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When the Bloomington Rotary Club announced they would be honoring Charlotte Zietlow for her lifetime of “Service Above Self” at this year’s Rotary Toast, we were excited. When Charlotte called to tell us she had chosen Habitat as the beneficiary of the Toast, we were elated.

The trailblazing legacy that Charlotte has created in our community is felt in all corners of the nonprofit, public, and private sectors. She was the first woman to serve as President of both the Bloomington City Council and Monroe County Commissioners; one of the first three women to join the Rotary Club in 1988; and co-founded one of the first woman-owned businesses in Bloomington, Goods, Inc. (which still operates nearly 50 years later as Goods for Cooks). 

She has served in positions with Planned Parenthood, Middle Way House, and the United Way of Monroe County. Charlotte is invested in the future health and wellbeing of the Monroe County community, and we are so grateful for her ongoing support of Habitat for Humanity.

Last week, members of our team were honored to attend the Bloomington Rotary Meeting and accept a gift of $20,470 from the Rotary Toast Committee and Charlotte herself. In addition to this generous gift to Habitat, the same amount will be split among several other local nonprofits in the area. 

Thank you to everyone who supported this event and helped us celebrate with Charlotte last month! These funds will prepare us to build four more Habitat homes this spring – housing families who have endured an extended wait time to begin construction.

If you weren’t able to attend the Toast, we encourage you to take time to watch it here: https://bit.ly/3oYqoNF

Toast Photos provided by Bill Bennett.

About the Bloomington Rotary Club

The Bloomington Rotary Club remain women and men who strive to uphold our vision as being “A diverse, engaged community of leaders whose fellowship and service have a significant positive impact, locally and globally.” We have around 110 members and an additional 20 who represent our Organizational Members. We come from local businesses and nonprofits as well as faculty and staff from Indiana University and Ivy Tech Community College. We are life-long Bloomingtonians as well as transplants and newcomers.

We meet weekly for Celebrations of Service, with accomplished speakers from our community, generally at the Indiana Memorial Union, on Tuesdays, starting at 11:45am and ending at 1:00 pm. However, during these time of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are meeting online via the Zoom teleconferencing platform.We also gather throughout the year for service projects in the community as well as meetings and programs presented by our Rotary District and Rotary Zone. If you want to know more about our club, or the other two clubs in Bloomington, please email us at btownrotary3430@gmail.com.We would be happy to have you as a guest at one of our upcoming Celebrations of Service.

About the Bloomington Rotary Toast

Established in 2015, the Toast recognizes community leaders who reflect the Rotary motto of “service above self.”

In its first five years the Toast raised more than $250,000 for local charities. Previous honorees and their chosen nonprofits are Dr. Larry Rink, Boys & Girls Club of Bloomington (2015), Ron Remak, UPSTART the YMCA/Stonebelt partnership (2016), Becky Hrisomalos, Friends of the Monroe County Public Library (2017), Connie and Steve Ferguson, Ivy Tech Scholarship Fund (2018), Cary Curry, The Compassionate & Caring Community Fund at Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County (2019) and Bob Hammel, Hoosier Hills Food Bank (2020).