Los Banos Rotary Club History
Los Banos rotary celebrates 60th anniversary

Kimberly Buckmaster
On exactly sixty years to the day, the Los Banos Rotary Club held a celebration in honor of sixty years serving the Los Banos community. The club was chartered in Los Banos in June 1940. In the sixty years of its existence the club has stuck with the motto of service above self.

The group is made up of business or professional leaders who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations and help build goodwill and peace in the world. Although the club started as a men only club, women are now active members of Rotary.

There are over 28,000 clubs worldwide with some 1.2 million members. Rotary International was founded in 1905 in Chicago. The Los Banos Rotary Club is number 5,248 of the over 28,000 clubs now established. According to former club president, Donald Escallier, the name of the club came because the group would meet at a different business each week, rotating weekly where the meetings were held.

In Los Banos, Rotary has been active in many aspects of the community for sixty years. The club is very involved in the lives of the many children in the community. On any given Thursday morning a Rotarian can be found at the Los Banos Public Library reading stories to children. The club also provides a snack for the kids who come out to sit on the floor to hear a good story. With a $10,000 children's opportunity grant from Rotary International, the club is making some improvements at the library as well. New books and jazzing up the children's area in the library are on the agenda for the funds the club has received.

The Rotary Club has offered scholarships over the years to local high school students and also honors students of the month at Merced College. This year the club started a job shadowing program at Los Banos High School in which students can spend some time with a local Rotarian at their business or office. The Interact Club at Los Banos High School is a Rotary community service club for students.

Over the years the club has sponsored a Bobby Sox team, chartered Boy Scout Troop 85, and been active with quarterly blood drives in the community. Recently the club participated in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life raising about $1200.
Los Banos Rotary has also helped people outside of the local area. They joined with clubs from Dos Palos, Gustine, Newman and Patterson in a matching grant from Rotary International to raise money for victims of Hurricane Mitch. The club also collected 300 pairs of used eyeglasses to send to third world countries.

The Los Banos Rotary is very proud of the Ambassador Scholarship program it offers. Jory Hall returned recently after spending a year in Czechoslovakia, working and learning the language.

Camp Royal is a leadership camp held in the Sierras each year sponsored by the Rotary club. This year four students from Los Banos High School attended the 4 day camp which focused on leadership. About 120 students from Stockton to Madera attend the camp each year.

The club will continue its service work in the future. According to Colleen Menefee, the club will inventory the community's needs and gear projects towards those needs. Many things depend on money. This year the club changed its main fundraiser from the street fair to a crab feed which Menefee said was very successful this year.

July 15, 2000

---