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Keeping it all in the family
By Alice C. Chen - The Rotarian
September 2007
Judith Lorigan, a past assistant district governor, has been recruiting
new Rotary club members for years without even knowing it. “I’ve spent a
lot of life as a Rotarian,” says Lorigan, of the Rotary Club of Bethel
Park, Pa., USA. She adds that her family is always asking her, “What’s
going on?” The answer usually leads to some of her three children or seven
grandchildren getting involved in service. That includes Lorigan’s
14-year-old granddaughter Carly Zalenski, who has organized drives to send
supplies and toys to Vietnam and helped raise $50,000 to build a school.
“It’s incredible that Carly’s been able to do this, to stay with it,” says
Lorigan, a 65-year-old retired bank manager who has been a Rotarian since
1988. “When she started this, I thought, This is going to be difficult.”
Lorigan’s family, along with others who can list Rotary affiliations
through the years, serves as a reminder during New Generations Month that
when seeking out potential club members, we shouldn’t forget those who are
right under our noses: our own children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews,
and other relatives.
It only makes sense. After watching – and perhaps helping – their Rotarian
family members dish out spaghetti in soup kitchens, give dictionaries to
third graders, and raise money to drill wells in Africa, these potential
recruits have come to personally understand the importance of volunteering
and its ability to put smiles on the faces of both givers and receivers.
So just how can you get younger family members involved? It’s quite
simple, really.
“Invite them to the things you do,” Lorigan says. Introduce them to
Interact, Rotary’s service program for people ages 14-18, and Rotaract,
for those ages 18-30.
“My family always supported any function my Rotary club had,” she adds.
“They’d always come, be a part of it, donate, and buy raffle tickets.”
It also helps to bring back photos. After distributing the items Carly
helped provide to children in Vietnam, “I came back with pictures of the
supplies and toys given to the kids,” Lorigan recalls. “It was an
incredible experience. They were thrilled. They had reconditioned Barbies.
These little girls in Vietnam were smiling from ear to ear. Some had never
had a toy.”
Because of her influence, Lorigan’s son-in-law Fred Zalenski decided to
join the Rotary Club of Canton, Ohio, about two hours away from Lorigan’s
home.
The Rotary service bug spread to his daughter, Carly, who was in third
grade when she initiated a project at her school to collect items for
children to send overseas. She amassed 10 suitcases of materials, which
her grandmother and other Rotarians took to Vietnam in 2002 for a school
they’d helped build.
But Carly, who became a Paul Harris Fellow in April, didn’t stop there. In
2006, she launched an effort to raise $50,000 to cover half the cost of
constructing another school in Vietnam. (The other half was to come from
the Vietnam Children’s Fund, whose cochair is Ohio-born Terry Anderson, a
journalist who was held hostage in Beirut, Lebanon, from 1985 to 1991.)
Carly began speaking to Rotary clubs about the project, and by June had
rounded up enough money to meet her goal. To help raise funds, Anderson,
who has met with Carly, spoke at a March benefit dinner in Canton.
“It’s exciting,” says Carly, who wants to become a Rotarian some day.
“It’s been such a surreal experience. Everything’s been happening so
fast.”
Carly is starting high school this fall and plans to join an Interact
club. She hopes to eventually become a Rotary Youth Exchange student,
Rotaractor, and Group Study Exchange participant.
Vital signs
Fostering such fresh, energetic recruits is crucial to keeping clubs
alive, according to Niki Zohrab, the young vice president of the Rotary
Club of Chicago Lakeview, Ill., USA. Without new members, she points out,
“Rotary is an organization that will die.”
Like many other Rotarians, Zohrab was introduced to Rotary through her
father, Gain. However, she’s unusual because of her age: 33. (Rotary clubs
tend not to have many members under age 40; a 2006 survey reveals that 89
percent of Rotarians are 40 or older.)
A transplanted native of New Zealand, Zohrab was an adolescent when her
father joined the Rotary Club of St. Johns in Auckland. He served for more
than 10 years, eventually becoming its 1998-99 president. She occasionally
accompanied him to meetings and helped assemble food baskets for needy
families during Christmas. At age 16, she spoke to the club about a tall
ship voyage she took.
After moving to Chicago, Zohrab wanted to meet people, make business
connections, and help the community. Because of her exposure to Rotary,
she decided to join a club in 2005.
“It’s important to have younger members so we’re staying with the changing
trends,” she says. “If someone’s retired, they’re not so much in touch
with people of my own age group. We’ve got to keep it fresh with new,
young blood all the time.”
New worldview
“Young people bring a different perspective and energy,” says Stephanie
Ursini, president of the provisional Rotary Club of Denver Northwest, Sky
High, Colo., USA.
She points out that once they join Rotary, young members recruit others to
keep the organization vibrant.
President of a public relations and marketing firm, Ursini, 48, chairs the
public relations and RI Convention promotion committees for District 5450.
She received a 2005-06 Citation of Public Image Achievement from then RI
President Carl-Wilhelm Stenhammar.
Perhaps even more impressive is her record of perfect meeting attendance
since joining Rotary in August 1998. And many times, she doesn’t arrive
alone. Ursini’s 18-year-old daughter, Vanessa, typically attends about 10
meetings a year with her mother.
Vanessa admits that at the beginning, she went “because they had
breakfast.” Then she started listening at the meetings and heard how
Rotarians want to help eradicate polio, she says. “I helped deliver food
baskets and attended fundraisers and charity events. It made me feel good.
I made lots of friends.”
At the age of 14, Vanessa went to Italy for six weeks as a Youth Exchange
student. The next year, she traveled to Peru, where she and her Rotarian
host family handed out Christmas presents to disadvantaged children. Two
months later, her mom visited and delivered about $3,500 worth of supplies
for a free medical clinic.
“I love learning about new cultures and people,” says Vanessa, adding that
she “became so thankful for what I have because I could see how people
with nothing could still put a smile on every day.”
Ursini says that besides offering “a world of opportunity” not available
through education alone, Rotary has helped her daughter avoid taking
things for granted: “She doesn’t let the water run in the sink to brush
her teeth. She doesn’t take hourlong showers. When she spends money, she
considers what else it could’ve bought. It’s amazing, her perspective. It
definitely changed her life.”
And the experience has instilled a desire to join Rotary. “I will keep the
legacy going,” says Vanessa, who plans to become a Rotaractor in college
and apply for a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship to study
abroad.
Lasting legacy
Vanessa is continuing a legacy by following in her mother’s footsteps.
Every summer throughout grade school and high school, Ursini used to
accompany her grandfather Carl Powell to meetings of the Rotary Club of
Delta, Colo. She doesn’t remember many details except that the club
members were men who wore suits, seemed to eat a lot of chicken, and held
picnics in the park. One thing that stands out in Ursini’s mind, though,
is the friendship that sprouted within the close-knit group. When her
grandfather, a Rotarian for more than 50 years, was in the hospital, club
members sent cards to him and food to her grandmother. If there was a
funeral or a life-changing event, the Rotarians were always providing
support.
“Everyone seemed like family,” she says. “We were always helping each
other.”
Ursini says keeping that fellowship alive is a primary reason why she
became a Rotarian the year her grandfather died. “They just take care of
each other. That’s what made me a Rotarian.”
This article is © Rotary International and is
provided for the non-profit use of Rotarians worldwide; commercial use is
prohibited. The article may be quoted, excerpted or used in its entirety,
but the information should not be changed or modified in any way.
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