Welcome to the Rotary Club of Bethel, Maine website ...
 

President's Message

 

Chartered in 1974, we are a breakfast club that meets every Tuesday at 7: 30 am at the Bethel Inn Resort.  Our diverse membership is comprised of approximately 35 professional and community leaders who strive to exemplify the Rotary motto of “Service Above Self” in their daily lives.

 

We are an active group engaged in many local as well as international projects that offer our members opportunities to reach out to those in need.  We always welcome

visitors, so if you are in the area please join us and learn more about our club and Rotary.

 

The Rotary Club of Bethel is involved in many local community service projects and provides financial support for other organizations.   The club, for example, was

a major contributor to the Skateboard Park and playground at  Davis Park.  The club has funded a town clock on Main Street in Bethel, a gazebo and an antique watering trough on the Common.

 

Annually, the club invites senior citizens to a Christmas luncheon, distributes gifts to area children in need under its Christmas for Children effort, gives Christmas food baskets to those in need, provides college scholarships for high school seniors and alternative education scholarships to others, recognizes Telstar Students of the Month and Top 10 Graduating Seniors, and sends students to the Rotary Youth Leadership Conference and World Affairs Seminar.

 

We organize hands on projects including the construction of wheelchair accessible ramps, building bridges and porches at Camp Susan Curtis, constructing a greenhouse and chicken tractor for the University of Maine 4-H Camp at Bryant Pond and providing firewood for the needy.

 

Internationally we have provided funds to Project Hope and Kombit Sante in response to the Haitian disaster.  We joined in the funding of bicycles for polio survivors in Nigeria and participated in the Safe Passage program.  We also support cultural exchanges with foreign countries for area students and adults.   We provide funds for Rotoplast (surgery for children with cleft lip and palate) and have several   members who served as volunteers on Rotoplast missions   We have funded  our own international projects such as a  water system and generator  for a school in Kenya, a scholarship for a Kenyan student, a portable dental unit for Uruguay,  200 soccer balls for children in Iraq and sponsored a World Peace Fellow.

 

We are actively involved in Polio Plus, a world wide Rotary project to eradicate polio throughout the world supported by the Bill Gates Foundation with millions of dollars in matching grant funds.

 

We also have a strong fellowship component amongst our members.  We enjoy working playing and laughing together and forming new friendships that will

last forever.  The self satisfaction one can achieve when presented with the opportunities Rotary can offer is endless.  Many of our members have found richer and more meaningful lives through membership in our club.

 

Joe Arizzi, President