About the Bremen Rotary Club
Thursdays at 12:30 PM
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Quality Inn of Bremen
1077 Alabama Avenue S
Bremen, GA 30110
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President: Dennis Cowart
President Elect: Brandall Lovvorn
Vice President: Billy Sewell
Secretary: Betty Candler
Treasurer: Rob Goldin
Sergeant-At-Arms: Walter Hatchett
Director - Club Administration: Walter Hatchett
Director - Membership: Gerald Varner
Director - Public Relations: Lynn Clarke
Director - Foundation: Terry Williamson
Director - Service Projects: Gene Vineyard
Director - Service Projects: Ruth Kennedy
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Post Office Box 1212
Bremen, Georgia 30110
In the early part of 1954, the Rockmart Rotary Club, under the leadership of then District Governor Leo Barber of Moultrie, Georgia decided that Bremen would be a good location for a new Rotary Club. Little did that Club know at the time what they would set in motion. With the help of Tom Murphy, Hardy McCalman and Edgar Rhodes 24 men were recruited to become charter members. Tom Murphy was the first president of the Club. Today the club has nearly 40 members, which now includes women, and who represent the business leaders of the community. Although the Club is called the Rotary Club of Bremen, this Rotary Club sponsors projects throughout the county. Club members sponsor two main fundraisers each year. The Bremen Rotary Radio Day at WKNG and the Tom Murphy Golf Tournament are the backbone of the club's financial support, along with donations from Club members. The Rotary Club of Bremen celebrated it's 50th anniversary in April of 2004, serving the Haralson County community for all of those 50 years. The year following Rotary International, which is comprised of 1.2 million Rotarians around the world, celebrated a century of service to mankind. That same year Bremen Rotarians attended the Rotary International Convention in Chicago, Illinois, the birthplace of Rotary, in order to Celebrate Rotary with Rotarians from around the world and to place the Bremen Rotary Club's hopes and dreams for the next 100 years in a time capsule to be opened in the year 3005.
Today, in the area of local education, the Club supports such educational programs as the Georgia Rotary Student Program, a program that brings students from around the world to continue their higher education in Georgia These students then return to their native land to bring peace and understanding to their nation. The club has sponsored students from Hungary, South Africa, Wales, Lebanon, Scotland, Sri Lanka, Monserrat, Colombia, Denmark and Malysia in studies at the University of West Georgia. The Club also supports Bremen and Haralson County High School athletic programs, the Haralson County and Bremen High School Band and the Star Student Program at Bremen High School. The Club partners with L.A.M.P. and Leadership Haralson in three main projects. The Club totally funded giving dictionaries to every third grader in Haralson County and assisted L.A.M.P. in handing out the dictionaries to third graders,. The Club also supplied Rotarians to read with at risk first graders at H. A. Jones Elementary and work with at risk sixth graders in the County school system. The Club has also totally funded a new project to train volunteers to teach reading to adults. The Club has also arranged for and sponsored AIDS Atlanta speakers for programs for high school and middle school students. The Club has sponsored Red Ribbon Week in the Bremen School systems and brought a nationally known speaker to speak to students about character. Bremen Rotary Club has also been a major contributor to Career Shadowing Day supplying business leaders from the Club for students to shadow for a morning. Bremen Rotary Club has also been sending one student per year to R.Y.L.A, which is the Rotary Youth Leadership Award program for rising high school juniors. This is a three day summer program to promote leadership skills among teens. The Club sends two fifth graders per year from Buchanan Elementary School for 4-H camp.
The Club awards up to six scholarships per year to deserving seniors at both high schools, including a new scholarship designated for the winner of the Georgia Laws of Life Essay Contest. Bremen Rotarians additionally assist the Georgia Laws of Life Program by judging some essays from other schools. The Bremen Rotary Club is also closely aligned with the Bremen Interact Club and has supported them in their fund raising efforts and in some projects.
On the community service level, the Club honors a local business person with its annual Business Person of the Year Award and a local farm family with its annual Farm Family of the Year. The Club also honors public servants each year on our designated Public Service Appreciation Day. The Club donates money each year to a branch of the county's public service units. The Bremen Rotary Club also supports Alzheimers Research, Hospice, boy scouts and Haralson County Ministries.
The Bremen Rotary Club is also active on the International scene. Club members have been making donations to the Rotary Foundation for many years. The Rotary Foundation has been credited with hundreds of projects for over 50 years, including the anticipated eradication of polio. If polio can be eradicated from the face of the earth, the Rotary Foundation and other agencies can concentrate their efforts on other diseases.
Each year, depending on the success of our fund raising efforts, the Club adds to the projects which it supports. All funds collected during the Club's annual golf tournament and Rotary Radio Day at WKNG Radio in Tallapoosa go directly into the projects supported. No moneys are used for rotary operations locally, as the rotary club operations are funded solely by Club members.
The Bremen Rotary Club is dedicated to Rotary's motto "Service Above Self".