History of Rotary

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Rotary International is an international service organization whose stated human rights purpose is to bring together business and professional leaders in order to provide humanitarian services, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and to advance goodwill and peace around the world. It is a secular organization open to all people regardless of race, color, creed, religion, gender, or political preference. There are 34,282 member clubs worldwide. 1.2 million individuals called Rotarians have joined these clubs operating in 168 countries world-wide .Rotary International is a global network of service volunteers. There are some 58,000 Rotarians in Great Britain and Ireland in 1,845 clubs, helping those in need and working towards world understanding and peace. Its a fulfilling role, and Rotarians can get involved as much or as little as their time will allow.  But there is much more. Clubs meet on a regular basis, which allows members to build firm friendships. Every Rotarian has a right to attend any Club meeting anywhere in the world, so there is always somewhere to go, and people to meet, wherever business or leisure travel may take you.

Various Clubs have different emphases, which can reflect differences in size. A small market town may have a Club of perhaps 20 members, whereas in large centres the number can be closer to 100. Some concentrate on local community or vocational projects. Others link up with a sister club in another country to undertake an international project. Each Club decides how it wants to use the resources it has available.

The world’s first service club was the Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois, USA. The club was formed 23 February 1905 by lawyer Paul P. Harris and three friends — a merchant, a coal dealer, and a mining engineer. Harris wished to recapture the friendly spirit he had felt in the small town where he had grown up. The name “Rotary” was derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members’ offices.

The first Rotary club was formed to promote fellowship among its members. Word of the club soon spread and other businessmen were invited to join. By the end of 1905, the Rotary Club of Chicago had 30 members. Three years later, a second club was formed in San Francisco, California, USA.

As Rotary grew, its focus shifted to service and civic obligations. Early service projects included building public “comfort stations” near Chicago’s City Hall and delivering food to needy families. In 1913, the 50 Rotary clubs then in existence contributed US$25,000 for flood relief in two US Midwestern states.

By the end of its first decade, Rotary had grown so large (nearly 200 clubs and more than 20,000 members) that a district structure was required. During Rotary’s second decade, clubs were launched in South and Central America, India, Cuba, Europe, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

During World War I, Rotary discovered new areas of service — at home in war relief and peace-fund drives as well as in active service and overseas in emergency efforts. After World War II, many clubs disbanded during the war were re-established, initiating a new era of service. Clubs in Switzerland and elsewhere organised relief efforts for refugees and prisoners of war. Forty-nine Rotarians participated in the 1945 United Nations Charter Conference in San Francisco.

The Rotary Foundation was established in 1917 as an endowment fund and became The Rotary Foundation in 1928. When Paul Harris died in 1947, Rotarians donated generously to the Foundation as a memorial.  The Rotary Foundation’s first program was Graduate Fellowships (now called Ambassadorial Scholarships), which sent 18 students abroad to seven countries in 1947.