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Brief History
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. In 1945, 49
Rotary members served in 29 delegations
to the United Nations Charter Conference.
Rotary still actively participates in UN
conferences by sending observers to major
meetings and promoting the United Nations
in Rotary publications. Rotary International's
relationship with the United Nations Educational,
Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
dates back to a 1943 London Rotary conference
that promoted international cultural and
educational exchanges. Attended by ministers
of education and observers from around the
world, and chaired by a past president of
RI, the conference was an impetus to the
establishment of UNESCO in 1946.
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 (worldwide) in
1989 and claims more than 145,000 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 31,000 Rotary clubs in 166
countries. |
