St. Vrain Rotary merges with Niwot Rotary Club

The Rotary Club was founded over a century ago in Chicago, and since then, the organization has advanced to nearly every corner of the globe, including several local clubs in the Left Hand Valley and St. Vrain Valley areas.

Rotary International is best known as a service organization, and their work on polio eradication is well documented, a hallmark of local Rotary clubs around the world, including those in the Left Hand Valley.

A recent merger between two local clubs, the St. Vrain and the Niwot Rotary clubs, has brought the future of Rotary in perspective for two of the active club members, Thom Lynch and John Estes.

John Estes is the outgoing president of the St. Vrain Club, the last to serve for the club under that name. He, along with several other active St. Vrain Rotary members, consolidated with the Niwot Club in the spring.

Along with Doug Montgomery, the outgoing president of the Niwot club, Estes helped oversee the transition and merger between the two.

Estes said, "When the merger talks began in earnest and both clubs agreed this was a positive idea, Doug took on much of the heavy lifting for the requirements of Rotary International ... and made my job simple."

When Estes started his term as president in 2019, the club was already actively looking for a new home. The St. Vrain Club purposely had been a smaller club than others in Longmont.

"[Staying small] was actually something that fit a lot of the personalities for our club," said Estes. Founded in the early aughts, however, the club had seen recent diminishing membership.

Like the Niwot Rotary, St. Vrain was a breakfast club, meeting in mornings. When the Longmont group started looking around for a new home, the Niwot group, which also meets in the morning, felt like a good match.

Estes said, "We didn't have many members, but they are active members, and that's what they were looking for in a club, and the Niwot club was a good fit for that."

Thom Lynch, the current president of the newly merged Niwot Rotary Club, joined up with the club in 2018 when he returned to Niwot from New York State. According to Lynch, the Niwot Rotary "formed in 2008, and many of our current members are the founding club."

The club normally meets on Tuesday mornings at the Left Hand Grange Hall in Niwot, although for now, its meetings are taking place over Zoom. Lynch said, "Since Zoom started, we've had a consistent attendance of 20 to 25 people."

Describing the service aspect of the Niwot Rotary, Lynch said, "Rotarians raise money to give it away. Our fundraising checkbook does not pay for rent, it does not pay for snacks, it solely goes to those projects we want to support."

Those projects include local initiatives as well as international service commitments. The Niwot Rotary regularly gives scholarships to Niwot High School graduates, raises funds for polio eradication and purchases modular aid relief abodes called Shelterboxes that provide emergency shelter during disaster or conflict.

Lynch said the group raised about $14,000 last year, and has been facing limitations from the COVID-19 pandemic to put on their usual fundraisers.

They were able to pull off their annual Palisade peach sale at the Niwot Market on Aug. 15, even after a late frost severely affected the Colorado peach harvest this spring.

Regardless of all the hurdles, the club raised over $8,000 at the peach fundraiser. Both Lynch and Estes were pleased with the turnout of Rotarians the day of the fundraiser. "Of the 33 people on our rolls, 23 came out that Saturday and helped in some fashion," said Lynch.

Both spoke about the challenges facing the Rotary, including a lack of diversity in members. Estes said, "I think that's going to be one of the challenges to Rotary going forward. We need to get the next generation coming up so we get new ideas, we get new perspectives."

Estes mentioned that the Niwot club was not typical in this way, and that, "We do have a good diversity" in membership and representation by women.

Despite the complications of the pandemic, and bolstered by new energy and enthusiasm brought about by the club merger, the Niwot Rotary is continuing its commitments to service in our community and worldwide. "We're going to continue to do all of our outreach and projects," said Estes. "That's the core of what being a Rotarian is."