Lyon Area Rotary members not only help residents in need, they extend their reach to people around the world.

The club has chosen to focus on local food security, said club member Joanna Firestone.

Rotarians volunteer to grow food in the community garden and financially support Active Faith, as well as the South Lyon summer lunch program. Other projects involve Operation Injured Soldiers, survivors of human trafficking, Families Building Faith and many more.

Club president Bob Limbright joined Rotary 35 years ago and hasn’t looked back.

“You meet people who are active in the community, and you can get things done,” he said. “It gives you a good feeling because it has a big effect in the world.”

Another member, Mary Knauer, 92, has been a Rotarian for 25 years. Earlier this year she went to Peru as a Rotarian ambassador to distribute school supplies, and to Kenya to work on a free eye care clinic and distribute glasses.

Over the years, Knauer has also gone on Rotary missionary trips to Ghana, Ethiopia and Mozambique with groups who built and renovated school structures and passed out supplies for students. She also went to Africa and India to support Rotary’s polio immunization programs.

“It’s my way of giving back to society for what I’ve been given,” Knauer said. “It’s an organization of people who want to see change for good in the world. We’re a little club but it’s quite an active club. We want to do things in our community or wherever we can.”

Locally, Rotary enlists the help of the St. Joseph Catholic Church youth group and their families to make blankets annually for homeless people.

“We are doing 100 blankets this year,” Limbright said. “We get a lot of good out of those blankets.”

The club also coordinates partnerships with area organizations to support their programs.

Every year for eight years the club recognizes the Most Improved Students at South Lyon High School and East High School. The young people are invited to a luncheon, where they are recognized in front of family and friends.

“We’re honoring students who wouldn’t get any recognition at all,” Limbright said. “We ask counselors to look for the most improved students. We’re not looking for scholastically improved, it might be they had a bad attitude and turned it around or they weren’t going to class, or maybe they have some other kind of problem.”

The 16 or so club members are also out in the community selling cotton candy during Kite Fest and hosting a game booth at Pumpkinfest in downtown South Lyon.

“They give us a chance to interact with the community,” Limbright said.

The local club was formed about 12 years ago by Dr. Ben Stein, who was one of the three doctors who started Abbey Park at Mill River retirement community in Lyon Township. It has a multigenerational membership with the addition of Limbright’s daughter, Tina Bishop, and Knauer’s daughter, Ann Bizer.

The first Rotary club was started in 1905 by Paul Harris, a lawyer in Chicago who was isolated in a big city and wanted to build his network of friends.

“He decided he would get together with business acquaintances and have lunch,” Limbright said. “That idea has grown to 1.4 million Rotarians and 46,000 clubs worldwide.”

Years later a Rotary foundation was established and the Rotarian charitable work began. Rotary International has invested $3 billion in projects over the past 100 years. One of Rotary’s biggest worldwide contributions has been the fight to eradicate polio.

Rotary was an all-men’s organization until 1989 when it began admitting women into clubs worldwide. In 2022, a new milestone was reached when Jennifer Jones became Rotary International’s first female president. The club’s motto is, “Service Above Self.”

Limbright said the local club “strives to empower girls’ and women’s lives locally and internationally.”

Anyone who is interested in joining the Lyon Area Rotary is invited to attend a luncheon meeting at noon on most Tuesdays in the private dining room at Abbey Park at Mill River, 28413 Abbey Lane, New Hudson.

For more information call Limbright at (248) 701-5559 or visit www.lyonarearotary.org.

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