 | | Dr. Konrad Kempfe and Don Summers work the stand at the Selinsgrove Rotary Club’s Annual Chicken BBQ. (2004) |
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The Selinsgrove Rotary Club started over eighty years ago with a meeting held on April 8, 1927 at First Lutheran Church, now Sharon Lutheran Church, in Selinsgrove. Edgar R. Wingard, a member of the Sunbury Rotary Club and appointee of District Governor John Uhl, presided over the meeting. While no record of the meeting exists, it is assumed that the initial charter members were signed up and plans were made for a formal chartering ceremony.
The actual chartering ceremony took place on June 27, 1927 in the Horton Dining Room of Seibert Hall at Susquehanna University. The Selinsgrove Rotary Club was the 2,553rd club to be chartered into Rotary International. As reported in the Club’s 50th Anniversary booklet, “records indicate that the chartering ceremony was a truly gala affair, with 270 persons representing 15 Rotary Clubs from the surrounding communities”.
It was not long into its history before Rotary International adopted the motto “Service above self – He profits most who serves best,” and is the ideal that guides Rotary Clubs throughout the world in initiating and carrying out service projects and activities. Rotary International is built on an organizational framework that divides its work into four avenues of service:
CLUB SERVICE, which relates to service within the Club and includes fellowship, attendance, programs, Rotary information, and special projects;
VOCATIONAL SERVICE, by which members are encouraged to share the ideals of Rotary with other non-members and practice those ideals in their business or profession;
COMMUNITY SERVICE, which includes community service projects, aid to children, the elderly, the handicapped, funds to other agencies, and for Selinsgrove Rotary, the Rotary Field and the Distinguished Service Award;
INTERNATIONAL SERVICE, which is directed to the improvement of international understanding.
A review of the history of the Selinsgrove Rotary Club makes it clear that its officers and members have established an outstanding record of achievement in the four avenues of service and in living up to The Four Way Test of things we think, say, and do, and asks the following: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build good will and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
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