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Rotary was created on 23 February 1905 in Chicago, U.S.A., by Paul Harris, a lawyer who had small-town roots. It was Harris’ wish to capture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. The Rotary name derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members’ offices.
During the first Rotary Club meeting on 23 February 1905 in Chicago, Paul Harris and three other businessmen met to talk about their personal experiences. This was the simple beginning of the world’s first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago.
The greatest example of Rotary’s effective collaborations is its flagship program, PolioPlus, which aims to eradicate polio worldwide. Rotary International, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the British and German governments recently committed more than $630 million in new funds to fight polio, a crippling and sometimes fatal disease that still paralyzes children in parts of Africa and Asia and threatens children everywhere. The Gates Foundation is awarding a $255 million challenge grant to Rotary, which Rotary will match with $100 million raised by its members over the next three years.
Rotary International has performed countless humanitarian projects around the world. Rotary is an organization of business and professional people united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world.
The Rotary Club of Anguilla has a proud history since its inception in 1978. For more than ten years, the local Rotary Club, under the direction of Rotarian Dr. David Bergland, now a retired veterinarian and Honourary Rotarian, sent crippled children to Shiners’ Hospital in Chicago every year for remedial treatment.
The Club has rebuilt roofs of houses that were damaged in hurricanes, repainted old peoples’ homes, and contributed to emergency relief in neighbouring islands as required. Rotary maintains a standing account for future emergency hurricane needs, locally and internationally.
The Club has also donated wheelchairs, crutches and canes to those in need. A few years ago, Rotarians repainted the outside of the Princess Alexandra Hospital. The Rotary Club also purchased a “jaws of life” to be used in emergency situations.
A current project being organized as a joint project between the Rotary Club of Anguilla and the Rotary Club of Vero Beach, Florida, hopes to fund much-needed equipment and supplies to upgrade the W.I.S.E. (Workshop Initiative in Support of Education) program on the island. Plans are underway to bring this project to completion by the fall of 2009.
The Rotary Four-Way Test governs the way Rotarians think, speak, and act. To celebrate the 104th year of Rotary, the Rotary Club of Anguilla has erected signs on the north side of the Salt Pond in Sandy Ground. As you drive by, you can see these four principles so important to Rotarians everywhere.
Rotary Club of Anguilla meets every Thursday evening at Roy’s Bayside Grill at 6:00 p.m.
In the photo: Rotary President, Anne Edwards, stands with the first of the 4 Four-Way Test signs in Sandy Ground |
