Naperville resident named Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary International

On Thursday, June 10, Dolores Bopp Potterton was named as a Paul Harris Fellow by The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International.

This honor is The Rotary's way of expressing its appreciation for substantial contributions made to its humanitarian and educational programs.

It is named for founder Paul Harris, a Chicago Lawyer who began Rotary International in 1905.

Many notable figures have been named Paul Harris Fellows, including Mother Teresa, President Jimmy Carter, astronaut James Lovell, United Nations Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar and polio vaccine developer Jonas Salk.

A Naperville resident since 1988, Bopp Potterton has spent the bulk of her life actively participating in service projects, missions, and causes.

She is the founder of U4Uganda, a nonprofit organization established in 2010 to provide children of Alenga, Uganda with the resources to support meaningful education.

Over the past 10 years, u4uganda.org has made significant improvements in the Alenga community of 100,000 people including furnishing 21 of 58 schools with desks to allow 10,000 children to no longer sit on dirt floors in classrooms.

During severe flooding this past year, U4U raised funds to feed more than 5,500 people. In 2018 and 2019 the organization brought solar lights to 3,000 families in Alenga.

In addition to her work in Africa, Bopp Potterton has raised nearly $1 million over the past 24 years as team captain of the Walking with Dolores MS Walk team, one of the top fundraising teams for the National MS Society.

She has also organized and served on dozens of service mission trips to areas where the needs are great, including Quito, Equator, Katrina Relief in Mississippi, and numerous locations in the 13-state Appalachia Mountain Region.