August 17, 2011|By DAVID DIPINO dddipino@tribune.com
The Delray Beach Rotary Club is looking to help the residents and business leaders of a neighboring town as part of the Highland Beach Rotary Project.
Hoping to establish a Rotary Club in Highland Beach, project organizers plan to kick things off with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres Sept. 12 at the Holiday Inn Highland Beach, 2809 South Ocean Blvd. The event will take place just before the first “Monday Night Football” broadcast of the season, a game pitting the Miami Dolphins against the New England Patriots.
Tom Coyne, spokesman for the Delray Beach Rotary Club, said Rotary International rules specify that a chartered club must have at least 25 members. Coyne said that based on the interest they have seen so far, members of the Highland Beach group are confident they can meet the requirement.
“Currently, we have 28 people interested,” he said. “We’d like to find more men and women to make sure we have the 25 needed to form the club.”
Coyne and Lance Ganis, an insurance agent who is heading the project, said the Highland Beach club will be open to anyone who lives or does business in the town. Highland Beach has a population of nearly 4,000.
Ganis said he was inspired to help organize a new Rotary Club after having a conversation with a few other men at the Highland Beach Library.
“It’s a postcard residential community with just two businesses,” he said. “We want to help serve the needs of Highland Beach’s older population. The economy over the past few years has changed the world and Highland Beach, as well.
“It’s a great area. Currently we’re looking in service projects for Highland Beach.”
Ganis said nearly 54 percent of the town’s residents are over 65 years old.