Looking Back on Crystal City-Pentagon's 2024-2025 Year
Tuesday, June 17, 2025
As the Rotary Year draws to a close, Crystal City-Pentagon Rotary Club (CCPRC) President Dr. Marina Theodotou reflected on all that happened during 2024-2025:
What service activities did CCPRC engage in this year?
This has been an active year for us with over 10 service projects and activities spreading the magic of Rotary locally and globally. We fundraised for educational scholarships for students in Arlington, donated books in Alexandria libraries, supported clean water in Zambia, purchased desks and chairs for schoolchildren in Honduras through a district grant, cleaned up the banks of the Potomac, and packed food and lunches for local food banks. In addition, we hosted an exchange student from France, served as the local club for a Rotary Peace Scholar, and added five new members to our club roster. We also collaborated with our District Governor and several other clubs in our District 7610 on park cleanup and public image efforts, trainings, and district conferences, and we brought our A-game forward!
What accomplishment are you most proud of?
I am most proud of our Club membership commitment: We have incredible members who are dedicated, hard-working, and focused on making a difference. It is thanks to them that we communicate closely, coordinate deliberately, work together to make a positive impact in our community, and share our results and impact through our stories and posts. As a result, we were able to achieve all the service activities I mentioned earlier, bring in new members, and come together about once a month for heartfelt fellowship events and team camaraderie.
What did you learn from your year as President?
It has been a fantastic year and a great honor to serve as President of the CCPRC. I joined Rotary in 2010 and have served in two different club boards (RC Nicosia Aspelia and RC of New York). This year, as President, I had the opportunity to validate again my leadership style, which hinges on three things: leading by example, and providing empowerment & accountability to the team. I hold a doctorate in Organizational Change and Leadership, so I am a passionate teacher and lifelong learner of leadership. People are inspired to go the extra mile when they see their leader go first, are empowered to use their experience and expertise to figure out how to do something, and when they are held accountable for their decisions. As President, I strived to provide the vision (the why) and the desired outcome (the what) to the team, and I empowered every member of our Club to get us there (the how) and also held them accountable for their decisions and our outcomes, results, and broader impact. As a result, we met 24 of our 26 annual Rotary International goals, and once the RI systems update, we should have 26 of 26 goals completed.
Looking ahead, what opportunities do you see for CCPRC in the upcoming 2025-2026 Rotary year?
For our next Rotary Year, I have the honor to serve a second term, with an amazing Board comprised of members who graciously agreed to stay on and members who stepped up to serve. I am super excited for our Club's membership growth and look forward to the new project ideas and contributions of our newest and existing members to unite together for good through collaboration, empowerment, and accountability for service above self. This upcoming year, we are also excited and honored to be the home Club of the District 7610 Governor Elect, Peter Anderson, and can't wait for July 1 to begin putting our ideas forth to unite for good!
What service activities did CCPRC engage in this year?
This has been an active year for us with over 10 service projects and activities spreading the magic of Rotary locally and globally. We fundraised for educational scholarships for students in Arlington, donated books in Alexandria libraries, supported clean water in Zambia, purchased desks and chairs for schoolchildren in Honduras through a district grant, cleaned up the banks of the Potomac, and packed food and lunches for local food banks. In addition, we hosted an exchange student from France, served as the local club for a Rotary Peace Scholar, and added five new members to our club roster. We also collaborated with our District Governor and several other clubs in our District 7610 on park cleanup and public image efforts, trainings, and district conferences, and we brought our A-game forward!
What accomplishment are you most proud of?
I am most proud of our Club membership commitment: We have incredible members who are dedicated, hard-working, and focused on making a difference. It is thanks to them that we communicate closely, coordinate deliberately, work together to make a positive impact in our community, and share our results and impact through our stories and posts. As a result, we were able to achieve all the service activities I mentioned earlier, bring in new members, and come together about once a month for heartfelt fellowship events and team camaraderie.
What did you learn from your year as President?
It has been a fantastic year and a great honor to serve as President of the CCPRC. I joined Rotary in 2010 and have served in two different club boards (RC Nicosia Aspelia and RC of New York). This year, as President, I had the opportunity to validate again my leadership style, which hinges on three things: leading by example, and providing empowerment & accountability to the team. I hold a doctorate in Organizational Change and Leadership, so I am a passionate teacher and lifelong learner of leadership. People are inspired to go the extra mile when they see their leader go first, are empowered to use their experience and expertise to figure out how to do something, and when they are held accountable for their decisions. As President, I strived to provide the vision (the why) and the desired outcome (the what) to the team, and I empowered every member of our Club to get us there (the how) and also held them accountable for their decisions and our outcomes, results, and broader impact. As a result, we met 24 of our 26 annual Rotary International goals, and once the RI systems update, we should have 26 of 26 goals completed.
Looking ahead, what opportunities do you see for CCPRC in the upcoming 2025-2026 Rotary year?
For our next Rotary Year, I have the honor to serve a second term, with an amazing Board comprised of members who graciously agreed to stay on and members who stepped up to serve. I am super excited for our Club's membership growth and look forward to the new project ideas and contributions of our newest and existing members to unite together for good through collaboration, empowerment, and accountability for service above self. This upcoming year, we are also excited and honored to be the home Club of the District 7610 Governor Elect, Peter Anderson, and can't wait for July 1 to begin putting our ideas forth to unite for good!