Rotary Club of Crossett

Home
United States
Crossett, AR
Rotary Club of Crossett

The Rotary Club of Crossett is an affiliate of Rotary International, an organization of business and professional leaders.

The Rotary Club of Crossett is an affiliate of Rotary International, an organization of business and professional leaders united worldwide to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations and help build goodwill and peace in the world.

05/25/2026

The Crossett Rotary club met on Thursday, May 21 at the Crossett City Library. Our program was presented by the Crossett Post 111 of the American Legion. Steven Lochala and Lewis Wallace represented the American Legion. Steven Lochala presented the program.

The American Legion was charted by Congress in 1919. There are four pillars of the American Legion: Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation, National Security, Americanism, Children and Youth.

The American Legion has defended the rights of veterans through lobbing congress and other legal means. They have advocated for better veteran's benefits provided by the Veterans Association.

Steven talked about what Memorial Day is really about. It is to honor the fallen service men and women. He told of the origin of wearing red poppies on Memorial Day.

Thanks Steven and Lewis for an interesting and informative program.

05/25/2026

The Crossett Rotary Club met on Thursday, March 14, 2026 at the Crossett City public library. Justin Reed was the Rotarian of the Day. His guest was Rhonda Daniels of the Compassion Ministry of Ashley County. Rhonda is the community coordinator of the Ministry. They are also associated with the Salvation Army out of Eldorado. They receive part of their funds for assistance from the Salvation Army.

The Compassion Ministry of Ashley County help those who are in need of assistance. So far this year they have given over $12,000 in assistance. Typically they pay utility bills, rent, or other expenses. They also provide services such as plumbing repairs. They typically help those who have an unplanned expense that have put them behind in their payments. The maximum amount of their assistance is $350 per occurrence. People are only eligible for assistance one per year. There goal is to help people through temporary setbacks and get them back on track to self sufficiency.

The cold weather at the last of January and into February of this year caused the utility bills to be higher than some could pay. They had a higher than expected number of requests. They tried to help as many as they could. It is important to make sure children are warm at home.

You can visit their website at: https://www.compassionac.org/

Thanks Rhonda and Justin for an interesting and informative presentation.

05/08/2026

The Crossett Rotary Club met at the usual date at time, May 7, 2026 at noon, in the Crossett Public Library. Arlyn Richards was the Rotarian of the Day, and Arlyn and Gavin Reed were the presenters for this meeting. The topic for the presentation was "Rotary Basics" or "Rotary 101".

Gavin discussed the Paul Harris Foundation. The Paul Harris Foundation is separate from Rotary International. It manages donations from Rotarians and distributes money to worthy causes through grants. Grants are distributed globally to projects that contribute to: world peace, disease treatment and eradication, clean water and education. Giving to the Foundation is more than a donation, it helps the world to become a better place.

Special recognition is given to Rotarians that donate $1,000 or more to the Foundation. They become "Paul Harris Fellows". Linda Rushing was recognized today as achieving this recognition. Gavin challenged us to have 4 more Paul Harris Fellows this year.

Arlyn discussed the Rotary.org website and the necessity of setting up a My Rotary account. Here is a summary of the material presented:

Rotary Basics: https://my.rotary.org/en/document/rotary-basics

Rotary International and Rotary Foundation financial strength information. See attached documents.

Rotary International Fact Card: https://my.rotary.org/en/document/rotary-foundation-facts

Creating or accessing individual accounts in MyRotary.org and in DACdb.com and making sure the contact information is correct, complete and the same in both systems.

Obtaining the individual's finance statement, link to pay dues online and setting up a recurring schedule for payments.
Logon to DACdb > My Data > Finance Center

05/01/2026

The Crossett Rotary Club met at their usual time of noon on Thursday, April 30, 2026 at the Crossett City Public Library. The Rotarian of the Day was Brandon Reed and his guest speaker was Betsy Anderson.

Betsy represents a non-profit organization named "The Call" and is the Affiliate Director of The Call for Southeast Arkansas.

The Call is a child care organization that aids children and families involved in foster care. It is a statewide organization. They work closely with the churches in the area to help them recognize their opportunity to help. They encourage, educate, and equip churches to offer assistance to those in foster care.

Typically, the Court removes a child from their biological family and places the child, hopefully temporarily, in a foster home. The Call:
- Helps find and train foster families
- Trains volunteers to help foster families
- Solicits donations for the programs
- Requests prayers in behalf of the foster families.

Goals:
- Provide safe and loving homes
- Local placement
- No children waiting for placement
- Funds raised locally from the community

Betsy described one way for churches to volunteer. The ladies get together to prepare and freeze meals that would be quickly available to meet needs.

Thanks Betsy for your interesting and informative presentation.

05/01/2026

The Rotary Club of Crossett met at noon in the Crossett Public Library on April 23, 2027. Dan Pevy was the Rotarian of the Day and he invited Mike Smith and Hali McMeice from the Crossett Economic Development Foundation to present the program.

Mike first spoke about Issue 3, which will be on the November ballot. Issue 3 will expand the economic development tools available to communities across the state. It will allow cities and counties to offer incentives to attract businesses, housing and other types of commercial businesses. It would also allow funds for site development projects to improve water, sewer, gas, and other infrastructure to incentivize businesses to locate locally.

Hali discussed the process to apply for grants. Her office deals with all types of grants: private foundations, state, and federal. Her office has developed the expertise needed to apply and win grants.

Private foundation grants have the most varied requirements depending on the goals of the grants. Federal grants are highly regulated. State grants are a mixture of the two. Typically, grant requirements include:
- requesting organization has the ability to fill the goal of the grant
- Budget, income, and other financial statements
- Organization structure to administer the grant, such as board of directors, head of organization, staff, etc.
- Board minutes for the last year.
- Capacity to execute and report back.
- Grants typically cannot be used for food.
- Non-profits cannot survive on grants alone.
- Grants cannot be used for salaries.
- Grants usually are for projects with a start and end date.

Thanks Hali and Mike for an interesting and informative presentation

04/30/2026

The Crossett Rotary Club met on Thursday, April 16, 2026 at noon at the Crossett City Public Library. The Rotarian of the day was Carmella Canfield and her guest speaker was Sherri Hendrix.

Sherri is the Marketing Director for the local radio stations: KAGH, KWLT, KHMB and Q-Lite. Q-Lite is the live steam of KHMB. She told of her background and the life path she took to her current position. She outlined the history of the local radio stations and told stories of some of the radio personalities. We heard interesting stories about Russ Miller and Charlie Park, two of the more memorable personalities.

Some of the radio events throughout the year are: Valentines Day, Christmas on Pine, Extravaganza, the Armadillo Festival, and broadcasting of local high school sports.

The rodeo is a busy time of the year for the radio station. She described the promotional packages offered to local businesses.

Thanks Sherri for an informative and interesting presentation.

04/30/2026

On Thursday, March 19, 2026, the Crossett Rotary Club attended the Lunch-n-Learn program sponsored by the Crossett Area Chamber of Commerce. In the program we heard about the Workforce Innovative Opportunity Act. It was presented by Lauren Kimbrell, Business Services Specialist. Also helping with the presentation was the Director Of Workforce Development, Chaketa Alexander. We learned how the apprentice program benefits the apprentice and employer. The apprentice program provides training and a paycheck and does not require a college degree.

Thanks Lauren and Chaketa for an informative and interesting program.

04/28/2026

The Crossett Rotary club met at noon in the Crossett City Library. Dr. Brad Walsh was the Rotarian of the Day and his guest was Brian Jones, a Regional Chancellor for UAMS. UAMS (University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock). He travels extensively around the state, concentrating on the regional campuses.

The mission of UAMS is to improve health care of Arkansas. We learned some interesting facts about UAMS
- There are different types of locations in Arkansas:
- multiple campuses, family medicine clinics.
- UAMS offers family medicine residency and family medial rural training.
- UAMS is a partner with St. Bernard medical center in Jonesboro and Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Pine Bluff.

Other interesting topics:
- Obstetricians are not available in rural areas. There is a program to train family doctors to deliver babies.
- Offering residency programs in rural locations. Doctors tend to stay in areas where they are residents.
- Ways the system is reducing the student debt for Doctors by shortening and combining the undergraduate requirements and medical school requirements. The new program takes 6 years to complete where the old program took 8.

Thanks for an interesting and informative presentation.

03/12/2026

The Rotary Club of Crossett, Arkansas met at noon on Thursday, March 5, 2026 in the Crossett City public library. This was our regular weekly meeting. Dr. Skip MacDonald was the Rotarian of the day and also presented the program.

Skip prefaced his remarks say that this program will be one of the most unusual talks given to our club. He indicated he would take it in a different direction than usual presentations. He was right!!

He introduced us to poetry by Billy Collins, Marin Espada and Rudyard Kipling. He recommended listening to "IF" by Rudyard Kipling read by Michael Caine or Morgan Freeman. He explained how Haiku is a traditional Japanese poetry that is simple and at the same time powerful.

He talked about his passion: being a surgeon. He told us about med school experiences and training under "Uncle Ed". He explained how, in following his passion, he made sacrifices and was in the hospital all the time. He then shared a poem he has written about being a surgeon, and then read it to us.

Thanks Skip for a truly extraordinary and unique presentation.

03/12/2026

The Crossett Rotary Club met for its weekly meeting on February 26, 2026 at the Crossett City Public Library. We meet at noon every Thursday. Everyone is invited.

The Rotarian of the Day was Maurisa Lowry, and her guests were Amber Hairston - ICS Agent, Family and Consumer Science, and Harleigh Livingston - 4H Agent. Both from the Ashley County Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. They presented the program for our meeting.

Their services are free from the state.

Amber told us about two of the services they offer: Financial Literacy, and Heart Health. Heart Disease is the leading cause of death as we get older. February is Heart Health Month. We learned that high blood pressure is a leading risk and only 1 in 4 have it under control. Heart disease is costly, costing $158 billion between 2020 and 2022. The extension office offers researched backed information to help us avoid heart disease. Amber's discussion included:
- Blood pressure
- Cholesterol
- Blood sugar
- Eating smart
- Controlling portion sizes: Restaurants serving "hyper sizing"
Things to include in a good diet:
- Fruits and vegetables
- Brown rice
- Poultry and fish
Planning meals ahead of time helps avoid unhealthy foods.

Harleigh told us about 4H
- Fishing derby for kids is the first Saturday in October
- Provides family consumer science
- Exercise, financial literacy, budgeting
- Simulation for kids involving the typical finances for a family
- Everything is free
- There are 7 clubs in Ashley county with a total of 65 50 120 kids

Thanks Amber and Harleigh for an informative and interesting presentation.

Address

Crossett, AR
71635

Website

http://www.crossettrotary.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Rotary Club of Crossett posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Want your organization to be the top-listed Government Service in Crossett?

05/25/2026

05/25/2026

05/08/2026

05/01/2026

05/01/2026

04/30/2026

04/30/2026

04/28/2026

03/12/2026

03/12/2026

Address

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share