A BRIEF CLUB HISTORY, AS TOLD BY CHARTER MEMBER PAT AMASS

The Rotary Club of Bonds Meadow was chartered on September 14, 1994, with 42 members.  Several of these are still active with the club.  The sponsoring club was the Rotary Club of Westminster, which was an evening club. The original meetings were held at, what was then, Bullock's Airport Inn, at the site of our regional airport.  When the town was chartered, this area was merely a meadow, owned by a family named Bond.  Accordingly, in the charter, the area was called Bond's Meadow.  The club members embraced the name and it became the name of our club. 

Special fund-raising projects of the club in the past have included the annual St. Patrick's Day dinner, spaghetti dinners, classic car shows, basket bingos, the Monopoly-style Game of Westminster, and now the Hearts of Gold dinner and drawings.

During the 1995-1996 school year, the club hosted a Rotary Exchange Student from the Philippines.  Other international projects include combating River Blindness, providing insecticide-treated bed nets, and latrine slabs, and combating Burkitt's Lymphoma, all in Tanzania.  This was done in partnership with the Rotary Clubs of Dar es Salaam.  In addition, we have sent, to date, over 1000 Safe Motherhood Kits to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to Haiti.

A major community project was to provide games and supervision for the YMCA Teen Time.  Other community projects include the distribution of dictionaries to third graders in public and private schools in Carroll County, assisting Shepherd's Staff with the collection of coats, school supplies and backpacks, books for students, and helping with provisions for the community Thanksgiving Dinner.  The club also cooperates with The Woman's Club of Westminster each year to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday by contributing new books and reading to children in kindergarten and first grade.  The club, for the past several years, has organized the 4th of July Fireworks.  Recently, a scholarship fund was established in memory of deceased member, Randy Rager.  It is awarded to students at two local high schools, Winters Mill and Westminster.

The Rotary Club of Bonds Meadow has made monetary donations to many local charities, as well as contributing to the Rotary International Foundation and Polio Plus.

The club has had three different meeting places and now meets at Carroll Lutheran Village Hospitality Center, 900 Mission Drive, in Westminster.