About Lexington Rotary Club
Our Mission
To bring together business, professional, and community leaders to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards, and advance goodwill and peace throughout the world.
History
The Rotary Club of Lexington, Virginia, was admitted to Rotary International on Feb. 1, 1922. Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Lynchburg, the club began with 15 charter members and originally met at the Lexington Hotel, a location now lost to current memory. Over the years, the club has met at many local venues, including The Dutch Inn, the R.E. Lee Hotel, the Virginia House Restaurant, the Keydet-General Restaurant, the Holiday Inn Restaurant, the Willson-Walker House, the Southern Inn, the Virginia Horse Center, the Lexington Country Club, and the Kappa Alpha Order National Headquarters, among others.
Lexington Rotary has sponsored four other clubs: the Buchanan club in 1922, the Buena Vista club in 1938, the Lexington Sunrise club in 1994, and the Lexington Lunch club around 2016. The club has also produced two district governors, Tate Alexander and Rae Carpenter.
Beginning in the 1940s, the club sowed the seeds of what became the Christmas Basket Program and formally started the program in 1960. The club started the Bonnie Blue Horse Show in 1988 and helped it grow into a major event before handing it off to an organization dedicated to its operation. In the 1960s, working with the Jaycees and Kiwanis, the club held the first Rockbridge Community Festival in downtown Lexington. In 1977 the club formally established the festival, which it still runs in partnership with the local Jaycees.
From the 1950s through the early 2000s, Lexington Rotary operated the concession stand at Brewbaker Field for summer baseball and Lexington High School football. In the 2000s, the club repaired and reset 105 military headstones in Evergreen Cemetery; Hamric Memorials performed the work and cleaned the stones at no charge. Ongoing projects include placing flags in Evergreen and Oak Grove cemeteries on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, highway clean-up in May and October, the Rockbridge Community Festival each August, and Christmas Basket deliveries in December.
Internationally, the club has hosted Group Study Exchange teams from the Republic of China, Switzerland, France, Korea, Panama, Argentina, Japan, Turkey, Australia, India, and South Africa, as well as exchange students from France, Spain, Turkey, and Colombia. The club has contributed financially to local recreation programs, Rockbridge County High School scholarships, the Rockbridge Area Health Center, the Christmas Basket Program, Rotary International, and PolioPlus.
Club Officers
Join Us
President
Treasurer
We are always looking for passionate individuals to join our team and help us make a difference in the lives of children. Whether you are a volunteer, donor, or partner, we welcome your support.
Meetings
Join us for our Meetings!
Our meetings are held on the first and third Wednesdays at 5:00 pm. We meet at the Kappa Alpha Order National Administrative Office.
115 Liberty Hall Road, Lexington, VA 24450, USA
About Rotary International
About
Rotary is a global network of more than 1.2 million neighbors, friends, leaders, and problem-solvers who see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change – across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.