The legacy of community involvement and financial support for a myriad of projects in Greenfield by Lowell and Sandra McNeil has been passed down to their daughter, Jennifer McNeil Kennedy, the Greenfield Rotary Club’s recipient of this year’s Paul Harris Fellowship.

Harris, the founder of Rotary, lived by the credo “service above self” and is the cornerstone of today’s Rotary clubs throughout the world.

Greenfield Rotarians Pat Hays and Steve Pearce surprised Kennedy by bringing her a pin and certificate recognizing her as a Paul Harris Fellow. Kennedy, through her business, Sitterle Insurance, has been a faithful supporter of Rotary activities and a longtime buyer of limited edition prints at Rotary auctions. Kennedy is also known as a community leader and supporter of charitable organizations that work to benefit Greenfield and area.

Pat Hays, a longtime Rotary leader and community benefactor himself, said of Kennedy, “Jennifer’s participation in our Rotary Auction each and every year has helped the Greenfield club to donate to various school and community requests throughout the area, along with her own philanthropy to numerous organizations.”

Steve Pearce echoed Hays’s sentiments and called her “an outstanding community leader and a generous donor to good causes.”

In order to bestow a Paul Harris Fellowship, the Greenfield Rotary Club contributes $1,000 in the recipient’s name to Rotary International, which uses the funds to fight disease, promote clean water, sanitation and hygiene, help grow economies in impoverished countries, and to promote peace throughout the world. One longtime effort has been to eradicate polio from the face of the earth, a goal that may be achieved in the near future.

Many local, regional and internationally recognized figures have been named Paul Harris Fellows, including U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, U.S. astronaut James Lovell, UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, and polio vaccine developer Jonas Salk.

The number of Paul Harris Fellows reached the 1 million mark in 2006, and funds contributed to the Rotary Foundation continue to make a difference while honoring the legacy of Rotary’s founder.

The Greenfield Rotary Club meets for a 6:30 a.m. breakfast each Thursday (except holidays) at the Catch 22 Sports Pub. A brief meeting follows, and Rotarians are able to get on with their busy schedules by 7:30 a.m.

For more information about the local Rotary club, visit www.greenfieldrotary.org.

Submitted by Ron Coffey, Greenfield Rotary Club.