The Directors of this Club see it this way:

The Coronavirus Pandemic has attacked humanity in two primary ways: it spreads serious illness and death for many while killing off economic activity for all. This has affected all economic sectors, none worse than tourism.

Like it or not, the economic vitality of our area rests on 100 days of summer tourism. Without visitors, unfortunately, our towns will lose revenue, income, and many of the iconic small businesses that define “us.”

Way back in January, The Rotary Club was looking forward to implementing exciting plans for 2020. We had $75,000 in the bank and were set to launch the Boys & Girls Club of Saugatuck-Douglas in April. Committees had begun meeting to implement another July 4th extravaganza and a Mt. Baldhead Challenge featuring a hoped-for goal of 1000 runners. We intended to raise another $100,000 for our Mission to “help young people and families achieve their full potential.”

That was then. A million years ago, or so it seems. We have worked with our partners–Saugatuck Public Schools and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Holland–and decided to postpone the Boys & Girls Club launch here until at least next January but we are still committed to providing this much-needed service. We have cancelled our summer events. We face extreme headwinds in fundraising. So, here’s what our Board decided to do over the last 10 days:

The News

  • Our Club is immediately pivoting to focus on the local economy and what we might do to help avert a total disaster this summer. There is no better way to help kids “achieve their full potential” than to keep their families employed.
  • We have formed a new committee to flex our tax-advantaged 501c3 organization towards organizing a major Economic Relief Program with a fund for local small businesses that are falling between the cracks of federal and state aid.
  • We intend to raise $1 million to set up and sustain this fund. That’s over ten times the amount of our most successful year so far, 2019. Go big or go home, right?
  • We have welcomed into the Club this week four new Members, three of whom will serve on this new Committee. The three are Garnet Lewis, local business owner and Saugatuck City Councilwoman; Mary Fechtig, attorney and COO of Meraki.Social, an advertising and marketing firm; and Amy Kenny, CFO of New Holland Brewing Co.

You may think we’ve gone nuts, and I don’t think I’d argue too much with you on that. How will we succeed? We don’t ultimately know. But faith and action in the direction of service to others beats sitting around watching our friends suffer and our towns decline. After all, that’s what Rotary is here for, “to unite, take action, and create positive lasting change in our towns, in our world, and in ourselves.”

For this purpose, every resident of our beloved Saugatuck-Douglas-Fennville area is a Rotarian.

Let’s take the leap together. Let’s act.