Exceptional and long-time Sacramento Club Rotarian Clayton Lee was recently inducted into Rotary District 5180’s “Cooperstown” Rotarian Hall of Fame at the recent regional 2018 Rotary District 5180 Conference. This award recognizes the outstanding tenure of a long-time Rotarian dedicated to serving Rotary in his or her community or abroad. Clayton is the first and only member of our Club to be so honored in the many years that this award has existed! Rotary Club of Sacramento President John Lemmon presented Clayton with a plaque commemorating this honor at a recent weekly Club lunch meeting.
Clayton has a passion for International Service. For over ten years, he has served the Rotary Club of Sacramento as the Chair of our World Community Service Committee. Over that period of time, Clayton has spent countless hours mastering the ways of qualifying for District and Rotary International Grants and has applied that knowledge to funding several projects designed to provide critical services to underserved communities in distant parts of the world.
Clayton is responsible for organizing grants that positioned our Club to provide water wells to communities in Ethiopia and Honduras. Not only did Clayton locate a Rotary Club in each of these localities to partner with in conducting each of these projects, but he also worked with them to fulfill the conditions of each grant and then traveled, at his own expense, to the villages to meet with members of the affected communities and oversee portions of the installation process. Clayton continues to keep in touch with these communities and is currently in the midst of planning the water well project in Honduras.
In addition to water well projects, Clayton has recently arranged a grant to support efforts to plant breadfruit trees to help feed poor communities in Jamaica and has met with representatives of other Clubs in our District 5180 to share his expertise in qualifying for grants and assist them in participating in similar World Community Service projects.
Clayton has been in Rotary for over 35 years, 23 of which have been within District 5180. He is a Paul Harris Fellow and a major donor member of the Paul Harris Society.