Farragut Rotarians are about to spend two Saturdays working in the community – and all of the work will be done at two schools.
It is a labor of love for the Rotarians. There’s also a special event planned by Rotary District 6780 to help raise money to eradicate polio and it will be on Friday, Feb. 23.
Rotary International annually celebrates World Rotary Day on Feb. 23. This special day allows clubs nationwide to recognize Rotary’s past, present and future and its commitment to our communities. The day usually involves a civic project to improve and contribute to our communities.
This year – on Saturday, Feb. 24 – Farragut Rotary members will celebrate World Rotary Day by working side-by-side with Rotarians from Knoxville’s five other clubs at Green Magnet Academy, 801 Lula Powell Drive in Knoxville. Work usually begins at 8 a.m. and is over by 1 p.m. The Rotarians will be working on the school grounds and also on projects inside the school that the school has identified. If it rains, the Rotary team will return on Saturday, March 3.
This is a family-friendly event and some Rotarians usually bring along their spouses and children to help.
On the very next Saturday – March 3 – a group of Farragut Rotarians will be busy at its Partner-in-Education school – Ridgedale School. This is also a workday and Rotarians will turn into painters as they will be repainting lockers used by the students and staff.
Rotarians Teri Jo Fox and Val Privett are heading up this project for the club.
The painting will begin at 9 a.m. and the job is to paint lockers in eight classrooms with 20 lockers in each room – for a total of 160 lockers.
Ridgedale principal Diana Gossett will have coffee and doughnuts available before the work begins!
On Friday night, Feb. 23, District 6780 (which includes all Knox area Rotary clubs) will have a “Pack the Rink for Polio” Night at the Knoxville Ice Bears game against the Birmingham Barons at the Civic Coliseum.
Tickets are $17 per person and $5 of each ticket sold goes to Rotary’s Polio Plus campaign. District Governor Debbie Alexander-Davis will drop a ceremonial puck before the game. Of each ticket sold to a Rotarian, a $5 donation is matched 2-1 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the eradication of polio. As an added bonus, Feb. 23 is “Local Brew Night” with free beer samples from local breweries.
As you can see, Rotarians are working all over our community!