About Rotary

Rotary is an organization of business and professional leaders united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace worldwide. In more than 160 countries worldwide, approximately 1.4 million Rotarians belong to more than 30,000 Rotary clubs.

 

Rotary club membership represents a cross-section of the community's business and professional men and women. The world's Rotary clubs meet weekly and are nonpolitical, nonreligious, and open to all cultures, races, and creeds.

 

The main objective of Rotary is service — in the community, in the workplace, and throughout the world. Rotarians develop community service projects that address many of today's most critical issues, such as children at risk, poverty and hunger, the environment, illiteracy, and violence. They also support programs for youth, educational opportunities, international exchanges for students, teachers, and other professionals, and vocational and career development. The Rotary motto is Service Above Self.

 

                  
 

Although Rotary clubs develop autonomous service programs, all Rotarians worldwide are united in a campaign for the global eradication of polio. In the 1980s, Rotarians raised US$240 million to immunize the world's children; by 2005, Rotary's centenary year and the target date for the certification of a polio-free world, the PolioPlus program will have contributed US$500 million to this cause. In addition, Rotary has provided an army of volunteers to promote and assist at national immunization days in polio-endemic countries worldwide.

 

 Rotarians are business and professional leaders who actively participate in their communities while enriching their personal and professional lives. A Rotary Club contains a diverse group of professional leaders from the club's community.

 

     Membership in a Rotary club offers many benefits, including:

  • effecting change within the community
  • advancing business and professional contacts
  • developing leadership skills
  • gaining an understanding of — and having an impact on — international humanitarian issues

 

Through Rotary International's service programs, a Rotary club can significantly affect the quality of life in its community. Rotary Foundation programs offer opportunities to form international partnerships that help people in need worldwide. Some 1.2  million Rotarians in 30,000 clubs in more than 160 countries significantly contribute to the quality of life at home and around the globe.

 

The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International is a not-for-profit corporation that promotes world understanding through international humanitarian service programs and educational and cultural exchanges. It is supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotarians and others who share its vision of a better world. Since 1947, the Foundation has awarded more than US$1.1 billion in humanitarian and educational grants initiated and administered by local Rotary clubs and districts.

 

The Foundation was created in 1917 by Rotary International's sixth president, Arch C. Klumph, as an endowment fund for Rotary "to do good in the world." It has grown from an initial contribution of US$26.50 to more than US$73 million, contributed in 2000-01. Its event-filled history is a story of Rotarians learning the value of service to humanity.

 

 

A child receives a polio vaccination through the

Rotary Foundation Polio Plus project.

         

A Rotary Foundation Matching Grant brought clean

drinking water to this small village.

 

The Foundation's Humanitarian Programs fund the International Rotary Club and district projects to improve the quality of life, providing health care, clean water, food, education, and other essential needs, primarily in the developing world. One of the major Humanitarian Programs is PolioPlus, which seeks to eradicate the polio virus worldwide. Through its Educational Programs, the Foundation funds 1,200 students to study abroad each year. Grants are also awarded to university teachers to teach in developing countries and for exchanges of business and professional people. Former Foundation program participants can continue their affiliation with Rotary as Foundation Alumni.

 

A Matching Grant from the Rotary Foundation provided solar energy for three rural.

schools near Santiago del Estero, Argentina.

 

 

     To learn more about Rotary's rich history, contact a Winchester Rotarian directly by visiting our Officers and Directors or Contact pages.