Troy Rotary Club Past-President Dave Barron passed the leadership gavel onto his new successor Robert Hawkins Tuesday.

Hawkins will take the reigns as the 2009-2010 rotary club president, and lead Rotarians in the continuing the fight against Polio.

But, Hawkins step to office was not taken without first recognizing the club’s accomplishments in the last year.

Barron said members have been contributors to the Pike County Chamber of Commerce, the Pike County Animal Shelter Coalition, Polio Plus and Relay for Life, just to name a few.

In addition, the club worked to raise more than $2,500 for the Miracle Field Leauge and provided scholarships to local students.

Barron said the club also brought several awards back from the district conference, proving how valuable the Troy Rotary Club is to the community.

“Our international theme this year was ‘Make Dreams Real,’ and I’m here to tell you the rotary club did that,” Barron said.

“Thanks for allowing me to serve you.”

Members of last years board — Robert Hawkins, Adam Drinkwater, Bob Mills, Ray Smith, Sandy Gouge, Amy Flowers, Mike Shelton, Steve Cooke, Beth Collier, Olaf Lieb and Carol Franks — all were recognized for service to the organization.

In addition, several non-rotarians were honored for their service to the club, as well.

Mary Ida Williams, Fred Gouge, Ray Flowers and Freddie Flowers were all dubbed “Friends of Rotary.”

And, Troy Councilman Charles Meeks was given the Paul Harris Fellow honor, an award given to members who put “service above self.”

The new rotary board will be Kenny Cox, Bob Mills, Barron, Adam Drinkwater, Jason Jones, Matt Baker, John Dew, Doug Hawkins, Olaf Lieb, Steve Cooke, Beth Collier and Doug McClendon.

Hawkins said he looks forward to leading the club, under the new international theme, “The future of rotary is in your hands.”

“We all have different amounts of time, different amounts of money, different talents we can spend with rotary,” Hawkins said.

“I have a lot of ties to Troy, to people in this room, and hopefully I can represent you well.”