“We’ve been getting a lot of younger members in their 30s and 40s, and they’re seeing that it’s a good organization to join,” he said.
“In Rapid City, we get a lot of members just because Storybook Island is our project. People see that and want to come help that, and then they see what Rotary International does,” Rogers said. “In the 1980s, (the organization) came up with the idea that Rotary is going to eradicate polio across the world. Nobody said, ‘That’s crazy.’ They said, ‘Let’s go.’ Now there’s three countries where there’s still some polio, but otherwise it’s gone.”
Rogers’ father, Doug, first joined Rapid City Rotary Club in 1962. Rick initially joined in 1984 at his father’s insistence and later served for 15 years as chairman of the lighting commission for Storybook Island’s Christmas Nights of Light.
“Rotary Club was a good way to…