Midlothian Rotary Club

Most charities hand you something. Circles RVA hands you a friend.

This week, our club sat down with Helen Rai of Circles RVA, and she said something that quietly reframes how a lot of us think about poverty. The way out, she told us, is rarely a one-time check. It's relationships.

Circles works with families who are doing everything right and still can't quite get ahead — the neighbors sometimes called ALICE: Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed. People with jobs, with kids, with alarm clocks going off before dawn, who are still one flat tire away from a crisis. Instead of a quick handout, Circles pairs each person with volunteer "allies" who walk beside them for two full years — building the kind of confidence, community, and steady financial footing that actually lasts. It's slow, patient, deeply human work. And it changes lives from the inside out.

That same instinct is why, later this month, you'll find our members out on a driveway somewhere in the region, building a wheelchair ramp for a neighbor through Rampsrva — turning a few boards and a summer morning into someone's independence.

Different projects, same idea: don't just give — show up, and stay.

If you've been looking for a place where your time lands somewhere that truly matters, and where you just might make a few good friends along the way, there's a seat for you at our table in Midlothian.

Come see what Service Above Self feels like.

Two clubs. One table. A whole lot more good ahead.

This July, the Rotary Club of Midlothian begins its first full year as one merged club, uniting the Brandermill Rotary Club and Midlothian Rotary Club under a single banner. It's more than a new name. It's two memberships, two networks, and two decades-deep commitments to this community joining forces — and stepping into the year ahead together under our incoming president, Donnie Etz .

What makes this so exciting is everything each tradition brings with it. For years, our Brandermill family has quietly shown up where it matters most: pairing kids with mentors for back-to-school shopping through the Swift Creek YMCA's Bright Beginnings program, serving Thanksgiving lunch to veterans in the Polytrauma unit at the McGuire VA Medical Center, delivering Meals on Wheels along Chesterfield's Route 1, brightening the holidays for families through Christmas Mother, and standing with the global fight to end polio. That's a legacy of Service Above Self, and it's now part of who we are.

We already got a powerful glimpse of what this union can do at our recent charity breakfast, where the two clubs came together and raised $55,000 for nearly 20 local organizations. More hands. More heart. A deeper capacity to serve the place we all call home.

Come see what Service Above Self feels like.

There's a moment near the end of our Annual Charity Breakfast when we ask everyone to come forward for one photo. This year the front of the room filled with the faces behind eighteen local causes — and behind every face, a number that's really a person.

813 girls who learned this season that they can finish the race. 42 kids who got a bed of their own since January, with 150 more going out in a single day this fall. Four million meals served over forty years to neighbors who were hungry. Nearly 15,000 students walked through the school year by someone who believed in them — soon at a 17th school. A new learning garden breaking ground at a Title I elementary, where children will plant something green and watch it grow.

Together, the Midlothian and Brandermill Rotary Clubs gave $55,000 to those eighteen organizations this year — including a $20,000 legacy gift from our friend Sam Lee, whose generosity will keep doing good for years to come.

That's the quiet math of Rotary — ordinary people, showing up over breakfast, turning care into beds and gardens and meals and second chances. If you've ever wanted your time to land somewhere that truly matters, there's a seat for you at our table.

Come see what Service Above Self feels like.

Happy Mother’s Day from the Midlothian Rotary Club 🌷

Yesterday we celebrated the mothers, grandmothers, stepmothers, and mother figures whose compassion, strength, and dedication help shape our families and our community every day. Thank you for the countless ways you lead, support, encourage, and inspire those around you.

Wishing all the amazing moms in our Rotary family and throughout our community had a joyful, relaxing, and love-filled Mother’s Day! 💐