The Rotary Club of Lynn hosted its first “What is Rotary” informational meeting Tuesday at the Old Tyme Italian Cuisine on Boston Street. A large crowd of “prospective" Rotarians socialized with Lynn members and learned about the many volunteer initiatives the Lynn Club currently engages in.“We were very pleased with the turnout,” admitted Club President Brenda Ortiz Peral. “We do a lot of service in the Lynn community, and this event allowed us to share our great story with the community at large. I know I can speak for our members when I say we were extremely pleased with the number of people who came and left with membership forms.”
Past President Ray Bastarache provided the group with a breakdown of the many activities Lynn Rotary annually commits to. With Lynn Schools, Rotary awards multiple scholarships annually to deserving seniors, it recognizes one eighth grade student for “outstanding achievement while overcoming obstacles" from every public, private and charter school each month from January to May, and some 1200 dictionaries are given to every public school third grader in January. Rotary has also been the longtime sponsor of the “Special Games.” for disabled Lynn elementary students. In the community, Lynn Rotary is committed to volunteer monthly at My Brother’s Table, to distribute food monthly at the mobile food distribution at Catholic Charities and recently a group of Rotarians helped install smoke detectors in Lynn homes. Bastarache concluded his remarks by sharing his experience as a non-medical volunteer on a Rotaplast mission in 2016.
“I had the unique opportunity to see Rotary in action on an international scale when I volunteered to go to the Philippines.” he said. “I was part of a team of 24 volunteers consisting a four plastic surgeons, four anesthesiologists, two pediatricians, a few nurses and a non-medical team that performed 108 cleft palate surgeries on poor Filipino children over two weeks. It was simply amazing! Rotary clubs from all over the world pay for these surgeries which change lives.”