by Kirby Lindsay Laney, posted 30 November 2015
When asked about the dedication shown by members of the Seattle Pacific Rotaract toward service projects, Club President Shawn Doi explained, “It’s kind of like a virus. You start to think, ‘Oh, I feel bad because I’m not doing something for others…’”
Fremont has had the good fortune, since 2000, to have our own Rotary Club (the Fremont Fun Club.) Rotary International encourages its club members to ‘Service Above Self’, and Fremont Rotary has helped our public school, fed the homeless, cared for the Dino Topiaries (and picked up litter on the Burke-Gilman Trail,) and raised money (and awareness) for polio, malaria and clean water projects in developing nations around the world.
Now Fremont has a Rotaract Club, based out of the Seattle Pacific University campus and sponsored by Lake Union Rotary and Magnolia Rotary Clubs. Rotaract engages young people ages 18 – 30, who attend school or have just started in their profession (Rotary members generally own a business, or lead one.) The Seattle Pacific Rotaract members gather nearly every week for service projects, social opportunities, and professional development, but it is the number of their service projects, and the enthusiasm its members show for them, that stands out.
‘You Feel Awesome All Day’
In its third year, Seattle Pacific Rotaract has a small but rapidly growing membership. Zac Reichart started this Rotaract Club, and served as its Charter President. While Rotary has long had a Rotaract program, in our Rotary District (#5030) “there have only been clubs starting to pop-up in the last three to five years,” observed Reichart, who currently serves as District Rotaract Representative. He oversees the nine Rotaract clubs in this area, including the Seattle City Club, and the University of Washington and Seattle University clubs. Unlike these last two, though, Seattle Pacific Rotaract isn’t a university-sponsored club. It meets on campus, and the school lists in on their calendar, but the club operates independently.
Reichart started the Seattle Pacific Rotaract, and he also recruited several members. “Zac got me started,” Doi acknowledged, “while I was a junior.” During a workout at the gym, “he sold it as a networking opportunity,” Doi recalled, and as a path to a job after graduation.
Doi joined in part due to the networking opportunities (with support of its sponsoring clubs, Rotaract members can attend Rotary Conventions, and frequently interact with Rotarians,) but he’s completely sold on the service aspect. “It’s what gets people to come,” and join Rotaract, he observed. “For me, doing a service project on a Saturday morning, it gets me going,” Doi said, “Once the project is over, most of the day is still there and you feel awesome all day because you did something good.”
In December, Seattle Pacific Rotaract members will go to First Harvest, as they do most months, to pack food bags. Doi likes this project because, at the end of it, “you can see how much you packed.” Members also enjoy doing service with others. “There is definitely a social appeal,” Doi said. In early November, on a particularly rainy and icky day, about a dozen Rotaracters gathered to plant trees at Discovery Park. Accountability and camaraderie among the friends makes it easier to get up at 8a on a Saturday for service. “Once you get someone to a service project,” Doi said about recruiting members, “they’re hooked!”
‘Something Special In Common’
For Leanne Sayson, another Seattle Pacific Rotaract past president, “I think it’s what makes Rotary stand out – we’re more of a community. Anyone can go to a service project, and check it off the list,” but in Rotary (and Rotaract,) “you make life-long friends. You have something special in common.”
While still in her early 20s, Sayson has a long history with, and experience of, Rotary. “I was recruited in the fourth grade,” she admitted. A family friend (her Sunday School teacher,) talked up Rotary to her – and Interact, the high school version of Rotaract and Rotary.
Sayson participated in her Northern California High School’s Interact Club, and served on the Interact District #5160 Council. She praised her parents who saw the benefits of letting her travel among the 55 schools from San Jose to the northern border of California that had clubs. “High school is hard,” she observed, but Interact gave her friends that shared her values and it encouraged a focus on something bigger than herself. “I think that once people see what Rotary is, and what it can do,” Sayson said, “once they see the things that such a small group of people can do, they are sold.”
‘Long-reaching And Close-Reaching Impact’
Taylor Cline and Marie Kiekhaefer both joined Seattle Pacific Rotaract through friends, and both have stayed since graduating. “I had a friend who had joined Rotary,” Kiekhaefer recalled, “and this club was just starting. I came to the initial meeting. I almost had not choice, it sounded so compelling.” Cline’s roommate Sayson encouraged her. “I go to Seattle Pacific University. There are a lot of service projects going on,” Cline observed, but Rotaract had a fringe benefit to it, “I come to it for the community service,” she explained, “and stay for the social.”
“I think in this day and age, it’s easy to get caught up in yourself,” Cline observed. She likes the bredth of Rotaract service projects, “the fact that I can have long-reaching and close-reaching impact.” The Seattle Pacific Rotaract is collecting for the Eastside Rotaract Soles4Souls shoe drive, but Cline also looks forward to helping with the Lake Union Rotary Ethiopian water project.
“A lot of these people are my friends,” Cline observed about Seattle Pacific Rotaract. For Kiekhaefer, whose husband Matt also belongs, the social connections are pretty solid, and she noted that Rotaract gives them, “the fellowship of people my age.”
Rotaract does offer social opportunities to those in university, and just starting their professions. “We try to do monthly socials,” Doi said, in addition to the regularly scheduled, twice-monthly meetings, “to get to know people better, and to have longer conversations.” At meetings everyone talks, and laughs, but small talk only advances a friendship so far. Social gatherings provide a place for sharing conversation, and experiences. Club members meet for drinks, cupcakes, frozen yogurt, potluck meals and holiday celebrations. They also hold board game nights, although, “our club’s very competitive…” Doi admitted, and the game nights can get quite intense.
Find out more about Rotaract, and the Seattle Pacific Club, through their website and Facebook page. Young people ages 18 – 30, interested in service and gathering with others at their age and state of life, can contact Shawn Doi at 425/306-1332 or dois@spu.edu
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