Pawtuxet Valley Rotary Club Seeks Expansion

Following a motto of “Service Above Self” is a major responsibility for any citizen. But that’s what a dozen men and women from the Pawtuxet Valley Rotary Club business community currently do in their volunteer efforts of service to the community.

Last Saturday, members gathered to clean up a cemetery adjacent to the Whipple Conservation Area on Main Street in Coventry.

The Rotary also recently held a pre-prom dinner for West Warwick High School students, and has annually provided scholarship money for graduates of all three public high schools in Coventry, West Warwick and West Greenwich.

But Charles Nault, in his second year as rotary club president, wants to expand those efforts and spread its positive influence even more. “We are a committed group of business leaders with a passion for serving and making a difference in our local community and around the world," he said.

Like many other organizations, this club has lost membership in the past decade and is now making a greater effort to expand its volunteer service by recruiting new members.

“At one time our club had over 50 members, but there has been a steady decline,” Nault said. “Now we can not always do what we want to do.”

“We need more exposure to show what we can do and what we have done,” he went on to say. “People are thinking more about their local communities.”

To be an official member of the Rotary Club, members need to be age 18 and over and be sponsored by a local member. 

Being a Rotary Club member also means playing an important part in making a difference to help people nationally and even internationally.

“Rotary Clubs have helped in efforts to almost eradicate polio around the world,” explained Nault. “We also have helped to provided clean water filters in places like Cambodia and the Philippines so that whole villages can get clean water indefinitely.”

“We also have helped provide shelter boxes that are plastic storage bins with tent structures that can be used in disaster situations,” he added.

Nault, though, has more ambitious plans on the local level.

“I am committed to growing the Club, reviving the Interact Club (high school level Rotary Club), and making a real difference in our community.”

“We want to inject youth into our organization,” he said of membership efforts and of projects to help the community. “Younger people bring enthusiasm and energy and knowledge. We want to be known as the organization that pulls all the youth organizations together and help give opportunities for teens to do local community service.”

Each month, meetings are held on the second and fourth Tuesday each month at 7:30 a.m. at , and on the third Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Cowesett Inn in West Warwick.

For more information about club activities and membership, visit www.pawtuxetvalleyrotary.org.