FARMINGTON — The second in a series of articles spotlighting members of the Farmington Rotary Club Kym Recco has been a Rotarian for six years carrying on the tradition of “service above self” for a third generation. As I interviewed Kym it was clear that she has a passion for community, and Maine, like the eight generations before her that put down roots in this neck of the woods. Kym grew up in Farmington (her parents are Bill and Jan Hannaford) but left for city life and college in New York City where she lived for seven years. Boston later called and she lived there for eight years before returning to Farmington to put down her own roots.

Kym has had an interesting and varied career in marketing. She is currently the Director of Business Development at Neil Patel Digital, based in San Diego. Her primary responsibilities are selling digital marketing services to enterprise fortune 500 companies such as Staples and Adobe.

Kym is very family oriented and enjoys being outdoors with her husband and border collie named Poppy. She smiled broadly when she talked about growing up skiing at Titcomb and said that alpine skiing is still in her blood.

After spending a year in Finland on Rotary Exchange when she was younger, she was hooked on service, noting that experience was “transformational.” Kym has quickly dedicated herself to Rotary and its leadership and will assume the presidency of the Farmington Club this summer.

I asked her why she is so committed to being a Rotarian and she said, “Rotary’s mission to meet local needs to keep the community safe and special is very important to me. Support of organizations such as the Care and Share Food Closet that help at a very basic level resonates with me. On a bigger scale, I admire the work that is being done with Polio.”

As Kym takes on the presidency of Farmington Rotary she has many goals. In addition to raising money, she hopes to continue growing the involvement of youth and to cultivate community volunteers (who do not need to be Rotarians) to work with the varied youth clubs that start as early as 2nd grade known as Early Act, Next Act, Impact, Interact, and Rotaract. Continuing to have gender balance in the club is on her mind as well. She also hopes her marketing background will help get more community members involved and get them to understand what it is Rotary is really doing.

She believes that Rotary’s broad reach in local communities as well as throughout the world should attract more members once they know what the organization is about. “You can plug in anywhere to address community needs.”

For more information about Farmington Rotary, visit farmington rotary.us or reach out to lisaparklaflin@gmail.com. Meetings are open to all on Thursdays at 7 a.m., at the North Dining Hall on the UMF campus.

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