Paul Szmal: And welcome back to FLX Morning. It is 8.38 at Finger Lakes News Radio. It's our monthly visit with our friends from the Geneva Rotary Club. Jim Dixon gets the honors of being our guest this morning. Jim, good morning. How are you, sir?
Jim Jackson: Good morning, Paul, and thank you for having me on your program.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, a pleasure, a pleasure, absolutely. Tell me a little bit about your rotary background before we get into the meat and potatoes of today's conversation.
Jim Jackson: Well, thank you. I've been a Rotarian since 1976, so I'm a mature citizen as far as the rotary is concerned. I have been a previous past president of our Rotary Club and an assistant governor for our Rotary District, and I'm on the faculty of the Rotary Leadership Institute at the present time.
Paul Szmal: Okay, so we're here today to talk about the upcoming Paul Harris Fellowship Awards that are going to be presented at the Service Above Self Gala, which we'll get to the gala itself in a minute. But first, what's a little bit of the history of the Paul Harris Fellowship Award? How did it come to be?
Jim Jackson: Okay, well, thank you, Paul, and may I apologize to your listeners because of my raspy voice. My spring allergies are driving me crazy at the present time. Let me tell you a little bit about Rotary first of all. Rotary was founded by Paul Harris, who was a young Chicago lawyer in February of 1905, and it started out as a service club and has continued to this day to be a service club. Over the years, the concept of rotary grew dramatically, and we presently have about 36,000 Rotary clubs around the world and a little over 1.2 million members. Their motto from the beginning of Rotary was service above self, and we pride ourselves in what we do in our communities.
The Rotary Foundation was founded by Rotary in 1917, and that is basically the charitable arm of Rotary. In 1957, after Paul Harris's death, the Rotary International decided to have an award honoring outstanding people in their communities. It's the highest award, official Rotary award, that a Rotary club can bestow on an individual for their outstanding commitment of time, talent, and treasure to their communities of the world. To receive this award, the local Rotary club must contribute $1,000 or more in the name of that individual to the Rotary International Foundation. To date, the Geneva Rotary Club has awarded 145 individuals with this award.
Paul Szmal: Wow, that's a lot.
Jim Jackson: Yeah, it is. The Rotary Foundation now takes in about $350 million a year, and these help to fund projects around the world. Everything from literacy enhancements, community development, disease prevention and treatment, and being a retired physician. The Polio Plus program certainly catches my eye. Maternal and child health, peacemaking, water, sanitation, and hygiene projects, and environment protection projects. We also give local grants out to individual clubs to do projects.
The Rotary Club of Geneva and its members have contributed over $206,000 to the Rotary Foundation. Also, the Geneva Rotary Club has donated well over that amount to local nonprofit organizations and charities.
Paul Szmal: Impressive.
Jim Jackson: For example, in 2024, the Rotary Club of Geneva gave $6,687 to the Rotary Foundation, $16,250 to 18 local nonprofit organizations, and $5,638 to Camp Anciao. Just to refresh your mind, Camp Anciao is a Rotary camp for children ages 8 through 16 that have physical and neurological disabilities, and going to that camp costs their families nothing. It's completely paid for by donations from the Rotary Clubs in our four-county area. We've also given $2,000 in scholarships to graduating seniors at Geneva High, and $31,500 in interest-free loans to help college be more accessible to the graduating class of Geneva High School.
Paul Szmal: Nice. That is a long, long list of accomplishments. Now, the Paul Harris Fellowship Awards for this year, do we have a list of award winners?
Jim Jackson: Yes, we do. But let me just mention, you know, all these activities that we partake in obviously cost us money.
Paul Szmal: Oh yeah, absolutely. And that's an excellent question, is where does the funding for this come from?
Jim Jackson: Thank you. That is an excellent question. This is why we have fundraising events like our very successful Santa Train event, which is held in early December, and our Service Above Self Dinner, which will be held this year at the Ventosa Winery on Saturday, April 5th at 6 o'clock p.m. This event is a wonderful dinner and a great time for people to participate in silent and live auctions. MC for that evening will be Pass District Governor Bill Gorman, who is a professional magician, so you better watch your wallet. Our keynote speaker is Mark Guerin, and so we can certainly expect a fun-filled and inspiring evening.
We will be honoring five individuals who will be receiving Paul Harris Fellowship Awards at that event, and these include Frank Capozzi, who is the Executive Director of Catholic Charities, Carrie Limpincott, who is the Executive Director of Historic Geneva. And Bernard, or as he likes to be called, Bernie Lynch, who is a local businessman but a tireless worker for the betterment of Geneva's youth. And Robert, or we like to call him Bob McFadden, who is the CEO and President of the Finger Lakes Federal Credit Union, and is an active volunteer and board member in many of Geneva's non-profit organizations. And he's also the treasurer of the Geneva Rotary Club. Cheryl Torr, who is the Director of Center of Concern, will be one of the honorees. And our final honoree, but he will not be present, unfortunately, he had a conflict in the schedule, will be retired Major General Bruce Tuxel, who is an energetic volunteer and supporter of many non-profit organizations in the Geneva area.
Paul Szmal: So that is a pretty impressive list of award winners.
Jim Jackson: Well, thank you, but we also have more award winners. We will be, the Geneva Rotary Club will also be honoring Reverend James Adams, Jim Adams, and his wife Sue, with the Rotary Club Service Above Self Award at that dinner, for their 40 years plus of activity to the dedicated service of the citizens of Geneva and the members of the St. Peter's congregation. And finally, for the first time, we always have to have something new, the Geneva Rotary Club will be honoring its first annual Community Non-Profit Organization of the Year Award. And this will be going to the Second Impact Foundation, whose mission it is to educate both laypersons and medical professionals in the importance of prompt and proper management of trauma-induced concussions.
Paul Szmal: Oh, yes. It's a significant sports issue.
Jim Jackson: Yeah, absolutely. And we've heard more about it over the course of years. And this organization was founded by a professional boxer in Geneva, Roy Cigalini, or Ray Cigalini, pardon me.
Paul Szmal: We certainly hope that the members of the community will come out and support the Geneva Rotary Club in its celebration for these wonderful people who have helped to make Geneva and the world a better place in which to live.
Jim Jackson: Absolutely. And that leads to, of course, how do people get tickets for the Service Above Self Dinner?
Paul Szmal: Well, thank you again for asking that question. You can go online to www.genevarotaryclub.org, now that's all one word, Geneva Rotary Club, there are no spaces in there, .org, and follow the links on that site. Or you can go to the Geneva Rotary Club Facebook page and find the link and go to the ticket purchasing site. And we certainly hope that Geneva will help support us to make the Geneva community a better place in which to live. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that our major sponsors for that event are the University of Rochester Medicine, Finger Lakes Health, and the Finger Lakes Federal Credit Union.
Jim Jackson: Yes, you can't do it without that sponsorship help, that's for certain.
Paul Szmal: That's for sure. So how many years has the Service Above Self Dinner been happening now?
Jim Jackson: Well, it's been going on since about 2000, however, during the pandemic there was a hiatus for the last several years, so this is our first one in like four or five years.
Paul Szmal: Well, fantastic. I'm glad to have it back.
Jim Jackson: Well, we're glad to have it back also.
Paul Szmal: Absolutely. All right. I appreciate the information, Jim. Thank you so much for being here this morning.
Jim Jackson: Oh, thank you for having us. Was there anything else we needed to cover or we wanted to add?
Paul Szmal: No, thank you. No, I think that's it.
Jim Jackson: Oh, okay. Wonderful. Thank you again for your fine help for making Rotary a well-recognized organization in this community.
Paul Szmal: Oh, much appreciated. Thank you, sir. I appreciate you being here.
That's Jim Dixon from the Geneva Rotary talking about the recipients of this year's Paul Harris Rotary International Award and the Service Above Self Awards here on FLX Morning. It is 8.48.
