<< Previous   of   Next >> Contributed photo  (click to enlarge) Volunteers from the Rain City Rotary of Shoreline and Solid Ground pose for a group photo during the community fruit tree harvest on Aug. 16 in North Seattle. The apples were donated to Hopelink, a food bank in Shoreline. Contributed photo  (click to enlarge) Jerry Wilkins from Rain City Rotary picks apples on Aug. 16 at the Seattle Tilth gardens.

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CONTACT THE ENTERPRISE Jocelyn Robinson, Copy editor jrobinson@heraldnet.com

Rain City Rotary earns provisional club status

Shoreline Rotary aims for monthly service projects, to be family friendly

By Amy Daybert
Enterprise editor

Chocolate cake and a champagne toast marked the end of the Rotary Club of Shoreline Rain City’s first meeting since earning provisional club status on Aug. 21 at Barlee’s Restaurant in Edmonds.

“Provisional status means the club has gotten off to a good start,” past Rotary district governor Mike Montgomery said.

The third Rotary club in Shoreline will eventually gain charter club status as membership grows, according to Montgomery. Within the first year, Jean Withers of the Fremont Rotary will assist the Rain City Rotary.

“Watching this club grow is going to be a real delight to me,” she said. “Charter membership is something individual members are very proud of.”

Rain City Rotarians began meeting in March at Grinders Hot Sands on Aurora Avenue North but moved to Barlee’s when more people became interested in attending the Thursday dinner meetings, according to Kim Lancaster, the club’s secretary. The meeting time and location fit with the club’s goal to be family friendly, she added.

“We have a lot of people who work during the day and can’t get away for a meeting,” she said. “We took our cue from the Fremont Rotary. We chose to meet where we can take kids and be a little more relaxed.”

The club’s Rotarians aim to accomplish monthly service projects. A food drive at Central Market was organized in June and most recently members volunteered at a community fruit harvest at the Good Shepherd Center and Seattle Tilth in Wallingford with volunteers from the organization Solid Ground. Volunteers picked, sorted and boxed 800 pounds of apples and delivered the fruit to Hopelink, a Shoreline food bank on Aug. 16.

“We want to do as many service projects as people have time for,” Lancaster said.

Some of the projects may be on an international scale, she said. The club is involved in a program, Ethiopia Reads to provide books to people in Ethiopia. Lancaster hopes other Rain City Rotary members will join her and her husband, Brad, on a trip to Ethiopia and Kenya in October 2009.

In addition to monthly service projects, the club plans monthly fireside events, or group activities such as baseball games, poolside barbecues and picnics at Woodland Park Zoo.

For more information about Rain City Rotary, e-mail Kim Lancaster at kim@lancasterlawoffice.com or visit www.raincityrotary.org.