Rotary honors contributors at banquet

Foundation supports humanitarian projects

The Rotary Club of Moses Lake recently honored those who went above — and in some cases, beyond — the call of duty with regards to donation.

Rotary Foundation committee member Larry Peterson said that the banquet held Wednesday evening in the Hallmark Inn was to honor donors of $1,000 to the Foundation, who would receive Paul Harris Fellow awards, named after the man who founded Rotary 100 years ago.

"The Rotary Foundation does projects worldwide," Peterson said.

One of the main projects is Polio Plus, a program aimed at eradicating polio from the entire world, Peterson said.

"They do humanitarian projects like prosthetic limbs for mine victims in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, and water wells in African countries," he said. "Just a whole variety."

Peterson said that the Moses Lake club has presented about 265 Paul Harris awards in total, and has contributed well over half a million dollars to Rotary International.

Twenty new Paul Harris Fellow awards and 19 multiple Paul Harris awards, for additional contributions of $1,000 or more, were presented at Wednesday's banquet.

"This is the evening where Rotary celebrates a contribution to the Rotary International Foundation," Moses Lake club president Juliann Dodds said. "The Foundation uses its money to provide scholarships for education and community development, so it's where we give back."

Paul Burke, former publisher of the Columbia Basin Herald and currently the advertising director of Hagadone Newspapers in north Idaho, was given a "Service Above Self" award for recently donating a kidney to Columbia Basin Herald publisher Harlan Beagley's wife, Kim Beagley, who later presented Burke with his Paul Harris award.

"It's an award that Rotary gives to Rotarians for going above and beyond what a normal Rotarian would do," Dodds explained. "So they have high standards for Rotarians, and those people go even above that."

Beagley was pleased with the attention Burke was receiving.

"I'm excited that he's getting the recognition because it's just such a neat thing to have done," Beagley said. "It just makes me feel good that he knows that he's been appreciated."

"I know from you, Kim," Burke told Beagley. "It's great to be recognized, but I think what did it for me, and I knew I did the right thing, is when (Beagley's daughter) Linda came in and gave me a card, and the message on the card was, 'Thank you for saving my mommy's life.'"

Harlan Beagley said that Kim was released to go back to work and to drive earlier in the day.