They're proud and maybe this weekend they'll even be a little loud.
The Estevan Rotary Club crowd might have every right to put themselves out there a little more boldly this weekend since they are acknowledging a huge landmark in their long history of public service.
There aren't too many service organizations that can claim 90 continuous years of dedicated contributions to their home community as well as on the world stage, but Estevan's club has done just that.
Brian Pilloud, who has the pleasure of serving as the club's president during this special year, came aboard the Rotary train in 2001, moving up to the presidency in July of last year.
Like all the other members, he was attracted to the idea of giving back to the community. He admitted at first he had to have his arm twisted just a bit by his recruiter, Wayne Claypool, a dedicated Rotarian himself, but once he took a serious glance into the club's history, membership and mandate, it was easy to get hooked. Now he finds himself preparing for a memorable weekend, especially Friday night when the club will celebrate with the Rotary District Governor Rick Hubbs, who will make his way to Estevan from his home in The Pas, Man. He will be joined by former district governor Peter Peters of Saskatoon, who, as guest speaker, will focus on international project topics.
Pilloud said the protocol level will be raised significantly since they found out that Saskatchewan's Lieutenant-Governor Vaughn Solomon Schofield has accepted their invitation to join them and provide a brief message as well.
Pilloud said the evening will include the awarding of no fewer than seven Paul Harris Fellowship Awards, one of the highest awards a Rotarian can receive.
All this will happen in the Days Inn Plaza.
"We are the longest continually operating service club in Estevan, starting in 1923," Pilloud said. Rotary International, headquartered in Chicago, was only 20 years old then, having gained the international status in 1912 with their first club outside the United States ... in Winnipeg.
The first president of the Estevan club was local tree nursery owner T.A. "Torge" Torgeson.
"Our longest serving Rotarian now is probably Eric Pullam, with about 35 years. He started here, moved to other locations but retained an active membereship and has now retired here," said Pilloud.
The club has seen a modest membership revival in recent years, boasting about 50 active members with one-third of them being females. Pilloud noted that Rotary, along with most other service clubs, "got rid of the old boys club mandate several years ago."
The current president said he was struck by the fact that in its fledgling years, the Estevan Rotary Club members took an avid interest in the local agricultural scene as evidenced by the number of projects they undertook that adhered to that theme. (See accompanying article). That has included their sponsorship of a 4-H calf auction every summer for over 50 years now.
Another long-standing Rotary tradition is their annual Christmas Carol Festival evening. That's been going on for over 40 years.
"Sometimes we feel the pressure to keep it going. It's good pressure though," Pilloud said with a laugh.
Through the course of their 90 years, Rotarians in Estevan have embarked on huge projects in aid of not only agriculture but also medical, educational, cultural and recreational endeavours. The long-standing Rotary Park, located in Woodlawn Regional Park, is just one example of lengthy commitment to the community's well being.
There is also a huge international high school student exchange program that strikes the chord on both the national and international union of members and also with the local clubs that play host to students from abroad on both long-term (full academic year) or short-term arrangements. They've been engaged in that program since 1979, welcoming at least one exchange student a year on a pretty continuous basis, but not consecutively since there have been breaks in the string every few years.
"We bring them here as teenagers and have them return home as adults," said Pilloud.
Playing host to foreign teenagers can be a real challenge, but the Rotarians know how to do it and they support the Estevan and area student who gets to visit another country as a result.
"Teenagers are teenagers, no matter what country they come from, but we've never had any major issues with the visiting students, at least nothing we wouldn't expect with a teenager," Pilloud said.
They have sent students on Model United Nations experiences where they got to debate global issues, serving the Rotary's international mandates. They've also sent them to Adventure in Citizenship workshops in Ottawa to learn how the Canadian democratic system really works.
"You can tell, youth programs are high on our list," Pilloud added.
On the local front, the club has just recently pitched in with funds and sweat equity to rebuild Rotary Park and Rotary Hall in Woodlawn Regional Park which was right in the path of 2011's devastating flood waters. They also recommitted to the rebuilding of the washrooms and concession area at Frehlick Hall, home of the Souris Valley Theatre, also in Woodlawn. There was no question that they would embark on the rebuilding effort in the wake of the disaster.
Rotarians really get to shine when it comes to international work too, efforts that are genuinely supported by the local club.
"There are a huge number of international projects. We'll bring in medical equipment to a maternity ward in Uruguay or wheelchairs in India. There is the Shelterbox program for disaster relief efforts around the world. We don't advertise locally about what we do on the global scene because we want to keep our home community focused on awareness of the local projects, but we do participate on the international scale at a healthy level," Pilloud said.
"Locally, in any given year, we'll be pumping $20,000 worth of gifts of one form or another into the community. Those would be the typical projects. Then we have our big commitments like the $100,000 we've pledged for the new nursing home and the $50,000 we contributed to Spectra Place. We raise that money through local fundraising events like the Lobsterfest and the Rotary Auction. Those are yearly things the city can count on that helps us raise cash. We even do bingos for three months to keep the cash coming in."
So where is the future going to take them?
Well, another 90 years, for sure. But the immediate future?
"We've made some big donations and commitments in the past couple of years, but we're getting close to completing them so the call is going out to the community, asking them what they think we could do next. I'm sure that will evolve because in this city the ideas are always flowing," Pilloud said with a smile.
And on the international scene, they'll keep the medical equipment flowing into foreign countries and they'll definitely be sticking to their major international project of eradicating polio throughout the world.
"We're narrowing it down. Polio was only found in three countries last year, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria and only because certain areas there were hard to get into due to remoteness or the fact they were considered heavy conflict regions where our people couldn't get to their people to provide vaccinations," Pilloud said. "But so far, it's been a great program. They have immunized over two billion children and we've teamed up with the World Health Organization and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to make it happen."
They help sell calves and rebuild barbecue pits in Estevan and wipe out polio and deploy wheelchairs in India. It's all good.
That's what Rotarians do.
