BY DAN HILDEBRAN
The Keystone Heights Rotary Club thanked its outgoing officers and welcomed its incoming leaders for the 2024-2025 year at the home of Scott and Diane Kornegay.
District Governor John Tabor led the ceremony. In his opening comments, the Orange Park Sunrise member emphasized the importance of the Rotary Foundation and its role in eradicating polio.
“As recently as 1988, there were 400,000 cases of wild poliovirus in the world in 135 countries,” he told the group. “And last year in the entire world, there were 12 cases. This year so far there are 11 in Afghanistan and Pakistan. And it’s not even like the whole country; it’s just one area along the border.”
Tabor recognized two Keystone club members’ generous contributions to Rotary International’s foundation.
The district governor said member Richard Segall had given generous amounts to the foundation during his Rotary career. He was awarded his sixth Paul Harris Fellow pin, named after Rotary International’s founder. Tabor added that member Scott Kornegay had achieved membership in the organization’s Paul Harris Society, a tier reserved for Rotary’s top donors.
Tabor also thanked Kornegay for serving as one of District 6970’s assistant governors. The district stretches from the Georgia line to Volusia and Marion Counties and includes 76 clubs with 3,300 members.
Tabor also presided over the installation of the club’s incoming leadership: President Todd Bealls, Vice President Heather Davis, Treasurer Shelley Gibbs, Secretary Ginger Lee, Sergeant at Arms Jim Eifert, Membership Director Scott Kornegay, and Public Image Director John Raimer.
Davis, the group’s outgoing president who will remain on the board and serve as VP, awarded Raimer the Rotarian of the Year Award. The outgoing president said Raimer, the Maintenance Director at the Montgomery Center, helps the club every week by preparing the group’s meeting room at the conference center.
“Looking back over the years that I have known you, I can’t remember a time that you turned down volunteering,” Davis told Raimer. “Your spirit lights up the room, and it is contagious.”
Incoming President Todd Bealls told the group that he wanted to expand the club’s fundraising efforts and profile in the community.
