Reaching out to the edge of District 7750 - Indian Land and Lake Wylie clubs

After partially recovering from the Afghanistan trip jet lag and enjoying a nice Labor Day at home, I headed to the Indian Land, Lake Wylie, Fort Mill, and Rock Hill area on Labor Day evening. The trip was exciting in dealing with very heavy rain, thunderstorms, and tornado watches being broadcast on the radio every few minutes. While researching the location of the Indian Land Rotary Club and viewing the Google Earth satellite maps, I thought my trip would take me to a remote wooded area. However, the GPS took me to the home of AG Babette and Don Sabia located in the beautiful Sun City Carolina Lakes Active retirement complex. Babette and Don were gracious hosts and even installed a new wireless device in their home so I could keep up with my other hospital job!

Indian Land is located in the northern panhandle section of Lancaster County where SC 160 intersects US 521. Its name comes from the fact that the area continued to be populated by Indians – predominantly of the Catawba and Waxhaw tribes – after Europeans settled in surrounding areas. Rock Hill,  in neighboring York County, is the largest city near Indian Land.

On Tuesday morning I stumbled out of bed only 30 minutes before the Indian Land Rotary Club met in the Scout Hut of the local Methodist church. Club President Julie Waters enthusiastically led her club. I was impressed with their Happy Dollar program and thought they might have enough money to designate a new Paul Harris Fellow as the Sargent At Arms moved to each club member. The banter between the Clemson and University of South Carolina fans (led by President Julie) was fun and raised lots of money for local charities. I met with the board following the regular meeting and heard about their various projects such as the quarterly highway clean up project, the school beautification project (weeding flower beds, planting new seasonal flowers, mulching beds), the book worm program (promotes reading in the schools), the dictionary projects for elementary school students, and the Honduras water project.

 

AG Babette Sabia was awarded the Notable Rotarian for the Indian Land Rotary Club. She was totally surprised with this recognition, and I was pleased to hear so many club members praise Babette for her work with the club. Everyone in the club has heard Babette's famous words to describe the Indian Land Rotary Club -- "the best club in District 7750"! I felt the excitement and encouraged the club members to continue to grow their membership, Rotary Foundation donations, and to make a difference in their local community and our Rotary world. The club supports several local and international service projects to include local scholarships, the Red Cross blood drive, babysitter education classes, the Clover Area Assistance Center Food Drive, Adopt a Highway, Adopt a Stream, Shoes of Hope, the Justin Mychals Child Cancer Cancer Foundation, Coins/Cash/Checks for Alzheimer's Research Trust (CART), PolioPlus, Kiva organization, and the Kenya Orphange project. The club plans to contribute $150 per capita to the Rotary Foundation Annual Program Fund and PolioPlus!

I traveled to the Lake Wylie Rotary Club for their lunch meeting. I had a great discussion with the board and met in the sanctuary of the Good Samaritan Methodist Church. The church's pastor and a member of the club provided superb AV support for my presentation. The club honored Charles Ford as its Notable Rotarian. Since the club was chartered, Charles has been a key force in the development of the club.  He has been a valuable resource of Rotary knowledge.  He has shown a strong commitment to Rotary through strong attendance.   When he can’t make our meeting he makes up wherever he is traveling – and often speaks to those clubs during his visit.    He works diligently every week to perform his role as our Club’s Secretary and to make sure all of our administrative functions are complete. Charles offered to match dollar for dollar every contribution that other members made in order to buy our club banners.  He was also the individual who donated the initial investment so that our club could issue microloans to struggling entrepreneurs worldwide through Kiva.org.  When it came time for the Luau, Charles quickly sold his required tickets and more. 

On Tuesday evening we traveled to AG Jeff Updike's house and then rode with Jeff on his boat to T-Bones, a popular restaurant on Lake Wylie. Jeff and the Indian Land, Fort Mill, and Lake Wylie club presidents organized this great social event and had over 30 Rotarians come out for the evening!  They had 7 potential new members at the event, and I know several of these will join these clubs soon. I enjoyed spending some time with my dear friend, Al Steele, who has done such great work with water, housing, medical, and educational projects in Honduras and El Salvador.