Dublin A.M. Rotary 1989-2007

 

 

Rotary International

 

Paul Harris, founder of Rotary International, was born in 1868 in Racine, Wisconsin.  His father died early and Paul spent his youth living with a grandfather.  After two attempts at college followed by miscellaneous jobs, he finally graduated from the University of Iowa Law School.  Following more travel and jobs, he moved to Chicago where he gradually realized how important his business friends were. 

 

On February 23, 1905, he and three of these friends founded the first Rotary Club starting a movement that quickly grew, resulting first in a second club in San Francisco.  In 1910 the Cincinnati club (Club #17) was formed and in 1911, the Cleveland club (#18) was created, followed in 1912 by the Downtown Columbus Club (#38).  The Dublin A.M. Club was founded by the Dublin-Worthington Club which traces its origins directly to the Downtown Club, which has spawned eighteen other Clubs in the Greater Columbus area.

 

 

Beginnings at Dublin AM Rotary

 

Until well into the 1980s, the Dublin-Worthington Rotary Club was the only rotary club in northwestern Franklin County.  By then northwestern Franklin County was growing rapidly and the Dublin-Worthington Club was becoming so large that it regularly overfilled its Wednesday luncheon meeting room at the La Scala Restaurant on Route 161 in Dublin.  There was then no other suitable venue in either Worthington or Dublin for a group this large.  However, if a suitable venue could be found, creating a breakfast club in Dublin would solve the space issue.  Further, it would also provide a convenient early morning make-up site for the many Rotarians, members of the Downtown club, who were now moving to the northwestern suburbs.

 

In 1989, three Dublin-Worthington members, Roger Johnson, David King and Pat Dugan contacted Margie Amorose, Executive Director of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce about forming a new Dublin Rotary Club.  Margie led the process of forming a new club along with Sam Smiley, DDS, then president of the Dublin Chamber.  The five of them met regularly at Oscar’s, a restaurant on High Street in Dublin.  A sandwich and coffee shop, equipped with a pot-bellied stove, Oscars was a local gathering spot.  Roger Johnson contacted Rotary International for material needed to form a new club and the chartering process was completed in eighteen months.  Although the idea of a breakfast club made sense to members of other clubs, initially it was difficult finding the necessary twenty-five charter members.  Mike Close, former town mayor, was approached and said “put my name down but don’t expect to ever see me”.   Apparently Mike didn’t understand one of the main requirements of a Rotarian and that is good attendance! In 1993 Mike changed his mind and most who are familiar with the club’s development know him best as an outstanding, and frequently irreverent, Sergeant at Arms.  By 1990 we had acquired sufficient initial members that the Club’s Charter could be issued.

 

The formation of the Dublin AM Rotary Club was occurring just as Rotary International changed its charter from an organization of all men to admitting women.  Thus the twenty-six charter members of our club were comprised of nineteen men and seven women.  The charter members were:  

 

Margie Amorose                                                Lee Beall

Frankie Foster                                                   Jerry Borin

Faye Herriott                                                     Greg Butler

Janet Jordan                                                      Richard Corson

Debbie Lutz                                                       David Dickinson

Donna Neidhardt                                                Vic Feldmiller

Karen O’Neal Sengelmann                                  Trevor Ferger

                                                                        Bob Goelz

                                                                        Pat Grabill

                                                                        Terry Hofecker

                                                                        Brian Horne

                                                                        Bob Hoppe

                                                                        Dave Monfort

                                                                        Don Muccino

                                                                        Malcolm Read

                                                                        Daryl Schorsten

                                                                        Sam Smiley

                                                                        Jim West

                                                                        Ron White

 

Although the club grew at a fast pace, many of the club’s charter members eventually served as president of the organization.  Brian Horne, a local architect, was elected the club’s first President and Karen O’Neal, its President Elect.  A charter party was held at The Country Club at Muirfield and members of many of the local Rotary Clubs attended bringing presents.  The Dublin-Worthington Club provided us our bell and US flag.  Victor Feldmiller soon became our longtime treasurer as well as keeper of the Club’s corporate memory.

 

In the intervening sixteen years, Club membership has grown from 26 to our current 154 members.  Along the way, for a variety of reasons (size, job change, family situations change) some of our members have elected to join other area rotary clubs.  A few of our former members have assisted in the establishment of other Rotary Clubs, including Worthington AM and Lewis Center.

 

 

Meeting Sites

 

Initially the Club met in the Colorado Rose Steak House on Caine Road near Route 270 and Sawmill Road.  Later, it moved to what is now the Crowne Plaza Hotel, formerly the Clarion Hotel and formerly Stouffers on Metro Park Drive.  Because it was then also the only site in Dublin suitable for medium-sized conferences, too often we found our meeting room was needed for other uses requiring us to meet in the hotel bar, a site not well suited for talks and presentations.  We were even temporarily housed at Bob Molitor’s new office building for a brief period.  Later Chef Handke opened his new restaurant, Handke’s Table, in Dublin and we were invited for breakfast.  Although his menu was superb we gradually outgrew even his dining areas.  Then when he sold the business, we were again homeless.  However, we were rescued by The Country Club of Muirfield where we have been since 1997.  When The Country Club closes for the month of January to permit staff vacations, we meet at another location for the month.   As we continue to grow beyond 150 members and bring in guests and visiting Rotarians, inevitably we could also stretch even the Country Club facilities which might lead to the need for a another Dublin Rotary Club.

 

 

Forming the Worthington AM Club

 

In 2001, Pete Lenz and past president Bill Wahoff from our own club held planning meetings with Rotarians from the Dublin-Worthington and Westerville Sunrise Clubs as well as with leadership from District 6690.  They concluded that the three clubs by then were sufficiently large and well stabilized that a fourth club should be formed in Worthington to accommodate further local growth.  They further concluded that this club should also be a breakfast club and thus the Worthington AM Club was chartered in 2001.  It too faced location problems.  The club members first met at the La Chatelaine Restaurant, then moved next to the Worthington School Headquarters and are now at the Radisson Hotel on High Street.  Currently the Worthington AM Club has about 40 members.

 

As of June 2005, nineteen Clubs exist within the Greater Columbus metropolitan area and each can trace its origin, directly or indirectly, to the downtown Columbus Club formed in 1912 only 4 years after the initial Rotary Club was formed in Chicago.

 

 

 

Funding Sources

 

All Rotary Clubs are non-profit and each, in addition to collecting membership dues, sponsors community fund raising events to support local, regional and international projects.  These dollars are also used to fund the club’s share of district-wide events as well as projects organized through Rotary International.

 

Our best known fund raiser has been Caddyshack, begun in 1991 and developed to coincide with the Memorial Golf Tournament.  The Memorial Tournament a PGA golf tour stop was the idea of local professional golf legend, Jack Nicklaus. The event took its name got from a popular 1980 movie comedy called “Caddyshack” and grew quickly to become a locally important social event.  To support the evening’s on-going silent auction, club members solicit items from local stores, dinners from local restaurants, golf packages and other items.  The fundraiser features a buffet for the guests.  In recent years this feast has been planned and prepared by our member, Chef Hartmut Handke, CMC (Certified Master Chef) with substantial assistance from the talented culinary staff at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.   Members sell tables to local corporate sponsors.  Some years we’ve had local radio and TV personalities conduct our live auction of the more valuable items such as condo weeks, private fly-in parties etc.  Caddyshack initially occurred on the Saturday evening of the Memorial but as pressure for local hotel space increased, and competition with Memorial Tournament Parties it was moved to the first Friday in May.  All funds collected go directly to our Dublin AM Rotary Foundation and the Foundation.  The 2006 Caddyshack raised a record $44,000!

 

Several years ago, we also created a Dublin events calendar listing events and information important to the local community.  To personalize and to make more money, we sold $25 announcements and members herald wedding anniversaries, birthdays and other special occasions on the dates on the calendar.  We also sell advertising and group picture space.  The calendar itself is distributed free through local banks and stores each November and December.   We have cleared as much as $8,000 from the sale of advertising.

 

A major Dublin event is the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Blarney Bash, held on the Saturday closest to March 17 annually.  The City of Dublin asked our club to provide parade marshals for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade as well as for the Fourth of July Parade.  In exchange, we arranged for the sale of alcoholic beverages at the Blarney Bash.  Our club obtained the liquor license, negotiated with the company providing the beer; arranged for volunteers to sell beer tickets and to pour beer and arranged for training of the volunteers by the Dublin Police Department.  The Blarney Bash held in a large tent, provides day long entertainment to guests including various Irish bands, bagpipe units and dancing groups from as far away as Ireland.  This is such a well known event, it draws visitors from all over the state.  It begins at the end of the Parade and runs well into the evening.  In 2005 the Club cleared over $19,000 from St. Patrick’s Day events alone.  In 2006 the City of Dublin decided to substantially change its proceeds split structure between it and our club.  Our club’s board of directors had to decline to accept the lower profit from the event because it was not commensurate with the number of hours our club members had to devote to accomplish the City’s donation back to the club.

 

A much smaller fund raiser, but definitely a fun raiser,  results from the combined efforts of the various Sergeants at Arms collecting fines each Friday meeting from our members who have committed such offenses as getting publicity in the local paper or who have failed to wear a Rotary pin to the meeting and whatever other creative and ingenious ways they can think of to generate revenue.  The annual budget for this is in the $2,000 range.

 

Other fund raising efforts also emerge yearly to meet an unanticipated local need.  Our Cancer Awareness Committee’s efforts began as a response to the increasing awareness of the incidence of cancer within the community.  It impacted the Club when the wife of a member was diagnosed with cancer.  In the early stages of her shock at finding out she had the disease, she sought out a support group where she could meet and discuss her feelings with other people who had the disease.  She and her husband were surprised to find that there were no resources such as this in the area.  They worked with a Columbus Wellness organization and several Dublin AM members, and in June 2004 created “The Cancer Support Group of Dublin.”  This organization meets twice a month with two counselors.  One group consists of the people who have cancer or have survived cancer and the other meeting is for the care givers to find support.  Both meetings are attended by a professional counselor. There is no cost to the people attending the meetings and the meetings are open to people who live anywhere in the greater Columbus area.  The Cancer Awareness Committee supported the cost of the by-monthly meetings by raising funds through several events, primarily wine tasting parties.  Eventually the member’s wife was required to have a bone marrow transplant.  What they learned during that process was that not many people were aware of the international bone marrow donor registry.  Bringing information to our membership through weekly programs and through the hard work of these two individuals, our club sponsored a Bone Marrow Drive through the Red Cross.  Now more people annually are being added to the registry.  There have been two successful matches made from people who registered at our bone marrow drives. Cancer research was the major district initiative of the 2005-06 Rotary year.  At the District Governor’s direction each club raised funds to be donated to cancer research at the James Hospital on the OSU campus.  

 

Our Science and Technology Committee have helped the Dublin High Schools create their district-wide Robotics Team.  We approached local technological companies in the community and from them raised funds to provide for entry fees, team travel to national competitions as well as funds for parts needed for their robot.  In the past three years of involvement, Dublin students won a Team Spirit Award (2002), an Engineering Excellence Awards (2004) and the Governor’s Cup in 2005.This recognized their exemplary work in teaching science to students in the Columbus area schools.  Each year the students visit the club, entertaining and enthralling us with their robotic genius with what they’ve created for the annual competition.

 

Scarcely a meeting passes without someone rising to advertise a club or district-wide fund raiser such as the Arctic Open Golf Event in January that initially supported Faith Mission in downtown Columbus which became one of the Cancer Support Group’s fund raisers for two years beginning in January 2005.  Meanwhile a local party raising funds for Montana de Luz, an AIDS orphanage in Honduras, attracts many members to help out since Montana de Luz is supported annual by our club.  Occasionally one of the members asks for sponsorship in a triathlon or a 100-hole golf event, or a swimming endurance event.  Each of these outside events is offered to our membership on a strictly optional basis.  No one is ever made to feel as if he or she needs to support what’s being presented, but may if they wish.

 

Debbie Lutz and Sandy Morckel played regional leadership roles in developing a dinner/dance for the Salvation Army’s Tsunami Relief Program. The planning of this event began right after Christmas 2004 and the dinner/dance took place five short weeks later.  The evening raised an incredible $50,000!  Our club also supports conservation activities through the Columbus Zoo in Rwanda.  We have contributed funds to build three classrooms in Rwanda and the effort is ongoing through the partnership with the world renowned Columbus Zoo.  The club also provides help to the local Boy Scouts Council among other ongoing programs through club grants.  These efforts support local projects as well as providing matching funds needed for work locally as well as internationally.  Virtually every club member is involved with these projects and is providing needed leadership.  A Rotary Club soon becomes known by its vigorous attention to community needs and this club is no exception.  More than forty opportunities for community service are available for our club members.  Club members with a passion for certain projects have been very successful over the years garnering not only Foundation dollars but club members’ help on something they’ve brought to the attention of the club.

 

 

 

 

The Future

 

As Dublin continues to grow in the 21st Century, the Dublin AM Rotary Club will continue to serve as an important sounding board for new ideas and for ways in which the community can meet the century’s changing needs.  The Dublin community is expected to reach 60,000 residents by 2020 and this alone suggests the need for at least one additional Club.  The challenge will continue to be one of bringing in new members, saying good-bye to others while maintaining the vibrant and energetic presence that the Dublin community has grown to expect from Dublin A.M. Rotary.