Each Thursday noon at the Wenatchee Red Lion Inn our president begins our club meeting by saying, "Welcome to the finest service club in North Central Washington!" There's a little bit of a boast in that greeting, but no exaggeration. For eighty years the Wenatchee Rotary Club has been making an outstanding contribution to Rotary International, to this region, and to people in need all over the world.

The Wenatchee club, established as an offshoot of the Spokane Rotary on January 11, 1921, has given birth to the Cashmere, Leavenworth, Wenatchee North, Chelan, Wenatchee Sunrise, and East Wenatchee clubs. It is honored to be the home club of Rotary International President (1985-1986) Dr. Ed Cadman. The club's 180 members are led by a 12-member board, which employs a part-time Executive Secretary (Carol Norton has served in this role for over 30 years).

Twenty-eight committees carry out the club's many projects. Club dues support over $10,000 of local and international service work. In addition, a bi-annual auction usually nets the club from $60-80,000 for a major project. Past projects have included lighting local ball fields, building a large children's play area along with over 1200 volunteers, contributing artworks to local parks, and much more. Given its size and role in the community, the club is often the venue of choice for visiting congressmen, legislators and other dignitaries. In 2002 it hosted former Seattle mayor Norm Rice and Congressman Doc Hastings. In previous years it has welcomed U.S. Senators, the governor, and others. High quality programs are a very high priority and are ably led by an effective Program Committee.

The club is proud of its weekly newsletter, The Appleseed, and of its website: www.wenatcheerotary.org\ . Both are excellent sources for information about club activities and about Rotary International. At the end of last year, our club set very clear goals for its 2000-2001 program.

Looking back, it's clear the club has met most all its goals and shared in some other surprising successes as well. Here's a partial list:

The club has completed and will soon dedicate an $80,000 Railroad Depot and garage to a local city park. This facility serves an historic children's railroad and will be used each year by thousands of children. Wenatchee Rotarians successfully led the Back to Camp 2001 Auction that raised over $75,000 to support the work of three local youth camps. Club members pledged and contributed over 10,000 hours of service to our community and, by the end of the year, will probably surpass our goal by 25%. The club hosted an artist exchange, arranged with the help of our cooperating club, the Troitsk (Russia) Rotary Club. What a treat to have singers, instrumentalists, and an expert watercolor artist in Wenatchee for a week.

Members joined in the city's Make a Difference Day emphasis and had over 100 people share in renovating a park. In partnership with District 5060 and the Rotary International Foundation the club sponsored a free immunization clinic. Wenatchee's contribution of $400 was matched with $1600 from the district and the RI Foundation. We immunized over 125 kids. The club also completed a variety of miscellaneous projects, including re-roofing a youth cabin at Camp Zanika, sponsoring a Clean Air poster contest for school children, hosting a local Lunch Buddy program, sponsoring an exchange student, granting a Vocational Excellence award, and much, much, more.

It's clear why nearly 180 people are proud to call Wenatchee Rotary their club. This is a great group of people that work together to do wonderful things.