Sequim Noon Rotary to disband later this year

By Michael Dashiell • March 20, 2024 1:30 am
Photo courtesy of Sequim Noon Rotary / Sequim Noon Rotary members present funds for the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula’s food program to the clubs’ executive director (and fellow Rotarian) Mary Budke, third from left, in January 2023. Pictured, from left, are Ren Garypie, Margot Hewitt, Budke, Don Sorensen, Stuart Dille, Anna Richmond, Bob Macaulay and Kelly Macaulay.
Photo courtesy of Sequim Noon Rotary / Sequim Noon Rotary members present funds for the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula’s food program to the clubs’ executive director (and fellow Rotarian) Mary Budke, third from left, in January 2023. Pictured, from left, are Ren Garypie, Margot Hewitt, Budke, Don Sorensen, Stuart Dille, Anna Richmond, Bob Macaulay and Kelly Macaulay.

After nearly 100 years of community service, the Sequim Noon Rotary Club is ceasing club operations later this year.

Club treasurer Rochelle McHugh said that with a number of snow-birding members out of town for months at a time, “the day-to-day operations of the club have fallen heavily on a very few shoulders.”

The club will officially cease operations on July 1, but not before teaming up with the Sequim Sunrise Rotary to organize and present the Sequim Irrigation Festival Parade in May.

Photo courtesy of Sequim Noon Rotary / Sequim Noon Rotary members present an adaptive tricycle to representatives from Camp Beausite Northwest in January 2023. Pictured, from left, are Rotarian Judy Shanks; Camp Beausite Northwests executive director Raina Baker; Rotarians Stuart Dille, Mary Budke, Anna Richmond, Ted Shanks and Margot Hewitt; camp community development coordinator Tinna Barnet, and Rotarians Ren Garypie, Don Sorensen, Bob Macaulay and Kelly Macaulay.

Photo courtesy of Sequim Noon Rotary / Sequim Noon Rotary members present an adaptive tricycle to representatives from Camp Beausite Northwest in January 2023. Pictured, from left, are Rotarian Judy Shanks; Camp Beausite Northwests executive director Raina Baker; Rotarians Stuart Dille, Mary Budke, Anna Richmond, Ted Shanks and Margot Hewitt; camp community development coordinator Tinna Barnet, and Rotarians Ren Garypie, Don Sorensen, Bob Macaulay and Kelly Macaulay.

McHugh said it is “absolutely” bittersweet to close the club.

“We’ve been looking at this possibility for at least since before Covid,” she said in an interview.

“We’ve been having a hard time recruiting business members because of the noon hour.

“It’s very sad; the reality is it’s just been so difficult for very few people [to run the club]. Too many of us travel. This is the prudent thing to do.”

The club will also be again participating in graduating senior scholarships in June and plans to distribute several to seniors pursuing technical education, McHugh said.

Sequim Gazette file photo by Matthew Nash / Anna Ito of Sequim receives a turkey from Bob Macaulay, president of the Rotary Club of Sequim at the Sequim Food Bank in November 2018. Members of Sequim Noon Rotary, along with Sequim Sunrise Rotary and Trinity United Methodist Church, helped hand out Holiday Meal Bags to dozens of community members that day.

Sequim Gazette file photo by Matthew Nash / Anna Ito of Sequim receives a turkey from Bob Macaulay, president of the Rotary Club of Sequim at the Sequim Food Bank in November 2018. Members of Sequim Noon Rotary, along with Sequim Sunrise Rotary and Trinity United Methodist Church, helped hand out Holiday Meal Bags to dozens of community members that day.

Following that, she said, Sequim Noon Rotarian members plan to join Sequim Sunrise Rotary — which was sponsored by Sequim Noon Rotary and chartered in 1986 — and other local clubs to continue their community service.

The noon club was in active service to the Sequim community for 93 years.

McHugh said the club was most know for its annual salmon bake, held 52 years.

“It was a great function; now there are so many more options,” she said.

Other activities the club supported were many, McHugh noted, including: organization of the Sequim Irrigation Festival Parade; funding for Sequim High School (SHS) band uniforms, stadium concessions and resurfacing the SHS track; local scout troops; student exchanges; school district teacher grants; scholarships for high school seniors; purchase and distribution of dictionaries for fourth-grade students (for 10-plus years); fundraising and building of the Sequim Library; partnering with SHS carpentry students to build several homes in the Sunland development; establishment and funding of the Sequim Boys & Girls Club’s Carroll C. Kendall unit, and purchase and gifting of nine adaptive bicycles for youths with physical challenges.

“All of our club members have enjoyed our time of service through Sequim Noon Rotary and thank our Sequim community for your support,” McHugh said in the press release.

Sequim Gazette file photo by Matthew Nash / Anna Ito of Sequim receives a turkey from Bob Macaulay, president of the Rotary Club of Sequim at the Sequim Food Bank in November 2018. Members of Sequim Noon Rotary, along with Sequim Sunrise Rotary and Trinity United Methodist Church, helped hand out Holiday Meal Bags to dozens of community members that day.

Sequim Gazette file photo by Matthew Nash / Anna Ito of Sequim receives a turkey from Bob Macaulay, president of the Rotary Club of Sequim at the Sequim Food Bank in November 2018. Members of Sequim Noon Rotary, along with Sequim Sunrise Rotary and Trinity United Methodist Church, helped hand out Holiday Meal Bags to dozens of community members that day.