On Saturday May 16, the Bigfork Rotary Club will join tens of thousands of Rotarians around the world to do what they have done for the last 25 years: quietly give back to their community in the form of service.  

As part of Rotary International’s EPIC Day of Service, the club is organizing volunteers to tackle spring cleaning projects at the Bigfork Senior Center. While Rotary is the sponsoring organization, any interested volunteers are welcome to jump in, make a friend, and give back to the community, according to the Bigfork Club’s President Serena Keller.  

While Rotary is perhaps best known in the Flathead Valley for youth football and volleyball programs, the international club includes more than a million members in 122 countries. Rotary first arrived in the Flathead Valley in 1919, 14 years after the club was founded in Chicago, and today there are eight clubs promoting service in their local communities.  

The EPIC Day of Service, now in its fourth year, is an effort to unite Rotary’s global members in one unified day of service. Last year, members from seven different countries spearheaded more than 1,200 service projects.  

This is the first year Montana’s clubs will participate.  For her signature project as district governor, Montana District Governor Lucy Smith’s goal is for every Rotary Club in the state to take part. All eight Flathead Valley clubs have organized projects, providing opportunities for community members to give back and learn more about Rotary.  

In Smith’s view, the EPIC Day of Service enables members to accomplish far more than they ever could on their own. 

“As one person, what agency do I have?” Smith asked. “Look at all the needs and calamities and tragedies — I don’t have the power to do anything. But when I’m within my Rotary Club, I actually have a connection and a way to do things because it’s not just me. On my own, I’m not going to change the world, but I think together, we have that impact.” 

For the Bigfork Rotary Club, the Bigfork Senior Center was the perfect partner for an EPIC Day of Service project. The center recently relocated to a new building and is beginning the process of retrofitting the space to accommodate services for seniors. Along with new opportunities, the new space also brings a long list of renovation projects.  

The Rotary Club is mobilizing volunteers to paint rooms, deep clean the community kitchen and tackle landscaping projects. In addition, they are raising $3,000 to remove a hazardous tree.  

Keller said the work party is a big deal for the senior center, which has many great ideas for their new building but lacks the volunteers and elbow grease needed to make the center feel like a home.  

“In working together, we accomplish what we couldn’t alone,” Keller said. “What they need is a big ask. If we pull this off, everyone will benefit from a little bit of work on that one day, and we can use this as a vehicle to help our community.” 

Throughout its 25 years, the Bigfork Rotary Club has quietly served the community and fulfilled unmet needs.  

“Our motto is ‘service above self,’” Keller said. “We work to identify needs in our community and work together to address those needs while building friendships and creating lasting change.” 

The club’s signature project, “No Kid Hungry in Bigfork,” is a weekend backpack program for school-age children experiencing food insecurity. Each year, Rotary raises $30,000 to ensure students go home with three meals a day for the weekend. They work with the schools to identify families in need and partner with the Bigfork Food Bank to provide meals.  

This year, Bigfork Rotary Club is taking over the Fourth of July Freedom Run, which has traditionally been hosted by Grateful Nation Montana, an organization that funds scholarships for the children of soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. The race will continue to raise funds for Grateful Nation, along with local community projects in Bigfork, including the “No Kid Hungry” program, underfunded sports and scholarships.  

The club was also instrumental in the creation of the Swan River Road bike path and initial improvements to the Swan River Nature Trail along the Wild Mile. Each year, they put up the village’s Christmas tree to kick off the holiday season. They’re involved with literacy initiatives in the community’s schools, providing books to second graders and dictionaries to third graders.  

Internationally, the club has presented wheelchairs in Peru and built water filtration systems in Guatemala.  

Keller views the EPIC Day of Service as an opportunity for new people to see what Rotary is about and connect with their community in a new way.  

The EPIC Day of Service comes at a time when volunteerism is teetering in the United States. Headlines are quick to announce declining rates of service and civic engagement, but the numbers tell a more complex story. After hitting a 30-year low during the Covid pandemic, the rate of adults formally volunteering has since rebounded to 28%, consistent with pre-pandemic levels, according to research data from the U.S. Census Bureau and AmeriCorps.  

While the number of people volunteering has risen, the number of hours served continues to decline. For unincorporated areas like Bigfork, which relies heavily on volunteers to provide essential services, the most concerning statistic is the closing gap between rural and urban volunteer rates. Historically, places like Bigfork could rely on robust volunteer numbers, but today rural volunteerism has declined to the point there is no difference between rural and urban areas.  

Scholars have devoted considerable time to the problem, trying to understand why Americans are spending less time volunteering. The decline of civic organizations and religious affiliation, the rise of social media and increasingly busy lives all surface as possible reasons. 

According to both Keller and Smith, one of the largest problems is people simply don’t know where to start. In today’s hyperconnected world, people are often more aware of what’s happening across the world than down the street. They are unable to identify opportunities where their individual actions can make a tangible difference in their local community.   

“I have the sense that people want to be involved, but they don’t know how to connect,” Keller said. “I think if you give them an invitation to connect, they might be open to trying it out.” 

For more information about EPIC Day of Service opportunities or to donate towards the Bigfork Senior Center, visit epicdayofservice.org.