By David Rogers. BLOWING ROCK, N.C. — With a healthy bank balance and little or no non-budgeted obligations, The Rotary Club of Blowing Rock is in a strong financial position club members learned on Jan. 12 — and is cementing plans for the future with a new slate of officers receiving their unanimous blessing. The club assembly doubled as the club’s required annual meeting, held at its regular meeting place, The Meadowbrook Inn.
Retired banking professional and small business advocate Frank Irizarry will serve as the club president in 2026-27, the club’s fiscal year beginning July 1. He succeeds current president, Charles Hardin, the former Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce CEO.
An important agenda item for the club meeting was Hardin’s presentation about Blowing Rock Rotary’s involvement with Winterfest, Blowing Rock’s annual festival running from Jan. 22-25 this year. The Rotary club is hosting the “Chilly Chili Challenge” as well as jointly hosting “Wine & Dine For The Mind” (Jan. 24, 5 pm to 7 pm) with the Blowing Rock Art & History Museum. The “Wine & Dine” event is billed as “one part charity auction, one part dinner party.”
Irizarry introduced his slate of candidates for the various 2026-27 club officers, all receiving the blessing of the club members’ votes. The full 2026-27 leadership roster includes:
- President: Frank Irizarry
- President Elect: Curt Salthouse
- Treasurer: Curt Salthouse
- Membership Director: Paul Horton
- Executive Secretary: Allison Jennings
- Secretary: David Sweet
- Sergeant At Arms: Ben Powell
- Public Image: Jocelyn Lacey
- Coins for Alzheimer’s Research Trust: GK Naquin
- Youth Services/Rotoract: Kris Testori
- Foundation Chair: Wayne Holliday
Hardin continues to serve as club president until June 30 and reviewed several goals he established for the club during his year of leadership. Now only halfway through the club year, Hardin reported that all or almost all goals had already been been met, including his goal of growing the club. He shared his goal of 32 club members by year’s end, an increase of 10 over the 2024-25 fiscal year, was just three shy of the mark, at 27, with several new prospective members currently under consideration.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, The Rotary Club of Blowing Rock was one of the larger and most active clubs in Rotary International District 7670 for a small town, the membership rolls swelling to more than 50 and 60 members. As with a lot of service organizations, including Rotary clubs worldwide, membership fell dramatically.
A report in The Rotarian Minute, published by Rotary International, offered this assessment:
- Rotary has been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 epidemic.
- Club meetings transitioned to virtual formats using platforms like Zoom, and many in-person events were canceled or transformed into online events.
- Humanitarian projects needed to be modified to accommodate new health limitations.
- New projects were implemented to specifically respond to the pandemic, such as distributing medical supplies, raising awareness about preventive measures, and providing economic support to affected communities.
- The pandemic had an impact on fundraising efforts, leading to decreased participation in traditional events.
- Maintaining member engagement was a challenge, particularly for those who are not comfortable with digital technologies.
- Rotary strengthened its communication efforts, utilizing social media, electronic newsletters, and other digital methods to stay in touch with members and the public.
- Rotary quickly adjusted to the new realities caused by the pandemic, while also opening up new opportunities for innovation and engagement.
COVID-19 was best described as fundamentally “scary” for many people about in-person engagement and the move to virtual meetings required a certain amount of technological sophistication with which a high percentage of older club members were not comfortable. So while forcing Rotary International — with more than 1.2 million members in over 35,000 local clubs (in more than 200 countries) — to embrace new technologies, there was a “double whammy” negative impact on individual clubs’ respective membership.
Thanks to a dedicated group of long-term members of the Blowing Rock club, the Blowing Rock club not only survived the pandemic but is now growing again.
“I sincerely believe that we will achieve this goal of adding 10 new members before July 1,” Hardin told the current club members. “That is almost a 50 percent increase over last year, but thanks to your hard work and participation, we are nearing that goal, if not exceeding it.”
Rotary International is a global service organization headquartered in Evanston, Illinois. The first Rotary Club was formed in 1905, in Chicago, when attorney Paul Harris called together a meeting with three business acquaintances in downtown Chicago. From its beginning, the declared mission of Rotary has been to “provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through [the] fellowship of business, professional, and community leaders.”
The Rotary motto is “Service Above Self.” Eradicating polio worldwide continues to be a major initiative of Rotary International. It is a non-political and non-religious organization. Combined with its youth derivations, Interact (high schools) and Rotoract (colleges), Rotary is reportedly the largest service club in the world with almost 2 million volunteers.
The Rotary Club of Blowing Rock was founded in 1946. In addition to helping raise money to combat polio, the Blowing Rock club focuses its volunteer fundraising efforts on Alzheimer’s Research, as well as for college scholarships and providing grants to local non-profit agencies. In December, the Blowing Rock club distributed approximately $16,000, combined, to 12 local non-profit initiatives, including OASIS, Blowing Rock CARES, Hospitality House, FARM Cafe, WAMY, Western Youth Network, Back to School, Hunger and Health Coalition, Casting Bread, Quiet Givers, Habitat for Humanity and Mountain Alliance.
Blowing Rock Rotary’s website is www.blowingrockrotary.org and Rotary International’s website is www.myrotary.org.
The club holds weekly meetings every Monday, 11:45 a.m., at The Meadowbrook Inn in Blowing Rock.
