Union City Rotary Club - Weekly Bulletin & News

This year marks the 29th year that the Union City Rotary Club has awarded scholarships to students from Obion County. The Rotary Club International was founded in 1905 with the first club in Chicago, Illinois and has since grown worldwide to include clubs in 167 countries with 1.2 million members. Members of the Rotary Club are a diverse group of professional leaders working to address various community and international service needs and to promote peace and understanding throughout the world. The Union City Rotary Club was chartered September 2, 1936, and now has approximately 140 members. In 1982 when Gus White (one of our charter members and past district governor), passed away a trust fund of $10,000 was set up for a scholarship in his memory. Then another Rotarian, Mr. Hardy Graham, started a trust fund for scholarships with a $1,000 donation. In 1983 Old & Third National Bank (now Commercial Bank) had a trust fund that had been left in a will for scholarships; the trust officer, John Pylant, asked if they could join with the Rotary Club to make the processing of applicants easier, and thus, began the Union City Rotary Club Scholarship Program. Today Union City Rotary Foundation is registered as a tax exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

The Union City Rotary Club Scholarship Program is divided into three categories. The first is the traditional Rotary Scholarship that was began in 1982 and is available to graduating seniors from Union City High School, Obion Country Central High School and South Fulton

High School for post-secondary education at qualified colleges, universities and technical schools. The second category is for upper classmen in qualified colleges, universities and technical schools who are residents of Obion County. Both of these first two categories are privately funded by donations and endowments from business and individuals from Obion County. Third, is the Verhine Scholarship fund, endowed with $3,200,000 from the F. Fern Verhine Trust, which is available only to upper classmen in qualified colleges, universities and technical schools who are graduates of Union City High School.

In 2010, businesses and individuals from Obion County donated $100,000 during the annual scholarship drive, and an additional sum of $28,000 came from interest earned on endowments given over the years by many generous contributors. We are certainly thankful to all these donors for their interest in giving back to the community because without them there would be no scholarship program.

Since 1982 the Union City Rotary Club has helped over 2700 students from Obion County and awarded $3,586,535 in scholarships. In 2010 the Union City Rotary Club will award approximately 240 students a total of $273,000 in scholarships.

Scholarships from the Union City Rotary Club are awarded primarily on the basis of financial need; however, there are a very limited number of scholarships based on scholastic achievement and/or study in a particular field. The scholarship committee always considers financial need first and the students are ranked according to this need; then, for high school seniors, the committee must give consideration to the student’s interview and

third, any special requirements of the donor’s scholarship are considered to determine the final award selection.

The Rotary Scholarship Committee is chaired by Roger Williams and includes members Steve Vaughn, Richard Graham, Gary Houston, Bob Regen, Ron Green, Clint Joiner, Barry Keathley, Al Creswell, Dave Schlager and Kurt Baggett. Many other Rotarians give of their time to help make this program the huge success that it is.

Any individual or company that wishes to establish a scholarship through the Union City Rotary Club Foundation is welcome to participate and may get further details by emailing their request to info@unioncityrotary.org.

Enrollment for Union City Rotary Club scholarships is currently open until April 15, 2010. Applications can be obtained from the Union City Rotary website at www.unioncityrotary.org . To be eligible for a regular Rotary Scholarship you must be a resident of Obion County, currently be a senior at Union City High School, Obion County Central High School or South Fulton High School, or an upper classman in an accredited university, college or technical school. Eligibility for a Rotary Verhine Scholarship requires that you must have graduated from Union City High School and will have completed at least one year of post-secondary education at qualified institution by the time the scholarship money will be awarded.

Applicants are encouraged to print and keep a hard copy of their application, but this year no hard copies of documents will be accepted by the scholarship committee. All applications must be completed online and all supporting documentation requested must be scanned and attached to the online application electronically. Failure to submit the required documentation will result in that application not being considered. Any questions about the application process should be submitted by email to info@unioncityrotary.org.

Last week, Gary Benmark, Rotary’s district 6760 governor, and his wife Lesley were on hand for the purpose of presenting citations awarded to Union City Rotary during the recent District Conference.

The ceremony began by Governor Benmark presenting President Barns with the Presidential Citation Award, along with the Distinguished Service Award. The District Governor’s Citation award for the Best Continuation Project was presented to Cathy Waggoner, program administrator the the local Promethean Foundation. Along with Cathy for the reception of the award were, Promethean’s education specialist Jenny Virgin and Promethean’s business administrator Lori Suiter.

Rotary’s Humanitarian Award will be presented to Robert Kirkland at a later date, due to Robert not being able to attend Friday’s meeting.

Also on the program last week was a young man who, since graduating from the Union City School System, has proven what you learn as a student will, if you apply yourself, pave the way to achieving whatever goal you set in adult life. Tony Bass a 1979 graduate from UCHS, left us with the message that in an economy as we are in at the present time should not deter our determination to keep growing in whatever business world we find ourselves. He has proven that by positive thinking and coming up with ways to generate sales and control the destiny of some of the major manufacturing company’s he has worked for in his career.

Coming Attractions

May 21 - Mary Marbry, West Tennessee Tourism

May 28 - TBA

June 04 - Verhine Scholarship Program

Birthdays

May 17 - Lee Fry

May 18 - Leland Davis

May 20 - Charles Denaburg

May 20 - Dan Weber

Anniversaries

May 14 - Doug and Beverly Carter

May 14 - Dan and Jean Weber

May 15 - Fred and Vicki Wilkinson

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