Linda Puchbauer creates service opportunities, inspires leadership in others

Linda Puchbauer chartered The Rotary Club of Southeast Missouri Service on March 2, 2021, as a nontraditional cause-based club. Less than one-and-a-half years later, the club has completed more than 40 service activities.

From picking up trash to packing food boxes and hosting toy drives, this small but mighty club has found every possible way to make a difference in the community.

Puchbauer started the non-traditional club after noticing a need for a Rotary Club with flexible scheduling. As opposed to typical Rotary clubs, the Rotary Club of Southeast Missouri Service meets once a month and allows members to choose between two meeting dates and times or join virtually on Zoom.

As president, Puchbauer wants to ensure her members’ needs are met and voices are heard. She wants members to use their own imagination and passion to expand the service projects they take on as a club.

“I encourage others to take the lead. I don’t need to take the lead on every project. I try to teach leadership to grow my members into leadership roles. … Letting them grow their own style of leadership by taking on projects,” Puchbauer said. “To be a great leader, you have to lead others to lead. You can’t do it all yourself.”

The Rotary Club of Southeast Missouri Service is behind-the-scenes helping wherever they are needed. They assemble and clean up the Cape Riverfront Market almost every weekend, May through October. They clean up their MoDOT adopted highway every other month. They pack boxes at the SEMO Food Bank six times a year. The club’s list of service projects is so extensive, Puchbauer uses an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of it all.

“We give our time and talents back to the community. We don’t do much of anything else except serve our community,” Puchbauer said. “Organizations that are short-handed on volunteers, we’re there for them.”

Puchbauer served as president of another Rotary Club and as Rotary 6060 District governor before chartering the Rotary Club of Southeast Missouri Service. In addition to being charter president of her club, Puchbauer currently serves as the Rotary 6060 District Foundation chair.

Community involvement is Puchbauer’s pastime and passion. She is involved with the Jackson Chamber of Commerce, Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce, Retired Senior Volunteer Program, Redhawks Club, Leadership Jackson and LaCroix Church’s children ministry, the Reign Forest. Besides her leadership roles in Rotary Club, she serves as chairman of the Education Committee for the Jackson Chamber of Commerce.

“With my experiences, this was a natural fit to start and lead [the Rotary Club of Southeast Missouri Service], to make it what it is and what it will be,” Puchbauer said.

She is also making an impact as credentials specialist at the Community Counseling Center. Puchbauer takes care of the doctors, nurses and physicians’ licensing or insurance needs, so they can take care of clients’ needs. She served on the Community Counseling Center’s Foundation board for 17 years, and helped start the annual Craft Beer Festival fundraiser.

Puchbauer simply can’t find enough ways to get involved in the community. In her free time, she said she sings at the Jackson Senior Center for the Fourth of July and Veterans’ Day holidays. She says volunteering and involvement is part of who she is, and “no one is going to change that.”

Puchbauer works hard to not only make a difference, but foster a difference-making attitude in others. One moment that sticks out to Puchbauer is when a member of her Rotary Club gave her a hug after an event and said, “Linda, you make me a better person. I’m so glad you’re leading us.”

“It almost made me cry when she said that,” Puchbauer said. “I really hope that my big caring heart and enthusiasm and the love of the community inspires others to get involved.”