The Bradford Rotary Club hosted the Rotary International
District #7280 Conference over the weekend, with about 200
Rotarians from 44 chapters across the district in attendance.
The conference is held to allow the district chapters to come
together and hold work sessions about their various service
programs and to honor Rotarians. The annual conference is hosted by
the Rotary chapter that boasts the district governor, who serves a
one-year term.
During the Grand Banquet ceremonies Saturday night at the
University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, 2005-06 District Gov. Ralph
Detweiler of Bradford explained the Meritorious Service Award was
not given out to him, as was originally announced, but handed out
to someone else.
Detweiler said he gave out the Paul Harris Fellow Award – given
for service and the highest award received by a Rotarian – on
behalf of the district to Pat Woodruff of Bradford for her
community service work, which includes setting up different
advertisements for the club as well as the ELF (Era’s Less
Fortunate) Fund and a number of community service clubs.
“She was totally surprised, and she really appreciated the
honor,” H.L. “Woody” Woodruff, Pat Woodruff’s husband and Rotarian,
said on her behalf Sunday. “She’s done a lot of work for Rotary for
years on the project.”
Detweiler also announced the Service Above Self Award was given
to Peter Richdale of the Butler Rotary Club and co-secretary and
treasurer for the district. He said there’s only 150 such awards
given out through Rotary International.
In addition, Detweiler said there were four different club
awards handed out for service, including community, vocational and
international awards, which were won by different organizations. He
said the overall club award was won by the Butler Rotary Club – the
fourth year in a row it has done so.
Overall, John T. Capps III was the head of the three-day
event.
“John is quite humorous and gave a great message. He was really
enjoyed by the entire banquet,” Detweiler said. “It was very
successful and very well-accepted by the Rotarians. They really
enjoyed Bradford, visiting the Zippo/Case Museum and golfing at the
Pennhills Club. They were very surprised that we had such a
beautiful college in this community.”
Detweiler also said many of the conference’s activities were
well-received.
On Friday night, Emerald City Productions presented “Country
Royalty,” a tribute to the late country music legends Hank Williams
and Patsy Cline, at the Bromeley Family Theater at
Pitt-Bradford.
“We started out with the country theme and program out at the
Bromeley Theater,” Detweiler said. “Everyone was very impressed
with the theater. At the end of the Grand Banquet, Micale Irvin
sang … an operetta and show tune, which were very
well-received.”
Meanwhile, on Saturday afternoon, a youth exchange luncheon was
held in the Mukaiyama Room at Pitt-Bradford.
“We had both the incoming and outgoing group exchange students
here for two nights,” Detweiler said. “They did their little
program. They’re from 10 different countries and will be heading
back home … in the next two months. Our groups are going out to
different countries in the world.”
Detweiler also said Dr. James Evans of Pitt-Bradford “did a
great presentation and slides of the Semester at Sea.” Detwiler
added the club had its ambassador scholar, Chad Smith, in
attendance.
According to Detweiler, Smith returned from South Africa and was
back for six months. He stayed in some Rotary homes while in that
country.
