I now know what Queen Elizabeth must have felt like at her coronation. Well, at least close to it.

I wasn’t given the crown jewels nor a scepter, but there was a little pageantry and some headdress involved.

You see, Thursday night, at our annual Clinton-Sampson Rotary end-of-year banquet, outgoing president Frank Bradshaw decided it was time to relinquish his crown, or at least bestow me with one of my own.

I take over in just four short days as president of this wonderful organization, and Frank, well, let’s just say he wanted to get one over on me. So, with an audience of Rotary members and with Burger King crown in hand, complete with an asterisk duly noting that nothing would be official until July 1, he proceeded to turn the reins over to me.

So crowned I was in what one might call a pre-changing of the guard ceremony which will be followed, rather quietly I hope, with a passing of the gavel come July 12 when we meet again.

Despite the crowning, I don’t think it’s clearly registered yet that I’ve taken on this tremendous responsibility, nor is it one I imagined ever doing when I agreed to become a member of this wonderful group sometime back in the mid-90s.

I had always wanted to be a part of Rotary, but I’m not one to become a member in name only, and with various other responsibilities on my plate, I put off joining for a number of years. Then I took the plunge, and I’ve never regretted it, not for a moment.

The friends I’ve made and the service we’ve been able to offer to this community have been invaluable and give me the opportunity, at least in some small way, to give back some of that which has been given to me through the years.

As a youngster at College Street school, I remember civic leaders always coming around to help us out in some way. I looked up in awe of those folks, not quite understanding why they provided us cupcakes or coloring books, pizza parties or special assemblies, but mighty glad they were willing to do so.

Now I and every Rotary club member, get the opportunity to pay it forward, offering our service to others in much the same way as it was offered to us year after year as youngsters growing up in this community.

Thanks to a goal-driven president like Frank, our Rotary Club took several big steps this year, adopting a signature fund-raising project, Fitness Renaissance, stepping up our hands-on service to adopt a highway that we will soon be charged with keeping pristine and contributing money to our neighbors abroad to help with the Rotary International’s chief project, the eradication of polio.

Every project has a special place in my heart, but probably none more so than the local Fitness Renaissance project we are working to help fund each year. I was honored to visit several schools this year to help hand out the gold and silver medals students earned as part of that program. Watching their young faces as I hung a medal around their neck reminded me of why I joined Rotary and why I agreed to be its president.

In so many ways, it really is all about what we can do for someone else. Those medals meant so much to the students. They all smiled, a few looked to be near tears. Their pride was my own, knowing that the hard work we’d put into our Shrimp Fest and our fund-raising bingo had helped make those smiles possible.

Our motto is “service above self,” and I’m proud to say, to a member, we work diligently to serve our community and our world, doing our part to make some small difference in the lives of others.

As president, that will continue to be my goal. I love this community with all my heart. It is, and always has been, home. From the time I was old enough to remember, people in this community have supported me. Now it’s my turn give the support, and I will do my best, with the help of all those great Rotarians I call my friends, to do just that.

I may not get Queen Elizabeth’s crown jewels, but I’ll wear the Rotary crown of service proudly, doing my part to better the lives of those in my community and in this world.