COMMUNITY & CLUBS:

As you make your New Year’s resolutions, add one to visit a service club and check it out for possible membership. Membership in a service club is an extra 30 minutes a week on a breakfast, lunch or dinner hour for a club meeting filled with information, fun, friends and service.

For some, it’s a way to start a day inspired with a sunrise club.

For others, it’s a way to stay informed about your community. For still others, service club membership is a way to end a day with friends at a dinner meeting.

Many people want to make a difference in the world. For those of us in service clubs, we find that we can have a greater impact as a group than as an individual.

Take for example, Rotary’s $480-million effort to eradicate polio from around the world and providing the polio vaccine to some 2 billion children younger than 5 in the past 18 years.

More than a million Rotarians, including 200 in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, are making a difference with their support of the Los Angeles Times Reading by Nine program. For more information, visit www.rotary.org.

Exchange Club members make a difference with their major thrust of child-abuse prevention. They promote Americanism with the Freedom Shrines, copies of historical documents important in American history, found in our schools, libraries and at John Wayne Airport. For details, check out www.nationalexchangeclub.org.

Soroptimist International, including our local Newport Harbor chapter, makes a difference with its emphasis on local women’s opportunities and the development of women peace ambassadors around the world. For more information, visit www.soroptimist.org.

Lions Clubs emphasize blindness and preserving sight with eye exams for our local school children and major treatment campaigns in third-world countries. You can recycle your old eyeglasses thanks to the efforts of Lions Clubs locally. For details, visit www.lionsclubs.org.

Kiwanis Clubs around the world have a major campaign underway to eliminate iodine deficiency illness in third-world countries and dozens of local projects benefiting youth. To find out more, go to www.kiwanisinternational.org.

Who are members of service clubs? Business and community leaders, educators, clergy, retirees, recent college graduates, housewives, and your neighbors. People who want to make a difference.

Help your community and the world through a service club! For many, service club membership is an extension of our religious beliefs and congregation affiliation.

You are invited to attend a service club meeting this coming week to learn more about opportunity for service. Most clubs will buy your first meal for you as you get acquainted with them.

28th ANNUAL MAYORS DINNER

The 28th Annual Mayors Dinner, sponsored by Speak Up Newport, will be Feb. 11 at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel, according to Jan DeBay, dinner co-chairwoman.

Mayor Edward Selich will deliver the State of the City Address, and Daily Pilot columnist Peter Buffa will serve as the master of ceremonies.

Speak Up Newport has been providing a forum for issues facing Newport Beach and giving public recognition to individuals, volunteer organizations and public officials for three decades, contributing to the betterment of Newport Beach.

The evening begins with a reception at 6 p.m., followed by dinner at 7 p.m. The guest list will look like a who’s-who list in Newport Beach with elected officials, business, environmental and community leaders in attendance.

Tickets at $75 each can be obtained by calling (949) 224-2266 or by mailing your check to P.O. Box 2594, Newport Beach, CA 92659-2594.

WORTH REPEATING

Thought for the Day as provided by Greg Kelley of the Newport Mesa Irvine Interfaith Council… “Service is the rent we pay to be living. It is the very purpose of life and not something you do in your spare time.”

— Marian Wright Edelman

SERVICE CLUB MEETINGS THIS WEEK

TODAY

7:30 a.m.: The 10-member Newport Harbor Kiwanis Club meets at Denny’s Restaurant, 290 Bristol St., Costa Mesa.

Noon: The 20-member Exchange Club of Corona del Mar meets at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club for a business meeting.

6 p.m.: The 65-member Rotary Club of Newport Balboa meets at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club for a program by Frank Mayhew: Adopt A Village Program. For more, go to www.newportbalboa.org.

THURSDAY

7 a.m.: The 20-member Costa Mesa Orange Coast Lions Club meets at Mimi’s Café.

Noon: The 50-member Costa Mesa Kiwanis Club meets at the Holiday Inn, Costa Mesa, www.CostaMesaKiwanis.org;

The 45-member Kiwanis Club of Newport Beach-Corona del Mar meets at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club, www.newportbeachkiwanis.org;

The 85-member Rotary Club of Newport Irvine meets at the University Club at UCI, www.nirotary.org;

The 95-member Exchange Club of Newport Harbor meets at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club for a business meeting.

TUESDAY

7:30 a.m.: The 55-member Newport Beach Sunrise Rotary Club meets at Five Crowns for a program by Shandra Lear-Baylor, daughter of aviation pioneer Bill Lear and Moya Lear on her family’s great contributions nationally and internationally to aviation. For more go to, www.newportbeachsunriserotary.org.

Noon: The 20-member Rotary Club of Costa Mesa meets at the Costa Mesa Marriott Suites.

6 p.m.: The Irvine New Generations Rotary Club meets at Tapas Restaurant, Newport Beach.

6 p.m.: The 35-member Costa Mesa Newport Harbor Lions Club meets at the Costa Mesa Golf and Country Club for a business meeting.

COMMUNITY & CLUBS is published Wednesdays. Send your service club’s meeting information by fax to (714) 921-8655 or by e-mail to jdeboom@aol.com.