The Rotary Club of Farragut and Knoxville’s five other Rotary clubs will come together on Saturday, March 23, for a workday at Ridgedale Alternative School in celebration of World Rotary Day. The local celebration began when Mayor Indya Kincannon officially proclaimed Friday, February 23, 2024, as World Rotary Day in Knoxville.
She helped celebrate what our Rotary clubs and their members mean to the civic life of our community. Several years ago, the presidents of the local clubs agreed to set aside a Saturday in February or March to work on needed projects at a local school, based on need in honor of World Rotary Day. This year Rotarians will work from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. (or thereabouts) at Ridgedale School, 4600 Ridgedale Rd.
Joining Mayor Kincannon for the World Rotary Day Proclamation ceremony were Past District Governor Greg Maciolek of the Knoxville Rotary Club of Breakfast; Kelly Vittatoe, president of the Rotary Club of Bearden; Rotary Club of Farragut president Val Privett; John Ley, president of Volunteer Rotary Club of Knoxville; and Rob Dansereau, District 6780 governor -elect. We also will have Rotarians from the Rotary Club of North Knoxville and the Rotary Club of Knoxville at the project. Members of the Pellissippi State Community College Rotaract Club, which is sponsored by Farragut Rotary, also will join the work crew.
Ridgedale, led by principal Rebecca Bitner, is not a typical neighborhood school. Its students are bused in from all over Knox County and it does not have a parent-teacher group to support and help fund the school’s needs.
The day’s work projects include a lot of pressure washing to clean the sidewalks and driveway at the school’s front entrance; building bed boxes for flowers and food plants; various painting jobs throughout the facility; plus cleaning out and mulching the school’s flower beds.
If you need information or have questions, call or email PP Tom King, public image chair for Farragut Rotary.
Tom King is a career journalist and a past president of the Rotary Club of Farragut, which meets each Wednesday at 12:15 p.m. at the Farragut Community Center, 239 Jamestown Blvd. If you want more information about Rotary or are interested in attending a meeting or joining, please email Tom or text him at 865-659-3562.