What goes around truly comes around might have to become the new mantra for the Rotary club. Members of the club both local and abroad might not agree but we’d like them to consider it. It’s been 100 years since the organization got its gears spinning, and since then, its good works have come full circle time and time again.

Giving back to the community makes for an improved community. Now that’s a concept that is pretty difficult to argue with.

Rotary marks its centennial today and we’d like to be among the first to wish the group a happy birthday. We’re big fans — have been even before they got started in Poulsbo in 1976, our nation’s bicentennial interestingly enough. What the Poulsbo/North Kitsap Rotary has accomplished since that time is nothing short of jaw dropping. One only needs to look around the community to see what a lasting, positive impression its members have made here. And continue to make.

In Kingston, whose own Rotary just got rolling, the good works are also numerous.

The thing that makes these guys and gals such heroes in our eyes is they’re everyday people. They go to work, drop the kids off at practice, pay rent or mortgage, walk the dog, wrestle with bills and do their best to succeed at whatever they do, yet they also give of themselves in extraordinary ways. They offer their free time to something they care for deeply — their community.

But they don’t stop there. Being an international group, the Rotary turns up good works throughout the world as well. The group, which includes about 8,500 clubs, has taken great strides in its mission of eradicating polio. This is truly a noteworthy accomplishment as well.

For all the things you do — in North Kitsap and to the ends of Earth — we’d like to say thanks and wish you the happiest of birthdays. As for blowing out 100 candles, you’re on your own.