Eastside group hears Rotary president

Michael Heberling, Baker College Center for Graduate Studies president and Flint Sunrise Rotary Club president, was the speaker at the East Side Business Association meeting March 16. Heberling, a 12-year veteran of Rotary, is also a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel with 21-years of active duty as a B-52 bomber navigator.

"Rotary has more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs worldwide," Heberling said. "Our members, men and women, are volunteers who work locally and internationally to fight hunger, improve health, provide education and job training, promote peace and eradicate polio. Service Above Self is our motto."

There are eight Flint area clubs, each designed to meet the specific needs of member's availability. Members are required to attend at least 60 percent of the club's annual weekly meetings.

"Our group meets at 7 a.m. Wednesdays at the Sarvis Center," Heberling said.

The money Rotary raises during the year fund local projects.

"Last year our golf outing raised more than $18,000 which is turned back to the community in grants," Heberling said. "The grants were used for humanitarian programs focused on youth and children with learning disabilities."

The Greater Flint Sunrise Club will also award two scholarships to senior high school students who will be attending a local college or university.

According to Heberling, Rotary was organized in 1905 in Chicago by a group of men that rotated their meeting place between member's offices — hence the name Rotary. Their first service project was to fund public toilets in the city's business district. Since then the group has gone international funding initiatives to wipe out polio around the world and recently providing help to earthquake victims in New Zealand and Japan.

Since 1947, Rotarians have contributed almost $2.7 billion to the Rotary Foundation.

According to Heberling, before any project is funded the group uses a four-way test to determine if the project is viable.

Four questions are asked. Is it true? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendship? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

Visit www.rotary.org for more information.

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