Drive
Even more notable was in the achievement of Taking Action where our members logged in more than 290 volunteer hours this past year on service activities such as: preparing meals at Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance for people with medical conditions; cleaning up the Schuylkill River Banks Trail; distributing Thanksgiving dinners to the community at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children; fundraising events to help eradicate polio, stock a food bank in Kensington, and support Rotary Australian Bushfires Appeal. Our Foundation supplied grants that provided nearly $30,000 to 15 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.
Finally, our club was recognized for its efforts to communicate its humanitarian and charitable efforts to the public by utilizing Rotary International’s branding materials to completely redesign our website, create a new promotional video, and significantly increase our social media presence on multiple platforms.
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.