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| by A. David Dahmer |
| June 20, 2012 |
As Wesley Sparkman, the president-elect for the Rotary Club of Madison, looks to take over the reins, he can’t help but look at the past members and key figures who have helped build the prestigious organization through the years.
He thinks about Nelson Cummings, the first Black member of the Madison Rotary Club who was also the first director of the Urban League of Greater Madison, and the impact he made on the Rotary Club of Madison.
“He was the first African American to join the Rotary Club in 1969. The first African American president of the Rotary Club of Madison was Dr. Perry Henderson in 1997-1998,” Sparkman tells The Madison Times in an interview at Starbucks on the Capitol Square. “They are great examples of what it means to do community service and to care about people outside of your own families. I really appreciate them and they are definitely people that I hope to emulate.”
The Rotary Club of Madison is a diverse collection of civic-minded business and professional community leaders who meet each week for fellowship, professional enrichment, and the opportunity for service. They were chartered in 1913 and are part of Rotary International, a service club association that includes approximately 34,000 Rotary clubs, with 1.2 million members, in 168 countries.
“There are around 500 members in the Madison Rotary Club. It’s one of the eight largest in the world. Our club was founded in 1913, so we’re coming up on the 100th birthday soon,” Sparkman says. “I’m looking forward to that.
“The membership is made up of what we call vocational classifications — so different industries make up the clubs [and] there are members who are lawyers, members who are in local government and state government, members who are machinists, salespeople and marketing, etc.,” he continues. “We have a variety of industries that are represented and that is what makes up the club.”
The associated Rotary Club Foundation is one of the largest Rotary endowment funds and has grown into a major force for community betterment. With assets now totaling more than $6.5 million, the foundation makes annual grants totaling about $400,000. Talented, service-minded high school graduates secure four-year scholarships, more than 3,000 seniors exercise every week, dozens of community organizations serve more people more effectively, and poor people in the Amazon basin receive medical care, and much, much more.
Each year, the Rotary Club donates over $500,000 in educational scholarships, youth awards and grants for local and international projects. Last year alone, over 50 not-for-profit organizations in the Madison community benefited from these grants.
In addition to the substantial dollars raised and distributed each year, Downtown Rotarians are involved in a multitude of hands-on projects. Members perform clean-up projects, donate blood, ring Salvation Army Bells, volunteer for international projects, and raise awareness for a variety of activities and social issues.
“I want to start off with a challenge to the members of what I’m calling a Centennial Challenge — for them to engage in every aspect of service and volunteerism to the community,” Sparkman says. “The motto is ‘service above self,’ and so I’ve really felt like civic engagement and volunteerism is very important in anybody’s life.”
On July 18 at the Inn on the Park, Sparkman will speak on “Centennial Challenge, A New Century for the Rotary Club of Madison.” Sparkman would also like to see Rotary Club members develop even more civic, cultural, and community awareness. “We want to make sure the members aren’t isolated — so they know what’s going on in the community, nation, and world,” says Sparkman, who has been a Rotary member since 2005. “We have speakers from all walks of life who come in for the luncheons who describe what is going on in their communities.”
The Monthly Rotary Luncheon at the Inn on the Park Hotel is a chance to see distinguished speakers who are among the best in their fields. Each Wednesday, Rotarians and guests are engaged in presentations on timely topics given by local, state, national, and international speakers of renown. The diverse speakers help the members learn about different communities. But the luncheon is also a chance to meet people.
“It’s very good for business networking. I’ve had people say that they get more work done during lunch than they do during any other part of the week,” Sparkman says. “People have really found a lot of appreciation for the luncheons because of the business end of it. It’s great networking.”
As the incoming president, Sparkman got to travel to Bangkok, Thailand, for the Rotary Club’s Annual Conference. “I will speak about my experiences in Thailand and will talk about things I learned while I was overseas at that upcoming luncheon speech,” Sparkman says. “It’s amazing how big the Rotary Club is beyond Madison. There are 1.2 million Rotarians around the world in 166 countries.”
The Rotary International Programs support a variety of international service projects and educational programs such as Group Study Exchange, Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarships and Rotary Youth Exchange Programs, and Polio Plus Program.
“Obviously, each club as its own goals as far as community service is concerned, but internationally the Rotary has donated over $500 million toward eradicating polio,” Sparkman says. “Now, over 155 countries are polio-free. That’s one joint effort that we’ve done.”
The Rotary also does clean-water projects in various countries and vaccinations to needy children. “Those are the types of things that Rotary does internationally that people don’t really know about,” Sparkman says.
In July, he will take over official duties as president of the Madison Rotary Club, which will be a one-year term. “We will have a roast of the outgoing president which should be a funny time,” Sparkman says. “I’m highly roastable myself, so at the end of the year I will get roasted, too.”
Sparkman, who is Contract Compliance Officer for Dane County by day and also the Commissioner at City of Madison Police and Fire Commission, would like to see the Rotary Club continue to become more diverse during his upcoming reign as president. He plans on accomplishing this through the many great speakers that will be coming in the next year and the diverse array of Centennial events that the Rotary Club is planning for 2013.
“In my undergrad major of sociology [at UW-Madison], we used to talk about ‘social distance,’” he says. “One aspect of social distance is interactive social distance theory. Part of that is that amount of time you spend interacting with other social groups [and how it] builds trust and it builds familiarity. And, hopefully, it builds friendships. So, that’s something that I want to work on. We want to be working together to break down some of those barriers that might even exist within the surrounding communities.
“We want to have less social distance and we want to try to create cohesion among our members and the broader community,” Sparkman adds.
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