The Rotary Club of Saratoga has done a lot for Los Algodones over the years. It refurbished an elementary school there and donated school buses and ambulances to the city.

Saratoga Rotarians have been involved in a variety of projects not only in Los Algodones but around the world. Local Rotarians have worked on water purification projects, the eradication of polio, reconstructive surgery for children with facial deformities, and relief for victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004.

Local Rotarians have also made their mark on their hometown. The 116 members of the club are among Saratoga's most active volunteers. They run the annual Mustard Walk at the Heritage Orchard in Central Park, the Building Bridges festival and the Rotary Art Show. Rotarians contribute to and participate in just about every project and event that happens in Saratoga.

Our local Rotarians have been at it for some time now. The club was founded Dec. 21, 1955, predating the incorporation of the city of Saratoga by 10 months.

The Rotary Club of Saratoga has a lot in the works for its 50th year. That means the club will continue to serve the citizens of Saratoga as well as the citizens of the wider world. It is planning to make its 50th year, and the city's 50th anniversary, a special one.

Rotary Club History

Paul P. Harris founded the first Rotary Club on Feb. 23, 1905, in Chicago, Ill. According to the Rotary International website, Harris was an attorney who wanted to recapture the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. He founded a professional club for that purpose, which got the name "Rotary" from the early practice of rotating meetings among members' offices.

The popularity of the first Rotary Club led to the spread of the clubs across the country, and then around the world. Rotary International has grown into a worldwide organization with approximately 1.2 million members belonging to more than 31,000 clubs in 166 countries. The clubs are made up of business leaders and professionals who are united under the Rotary International motto: Service Above Self.

Warren Heid, a local architect and longtime Saratoga Rotarian, has compiled the history of the Rotary Club of Saratoga in a book that he updates each year. The book begins with the founding of the Rotary Club of Saratoga in 1955. It was in that year that several Village businessmen, led by postman Ray Cartmell, decided to start a Rotary Club in town. The club began with 20 founding members, all of whom were men.

To become a member, a person must be in a managerial position of some kind and must be sponsored by at least two active members of the club. Prospective members must also be willing to commit their time to the club. A person becomes a Rotarian after being voted in by the membership. Regular attendance at meetings is necessary, as is the payment of a $150 membership fee and $300 annual dues.

Membership has increased each year since the club was founded. Women were admitted in 1989. Today, members of the Rotary Club of Saratoga include a broad cross-section of Saratoga professionals--dentists, doctors, real estate agents, attorneys, engineers and business owners are among the many fields represented. Today, 23 members are women, as is its current president, Reiko Iwanaga.

The first president

Richard "Dusty" Rhodes was the first president of the Rotary Club of Saratoga. At age 82, he is the longest-serving member and the only remaining charter member still in the club.

Rhodes, a retired Superior Court judge, remembers the club's early days. Back in the 1950s, Rhodes was an attorney working for a law firm that had a branch office in Saratoga. "In those days, Saratoga was so small it didn't take long to get to know everyone," he said.

Cartmell, who delivered mail to the Village, knew most people there. Rhodes said Cartmell got the idea to have people who work in the Village meet every Thursday at La Hacienda for lunch, which caught on. At one lunch, Cartmell suggested that the group start up a local Rotary Club.

The idea began to take hold. "We walked up and down Big Basin Way and asked people if they wanted to join up," Rhodes said. He said they needed a minimum of 20 people to form a club. "The Lions Club was already established and had most of the business people in town. We had a heck of a time, but were finally able to find 20 people."

Those original 20 did not include Cartmell. "When we started signing people up, Cartmell decided he didn't want to be a member and never joined," Rhodes said.

The Rotary Club of Cupertino, which had just been chartered at the time, and the more established Rotary Club of Los Gatos, helped the Rotary Club of Saratoga get on its feet. For Rhodes, the chartering of Saratoga's own club was a special day. The president of Rotary International, A.Z. Baker, was in the area and showed up at the chartering banquet, even though Saratoga's club was such a small one.

One of the charter members of the Rotary Club of Saratoga was Sherman Miller, the founder of the Saratoga News. Rhodes said Miller was helpful in getting the club publicity. But Miller had a falling-out with a club member and quit. He later tried to rejoin but was never able to because he had been blackballed for life by the person with whom he had the falling out. Rhodes said Miller and the Saratoga News remained friendly to the club despite the rejection.

Rhodes said the first act of community service the Rotary Club of Saratoga performed was raising money for new lighting at the Saratoga Library, which then was located on Oak Street where the Book-Go-Round is today. "We had a lot of fun in those days. We all knew each other quite well. We coasted along and dropped down to 17 members at one point, but gradually it built up."

The first Rotary Art Show was a small affair in the Village on Big Basin Way. "Since then it's gotten to be huge and terribly successful," Rhodes said. "The art show is our main claim to fame. It's one thing we are very proud of."

As a municipal court judge in Los Gatos, Rhodes was always able to attend Rotary Club meetings, which remains important to maintaining active membership status. But in 1968, Gov. Ronald Reagan appointed Rhodes to the Superior Court of California. Rhodes knew he would no longer have the time to attend Rotary Club meetings and he submitted his resignation. But the club would have none of it and made him an honorary member, which he remains to this day, attending as many meetings and events as he can.

From 1955 to 1956, Rhodes wore the Rotary pin that signified he was the club's president. He passed that pin on to the second club president, George S. Kocher, who then passed it on to his successor.

Today, Iwanaga is the 50th person to wear the president pin. Her duties, like presidents before her, include representing the club at district events, pushing forward on yearly goals, and presiding over the club's weekly luncheon every Friday at the Saratoga Community Center.

"She is a very confident lady," Rhodes said. "She's very energetic and works very hard for Rotary. I think she's doing a great job."

Like most club members, Iwanaga had an interest in providing service both locally and internationally. She had already been heavily involved in volunteering in the community, and her late husband was an active Rotarian. She joined in 1996. "It was a natural fit," she said. "I have a good time with it."

She said being able to interact with so many caring local people and being involved with Rotary Club projects has been beneficial, heartwarming and uplifting. "It has been an absolutely wonderful experience," she said.

Local events

The Mustard Walk, which takes place this year on Feb. 4, is sponsored by the Saratoga Rotary Club. So is Building Bridges, which has brought together different religions and cultures every fall since Sept. 11, 2001.

The Rotary Club's biggest and most successful yearly event is the Rotary Art Show. Each spring, more than 100 top artists gather at West Valley College to showcase and sell their art. The event is the Rotary Club of Saratoga's top fundraiser. Money raised by the art show is doled out to different charities and agencies that are selected by a Rotary committee. As of its 50th year, the Saratoga Rotary Club, through its charitable foundation, has distributed funding for grants in excess of $1.5 million.

Locally, the club has been involved in the beautification of Saratoga by planting more than 240 trees. It has participated in the restoration of Wildwood Park, the cleanup of Highway 9, the creation of the Historical Museum and contributions to the construction of the McAfee Performing Arts Center at Saratoga High School, along with many other projects and events.

"That's what the club is all about: raising money for charity," Rotary board member Bryan Knysh said. "If you just want someone to party with, we're probably not the group you want to be with."

But Knysh said there is definitely a social aspect to Rotary. "Fellowship is definitely one of the things that makes it nice to belong, but it's not the focus of our club. The focal point of the group is doing community service."

Knysh said each year Rotary International sets priorities. This year the priorities are literacy and clean water.

"Right now, we're putting together a book drive for the Franklin-McKinley School District education foundation," he said. The Rotary Club of Saratoga is collecting books for classrooms and for parents of preschoolers in that San Jose school district. "We collected $800 in a backpack drive to buy backpacks and school supplies for students in the district."

Knysh said the focus of the Rotary Club of Saratoga is mainly local, but international projects are also important. He said the club has ongoing projects in Mexico and India, and currently Knysh is working on getting involved in a project in Nigeria with his brother-in-law, who is a member of a Rotary Club on Prince Edward Island in Canada. "Our club here is very focused on Saratoga, but we're part of a larger international group," Knysh said. "We can pull in resources from virtually anywhere in the world."

Rotaplast International

Rotaplast International is an organization that has consistently received grant money from the Rotary Club of Saratoga over the years. The organization was founded in 1992 by Peter Lagarias and Dr. Angelo Capozzi in collaboration with the Rotary Club of San Francisco.

The Rotary Club sponsored missions to La Serena, Chile, where plastic surgeons operated on children with cleft lips and palates. Cleft lips and palates are severe facial disfigurements that carry a social stigma that can prohibit a person from leading a normal life. The operation to correct the deformity is a specialized procedure, which the average doctor in many countries does not have the skill set to perform.

The success of the missions and the positive feedback that came from correcting the debilitating deformity led to Rotaplast International becoming a nonprofit organization separate from the Rotary Club.

Ron Gemberling is a member of the Rotary Club of Saratoga and a plastic surgeon. He makes Rotaplast missions a couple of times each year. Gemberling has traveled to Venezuela, Guatemala, Honduras, China, India, the Philippines, Romania and Vietnam on Rotaplast missions. He has performed as many as 39 operations on a single trip.

"Our club has regularly donated up to $10,000 to my trips," Gemberling said. He said that anywhere from two to six plastic surgeons go on the trips that can last up to two weeks. Hundreds of children have been operated on during a single trip. "Rotaplast International has treated over 7,500 children to date. We try to get funding from various Rotary clubs from throughout the world. The average trip will be anywhere from $50,000 to $80,000. But if you were to bill for the service, it would amount to anywhere from $500,000 to $750,000, so it's a good return on the investment."

In March, Gemberling will go on his 10th Rotaplast mission. He and fellow Rotarian Deborah Rice will travel to San Salvador, El Salvador. Rice, who owns an advertising and public relations agency, will be photographing and documenting the trip.

"I've never been involved with anything like this," Rice said. She said she is looking forward to helping out any way she can while getting the word out about the good work Gemberling is doing.

"Plastic surgery is all I know how to do," Gemberling said. He said his missions for Rotaplast International give him tremendous personal satisfaction. "It's the most gratifying thing I do in medicine. When you see the look on the faces of the parents and the kids, it brings tears to your eyes. It's the purest form of international relations, one patient at a time."

The 50th year

In September, the city of Saratoga will mark the 50th anniversary of its incorporation with a month-long celebration. The Rotary Club is currently in the planning stages for the event, with Rotarian Paul Conrado taking the lead.

Rotarian Warren Lampshire is the chairman of the parade that on Sept. 24 will run from the Saratoga Library through the Village. Right now, Lampshire and his committee are still in the planning stages, but he said more than 135 entries and 3,000 people will participate. School bands, equestrians, martial arts performers, bagpipe groups, and much more will be sure to make the parade one of the biggest and best Saratoga has ever seen, Lampshire said.

Rice said the Rotary Club of Saratoga is happy to help out any way it can. "Rotary is the club that makes things happen in town," she said. "The club has continued to be strong and vital even after 50 years. We're looking forward to the next 50."