Home Page | Rotary Club of Ankeny

Nicole Strom

Jun 16, 2026

Ankeny Young Professionals

No noon meeting - evening Annual Celebration

Jun 23, 2026

Evelyn Forrester

Jul 07, 2026

School Year in Spain

Mark Good

Jul 14, 2026

Team Blue Iowa (Prostate Cancer Awareness)

Derek Lord, Economic Development Director

Jul 21, 2026

Local Option Sales Tax and more

Brett Weiss

Jul 28, 2026

Ascend Kenya

Heidi Watkins, Chief Operating Officer

Aug 04, 2026

Des Moines Performing Arts

Dr. Erick Pruitt - Ankeny CSD Superintendent

Oct 13, 2026

Update from Ankeny Community School District

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About Our Club

Membership Information

Corporate Membership Guidelines

Donation Requests

Ratchets

Links

"The Roaring 20s" Fundraiser

Rotary Club of Ankeny Evening Website

Rotary Club of Ankeny - Facebook

District 6000

When/Where Other Clubs Meet

On-Line Make-Ups - eClubOne

RYLA

Rotary Youth Exchange

City of Ankeny

Ankeny Chamber of Commerce

Ankeny Golf & County Club

Rotary International

RI President Home

Rotary Global Rewards

Joining Rotary

Rotary History

Rotary Foundation

For New Members

Welcome to the Rotary Club of Ankeny!

Service Above Self

We meet In Person

Tuesdays at 11:45 a.m.

Ankeny Golf & Country Club

314 SW Irvinedale Dr.
Ankeny, IA 50023
United States of America

District Site

Venue Map

Thank You From Granny Basketball

On January 6th, Patty Dyar spoke to us regarding the Granny Basketball National Tournament that will be played in Ankeny on July 17-19, 2026. After her presentation our Board agreed to contribute $500 to be a sponsor of this event. The following thank you note was recently received from Patty.

Thank you to Rotary Club of Ankeny for your generous support of our 2026 National Tournament that will be held at the Prairie Trail Sports Complex in Ankeny, July 17-19th. You have made a meaningful contribution that will impact our granny players, coaches, and volunteers as well as our charity partner, Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

In preparation for our tournament, I am confirming that you will provide a logo to be listed in the tournament programs and on video boards at the venue. Also, based on your sponsorship level, Pick and Roll $500, you will receive 2, 3-day passes to games.

Again, many thanks for your sponsorship! With Gratitude —

Patty Dyar, Chair, Sponsorship Subcommittee, Granny Basketball National Tournament

Co-Captain, Iowa Gold Stars

Let Nate Burnham know if you would like to use one or two of the passes to attend the tournament. First request(s) gets the ticket(s)! Here is a link to their web site for more information. https://www.grannybasketball.com/national-tournament

Rotary Donates Benches

You can find some new places to rest along the High Trestle Trail through Experience Park in Ankeny, thanks to the Rotary Club of Ankeny and Polk County Iowa grants. Three metal benches and bike rack bollards were installed thanks to a $10,000 Rotary Club of Ankeny "Community Service Grant" and six limestone bench blocks were installed thanks to a $10,000 Polk County Iowa Betterment Grant. An additional bench and trash can will be installed after Water Tower #4 is constructed.

Rotarians pictured from left to right are Rich Bergez, Doug Beech, Rich Job, Brandon Converse, Hans Hoeksema, Josh Craighead, and Jamie Silver.

Remembering Kathy Sibbel

Ankeny Rotarian for 17 years, Kathy Sibbel passed away on May 9, 2026. She was a beloved Rotarian and friend to everyone. She poured her amazing energy, personality, and love for children and her community into her preschool, community, church, and service organizations for Ankeny during her 39-plus years living here. Her exceptional caring and helping others attitude earned her recognition as Ankeny's Outstanding Citizen of the Year in 2017.

Kathy embodied the true spirit of Rotary's motto of “Service Above Self” and was dedicated both to RYLA, the Rotary Youth Leadership Award, the Rotary Youth Student Exchange Program, and Rotary's Literacy Initiative Projects over the years. This earned her recognition as the Rotary Club of Ankeny's Rotarian of the Year in 2016 and Rotary District 6000's Guardian of Integrity Award in 2018 She inspired all of us with her dedication and joyful spirit. Kathy’s legacy of kindness, leadership, and service will live on in our club and in the community she loved so dearly. She will be deeply missed by all who had the privilege to know her.

Please keep Kathy’s husband, Rick, family and friends in your thoughts and prayers. Rest in peace, Kathy. Your Rotary family is forever grateful.

2026 Rotary International Convention

The 2026 Rotary International Convention will be held June 13-17 in Taipei, Taiwan. It is where you’ll find people of action from around the world brainstorming solutions to some of the most pressing challenges and celebrating our works of service that create lasting change. It is also where you’ll renew connections, discover fresh perspectives, and create unforgettable moments and enduring relationships. It may be too late for you to plan to attend this year's convention but you may want to start planning to attend a future convention.

The 2027 convention is scheduled to be held in Dubai, UAE, and will be May 22-26. The Convention is tentatively planned to return to the United States in Minneapolis on May 27-31, 2028 and again on May 25-29, 2030, in Chicago. A site has not as yet been chosen for 2029.

June Rotary Board Meeting

The Rotary Club of Ankeny's monthly board meetings are held on the 2nd Thursday of each month at noon at Wig & Penn, 2005 South Ankeny Boulevard. The June meeting will be on Thursday, June 11th all members are invited to attend, especially new members.

Not only is it a great way to learn more about Rotary and the projects your Club is involved in but it also counts as a makeup for attendance. Hope to see you there!!

Ankeny to Send Ten to RYLA

The two Ankeny Rotary clubs have approved scholarships for ten Ankeny High School students to enable them to attend the "Rotary Youth Leadership Awards", RYLA, conference at Grinnell College, July 26-31. The Rotary Club of Ankeny (Noon) will sponsor and provide the scholarships for six of the ten students and the Rotary Club of Ankeny Evening will sponsor the other four students. Each student completed an interview and was approved for the scholarship. These students are:

1. Willow Duke (10th grade), attends Ankeny Christian Academy - Ankeny Evening will sponsor.
2. Aiden Forrester (10th grade), attends Ankeny HS - Ankeny Noon will sponsor.
3. Grace Tuvera (9th grade), attends Southview Middle School - Ankeny Noon will sponsor.
4. Dilasha Khadka (9th grade), attends Southview Middle School - Ankeny Noon will sponsor.
5. Duy Duong (9th grade), attends Northview Middle School and Ankeny Centennial High School - Evening will sponsor.
6. Jacob Halldin (10th grade), attends Ankeny High School. Job completed his interview and has been approved - Ankeny Noon will sponsor.
7. Sarang "Sofia" Lim (10th grade), attends Ankeny High School - Ankeny Evening will sponsor.
8. Clara Lara (11th grade), attends Ankeny High School - Ankeny Noon will sponsor.
9. Chelsea Stamps (11th grade), attends Ankeny High School - Ankeny Noon will sponsor.
10. Akouri Noglo (11th grade), attends Ankeny High School - Ankeny Evening will sponsor.

June Rotarian Birthdays

The following Ankeny Rotarians will celebrate birthdays in June:

14th - Sue Gibbons

!7th - Dave Mercer

20th - Steve Van Oort

Prospective New Member - Caroline Claxton

The Board has received and approved an application for membership in the Rotary Club of Ankeny from Caroline Claxton. Caroline is the Marketing and Communications Director for B & B Theatre, and will be added to their corporate membership.

Comments regarding Caroline's application for membership may be submitted to any Board member.

Greeter/Sheriff Schedule

The scheduled Sheriff/Greeters for the next couple months are as follows:

June 2 - Cole Vitritto

June - 9 - Sara Wilson

June 16 - Juli Accola

June 23 - Annual Meeting

June 30 - Jamie Anderson

July 7 - Doug Beech

July 14 - Rich Bergez

July 21 - Adam Boeding

July 28 - Troy Boelman

Roaring 20s Pictures

Here is just a sample of the pictures from the Roaring 20s Charity event. More pictures are available on the club's website.

Roaring 20s Survey

The Ankeny Club's 2026 fundraiser, "The Roaring 20s Charity Event" is now history. A survey has been sent to each club member, whether they attended or not, asking for comments, both positive and negative. Please return your completed survey to Nate Burnham at nfburnham@gmail.com prior to May 14^th. Your Board will be making a decision on the future of these joint fundraisers at the May Board meeting, and we would like input from each member. Please return your survey while the event is still fresh in your mind. Thanks.

Todd Wehr Named President Elect Nominee for 2028-2029

In our history, the Rotary Club of Ankeny has never had a repeat Club President. That will change in 2028-2029 when Todd Wehr becomes the Club's 52nd President. . Todd was the President in the 2020-2021 year, but had to deal with many challenges, and was cheated out of actually being able to lead the club in the way he wanted to due to COVID. He will now have that opportunity!!

In March 2020, Rotary meetings were cancelled for several weeks. Then the Club begin meeting by zoom for several more weeks. In person noon meetings finally began on June 23, 2020, just in time for Todd to take over the presidency. The meetings were also being zoomed so members that were not comfortable yet with in-person meetings could participate. Members that did attend in person were required to sit at least 10 feet apart. Attendance was significantly lower than pre-COVID. Then late in the year meetings and socials were cancelled again as COVID cases were increasing. In person meetings did not return until February, 2021. All board meetings were held by Zoom through May of 2021. The 2020 Christmas social was even held remotely on zoom. No fundraiser was held that year after first being postponed from April to October, 2020, and then finally postponed until October 2021.

Congratulations Todd and hopefully your second term as President will not have as many challenges, but will be exciting, fun, and productive!!

Mary Cochran Honored at District Conference

Mary Cochran was a member of the Rotary Club of Ankeny since 2005. Unfortunately, she passed away in October, 2025. At the 2026 District 6000 Annual Conference, she was recognized during the memorium ceremony with other Rotarians in District 6000 that had passed away during the past year. Her husband, Danny Cochran, was able to place a yellow rose in a vase in her name. She was then recognized as a recipient of the Paul E. Hellwege Guardian of Integrity award for 2026 along with 24 other district 6000 Rotarians. Danny accepted this award for her.

We are glad we were able to recognize Mary at the District Conference for all she meant to our club and to Rotary. We will truly miss her.

2026 Annual Celebration and Recognition Banquet

The "2026 Annual Celebration and Recognition Banquet" for the Rotary Club of Ankeny, will be held on Tuesday, June 23rd at the Ankeny Golf & Country Club. The evening will begin at 5:45 PM with a social hour including drinks and appetizers and the buffet line for dinner will open at 6:30. The program will begin at approximately 7:15 PM and will include "Perfect Attendance Awards", "Foundation Donor Recognition", the naming of the "Outstanding New Member of the Year", "Rotarian of the Year", and the passing of the gavel to next year's president.

Plan to attend, bring your spouse or a guest, and celebrate all the accomplishments of the club during the past year. Registration is now available. The registration fee is $30 for each member and guest. This will be added to your July Rotary invoice. Everyone should have received an email to respond to indicate if they are planning to attend. Questions? Contact Todd Eipperle.

The Roaring 20s Charity Event Another Success

The Ankeny Rotary Clubs, Noon and Evening, held their 14th major fundraiser, "Roaring 20s Charity Event", a decade of music and fashion, on Saturday evening, April 13th. It proved to be a very entertaining evening with good food, plenty of jazz music, and another very successful auction. Thanks to everyone that obtained auction items, bought and sold tickets, attended the event, bid on auction items, and volunteered to help at the event. It was truly a team effort.

A special thanks to the fundraiser co-chairs, Todd Eipperle and Steve Wieneke and to everyone that served on a committee especially Any Ratekin for the beautiful decorations and Tim Cox for acting as the MC for the evening. Most of the guests were dressed in typical "20s" attire including the ladies in fringe flapper dresses and feather headbands and men in their pinstripe gangster tweed suits and fedora hats. Congratulations to the winners of the best dressed guests, Victoria Ogier for being named the "Best Dressed Doll, Todd Wehr won the "Most Dapper Guy" in his bright yellow suit and Nate and Annette Burnham for winning the "Spiffiest Dressed Couple" award.

Preliminary numbers for the event show income was higher and expenses lower than last year. The numbers compared to last year are as follows:

2025 2026

Sponsorships & Tickets $42,975 $40,800

Silent Auction 18,810 14,380

Live Auction 22,475 25,575

Paddle Raiser 27,100 13,750

Heads/Tails Beads 1,150 760

Race Raffle 2,480 ---

50/50/Raffle --- 12,500

Whiskey Pull --- 2,500

Cash Donations 1,250 100

Total $115, 640 $110,365

Expenses $31,710 $29,109

Net Income $87,931 $81,256

Less Paddle Raiser 13,550 ---

Less 50/50 payout --- 6.250

Net to Rotary $70,381 $75,006

The split between the two clubs will be approximately 72.4% to the Noon club - $54,304 and 27.6% to the Evening club - $20,702.

Congratulations and thank you everyone!!

Best Dressed Winners

Many of the guests at the Club's "Roaring 20s" charity event were dressed in their best 20s attire. Jamie Silver and Susan Mitchel had the difficult task of picking pick the winners of the "Best Dressed Awards" but pick them they did. The winners were, "Best Dressed Doll" - Victoria Ogier, "Most dapper Guy" - Todd Wehr, and "Spiffiest Dressed Couple" - Nate and Annette Burnham. Also, Noel Fiscus was the winner of the "Heads or Tails" contest.

May Rotary Board Meeting

The Rotary Club of Ankeny's monthly board meetings are held on the 2nd Thursday of each month at noon at Wig & Penn, 2005 South Ankeny Boulevard. The May meeting will be on Thursday, May 14th all members are invited to attend, especially new members.

Not only is it a great way to learn more about Rotary and the projects your Club is involved in but it also counts as a makeup for attendance. Hope to see you there!!

10 Myths About Rotary

10 Myths About Rotary Clubs

MYTH 1: Rotary is a secret society with an official creed.

TRUTH: Rotary has no secret handshake, no secret meetings and no secret rituals. It is an open society of men and women who simply believe in helping others.

MYTH 2: Rotary is exclusively a male only organization.

TRUTH: Rotary started out as a men only organization but has changed its constitution to allow women for over 35 years. Women now play important roles in Rotary including club Presidents. There has also been multiple women that have served as President of worldwide Rotary International.

MYTH 3: You have to be older to join Rotary.

TRUTH: Absolutely not! Many clubs have Rotarians in their 20’s and 30’s as well as experienced managers who have been committed to Rotary for a long time. Rotary values the individual, not their age.

MYTH 4: Owning a business is a must.

TRUTH: One does not have to own a business. Members include teachers, nurses, city workers, real estate agents and many other professions. Many Rotarians work for nonprofits.

MYTH 5: Rotary is boring.

TRUTH: Rotary is FUN. Every meeting is FUN. The club projects are FUN. Social activities are FUN . Service is FUN !

MYTH 6: You have to be rich to join Rotary.

TRUTH: You need not be rich. You only need a deep desire to serve your fellow man.

MYTH 7: Rotarians are not friendly.

TRUTH: In an increasing complex world, Rotary provides one of the most basic needs, the need for friendship and fellowship. The Rotary Club of Ankeny meets Tuesdays at Noon at the Ankeny Golf & Country Club. Come visit and see who we are and what we do.

MYTH 8: Rotarians need to be good public speakers.

TRUTH: Rotary develops confidence in people to allow them to speak in public but individuals don't have to speak if they don't want to.

MYTH 9: Rotary is all about business.

TRUTH: Rotary is about service to others. Our purpose is to do good in the community.

MYTH 10: Rotary is a local group

TRUTH: Rotary is a worldwide organization of 45,000 clubs. Find out more at http://ankenyrotary.org or http://www.rotary.org

May Rotarian Birthdays

The following Ankeny Rotarians will celebrate birthdays in May:

2nd - Dave Massey

12th - Damon Miller

14th - Jean Shelton

26th - Jon Lowman

28th - Jamie Silver

Less Than Two Weeks Until "The Roaring 20s"!!

It is now less than two weeks until the Club's 2026 fundraiser, "The Roaring 20s", a decade of music and fashion will be held at the FFA Enrichment Center on the DMACC campus in Ankeny on Saturday, April 18, 2026.

Registration will begin at 5:00 PM with social time including complimentary wine and beer which will be available throughout the evening and a buffet dinner to be served at 6:00 PM. Prizes will be awarded for the guests that best represent the “Roaring 20s” theme including the "Spiffiest Dressed Couple", "Best Dressed Doll", and "Most Dapper Guy". The evening will include a performance by the “Drama Kings”, three men with issues, a photo booth, 50/50 raffle, whiskey pull, “Heads or Tails”, and silent and live auctions.

We will be having 20 live auction and about 90 silent auction items. A complete list of all auction items will be emailed to every Rotarian for them to share with their guests. There are several items that you may want to join forces with others at your table to bid on together. Here is a partial list of some of the larger items:

Lasik Eye Surgery at Wolfe Eye Clinic
Audi Crooks Autographed Jersey
7-Night Stay for Eight in a Grand Teton's Cabin
Private Margarita & Guacamole Party for 20 People
Set of Four New Tires
ISU Football Athletic Director's Suite Package for Four
Four Days on the Beach in a Villa in the Bahamas
Murder Mystery Gourmet Dinner for 8
Three-Night Stay in a Home in Port Charlotte, Florida
Iowa State Fair Blue Ribbon Package
Free Night's Stay in the New Italian-American Cultural Center's Historic Butler Mansion
Football Autographed by New ISU Head Football coach Jimmy Rogers
Golf on Dennis Albaugh's private "Talons of Tuscany" golf course
Two tickets to the Cody Johnson concert
Blue Ribbon State Fair Package
King or Queen size Mattress
Italian-American Treat
Four Champion Club Seats to Minnesota Twins Game
Sunset Cruise on Lake Saylorville for 12

If you have not bought your tickets for the event, we do have a few tickets still available and we could still use a few additional bottles of whiskey for the "Whiskey Pull", bottles of wine for the "Wall of Wine", and cases of beer for the "Tower of Beer". These items should be brought to the meeting on Tuesday April 7th. All 50/50 raffle tickets and money as well as any unsold tickets should also be turned in by April 7th. Hope to see everyone at the Roaring 20s Charity Event at the FFA Enrichment center on April 18th!!