Hands-On and All In: Salem Rotary Gets Back to Work in the Community

Over the twenty years that I have been a member of the Rotary Club of Salem, I have heard it said many times that we are a club that gets things done. We are trying to continue our rebound from the 2020 year when COVID changed our world, changed our meeting format, changed our everyday working habits of going to an office, and changed the way we as Rotarians gather weekly or gather for community service projects. Also, our club has become more of a check writing club and offering monetary support to local nonprofit organizations – a transactional club as one of our board members has indicated.

I want to draw your attention to the work of another board member, Alicia Bay, who is our director of Community Needs and is the chair of the Hands-On (Service Projects) Committee. Alicia’s board level responsibility oversees the work by four committees: Blood Drive (quarterly event), Hands On (monthly activities to support community nonprofit organizations), Holiday Giving (Tree of Joy for Salvation Army, Tree of Joy for Oregon State Hospital, and Holiday Bell Ringing for Salvation Army), and Hunger Awareness (dormant committee at this time; previously was used to coordinate and lead an annual food drive with Marion Polk Foodshare).

At the beginning of this Rotary year I expressed a desire to focus attention on Club committees to bring committee activity more into view of our entire membership and to get back into a focus on Hands-On projects as a method to increase member involvement beyond the monetary support we provide to the community of approximately $150,000 per year.

During the past several years the Hands-On committee was self-contained and self-sufficient but limited by the resources of the committee members. This year we have opened up the committee focus to have them function as the developers of projects for all Rotary members to participate in.  

Through February we completed 11 Hands-On projects. Those eleven projects involved 162 volunteers and 200 hours. In the months of March through June, I know that Alicia and her committee have at least 5 more Hands-On opportunities for Rotarians to UNITE FOR GOOD. When this is published, one of those Hands-On projects will be completed – Cascades Gateway Park trail building. Watch for news of the other four opportunities to make a Hands-On difference in our community. There will be Hands-On activities planned for April, May, and June and we have one more weekly meeting that will be a “committee meeting” format and likely will include a Hands-On project for those not involved in one of the three or four committee meetings.

It is tremendous that our club is able to make an annual community investment of $150,000 or more, but some of the real memories of providing help and support to our community, and the various nonprofits, come from the Hands-On activities when we get a closer look at how these important organizations deliver services to those in need within our community.

As we look toward the final three months of this Rotary year let’s continue to find opportunities to UNITE FOR GOOD and look forward to the 2026-27 Rotary year when we will be challenged to CREATE LASTING IMPACT.

See you on Wednesday!

President Doug Parham
Rotary Club of Salem
2025-2026