Remembrance of Kenneth L. Wakefield
15 June, 2010

Remembrance of Kenneth L. Wakefield
By Jody Reese, Queen City Rotary President 2010

Ken was a member of the Queen City Rotary, but not just any member – he was our Founder. Thirty Years ago he decided that he wanted more out of his Rotary. He wanted an emphasis on supporting local children’s causes.

He did not want to ‘fine’ fellow Rotarians. Many Rotary clubs raise money by fining each other a dollar: there’s nothing wrong with this, it just isn’t for everyone. It wasn’t for Ken or the 72 members of our current club.

Then there are the children. Rotary is well known for heading halfway around the world to help kids in India, for example, and we at the Queen City Rotary do our part. But Ken, supported by the club, felt that Manchester had plenty of need right here. So for the past 30 years, we’ve been focused on helping this community. This isn’t always easy. In an odd way it’s harder to help the family down the street than the family around the globe that you never see again.

So Ken founded this Club with some other like minded men – yes it was all men back then – and in the course of those 30 years Ken and this club met at numerous restaurants, many of them declaring bankruptcy leaving us quite unexpectedly without any place to meet. Through it all the club stayed focused on Ken’s mission.

Ken and the club over the course of 30 years donated roughly 10,000 hours of Community Service, $50,000 to $75,000 in Scholarships to local kids and $450,000 or so in grants to local children’s groups.

This is no little thing. We all talk about the things we want to do, or how something should be done, but how many times do we actually act on it?

I and the rest of the club are so very proud to carry on Ken’s mission…Thank you Ken.

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