Lyon Area Rotary Club believes the most powerful impact of our service projects and events is made possible by close connection and collaboration with our community. Bringing people together to make a positive difference, joining with other charitable organizations to extend our outreach, all while enjoying comradery with one another, is what we do best. United in service and fellowship is our focus.

We do not think of ourselves as a stand-alone group. We rely on human, organizational and business resources in our community to help drive our mission to serve and to be a hands-on and financial resource to other service organizations in our community. We build Easter baskets with Families Building Faith. We help sell raffle tickets and annually sponsor a veteran golf team of four as part of the Operation Injured Soldiers golf outings. With the help of matching grants, we provide financial support to Active Faith Community Services and the South Lyon Summer Lunch Program.

Lyon Area Rotary Club members also volunteer to work at the Active Faith food pantry and at the United Methodist Church to build lunches and decorate lunch bags for children served by the summer food program. We are involved with the Lyon Events Organization (LEO), bringing our cotton candy machines to their annual Kite Fest and Music on the Grand events. You will also see us spinning our candy sugar clouds at the summer movies in McHattie Park.

Mary Knauer, our current president, believes in the importance of actively giving and promoting the wellbeing of others. Being in service is natural flow for Mary and she sets an example for all of us by simply being interested in and caring for others every day of her life.

Rotarian Paulina Poplawska shares, "As president of the Lyon Area Rotary Club, Mary Knauer is energizing the organization with fresh initiatives that strengthen community outreach, grow membership and inspire service above self. Her leadership is driving impactful projects and fostering a renewed sense of purpose among members."

Our fundraising efforts are also collaborative and community-minded affairs for us. We try to find the win-win in everything we do. Our Pumpkinfest game booth is a perfect example of that. We enjoy working with the Pumpkinfest Committee, who generously donates ticket money back to the charitable organizations running games at this community festival.

Each year the first priority of our Lyon Area Rotarians is to gather prizes that the children and young adults will enjoy winning. When they spin our wheel they are supporting our service projects, we want to thank them by providing great prizes worth winning. It is the prize donations from club members and people in our community that make it possible for us to provide a wide selection of choices to our participants. Everyone is a winner!

Additionally, to run our booth we reach out to the students in the South Lyon High School Key Club who volunteer their time. It is through the collaborative and dedicated efforts of these young people that our Pumpkinfest game booth is as successful and fun as it is!

Our Lyon Area community always comes through for us. One of our most recent fundraising efforts was in collaboration with the Polish Festival at St. Joseph Catholic Church. We had a raffle basket booth. We reached out to Salem Gardens, E2 Hair Studio, Waycaster Tiki, Green Pastures Market, Little Threads, 4EveryEar, Radiant Made for Us Jeweler, Cardinal Farms and Parkside Cleaners, asking them to donate an item that was representative of their business to add to our basket, and we were overwhelmed by their generosity. Our hopes are more people will visit these local businesses – they make a difference in our community!

One of our longest standing and most collaborative service projects is our annual Blanket Outreach Project, which also involves St. Joseph Catholic Church, specifically their middle school youth ministry students. The Lyon Area Rotary Club purchases fleece blanket kits and delivers them to our St. Joe's blanket making partners. Together with their families, the blankets are cut and prepared to be tied at our big evening event.

Students, their families and members of our community come together during two full sessions in the fellowship hall of the church. Kids, moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, and a wide variety of community members work and talk together to create our blankets with care. As blankets are finished they are brought to our LARC club members, who put them in bags, placing notes in each bag.

Our blankets have gone to those in our and neighboring communities who are homeless, human trafficked survivors, injured and traumatized veterans, preschoolers with no mats for their nap times, families in the jailhouse outreach program, homebound seniors, and others in need. Not only are these blankets a gift of warmth during our harsh winter months, they are delivered with written messages of hope, compassion and love.

Other businesses who have been longtime supporters of the Lyon Area Rotary Club are South Lyon Collision, Abbey Park at Mill River Senior Residence, and Gayle's DancePhase. We can count on Gary Fagin's annual service project directed donations, while Abbey Park hosts our weekly lunch meetings and special evening events, as well as allows us to hold can and bottle drives and evening drawings that involve their residents throughout the year.

Our focus on service unfolds through collaboration and connection with the members of our Lyon Area community. If you are looking for a group of serviceminded people, visit us at one of our Tuesday noon lunch meetings in the Abbey Park auxiliary room.

Watch for our upcoming fundraiser in collaboration with Salem Gardens. Plan to support our sponsorship campaign we launch beginning in the new year, giving families and businesses an opportunity to support our charitable efforts and to designate their donation to specific service projects. No donation is too small and 100 percent of all proceeds go directly to our community through our charitable efforts. If you would like to volunteer with us, extra hands are always welcome and we are happy to provide community service hours to community youth who assist us at our events.

The Lyon Area Rotary Club is also eager to collaborate with you. You can find us at lyonarearotary.org, follow us on our Lyon Area Rotary Facebook and contact us at lyonarearotaryclub@gmail.com.