Charles City Rotary Club honors community and club members at awards night
By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com
The Charles City Rotary Club honored club members and community members during its annual “Pass the Buck” night this week, giving two of its top awards to local health care professionals.
The annual dinner at the Elks Lodge, held to formally recognize the passing of the gavel from the end of the current club president’s term to the next president, also honors people who have had an impact on the community and beyond.
The Sam Soifer Community Service Award — given to a person who has contributed “over and beyond the call of duty” — was given to Gail Arjes, the administrator of Floyd County Public Health.
Rotary Club member Sue Ayers, an infection-prevention nurse and former administrator at the Chautauqua Homes in Charles City, described Arjes’ work and impact this past year during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Local health care providers were charged with implementing practices to control the spread of a disease that we knew almost nothing about, and that threatened to sicken and kill the public,” Ayers said.
“It didn’t take long for our local health care providers to identify one go-to person for help in all things COVID-19. For the past year and a half we have continued to rely on this person to answer our questions, assist us in meeting infection control requirements and coordinate our efforts to limit the spread of the virus in Floyd County,” she said.
“And, when the emergency use vaccinations became available, this person again stepped up to the plate and coordinated vaccination clinics, even taking the clinics out on the road to the people of the county,” Ayers said.
“The best health care is provided by a team, and in my opinion, the best COVID-19 health care is being provided by our team of health care providers led by the director of Floyd County Public Health, Gail Arjes,” Ayers said.
The second non-Rotarian award, the Leo Lidd Vocational Service Award, is given to a person whose business life best exemplifies the “Rotary Four-Way Test of the things we think, say or do” — Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
Dr. Paul H. Royer was awarded the Leo Lidd Vocational Service Award.
Club member Ralph Smith described Royer as “the most respected professional in the Charles City area, and a person who’s very well respected within his own profession.”
Smith listed Royer’s educational path, receiving degrees from Iowa State University, Harvard University, the University of Iowa Medical School and then serving a family practice residency at Broadlawns Hospital in Des Moines.
“You can tell from just this brief description that this person’s academic qualifications are sterling,” Smith said. “But as you all know, a great family physician is not made just from academic credentials and degrees. A great family physician has to be a caring person, a person who can relate to his patients and to their problems and shows true concern for who you are.”
Smith said Royer “epitomizes the caring physician.”
After receiving the award, Royer said, “It’s been such a privilege to be a family physician in Charles City. It’s been a long time — 40 years July 1 — and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. It’s been very challenging and I’ve never had any regrets. Thank you very much. This is a great honor and a surprise.”
Outgoing club President Ann Troge handed out $1,000 Rotary Club scholarships to Charles City High School graduates Rylie Patrie and Cail Ruzicka (the awards had been announced at the high school senior honors night).
The club scholarships consider academic achievement and extracurricular activities, but also emphasize leadership skills and service in the community, with student volunteer hours weighing heavily in the selection process, Troge said.
She also announced the first recipient of the Ellen Bengtson Women in Science Scholarship as CCHS graduate Libbie McKeag.
The Rotary Club worked with Bengtson’s family and the Northeast Iowa Community Foundation to establish the perpetual annual $2,000 scholarship in honor of former club member Bengtson, who was killed when the bike she was riding was struck by a pickup in May 2020.
The scholarship goes to a female student who is pursuing a degree in engineering, math or chemistry.
Other awards went to Rotary Club members:
• The Rotary Humanitarian Award — an award that is not given every year, but only when the awards committee feels there is a worthy candidate who has offered services in times of crisis, or to assist in an effort to provide food, medical services, education, clothing of other basic necessities to those in need — was awarded to Chris Garden.
Garden helped lead a club effort to collect donations for the victims of the derecho storms in the Cedar Rapids area last year, donating use of his truck and trailer and his time and gas to personally deliver two loads of supplies to a Rotary Club in the Cedar Rapids area to be distributed there.
“This member arguably deserves every award that was given tonight, but he’s previously been awarded each one already,” said Troge.
• The Paul Garthwaite Memorial Award (Rotarian of the Year) went to Marci Andrews for her involvement in many club projects including visiting nursing homes with her certified therapy dog and taking a leading role in the club’s Rotary Cookbook project that will be a fundraiser in the fall, as well as organizing the club’s meal catering.
• The Paul Harris Award to a member who helped further the Rotary Foundation goal of advancing world understanding, goodwill and peace through the improvement of health, support of education and the alleviation of poverty, was given to Sue Ayers.
“Tonight’s recognition goes to an individual who has played a big part in writing various grants, cleaning parks, helping with the Soupfest, acquiring laptop computers for local health care groups, been in charge of building homes in Haiti, and gathering the supplies for the kids safety kits that were distributed in our last club project,” said club member Dennis Donovan in announcing the award.
• Donovan was himself recipient of the President’s Award, given by the club president to a member who has been instrumental in helping the president and the club succeed during the president’s year in office.
“Through the year if I wanted an opinion, some advice or a solution, I most often went to him to get his input,” said Troge, who also noted Donovan’s involvement in just about every project the club has undertaken.
Troge said she also wanted to give a President’s Award to club Secretary Veronica Litterer for all her help during the year when the club’s meetings were online much of the time, but it was Litterer’s job to order the plaques and she refused to order one for herself.
“I would be giving another plaque, but she said, ‘I’ve got a couple already, you don’t need to do that,’” Troge said about Litterer.
The evening concluded with Troge passing a symbolic dollar bill — “passing the buck” — to incoming President John Ebert.
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