The Clarkston Rotary gave away over 500 free meals last Friday during Concert in the Park to celebrate their 75th year in the community.
Pulled pork, hot dogs, beans, chips, cookies and drinks were on the menu and given free to anyone who came up to the tent as a way to say thank you.
Clarkston resident Bart Clark served as chairman of the anniversary event and helped plan it for the last eight months.
‘We worked as a team planning this event and doing things like getting sponsors,” he said. ‘We worked together to gather our thoughts, I just want to say thanks to the committee for all their hard work.?
During the event, Rotary also displayed ShelterBox, a container which includes a disaster relief tent for an entire family, thermal blankets and groundsheets, water storage and purification equipment, solar lamps, cooking utensils, a basic tool kit, mosquito nets and a children’s activity pack.
ShelterBox supplies are given to people around the world after a disaster.
Although the provisions are meant to be just temporary, some people remain in them long-term.
‘People around the world continue to live in the disaster relief tent for years,? said Bart’s wife Diane Clark.
The Rotary support numerous causes both world-wide and locally.
Locally, the Rotary supports holiday decorations in downtown Clarkston, provides a barbecue for the families of students at SCAMP, awards scholarships to students, provides shoes and boots for area children and sponsored a water feature at the spray park.
Internationally, the Rotary has worked to eradicate polio worldwide, helped provided eye glasses to needy people in Grenada and Peru, brought clean water to Nigeria and Haiti, sent packages to servicemen, and sponsored youth exchange students.
Clarkston’s Rotary Club was formed in 1940. For more information visit www.clarkstonrotary.org.