The former Rotary Club of Shady Brook (now the Rotary Club of Middletown Township) recently honored Dr. Augie Adrid, a former president (2011-12) and one the Club’s founding and most dedicated members, for his nearly 17 years of unselfish dedication to the Club and support of its local, regional and international programs and outreaches.
His life has been a testament to the ideals of Rotary international of “Service Above Self.” His efforts played no small part in helping a small cadre of likeminded community members to organize the Rotary Club of Shady Brook in 2006.
During his long tenure with Rotary, he has chaired the Club’s Maple Point Middle School Student-ot-the-Month recognition program and its annual Neshaminy High School Scholarship award program, actively participated in helping to provide support for our area’s local veterans, fundraising for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and its annual Light the Night walk, feeding residents at AstraZeneca’s Hope Lodge, supporting Philadelphia’s inner-city William Dick K-8 Elementary School, raising funds to support Bucks County’s A Woman’s Place domestic shelter, charity golf outings and even well into his late 80s helping with the club’s semi-annual Adopt-A-Highway road clean-up efforts.
Born in the Philippines, where he and his family survived the Japanese occupation during World War II, Augie pioneered the Club’s first international project, providing clean water for the village of Big Rock in the province of Abucay Bataan in the Philippines, not coincidentally the country where Augie was born.
The village’s only water supply for 600 plus residents was from a stream which was used for bathing, washing clothes and drinking. Shady Brook Rotary, in partnership with a local Rotary Club in the Philippines hired a contractor to dig a deep well and provide a storage tank so clean water would always be available.
On February 28th, 2012, Augie attended the ceremony dedicating the well to the village. Dr. Adrid’s brother, Rene, who lives in the area, was instrumental in the completion of the project.
Dr. Adrid also became the first member of the Club to be recognized as a Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow, donating more than $1,000 or more at one time or over a period of years to the Rotary International’s Polio Plus (Rotary was a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, has played a major role in reducing worldwide polio cases by 99.9% since its first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979), Rotary Foundation and other approved Foundation grants.
The Rotary Club of Middletown Township, a 501(c)3 entity, formerly the Rotary Club of Shady Brook, is a local chapter of Rotary International, a non-sectarian organization that endeavors to bring together business, professional leaders as well as retirees, students and other young people to provide humanitarian services, encourage high ethical standards in all endeavors and pursuits, and help build goodwill and peace in the world.
More information on the Rotary Club of Middletown Township and the many programs it supports is available at www.rotaryclubofshadybrook.com.
PHOTO CAP: Dr. Augie Adrid