Paul Harris Fellows Reception

Our club celebrated becoming a 100% PHF Club with a reception at Highland Springs Country Club on June 1, 2023.

Coffee fellowship

The Fellowship Committee organized an informal get-together at Architect Coffee Company on May 23, 2023.

Fellowship at Springfield Billiards

The Fellowship Committee hosted a joint laughs and lager event with the Springfield Rotaract Club at Billiards of Springfield on May 10, 2023.

District Conference Shrimp Feed

Our club prepared and hosted a shrimp feed for the District 6080 Conference on May 3, 2023.

Serving Community Dinner at The Fairbanks

Continuing a long tradition, the Hands-On Service Committee recruited members to serve and cleanup a free community dinner at The Fairbanks on the third Thursday of every month.  These photos are from April 20, 2023.

Meeting at Ozarks Empire Fairgrounds

Our meeting on April 6, 2023, was off-site at the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds. Christy Wilder, with the Watershed Natives educational greenhouse project, gave a talk about the project and student participation from nearby Hillcrest H.S.  We got to interact with the students involved to see the benefits of our District Grant in action firsthand.  After the discussion and meeting we toured their greenhouse and, as an added treat, visited the Budweiser Clydesdales.

Basketball Tournament to benefit Special Olympics

Final results of Rotary Basketball Tournament to benefit Special Olympics: Thursday, March 23, 2023, was a great night. Despite a severe thunderstorm raging outside the arena, Rotarians still showed up to cheer on the Special Olympic teams! The Neosho Wildcats played the Springfield Wildcats and they had a ball as the fans cheered them on!

In other less important games, our Southeast teams compiled a record of 4 wins and 2 losses. A BIG thank you goes to all the players and sponsors who made our final year the best ever. Many Southeast members stepped up as sponsors, with former member Dan Parmele once again stepping up as the Gold Sponsor. Bill Squires was a Silver sponsor and we also had Luke Westerman take three Bronze sponsorships and provide food for the fellowship hour.  Other sponsors were Steve Scott, Michael Wehrenberg, Bill McNeill, Jim Conley, Greg Horton, Lori Johnson Murawski, Steve Rice and Rick Van Pelt.

Another BIG THANK YOU goes to Marc Mayer for heading up the committee for the past 17 years. His behind-the-scenes work has been stellar each and every year. Brad Bodenhausen headed up the tournament several years prior to Marc taking over and has long been a part of the tournament in some capacity since he joined the club in 1997. Brad and his family staffed our concession stand for maybe 10 or more years.

Last but not least we should acknowledge STEVE SCOTT, the creator and Godfather of the tournament that began in 1984. From simple beginnings, Southeast challenged the Downtown club to a basketball match that we played at Catholic High School gym (yes, Charlie O'Reilly was on the team!). We eventually moved the game to McDonald Arena, then Weiser gym and on to the O'Reilly Family Event Center. The tournament has raised more than $300,000 for Special Olympics.
Thursday night, we closed the books on this very special event. All the scores, fouls, time outs and minutiae of the 170 games over the last 17 years now reside in the game binder stowed away in my bookcase.

We don't know what going forward looks like for Springfield Southeast but one thing we do know is it will be amazing and it will benefit our community and the world.

Written by Dan Emrie; photos by Rick Gilmore

Fellowship event: Early Valentine's Day dinner

Several club members and their spouses ate dinner together on Feb. 9 at Metropolitan Grill to celebrate Valentine's Day.  It was another successful Fellowship Committee event.