An image of the entrance to the Dearborn Rotary virtual museum, accessible at www.DearbornRotary.org.
Saganworks CEO Carlos Valderrama (right) shares Dearborn Rotary’s museum with attendees of the Joint Rotary Districts 6380 and 6400 Conference in May.
By MARGARET BLOHM
For the Times-Herald
DEARBORN – The Rotary Club of Dearborn recently unveiled a virtual space to showcase its 100 years of service locally and internationally.
“We spent several months researching our club’s background and activities,” said Bob Ziolkowski, Dearborn Rotary past president and historian. “We collected countless photos, artifacts and information to produce an anniversary book of more than 80 pages.”
Ziolkowski said that in March, as the club was preparing for its 100th Anniversary “Service Above Self” fundraising event and musical extravaganza, he learned there was another way to display the same information to anyone around the world who had Internet access.
The idea was proposed by Ben Mazza, an alumnus of Dearborn High School and Henry Ford College, who is vice president of products and engineering for Ann Arbor-based Saganworks — creator and developer of a virtual immersive 3D easy-to-distribute platform, consolidating all forms of media to create hubs for training, content curation for virtual exhibits, and connected portfolios.
Mazza, who is also son-in-law of Margaret Blohm, Dearborn Rotary past president, was already familiar with Rotary. In addition, Saganworks’ CEO Carlos Valderrama is a longtime Rotarian, having first joined Rotary in Colombia, his country of birth, and later in Ann Arbor.
Mazza and Valderrama consulted with Ziolkowski and Angie Linder, the club’s communications board director.
“We were amazed how quickly Saganworks added our photos, videos, and content to a virtual space that helps us tell the story of our club in such a visually appealing way,” Linder said. “You can easily link to it from the home page of our newly designed website.”
In May, Dearborn Rotary’s virtual museum was unveiled at the joint annual conference for Rotary Districts 6400 and 6380, hosted at Caesars Windsor Hotel and Casino in Canada.
“We were pleased to receive a lot of interest, enthusiasm, and questions from Rotarians who stopped by our exhibit to take a tour,” Valderrama said.
More recently at a Dearborn Rotary Club meeting, Valderrama and Mazza gave a special presentation to members and guests, demonstrating how they can access the virtual space from their computer, laptop, smart phone and other online devices.
“To know that we’re the first Rotary club in the world to have something like this is really special,” Dearborn Rotary President David Anderson said.
“The Dearborn Rotary Club museum is a testament of our belief that this immersive experience can help to engage younger generations of prospective Rotarians, preserve and share Rotary’s amazing work worldwide, and make these inspiring experiences available for generations to come,” Valderrama said. “In our experience, this platform allows users to tell a compelling story as well as help to advance world understanding and hopefully goodwill.”
To tour the virtual museum, go to www.DearbornRotary.org.
About Rotary Club of Dearborn
Founded in 1923, the Rotary Club of Dearborn is the city’s oldest service organization and is a member of Rotary International bringing more than 1.4 million members in over 46,000 individual clubs together to live the motto of “Service Above Self.” For more information about Dearborn Rotary, go to www.DearbornRotary.org. If interested in membership, email info@dearbornrotary.org or call 734-726-0058.
Colleen Nieman, 2022-23 co-president of the Rotary Club of Dearborn, extends a welcome and thank you to Saganworks at a regular club meeting.