For 109 years, Rotary Club of Lancaster has met weekly, at various Lancaster locations. The major emphasis of this club has been to initiate and support programs for Lancaster’s youth. Historically, this included initiatives for a clinic for crippled children, a cleft palate clinic, a home for boys facing adjudication, leadership camps and student educational exchanges.
Today the Rotary Club of Lancaster continues its tradition of service through several programs with the School District of Lancaster and the social agencies that serve the District’s students. It is through this experience of involvement with schools and agencies that Rotary can bring together services to benefit school youth in a creative and meaningful way.
A wonderful example of this interaction occurred this year on Friday the 13th 2024. For more than four decades, Rotary Club of Lancaster members have been ringing Christmas bells as volunteers for the Salvation Army Lancaster Corp’s Red Kettle campaign.
Each year, club members can be found outside Lancaster City’s 300-year-old Central Market location. To enhance the experience and size of the crowd, Rotary invited students and their teacher from one of the Lancaster School programs it supports. This program called SWAN (Scaling Walls A Note at a Time), serves children of incarcerated parents by focusing on music instruction and participation, including music lessons, ensemble training, performance and mentoring to enrich their lives and their school experience.
This year’s bell ringing was accompanied and enhanced by an hour-long outdoor performance of carols by a dozen elementary age chorus members of the SWAN program. In 20-degree weather, the student carolers sang and dramatized the tunes of Rudolph, St Nick and the 12 days of Christmas. Market shoppers and tourists were thrilled and acknowledged the performance with generous Salvation Army Kettle donations.
As the SWAN students sang, Rotary members noticed that many of the students did not have winter coats despite the cold and wind of the day. This triggered “Service above Self” action with the Salvation Army “Coats for Kids” program. With Rotarian coordination, SWAN teachers provided the names, ages, genders, sizes and school for each student performer. Salvation Army staff selected and matched a winter coat for each of the identified students.
Exactly one week after the SWAN student Market performance, Rotarians delivered new and clean winter coats, donated by the Salvation Army, to each of the student carolers and their siblings at the students’ school. Now each student will be warm and comfortable for the holidays and the winter season.