The Rotary Club has been known for its volunteer work and helping others throughout the world. On the website, Rotary.org, the club states "in more than 34,000 clubs worldwide, you'll find members volunteering in communities at home and abroad to support education and job training, provide clean water, combat hunger, improve health and sanitation and eradicate polio."
The Rotary Club in Kinston is working on an unconventional, but helpful project, working with the Tabasco Rotary Club to deliver a fire truck to Jalpa De Mendez, a town in Mexico.
The club has been working on the fire truck for four years and is close to making it ready for use. Once the task is complete, city Rotary members will send it to Panama City, where the Tabasco Rotary Club will take the fire truck and handle the remainder of the transportation.
"The mission with Rotary is humanitarian," Rotary of Kinston Member Phil Crawford said. "We're an international organization. Having said that, we really can't think of another way to help out the town. We wanted them to be able to preserve their buildings in case of fire."
Crawford, who has been a club member since 1981, found the fire truck in West Virginia in 2009. Although the truck was old, Crawford felt it was serviceable and believed it would be a beneficial project for the organization to work on.
"Phil brought the project to the Board for acceptance and approval," Club Director James Creel said. "He was appointed chair of the Project. This is a good project doing good in the world. Rotary works hard both domestically and internationally to achieve, improving our world."
The Rotary Club of Kinston almost didn't have the opportunity to transport the vehicle, as Mexican government bureaucrats had the club start the paperwork over to get the fire truck out of the United States. On Aug. 12, the club received confirmation to continue the process of transporting the fire truck.
"When the presidents change, policy changes," Creel said. "What caught us was when President (Vicente) Fox left office and Mexico got new leadership."
Fox was in office the first time Rotary worked on a fire truck for a town in Southeast Mexico.
"This is the second fire truck we've done," Crawford said. In 2005, I was the district governor and was talking to Carlos Alvarez, who was the district governor in the club in Mexico. There was a hurricane that was projected to hit the Yucatan Peninsula in July 2005 and being from North Carolina, I knew what hurricanes can do. I told him if it hit bad, to let me know. Thankfully, the hurricane went north and missed them."
Although the hurricane missed the peninsula, there was another major problem that struck the region.
"A couple weeks later, I learned there was a town where a gas line erupted there and burned most of it down," Crawford said. "There were 300,000 people with no fire equipment. We were able to secure a fire truck the city of Kinston was getting rid of, which started this. Cities in the Yucatan Peninsula don't have adequate equipment. The fire truck we took them in 2007 is being used ever since."
Crawford might have spearheaded the project, but he didn't want to take any of the credit, saying it was a team effort.
"Everybody in the club is key to what we're doing," Crawford said. "It's not about the individuals, it's about what Rotary does. I just happen to be a servant of Rotary and have the time to do this.
"I know the truck we built then has responded to fires and has saved property. I'm confident it's responsible in saving lives of people I've never met, don't know anything about Rotary or the members in it. We've done good with no ulterior motive other than to do good."
Junious Smith III can be reached at 252-559-1077 and Junious.Smith@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JuniousSmithIII.
Breakout box:
Averages for American fire trucks, with minimum and maximum regulations:
Length: at least 24 feet long
Height: 12 feet; maximum height, 13 feet, 6 inches
Width: 7-8 feet
Fire pump capacity: minimum of 1,000 gallons per minute
Water tank capacity: minimum of 300 gallons
Ground ladder: minimum of 85 feet
Source: dimensionsinfo.com