Jack and Marpet Funderburk

Jack Funderburk, President-Elect of the Seymour Breakfast Rotary Club has completed a significant three-day training program.  Funderburk participated in the multi-state Presidents-Elect Training Seminar in Nashville in March. Mid-South P.E.T.S. prepares upcoming leaders in Rotary’s six districts in Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee.

The training consisted of well-known exceptional speakers, informative roundtables and discussion groups, detailed district training sessions, fellowship and networking.  The basic purpose of P.E.T.S. is to have the best prepared, most enthusiastic club presidents in the Rotary world.  Annually, over 400 presidents-elect return home from Mid-South P.E.T.S. prepared to carry out their Rotary duties when they take office in July.

Rotary is a volunteer organization with over 33,000 Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas.  The clubs conduct projects to address today’s challenges—illiteracy, disease, hunger, poverty, lack of clean water, and environmental concerns—while encouraging high ethical standards in all vocations.

The Seymour Breakfast Rotary Club community projects include providing free dictionaries to all local third graders, awarding two college scholarships annually to Seymour area high school seniors, conducting an annual speech contest for high school students, and contributing monetary support for the Seymour branch of the Sevier County Library.  The club currently is conducting a feasibility study for a possible greenway park in the Seymour area. The club provided and maintains the “Welcome to Seymour” sign.

The Seymour Breakfast Rotary Club through the years has also been instrumental in the foreign student exchange program, hosting numerous high school students from across the globe. Currently the club is engaged in a feeding program in Infanta Quezon, Philippines.  In this project over 700 malnourished children are being fed a good meal every day for one year. The success of the feeding is being monitored monthly by local doctors through the daycare centers where the feedings are taking place. All of the club’s projects are funded by three fund raising efforts (an annual 5K race, a golf tournament, and this year’s 4th annual motorcycle rally).