Spevak: Honor Colleen Menefee and Jerry O’Banion by joining a service club

Service to the community is essential to a community’s well being.

Without residents willing to contribute their time, energy and talents, a community withers. With people willing to serve, a community thrives.

The recent deaths of two people who served their community abundantly are reminders of the importance of service. Colleen Menefee and Jerry O’Banion were exemplars of service above self.

The passing of these two individuals — an active volunteer and dedicated public servant — reminds us we need more people like them to step forward and serve their communities.

Like hundreds of other people on the west side of Merced County, I was fortunate to know Colleen and Jerry well. They both genuinely liked people and enjoyed participating in projects that helped their communities.

I haven’t met a person who did more for so many community projects and organizations than Colleen Menefee did. Many people appreciate her quarter-century of service as a Los Banos school board member and her three decades serving on the Los Banos Tree Commission.

Others know her from the many other organizations in which she actively participated, including the Los Banos Arts Council, the Friends of the Los Banos Library and the Los Banos Rotary Club. As a Rotarian she may be best known for initiating and leading the Empty Bowls project, a fundraiser for people who don’t have enough to eat.

Jerry O’Banion did as much for Dos Palos as Colleen Menefee did for Los Banos. He supported Dos Palos High School, especially its football team and marching band, and the Dos Palos Y Service Club, among many other community organizations.

He represented the Westside of Merced County as its county supervisor for 28 years. He encouraged and supported agriculture, 4-H, FFA and the May Day Fair. He believed in the importance of planning and maintaining trees, attending every Arbor Day celebration in Los Banos, where he brought county proclamations praising the town as a Tree City, USA.

As a supervisor he considered himself a servant of the people. He was always willing to listen to his constituents’ suggestions, complaints and concerns. During his quarter-century as supervisor, he attended hundreds of community events and enjoyed mingling and talking with people, sharing smiles and laughs.

Both Colleen and Jerry will be deeply missed, not only for their larger-than-life personalities but for what they contributed to their communities. Which brings me to the central point of today’s column.

Los Banos and Dos Palos both need more people willing to serve their communities. One especially good way to help a community is to join one of its service clubs, which over the years have been the lifeblood of support for vital people-oriented projects.

In the past decade, however, fewer and fewer people have been members of local service clubs like Rotary, Soroptimists and Kiwanis. Many of the members are now senior citizens. More members from younger generations are needed.

Sherry Pearson, president of the Los Banos Soroptimists and a member of the club since 1995, told me, “We could definitely use more members. Still, I am amazed at the number of women and girls in our community our club has given a ‘hands-up’ along the way.”

She also pointed out that by joining a service club like Soroptimists individuals can also gain many personal benefits: “Service club members,” Sherry said, “grow professionally and personally through friendships with other members.”

Toni Huarte, the president of the Los Banos Rotary Club, agreed with Sherry that a service club involves both community accomplishments and personal benefits. “Rotarians feel good,” Toni said, “about the many projects and activities in the community they do to help others, while enjoying each other’s friendship.”

Isabel Mendonca, the president of the Los Banos Kiwanis Club, has also seen a decline in membership in recent years but is proud of the work the club has been doing, especially during the COVID pandemic in helping people in need. “We are small but mighty,” Isabel said.

Anyone interested in joining the Los Banos service clubs can send an email directly to the club’s president. For the Soroptimists, email Sherry at silosbanos@soroptimist.net. For the Rotary, email Toni at veksmom@gmail.com. For the Kiwanis, email Isabel at isabelmendonca61@yahoo.com. Each president will respond quickly and provide helpful information about her club and show how easy it is to join.

Besides the Soroptimists, Rotary, and Kiwanis there are several other service organizations who continue to function and do many good things for their community, but all of them are thin on person-power. They need more members if they are to continue to serve their community as well as they have in the past. Most of these clubs and organizations have fewer than 20 active members.

I’m hoping the legacies of Colleen and Jerry will inspire more people to follow in their footsteps and volunteer to serve, especially younger persons between 20 and 50 years of age. The challenge is bigger nowadays, not only because people are busier than ever, but also more isolated.

At the same time, as Sherry said, “During these difficult times many people in Los Banos and Dos Palos are realizing there are many needs and that now is time to give back to the community and help.”

I don’t expect service club members to do as much as Colleen Menefee and Jerry O’Banion did. They were truly extraordinary in their service work. Rather, I’m hoping more people select a club, join it and simply do what they can. That’s all that today’s service clubs ask.

More people participating in local services clubs on the Westside would strengthen their communities and make their cities better places in which to live. And the legacies of Colleen Menefee and Jerry O’Banion would live on.