The Rotary Club of Warren held its first meeting of 2026 on Tuesday, Jan. 13 inside the Fellowship Hall at First Methodist Church. The club heard from Junior Rotarians Jennifer Carpenter and Sydney Clark from Warren High School to begin things. Rotarian Carla Wardlaw then introduced her program of Warren High School Girls Basketball Coach Mary Beth Grant to the group along with senior players Charlee Wardlaw and Alyssa Calbert. Coach Grant spoke about the team’s season up to this point as the Lady Jacks are currently 17-2 on the season.
She continued by talking about the leadership qualities of the senior student-athletes and how it’s made a big difference from the previous season. She answered a question about the junior high squad before telling the group that there are 11 games left in the season before postseason play with 10 conference games on the slate. The team’s first conference game is this Friday night at home against a good Watson Chapel team. Tip-off is at 5:30 p.m., with the senior boys game to follow the senior girls. She encouraged the Rotarians to come out and watch the team compete.
One additional order of business was taken before the end of the meeting with the Rotary Club voting to make Jessica Griffin an Honorary Rotarian. Griffin, a former Junior Rotarian, presented to Rotary in March about her position as the Local Lead of Early Childhood Education for the Southeast Arkansas Education Service Cooperative and heard about Rotary’s commitment to the Bradley County Imagination Library. Griffin then made a sizable donation to the project, so the club voted to recognize her as an Honorary Rotarian. The club’s next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 27 at noon.
