Rotary - Lexington, Virginia

03/18/2026

At our last meeting, hosted at Salerno Wood Fired Pizza & Taphouse, we enjoyed hearing from Suzanne Sheridan, CEO of Rockbridge Area Health Center, on their current initiatives in our local community.

12/23/2025

Rotary members and friends installing American flags on graves of veterans before Veterans day at Oak Grove Cemetery.

11/06/2025

We had a wonderful meeting tonight! We welcomed our District Governor Andy Vanhook, we inducted our newest member Mike Smitka, and enjoyed dinner catered by Sweet Treats

06/09/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/12LiM2cmfJK/

05/09/2025

The Lexington Rotary Club met Wednesday, April 16 at 5 PM .

Our guest speaker was Jamie Joyner, Vice President of the Rockbridge Christmas Basket Board of Directors. Jamie has been involved with the Christmas Basket Program since his father (Col. Jim Joyner past member of the Lexington Rotary Club) woke him up on a Saturday morning and sent him to Crozet Hall to help. Jame was 17 years old.

The Christmas Basket program began in 1948. In 2024, the program served 3,453 persons including 1,215 children and about 1,200 families.

The program is run by 14 members on the board of directors. These 14 people do most of the work leading up to the weekend of packing and delivery. In a normal year, collection of supplies begins in September. Mohawk donates just under 2,000 cardboard boxes and 600 toy bags. Toy purchases are made straight from the manufacturers. In October and November, 90,000 pounds of food is purchased from local supermarkets and from the Shenandoah Food Bank. These supplies are stored in a warehouse generously made available by Chuck Barger. At the end of November, the food is inventoried, arranged and shrink-wrapped in preparation for move to the Horse Center. On the week before packing day, Lexington P***c Works moves the materials. Tables and packing centers are arranged. On Friday of packing weekend, 120 middle school students arrive to unfold and build the cardboard boxes. With the help of high school students, they pack 600 to 700 boxes on Friday afternoon. On Saturday morning, from 8AM to noon, 800 to 900 volunteers arrive to finish packing the boxes, bag the toys and deliver “baskets”.

The program has had a dietitian review the groceries to ensure the contents are as healthy as possible within the food budget. Each box last year weighed 46 pounds. Last year the budget was about $120,000. 97% or more of every dollar donated goes to buy food or toys.

04/23/2025

Today is the day. Join us this evening from 5:30-9pm for Kids' Night Out. Spots still available for ages 4-12yrs. Call 540-464-9622 to register or for more information. Registration will end at 2pm today.

03/31/2025

Coming up we will arrange for a tour of the RCHS vo-tech facility and a business tour of the new Chic Filet store.

Also we will arrange to visit the new Mountain Gateway Community College facility in Buena Vista.

03/31/2025

At the beginning of March,

Our speaker was Tom Carroll, Lexington City Manager, talking about current housing issues in Lexington. He said that there is a housing crisis all across America, and it is getting worse. He explained that a cost-burdened family is defined as a family spending more than 30% of its gross income on housing (mortgage or rent, transportation for employment and daily living activities, and utilities). Forty-four percent (44%) of Lexington home owners are cost-burdened, and another 14% are very close. A living wage for a single person in Lexington is $18.08/hour. In Rockbridge County it is $19.50/hour. We have relatively low wages generally in our area. Tom is working to raise all City pay to at least minimum wage. He mentioned that the starting salary of a Lexington police officer is $49K. The Shenandoah Valley is economically depressed because of the lack of sufficient housing, which is a limitation on attracting potential employees and expanding business.

Only 34% of Lexington property supports the City budget because of tax-exempt VMI and W&L. Lexington's 2 1/2 square miles are "pretty well built out." The City owns three lots, which it would like to sell for development of affordable housing such as single-family cottage homes. These lots are 1 1/2 acres at the corner of Walker and Houston Streets, on Spotswood Drive next to RARA, and the former VDOT lot. Seven Habitat homes are slated for construction on South Main Street.

Tom would like to develop a Homeowner Helper Program, such as he has seen elsewhere. The City would issue "code enforcement actions" or orders to repaint or re shingle poorly maintained houses, for examples. Most homeowners would comply, but for those who cannot afford the cost the City would hire the necessary painters, roofers, etc., pay them, and put a lien on the house to be paid off when the property transfers (sells). This equates to a zero-percent loan from the City in which everybody "wins;" the City and neighbors win because property values are held up. This program would be only for homeowners, not for landlords (who must pay for maintenance out of business income); it would work best for senior citizens aging in place.

As Summer draws closer we hope to get away from statistics on when and where and how. In hopes we could be talking about what these lots are gonna look like when done!

03/31/2025

The Local History Center of Rockbridge Regional Library System is offering a free children’s program, Imagination Station: Design a Masterpiece, on Saturday, April 5, 2025, from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM at Glasgow Public Library.

Join us and design a masterpiece!

03/31/2025