Service above self is the Rotary International motto and the practice of Shelby Rotary Club (SRC). Over the past four months, the Club has organized and participated in several activities to serve others in the community. Audrey Whetten Godfrey, SRC president shared, "Service above self has been the role of Shelby Rotary Club for ninety-seven years. Our vision for this year is to focus on the needs of the community and to help people and make a difference each day."

The initiative started in August when two Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE) students arrived in Shelby, and they began their experiences of learning American culture and customs. It was not long before Fritzi Schmidt from Germany and Leti Mori from Italy were involved in activities at Shelby High School. SRC has sponsored RYE students for over twenty years. Rotarian Fred Blackley works closely with the students and the sponsoring families to help make the transition to American life.

Under the leadership of Emily Arey, community service team leader, SRC has been involved in helping several groups in the community to reach out to serve others. SRC has volunteered over 500 hours to the community.

Working with Washington Food Ministries, SRC supports the Back Pack program that serves students at all three Shelby elementary schools. Providing food for ones in need has become a major focus of the Club.

SRC sponsors quarterly food and supply drives where Rotarians bring food and supplies to Friday meetings to be distributed to other local nonprofit organizations. SRC has collected food and supply needs for The Shepherd's Table and Feeding Kids Cleveland County. The Shepherd's Table food ministry distributes 180 boxes of food each week in our community.

SRC volunteers monthly with Feeding Kids Cleveland County to provide food to local students. The mission of Feeding Kids Cleveland County is to help kids and families in Cleveland County not just survive but thrive. Volunteers work to collect, package, and deliver food to the homes of these students. Students are identified through the school system and Rotarians recently assisted in packing over 200 food boxes for the Thanksgiving break.

Rise Against Hunger is an international program that had Club members packing over 10,000 meals for our neighbors around the world at the Rise Against Hunger event in September at Aldersgate United Methodist Church.

At one of SRC weekly meetings, members made activity bags to be given in to participants in the Meals on Wheels program coordinated by the Neal Senior Center. Included in the bags were activity books, crayons, and notes of encouragement.

In October and November, Rotarians read to all the third grade students in Cleveland County Schools (CCS). Working with CCS under their Partners Aligned for Literacy Success (PALS), SRC purchased a book for every third grader in the 59 classrooms across the district. The students were learning about outer space as part of a language arts unit and the fiction books were based on exploring outer space.

December brings opportunities to serve others by Ringing the Bell for the Salvation Army Red Kettle Campaign. Each year for the past sixty years, SRC has volunteered at least one day to ring the bell. It has become a tradition for many Rotarians to ring the bell with family members to start the holiday season. The food programs will help both organizations to ensure families have food for the Christmas holiday.

To learn more about the Shelby Rotary Club, visit their website at https://www.shelbyncrotary.org/ or their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/shelbyrotarylunch/ .

Are you interested in being involved in the projects, send us an email to president@shelbyrotaryclub.com?