A Brief History of Rotary
The world's first service club,
the Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois, USA, was formed on 23 February
1905 by Paul P. Harris, an attorney who wished to recapture in a
professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small
towns of his youth. The name "Rotary" derived from the early practice
of rotating meetings among members' offices.
Rotary's popularity spread
throughout the United States in the decade that followed; clubs were
chartered from San Francisco to New York. By 1921, Rotary clubs had
been formed on six continents, and the organization adopted the name
Rotary International a year later.
As Rotary grew, its mission
expanded beyond serving the professional and social interests of club
members. Rotarians began pooling their resources and contributing
their talents to help serve communities in need. The organization's
dedication to this ideal is best expressed in its principal motto:
Service Above Self. Rotary also later embraced a code of ethics,
called The 4-Way Test, that has been translated into hundreds of
languages.
During and after World War II,
Rotarians became increasingly involved in promoting international
understanding. A Rotary conference held in London in 1942 planted the
seeds for the development of the United Nations Educational,
Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and numerous Rotarians
have served as consultants to the United Nations.
An endowment fund, set up by
Rotarians in 1917 "for doing good in the world," became a
not-for-profit corporation known as The Rotary Foundation in 1928.
Upon the death of Paul Harris in 1947, an outpouring of Rotarian
donations made in his honor, totaling US$2 million, launched the
Foundation's first program — graduate fellowships, now called
Ambassadorial Scholarships. Today, contributions to The Rotary
Foundation total more than US$80 million annually and support a wide
range of humanitarian grants and educational programs that enable
Rotarians to bring hope and promote international understanding
throughout the world.
In 1985, Rotary made a historic
commitment to immunize all of the world's children against polio.
Working in partnership with nongovernmental organizations and national
governments thorough its PolioPlus program, Rotary is the largest
private-sector contributor to the global polio eradication campaign.
Rotarians have mobilized hundreds of thousands of PolioPlus volunteers
and have immunized more than one billion children worldwide. By the
2005 target date for certification of a polio-free world, Rotary will
have contributed half a billion dollars to the cause.
As it approached the dawn of the
21st century, Rotary worked to meet the changing needs of society,
expanding its service effort to address such pressing issues as
environmental degradation, illiteracy, world hunger, and children at
risk. The organization admitted women for the first time in 1989 and
claims more than 90,000 women in its ranks today. Following the
collapse of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union,
Rotary clubs were formed or re-established throughout Central and
Eastern Europe. Today, 1.2 million Rotarians belong to some 29,000
Rotary clubs in more than 160 countries. |
Atlantic Rotary History
Atlantic Rotary Begins
The following article
appeared in the
Atlantic News-Telegraph
on March 18, 1920
ROTARY CLUB HERE IS NOT
FULL FLEDGED
Local Club Formally
Inducted into Organization Last Evening by Dist. Gov. Strater of
Lincoln
FIFTY-TWO AT BANQUET
Council Bluffs and Red
Oak Men Make Merry with Local Club Big Time for Rotarians Last Nite
With everything, even
the official insignia wheel of the organization, complete save the
possession of a charter which will be forthcoming in a few days, The
Rotary Club of Atlantic, which has been in process of organization
several weeks, last nite formally became a part and parcel of the six
hundred Rotary Clubs throughout this and other countries, and the
members thereof part of the army of 60,000 men who make up its
personnel. The formal induction of the club into the organization was
made by Charles Strater of Lincoln, Nebraska, District Governor of
the organization for the sixteenth district which comprises of Iowa,
Nebraska and South Dakota. A goodly representation of the Council
Bluffs club was present at the meeting as were two members of the Red
Oak club and there was mirth, song and good cheer galore at the Rotary
room of the Merchant's Cafe, which the management of that popular
eating place has transformed into a beautiful home for the club.
The Atlantic Club's
total membership was present at the meeting. There were the usual
Rotary songs, the feature address by District Governor Strater who
told of the spirit and purposes of Rotary; and talks by M.F. Rohrer of
Council Bluffs who told of the early days in Cass and Pottawattamie
counties; Secretary Carl Pryor of Council Bluffs who told of the
history of Rotary from the time it was organized in Chicago in 1905 by
Paul Harris and three others, till the present time. J. Chris Jensen,
vice-president of the Council Bluffs club and in charge of the
delegation; Glendon Fisher, president of the Red Oak Club, and
others. Mr. Fisher for the Red Oak Club presented the Atlantic Club
with a beautiful Rotary insignia for permanent use in the club room
and Theodore Laskowski presented each of the local charter members
with a bill book, the compliments of his bank, the Council Bluffs
Savings Bank.
The decorations for the
banquet partook of St. Patrick's Day, the favors being green ribbons
and green predominating. Miss Louise Bragg, proprietress of the New
Merchant's has done herself proud in providing a room for the meeting
of the club, and the banquet last evening left nothing to be asked
for. The new room is done in blue and is most attractive in every
way.
District Governor
Strater, who made the chief address of the evening, emphasized the
importance of the coming district convention in Des Moines on the 19th
and 20th of April at which time Rotarians from the three states,
Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota will be present, about a thousand in
number is expected. He urged Atlantic to send a delegation there. He
also informed the local club of the right to send a delegate later to
the international meeting in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
The banquet was
delightful, the fellowship was sincere and all in all it was an
evening long to be remembered by the Atlantic Club and its guests. In
addition to the out of town guests, there were a number of guests from
Council Bluffs as well.
Charles Beno and Julius
Unger made the hit of the evening with their song and dance skit
"Teaching McFadden to Waltz." The John G. Woodward company of the
Bluffs sent a gift of candy to each of the Atlantic members.
J.A. Saly and Mrs. A.E.
Taylor furnished the instrumental music for the singing and during the
banquet.
Fifty-two sat down to
the banquet.
The Red Oak club, in
addition to the Rotary insignia, presented the club with a picture of
Bert Adams, head of the Rotary organization, which will occupy a
prominent place in the club room.
The Council Bluffs men
who were here, were taken on a trim about the city before the meeting
last evening and expressed their pleasure of the kind of a city
Atlantic is.
After the guests had
left last evening, the local club held a business meeting.
Standing Committees
were named as follows:
Club correspondent:
Tom Bonham
Membership Committee:
B.U. Wood, Claude Anderson, Ross Camblin
Entertainment
Committee: Tony Gillett, Roscoe Brown, Earl G. Wilson
Fellowship Committee:
Paul C. Otto, H.K. Williams, E.E. Herring
Public Affairs: E.P.
Chase, D.E. Shrauger, U.S. Mullins
Educational Committee:
W.S. Greenleaf, Ross Camblin, H.H. Egbert
Work Among Boys
Committee: D.E. Schrauger, Roy Hedges, Ross Camblin
Relations with
International Committee: C.L. Campbell, Tom Bonham, Jack Peacock |
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 in the world. In more
than 160 countries worldwide, approximately 1.2 million Rotarians
belong to more than 29,000 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 and 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 children of the world; 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 around the world.
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, which are
initiated and administered by local Rotary clubs and districts.
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