Southeastern North Carolina's oldest, largest and finest civic organization

What's new

Guest speakers to address challenges of our region's growth

Among 2024-25 President Paul Lawler’s initiatives is a monthly series of programs examining issues that will affect Wilmington and the region as its explosive growth continues. He wants both the club and our region's "thought leaders" to consider: “What will this growth mean for all of us? Will we still find what we love about the area in another ten, twenty, or more years? Or will this be a very different Wilmington?” The first two of those programs, in July and August, looked back at the region’s history, and at its current and future water supply. Future topics include demographic growth projections; economic outlook; education, transportation, recreation and health care; region-wide cooperation; and strategies for leaders to use in preparing for growth and change.

Lawler leads club in 2024-25, its 210th year

Paul Lawler is president of Wilmington Rotary Club

Paul Lawler, a former Wilmington city councilman and a retired accountant, will lead the Wilmington Rotary Club as its president for the 2024-2025 year. He took office at the club's annual presidential installation dinner on June 25. President-Elect Debby Gomulka, Secretary Elliot O'Neal, Jr., and Treasurer Larry Sackett are the club’s other officers for the coming year. Outgoing Rotary District Governor Allen Quigley presided over the induction ceremony, hosted by the Cameron Art Museum.

Also taking office were five new members of the club’s Board of Directors, who will serve through 2027. They are: Stacy Ankrum, past club president (2011-12), a banker with First Citizens; Ramona Farrell, a forensic accountant with Farrell Insights; Bob Kitchen, a retired engineer with Duke/Progress Energy; Peter Maloff, a retired lawyer; and Taft Martin, employed by Baker Roofing of Wilmington. They join ten other board members, whose terms expire in 2025 and 2026.

Rotarians also honored the outgoing president for 2023-24, Nancy Bullock, and retiring members of the Board of Directors.

Wilmington Rotary Club officers and Board for 2024-25

Board of Directors and officers: Gabe Rich, Jack Clark, Cathy Barlow, David Grandey, Vicki Scott, Secretary Elliot O’Neal Jr., Treasurer Larry Sackett, President-elect Debby Gomulka, immediate Past President Nancy Bullock, Laura Lisle, Donna Shiro, Christina Ferris, Tiffany Kitchen, Chris Utesch, and President Paul Lawler.

The latest club newsletter

Keep up with what our big, busy club does with our bi-monthly "Club News." It contains updates on club meetings, members, and our wide range of service projects. The print edition is distributed at club meetings; the digital edition is available here. See the lower left corner of this page for links to recent back issues. For the latest, go to current edition

For more updates, go to news page.

For Rotarians

October 22: The annual Vocational Fellowship Day has been scheduled for late October. Instead of everybody meeting at our regular time and place, members will be assigned to one of half a dozen or more venues, where we will be hosted by fellow Rotarians and given tours of their businesses or non-profit agencies. Box lunches will be provided. Closer to that date, members will be asked to choose their preferred location.

September 21: First of our quarterly family-friendly volunteer opportunities will be at the Miracle Field from 9:15 to 11:30 a.m. Volunteers, both adults and children, will serve as "buddies" for athletes with disabilities. No special baseball knowledge is necessary; the volunteer buddies will offer support about playing the game (batting, base-running, fielding) as well as providing emotional support and directional cues. The Miracle Field is at 5510 Olsen Park Lane.

September 21: A Peace Pole, which carries messages of peace in multiple languages, will be installed in Wilmington's Rotary Wheel Garden. Sponsored by Rotary District 7730, the ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. District Governor C.J. Crooks will preside. The Rotary Wheel Garden is in Greenfield Park, off West Lakeshore Drive. For more about Peace Poles, follow this link to the Rotary International website.

Ongoing: See video recordings of past meetings (since June 2020), accessible only to logged-in members of the club. To find a meeting video, follow this link. You will be prompted to enter your Rotary username (normally your email) and your password (the member number found in the address block on your Rotary magazine). The meetings index is a PDF file that contains clickable links to the meetings on our private Youtube channel.

Ongoing: Anyone participating in a service project is urged to get photographs of Rotarians at work for use in both public outreach and internal communication. Email high-resolution photos to the club's PR Committee. (Contact info is in the club handbook.) Also helpful: Please follow, like, and share the club's social-media pages and posts. See links above.

Our club's background

The club was founded in 1915. For details, go to Club History page.

Our members and sponsors support both the Rotary movement's international financial arm and our own charitable foundation. Rotarians contribute to the global Rotary Foundation; they also give and solicit deductible contributions to our tax-exempt Section 501 (c)(3) foundation, The Rotary Club of Downtown Wilmington Foundation. This local foundation pays for our service projects, both locally and internationally, with some projects also aided by grants from The Rotary Foundation. To learn more about our fundraising, go to our club's local RCDW Foundation page and to Leaders in Service.

Projects

For details on how we spend our money and volunteer hours, go to Our Projects page.

What we believe

Our club has endorsed Rotary International's diversity, equity and inclusion statements. For details, go to our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion page and to Rotary International's DEI page.

Membership: a choice for fellowship and service

The Wilmington Rotary Club is looking for accomplished business and professional people, of all ages and backgrounds, to become part of our community of service.

For details about how to become a member, go to the Membership page.

Rotary's seven areas of focus

The club's service priorities are based on part on Rotary International's seven areas of focus. (The seventh, the environment, is new in 2021.) The areas of focus are:

Peace and conflict prevention/resolution.
Disease prevention and treatment.
Water and sanitation.
Maternal and child health.
Basic education and literacy.
Economic and community development.
The environment.

Rotary's Seven Areas of Focus