DOWAGIAC — The Dowagiac Rotary Club already had positive news to share in the first few days of the new year.

In 2020, the club as a whole is already achieving goals as the club celebrates its centennial anniversary throughout the year.

At the Rotary Club’s first meeting back after a two-week hiatus due to the holidays, members opened the floor sharing news of their latest accomplishments. Longtime Rotary member Richard Judd shared with the group that he substitute taught at a Dowagiac elementary school for the first time.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do since I retired,” he told the club.

Rotarians also applauded one of the club’s newest members, DeVante McCullom, who had an attorney swearing-in ceremony earlier this week after finding out he passed the bar exam.

Though a focus was evident on the future, the past came up in conversation during the Rotary meeting. To reflect on the 2019 year, Rotary President Melody Wallace reminded members of the five core values: service, fellowship, diversity, integrity and leadership.

While an emphasis has been placed on leadership since Wallace took over as president, she said leadership is now more important than ever as the club begins to prepare for elections. The election process for Rotary takes several months, with a new president to tentatively take over on the Fourth of July, Wallace noted.

“The difficult thing is we have several new members who would make excellent leaders, but Rotary is kind of a complicated thing,” she said, pulling from her own experience. “I’ve been a member of Rotary for five years, and I just really understand it now.”

Wallace’s philosophy on leadership is giving new members time to grow into Rotary and into leadership positions.

As Wallace looks at the upcoming year, she still emphasized a need for a Rotaract Club to be started at Southwestern Michigan College. 

Statistics on Rotary.org showed there are more than 10,900 Rotaract clubs worldwide, with 250,792 Rotaractors.

In 2019, the club also had a push to help build its youth involvement by hosting an Interact Parent Appreciation night to better connect with Interact members at Dowagiac Union High School.

As the club sits with about 25 members regularly attending meetings, membership has been a discussion throughout the beginning of the new year. Although membership is not one of the core values of Rotary, Wallace said it is still an important topic of discussion.

“Is there somebody you can invite to come to lunch that might be a potential Rotary member?” Wallace said. “What would you tell them is the best thing that you enjoy about Rotary?”