Record number of Rotarians honored with Paul Harris Fellowships

November 20, 2009
Santa Paula News

In what must be a record for recognizing community service, 12 members of the Santa Paula Rotary Club received Paul Harris Fellowships, the international organization’s highest award.

By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesIn what must be a record for recognizing community service, 12 members of the Santa Paula Rotary Club received Paul Harris Fellowships, the international organization’s highest award.Rotarians Paul Romero, Peter Wright, Sheila Tate, Chuck Mullett, Dr. Michael Tushla, Bill Armbruster, Otto Schimmel, Reece Cunningham, John Freeman, Chris Wilson, John Sullivan and Bill Herrera received the award at the November 16 meeting.The Rotary Foundation benefits from each Paul Harris Fellowship awarded, and Club President Pam Lindsay said the honors resulted from “The money raised by Mike Mobley and Bruce McGee last year … ”District Governor Luz Maria Ortiz Smith told the recipients that “the world moves closer to peace and a better life” for all due to the contributions of Rotarians.One such Rotary effort is Polio Plus, the international polio eradication program that has greatly diminished – but not stopped – the disease since it was founded in the mid-1980s.
Governor Smith said that starting this year Paul Harris Fellowship certificates carry the logo of the anti-polio effort, and will remain a marker until the disease is eradicated.The Fellowship Award was created to memorialize the ideals and inspiration of Chicagoan Paul Harris, who founded Rotary with three business associates in 1905.The Fellowship was established in his honor in 1957 to express appreciation for a $1,000 donation to the humanitarian and educational programs of The Rotary Foundation. Such programs include an array of projects that save and invigorate the lives of people around the world and enhance international friendship and understanding.According to McGee, the Santa Paula Rotary Club’s Foundation Chairman, “The club members, while focused on local needs in the Santa Paula area, are seeing the value that the Rotary Foundation makes in the world and so are increasing contributions.”Governor Smith told the Santa Paula club that 27 percent of the world’s 1.2 million Rotarians contribute to the Foundation, which provides matching grants that benefit and change lives throughout the world.



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