Rotarian of the Year – Bruce Schultes

What is the number one characteristic of a Rotarian of the Year? You will find your answer in the Cross Timbers Rotary’s motto, Service Above Self. And this year, the indisputable embodiment of that characteristic was none other than Bruce Schultes. In just his third year with our club, Bruce has consistently been one of our top helpers since the moment he joined — even preferring to take on the hard and heavy-lifting jobs behind the scenes, such as assisting other members with landscaping or building an outdoor patio.

Bruce has been the club treasurer for two years. Given our size of 120 members and over 12,000 transactions a year, it is definitely the most time-consuming job our club has. He touches our books daily and even checks our accounts online to ensure our funds are safe. He also handles our dues collections with style and grace.

But that’s not all. Bruce led the AVID mentorship program at Marcus’ 9th-grade campus, and they met every Friday for the entire school year. He takes care of our storage building, from keeping it organized to ensuring he has the inventory of what’s there. So when we ask, he always has the answer for us!

Last year, he led the logistics team at the RRW/DD event and then agreed to take on the monumental task of being this year’s event Chair in addition to his treasurer duties.

During his free time, he decided to work with one of our partner agencies and became a CASA advocate.

And finally, after hearing about our program from Brenda Sweeten with UNT on their PUSH program, he took it upon himself last fall to reach out to Brenda to see what he could personally do to help. He and his wife, Laura, took two of the students to their first musical, Wicked. One of my favorite stories this year was when, unbeknownst to me or anyone else in our club, he learned that one of the PUSH students had recently totaled her car and didn’t have resources for another one. He requested KLTY’s Christmas Wish, and they were able to get her a vehicle. He made a huge difference; for that student, he lived out this year’s theme and Served to Change a Life.

To continue his focus on young leaders, Bruce is currently our Youth Exchange Counselor and regularly works with our exchange student from Romania, helping him to be more comfortable with his time here in the United States.

Most recently, he participated in a Rotary Action Group for Disaster USA and traveled to Kentucky to assist with clean-up after the recent floods.

Bruce truly represents the Rotary Motto of “Service Above Self.”