The Rotaract Club of Toledo is a continuation of the Rotary Club of Toledo. Their mission is to empower young professionals by developing their leadership skills and creating connections through servicing the community.
This young version was established in 2023 by its founding board members and the encouragement of Rotary Club of Toledo member and now Rotaract Advisor, Mark Urrutia. The founding members include; Melvin Jackson (founding president), Isabella Weik (founding president elect) and Evan Trowbridge (founding treasurer).
When the opportunity presented itself to Weik she knew she had to take it and knew exactly what she wanted out of it.
“I wanted to be able to infuse this value of genuine connection and genuine relationships. We were dealing with a crisis of loneliness from Covid, so we had to reimagine networking…,” Weik said.
Her new style of networking included an attention to intention.
“With our programming we’ve been able to structure how our meetings go, how our events are planned out, all to be centered around ‘what is the individual’s experience and how do we make them feel welcomed?’,” Weik said.
This creates the question, how do they know they’re appealing to the right audience? Well, that is answered through the way they present themselves on social media.
The Rotaract Club of Toledo can be found on Instagram @toledorotaract. This platform is where already existing and potentially new members can keep up with the events, workshops, and monthly Dinner Socials.
As every professional club does, Rotaract created its own Constitution to ensure a healthy system of leadership. Each role has a 1-year term therefore, the current president is Alex Huffaker, who was previously past president elect and social director of the club.
In order to become a member of Rotaract go to their website or here to fill out an interest form. Once that process is completed it is just a matter of paying their monthly or annual membership fee. It is $50 for general membership, $25 for student and $250 for corporate.
“We want to be a space that’s inclusive for all so we don’t want to create too many barriers or hoops for people to have to jump through,” Huffaker said.
Within Huffaker’s presidency he plans to incorporate more dynamic events for the club’s members. As well as creating a more energized space with engaging and interactive meetings.
These meetings consists of partnering with businesses to learn more about the community which in turn provides a mutually beneficial relationship. Rotaract has worked with businesses such as Anderson’s, Culture Clash Records, 577 Foundation, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo’s Metro Parks, Sofia Quintero Arts and Culture Center and more, Huffaker and Weik said.
Each month there is a monthly meeting and dinner. The meetings are geared toward learning, growing and opportunity, whereas the dinners are a balance of both learning and socializing with some guest speakers. That’s not all, every quarter there is a workshop where projects are put in place to help service the community.
Not to mention there are some events in collaboration with the Rotary Club of Toledo such as a monthly happy hour event and a monthly coffee connection.
Another element of change within Huffaker’s leadership is the abolishment of club age restrictions. Previously, Rotaract had an age limit of 35 years and younger, however, anyone can be a young professional, Huffaker said.
He goes on to express, “Someone can be 45, but they’re new to their career making them a young professional… We see a professional as someone who has a craft or a career. These people can be teachers, artists, photographers, models…”
Overall, joining Rotaract benefits its members by gathering like-minded individuals that value true connection over business card networking. It also encourages vulnerability with its peers and a chance to contribute to Toledo’s community betterment. The resources are provided, the members just have to utilize them.
In fact, compared to Rotary Club of Toledo, Rotaract is more focused on creativity and entrepreneurship. Nonetheless, the original club has paved the way for Rotaract with its 112 years of existence and credible leaders on the fore front first, Weik said.
“We ask questions that allow us to go deeper. Yeah resumes are great but we’re more interested in understanding human beings beyond surface level,” She continues, “We’re drowning in knowledge but we’re starving for wisdom,” Weik said.
Only about a year in and Rotaract has gained around 60 members who have and will experince continuous learning for as long as they are a part of Rotaract Toledo.
To learn more about Rotaract of Toledo go to the club’s website. To keep up with their socials go to their Instagram and Facebook.
