SNP Rotary Celebrates 100 Years of Service Above Self

On Sunday, October 22, 1922, at the Canoe Brook Country Club, the newly formed Summit Rotary Club held its inaugural dinner.

This past Saturday, on the 22^nd of October 2022, exactly 100 years to the day later, the Summit/New Providence Rotary Club celebrated its 100^th birthday at, where else, the Canoe Brook Country Club.

About eighty celebrants, Rotarians, family and friends, commemorated Rotary’s many successes over the past century.  Among just a few accomplishments highlighted were our ninety-seven consecutive years of college and university scholarships to deserving high school seniors, our participation with Rotary International in the near eradication of Polio, our several international projects aiding the small Indian village of our friend and past president, Gus Pushparaj, our decades long Dictionary Project providing specially designed dictionaries to every third-grader in both school districts and our more recent Constitution Project providing pamphlets containing the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and learning materials to every middle-schooler in both districts, and our most recent effort, in process, to partner with the Summit Old Guard to create a career counseling program to share our substantial accumulated knowledge and experiences with the high school students as they prepare to start on their own journeys.  We are proud of our past accomplishments, but not resting on our laurels.

There were a few very short speeches briefly recapping some of our highlights by several Rotarians and a special short commentary by Amanda Kowal Kenyon, who a quarter of a century ago, benefited from a Rotary exchange program that expanded her horizons and changed her life, for the better.  There was also a short video produced by Lucas Pastor, Roz Dorlen's talented grandson, describing some of Rotary's best features - watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkr4B-JVWnY .

Our Gala committee did an outstanding job of creating a wonderful atmosphere and everyone present enjoyed excellent food and drink and even more importantly, what usually happens when Rotarians gather, bonhomie and good fellowship, as we all celebrated 100 years of Service Above Self.

An extra special thanks to our Gala committee who made this happen:
Co-Chairs - Roz Dorlen & Beth McKenna
Evelyn Davis – Immediate Past President
Eric Evers – President & our MC
David Dietze, Joe Steiner, Melanie Cohn, Mike Katz, Jay Leatherbee & Jim Fleischmann.