The Downtown Rotary Club of Palestine is proud and humbled to announce that we have once again earned the Rotary International Club Excellence Award—formerly known as the Rotary Citation.
And this one gives us a pretty good reason to celebrate: we’re officially 5 for 5!
Since our club was founded five years ago, we have earned this distinction every single year of our existence. Even more exciting, only 13 of the 41 Rotary clubs in our district received the Club Excellence Award this year.
The future is in great hands! 2026 Downtown Rotary Scholarship Recipients. These remarkable students each received a $1000 sholarship. Scholarship Recipients:
We had previously reach 100% PHF Status, but a few membership changes since and we had fallen off. Happy to be back to 100% status! We had a great time tonight with our Paul Harris Party! Congratulations to all the recipients at tonight's event. More pics & details coming.
Here are a few highlights from our Historic Marker Weekend 2026!
We had over 50 volunteers come out to help wash and restore more than 45 historic markers across Palestine, TX with Palestine Visitor's Center!
Thank you to everyone who came out and lent a hand. Your efforts help preserve Anderson County's history and keep these stories alive for generations to come.
We are proud to celebrate Sloan Shuffler, who is is recognized as a major donor for the Rotary Foundation. She said it took 20 years to do it, but she did it! We are so proud of her!
*FAN DRIVE 2026* We are collecting fans for those without AC to use this summer. Drop off at Commercial Bank of Texas on the Loop or Downtown at Picket Fence Realty by May 30, 2026
Congratulations to Greg Gunnels, Christophe Trahan, Mike Abrahamson & Kelli Gunnels on your Paul Harris Fellow Awards! Thank you to Hugh Summers for bestowing these awards on these deserving Rotarians
The ribbon cutting for the Downtown Rotary Club’s commissioned dogwood sculpture, by Jeffie Brewer, that was installed by the Palestine Farmers Market. Artist Jeffie Brewer, a native of Palestine, Downtown Rotary Club President Lisa Priest acting as the official ribbon cutter to commemorate the sculpture's official "opening"
The Downtown Rotary Club’s commissioned dogwood sculpture, by Jeffie Brewer, was installed today down by the Palestine Farmers Market. Artist Jeffie Brewer, a native of Palestine, is pictured with Downtown Rotary Club of Palestine President Lisa Priest.
Downtown Rotarians stopped by with treats for the Palestine Public Works & Water Department to say thanks for all the behind-the-scenes work that makes a big difference
A huge congratulations to Brenda Hicks Johnston,Roll of Fame Recipient and Debbie Wacha, District Avenues of Service Award Recipient, Mike Abrahamson, District Avenues of Service Award Recipient and Lisa Gaines-Griffith, District Avenues of Service Award Recipient at the Rotary 5910 conference this past weekend. Thank you for all you do for our club and community!
We dropped off a donation of cat food today at Anderson County, BARC The Humane Society. They are open today for adoptions until 4pm and on Saturday and Sunday from noon-4pm!
This weekend our President Elect for 2025-26 (Lisa Priest) & President Nominee for 2026-27 (Greg Gunnels) attended Rotary Lone Star PETS (President Elect Training Seminar) to prepare for our upcoming duties. We are hyped with ideas and inspiration and ready to bring it to Palestine!
How do we pay for all of the projects we do? From the funds raised at our yearly fundraiser! We need your sponsorship! Please call/text Debbie Wacha at 903-724-4221 if you would like to sponsor this year's event. Tickets on sale soon!
Ending the year with our December project! We donated a basket to Palestine Regional Medical Center to be given o the parents of the first baby of 2025!
December Project: 1st Baby of the Year Basket for PRMC
September Project: Meals on Wheels to help set up tables and decorate for their fundraising Gala!
Meals on Wheels serves homebound seniors and disabled individuals throughout the 3,078 square miles of Anderson, Cherokee, and Rusk Counties in East Texas, providing more than 280,000 meals annually through home delivered and congregate programs. These meals reach our most vulnerable, food insecure seniors. The meals provide one-third of the recommended daily dietary requirements for seniors. For many clients, it is their only meal of the day.
September Project- Decorate/Setup event for Meals on Wheels Fundraiser
Thank you to everyone for coming to our fundraiser & for all those who helped to make it happen!We will be be doing it again next year! Mark your calendar for March 8, 2025!
We delivered more than 50 personal sized first aid kits and a trunk load of food to Hope Station to aid them in their mission. Charlene Watson, Debbie Wacha and Sloan Shuffler were on hand to deliver. Thank you to all who helped!
September Service Project: Hope Station First Aid Kits
Fan Drive 2023 was a success! Thanks to Greg & Cory for overseeing this project. Great tetris-ing into the car! Thank you to all who graciously donated fans to help those without A/C to survive the summer heat to go to the Palestine Resource Center.
This week we completed our March Project of cleaning up storm damage at Anderson County BARC Humane Society. Thank you to our awesome crew of Rotarians for getting the job done!
Downtown Palestine Rotary Blankets & Coats Collection Drive for Hope Station
Rotarians & community donations were collected and dropped off at Hope Station to replenish the coats & blankets for upcoming cold weather. Thanks to all those who donated to this great cause.
Downtown Palestine Rotary Blankets & Coats Collection Drive for Hope Station
A warm welcome to our new members Kathy Thomas, Lisa Gaines Griffin, Lee McCain Brown and Charlene Watson! We are thrilled to have these ladies in the club!
Downtown Rotary Club of Palestine Welcomes 4 New Members!
On September 6th, 2022, our newly chartered club gathered to celebrate in style at the Redlands meeting room. We had delicious cake, champagne and a lovely meal after the meeting.
Service Project Calendar for 2024-2025 Rotary Years (Rotary Year Runs from July 1-June 30
July 2024- finish district grant Benches project, nursing home bingo
August 2024- Donut deliveries to all Anderson County teachers for back to school, Crisis center donation delivery of shampoo & deodorant
September 2024- Meals on Wheels Decorating for their annual fundraiser banquet; Mural project is complete at Second Glance Resale, where sales benefit the Crisis Center of Anderson & Cherokee Counties.
October 2024- Downtown Alleys Cleanup; Tastes of Germany Polio Fundraiser
November 2024- Litter pickup for our Adopt-a-Highway
December 2024 - Kids in Care; 1st baby of the year
January 2025- BARC humane society yard cleanup; Coat drive for Hope Station
February 2025- Coat drive for Hope Station
March 2025- Fundraiser; Art Tent Volunteers; Donation to new pavilion project for Dogwood Arts Council
April 2025- Cat Food Donation to BARC; Veterans Park Cleanup (district grant); Blood Drive; Adopt a highway litter clean up;
May 2025- Mothers Day Project at nursing home; Hit the Brick work night, Hit the Bricks Work Night, Hit the Bricks Work Night, Fans & Cans Collection for Palestine Resource Center
June 2025- Fathers Day project at nursing home; United Way food packing; Adopt a Highway
PAST PROJECTS
Service Project Calendar for 2022-2024 Rotary Years
September 2022 Project- Crisis Center Welcome Room (Brenda Johnston, Rachael, Lisa, Sloan)- complete-click HERE to see pics
An estimated 500 million people worldwide became infected. Many cities closed theaters and cinemas, and placed restrictions on public gatherings. Rotary clubs adjusted their activities while also helping the sick.
This is how Rotary responded to the influenza pandemic that began in 1918 and came in three waves, lasting more than a year.
The Rotary Club of Berkeley, California, USA, meets in John Hinkel Park during the 1918 flu pandemic.
Photo by Edwin J. McCullagh, 1931-32 club president. Courtesy of the Rotary Club of Berkeley.
Rotary and the United Nations have a shared history of working toward peace and addressing humanitarian issues around the world.
During World War II, Rotary informed and educated members about the formation of the United Nations and the importance of planning for peace. Materials such as the booklet “From Here On!” and articles in The Rotarian helped members understand the UN before it was formally established and follow its work after its charter.
Many countries were fighting the war when the term “United Nations” was first used officially in the 1942 “Declaration by United Nations.” The 26 nations that signed it pledged to uphold the ideals expressed by the United States and the United Kingdom the previous year of the common principles “on which they based their hopes for a better future for the world.”
Women are active participants in Rotary, serving their communities in increasing numbers and serving in leadership positions in Rotary. The 1989 Council on Legislation vote to admit women into Rotary clubs worldwide remains a watershed moment in the history of Rotary.
“My fellow delegates, I would like to remind you that the world of 1989 is very different to the world of 1905. I sincerely believe that Rotary has to adapt itself to a changing world,” said Frank J. Devlyn, who would go on to become RI president in 2000-01.
The vote followed the decades-long efforts of men and women from all over the Rotary world to allow the admission of women into Rotary clubs, and several close votes at previous Council meetings.
Every hero has an origin story. “I was 10 years old when the entire journey started,” explains Binish Desai. It began with a cartoon called Captain Planet, an animated TV series from the 1990s about an environmentalist with superpowers. Desai can still recite the show’s refrain: Captain Planet, he’s our hero / Gonna take pollution down to zero! “That tagline stuck in my mind,” he says. “I wanted to do something to help Captain Planet.”
In early 1919, Rotarian Roger Pinneo of Seattle, Washington, USA, traveled to the Philippines to try to organize a Rotary club in Manila. Leon J. Lambert, a Manila business leader helped Pinneo establish the club. Several months later, on 1 June 1919, the Rotary Club of Manila was chartered and became the first Rotary club in Asia.
The club would be the only one in the country for more than 12 years. Eventually, Manila club members organized Rotary clubs in the Philippine cities of Cebu (1932) and Iloilo (1933). Iloilo club members then started a club in Bacolod (1937), and Rotary continued to expand across the country.
An estimated 500 million people worldwide became infected. Many cities closed theaters and cinemas, and placed restrictions on public gatherings. Rotary clubs adjusted their activities while also helping the sick.
Rotary and the United Nations have a shared history of working toward peace and addressing humanitarian issues around the world.
Every hero has an origin story. “I was 10 years old when the entire journey started,” explains Binish Desai. It began with a cartoon called Captain Planet, an animated TV series from the 1990s about an environmentalist with superpowers. Desai can still recite the show’s refrain: Captain Planet, he’s our hero / Gonna take pollution down to zero! “That tagline stuck in my mind,” he says. “I wanted to do something to help Captain Planet.”
In early 1919, Rotarian Roger Pinneo of Seattle, Washington, USA, traveled to the Philippines to try to organize a Rotary club in Manila. Leon J. Lambert, a Manila business leader helped Pinneo establish the club. Several months later, on 1 June 1919, the Rotary Club of Manila was chartered and became the first Rotary club in Asia.