The Vocational Service Committee’s major goals are to promote excellence and the highest ethical standards in all occupations, to recognize the worthiness of all useful occupations, and to use members’ vocational skills to benefit the community.
The Committee’s ongoing projects include the following:
- Promoting literacy in the community by sustaining a first-grade reading program in Jefferson County’s neediest schools (a project conducted jointly with the Rotary Club of Charles Town). Rotary volunteers go into these schools several times a year to read to first-graders; each child then gets a free copy of the book that was read to keep as their own. We also join with all the Rotary clubs in Eastern Panhandle in supporting a program that gives every second grader in in Jefferson, Berkeley, and Morgan counties a stack of free books for summer reading. Finally, we award annual Rotary Reads grants to Shepherdstown educational institutions to support special projects that promote reading among children of all ages.
- Presenting an annual Vocational Service Award to an individual in the community who exemplifies the Rotary motto of “Service above self.” These awards are presented in the fall.
- Providing financial support to the Shepherd University Rotaract chapter.
- Mentoring Rotaract students and other young people in the community.
- Organizing an annual Shepherdstown Rotary Club Wine-Tasting Dinner that helps provide funding for all of these activities. This dinner is usually held in late March.
