The Rotary Club of Medford hosts the annual "Slide into Summer' for local kids with watersliding at Bear Creek Park. 

Breanna Wright remembered five years ago when she looked at the Rotary Club International’s website for the first time. She was almost skeptical with what she saw.

“It was like, ‘Changing the world.’ I thought, ‘Wow, that’s pretty lofty. How does that even work?’ Then I went to the meeting, and I was surprised at the friendliness and acceptance of the group,” she said.

Now the vice president of the Rotary Club of Medford, Wright said she’s looking forward to celebrating the chapter’s 100th anniversary next week.

The club will celebrate its big centennial with a dinner party from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 16, at Rogue Valley Country Club. Tickets at $75 include a prime rib, salmon or a vegetarian dinner, according to the club’s website.

The event will feature cocktails and a celebration of the club’s history, Wright said. There will also be a silent auction to raise money for the club’s work.

Chuck Root has been a member of the Medford club since he moved to the Rogue Valley in 1988.

“Most people join Rotary for the fellowship and the community. With so many people working from home, I think it’s really important for people to get out there and get to know what’s going on,” he said.

Within the fellowship lies what he called “the magic of Rotary” — enough people in one community coming together and forming relationships, bringing with them their skills, their resources and their contacts. Through that potent combination, the club tackles projects close to home and around the world, Root said.

In the 1990s when the Mt. Ashland Ski Area was in trouble, the club helped raise $300,000 along with the Medford Rogue Rotary Club to help save it, he said. The club has worked with Medford Rogue Rotary on other projects, too. After the Almeda Fire, Root worked with Bob Hunter — former Mail Tribune editor and member of the Medford Rogue Rotary Club — on the “Back to Work” program, helping 132 fire-affected small businesses.

Root and others with the Rotary Club of Medford volunteer with Food and Friends, a program feeding local hungry seniors through the Rogue Valley Council of Governments and Meals on Wheels.

“I delivered a meal the other day, and the guy told me, ‘I wouldn’t have eaten today if it hadn’t been for you.’ I like to be able to help others. I think I’m blessed. It’s nice to have some energy and wherewithal to help others,” he said.

Rotary International is especially focused on broad causes like health, sanitation and promoting peace, according its website. The Medford club has joined in on these causes, as well.

“I’ve done Rotary work in seven to eight different countries. I’m chairing the Peace Fellow Program right now, where we teach peace and conflict resolution skills. I’ve gotten to know folks around the world through Rotary,” Root said.

Wright remembered a project last year to help farmers in Africa.

“We sent some seeds to Kenya last year. One of our members has a school there, so we were able to send seeds that would be climate appropriate and sustainable,” she said.

Through the decades, the Rotary Club of Medford has kept in step with Rotary International while forming its own initiatives at home. When the founder of Rotary International — Paul Harris — died in 1947, members around the world donated $1 million to launch the first Rotary Foundation program for scholarships for students and studying abroad, according to the club’s website.

The Rotary Club of Medford established its own program giving aid to local students in 1947. In 1952, the informal program became the Medford Rotary Foundation. To date, the foundation has given $1.7 million in scholarships.

In 1973, the club celebrated the completion of the quad at North Medford High School, a $50,000 project to celebrate its 50-year anniversary. Last year, Root said, the club invested in equipment for Medford High School’s track and field program as part of the annual Medford Rotary Relays, a tradition dating back to 1940.

In 1997, the club supported the foundation of the Avachinski Rotary Club in Petropavlovsk, Russia. The club is now working to partner with other Rotary clubs in Southern Oregon to help the Ashland group Uniting for Ukraine.

“We’re trying to raise enough money to help bring in a family from Ukraine they have identified. It’s just one family, but we’re trying to raise enough for them to have sustainable housing for a year. That’s not easy,” Wright said.

The club’s dearest cause has been supporting local youth, she said, especially in the form of programs like Rogue Powerpack with nonprofit ACCESS. Powerpack endeavors to fill the backpacks of low-income students every Friday to ensure they won’t go hungry without the school’s free lunches over the weekend.

The club also hosts the annual “Slide into Summer” for local kids with watersliding at Bear Creek Park; promotes literacy in schools through donating dictionaries and other books to elementary schools; donates for the Maslow Project’s mission to help homeless teens; supports Kidspree, a back-to-school shopping assistance program; and this year is a new sponsor of Interact Club at Logos Public Charter School.

Last year, the club helped with the introduction of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library in Jackson County libraries.

“I was on the steering committee. It was a huge effort getting that off the ground in three months. I think it’s now serving 2,000 kids. It’s really rewarding,” Wright said.

She recommended the club for anyone curious and empathetic. The group offers its charity without religious affiliation or any judgment, Wright noted.

Like other community organizations, the Rotarians are working hard to draw in the next generation of members.

“We’re always looking for volunteers, for helping hands. Come on out to lunch at the country club on Tuesdays and meet the nicest, most welcoming group of people,” Wright said.

“It kind of keeps your ear to the ground about what’s going on. We learn new things all the time.”

For more information about anniversary, see www.rv-times.com/events/#/details/Rotary-Club-of-Medford-Celebrates-100-Years-of-Service/11801213/2023-05-16T17

Just The Facts

Highlights 100 years of service by the Rotary Club of Medford:

May 15, 1923: The Rotary Club of Medford was established as the first club in the Rogue Valley and the 353rd in the world.

1923: The club’s first president was Fred Heath Sr., a drugstore owner. The club began with 26 charter members and the first meeting was in the basement of the Medford Hotel. The next venue was the Jackson Hotel, which is now the parking lot across from Rogue Community College. Meetings moved to the Rogue Valley Country Club in 1958.

1939: The Medford Rotary Relays track meet began in partnership with high school coach Bill Bowerman, who later went on to coach at University of Oregon and co-founded Nike. In 2023, this … event included 18 schools and over 1,000 athletes.

1940s to 1970: Annual Suit Sale. “Our members would bring in slightly used suits that the club sold to other businessmen in the community … in 2022-23, some of us wonder what types of ‘suits’ members would donate, such as the ‘pants’ worn during Zoom meetings?”

1947: The club began providing loans to local students in financial need or students who needed extra encouragement to continue their education.

1948: “We became the only known club in the world to have its own song. which starts, ‘The Rogue River Valley invites you to stroll its magnificent streams, its fish and game will delight you and its peace will abide in your dreams ….’ The song was written by Richard Werner.

“The original version was lost with most of our records in the 1970s during a change in offices. It has a second verse but those who remember some of the words agree that it is best not found.”

1962: The Medford Rotary Foundation was founded and began providing local scholarships — rather than loans — to area seniors. Occasionally, the foundation is also used for other projects. As of June 2022, gifts totaled $1,694,128.

1967: Rotary International encouraged clubs to pick a partner club, and Dundee, Scotland, was chosen. Several local members went there, and several of their members visited here and presented locals with a sterling bowl to be used as a golf trophy.

1973: “President Bob Butler helped us celebrate our 50th anniversary. He was the co-owner of a jewelry store on Main Street and was the club historian for decades. During that year, our major project was to finish the quad at North Medford High School. We enlisted the National Guard with two of their dump trucks; Rogue Disposal provided a small dump truck, and our members got out shovels. We received $5,000 from the city of Medford … with most other items being donated. Most of the labor was donated by our members. The value of our project was estimated at $50,000.”

1977: “We sponsored several other clubs over the years in Southern Oregon starting with the Medford Rogue Club.”

1987: The first five women were inducted into our club, the first in Southern Oregon. This occurred just as the U.S. Supreme Court decided that Rotary International could not stop the Rotary Club of Duarte, California, from admitting women and prior to Rotary International officially allowing such action the following year.

The women were all major community members: Patsy Smullin, TV broadcasting; April Sevick, collections services; Lindsay Berryman, bakery goods retail; Sue Naumes, fruit packing; and the editor of the Mail Tribune, Beverly Jackson.

1992: “Our club provided leadership and our members gave significant donations … to save the Mt. Ashland Ski Area. The private sector owner, Stevens Pass Ski Corporation of Washington, decided to sell the ski area. After over a year on the market … the corporation made the decision to close the ski area. The Friends of Mt. Ashland group started a fundraising campaign to … purchase the $1.7 million ski area before a mid-1993 deadline.

The Friends of Mt. Ashland appealed to area Rotary clubs. Two larger Medford clubs stepped up to help, with an anonymous Rotarian pledging to match up to $150,000. Thanks to many Rotarians, including Marc Bayliss, Will Chinn, Fitz Brewer, Art Ekerson and April Sevick, the two Medford clubs raised $300,000.”

2005: “To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Rotary International, we contributed the equivalent of $250,000 in cash and in-kind donations to construct the Rotary Bridge across Bear Creek in what is now called Lithia Driveway Sports Park.”

2007-08: “Gail Schoenberg served as our first female president … about half of our presidents have been women as follows: Mary Holbrook, 2009-10; Katie Shepard Hutchinson, 2011-12; Jackie Shad, 2016-17; Bethany Brown, 2018-19; Michelle Corradetti, 2019-20; Kim O’Gara, 2020-21; and our current VP, to be president in 2024-25, Breann Wright.

2007: Partnered with clubs in Missouri and Michigan to build latrines at elementary schools in Malawi.

2008: Provided books for eight libraries in Azalea, South Africa in partnership with their local Rotary Club.

2018: “Our 2022-23 club president, Ray Kistler, with Dr. Lucinda Kolo, a Rotarian in the State of Jefferson E-club, and their son Dylan completed a medical mission to Malawi. The grant included the purchase of a new Toyota ambulance, which allows trained medical personnel to bring modern medicine and medical education to 18 villages through the hospital outreach program.”

2019-present: “We started our ‘Slide into Summer’ project aka ‘Slip and Slide,’ which attracted over 800 kids to Bear Creek Park last year after our COVID break. The next one is scheduled for July 15, 2023.”

2019: Provided water filters for rural areas in the south end of the Baja Peninsula, Mexico.

2020: “Gave food to starving families in Kenya. In 2022, we provided seeds and chickens to the same families.”

2020-22: The United Rotary Clubs of Southern Oregon was formed to aid small businesses and families affected by the Almeda Fire. “Our ‘Back to Work’ program gave $400,000 to 132 families and small businesses. Our efforts were enhanced with a TRF Disaster grant.”

2021: “To help scholars in Afghanistan, we obtained scholarships to the University of Queensland in The Rotary Foundation’s Peace Fellowship program and another to Texas A&M for a doctorate program in water quality. The first one is still waiting for a visa from the Australian government.”