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The La Conner Rotary Club’s 75th Diamond Jubilee anniversary is Thursday. In service to the community the Club has supported and fundraised for projects, raising tens of thousands of dollars for: the new La Conner Swinomish Library, Conner Waterfront Park, the Gilkey Square pergola, Maple Hall’s commercial kitchen and audiovisual system, and in Mount Vernon, McIntyre Hall and the new Skagit Family YMCA.

Emphasizing literacy and education, the Club has awarded annual scholarships for high school seniors, provided dictionaries to all third graders at La Conner Elementary School, partnered with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library to provide a new book every month for any La Conner child from birth through age five and helped fund MONA’s art education programs.

It supports the La Conner Food Bank and provides weekend food nourishment for young students.

From 1975-2015, the club sponsored the La Conner Sea Scout program for coed youth ages 14-21.

The Club’s town art and beautification projects include: the Kevin Paul prayer wheel outside Maple Hall, the park bench and the historical dates sign on the old fir log on First Street, tulips planted in the roundabout at the entrance to town, and cleaning and painting projects.

Internationally, it supports literacy programs in Guatemala and Honduras as well as polio eradication in partnership with Rotary International and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

To support its work, club members have worked countless hours in the spring (except for 2020) selling tulips at the Farmhouse restaurant and at the roundabout and holding an annual fundraising dinner and auction in August.

“This year, we lost close to $20,000 in revenue from tulip sales,” Club President Christi King said. “We hope to make up some of that funding with our virtual auction this year, but it won’t bridge the gap in what we normally fund. We’re all hoping to get back on track in 2021.”

One of the club’s most popular events, its annual Santa Breakfast and pictures with Santa, is on hold this year with the virus lockdown, but hopes are to have it back in full force in 2021. The club also sponsored the annual Smelt Derby & Festival, which was retired after more than 50 years when the smelt runs dwindled.

“One of Rotary International’s slogans is ‘Service above self’ and we believe we live that every day,” King said. “We do good work for our community.”

Collingwood is a La Conner Rotary Club member and past president.