“Join or Die” encourages local Rotarians to unite community

Published 8:30 am Friday, April 10, 2026

Do you belong to a club, or any type of community organization in Federal Way? Do you consider yourself a “joiner?”

Federal Way’s Rotary Club hopes that if not, you decide to join something.

The local Rotarians kicked off a year of programming intended to “Unite the Divided Community” on April 2 with a screening of “Join or Die” — a film about “why you should join a club … and why the fate of America depends on it.”

The film focuses on the research of Robert Putnam, a social scientist who wrote the book “Bowling Alone.” Through his research, Putnam evaluated the impact of these small social groups on the health of participants, access to democracy and societal health, and the well-being of a community in general.

Small local organizations act as social safety nets, promote a sense of community and civic engagement, and often bring benefits far greater than the activities and their original intended purpose, the film shows.

Rotary Club members led a discussion and workshop after the viewing. They had expected a crowd of about 50 to 60 people, but around 80 actually attended, according to Rotarian Rajiv Nagaich, who has been a Rotary Club member since he was 16 years old.

In Federal Way, in addition to the Rotary Club, there are the Soroptimists, the Kiwanis Club, the Lions, the Federal Way Black Collective, the Crazy Quilters and the Word Nerds.

There is a running club, a walking club, an amateur radio club, a virtual reality club, a society dedicated to spreading awareness of founding father Alexander Hamilton, and one dedicated to planting native plants.

For almost any interest, an organized group of people who appreciate that interest can be found nearby, even in Federal Way.

Groups gather for political discussions and protests, to pick up litter, to make meals for people experiencing homelessness, to create art, to sing, to dance, to pray, to discuss their faith, to mentor the next generation and more.

While these groups exist, a household pulse survey from the U.S. Census in 2024 found that almost half of adults in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro area feel lonely at least sometimes, with a combined 45% answering they feel lonely either sometimes, usually or always.

The film offers one solution to this loneliness, highlighting that from the 1970s to the 1990s, there has been a 40% decline in the number of Americans who attended even one public meeting on town or school affairs in the previous year, and a 50% decline from the 1970s to the 1990s in the number of times Americans attended a club meeting the previous year.

Division and mistrust have also been on the rise throughout the country, which inspired the local Rotarians to host this film screening and plan a year’s worth of events focusing on these issues.

While social research has found that Washington has the sixth highest level of trust in the United States (with 43% of people agreeing with the statement “most people can be trusted” in a 2024 poll), overall levels of trust across the country have been going down over the past several decades.

“It’s all about the dividedness. You’ve got Republicans, you’ve got Democrats, you’ve got Christians, you’ve got Hindus, you’ve got all these divisions that are there. It’s never been as bad as this, ever. So we just sat down and said, ‘Well, what can we do?’ And the idea was to get people a safe place they can come regardless of what their differences are,” Nagaich told the Mirror.

In that discussion, the Rotarians realized that a one-time event wouldn’t be enough to bring any change in the sense of unity in the city. To have any hope for an impact, they decided to expand their civic engagement initiative to a year where they will focus on “highly visible community service projects demonstrating how organizations bring people together to honor, serve and strengthen Federal Way,” they shared in a flyer.

The next event will be centered on Memorial Day, with an installation of thousands of white memorial stakes, and a pancake breakfast fundraiser that will be free to veterans.

Events in June and July will focus on first responders, including firefighters and police, respectively.

In August, the club will highlight and raise money for the Multi-Service Center, then in September, will focus on elder care education. The year will wrap up with a Santa House Holiday Celebration in December that will be free to the community.

For each of their events, their goal is to invite the community to get involved through volunteering, donating to a good cause and coming together in person around positive aspects of the community.

At the film screening, Nagaich shared they already had 18 or 19 community leaders express interest in volunteering in the future.

About Rotary

The international organization has been around since 1905 and its members have had impacts in a wide variety of areas, from the eradication of polio to international youth exchange programs, to scholarships, to solar installation projects and more.

In Federal Way, the Rotary Club supports the BAG program, the William J. Woods Veterans House, and in the past has had youth exchanges “from Federal Way to Frankfurt, Detroit to Dakar and Sydney to Strasbourg,” according to their website.

The club is made up of business owners and community leaders and also hosts a variety of community events and fundraisers to benefit those who need it most.

More information is available at federalwayrotary.com