For nearly a century, the Hollister Rotary Club has been responsible for numerous fundraisers and improvements in San Benito County. Since the club’s founding in Hollister in 1925, it has been dedicated to community, humanitarian projects, high ethical standards, and working toward world understanding and peace.
The Rotary Club nationally is also dedicated to putting an end to polio. “Polio is almost non-existent and it’s because of Rotary,” says Krystal Lomanto, Hollister’s Rotary President for the 2016-2017 year and the county superintendent of schools.
Each Monday, the Hollister Rotarians meet at Ridgemark Golf and Country Club, where they discuss local and global projects.
In San Benito County, the club puts on the Mission 10 Race in San Juan Bautista, volunteers to work concession stands at the Saddle Horse Show, holds a Student of the Month Program, sells beer and tickets at the Hollister Independence Rally, and hosts a golf tournament each year to raise money. The Mission 10 raised nearly $27,000 last year and had a record attendance of more than 700 participants. The 34th annual race is scheduled for Jan. 28, 2017.
The money raised at these events, and many more, goes into scholarships for local students, local nonprofits, donations to the End Polio Now organization, and community activities.
“We give close to $20,000 to high school students each year,” says Lomanto. The Student of the Month program selects a high school student monthly, then puts their names in a drawing at the end of the year; the winner gets a new laptop to use for college.
At a recent Rotary meeting, a large group of Rotarians filtered into the Ridgemark Clubhouse and pinned buttons brandishing their names onto their shirts. The group mingled and joked and discussed current events. Many people brought bottles of wine for the Wine Barrel donation. They then filtered into lines to get food from the buffet (this week’s lunch: ribs), and meandered to tables of friends to continue visiting before the ceremony began.
Lomanto got everyone’s attention with a ring of the bell. Rotarians begin each meeting with The Pledge of Allegiance, followed by the welcoming of guests, and, finally, announcements.
Each meeting has a guest speaker, who discusses a current humanitarian effort in which Rotarians can become involved. This particular week’s topic was about plastic pollution in the ocean, presented by visiting Rotarian, Patrizia Materassi. She spoke about the five gyres in the ocean, which are circular currents that collect tons of garbage. “It makes a plastic soup,” Materassi explained. She went on to detail the effect on the environment, ecosystem, and animals.
After the meeting. former Rotary Club President Mark Vivian explained that each president has a focus. For Lomanto, the focus is literacy. She has led the Rotary Club to donate and support the Countywide Spelling Bee and Science Bee.
One of the projects that Lomanto hopes to begin is providing books to new mothers. She said she plans to accept book donations at club meetings, and then give those books to mothers who have just had a child at Hazel Hawkins Hospital.
“Each female leaving with a new baby gets a new book to read,” she explained.
Additional information on the Hollister Rotary Club can be found at http://hollisterrotary.org/.
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