David Troxell, left, and his wife Marissa, with students at Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia. Submitted photo

The Rotary Club of Jamestown has a 100-year history of supporting local community projects and services.

A recent Monday noon meeting highlighted its growing and vibrant involvement with a series of international club projects over the past five years. The Rotary Club of Jamestown’s charter calls for 60 percent of the club’s donation to be spent on local efforts and 40 percent internationally.

Club member David Troxell and his wife, Marissa, who make their winter home in Asia, help to identify worthy projects tailor made for the Jamestown club. Recently, they reviewed a number of past projects ranging from helping in the development of a women’s weaving cooperative in Nepal to installing playground grass at a charity school in Cambodia and building a clean water cistern and new toilet facilities in a rural school in northern Myanmar.

The Troxells have traveled directly to each of these projects over the past five years, taking the club’s reach “up close and personal.”

Projects selected are most frequently involved with poor schools and educating young people. Most recently, the Jamestown Club’s Vision Committee allocated $4,000 to build a cafeteria to house a free hot lunch program at a poor urban school in Ethiopia.

The project was completed this spring under the guidance of the Troxells and the local Rotary Club.

In opening remarks at the dedication ceremonies for the cafeteria in Addis Ababa, David Troxell said, “Our club dedicates resources to struggling children like these because we believe that educated people make better decisions, expect better government and have more compassion for each other.”

For more information, visit jamestownnyrotary.org or cambodiaacademy.org.