The Paulding County Rotary Club recently celebrated its 44th anniversary — years filled with putting time and money into projects throughout Paulding.

The club has sponsored different events such as the Paulding Meadows Art Festival, the Dallas Christmas Parade and an annual golf tournament, said Sam Elrod, president of the club.

Elrod is the owner of Elrod Garden Center, and has been a member of the club for the past 10 years

“The Christmas parade is huge,” Elrod said.

Usually there are around 20,000 in attendance for the event, which is the first Saturday in December each year, he said.

The money raised through the events goes to help different organizations like Boy Scouts; Boys & Girls Club; CASA, a child court advocacy organization; 4-H; a county emergency fund and more, Elrod said. The No. 1 project for Rotary is work to eradicate polio, he said.

“In 1985, Rotary International created PolioPlus — a program to immunize all the world’s children against polio.”

In the past the organization has had as many as 52 members, but is currently at 28.

For around 20 years the Paulding Rotary has sponsored the Georgia Rotary Student Program, said Earl Duncan, charter member of the Paulding club and past Paulding County Commission chairman.

The program sponsors one foreign exchange student to attend the University of West Georgia, he said.

In the past the club has featured a Vidalia onion sale, Duncan said. He said once he sold around two tons of onions.

“I went to all the other [Rotary] clubs around [to sell onions],” Duncan said.

Also the Rotarians built a gazebo at the WellStar Paulding Nursing Center.

The club has had a hand in trying to make its community look beautiful as well.

“We are responsible for about 300 trees being planted in Dallas,” Elrod said.

The group decided to plant Princeton Elm trees because all of the other elms in America were killed by Dutch elm disease, he said.

The newest program the club has started is the Paulding County Rotary Pig Skin Preview, which was held the first weekend in August 2012, Elrod said. This gives the football coaches around the county a chance to discuss their upcoming seasons, and how they think their teams will perform, he said.

Through its projects the club has been able to help residents in the county in different ways since 1969.

“It would be great to know how many people we have helped in that time,” Duncan said.