Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Rotary Club Of Downtown Statesboro Celebrates 25 years of Service

The Rotary Club of Downtown Statesboro celebrated its 25th anniversary as a civic organization recently. The club, which meets on Thursdays at 7 a.m.
Rotary-Keith-Mcintyre
Keith McIntyre, Rotary President Credit: Rotary Club Of Downtown Statesboro

The Rotary Club of Downtown Statesboro celebrated its 25th anniversary as a civic organization recently.

The club, which meets on Thursdays at 7 a.m., was founded in the summer of 1995, sponsored by the Statesboro Rotary Club, had forty-nine Charter Members, and first met at the Nic Nac restaurant on East Main Street.

Over the years, other locations have included Holiday Inn on South Main, Statesboro Inn on Main, and now Shug's on Main - all within Statesboro's Downtown district.

Terrell Reddick served as the first president of the Club with forty-nine Charter members.

Club projects through the first two and a half decades have encompassed both local and international causes.

Literacy and educational assistance have been of paramount focus, with book donations and scholarship speech contests.

Additionally, labor and funding for local organizations including Habitat For Humanity, fitness trail at Mill Creek Regional Park, and the Behavioral Pediatrics Resource Center and have been part of the club agenda.

Quarterly, club members meet and pick up trash along Willie McTell Trail.

Joining other Rotary Clubs around the globe, Downtown Rotary has supported efforts to eradicate polio worldwide, provide water wells in Africa, and fund relief packages for victims of natural disasters, domestically and abroad.

New officers inducted

Rotary Club Of Downtown Statesboro  Keith McIntyre
Keith McIntyre, President, Rotary Club Of Downtown Statesboro

At its recent annual meeting and 25th anniversary celebration, outgoing president Wade Elliott inducted incoming president Keith McIntyre and the new slate of officers, including president-elect Per Holtze and sergeant-at-arms Ted Hasbrouck; directors Jeremy Hart, Dr. Thad Riley, Ben Edwards, and Rafe Waters; and committee chairs Bill Wright, Kathy Spivey, Hadley Campbell, and Patricia Hunter.

Paul Harris Fellowship presented to Thelma Kilpatrick

A very special recognition was presented to Thelma Kilpatrick in the manner of a Paul Harris Fellowship and recognition of Fifty Years of Service to Rotary by her late husband Roy Kilpatrick, a Downtown Rotarian who passed away in September 2020.

Rotary Club Of Downtown Statesboro
Rotarian Tom Kingery presents Paul Harris Fellow to Thelma Kilpatrick

Roy was born in Salem, Georgia, a native of Oconee County,  educated at Watkinsville High School, Georgia Southern College, Georgia State University, and the Northwestern University School of Mortgage Banking, Chicago. He began his mortgage lending career in Atlanta, and later became a licensed real estate broker, real estate appraiser, and insurance agent. He and his wife, Thelma, moved to Swainsboro in 1970 and then, upon their retirement, to Thelma’s family farm in Statesboro around 1999.

Roy's life was always one of service to his community. A lifelong Rotarian, Roy Clyde Kilpatrick culminated Fifty Years of Service to Rotary as a member of the Downtown Statesboro Rotary Club and will be remembered as a true Southern gentleman, a giant of a man with a personality and joyful spirit to match. His wit, stories, and bear hugs are legendary and will be sorely missed by fellow Rotarians and the community at-large.