Stories

We welcome everyone in the community to join us at the Collegeville Rotary's Pancake Breakfast - February 22 from 8:30 am to 1:30 pm at Moorehead's Catering.  The PV and Methacton Interact Clubs and the Collegeville Rotary Club invite you to our hearty breakfast buffet, where your donation will raise funds for our local food pantry, The Daily Bread Community Food Pantry. 

The Rotary Club of Collegeville sponsored its annual Halloween parade.  No one knows how long we have been doing this, but parade chairman Joe Greenwald believes this to be his 25th year!  This is a long standing tradition that the community looks forward to each year.  Families, neighborhoods and businesses came together to create floats, imagine outrageous costumes and put on a show!  The Perkiomen Valley High School marching band, Longhorn football and cheerleading, andarea fire companies were all on hand to celebrate.  Of course Santa made his usual appearance on a fire truck, delighting everyone young and old.  Prizes were awarded by age group for best costumes.  The rain threatened us for a bit, but it turned out to be a great evening enjoyed by all!

The Collegeville Rotary Club proudly announce their Citizens of the Year and Teachers of the Year for 2014!  We invite you to celebrate with us on October 15 at the RiverCrest Golf Club as we award the Paul Harris Fellow to our Citizens of the Year, and honor those teachers who represent our schools.  Please see below for details.

Our Citizens of the Year are Joel and Loretta Stever of Schwenksville.  Joel and Loretta have coordinated establishing and operating the Jerusalem Community Food Pantry for almost 20 years.  Their client list has grown from 25 families to 250, with total number served estimated at over 1000 per month.  They work tirelessly to provide food and various services to the entire Perkiomen Valley area - from Collegeville to Green Lane to Telford to Lansdale.  The Food Pantry is in the process of moving to a new facility, having outgrown their current home at the Jerusalem Lutheran Church.  They will need all of our support in their efforts! 

Our Teachers of the Year have been nominated by their students.  Mrs. Bobbie Paul was selected from Perkiomen Valley High School and Mrs. Maggi McGettigan was selected from Methacton.  Bobbie has taught Earth Sciences for 21 years, and Maggi teaches 11th grade English and AP English at Methacton.

     Last week the Collegeville Club began what will be a year long celebration its 65 years.   Initially named the Lower Perkiomen chapter, the club was chartered on July 27, 1949 and sponsored by the Phoenixville Rotary club.  The event was held at Spring Mount hotel in Schwenksville where some 300 people listened to  guest speaker Supreme Court Justice Owen J. Roberts  discuss the ideals of Rotary. This week we honored our 20 charter members, among them the club's first president, Clarence A. Warden Jr.  Other charter members were Henry Brown Jr., Clement Bean, Anthony Chiccarine, William Coburn, Raymond Fishlock, Dr. Ivan Hess, Clay Hess, Robert Johnston, Dr. Herbert Kaplan, Louis Krug, William Philip, W.B. Rawlings, Alves Raynor, Harvey Richards, Andy Rihl, Chester Sellers, Harvey Vanderslice, Clyde Whitman, and W. Russell Zimmerman. 

We took away plenty of good tips for planning the district conference when our own Doug Cook serves as District Govenor in 2015-16!

 We are proud to announce the re-charter of the Ursinus Rotaract Club.  Rotaract brings together people ages 18-30 in universities and communities worldwide to organize service activities, develop leadership and professional skills, and have fun. Rotary clubs sponsor them, but Rotaract members manage and fund their clubs independently. Rotaract members work closely with their local Rotary club, and may join any club after their Rotaract membership ends.  After several years with no Rotaract on campus, Rotartian and Ursinus Director of Institutional Research, Angelo Sorrentino took up the challenge to re-establish the club.  He was able to find a number of dedicated young students to roll up their sleeves and get to work.  Several of them were an essential part of our Pancake Breakfast crew this year.

     A dinner was held on the Ursinus campus on April 23, 2014 to celebrate Rotaract's charter.  Collegeville club president, David Kaplan welcomed the group of students and emphasized the importance of the two clubs working together to serve the community.  Also in attendance were District Governor Frank Romano and his wife Jean, and Assistant District Governor Marie Ann Thompson.  Both had words of encouragement for the students and reminded them of the world wide opportunities to serve that comes with being a part of Rotary. 

The Collegeville Rotary Club held its annual changeover dinner at Rivercrest on June 18, 2014.  President David Kaplan welcomed incoming president Lynn Fleisher.  Lont time Rortarian Don Wannamaker was honored for his years of service to the club with the "Charter Award".  Ravi Kurumety received the "Rotarian of the Year" award for all his good work with our youth committee.  The evening was highlighted by a special presentation by Joy Miksic on the Qumi Homes Project in South Africa.