Giving Back through a Service Club

At the entrance of many a town you’ll see their signs at the city limits. They’re proudly proclaiming that there’s a group of volunteers here working hard for the benefit of the community they love. Collectively they are members of Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis, Altrusa, Jaycees, Masons, and many others. They are service clubs.

Service clubs are groups of citizens that meet regularly to promote fellowship and build friendship so that they can better work together to serve their local community. Giving back through a service club is unlike any other form of volunteerism and one in which many people find enormously rewarding.

For the last year, I have had the honor of serving as president of the Rotary Club of Sturgeon Bay, one of the largest and oldest service clubs in all of Northeast Wisconsin. With 101 members – more men and women than you’d fine in any other Rotary Club in Green Bay and second in size only to the Rotary Club of Appleton – the Rotary Club of Sturgeon Bay has been a tremendous source for good in Door County for nearly a century. As my year as president is coming to an end, I couldn’t help but reflect on what makes volunteering through a service club such a uniquely rewarding experience.

When most of us give of our time, it is by serving as a volunteer at an individual charity with a very specific purpose. For instance, you might be helping to seat guests at summer concerts at Birch Creek. Perhaps you’re giving time to serve as a counselor at the Boys & Girls Club. Or maybe you’re serving on the Board of Directors of HELP of Door County. These are all wonderful things to do. Please know that our community is deeply grateful for volunteers who serve specific causes and goodness knows that we hope and need you to continue. But giving back through a service club is a different kind of experience. There are two very unique aspects about volunteering through a service club.

First, when you join a service club, you typically aren’t doing so because you care deeply about a particular issue. Rather, you are joining an organization that is dedicated to serving your community broadly, rather than addressing a single cause. The work of a service club often touches a wide range of issues and changes throughout the years to meet the current needs of the community.

For instance, over the last year, the Rotary Club of Sturgeon Bay awarded nearly $30,000 in scholarships to kids from all of Door County’s high schools. It has mobilized community support to begin the cleanup of Sturgeon Bay’s Little Lake this summer and raised more than $110,000 to accomplish that goal. During the last year, the members of this Rotary Club served as mentors to young people, participated in several international service projects, raised thousands of dollars for polio eradication in third world countries, and awarded nearly $15,000 in grants to local charities.

Obviously I know the work of the Rotary Club of Sturgeon Bay best, but the same pattern holds true for most other service clubs as well. When we think of the Altrusa Club of Door County we think of the Back to School Fair, but they also transcribe children’s books into braille for local libraries. Our local Altrusa Club offers six scholarships every year to non-traditional students and provides educational gift packages to the parents of Door County’s newborn children. Altrusans also participate in a variety of service projects throughout the year.

Regardless of the service club, the pattern is the same. Individual members of these organizations are encouraged and invited to constantly look at the needs of their community and engage the members of their club in service of a larger goal. Those needs and goals will change over time, but the community service will continue. In Rotary, our motto is “service above self.”

This brings us to the second unique aspect of volunteering through a service club. It is inherently a collective experience.

Rotarians use a four-way test as an ethical guide for their personal and professional relationships. One of the four questions we are to ask of ourselves before we act is, “Will it build goodwill and better friendships?” Attend most any kind of service club meeting and you’ll find it filled with fellowship and laughter. This is by design. By spending time together in a joyous and purposeful way, the members of a service club build bonds with one another. When this occurs within the structure and leadership a service club provides, the group has a far greater capacity to realize the goals of its individual members.

If you’re looking for a different kind of volunteer experience, one that encourages service broadly and does so in the context of fellowship and friendship, consider joining a service club. As the saying goes, many hands make light work. And in the case of service clubs, the work can be a lot of fun, too.

There are many service clubs in Door County. Here are just a few you might consider:

• Rotary Club of Sturgeon Bay – sturgeonbayrotary.org

• Sturgeon Bay Breakfast Rotary Club – sbbrotary.org

• Northern Door Rotary Club – facebook.com/DoorCountyNorthRotaryClub

• Altrusa of Door County – altrusaofdoorcounty.org

• Brussels Lions Club – e-clubhouse.org/sites/brusselswi

• Sister Bay Lions Club – e-clubhouse.org/sites/sisterbaywi

• Sturgeon Bay Lions Club – e-clubhouse.org/sites/sturgeonbay

• Sturgeon Bay Kiwanis – facebook.com/SturgeonBayKiwanis

• Sturgeon Bay Jaycees – sturgeonbayjaycees.com

• Masonic Lodge Sturgeon Bay – hsbaird.com

Bret Bicoy is president & CEO of the Door County Community Foundation. Contact him at [email protected].