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Beneficial and Fun Service
Written By: Deena Bouknight | Issue: 2021/08 – August
For Rotarians Jeannie and Tucker Chambers, the siren call of community action proved impossible to ignore.
Jeannie and Tucker Chambers
Rotarian Jeannie Chambers said she accompanied her husband, Tucker, a past-president of Mountaintop Rotary, to a few meetings and experienced the “larger-than-life energy at the meetings that was hard to resist” before deciding to join.
She said, “I was already committed to a couple of other groups, but I kept feeling the tug to join, so I did.”
Since becoming a Rotarian, she’s been involved with community projects. But there is one endeavor that has been near and dear to her heart: The Literacy & Learning Center.
“I’ve dressed up in costume to hand out free books at the Downtown Trick-or-Treat, and I’ve got to tell you, the smiles on those children’s faces as they choose their own book is priceless.”
Chambers pointed out that by helping non-profits like The Literacy and Learning Center, The Food Pantry, The Emergency Council, and others, Rotarians are reaching out “beyond our initial grasp to help others. If we help them, then they can continue to help others in need.”
And she and other members are always encouraging more young people to become involved.
“We’re really a fun group,” she said, explaining that a new project, called RotarAct!, developed due to a grant from Rotary District 7670 and the Mountaintop Rotary Club of Highlands, focuses on hands-on projects, such as removing non-native invasive plant species in and around the town of Highlands, community roadways, and local non-profit owned properties.
She added, “In addition to the benefits to the shared landscape, the primary motivation of this plan was to provide financial relief to working people of the community who have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic by employing them as workers in the project.”
The first RotarAct! project was a success, drawing assistance from all ages.
“Despite the driving rains that greeted everyone in the morning, 50 workers and volunteers worked from 9:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M., removing invasive species in the Highlands area,” Jeannie said. “In addition, the Women’s Initiative of the International Friendship Center made an authentic Mexican lunch for all participants. The club paid workers in the form of a $100 Ingles gift card.”
