West End Rotary has honored founder Ron Dietrich and all Rotarians touched by cancer with a $1,000 contribution to the Dale & Frances Hughes Cancer Center in East Stroudsburg. The donation took place May 5 as the club joined the Pocono Health Foundation in a Cinco de Mayo fundraising event.

Thanks to sponsors The Hamilton Restaurant and Moe's Southwest Grill, all proceeds from tickets sales were also donated to the center.

“The club voted to donate money to the center due to the increased need in our community for this expanded center as well as the loss of one of our charter members, Ron Dietrich, to cancer,” said Rotarian and event chair Theresa Anthony Yocum, a member of the Pocono Health Foundation board and the capital campaign board for the new center.

“Everyone has been or will be touched by cancer in some way and this was our way of supporting this much needed expansion. Cancer is now the number one killer in Monroe County--it has surpassed heart attacks/disease and is expected to increase substantially in the next 10 years.”

The club raised the money during its annual Longaberger Basket Bingo in January.

Dietrich, who co-founded West End Rotary with Wes Brush and Bob Wilson, died on Jan. 1, 2010. He was the club's first full-time president, after provisional President Wes Brush. Together they chartered the club on Jan. 29, 1988.