Rotary International boasts that its 1.2 million members in over 35,000 clubs worldwide contribute 16 million volunteer hours per year. The efforts of that work has transformed communities and the lives of countless people through providing clean drinking water, polio vaccinations, providing books and other programs to improve literacy, raising money for scholarships and grants just to name a few. Members of the Bath Rotary have assisted in stringing lights in downtown Bath for the holidays, held food drives for the Bath Area Food Bank, rang the bells for the Salvation Army, and hosted electronic waste collections.

This year, the Bath Rotary has committed to doing a community service project once a month. We have adapted our meeting schedule to meet the first three Tuesdays of the month, leaving the last week (or weeks) available for community service. We started July by volunteering at the United Way to assist the Diaper Project by repackaging diapers much of which were collected from a recent (and very successful) diaper drive held by Bath Savings.

The repackaged diapers are then distributed through various organizations and agencies to families to help them save on the cost of buying diapers. Diapers are not covered under the SNAP or WIC programs and can cost families over $1,000 per year. Most daycare centers require parents to provide a day’s supply of diapers.

The Diaper Project addresses the problem of Diaper Need, which is the lack of a sufficient supply of disposable diapers for a baby to remain clean, dry and healthy. This project was a great fit with Rotary’s commitment to Saving Mothers and Children.

The Bath Rotary is looking to fill its calendar for community service projects for the year, which runs from July through June. If you are involved with an organization that could use some extra hands, please contact our Community Service Project Coordinator Betsy Harrington at bharrington@bathsavings.com or call (207) 371-4260.

We always welcome visitors to our club and we would hope you would consider joining us in improving not only our local community, but having an impact on others worldwide through the work of Rotary International. We meet the first three Tuesdays of the month at noon at J.R. Maxwell & Co., 122 Front Street, Bath. You can learn more about what we do and who we are at bathrotary.org. We are also on Facebook at Rotary Club of Bath Maine USA.

For those of you in the Bath/Brunswick area who are wondering when we will be doing our electronic waste collection, we are looking at dates in the spring with a possible document shredding addition. So please hold onto your old TV’s and computers, etc. and save up for a real spring cleaning. Stay tuned for the date. Thank you to all who have participated in the past and for your generous donations.

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