Lakewood’s Clover Park Rotary Busy Month Peace Pole Planting, Lakewood, Ohio, USA
June 10, 2025
Clover Park High School students pose alongside the “Peace Pole” they just placed.
Placing of a “Peace Pole,” attending the Rotary District Conference, and staffing a booth at the Lakewood Farmers Market, kept Clover Park Rotarians busy these last few weeks.
This Tuesday, several Rotarians staffed a booth at the start of the 2025 Lakewood Farmer’s Market at Fort Steilacoom Park. The booth accomplished two things: Tell the public about Rotary and encourage membership.
Not a lot of people know of the work of Rotary. Some folks said they thought it was a “business mans” club, others did not know of the “Service” nature of the organization, and that their motto is “Service Above Self.” Most were unaware that well before Bill and Melinda Gates took on the effort to eradicate polio from the world, that Rotary had been at it for 19 years. Many did not know that their primary goal is to collect money to support local charities.
Activities at the booth hopes to broadcast who they are, what they do, and that they get members from all walks of life.
On a Saturday in mid-May, they were at work, once again at their signature project. That is, a hands-on effort we have been working at for several years at the South Puget Sound Urban Wildlife Interpretive Center.
Volunteers place Western Pond Turtles at the Interpretive Center on Phillips Road.
According to the club’s project coordinator, Alan Billingsley, Clover Park High School students, onca again, joined with Rotary members to preserve and beautify the park by weeding, pulling up invasive scotch broom and other efforts to maintain the park for local citizens use. Later in the month, volunteers released “Western Pond Turtles in an area prepared to raise them in the park.
Other significant events at the park include placement of a “Peace Pole.” This is a Rotary International project that encourages every Rotary Club to participate by installing the pole in every community, worldwide.
From the Rotary website: “A Peace Pole is an internationally-recognized symbol of the hopes and dreams of the entire human family, standing vigil in silent prayer for peace on earth. Each Peace Pole bears the message “May Peace Prevail On Earth” in different languages on each of its four sides.”
Club President, Mike Killen, along with members Alan Billingsley and Ramona Hinton were instrument in getting the Peace Pole brought to the Interpretive Center site.
Members of the Club also attended the annual Rotary District 5020 Conference. This year the Conference was held in Tacoma and attended by several hundred members from the District which covers Vancouver Island and much of Western Washington to the Columbia River. Attendees heard speakers on international peace initiatives, Rotary’s work in disaster relief, fighting sex trafficking and Rotary youth exchange programs. Individual classes on a variety of subjects were offered during the three days of the session.
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