Manassas Rotaract allows young adults to support their community

MANASSAS — Young adults in the area who want to give back to their community now have a new way to do so, thanks to a few enterprising young people in Manassas.

Laura Coates, Creative Director for Rotaract, as well as Program Coordinator for CenterFuse

Downtown Manassas, co-founded the club along with President-Elect Aaron Squires, an intern for the City of Manassas.

They are assisted by Coates’ mother, City Councilwoman Theresa Coates Ellis, who is also a Rotarian. The group founded Rotaract two months ago.

Ed Pratt, President of Manassas City’s Rotary Club, said, “I wholeheartedly support it.” He thinks the club is a “great idea.

“All the Rotaries, internationally, realized that they did not have anybody between the ages of 18 and 30, so they created the Rotaract…” Coates said.

She explained that it’s the same thing as a Rotary Club but a “younger version.” The city has two Rotary Clubs — The Rotary Club of Bull Run which meets at City Tavern restaurant in Manassas at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesdays, and the Manassas Rotary that meets for lunch at noon on Wednesdays at the Center for the Arts at the Candy Factory.

For Rotaract, members may join for $25 a year. The hope is that once someone joins the Rotaract, they then go on to become a member of the Rotary.

The Rotaract will foil a void in the area, as the nearest Rotaract Club is in Washington, D.C.

Rotaract in Manassas will partner with the Manassas-Bull Run Rotary, Manassas Rotary, and Lake Ridge Rotary clubs.

The Lake Ridge Rotary offered to pay for their starting off merchandise such as their coins and T-shirts.

A kick-off Rotaract event took place on March 27 at Jirani coffeehouse in Downtown Manassas. Coates estimated that about 20 or 25 people were there.

“The kick off was more about the Rotaries and the Rotaract all coming into the same room and saying ‘this is actually happening. These are what our goals are. Everybody get ready,’ kind of a thing,”  said Coates.

Coates said that they’ve already started to have projects, including meeting at the Freedom Aquatics and Fitness Center to do various service projects including a trash pickup, repainting old wooden structures, and re-mulching an old trail.

The Rotaract plans to have service projects every Saturday.

Aaron Squires, the President-Elect, has lived in Manassas since he was a child. When he graduated, he was looking for a way to serve the community.

Because the Rotary requires members to have a more established career, Squires saw the opportunity to start a club for younger members.

“The market was here,” Squires said. “But you turn 18, and there’s nothing you can do until you turn 30 or 35.”

By then, Squires said many people have already started their careers and families. Rotaract was a perfect opportunity for young people to serve their community.

He explained that Rotaract is more casual than the Rotary club. While Rotary members take attendance and follow more of a structure, Rotaract is “more relaxed” in order to be “more appealing to the younger generation that wouldn’t necessarily be as excited” by the regimented club format.  They aim to “make it a little more fun.”

The club meets at local businesses such as CenterFuse, a co-working space, and Jirani. Their updates can be found on their Facebook page, Manassas City Rotaract.

Squires said he knows that a lot of people stay in the area and go to school at George Mason and NOVA, but there was no club created for them. Squires explained that it was a dream of his to start this club.

“The people are here… it’s just a matter of finding them,” he said.