A Message from our Club President

print this page

Brenda Thornburgh 2011-2012 President ORBRC   Brenda joined ORBRC in 2006, sponsored by Kay Hillyard.   Her classification is Industrial Services - Laboratory, and she is the president of Galbraith Laboratories, Inc., an analytical chemistry lab in Knoxville.   Brenda and her husband, Tom (a member of the Rotary Club of Oak Ridge) are recognized as Major Donors to The Rotary Foundation, and Brenda's company has made significant donations to PolioPlus in memory of Dr. Harry Galbraith, Galbraith Lab's founder, who was a polio survivor.   The Thornburgh family lives in Oak Ridge.

The Board of Directors and members of the Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club welcome you to our website and hope you will take a few moments to get to know us and learn more about Rotary International.

The Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club is the first breakfast Rotary club in the state of Tennessee. We were chartered in 1980 and just celebrated our 30^th birthday! We are  one of 66 clubs in Rotary District 6780, which covers most of East and part of Middle Tennessee.

Each year, Rotary International introduces a new theme and the theme for 2010-2011 – “Building Communities and Bridging Continents" – is very fitting for our club. We are committed to supporting the Oak Ridge community where we work and live, however, we also take service beyond the four corners of our community. Please take time to look over the many diverse projects we support, including our Clean Water for Haiti Project and Rotary International’s End Polio Now Campaign.

If you are already a member of our club, we hope you will find the information you need on this site, either on the public pages or in the members-only section. Click here if you need to have your password sent to you again.

If you are a visiting Rotarian, we hope you will attend one of our fun and informative meetings.  We meet each week for breakfast at the Flatwater Event Center, overlooking beautiful Melton Hill Lake. It is a lovely spot to enjoy fellowship with other people who share a common bond for Rotary’s well known motto, “Service above Self.” You will find directions to our meeting space on the Meeting Information page.

 If you work or live in the Oak Ridge area and want to learn more about our club and Rotary, please click the underlined link to contact us.

Thank you again for taking time to visit our website to learn more our Rotary club, Oak Ridge and serving others.

With warm regards,

Brenda Thornburgh

ORBRC President for 2011-2012

Nancy Donsbach 2010-2011 President ORBRC    Nancy has been a member of the Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club since 2005 when she was sponsored for membership by Ray Smith. Nancy graduated from District 6780's inaugural Rotary Leadership Institute last fall with three other ORBRC members, Brenda Thornburgh, Freda Hopper and Sherry Livengood.   Nancy has been an active member of the club, participating in many activities and on several committees, including co-membership chair for the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 Rotary years. She is a Paul Harris Fellow and strongly supports Rotary International and its projects.   After Nancy recently returned from Montreal, Canada, and her first International Rotary conference in June 2010, she said she considered it a life changing event. She urges everyone to attend a Rotary conference either at the district on international level.   Nancy grew up in Oak Ridge and is a graduate of both Oak Ridge High School and David Lipscomb University in Nashville. She is the Vice President of Human Resources and Branch Administration for the Enrichment Federal Credit Union, where she has worked for more than 30 years.   She and her husband, Doug, live in Knoxville and have two grown sons, Chris and David. While she lives in Knoxville, she loves Oak Ridge and at every opportunity tells people what a wonderful place this was to grow up and go to school.   Nancy says, "I was very honored to be the President of this wonderful club and celebrate its strong heritage for 'Service Above Self' and to be following in the footsteps of some of the finest people I have ever had the opportunity to work beside."

Charles Crowe 2009-2010 President   Charles has been a member of ORBRC since 1987 when he was sponsored by then-President Bill Thomas.   A Paul Harris fellow, he was elected President Nominee in December 2007.   Prior to that, he served as VP for Internal Operations and was active in helping plan (and almost win) the District 6780 golf tournament in October 2007, when Robin Textor was District Governor and ORBRC hosted the event. Charles has been an active participant in Club activities and a sponsor of several members. He served in the 2008-2009 year as chair of the Fund-Raising committee, leading the effort that funded the club's charitable activities during his year as club president. He also has served as Rooster, co-chairman of the Rotary Walk for Mankind, assisted with the Sergeant-at-Arms duties, and served several years as the Club's Classification Officer. Charles has also been active in many of the Club's volunteer activities and currently serves as a volunteer tutor at Woodland School through the Readers & Leaders program. Charles retired from the Department of Energy in 2006, after a 30-year career, and went to work as the President and CEO of C&C Specialty Advertising. He and his wife, Edwena, have two grown children, Nicholas and Rebecca, who also now live in Oak Ridge, and who accompanied Charles and Edwena to the 2009 Rotary International Convention in Birmingham, England.