05/21/2026
✨We asked our Club Secretary what rotary means to her?
What Rotary Means to Me
I still remember the moment I walked through the doors of Fort Yuma Rotary for the first time in 2016. I came in thinking I was simply joining a service club. I had no idea I was walking into something that would quietly, profoundly, reshape the way I live my life.
In the beginning, it was the people that moved me, this remarkable circle of community members who showed up, week after week, not for recognition or reward, but simply because they believed that the world gets better one act of service at a time. I wanted to be part of that. I wanted my life to mean something in that way.
And then there is the 4-Way Test. Those four questions — Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned? — have become something I reach for in quiet moments when a decision feels hard or a path feels unclear. They have become, in the truest sense, a compass for my soul.
But if I am being completely honest about what Rotary means to me, it comes down to my children.
They were small when I began this journey. They tagged along, watched, listened, and absorbed more than I ever realized. Over the years, without a single lecture from me, I watched them begin to reach for others. Begin to ask how they could help. Begin to understand that a life lived in service to something beyond yourself is not a sacrifice. It is a privilege.
That is what Rotary has given my family. Not just membership in a club, but membership in a way of being, a belief that every one of us has something to offer, and that Yuma is better when we offer it together.
Ten years in, my heart is still full. I am still learning. I am still grateful. And I am still so proud to call myself a Rotarian.
Service Above Self — I thought it was a motto. It turned out to be a calling.
Thank you.
