MOUNT VERNON – The Mount Vernon Rotary Club decided that it would lead by example in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, club President Cynthia Cunningham told the Mount Vernon News.
“If people look at us as community leaders, we should follow the rules of our health commissioner and state,” she said. “So we did not have any meetings for a period of time in 2020.”
The club did, however, have some service projects, including raising funds for Food for the Hungry and The Salvation Army. Additionally, there also a downtown cleanup project helping to weed flower beds and clean up leaves and trash. The members also raked leaves for senior citizens in Mount Vernon.
“We also raised money and handed out bouquets of carnations and a handwritten card to every veteran in Knox County in long-term care facilities and delivered them on Veterans Day,” Cunningham said.
In 2021, the group has resumed some meetings on Zoom.
“We’re hoping to hold a couple of more Zoom meetings and then meet outside at one of the pavilions at Foundation Park when the weather warms up a little bit,” she said.
The goal is to get back to routine meetings in the spring and summer and continuing service projects.
“The new president will take over at the end of June, and my hope is that we have built momentum back up again and that meetings are routine again,” she said.
Cunningham, an attorney, has strong family connections to both Knox County and the Rotary Club.
“I was born and raised here and attended Kenyon College,” she said. “I was away for about 11 or 12 years after I graduated from Kenyon before I returned home.”
She has a daughter and has found Knox County a great place to raise children.
“My parents are still here; my sister and her family live here,” she said.
Her grandfather, Robert Gregg, is 98 and still an active member of the Rotary Club.
“There’s something about returning home,” Cunningham said. “It was never a part of my plan. But community has always been an important part of who I am — community service especially. In a big city, you can’t always find that community. In Knox County, you can.”
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