

The Kutztown Rotary Club Honored With Organization of the Year Award
The Kutztown Rotary Club received the Kutztown Community Partnership Organization of the Year Award at KCP's February 2nd annual meeting. Our very active president-elect, Ellen Overcast, nominated the club for this honor. The award was received by Ellen and our club secretary and foundation president, Melissa Kirk. Also receiving an award that night was the KCP volunteer of the year, Jerry Schearer, KCP's Past President and Assistant Vice President and Dean of Student Services. In a Feb 13 Berks-Mont news article available on the Reading Eagle website, Jerry made the following comments about the Kutztown Rotary Club: “Rotary Club of Kutztown is such a great organization. The amount of fundraising they do for local projects and the volunteers they provide for KCP events is really impressive. I’ve been glad to give back to them a little each year by volunteering at the Taste of Kutztown event Rotary holds.” Also quoted in the article were comments from our current president, Tom Kulp: “Kutztown Rotary Club is honored to be recognized as the Organization of the Year by Kutztown Community Partnership. The Kutztown Rotary Club focuses on local needs in Kutztown, Topton, and surrounding communities. We have partnered with KCP on many initiatives and look forward to continuing to support KCP and the community. We plan to continue our mission of supporting community efforts through our major fundraisers, the Taste of Kutztown in June, and Kutztown Ghost Tour in October.”
Rotary and the United Nations have a shared history of working toward peace and addressing humanitarian issues around the world.
During World War II, Rotary informed and educated members about the formation of the United Nations and the importance of planning for peace. Materials such as the booklet “From Here On!” and articles in The Rotarian helped members understand the UN before it was formally established and follow its work after its charter.
Many countries were fighting the war when the term “United Nations” was first used officially in the 1942 “Declaration by United Nations.” The 26 nations that signed it pledged to uphold the ideals expressed by the United States and the United Kingdom the previous year of the common principles “on which they based their hopes for a better future for the world.”
Every hero has an origin story. “I was 10 years old when the entire journey started,” explains Binish Desai. It began with a cartoon called Captain Planet, an animated TV series from the 1990s about an environmentalist with superpowers. Desai can still recite the show’s refrain: Captain Planet, he’s our hero / Gonna take pollution down to zero! “That tagline stuck in my mind,” he says. “I wanted to do something to help Captain Planet.”
Service Above Self
Kutztown, PA 19530
United States of America