UPCOMING EVENTS
- Veterans Day Extravaganza, Saturday, November 9, noon to 5 pm, Three Roads Brewery.
- Toe-tally Festive (Holiday Social) at Charley’s, December 5, 5:30 pm.
Rotary Enjoys Busy Fall
Rotarians have been out serving the community in full force this fall. Here are just a few of their activities:
Rotarians cleaned an area for parking close to the Farmville Train Station in preparation for the upcoming Veterans Day Extravaganza on November 9. Our club’s foundation chair, Kerby Moore, is responsible for creating “Friends of Farmville Veterans” to help execute this event. It’s a consortium of local chapters of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Daughters of the American Revolution, Farmville Jarheads, and Military Officers Association of America, in association with Three Roads Brewing Company, High Bridge Trail State Park, Longwood University ROTC, and other partners. Pictured are club members and military veterans Kerby Moore, George Buckman and Andrew Payne.
We recently joined with the Farmville Lions Club to collect toys for the Christmas Mother Toy Drive. Each year many low-income families are blessed with nice gifts for their children through this community effort. Pictured are Rotarians Reeves LaRoche and Julie Flores.
In October we had our 3rd annual Autumn Bake Sale and Raffle. Eleven club members joined forces to raise funds for Piedmont Habitat for Humanity. This years we raised $712 — an increase from last year. Pictured are Kerry Mossler, Andrew Payne, and Jill Ahmad (front row) and Barbara Smith, Le’Tina Giles, and Russell Dove (back row).
Doug Stanley installed as President of Rotary Club
Farmville – At its meeting on June 27, 2024, the Rotary Club of Farmville, VA installed Douglas P. “Doug” Stanley as the 86th President. Stanley will serve as President from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025. The installation of office was performed by outgoing president Shaunna Hunter.
Stanley, County Administrator for Prince Edward County, joined the Rotary Club of Farmville in March 2021 and has served as club Secretary and Vice-President. He is serving a two-year term as the Assistant Governor of Area 8 in District 7600 covering the clubs of Blackstone, Farmville, and Powhatan. He was responsible for developing the Club’s sponsorship and community grant programs.
Prior to moving to Farmville, Doug has been a member of the Rotary Club of Front Royal since 1998, becoming an honorary member in 2021 after his move to Farmville. Past offices he held in Front Royal include past president (2007), board member, and senior board member. Doug had a perfect attendance record from 1998-2021. As a 25-year member of Rotary Doug has received or holds numerous Rotary Club awards/recognitions to include:
- Paul Harris Fellow – Sustaining Member
- Benefactor
- Bequest Society – Level 1
- Presidential Citation
- Skelton Fellow
- Douglas A. Newton District 7570 Award for Excellence in Communications
- Douglas P. Stanley Service Above Self Award
- 2013 Rotarian of the Year Award by the Rotary Club of Front Royal;
A Virginia native, Doug lives in Farmville, Virginia in the heart of Virginia with his wife Jenny and they have two children Whill (Rising 11th Grader at Prince Edward County High School) and daughter Jenna (2023 Graduate of the University of Virginia), one son-in-law, and one grandson.
Both Doug and Jenny are Paul Harris Fellows. Doug is also a multiple PH Fellow and Sustainer.
He currently serves as the Chairman of the Piedmont Juvenile Detention Center Board and Vice-chair of the Piedmont Regional Jail Authority Board. He also serves on the Supervisory Board of VAcorp, the self-insurance risk pool that provides insurance to most of the counties and school systems in Virginia, as well as the Virginia Local Government Finance Corporation Board of Directors. Stanley also holds the distinction of being an International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Credentialed Manager.
As County Administrator, Stanley plans, manages, and implements the operations of County government under the administration of the Board of Supervisors. Prince Edward has a total of 102 full-time and 62 part-time employees and a total budget of $75+ million.
According to Doug, he looks forward the Farmville Club continuing on its path of service to the Prince Edward/Farmville community as we expand our footprint and impact. “Over the past several years I think the club has made significant strides in fundraising and giving in the community and I hope that we can build on that in the coming year.” He stated that some of the goals of the Club for the upcoming year include:
- Continue to strengthen our Club by recruiting quality members
- Membership growth
- Engagement
- Budgeting
- Increasing PHF and Sustainer %
- Establishment of an Interact Club at PEC schools
Doug stated that he is “honored to serve as the Club’s President for the upcoming year and looks forward to continuing the great tradition of involvement by the Club and its members to improve the Farmville-Prince Edward County Community.”
Rotary Club presents end-of-year awards
Farmville – At its meeting on June 27, 2024, Shaunna Hunter, outgoing President of the Rotary Club of Farmville, VA, recognized several Club Members and a community member for their outstanding service during the 2023-2024 year.
Those recognized include:
Rotarian of the Year – Julie Flores
The Farmville Club recorded 735 service hours this past year. And one person’s service accounts for 10% of that total, in a club of over 50 members. This year Julie Flores started tracking our service hours in the Engagement module of DACdb. And it is probably no surprise to any of you that our Service Chair is the Rotarian with the most hours served. Julie planned service projects 11 months out of 12. She reached out to organizations, made contacts, set dates, communicated with all of us, created signups and sent reminders (she sent one today!), and every time she possibly could, she showed up and worked alongside us. Julie is unfailingly kind, generous, and was willing to work on any idea I came up with. We had a very good year for membership this year (12 new members!), one of the best in the district, and we attribute that success to us being out visibly serving our community. Thank you, Julie, for all you did to get us out to Habitat, the Walk to End Alzheimer’s, the PE Food Markets, the Moton Community Prayer Breakfast, Prince Edward Christmas Mother, Madeline’s House, FACES, and more. You are a Service Above Self inspiration to us all.
New Rotarian of the Year – Conrad Taylor
President Shaunna noted that this award was a special because this was the first new member she initiated as Club President. For having the best attendance of this year’s new members, for regularly attending both meeting times and joining our socials, for participating in several service projects – especially our Madeline’s House work days and being an integral part of the Habitat for Humanity landscaping project – and for cheerfully hanging out with the Happy Hour Crew, telling me in his own words “he doesn’t go for the beer, he goes for the fellowship,” she recognized Conrad Taylor with the New Rotarian of the Year award.
President’s Award – Sue Carter
In gratitude for being President Shaunna’s biggest cheerleader and encourager, for generously telling her she was doing a good job in my moments of self-doubt, and for being an incredible behind-the-scenes program planner and creator of our awesome weekly newsletter the Weekly Wire, Shaunna awarded a special President’s Award for service to Sue Carter.
Honorary Rotarian: Sandy Cooke
This year’s Honorary Rotarian is Sandy Cooke. Sandy’s title at Hampden-Sydney is Director of Student Affairs Operations, Orientation, and Civic Engagement. That means she does a lot of things, but the part she enjoys most is planning service projects for students. She’s not required to go out and work alongside them, but she does it all the time. If you see a Hampden-Sydney man out serving in our community – we have no doubt Sandy is the reason why. As an example, the day before Taste of Farmville, Sandy was with a group of our students working at the Food Market at the Sports Arena. At the end of the event the students helped clean up, but then stayed to help the Club set up all of our tables and chairs for Taste of Farmville. They finished the job in probably 15 minutes, and probably didn’t think a thing of it. Go Tigers, and Go Sandy. You make us better.
Shaunna is the Library Director at the Bortz Library at Hampden-Sydney College. A Virginia native, Shaunna lives in Farmville, Virginia with her husband Sean and they have one daughter Teagan (Rising 8th Grader at Fuqua School).
Rotary Club named Nonprofit of the Year
The Farmville Area Chamber of Commerce has voted the Rotary Club of Farmville as its Nonprofit of the Year. Portions of each FACC’s fundraiser will go to the club and we will be highlighted throughout the year on FACC’s social media. We also were given a plaque to display
In her presentation to the Chamber, Rotary President Shaunna said “A vote for Rotary is a vote for all of the finalists and many other nonprofits in the area.”