President Sheila Clarke is delighted to announce that Reading Rotary will make a special Paul Harris Fellow presentation to Reading native General Jack Hammond, US Army Ret., Executive Director of Home Base at the 100th Anniversary Celebration on November 2nd.
Home Base is a national nonprofit dedicated to healing the invisible wounds of war for Veterans of all eras, Service Members, Military Families and Families of the Fallen through world-class, direct clinical care, wellness, education and research – all at no cost to them – regardless of era of service, discharge status or geographical location. Home Base organizes the Run to Home Base (. Run to Home Base – Red Sox Foundation ) event at Fenway Park. President Clarke said, “Home Base provides amazing support to Veterans in need. We are so happy to be able to honor General Hammond at our Gala. His service and leadership are so inspirational. You won’t want to miss it.”
Reading Rotary was chartered on December 7, 1923. Over the years we have evolved from a weekly lunch meeting of business leaders to a robust community service organization with expanded membership, including a greater representation of our community.
Reading Rotary is at the hub of so many things in Town. We now run the Reading Fall Street Faire (the largest annual event in Reading), the high school Snack Shack, partner with the Reading Food Pantry to bring food from the Greater Boston Food Bank, Adopt-a-Family, provide literacy bags to Kindergarteners and trees to fifth graders. We are excited to be developing a community garden for Reading Food pantry clients with help from a district grant and we are embarking on a global grant with Rotary Amman Citadel in Jordan. Our Street Faire brings upward of 10K-15K people to Reading’s downtown and is the largest and most anticipated annual town event the year.
Other projects and groups we have supported are: Reading Scholarship Foundation; the purchase and support of defibrillators for the Reading Fire Department; toys for tots; purchasing of the Reading High School band golf cart; Reading Education Foundation; RMHS robotics team; homelessness and hunger initiatives, including preparing and serving meals; Support the National MS society; Run to Home Base; Rotaplast; Polio Plus; Burbank YMCA; Cure Alzheimer’s; Zambia Health Project; the Pan Mass Challenge; sponsor Interact Clubs at RMHS, Austin Prep and North Reading High; sponsored an opioid prevention workshop by Reading Coalition at RMHS; Senior Signs on the Town Hall lawn; with Chamber supported Menorah on Common; and much more.
Rotary is a volunteer service club. Through Rotary International, Reading Rotary joins over 1.4 million Rotarians in 33,000 Rotary Clubs worldwide to eradicate polio, help young children live healthier lives and rebuild communities devasted by disaster. Rotary partners with the Gates Foundation, the WHO, UNICEF and the CDC and national governments toward our top goal of eradicating polio worldwide. But Rotary is also about fellowship, friendships and fun.
The Paul Harris Fellow recognition is named after Rotary's founder to recognize a person for contributions in the name of Service Above Self.