History

Community Service
Boys and Girls Home at Lake Waccamaw
Since our early years, this has been high priority for Cary Central with members serving on the Boys and Girls Home Board of Directors as well as District 7710 Committee Chair. In addition to significant projects at the home and annual post-secondary school scholarships, Cary Central has been a leader working with the Boys and Girls Home to enrich the lives of their residents. At the Rotary Cottage we have donated bedroom furniture, mattresses, and other furnishings. Campus-wide many hours of service have been rendered, and material improvements have been supplied to support the Boys and Girls Home mission as well as construction of a new Chapel. We created our first annual student scholarship in 1988 for a resident to pursue higher education. That scholarship has grown and been sustained each year since. We have hosted a group of Boys and Girls Home residents to a shopping trips, tailgate party and N.C. State University football games, Durham Bulls baseball games and more. Through the work of member and railroad enthusiast David Colvin, the New Hope Railway and the Neuse River Valley Model Railroad Club sponsored a model railroad layout for the Emergency Shelter Building at the home.

C.A.R.T. Fund
For many years our members have led the District in contributions to the Coins for Alzheimer’s Research Trust. We collect coins and dollars every Monday morning and two of members match the collections total each month. We are proud to support this foundation whose mission is the prevention of this debilitating disease.

Lazy Daze
Lazy Daze is a prominent craft show and sale event that occurs annually in Cary each August bringing tens of thousands to the town. Cary Central provided volunteers to this event from 1981 to more recently when the Town did not need those services. Those efforts resulted in contributions from the Lazy Daze Committee to a local charity.

Life Experiences
In 1987, our club and the other Cary & Apex clubs founded a golf tournament & auction to benefit Life Experiences, a Cary-based workplace for adults with disabilities. Since the tournament’s inception, the five Cary clubs along with the Apex and Morrisville clubs have raised more than $1,000,000 for the charity. Our club’s members have been instrumental in providing leadership, physical & financial support for all of their activities.

Meals on Wheels
In 2002, Cary Central began participating in the Meals on Wheels program in Cary. Our members continue to support this meal delivery activity for the community.

Needy Families
Annually, the Club identifies and provides assistance to needy families, particularly at the holidays. Cary Central as broadened this outreach to include the “Christmas in April”, as well as smaller outreach efforts.

Ringing the Salvation Army Christmas Bell
The club has supported this community service event since 1981. Members serve two-hour shifts outside a local retail store, ringing the well-known Salvation Army Bell and helping to raise donations for the local Salvation Army chapter. Cary Central received the Top Bell Ringing award four consecutive years.

Seniors’ Car Show
From 2000 to 2019, the Club has sponsored a Seniors’ Car Show at the Glenaire Retirement Center and then at Woodland Terrace in Cary. More than 25 antique cars are displayed, and residents of the village are given rides in the cars. The car show concludes with awards and an ice cream social. The show allows residents to recall their younger years when they may have owned or operated these types of cars.

Youth Sports
We have partnered with the Town of Cary for more than a decade to help provide the best local youth athletic programs around.

Special Jointly Funded Events — Our Club has participated in a number of one-time events to support community efforts. Some of these include:

Contributing to the Rotary Clock in downtown Cary
Building the Rotary Shelter at Ritter Park
Contributing to the Cary Family YMCA
Participating in Cary Gleaning for needy
Supporting Cary High School track improvements and the purchase of state championship rings for the school’s wrestling team
Contributing to the Miracle League Baseball Field
Building a house for Habitat for Humanity
Created a water clean-up project, conducted with our Interact Club
Several International Grants

International Service
The Rotary Foundation — Cary Central has been active in the Paul Harris Fellow Program with more than 150 Paul Harris Fellows representing current and past members, family and friends. With the initiation of the Polio Plus Campaign in the late 1980s, 100 percent of the club members participated as Paul Harris Fellows. Two Cary Central members were among the first in the District to become Benefactors of the Rotary Foundation. Since 1990, almost 30 additional members have chosen to become Foundation Benefactors. Two of our members are also members of the Paul Harris Society. Each year, our members’ gifts to the Annual Programs Fund are in excess of $5,000, as we strive to achieve a per capita average of $200.

Group Study Exchange Teams and Rotary Scholars — Cary Central has been actively involved in with the GSE Team visits since 1981. Club members have served as host families and district committee members for every incoming team since 1984. Members have been involved in arranging tours, entertainment activities and banquets and have served as home hosts for 22 GSE Teams. Cary Central has also sponsored and hosted numerous Rotary Foundation Scholars attending N.C. State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University.

World Community Service Projects — As a result of the personal interaction with representatives from team and scholar visits, World Community Service projects evolved and subsequently materialized as follows:

Construction of a micro-hydro electric power generator to provide clean drinking water for citizens of a remote village in Nepal.
Establishment, through Rotary International in the British Isles, of a Rotary Eye Camp for 200-plus impoverished residents of remote villages in India to receive sight-saving cataract surgery.
Reconstruction of an educational facility, using a matching grant, to provide for children with Downs Syndrome in Ocatalon, Mexico.
In-kind contribution, through the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation and Duke University Medical Center, for first-generation ultrasound equipment to be provided in teaching gynecology and obstetrics at the University of Porte Allegro, Brazil.
South African Project — In November 1987, Cary Central Rotary Club began a 17-year relationship with the Grahamstown Rotary Club of South Africa via an introduction to Group Study Exchange Team Leaders, Trevor and Denise Long. In May 1998, following the dissolution of state-sponsored apartheid, a consortium of Cary area clubs contributed $2,200 to renovate the McKaiser Old Age Home that provides long-term care to 22 underprivileged residents. Ultimately, $13,200 was raised for the home as the Cary Area Consortium’s and Grahamstown Club’s funds were matched by grants from districts and the Rotary Foundation.

Vocational Service
Post-Secondary Education Scholarships for Cary Area Students

One of the ways to enhance the future is the assist young people in obtaining an education beyond high school. To further this effort, Cary Central has established three scholarship programs: the Harvey Duke, the Boyce Brown and the Austin Rich Boys and Girls Home.

The Harvey Duke Scholarship — Harvey Duke was a long-time member of the Club and very active in community service. He was a retired pastor at Cary First Baptist Church and a retired US Navy Captain. This scholarship, established in 2013 in his memory, provides $1,500 per year for four years to a Cary-area student. Selection is based on academic performance, extra curriculum activities and need.

The Boyce Brown Scholarship — Boyce Brown was an outstanding Rotarian, serving as Cary Central’s President, as well as District Governor. Boyce was interested in assuring that high school students were able to develop technical skills at the community college level. Following Boyce’s untimely death, Cary Central established a scholarship in 1993 to promote his interests. The scholarship is administered by Wake Technical Community College Community College and provides a one-time $1,500 scholarship to two individuals each year pursuing a technical degree at Wake Technical Community College.

The Austin Rich Boys and Girls Home Scholarship — Young men and women graduating from high school at the Boys and Girls Home often lack the financial resources to continue their education. This scholarship, established in 1988, provides $1,500 for one year to a deserving individual who plans to attend a technical school, community college or university.

Youth Activities
Cary Central is involved in two major youth activities, RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award) and we chartered an Interact Club at Cary High School.

RYLA — The Club has participated in this program for the since 1983. The Club sponsors two to four 11th-grade student delegates each year to the leadership development seminar. Priority is given to the sons and daughters of Club members, as well as students from Cary High School. Sponsored participants are invited to a Club meeting to share their RYLA experiences.

Interact — working through a principal of Cary High School and two teacher volunteers, Julie Schilawski and Jo Ann Duncan, the Interact Club was chartered with 25 students in January 2001. Cary Central members assisted the teacher sponsor and student officers in providing leadership and direction to the club. Students have been active on their campus by providing 4-Way Test presentations to ninth-grade classes and conducting monthly meetings. They have participated in several Cary Central community service projects including ringing the Salvation Army Bell activity and the Life Experiences’ auction.