Maple Ridge is getting its third Rotary club, which will host a breakfast meeting.
Urma Mollema has been working to found the new service club, and the Maple Ridge entrepreneur said it has the formal approval of the Rotary district governor.
Now the goal is to have 20 members committed in time for a July 1 launch of the Maple Meadows Sunrise Club.
“The idea is to let the Rotary family grow, and not move Rotary members from one club to another,” said Mollema, a business consultant.
She has been a member of the Rotary Club of Meadow Ridge which meets Tuesdays at noon. The Rotary Club of Haney meets evenings. One of the barriers to her club adding members, she regularly hears, is that business people have work commitments at noon.
So Mollema is hoping to establish a new morning club, meeting for an hour starting at 7:30 a.m.. She would like to have a membership strong in the traditional Rotary community of business people, professionals and community leaders. The focus of guest speakers will also be about business topics, she said.
Mollema is a strong believer in Rotary. She moved to Maple Ridge in 2011 and joined the local club, but her association goes back 22 years, to when she still lived in her native South Africa. At the age of 36, she became just the second woman president at her club in Pretoria. Both her father and grandfather were Rotarians of distinction, and Mollema was involved in a Rotary youth exchange to the U.S. as a teen.
She believes another club will make Rotary stronger in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. She noted comparably-sized Chilliwack has four Rotary Clubs, and two have large memberships of more than 140. Other neighbouring communities also have more than two clubs.
There will be enough members, enough charitable causes and enough fundraisers to have three healthy clubs serving Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, she said.
“The work that Rotary does is phenomenal.”
Anyone interested in joining the new Maple Meadows Sunrise Club should contact Mollema at 604-614-0657.
@NeilCorbett18
ncorbett@mapleridgenews.com
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