Rotary Club of Chester Brings Smiles to the Community

Chester Rotarians gathered in front of Chester City Hall
to plant flowers and add some fall colors to the
base of the Chester Rotary Clock.
Pictured left to right are, Warren Sell,
La Tanya Burno, Louise Vitiello Burroughs
and Joe Saunders.

(October 16, 2014) (Chester, Pa) — The Rotary Club of Chester has active and compassionate members that routinely get involved in community service projects that help Chester and other local communities. Each month the Rotarians schedule a service project for the 3^rd week of the month that creates an opportunity for the business leaders and community advocates to interact with students of all ages, local business owners, community leaders and/or seniors who could use a helping hand. During September, the Rotarians increased their service events to include three separate outreach activities as smiles were shared from a member’s house to elementary school classrooms to an event in front of Chester’s City Hall.

Eleven members of the Rotary Club of Chester
recently gathered at Francy Cross’s home
to label and organize books for local 3^rd
grade classrooms.
Pictured left to right are,
Warren Sell, Bill Atlee, Aubrey Proud,
Faith Holefelder, Michael Cantland,
Joe Saunders, Art Sybrandy,
Kimberly Koterba, La Tanya Burno and
Louise Vitiello Burroughs.
Not pictured, Francy Cross.

On September 16, eleven Rotarians met at Francy Cross’s house for the first service project. After having a wonderful homemade meal, the group placed a Rotary seal on the inside cover of a selection of chapter books to be donated to 3^rd grade classrooms within elementary schools in Chester and vicinity. Afterwards, the group organized the distribution plan for the 560 books to the 20 classrooms scheduled for the following week. The book purchase was made possible by club fundraisers and a grant from the Gundaker Foundation of Rotary District 7450.

Chester Rotarians, Faith Holefelder and Francy Cross,
proudly showcase the Rotary seal and a
sample of the 560 books that were
recently donated to local 3^rd grade classrooms.

During the week of Sept. 22, Rotarians volunteered to distribute the boxes of books to the classrooms. This created a good opportunity for the appreciative 8 and 9 year olds along with their teachers to thank the membership in person. Of course, for the Rotarians it is not the praise or appreciation that is most important, it is the smile of the young person or an ambitious teacher that generates the most satisfaction. These moments were evident in each classroom, and the Rotarians left confident that the important message of literacy and developing a love for reading would be learned in the weeks, months, and hopefully years to come.

Chester Rotarians, Francy Cross, Bill Atlee and
Art Sybrandy, enjoyed the opportunity to
interact with the 3^rdgrade students at the
Chester Community Charter school in Upland
as they delivered the new books to their classroom.
19 other local classrooms received
similar visits and donations.

On Sept. 30, Rotarians gathered once again, this time in front of Chester’s City Hall on a beautiful early fall morning to do some clean up around the Rotary clock. They added some traditional fall colors by planting a variety of mums at the base of the clock. Dressed in their branded yellow t-shirts, members got to work with their work gloves, shovels and leaf blowers. After an hour of yard work, laughter, companionship, and a little sweat, the group of service-focused leaders left knowing that September had offered great opportunities of service that resulted in many smiles.

About Rotary Club of Chester

This Club was founded in 1917. In 2010, the Club adopted a modified meeting schedule that offers its members some flexibility with regard to meeting attendance, meeting topics and guest speakers. Currently the Club meets on Tuesday’s for lunch at the Cove Restaurant within Harrah’s from 12:10 – 1:15 p.m. New memberships are welcome, and all membership inquiries can be sent to warren631@msn.com.