COMMUNITY & CLUBS:

As you make your New Year’s resolutions, add one to visit a service club. Check them out for possible membership, which is an extra 30 minutes a week during a breakfast, lunch or dinner hour, for a club meeting filled with information, fun, friends and service. For some it’s a way to start a day inspired; for others, it’s a way to stay informed about your community. For still others, service club membership is a way to end a day with friends at a dinner meeting.

Many people want to make a difference in the world, and for those of us in service clubs, we find that we can have a greater impact as a group than as an individual. Take, for example, Rotary’s $480 million effort to eradicate polio worldwide and providing the polio vaccine to some two billion children younger than 5 in the past 15 years. There are 1.2 million Rotarians, including 200 in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, who support the Los Angeles Times Reading by Nine program. Go to www.rotary.org for information.

Exchange Club members make a difference by helping in the prevention of child abuse. They promote Americanism with the Freedom Shrines, copies of historical documents important in American history, found in our schools, libraries and at John Wayne Airport; www.nationalexchangeclub.org.

Soroptimist International, including our local Newport Harbor chapter, makes a difference with its emphasis on local women’s opportunities and the development of women peace ambassadors around the world; www.soroptimist.org.

Lions Club’s major support emphasis is on blindness and preserving sight with eye exams for our local school children and major treatment campaigns in Third World countries. You can recycle your old eyeglasses thanks to the efforts of Lions Clubs locally; www.lionsclubs.org.

Kiwanis Clubs around the world have a major campaign underway to eliminate iodine deficiency illness in Third World countries and dozens of local projects benefiting youth; www.kiwanisinternational.org.

Help your community and the world through a service club! For many, service club membership is an extension of our religious beliefs and congregation affiliation.

You are invited to attend a service club meeting this coming week to learn more about opportunities for service. Most clubs will buy your first meal for you as you get acquainted with them.

WORTH REPEATING

From the Thought for the Day as provided by Greg Kelley of the Newport Mesa Irvine Interfaith Council:

“A good name, like good will, is got by many actions and lost by one.”

COMMUNITY & CLUBS is published Saturdays. Send your service club’s meeting information by fax to (714) 921-8655 or by e-mail to [email protected].