By The Herald Editorial Board
The practice of the Happy Buck among Rotary clubs throughout the region — where members pony up a dollar to go toward a club’s service projects for the privilege of announcing good news during regular meetings — may have started with the Everett Rotary Club in 1977, according to a history written by Rotary member and Snohomish County historian Lawrence O’Donnell.
Looking for a way to raise funds that would also increase fellowship, member Bob Hummel suggested the idea to then-President Ed Rubatino, O’Donnell’s account reads.
Those Happy Bucks might seem a small part of the service club’s regular meetings, but they are a great example of what Everett’s club, which celebrates its centennial today, and other Rotary clubs are about: service and fellowship.
Rotary, which began in Chicago in 1905, spread quickly across the country, adopted where city leaders saw it as a way to exchange ideas and work toward common goals.
For Everett, the formation of a Rotary club likely was pursued as a way to bridge more than a few divisions in the community, while working together to help build the city.
A meeting of a couple dozen business leaders in the milltown of about 25,000 met in early December, a little more than a month after the Everett Massacre, Nov. 5, 1916. A shoot-out between union protesters arriving by boat and deputized citizens on the waterfront resulted in the deaths of as many as 12 protesters with the International Workers of the World and two deputized citizens.
A week after those first discussions at Weiser’s Cafe, 2824 Wetmore, 70 members from Seattle’s Rotary Club and another 37 from Tacoma’s club, arrived by boat to help launch the Everett Rotary Club on Dec. 13, 1916, the nation’s 272nd Rotary club.
During the 100 years since as Everett has grown so has the reach of the Everett Rotary Club’s service projects and community efforts.
To mark its centennial, the Everett club adopted a list of projects that represent its history of Service Above Self. Since the projects began in 2014, the club has locally raised or pledged:
$100,000 in donations for the Everett Streets Initiative’s “housing first” project;
$100,000 for the Hope Works culinary training program, which helps homeless youths and adults develop skills for culinary careers;
$100,000 for its partnership with Everett School District’s Advancement Via Individual Determination, a college readiness program for under-served students that also connects Rotary members with students;
$100,000 for an economic development project in the Dominican Republic that is building 100 commercial gardens, 10 gardens in 10 communities, to provide livelihoods and food for villagers;
And more than $180,000 in scholarships for Snohomish County students, awarded earlier this spring.
Over the years, the club’s scholarship programs have provided more than $3.75 million to students, typically handing out more than $100,000 each year.
This is in addition to its work supplying volunteers for the Volunteers of America food bank and Everett Gospel Mission; with fellow Rotary clubs worldwide on work to eradicate polio; and support for the international Rotary Foundation, which also is marking its centennial this year.
The Everett Club will mark its 100th year today with a Founders Day luncheon.
Count on a lot of Happy Bucks to be announced.
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