Connecting Our Community: Elmhurst Visits the Rotary Club of Parkland-Spanaway

Last month, we had the pleasure of being welcomed as guests of the Rotary Club of Parkland-Spanaway — a longstanding pillar of service in our own backyard of southern Pierce County. Our Finance Director spoke at their regular Tuesday luncheon meeting, and it turned out to be a fun exchange of ideas between 2 organizations deeply committed to the communities we serve.

The Rotary Club of Parkland-Spanaway is a local chapter of Rotary International, the world’s first service club organization, founded in Chicago in 1905 with a simple but powerful idea: that business and professional leaders could do more for their communities by working together. Today, Rotary has grown to over 45,000 clubs and roughly 1,200,000 to 1,400,000 members worldwide, but the heart of the organization remains at the local level —in clubs exactly like Parkland-Spanaway.

This club guides its work by Rotary’s well-known 4-Way Test, asking of everything it thinks, says, or does: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned? The Parkland-Spanaway club has added a fifth dimension of their own: to have fun — a spirit that was very much on display during our visit.

Their service footprint is impressive. Annual events include the Route 66 Charity Auction, the American Lake Veterans Golf Tournament and Ball Drop, participation in the American Cancer Society Relay for Life Tacoma Puget Sound, an Annual Holiday Giving Luncheon, the Waste Connections Build a Bike event, and Winterfest. Locally, they direct support toward scholarships for graduating seniors in both the Franklin Pierce and Bethel School Districts, the American Lake Veterans Golf Course, Pierce County food banks and family shelter programs, Bethel Community Services, the Family Resource Center, Joy Thru Tears, the Skoolie Foundation, and more. They also host networking events open to the broader community.

On the international stage, the club contributes to several active global initiatives: the worldwide effort to eradicate polio (a flagship Rotary cause since 1985 that has reduced polio-endemic countries from 125 to just a handful), a Friendly Water and Farm project in Africa, a Guatemala Educational Program, and ShelterBox —a disaster relief organization that provides shelter and supplies to families in crisis.

Our Finance Director presented a wide-ranging look at the electric utility industry and what it means for our customers right now and in the years ahead. She began with the national picture — the significant load growth underway across the country, driven by data centers, clean energy mandates, EV adoption, and the reshoring of domestic manufacturing. She discussed the real supply chain pressures facing utilities everywhere: transformers, conductors, and other critical equipment that once arrived on predictable schedules now face extended lead times, creating planning challenges unlike anything the industry has seen in decades.

She then narrowed the lens to Washington State, walking through the current regulatory and policy environment and what it means for utilities operating here. From there, she brought it home — sharing how all of these forces are showing up in our own planning, our capital investments, and how we’re positioning the utility to meet both near-term reliability needs and long-term clean energy goals.

She also highlighted our energy efficiency programs available to commercial and residential customers, which help members of the community manage their energy costs while supporting grid-wide demand reduction. Several club members had questions and expressed interest in learning more — exactly the kind of dialogue we were hoping to spark.

And she asked the club something we’re asking all of you as well: what topics would you like to see in future newsletters? Your feedback shapes how we communicate, so please don’t hesitate to share your ideas.

Rotary’s mission — “Service Above Self” — resonates with the values we try to bring to our own work as a cooperative utility. We were impressed by the breadth and depth of what this club accomplishes, from local scholarships to clean water projects in Africa, all driven by volunteers who show up week after week because they believe communities are worth investing in.

We’re grateful to the Rotary Club of Parkland-Spanaway for the invitation and for the warm welcome. If you’re interested in learning more about the club — or attending a meeting as a guest — visit the Parkland-Spanaway website or find them on Facebook.