LOUDON — Two weeks ago, while celebrating Hamill B. “Ham” Carey’s 96th birthday, the Rotary Club of Loudon presented the 64-year Loudon Rotary member with a special gift.
As generous helpings of birthday cake were making their way across the meeting room at Blairland Baptist Church, Ham’s fellow Rotarians announced “The Hamill B. Carey Loudon Rotary-Interact Scholarship” — honoring the man who first joined the Rotary Club of Loudon in 1961.
Interact clubs bring together young people ages 12 to 18 years old to develop leadership skills while discovering the power of “Service Above Self” — which is the motto of Rotary International, one of the largest service organizations in the world.
According to a newspaper clipping displayed from July 1, 1970: “Loudon Rotary feels one of its greatest accomplishments has been the organizing of the Interact Club at Loudon High. … Interact had one of its members elected District Governor early in the life of the Club and conceived and sponsored ‘Patriotic Youth Day,’ which has proved a great success.”
More recently, at the Club’s Jan. 28 meeting, Wendy Reichenbach, president of the Rotary Club of Loudon, announced that The Hamill B. Carey Loudon Rotary-Interact Scholarship will present $1,000 annually to each of two college-bound or vocational school-bound graduating seniors from Loudon High School.
The honorees must have been active in Interact for a minimum of their junior and senior high school years, and — though they need not be high achievers academically — they “will have demonstrated ‘Service Above Self.”
Additionally, the honorees will be chosen by the Interact advisor and the Senior Loudon High School guidance counselor Heather Waldron.
According to Reichenbach, the scholarships will be payable to the college or vocational institution which the student will attend in the fall immediately following graduation … and the honorees will be presented a certificate announcing the scholarship during the evening of the Senior Scholarship Award event.
