West Bend Sunrise Rotary Club: Bob Patten receives Paul Harris Award Plus 6

West Bend, WI (March 13, 2013) – The West Bend Sunrise Rotary Club is proud to announce that member Bob Patten has been recognized as a multiple Paul Harris Fellowship Award recipient. The award was presented to Patten by Sunrise Rotarian Steve Domres at the Club’s meeting on March 12.

The Paul Harris Award is named for the founder of Rotary International. The award recognizes friends of The Rotary Foundation who annually contribute US$1,000 or more to the Annual Programs Fund, PolioPlus, and other approved Rotary Foundation grant activities. The Paul Harris Fellowship Award recognizes donors of US$1,000 or more to Rotary International’s Foundation. Additionally, people who have had that amount contributed in their name can be recognized as Paul Harris Fellows.

Contributions to The Rotary Foundation support a wide range of sustainable activities worldwide in the areas of:
* Peace and conflict prevention/resolution
* Disease prevention and treatment
* Water and sanitation
* Maternal and child health
* Basic education and literacy
* Economic and community development

About West Bend Sunrise Rotary Club:

Originally chartered in 1990, West Bend Sunrise Rotary Club meets weekly for fellowship, breakfast, and an informative and interesting presentation from a guest speaker every Tuesday at 7:15 a.m. at the Top of the Ridge Restaurant in West Bend. The Club’s major fundraising activities each year include the $15,000 Give-Away to benefit one or more local not-for-profit organizations (being held this year on May 9 at the Prairie Center in West Bend); and joint fundraising with other Washington County Rotary Clubs through Enchantment in the Park, an animated holiday light show and Santa’s Village which raises food and funds for the Washington County food pantries. For more information see the Sunrise Rotary Club website at http://www.westbendsunriserotary.org.

About Rotary:

Rotary is an organization of business and professional leaders united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. In more than 160 countries worldwide, approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 30,000 Rotary clubs.

Rotary club membership represents a cross-section of the community’s business and professional men and women. The world’s Rotary clubs meet weekly and are nonpolitical, nonreligious, and open to all cultures, races, and creeds.

The main objective of Rotary is service — in the community, in the workplace, and throughout the world. Rotarians develop community service projects that address many of today’s most critical issues, such as children at risk, poverty and hunger, the environment, illiteracy, and violence. They also support programs for youth, educational opportunities and international exchanges for students, teachers, and other professionals, and vocational and career development. The Rotary motto is Service Above Self.

Although Rotary clubs develop autonomous service programs, all Rotarians worldwide are united in a campaign for the global eradication of polio. In the 1980s, Rotarians raised US$240 million to immunize the children of the world; by 2005, Rotary’s centenary year and the target date for the certification of a polio-free world, the PolioPlus program will have contributed US$500 million to this cause. In addition, Rotary has provided an army of volunteers to promote and assist at national immunization days in polio-endemic countries around the world.

Find out more about Rotary by visiting the Rotary International website at http://www.rotary.org/en/Pages/ridefault.aspx.