Rotary Club of Jacksonville President Howard Dale concluded his term in office Monday with a look back at the club’s 100th year since its founding in 1912 at the Windsor Hotel.
Dale said he was extremely proud of what the club has accomplished in the past year as it celebrated its centennial.
“We could have done anything. We could have had candles on cakes,” said Dale.
Instead, the club made the decision to create a challenge. Dale said the club’s board chose to open the celebration to all of the clubs in Rotary Club District 6970 and invite all Rotarians in the region to help raise $500,000 to fund a clinic on wheels for St. Vincent’s Healthcare Mobile Health Outreach Ministry.
The mobile clinic provides health care in neighborhoods in five Northeast Florida counties where medical care might not otherwise be available, Dale said.
The club also funded two “Timmy’s Playrooms,” a partnership with the Tim Tebow Foundation that will provide facilities for children with life-threatening illnesses at Dreams Come True and Baptist Medical Center, Dale said.
He said the club also stepped forward as a “catalyst for change” in the district with the introduction of a digital member directory that is being adopted by all clubs.
The club also bestowed Monday its first “Willis H. Page Music Achievement Award” to First Coast High School Choral Director John Larsen.
The award was endowed by the club to annually recognize a music educator who has made a significant and lasting impact on students.
Larsen graduated from Jacksonville University and earned his master’s degree in music at Florida State University. He is in his 21st year of teaching at First Coast High School. Larsen twice has been named the school’s “Teacher of the Year” and also was recognized as “Music Educator of the Year” by Friday Musicale.
Larsen recalled his time at JU and a Christmas holiday season when the college’s chorus helped perform Handel’s “Messiah” when club member Willis Page, the award’s namesake, was conductor.
Dale introduced Steven Wallace, president of Florida State College at Jacksonville and the club’s president-elect. Wallace will be installed Thursday in a ceremony at Timuquana Country Club.
He presented an antique Rotary Club pin to Dale from 1912 and a painting of Memorial Park in Riverside and its statue, which was donated by the Rotary Club of Jacksonville in 1924 in honor of the 1,200 Floridians who died in World War I.
The club plans to add a statue to the park later this year honoring the 100th anniversary.
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