The Camillus Rotary Club has changed its name of nearly 50 years in an effort to boost membership and service.

The club, with a majority of its members present, voted Aug. 30 to change its name to the Camillus Solvay Geddes Rotary Club. The vote followed a written survey of the club members.

Under the new name, the club will expand its territory and provide service to an under-served community.

“With the declining commitment of membership, the Solvay Geddes Rotary club terminated their charter,” said Camillus Rotary Club President George Mango. “Since we in Camillus are an active club and adjacent to Solvay and Geddes, we decided to expand our service area to include Solvay and Geddes.”

This month, the club will send Rotary members to sort and package used textbooks from Solvay Middle School to be sent to third world countries through Rotary’s Books of the World program. The club will also provide assistance to ECHO Meals on Wheels, a non-profit organization that seeks to end senior hunger in the local community.

To enhance membership, Rotary Club members will visit local businesses, community organizations both private and public, and religious institutions and invite them to join the club. Members will also be talking with community representatives in the near future to assess local needs.

“We are engaging in an active recruitment process to build membership, and adjusting our meeting times and places and meeting requirements to make the participation of the community members more aligned with their individual lifestyles,” Mango said.

The club will now meet at 12:10 p.m. the first, second and third Thursday of the month at Siena Restaurant in Camillus and at 7:30 a.m. the fourth Thursday of the month upstairs at the Fairmount Wegmans. Down the road, the meeting schedule may be adapted to two breakfast meetings and two luncheons per month.

Some of the club’s current service projects include distributing turkeys on Thanksgiving and Christmas and donating pet foods to the Humane Society’s animal shelter. The club supports many local organizations and is providing funds to both the Ronald McDonald House and the capital expansion of the cancer wing of Upstate University Hospital and the Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital.

The Camillus Rotary Club was chartered in 1966.

Ned Campbell can be reached at [email protected].