The Rotary Club of Fairlawn was founded in 1964 as the Rotary Club of Bath. In 1965 we brought the Cleveland Orchestra to Hale Farm which, in addition to raising funds, demonstrated the viability of what became Blossom Music Center. Service projects included helping develop the Bath Community Park system, sending brood sows to the Philippines, and helping build a local camp for handicapped childre
n. In 1978 we changed the club name to the Rotary Club of North West Summit County (whew) to reflect the Bath, Copley, Fairlawn, and Richfield communities it had grown to serve. By the end of the 1970's our tradition of helping maintain Boy Scout Camp Manatoc and Girl Scout Camp Ledgewood had begun. Christmas 1981 saw the first of our annual holiday Christmas baskets donated and delivered to local needy families. A decade later, with the Boy Scouts, we started an annual black-tie Gala to raise money for the Scouts and other charities. Other service projects included collecting and shipping over 1500 lbs of toys to Louisiana's Baton Rouge Sunrise Rotary Club for distribution to victims of the Katrina hurricane. After many years with a long descriptive name, the club changed it to the Rotary Club of Fairlawn in 2007. Service to local schools, communities and charities as well as international projects continue. Recent local projects include ongoing support of Safety Town and school athletic fields, collecting thousands of books for impoverished local children (many did not have any at home), tutoring elementary children to read, and teaching programming at the Boys and Girls Club. International projects include teaming with other Rotary clubs to drill a well for an orphan's school in Kenya and providing schools to children in Nicaragua to enable them to escape a life of scavenging a dump for food. We provide service to others, promote integrity, advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through our fellowship of business, professional, and community leaders.
