No popping the Rotary Club's energy balloon in Lakewood Ranch

Laura Adcock didn't want the balloon to fizzle into a wrinkly mess.

Adcock, a principal at WBRC Architects/Engineers of Lakewood Ranch who is serving a one-year-term as president of the Rotary Club of Lakewood Ranch, was comparing all the energy created to host the Suncoast Food and Wine Fest each year to a fully inflated balloon.

When the festival is held, all that energy, and Adcock says synergy as well, comes gushing out.

In this pandemic year of 2020, that won't happen.

A month ago, the Rotary Club decided to cancel the annual November event at Premier Sports Campus.

"We decided at the beginning of September," Adcock said. "We had a discussion about a lot of issues. We laid out the challenges. And we couldn't expect the restaurants, that have been going through so much, to come out and donate."

Last year more than 50 restaurants donated food and wine to the cause. More than 2,000 people attended the event, which raised $118,000 that was presented to nonprofits in the community in terms of grants.

This was Adcock's year to lead the charge. Putting more than $100,000 into the hands of nonprofits is an incredible accomplishment. It's also one that won't happen due to the pandemic.

Besides asking the restaurants to come through during a tough period, the Rotary realized their members would be working in tight quarters during the Wine Fest. It just wasn't safe.

After making the announcement, though, Adcock realized the balloon still was full of energy.

"We had to figure out how to tap into it," she said.

A Rotary member who works with the Boys and Girls Club of Manatee County told the Rotary about how the Boys and Girls Club had been open to students even when it was not economically feasible to do so. They were going to attempt to sell wreaths to support that effort and they asked the Rotary for help.

"Well of course we're going to sell wreaths," Adcock said.

The Rotary started thinking it could use all that energy still in the balloon from the cancelled Wine Festival and put it into various projects that could help the community in different ways, such as selling wreaths. The 20N20 Projects initiative was started.

"We are a force and we have so much energy and synergy," Adcock said. "We just aren't able to help (area nonprofits) as we have in the past."

A 501c3 nonprofit, the Rotary Club doesn't have a huge reserve fund where they can replace the $100,000-plus they aren't going to make from the Wine Festival.

"We don't have a pot of gold," Adcock said.

But they can help in a variety of ways.

On Sept; 3, 10 Rotary members met at Harvest United Methodist Church in Lakewood Ranch to spend the morning cleaning up along Lorraine Road. It's a different kind of giving back. 

The 75 active Rotary members have a long list of 20N20 events to choose. And they are signing up.

It makes Adcock proud even though she will be the leader during a year where the Wine Fest didn't happen.

"Three different members have told me I deserve a do-over," she said of her run as president. "But I wouldn't trade this for anything. It's not a template year, but we can design our own year. We showed them a buffet of (things to help the community) and now we will see who eats."

Meanwhile, the area nonprofits that usually apply for grants before New Year's Day, have let Adcock know they will do the best they can until next year when they will apply for another grant.

 While other Rotary functions have been affected by the pandemic, Adcock said they are doing their best to work through it. An example is Books for Kids, the Rotary program that supplies reading materials to Manatee County Schools and sends members to the schools to read to the students. Adcock said there is no slowing down program director Ted Lindenberg, who has kept the flow of free books going. Rotary members still read to kids through Zoom.

Meetings are generally through Zoom as well and Adcock said the Rotary has learned to embrace technology, something that will continue after the pandemic ends. She said she doesn't have to decide when the members will be back to live meetings, because the members will make that decision collectively. When they do meet, Adcock said the Lakewood Ranch Country Club and the Grove have been incredibly generous with meeting space and help from their staff members.

Whatever the future brings, Adcock said the Rotary members will get through it together, all while donating their time, and the energy from their balloon, to the public.

"Our motto is service above self," she said. "We do it together."

For more information about the Rotary Club of Lakewood Ranch, call 870-0002 or go to lakewoodranch-rotary.com.