Effingham Noon Rotary Celebrates 100th Anniversary of Service Above Self

(ROTARY INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT MARK DAVID MALONEY SPEAKING SATURDAY NIGHT IN EFFINGHAM)

Service Above Self.

It's Rotary International's motto and it has been the guiding force for the Effingham Noon Rotary Club since its inception 100 years ago.

Noon Rotary celebrated its centennial anniversary Saturday night with a banquet at Thelma Keller Convention Center in Effingham. Rotary International President Mark David Maloney was the keynote speaker for the event. Maloney, who lives in Alabama, is a southern Illinois native who still has a farm there and still chairs the Ridgway, Illinois, Popcorn Festival.

To put his term as president of RI in perspective, though, Maloney soon will be heading to Calcutta, India, to help that club celebrate its centennial. He also has an upcoming private meeting with Pope Francis, so his second visit to Effingham within the year was significant.

Maloney made the point while the anniversary of the Effingham Noon club was significant, the event was necessary to celebrate all that the club has accomplished during that 100 years.

Other dignitaries in attendance were Rotary International Director from Zones 30 and 31 Floyd Lancia and District Director Julie Dobski.

A PowerPoint presentation highlighting Noon Rotary's history was shared, dating back to the founding of Rotary in 1905 and the establishment of the Effingham club by Ben Kagay. Kagay became aware of Rotary and its potential for change in the world during a visit to the Chicago club in 1919. Saturday night's banquet was held 100 years to the day from the first meeting of the Noon club on February 1, 1920. 

Noon Rotary has been involved locally and globally in many people-helping endeavors. Those include outreach efforts in Africa and South America, a scholarship program each year for a graduate of each city high school, construction of a pavilion at Community Park, donation of trees at Evergreen Hollow Park at Harmony Playground, and benches at Evergreen Hollow Park. 

Noon Rotary is also part of a global effort to eradicate polio. It would be just the second disease to be eradicated, and the disease has been confined to just a couple of nations with a small number of new cases being seen in those nations. Rotary International has partners in the endeavor, chiefly the Gates Foundation.

There are more than 1.2 million Rotarians, worldwide.