Angie Cochrun/The Gazette Carol Blackburn was honored recently for 24 years of service to the Mount Airy Rotary Club.

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Carol Blackburn was a reporter for The Gazette covering a Germantown Rotary Club meeting in July of 1987 when to her surprise, the newest member announced was…her.

“Rotary is a great organization,” Blackburn said. “I stayed.”

And she stayed for 24 years, sinking untold hours into various service and fundraising projects with the local club, first in Germantown, then Mount Airy.

Blackburn was recently recognized by the Mount Airy Rotary Club with a certificate of appreciation and Honorary Membership for the club she’s retiring from.

Her initial membership in Germantown came just months after a Supreme Court ruling that required the business based all-men’s service organization to allow women into the ranks. Blackburn was the first in her district. She said the club had started in 1905, when most women in business tended to be secretaries. “They weren’t managers and executives - it was the mentality,” she said.

As times and perception changed, the status quo was challenged, and after a disagreement starting in Minnesota, the organization was forced to allow women, a decision many supported.

Though there were some problems to adjust for the international organization, Blackburn said she had known some men that had left the organization previously because of the exclusion.

Blackburn said many women had actually been involved in the clubs before then, but more in a support role. She said many of the spouses of fellow rotary club members acted in sort of an auxiliary role. “They told my husband he could join them,” she laughed.

Blackburn said after moving to Mount Airy, where she was the editor and publisher of The Gazette from 1991 to 2006, she joined the Mount Airy Rotary Club.

“It’s almost like a family,” she said of the organization, that tops out around 30 members and currently has 21. She said other clubs can have hundreds, but with the smaller group it was easy to get to know everyone well.

“The Mount Airy Club has done super things,” Blackburn said, listing some of the projects: local scholarships, Boy and Girl Scout support, donations to local nonprofits. “We probably spend $20,000 to $25,000 in the community a year.”

And they’ve been involved in international projects with other Rotary clubs as well, helping fund wells and books.

She said the money is raised through fundraisers, a strength of the group.

Though she “retired” from the group, she said she’s still on call because some newer officers haven’t done some of the tasks.

And as an honorary member, she’s allowed back any time.

If she has time. The Mount Airy resident is still involved with the Carroll County League of Women Voters, two book clubs and has two grown children, two grandchildren and travels with husband David: New Zealand this summer and Istanbul in the fall.

“He’s always supported me in everything,” Blackburn said of her high school sweetheart and husband of 46 years. “He is a gem.”

Blackburn said she enjoyed her time in Rotary, and would miss events like “Christmas for Kids” where the organization partnered with others to help lower income parents shop for their children’s Christmas presents.

Fellow Rotary Club member Joanie Raymond is proud of Blackburn.

“I think it's such a huge accomplishment and Carol has always been ahead of her time,” Raymond said. “She is a strong proponent for women and we were so lucky to have her in Rotary.”

acochrun@gazette.net