#0004 - Craig Cox

How can community service create stronger neighborhoods, lasting friendships, and meaningful opportunities for local students?

In this episode of The Rotary Spark Podcast, we sit down with Craig Cox of the South Oklahoma City Rotary Club to talk about service, friendship, and the impact local Rotary projects can have on a community.

Craig shares how, in just two years as a Rotarian, he has built new relationships, found a stronger sense of community, and become involved in projects that directly support local families and students. His experience shows that you do not have to spend decades in an organization to begin making a meaningful difference.

We take a closer look at several of the South Oklahoma City Rotary Club’s signature initiatives, including its annual pancake breakfast and partnership with Gateway Charter School. Through projects such as a book-a-thon and bike-a-thon, club members help encourage reading, improve school attendance, reward student achievement, and create positive experiences for young people.

Craig also talks candidly about balancing Rotary with a busy professional and family life. His story is a reminder that community service does not have to mean giving up everything else. Even with limited time, people can still find practical ways to serve, build friendships, and contribute to something larger than themselves.

For anyone interested in getting more involved locally, Craig also shares how people can connect with Rotary, attend a meeting, and discover service opportunities that match their interests.

In this episode:

• How Craig Cox became involved with Rotary
• His first two years in the South Oklahoma City Rotary Club
• Building friendships through community service
• The South Oklahoma City Rotary pancake breakfast
• Rotary’s partnership with Gateway Charter School
• Supporting literacy through a book-a-thon
• Encouraging attendance and achievement through a bike-a-thon
• Helping and motivating local students
• Balancing work, family, and volunteer service
• Why Rotary can be a flexible way to get involved
• How to connect with a local Rotary club
• The personal rewards of giving back
• Building stronger communities through service

Whether you are already involved in Rotary International, looking for volunteer opportunities, interested in civic leadership, or simply searching for a way to make a positive difference in your community, Craig’s story offers a practical and encouraging look at what local service can accomplish.

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Transcript

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Brian Triger 0:25

Welcome to the Rotary Spark Podcast . I'm your host , Brian Treiger , and with me today I have Craig Cox from the South Oklahoma City Rotary Club .

Craig Cox 0:33

How are you doing today , Craig ? Very good .

Brian Triger 0:35

Tell us more about your club and what's going on right now .

Craig Cox 0:38

Well , pretty much you know . We're obviously in the fall season getting ready you know for .

Craig Cox 0:43

Christmas . We're obviously in the fall season getting ready , you know , for Christmas . We have our big pancake breakfast , which we just talked about today , coming up in December . On December 7th We'll have it at the South Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce . Other than that , you know , just kind of getting you know plans ready for the next year and kind of see what other projects that we've got coming up next year and kind of see what other projects that we've got coming up . One of our biggest projects is obviously doing things for there's a charter school it's called Gateway Charter School here in South Oklahoma City . We do a bike-a-thon for them and we , just as a matter of fact , we just completed a . We did a book-a-thon for them down at the Wheeler District right off of Western and it's kind of a new district in South Oklahoma City .

Brian Triger 1:32

Tell us a little bit more about the book-a-thon . That sounds like a cool thing .

Craig Cox 1:35

It was . It really is . One of our members , Bob Frakes , has really been involved with them over the last few years and basically what it is we bring out books , you know , and basically offer them for sale to the people that come to . They have a farmer's market and anyway there's , you know , over there at the Wheeler District it's obviously there's housing there . It's a real new , exciting area and anyway people just come by and you know there's local vendors , food trucks , all that good stuff and they buy books and it really I can't remember how much what the final total is that we raised this year , but it was a pretty good sum , so that's fantastic and is this is this every year .

Craig Cox 2:18

This is our second year to do this , so we raise more . I already know we raise more money this year than we did last year and you mentioned the bike-a-thon as well .

Brian Triger 2:28

Is that the raising funds for bicycles tied to attendance ?

Craig Cox 2:33

Yes, correct . Kids that have great good attendance , I mean they get , we give out 10 bikes . Uh , and then they . We come to the school , you know , present them with a certificate and all that good stuff in front of their assembly , and of course we'll assemble the bikes and have them ready for each kid .

Brian Triger 2:52

Okay , great , and if our listeners want to learn a little bit more about these programs , would they be able to reach out to you or your club ?

Craig Cox 2:58

Yeah , absolutely . They can contact Nicole Heineke or really anybody , anybody in our group , and we can give them information or go to our website , obviously too .

Brian Triger 3:09

Perfect , I'll make sure that the links are available . That way , anyone who wants to get plugged in can . Sure how long have you been in Rotary .

Craig Cox 3:15

So yeah , I've been in Rotary now for two years . You know , as a lot of people , Jack Warner brought me in . He's our current governor . It's been very eye-opening . I've kind of always had this attitude of service and that's pretty much what fills my void there . For that , with Rotary , I've seen myself want to become more involved , sometimes more involved than I can be because I'm very busy with my business and , of course , my family as well . It's been very near and dear to me . A lot of new friends . I can't explain it . I've been very grateful for it .

Brian Triger 4:04

So , anyway , that's inspiring , but we've been in Rotary around the same amount of time I've been in for about a year and a half or so , so seeing other people that right have a similar amount of experience . It's inspiring to kind of right right to keep going uh , tell us a little bit more about any other projects that you're excited about , or , uh , really just anything that's on your mind . Like maybe a little bit more about , uh , what you do professionally and how that's changed over .

Craig Cox 4:30

Sure , sure , so I'm really one of my big things has been , and especially this year , is to obviously get out and visit all the clubs , especially in the metro area . Uh , I've , I've been . I might as well be a member of bricktown . I'm there every monday night . Uh , that you know , it's real good with my schedule . I've been to midwest City Year Club a few times and I really feel like that's a good way of you know , getting out there , getting to know everybody , you know , finding maybe some more projects within other clubs that you know that I could really be involved with and be of service to .

Craig Cox 5:15

That's real big to me to get out and about . Jack has encouraged that and it's been beneficial to me as well . Obviously , I've gained a lot of new friends in Bricktown Rotary who are close to me and so anyway I love it . They had this one project they do every year for the Prater-Willie Foundation and they , you know , basically they go up and they meet with all of the , a bunch of the people that have Prater-Willie . They'll come up there and have a conference and basically all the caregivers will have their conference , while we'll be involved with all of the you know , all of their siblings , you know children , whatever and kind of guide them around the , the uh , it used to be the omniplex that's kirk patrick center , that's what it was when I was a kid , but anyway that was pretty fun and , you know , very inspiring to me , very cool .

Brian Triger 6:09

For any prospective members . Would you have any guidance for them ?

Craig Cox 6:15

Well , sure , I would say that if you don't have a motivation to , be of service first which is our, you know , that's our kind of our flagship , our mission statement . I don't think it's going to be for you . I mean , I think that's what you've got , to have that mentality and you know , and I would say , get out like I am and meet people . You know , it's just , it's been a life changer for me , so I would suggest that , of course .

Brian Triger 6:45

And I like that you said that . I think that , just to be complimentary to what was mentioned , I think that showing up for the first few times and really getting exposure to what rotary is and getting a chance to connect with people that are in more of a service mindset , craig , how has your life been shaped , personally and professionally , by rotary ?

Craig Cox 7:12

life been shaped , personally and professionally , by Rotary . I've gained some business out of it . My business relationship with Jack has been very beneficial to me . He in a lot of ways has been a mentor to me in how I conduct business . So I think that's one thing that I've really learned , you know , and I've also too , you know . Just the service side of Rotary has kind of I don't know made me more , maybe , open to client ideas , listening to my clients more . I think let's do what the customer wants more than just you know .

Craig Cox 7:48

Hey , here's our you know , here's our scope of work , you know , be done with them . I've tried to be more I don't know closer to them . I guess you would say I really like that .

Brian Triger 8:08

You say that because you know , as a new business owner myself , I feel like really hammering home that relationship piece , just really focusing on the individual , seeing whether or not I fit in , seeing whether or not other people fit in , and not taking it as personally . If that communication doesn't necessarily push to winning on both sides , right , okay , push to winning on both sides being okay and just recognizing the fact that the relationship component is much more important than anything else that happens .

Craig Cox 8:31

You know it produces residual business for sure . So yeah , treat your client the best you can . Always listen to them , put them first .

Brian Triger 8:42

Yeah , I like that a lot and being around a good group of people that legitimately care about each other . I mean we have our flaws right , just like but just giving each other the opportunity to truly express ourselves and see where the individual or the group of people are really at , and just acknowledging the fact that everyone's kind of on their own timeline has been has been huge for me personally and professionally . Yeah , absolutely so . Uh , let's talk a minute about the event in calgary . Do you plan on going to uh the international convention ?

Craig Cox 9:22

very much so very much so , yes , yeah , I I've never been to calgary , obviously . So , yeah , that alone in itself is a motivator and plus , you know , getting to meet people from other clubs around the country . I mean , that's something else too that you know , when I'm in my travels , I would really like to visit , you know , because everyone's different , you know . I mean , like even our clubs within our own district are different , you know , and so to maybe visit those clubs and , you know , get to know them , would be huge , maybe learn service events .

Craig Cox 9:52

They do to bring them back to . You know other ideas , bring them back to our district . That's something that you know is a huge motivator to me . You know cause I , you know , like anything and I've , I've kind of got the goal I'd like to be in leadership someday within Rotary , you know . So you gotta have good ideas , obviously , and be able to run you know run things in a good way .

Brian Triger 10:16

I think learning those lessons from other people , uh , can really help shape kind of those ideas out of curiosity . Are there any positions or areas of Rotary that you'd like to lead in , or are you just no , just , you know it's kind of those deals , you know work your way up the chain .

Craig Cox 10:32

I mean you're not going to be a governor right away , but you know you're , you've , you know work your way up and that's you know , of course , kind of like a business .

Brian Triger 10:43

Yeah , no , I liked that a lot , even this . The idea of this podcast came from you know another district , so I really liked the fact that you pointed out a shout out to District 5280 and , uh , Albert Hernandez . Right now for for uh encouraging this development within our own district and I , I think uh personally uh someone who's really interested in tech . I really like that aspect of just kind of borrowing ideas .

Craig Cox 11:08

Absolutely .

Brian Triger 11:08

Where everything fits together , yeah . One of the coolest things that district leadership's pointed out to me recently is that you can literally pick up the phone and call almost anyone in Rotary and you know , sometimes , just like a lot of other people's lives , especially Rotarians people are going to be busy , but they really . It's fascinating to see what actually happens . Most of the people that I've reached out to will give you the time of day Absolutely .

Brian Triger 11:35

So I think , I don't really know of another organization that I'm part of or that I will be part of that gives me that level of attention or care .

Craig Cox 11:45

That's right , absolutely .

Brian Triger 11:46

And who better to do business with than other Rotarians . Yeah , I like that . So , thanks again for coming out and joining us . Do you have any last words , any thoughts or ideas that you want to push ?

Craig Cox 12:00

No , I mean I just you know . Hopefully 2025 will be an even bigger and better year , obviously , once we get past this , big election we've got coming up , you know with our country . Hopefully that'll , things will be better , and outside of that , just keep on a rock and roll . Thank you again .

Brian Triger 12:20

Craig , and thank you for tuning into the Rotary Spark podcast . We appreciate your support and engagement . A special shout out to Nancy Lane from District 5810 , wishing you a very happy early birthday . We hope your day is filled with joy and celebration . Until next time , keep spreading the spark .