02/23/2005: "HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY, ROTARY!"

STEPHEN and SUSAN ROBINS RECEIVE AWARD FOR PELINDABA LAVENDER FARM
NAMED BUSINESS OF THE YEAR By The Rotary Club of The San Juan Islands

By Mary Kalbert

Chris Spaulding, president of the club, said that "Pelindaba Lavender has amply delivered on its goals of preserving farmland as open space, providing a beautiful environment for the enjoyment of residents and visitors alike, and creating employment opportunities for fellow islanders. Its success in undertaking this vision throughout its farming, production, marketing and retail activities while exercising the highest environmental and aesthetic standards has met the Four Way Test in full."

The "Four Way Test" originated during the Depression with a Rotarian drafting a code of ethical business conduct that has since become a marker of true business excellence. To qualify for the Award, a business had to pass all four tests in everything it thought, said or did: "Is it the TRUTH? Is it FAIR to all concerned?" Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?"

Stephen Robins, co-owner of Pelindaba Lavender said, "We are honored to receive this award. It not only recognizes the importance of our vision statement as a guide to everything we do in all aspects of our venture, but also affirms the value and deep satisfaction of serving a community while realizing one's own goals."



The world's first service club was the Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois. It was founded on this day 100 years ago by lawyer Paul P. Harris, and three friends – a merchant tailor, a mining engineer and a coal dealer. The name "Rotary" was derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among their offices.

Fast forward to October 11th , 2003 at the Friday Harbor Yacht Club when 20 local residents pledged to serve their community and world through their membership in the Rotary Club of the San Juan Islands. This new club joined 31,000 from Albania to Zimbabwe in the largest private sector pledge to advance peace, alleviate hunger, focus on children and commit to service world wide without regard to politics or religion.

In the belief that service begins at home, the first community project was the "Rock the Dock" Fourth of July street party for island families and holiday visitors. In the 16 months since their charter, the now 28 members have been rockin' more than the dock. Community projects include but are not limited to, "Portals of Welcome" contributions, Knowledge Bowl participation, community clean-up in conjunction with other clubs and the Chamber of Commerce, community Thanksgiving dinner, donation of a massage chair to the convalescence center, reading loft for kindergarteners, tutoring at Skagit Valley College San Juan Center, a computer re-cycling for members in the Adult Basic Education class at the college, a textbook purchasing program for said class and painting effort for the "Rotary Room" at the center.

Beyond the local community, Rotarians are deeply involved in international projects. They have joined in the twenty year Polio Plus Drive to eradicate polio and five other childhood diseases in the world by this 100th birthday. They are proud of 100,000 of their counterparts in India who in 2001 organized and completed a one day program that resulted in the immunization of 150 million children—signaling the largest public health event in the world. Collectively, over one million Rotarians have donated time and resources to help immunize nearly 2 billion children during various National Immunization days.

Our local Rotarians have helped deliver wheelchairs in Trinidad, provided monetary assistance to medical surgical teams in China, worked on Habitat for Humanity homes in Hawaii, sent money to Sri Lanka via the Spring Street school program, and additional monies to Sri Lanka and Indonesia for tsunami aid.

Additionally they have hosted a Group Study Exchange Team from South Africa, youth exchange students from 12 countries, and selected the first student from Friday Harbor for the International Youth Exchange program. Tara Marie Melborne will go to Argentina in August of this year for a one year educational exchange. Future projects include a trip to a Rotary hospital in Nicaragua, and a Habitat for Humanity home build in New Zealand.

Rotary's involvement in peace became an international mission shortly after World War I. Later, through a formal network of representatives, 50 Rotarians participated in the creation of the UN Charter. Rotary representatives to the UN monitor international meetings to learn and share ways to address hunger, homelessness and illiteracy.

Ahead of their time, Rotary academics and business visionaries saw the need for a place where scholars could learn diplomacy and skills to resolve conflict. The Rotary Centers for International Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution were established in 1999 at the following universities; University of California-Berkeley, Duke and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, USA; Sciences Po, Paris, France; University of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England; University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan; and the Universidad del Salvador, Buenos Aires, Argentina.


As a new century of service unfolds for Rotary clubs around the world, we tip our hat to our local club and to club President Chris Spaulding, President-elect Diane Giesy, Secretary Tom Small, Treasurer Frank Fagan, Sgt at-arms Phil Mayer, Historian Barbara Fagan and all other members; Jon Allsop, Tom Barrett, Chris Clarke, Mike Close, Jack Cory, Mark Earnhart, Mark Freeman, Ellen Johnson, Mary Kalbert, John Kalbert, Jack McKenna, Rusty Pollock, Dick Shorett, , Steve Simpson, Michael Soltman, Maria Small, Yvonne Swanberg, Chuck Van Soye, Bill Weissinger, Jan Whiting, Peter Whiting and Michael Wingren. Thank you for your contributions to our island and our world community.