The Rotary Club of Morro Bay is celebrating 75 years of service to the community and the world through their many projects and fundraisers to help others. Chartered on April 17, 1950, many local business and professional leaders have joined and volunteered throughout the years to promote world understanding and peace through health, hunger, poverty, education and environmental projects. PolioPlus, high school scholarships and disaster relief along with community grants to local non-profits are longtime projects of the Morro Bay Rotary.
The Club will hold their 75th Anniversary Celebration with an event at the Morro Bay Community Center at 1001 Kennedy Way on Saturday, March 15 starting at 5 p.m. with a cocktail hour and followed by a sit-down dinner at 6 p.m. Tickets are available through March 8 for $75 each at morrobayrotary.org where menus can be selected. Live music will be performed by the Out of the Blue band with Kim Cade providing DJ music later in the evening. Many local residents have been guests, speakers, supporters or members of Morro Bay Rotary and everyone is invited to attend.
Dr. Sylvia Whitlock, PhD, a Rotary pioneer, educator, humanitarian and longtime advocate for women in Rotary is the Keynote Speaker. In 1982, Whitlock joined a club in Duarte, CA whose membership in Rotary International had been revoked because Rotary clubs were not permitted to admit women as members at that time. In 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Rotary clubs could not exclude women from membership on the basis of gender. After the ruling, Rotary International ended their policy of gender restrictions. Whitlock went on to serve as the first ever female Rotary club president. Through the years, she has established a Jamaican AIDS clinic, supported a Mexican orphanage, participated in providing clean drinking water in Nigeria, and raised money to educate girls at Piyali Learning Center in India.
For more information and to purchase tickets go to morrobayrotary.org or call Club President John Weiss at 805-748-9615.
