We Make A Life By What We Give
Lithia Springs Rotary float, Fourth of July Parade
In a world darkened by war, divisiveness, and unrestrained power, small stories of grace fight for light.
The 7 a.m. gathering of the Rotary Club of Ashland Lithia Springs, an offspring of the larger Rotary Club of Ashland, is one of these small stories. Welcoming and fellowship, service and generosity — it offers these virtues in spades.
I never imagined that I’d be moved to write about what, for most of my life, I viewed as a local businessmen’s association where networking trumped service and Democrats were in short supply, a hugely shortsighted take.
A few years after we moved to Ashland, my never-joined-a-club-in-his-life spouse, Tony, accepted an invitation from a neighbor to attend a Rotary Club meeting a mile from our house. When Tony returned and said he thought he’d join the club, all I could think of saying was “Really?”
Out of curiosity, I eventually joined him at some of the weekly, early morning meetings, not as a member but as a guest.
I never expected what I found: in a town where I’ve often felt like a stranger from a strange land, I felt unaccustomedly welcomed.
Members take turns standing by the entrance and performing the duties of “greeter” each week. “Tell me all about your trip to Mexico!” “Congratulations on the new grandbaby!” “You look great!”
On some days, 25 members or more fill the First Presbyterian Church of Ashland’s Calvin Hall. On others, there are as few as a dozen — the current active membership stands at 35. Just about everyone’s name badge includes the tagline, Past President. This is an organization that believes members should take turns carrying the burdens of leadership.
Two rituals begin every meeting: an obligatory salute to the flag followed by an often-nostalgic group sing. On St. Patrick’s Day, “Danny Boy,” with pastor-musician-President Dan Fowler accompanying on guitar, filled the hall.
Not one to say the Pledge of Allegiance — “one nation under God?” – I stand, put my hand on my heart, and stay silent.
Saluting and singing done, someone in the group routinely calls out, “Play ball.”
“Happy Dollars,” a Rotary Club tradition nationwide, takes first base. A spittoon passes among members who voluntarily donate money, typically a few dollars, and share personal joyful news, milestones, or gratitude. “I’m grateful for the rain,” “My doctor declared me cancer free.” (“Happy Dollars” routinely raises around $3,500 annually for the Club.)
Spreading inspiration claims second. Each week, a volunteer chooses and reads an inspirational quote to the group. This Tuesday morning, James Harbison, a new member, offers his own words. “Let us remember that even the smallest gestures—an encouraging word, a helping hand, or a shared smile—can spark a transformation,” he says. “Let us be the light that helps others find theirs, and in doing so, illuminate our own path as well.”
Concerned that members need more opportunities to connect their lives and their pasts, President Fowler has introduced a third base: “Table Talk,” a five-minute chance for tablemates to compare answers to a question Fowler has chosen. Today he asks, “What is some of the best advice you ever received?” At my table of four, I channeled my seventh grade teacher and her motto, “Learn from your mistakes.”
The world’s first service club
“Let us keep our hearts strong, enthusiasm fresh, hope high,” proclaimed attorney Paul Harris, who founded Rotary in 1905 in Chicago. “As long as we keep imbued with this spirit, Rotary can never die.”
Originally created to foster a spirit of friendship among business professionals, the club later expanded its focus to community and humanitarian service. The universal principles of truth, fairness, goodwill, and benefit, Rotarians argued, provided a reliable framework for making decisions that positively impact individuals and communities alike.
Although women were excluded from membership until the 1980s, the vision caught fire, spreading to small and large cities across the U.S. as well as internationally. (The first Rotary club in Latin America was organized in Havana, Cuba in 1915.)
Today, Rotary International has over 1.2 million members, organized into more than 45,000 clubs worldwide.
When the Rotary Club of Ashland, founded in 1941, split into two groups in 1992, it was, a surfeit of members (well over 100) that drove the decision, along with a desire for a morning meeting alternative. The original club became known as the “noon club.” Its Lithia Springs sibling met at 7 a.m.
While global membership in Rotary continues to rise, it has decreased nationally by 25 percent the past two decades, part of a broader trend in American society where traditional service clubs are losing their influence. High attrition and low retention, aging membership, time constraints and lifestyle changes all figure into the equation.
A human conveyor belt: stuffing “PowerPacks” for ACCESS
Still leading with service
Declining membership has not diminished the reach of Ashland’s Lithia Springs club, nor the strength of its fundraising for the programs it supports. The fundraising total for the past 20 years exceeds $1,000,000.
Kim Galloway, the club’s Ashland Reads chair, points to Margaret Mead’s famous quote: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Like other Rotary clubs in the region, Lithia Springs participates in community projects that run wide and deep.
Literacy is a priority. In partnership with the “noon club,” it sponsors Ashland Reads, a project promoting literacy among the town’s 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders Through the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, it mails free monthly books to children up to age five.
Determined to build a commitment to service among local youth, it co-sponsors the Interact Club at the high school and the Rotaract Club at Southern Oregon University. It takes part in community blood drives at the same time that members donate to International Rotary’s winning campaign to end polio worldwide.
It helps maintain the Rotary Garden near Emigrant Lake, donating the produce it yields to the Ashland Community Food Bank, while supporting clean water projects in Mexico and beyond.
Scholarships have been a mainstay. This year, the Lithia Springs club will award $35,000 in scholarships to 20 seniors at Ashland High School who are pursuing vocational and technical careers.
Every Friday during the school year, several Lithia Springs members join the 40-person human conveyor belt that stuffs weekend “PowerPacks”(in grocery bags donated by “Sherm’s Food 4 Less”) with nutritious meals for food insecure elementary students across Jackson County.
I decided to join the human conveyor belt — and have become hooked. In a corner of a huge warehouse in nearby Medford, one group of volunteers fill plastic bins with empty grocery bags, three to a bin. Another team sets up the assembly line: a U-shaped arrangement of long tables decked with additional plastic bins (typically 30) filled with a different snacks that will be slid from one “stuffer” to another.
We take our stations. I’ve claimed a bin with cheddar Goldfish crackers, 82-year-old Elsie to my right has chosen pear fruit cups, Amy to my left (a regular) has adopted Once Upon a Farm smoothie packs. Brad blows the whistle and for the next hour we fill bags and pass bins nonstop (no time to blow your nose) until a bell rings an hour later. The day’s count: 975 full bags.
When asked how they would improve the PowerPacks, one fourth-grader wrote, “I would give noodles for extra food because I have a big family.” When asked what food they do NOT like, one student answered, “I eat it ALL!”
Paul French, Director of Southern Oregon Repertory Singers, speaking about the transformative power of music and song
The best seminar in town
If there is a secret sauce that draws members of the Lithia Springs club to its early morning meetings, the guest speakers are as much of a lure as the fellowship.
“This is one of the best seminars in town,” says Jerry Kenefick, a longtime member.
The weekly guests, who share their expertise and stories, along with answering questions, range from local luminaries like State Representative Pam Marsh and Southern Oregon University (SOU) President Rick Bailey to community treasures like Paul French, director of the Southern Oregon Repertory Singers and Jesssica Sage, artistic director of The Rogue Theater Company, where retired actors from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival light up one act plays, familiar and not.
Recently, Southern Oregon Climate Action Now’s Executive Director, Daniel Scotton, presented a captivating talk on the six faces of climate denial, not as caricatures to dismiss, but as recognizable patterns of thought that still shape how we talk about climate change.
At times, it can be a skeptical audience. When SOU’s beleaguered President introduced his new idea for attracting students to the university (where attendance has plummeted), he showed a photo of a senior citizen ferrying a student across campus in a golf cart. A couple of members came up to me afterwards, aware that I knew Bailey, and asked, “He was pulling our leg, right?” (He wasn’t.)
When the new Ashland School Superintendent, who had been in the job for six months, was asked about the percentage of students at the high school who went on to college and the dropout rate, the Superintendent begged off answering, saying that he was still getting the lay of the land. “Really?” the woman sitting behind me said loudly enough for others to hear.
It was the speakers that drew my Italian spouse to the Rotary Club of Ashland Lithia Springs soon after moving here seven years ago. He had immigrated to NYC from a small town in Italy when he was 13 and never mastered the Pledge of Allegiance nor “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” As a busy business executive, community service had not been his want.
When he represented the club in last year’s Fourth of July Parade, happily handing out books to kids along the parade route, family and friends gave him a high five.
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