Rotary: ‘Do-goodery,’ positive attitudes can’t be stopped

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  • Rotary Club of Lake City President Lee Pinchouck talks to members connecting to a club meeting via Zoom technology as he positions an iPad to video broadcast club activities from the podium behind him prior to the start of Thursday’s meeting. The Rotary Club of Lake City is offering its members hybrid meetings each week either in person or virtually via Zoom. (TODD WILSON/Lake City Reporter)
    Rotary Club of Lake City President Lee Pinchouck talks to members connecting to a club meeting via Zoom technology as he positions an iPad to video broadcast club activities from the podium behind him prior to the start of Thursday’s meeting. The Rotary Club of Lake City is offering its members hybrid meetings each week either in person or virtually via Zoom. (TODD WILSON/Lake City Reporter)
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Club leadership will be the first to say it: “Do-goodery” can’t be stopped. That’s the message coming from the Rotary Club of Lake City.

Like many civic clubs across the country, local Rotarians have battled since March to remain active and cohesive through the pandemic. At first, the club offered drive-through boxed lunch pickups and virtual meetings 20 minutes later as members returned to their offices or homes to eat their lunches during the club’s regular meeting time at noon Thursdays.

As time passed and covid fears eased, the club has resumed meeting in person every Thursday, but still offers a hybrid platform for skittish members or those who may be immuno-compromised, said Club President Lee Pinchouck.

“Things are going well and our participation at meetings is increasing,” Pinchouck said. “We average 55 combined in attendance at a meeting, so having this set-up is giving everyone the opportunity to participate.”

Pinchouck said to cut down the potential spread of germs, the club instructs its caterer to box all lunches, even for those eating in person at the meeting, rather than having a buffet line. Also, in-person meetings are limited to four per table seating, rather than what was eight per table at full capacity.

The club continues its focused work on “Service Above Self” projects locally and worldwide and also will continue to be visible in the community with its regular efforts on its projects, such as its efforts to help with pollo eradication around the world, what normally is its Purple Pinkie project.

Purple Pinkie is normally a spring project in cooperation with the school district where Rotarians visit the schools and in exchange for donations from the students, the students’ pinkies are colored with purple dye, the marking symbolizing a polio vaccine in third-world countries. In place of Purple Pinkie, the club will substitute a similar purple fundraiser, partnering with Lake City’s Halpatter Brewing Company on a purple beer release.

“We’re working with Halpatter to bring a “Pints for Polio” can release event to the community, purple beer, special for this event, to commemorate World Polio Day, which is October 24,” Pinchouck said. “The proceeds from the sales of these four-packs of cans will go toward our polio fundraiser for the year.”

“Do-goodery” is something the Lake City Rotarians gravitated toward during the tough times of the pandemic and something Pinchouck has used as a rallying point of his presidency. By using the hybrid meetings in person and simultaneous virtual offerings on Zoom, the regular addition of the technology has allowed for a few positive wrinkles to be added to the usual Rotary curriculum, Pinchouck pointed out.

Last week, the club’s meeting speaker, Chris Wells, appeared via Zoom, to the in-house and virtual guests, from his home in Great Britain. And his message? Yes, “Do-Goodery.”

“Chris Wells is a guy who once he started working, decided there had to be more to life, so he decided he would focus on helping people, he would focus to do good in the world. That’s what he needed to make himself happy,” Pinchouck said. “He calls his outlook on life, ‘Do-goodery.’ I think the term fits perfectly with our Rotary ‘Service Above Self’ motto.”

Pinchouck heard Wells speak to a large Rotary training seminar in Orlando and thought his message was one all club members should hear.

“He’s very accessible to Rotarians, so I reached out to him and he was willing to speak to our club, so we set it up on a Zoom meeting,” Pinchouck said. “We may have connected Lake City to the United Kingdom for the first time ever. He just reassured everyone that regardless of what has happened this year to keep doing good in the world. It was a great message and we had really good response and feedback from our members.”

Local Rotarians continue to plan for the December Lake City Christmas Parade. City officials will not allow the parade to be held downtown or follow its normal route, but Rotarians, who sponsor the parade each year and supply all the volunteers needed to make the event happen on parade night, said they have a plan in place to save the event at a new locale.

“We’re looking ahead to the parade to keep our tradition going in some way for our community,” Pinchouck said. “We’ll have a big announcement of a great community event very soon.”