Cape, Jackson Rotary Club chapters reach milestones

Cape Girardeau and Jackson Rotarians are throwing themselves a birthday party. Thursday marks the respective 90th and 80th anniversary celebrations for the clubs. The Rotary Club of Cape Girardeau was established in 1919, and the Jackson Rotary Club received its charter from the Cape Girardeau club in 1929.

Paul P. Harris founded the Rotary in Chicago in 1905 with the help of business associates that included a coal dealer, mining engineer and merchant tailor. The club's motto, "Service Above Self," is exemplified in community, country and international service. Rotary is the oldest international service club. The club began accepting women in 1989.

Brigitte Bollerslev, the current Jackson Rotary president, said she had tears in her eyes the first day she took the podium as a guest speaker at Jackson Rotary Club on Sept. 11, 2001.

"I was sure they'd cancel everything," Bollerslev said. "I had been in the Twin Towers, so I knew exactly where they were talking about. The topic I was to speak on that day was our business, Old Bavarian Sausage."

She said she changed the topic to world understanding, peace, suffering and grief. After her speech that day, she was invited to become a member of Rotary, something attained by invitation only.

Bollerslev moved to Jackson from Munich, Germany, in 1996. She said Rotarians helped her overcome her homesickness.

"They made me already feel welcome," she said. "But more than anything they helped me assimilate and to really be part of the community I've come to love."

Eric Barnard, 13, of Jackson raced his soap box car down North Sprigg Street in the Soap Box Derby in 2005 in Cape Girardeau.

Rotary Club of Cape Girardeau sponsors a Soap Box Derby every year. The club has placed plaques marking historical events and locations in Cape Girardeau.

Rotarians built a recreational lake, trail and mile markers at Jackson City Park and park concession stands in Jackson's Soccer Park, made investments in youth clubs, education, special education and scholarships and much more.

"Traditionally, the Rotary club has not made large single contributions to particular people or fundraisers, but many hundreds of smaller donations throughout its history," said John Grimm, Rotary Club of Cape Girardeau president. "The club will give away lots of gifts that are able to impact the community."

Grimm said the Cape Girardeau club has sponsored an academic excellence dinner for graduating high school seniors for more than 40 years.

CHRIS PAGANO ~ cpagano@semissourian.com Brigitte Bollerslev

"It was started by John Blue, a Southeast Missourian editor, who felt it was important to recognize local high school students who were scholars," he said. Blue was club president from 1959 to 1960.

Trudy Lee, the Cape club's president-elect, said supporting youth programs serves future generations.

"It's important for everyone who has a vision for the future to help them understand what's beyond their own computer or television," Lee said. "The way we talk about what we do at the club and how we volunteer personally helps the students understand Rotary. There are students from Notre Dame and Cape Central who meet with us and learn the ideals of Rotary. Every meeting we do the four-way test."

The four-way test asks four questions of the things we think, say or do: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

CHRIS PAGANO ~ cpagano@semissourian.com John Grimm

Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor created the test in 1931 when he was asked to take charge of the Chicago-based Club Aluminum Co., which was facing bankruptcy. He drew up the 24-word code of ethics for employees to follow in their business and professional lives. It became a guide for all facets of the company and the survival of the company was credited to the simple philosophy. It was adopted by Rotary in 1943.

According to the Rotary International website, the world's oldest service club takes its name from the early practice of rotating meetings among members' offices.

The club's trademark logo, a wheel, is ever mindful of Rotary's reach.

Rotary's youth and professional programs encourage understanding of other cultures through the group study exchange and the youth exchange programs that serve as a bridge to international friendships.

"My father was instrumental in setting up the International Youth Exchange Program in Jackson and later he was the chair for District 6060," Jackson club member Vernon Kasten Jr. said. The late Vernon Kasten helped develop policies, screening and recruitment criteria. District 6060 extends from Hannibal, Mo., to the Bootheel and includes 62 clubs.

Rotary Youth Exchange students spend up to a year living with host families and attending school in a different country.

"It's a life changing experience for these kids," Kasten said. "Dad got to know those kids so well, my parents visited them when they went to Europe. They went to some of their weddings."

"When Dad died, e-mails were flying in from all over the world," Kasten said.

Rotary's group study exchange benefits young professionals, 25 to 40 years of age, who are not yet Rotarians. The program provides travel grants for teams to exchange visits in paired areas of different countries. For four to six weeks, team members experience the host country's culture and institutions, observe how vocations are practiced abroad, develop personal and professional relationships and exchange ideas.

Thursday's anniversary dinner at the Cape Girardeau Country Club will celebrate the organization and accomplishments of both clubs. A special guest speaker, Ray Klinginsmith of the Kirksville, Mo., Rotary Club became Rotary International president-elect for 2010 to 2011 in October. Klinginsmith was the guest speaker at Jackson Rotary Club's 75th anniversary and has friends in both clubs.

Dan Cotner, a Cape Girardeau Rotarian for more than 50 years, said that many older members know Klinginsmith, who was once in same district as Cape Girardeau and Jackson (district 6060), until redistricting changed that.

"A lot old-timers timers know him very well," Cotner said.

Cotner, a Global Alumni Service to Humanity award candidate, received seven Rotary Volunteer Grants over the past two decades to provide dental care in foreign countries. After completing a dental care clinic in India, Cotner extended his visit for pleasure.

"We came across a Rotary group administering the polio vaccine and I got to do one," Cotner said. Cotner called the project to eradicate polio "the world's greatest health project."

In 1985, Rotary made a commitment to immunize all of the world's children against polio, a crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease. According tothe Rotary International website, the organization has contributed more than $700 million to the fight against polio and countless time and personal resources from Rotary members. Rotary estimates the money and resources have helped immunize nearly two billion children through National Immunization Days and mass immunization campaigns throughout the world.

cpagano@semissourian.com

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