Last week the Highland Rotary hosted a special dinner at Casa Milanese to honor Steven Laubach, for his 40 years of service to the Rotary and the community. He recalled that after moving to Highland he was introduced to Rotary upon taking over an office of a retired insurance agent.

 

“I ended up in an office building with one person in particular, John Canino, who was involved in the beginnings of all of this Rotary stuff and he asked me if I wanted to join,” Laubach said, admitting that at the time he did not know much about the organization.  

 

After getting the requisite 20 members together, they were able to receive a charter for the Highland Rotary Club. Laubach was 25 at the time.

 

“Back then the joke was they found me on a tricycle riding down the street because they didn’t think I was old enough to drive then,” he said. “But once I was in, I was all in. The people who helped us develop the club were amazing and they really were Rotarians.”  

 

Laubach said the difference of being in Rotary and being a Rotarian, “is that Rotary becomes part of your being. Somewhere along the line Rotary became part of my identity; it is through the service that you do because of the projects you’re working on and some of the people you meet that now I’m a Rotarian.”

 

Laubach said his first big project was establishing an Adult Day Care Center in town.

 

“There was a real need in the town for people who took care of their parents to have some respite and there was noting in town to help them” he said. “After that, Highland Rotary ran coat drives, provided food where needed and even dictionaries to school age children. Highland Rotary also became active on the international scene by providing bio-sand water filtration kits to developing nations that lacked clean water and we provided funding to purchase emergency Shelter Box tents to house those in disaster areas.”

 

Laubach recalled one project that really touched his heart; an international organization was flying children from Central America to New York City who needed life saving heart operations. They were having trouble helping one particular child, and Laubach said a fellow Rotarian told him about a group called Angel Planes. After numerous calls were made, the company was located, “and we made it happen. I never met the kid or the parents but that kid got life saving surgery in Manhattan and went back home because we made an effort to get a plane for him.”

 

Laubach said as a Rotarian he can go anywhere in the world and receive a warm welcome and any assistance needed from other Rotary organizations.Laubauch reflected on the honor his Rotary chapter bestowed upon him.

 

“You know what, that was really nice,” he said. “I am the only one left from the first 20 that started this club back in 1984. I’m proud I’ve been here the whole forty years. This club has a personality, we love to cut up, have a good time and we’re family when we’re here.”

 

Laubach said he was a little suspect about what was going to happen during the evening because his family was in attendance, “and the last time they all came to a meeting was when my son Billy joined Rotary and they didn’t let me know that either.” Laubach’s wife Debbie is also a Rotarian and also attending were their other son Matthew and daughter Emily.  

 

Laubach said last year Rotary donated $10,000 to the Highland Fire Department for the purchase of safety gear and this year they will do the same as well as for the town’s Police Department.

 

“This stuff is outside their budgets but they still need it,” he said. “We appreciate what they do for us every day, so what else can we do?”

 

Laubach said the song lyric in ‘Three Wooden Crosses’ says, “It’s not what you take when you leave this world behind you, It’s what you leave behind you when you go.” He believes this sentiment encapsulates, “Rotary in a nutshell. It’s what we do every day that makes a difference.”

 

Laubach said even though, “all the people in the club have changed except for me, it hasn’t from day one; the people love each other, they have a good time, we enjoy each other’s company and it’s been that way for forty years.”