Rotarians Cassandra Van Ee, Angie O’Connor and Deb Sutley last week accepted Paul Harris Fellowships from Rotarian Jim Monteith.
Three Rotary Club of Fort Macleod members were honoured last week for their service.
Angie O’Connor, Deb Sutley and Cassandra Van Ee received prestigious Paul Harris Fellowships.
A Paul Harris Fellowship is the highest honour the Rotary Club can bestow upon a person, and represents a combination of fellowship and extraordinary service to the community.
“These three have done an awful lot of work over the years,” Rotarian Jim Monteith said.
Monteith presented the fellowships during the club’s monthly meeting Sept. 12 at Stockman’s Grill.
The three Rotarians were surprised and moved by the honour.
“It makes me want to cry,” Sutley said after receiving her award from Monteith.
O’Connor was also surprised and appreciated the acknowledgment.
“You don’t do it for the acknowledgment but it’s nice,” O’Connor added.
The Paul Harris Fellowship is named for Rotary’s founder.
The Fort Macleod club made $1,000 donations to Rotary International on behalf of each of the fellowship recipients.
A lawyer in Chicago, Harris in 1905 gathered business associates to discuss the idea of forming an organization for local professionals.
Harris envisioned a place where professionals of diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas and form meaningful, lifelong friendships.
The Paul Harris Fellowship was established in 1957.
O’Connor, Sutley and Van Ee join elite company as fellowship recipients.
Other notable figures who have received Paul Harris Fellowships include U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, U.S. astronaut James Lovell, UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, and polio vaccine developer Jonas Salk.
O’Connor got involved with Rotary about 14 years ago, at about the time she became Family and Community Support Services director for the Town of Fort Macleod.
Former FCSS director Lori Simon had been a Rotarian, so O’Connor was encouraged to join by Rotarian Sherry Van Herk.
“There is a lot of service and service has always been important to our family,” O’Connor said of her involvement with Rotary. “I appreciate that Rotary does service locally but we’re also part of an international organization that does a lot of activity.”
“They’re doing so many interesting projects around the world. They really are focusing on just bettering communities.
As examples of that international work, O’Connor noted the Fort Macleod club donates to Shelterbox and PolioPlus every year, and has supported the Los Amigos effort to deliver surplus ambulances, fire trucks and other equipment to Mexican communities.
“I get a lot of personal satisfaction from helping and doing small activities,” O’Connor said.
Deb Sutley got involved in Rotary about 15 years ago through her husband, Keith, who at that time was club president.
“The year Keith was president, the district decided it would be a good idea if a member’s spouse or secretary or even someone else in their office go to the meeting if the member couldn’t,” Deb Sutley explained. “That way there was someone there to participate and bring information back. As Keith worked away a lot I took his place and have been going ever since.”
The Sutleys hosted visiting foreign students through Rotary’s youth exchange program and enjoyed that experience.
Deb Sutley has found other rewards in being a Rotarian.
“Rotary I feel is a very worthwhile organization,” Sutley said. “It helps with many needs in the community as well as world-wide. We are a small group but work hard to still give back by raising money through our golf tournament, the auction and volunteering at the casino.”
“If we had more members we could possibly do more.”
“I feel belonging to Rotary is a great way to give back to the community,” Deb Sutley said.
Cassandra Van Ee joined Rotary in 2013 on the strength of a recommendation from her co-worker, Jim Monteith
“I love that we are able to help so many organizations that are in need in our community,” Van Ee said.
Rotary typically has lunch meetings the second and fourth Mondays of each month at Stockman’s Grill.
The October meetings have been shifted to the first and third Monday, Oct. 3 and Oct. 17, to accommodate the Thanksgiving holiday on Oct. 10.
