A G old T hread
in the F abric of
O ur C ommunity
Greensburg Rotary Club members share a
common drive to give back to the community.
BY NICOLE TAFE
F
or more than a century, the
Greensburg Rotary Club
has been helping to make the
community a better place
through a wide variety of efforts—both
local and international.
The Greensburg Rotary got its start
when Frank B. Miller, an official of the
Keystone Coal and Coke Company
of Greensburg, was invited to attend a
meeting of the Toledo Rotary Club by
Frank Mulholland (RI President in 1914-
1915) while on a business trip to Toledo,
Ohio. Miller returned to Greensburg with the hope of creating a
Rotary Club in his hometown.
Several meetings were held, and a discussion about potential
members ensued, on June 30, 1916. Twenty-two interested
members attended a meeting on July 7, 1916, and plans were
made to apply for a charter for the Rotary Club of Greensburg. A
Constitution and By-Laws were adopted on July 11 and the officers
were elected—including President: Frank B. Miller, Vice President:
Joseph Strouse, Secretary and Treasurer: B. W. Kerr, and Sergeant at
Arms: E. H. Bair.
“Every Rotary Club is different and has its own personality,” says
Mark Barnhart, the group’s treasurer. “The Greensburg chapter is
involved throughout the community in many ways and serves a wide
variety of groups in the area.”
The Rotary Club of Greensburg primarily focuses on youth.
Annually, the club donates over $10,000 annually to graduating
seniors from Greensburg Salem, Greensburg Central Catholic and
Hempfield Area high schools. Also annually, the club sponsors three
students to attend the Rotary Youth Leadership Award training at
Outdoor Odyssey in Boswell. Students from the three high schools
also receive scholarships annually to attend the World Affairs
Council in Pittsburgh. The club has partnered with the Greensburg
Volunteer Fire Department and the Greensburg Salvation Army for
the Back to School Bash in St. Clair Park in Greensburg.
Additionally, the Dictionary Project administered by the
Rotary Club of Greensburg gives each third grade student in the
Greensburg Salem, Hempfield Area and Aquinas Academy schools
a special dictionary for the students to keep. The whole project
culminates with a spelling bee each May to determine which third
grader is the best speller in those three schools.
The Rotary Club of Greensburg also presents
grants to community nonprofits through the
Madeline Nichols Trust—annually over $13,000
is awarded. Also, District Community Grants
from the Rotary Club of Greensburg have been
presented to the Greensburg Volunteer Fire
Department and the Welcome Home Center in
Greensburg.
“Last year, the club collected 103 bags of
non-perishable groceries that were given to
the downtown Greensburg emergency food
pantries in the First Lutheran Church, Zion’s
Lutheran Church, the First United Methodist Church and the
Greensburg Salvation Army,” says Barnhart.
Monthly volunteers from the club can be found at Our Lady of
Grace Church the first Saturday of each month helping with the
Food Bank. Greensburg Rotarians have donated cake mixes that are
given away at the Food Bank for Christmas and brownie mixes that
were given away for Easter.
The Rotary Club purchased and now maintains the Message
Center on East Pittsburgh Street in Greensburg that can be used by
area nonprofits to “advertise” their events for a very nominal cost.
The club also supports local organizations by participating in the
fundraising efforts of March for Parks, Operation Santa Claus, the
Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Campaign, and Walk a Mile in Her
Shoes. Interact is a high school-based service organization that is
sponsored by Rotary, and there are Interact Clubs in Greensburg
Salem, Hempfield Area and Greensburg Central Catholic high
schools. Each summer the Rotary Club of Greensburg also
sponsors a concert in the SummerSounds series at St. Clair Park.
“Since Rotary is an international organization, many projects are
international in scope, with Rotary Clubs around the world working
together to make a difference,” Barnhart explains. The largest
ongoing project has been End Polio. Rotary has been working to
eradicate polio for more than 30 years, with a goal of ridding the
world of the disease—which is now closer to taking place than
ever before. As a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication
Initiative, Rotary has reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent since its
first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979. Since
then, more than 2.5 billion children in 122 countries have been
immunized. So far, Rotary has contributed more than $1.8 billion
toward eradicating the disease worldwide. ■
GREENSBURG SALEM
❘
SUMMER 2019
9