This month, the Rotary Club of Poplarville will host its biggest fundraiser of the year with an acoustic performance by country music artist Jeff Bates at Pearl River Community College’s Brownstone Center for the Arts.
Past Rotary President and District Governor Becky Askew said Rotary International is the world’s premier service organization.
With more than 32,000 clubs in 165 countries, about 1.2 million members volunteer their time and talents to serve others, Askew said.
According to rotary.org, the organization identifies specific targets to maximize local and global impact. Rotary International helps individual clubs focus their service efforts in promoting peace, fighting disease, providing clean water, saving mothers and children, supporting education and growing local economies.
Chicago attorney Paul P. Harris formed one of the world’s first service organizations, the Rotary Club of Chicago in 1905, the website states. The club was designed to be a place where professionals with different backgrounds could exchange ideas and form lifelong relationships.
According to the website, the name rotary came from the group’s early practice of rotating meetings among the offices of each member.
In 1926, the Rotary Club of Lumberton sponsored the club in Poplarville and since then, the club has provided community service to the citizens of Poplarville, Askew said.
“The club provides two scholarships to PRCC each year and sponsors Boy Scouts Troop 28,” Askew said. “We also support the PRC Nursing Home, Brother’s Keeper Ministry, the Poplarville Library and others. The club also initiated an effort through the Lower Pearl River Valley Foundation for the city to secure funding for the splash pad at city park.”
The club has also provided tennis shoes and socks for orphans, dictionaries for elementary students, sponsorship of the Blueberry Jubilee Run 5K and donations to areas affected by natural disasters, Askew said.
Prior to the concert, the club is also hosting a drawdown at the Olivia Bender Cafeteria, Rotary president Steve Reid said. Tickets cost $100 and admit two. The purchase of a ticket includes two steak dinners and two concert tickets.
“Rotary is a wonderful service organization,” Askew said. “It’s an organization of business and professional people pledged to upholding higher professional standards. Worldwide fellowship and international peace can be achieved when business people unite under the banner of service.”
Jeff Bates’ acoustic performance will be held on June 20 at 8 p.m. at the Pearl River Community College’s Brownstone Center for the Arts. Tickets cost $25 and are available for purchase at www.brownpapertickets.com or by phone at 601-403-1180.
Contact Reid at 601-543-4610 to purchase a drawdown ticket.
Learn more about the Rotary Club of Poplarville through Facebook at Rotary Club of Poplarville.
Learn more about Jeff Bates at www.jeffbates.net.