Last month, I told myself I needed to find somewhere to plug in and volunteer some time, so of course, most of this month has been spent not doing that, but just thinking about it.

I finally actually explored an option last night and at a work colleague’s invite attended a meeting of the Metro Rotary Club that was held at the Slate Street restaurant after work.

I didn’t know much about the Rotary Club, except that it was a national service organization with a big gear for its logo, and it seems to do a lot of good.

My father’s father was a member of the Lion’s Club for over half of his life, and I’ve always remembered good stories about him doing that. I figured that the Rotary Club was probably something like that.

I learned that the club was founded early on with the primary goal of eradicating polio. That was it. The main deal.

Now, years later, polio is on the ropes, and Rotarians have branched out to want to help nationally with other health issues and locally with neighborhood needs. Each club has its own set of interests, and each club contributes not only hands on support of projects by providing people to do good works, but also fundraising.

Albuquerque has about 9 clubs of varying sizes. Evidently one lunchtime group here has over 500 members. The Metro club had 5 members in attendance last night, and 4 visitors. I was the lone inquisitor about the organization. One of the visitors was a Lieutenant Governor of the state Rotary organization. The two other men were there representing the Rio Grande Food Project, and they provided a short presentation about their organization and needs.

I had not heard of the Rio Grande Food Project, but most Albuquerqueans know about its sister city equivalent, the Roadrunner Food Bank in Albuquerque. The RGFP started 25 years ago as a ministry of Rio Grande Presbyterian Church, with a vision to help feed the hungry living on the West Side of the city. It is now the second largest food pantry in the metro area, and in 2015, it served 1.5 million meals to 46,000 people.

Hearing those numbers, I was surprised I had not heard of the organization. With a staff of 6 and a volunteer base of 60, though, the pantry will provide a week’s worth of food to eligible individuals once every two months, few questions asked, and it receives considerable traffic because much of Albuquerque, like much of New Mexico, is poor.

Hearing the two men from RGFP talk reminded me that there are basic needs begging to be fulfilled everywhere. You really do not have to look far if you want to help other people.

Besides the RGFP presentation, the rest of the meeting was business as usual: an opening group Pledge of Allegiance and recitation of the Rotarian mission, welcome to visitors, updates on projects, discussion of upcoming projects, and a closing open floor for each member to comment on whatever they might want to. Post-meeting hugs and handshakes.

The Metro Club meets once every two weeks- not weekly as some clubs do. They are a small club, but they raise money and serve pretty adequately for their size. This circle embraces two focal groups and their needs: military veterans and kids. They have just provided funds for the purchase of musical instruments at a South Valley elementary school in town. They recently bought P.E. equipment for another South Valley middle school receiving minimal funding. The group preps and provides food at the Ronald McDonald House once every few months. They’ve done group projects at Roadrunner Food Bank here in town recently as well. I appreciate their mix of interests and areas of service.

I will take some time to think about if I should get involved in this group. Between the people present and projects supported, I liked what I saw in this opportunity.

If I jump in here or not, what it did remind me of, though, is that there are plenty of needs out there regular people can help meet. And that there are also groups of people out there as well who band together to help meet those needs.

Just because.