Jamestown Rotary Club Connects Members, Nonprofits and Civic Partners

The Rotary Club of Jamestown has spent more than a century threading itself through the city's civic fabric, and its current project list shows no sign of letting up. Members are actively constructing the Dave Smette Memorial Plaza at Nickeus Park, a project that honors the late Rotarian and school superintendent whose career embodied the club's dual commitment to service and community leadership. The plaza name reflects what Jamestown Parks and Recreation described as "a marriage" of Smette's Rotary involvement and his years leading Jamestown students.

The club holds its weekly meetings every Tuesday at noon inside Club 1883, the banquet room of the building once known as the Knights of Columbus Hall. Those Tuesday sessions function as more than a lunch gathering: they are the operational hub where members coordinate donations, schedule volunteer shifts, and hear from guest speakers representing local nonprofits, health organizations and civic institutions. Recent presentations have connected members directly to programs working on Jamestown's most persistent needs, from food insecurity to public health.

Among the club's ongoing service commitments, members regularly prepare and serve meals at Daily Bread - Jamestown, participate each year in the Stuff the Bus school supply drive at Buffalo Mall, and run a literacy program in which Rotarians deliver books and read aloud to first graders at Jamestown elementary schools.

The club also funded the Community Bike Fleet at the Two Rivers Activity Center, a program that provides a trailer stocked with bicycles in every size, from children's bikes to adult and adaptive models, available for community members to borrow. That project reflects a broader philosophy the club has maintained for generations: direct funding for practical programs that lower barriers for residents who need them most.

No partnership better illustrates the club's long reach than Camp Rokiwan, the overnight summer camp it has operated jointly with the Jamestown Kiwanis Club since 1923. The camp, situated on Spiritwood Lake about 16 miles northeast of Jamestown, serves children ages 9 through 12 from Jamestown and surrounding communities. The name "Rokiwan" combines Rotary and Kiwanis, and the century-old collaboration remains one of the most durable civic partnerships in Stutsman County.

Residents interested in joining or bringing a project proposal to the club can visit jamestownndrotary.org or find the club on Facebook. New members are accepted by invitation, and the club regularly welcomes nonprofits and community organizations to present at its Tuesday meetings.