As Rotarians on holiday, it is always very gratifying to find our international organisation at work in the community. In rural America, this is not very hard at all and, in the past, we have seen a number of benches, trash bins, memorials and so on. I thought it might be interesting to touch on a few examples we found in Washington State this summer(that is the one over on the West Coast, which includes Seattle, not the Capital in the East).
At a little town called Snohamish, perhaps forty miles from Seattle, there was a public water fountain, looking a bit dated antique, provided by the Club bearing the town’s name. As the place seemed to tween with antique, curio and bric-a-brac shops, then perhaps that is not too surprising.
Then there is the Anacosta Club which seemed to be involved with a most unusual project, providing a park with what seemed to be a dog training area, elaborately fenced and organised.
Finally, whilst visiting Chelan Lake, we were pleased to see the Rotary Club of Lake Chelan in the process of setting up a “Salmon BBQ” as part of their fund raising, to provide scholarships for Year 1 college students. Proudly on
display on the green was a Shelterbox complete with tent. The Rotary event seemed to be part of a craft fair and there were also a number of interesting stalls, as well as a “pie social” being held by the local St Andrews Church with over 150 works of culinary art for sale. Addicted as I am to these things, we had to taste; blackberry and apple: delicious.
