Rotary Club of Amherst East Awards Paul Harris Fellow Honor to Rev. Charles Biegner on February 17, 2005
As the Rotary Club of Amherst East prepares to celebrate Rotary International's 100th anniversary, it will award a Paul Harris Fellowship to the Reverand Charles Biegner on February 17, 2005. The club will deliver the award at its lunch meeting at Daffodils Restaurannt in Amherst, New York.
(PRWEB) February 1, 2005 -- The Rotary Club of Amherst East will award to
Rev. Charles Biegner a Paul Harris Fellowship to honor his contributions to the
Buffalo community. Rev. Biegner is Pastor Emeritus of the Resurrection Lutheran
Church Health Center at Genesee and Doats Street in Buffalo.
“Rev.
Biegner spoke to our club, where we learned how much his efforts have
contributed to the health and well being of many Buffalo residents,” said Paul
McAfee, president of the Rotary Club of Amherst East. “We are please to be able
to confer this honor on Rev. Biegner.”
The Medical Center consists of the
following services: Jericho Road Family Practice, Lighthouse Free Medical
Clinic, Lighthouse Free Chiropractic Clinic, Samaritan Pastor Counseling Center,
and African-American Smoke Freedom. In addition, the Health Center strives to
assist those who cannot afford to pay for a prescription and, at the same time,
works to get them more permanent assistance.
The Rotary Club of Amherst
East will hold a luncheon honoring Rev. Biegner on Thursday, February 17, at
Daffodils Restaurant. The club will celebrate Rotary International’s 100th year
during the lunch. The club also will deliver checks to other local causes it
supports. Everyone, whether a Rotary member or not, is welcome to attend.
Contact Paul McAfee at (716) 568-0329 to make a reservation.
For more
information about the Rotary Club of Amherst East, visit www.amhersteastrotary.org.
About Rotary
International
The Rotary Club of Amherst East is part of Rotary
International. The world's first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago,
Illinois, USA, was formed on 23 February 1905 by Paul P. Harris, an attorney who
wished to recapture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt
in the small towns of his youth. The name "Rotary" derived from the early
practice of rotating meetings among members' offices.
Rotary's popularity
spread throughout the United States in the decade that followed; clubs were
chartered from San Francisco to New York. By 1921, Rotary clubs had been formed
on six continents, and the organization adopted the name Rotary International a
year later.
As Rotary grew, its mission expanded beyond serving the
professional and social interests of club members. Rotarians began pooling their
resources and contributing their talents to help serve communities in need. The
organization's dedication to this ideal is best expressed in its principal
motto: Service Above Self. Rotary also later embraced a code of ethics, called
the 4-Way Test, that has been translated into hundreds of
languages.
During and after World War II, Rotarians became increasingly
involved in promoting international understanding. In 1945, 49 Rotary members
served in 29 delegations to the United Nations Charter Conference. Rotary still
actively participates in UN conferences by sending observers to major meetings
and promoting the United Nations in Rotary publications. Rotary International's
relationship with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) dates back to a 1943 London Rotary conference that
promoted international cultural and educational exchanges. Attended by ministers
of education and observers from around the world, and chaired by a past
president of RI, the conference was an impetus to the establishment of UNESCO in
1946.
An endowment fund, set up by Rotarians in 1917 "for doing good in
the world," became a not-for-profit corporation known as The Rotary Foundation
in 1928. Upon the death of Paul Harris in 1947, an outpouring of Rotarian
donations made in his honor, totaling US$2 million, launched the Foundation's
first program — graduate fellowships, now called Ambassadorial Scholarships.
Today, contributions to The Rotary Foundation total more than US$80 million
annually and support a wide range of humanitarian grants and educational
programs that enable Rotarians to bring hope and promote international
understanding throughout the world.
In 1985, Rotary made a historic
commitment to immunize all of the world's children against polio. Working in
partnership with nongovernmental organizations and national governments thorough
its PolioPlus program, Rotary is the largest private-sector contributor to the
global polio eradication campaign. Rotarians have mobilized hundreds of
thousands of PolioPlus volunteers and have immunized more than one billion
children worldwide. By the 2005 target date for certification of a polio-free
world, Rotary will have contributed half a billion dollars to the
cause.
As it approached the dawn of the 21st century, Rotary worked to
meet the changing needs of society, expanding its service effort to address such
pressing issues as environmental degradation, illiteracy, world hunger, and
children at risk. The organization admitted women for the first time (worldwide)
in 1989 and claims more than 145,000 women in its ranks today. Following the
collapse of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Rotary
clubs were formed or re-established throughout Central and Eastern Europe.
Today, 1.2 million Rotarians belong to some 31,000 Rotary clubs in 166
countries.
Media Contacts:
Paul McAfee
President
Rotary Club of
Amherst East
Phone: 716 568-0329
Rev. Charles Biegner
Resurrection
Lutheran Church Health Center
3 Doat Street, Buffalo, NY 14211
Phone: 716
837-4789
Paul McAfee, CEO of eXubrio, LLC, provides pro bono public
relations support to the Rotary Club of Amherst East. Visit www.exubrio.com for more
information about eXubrio’s services.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/2/prweb203981.htm