ROTARY INTERNATIONAL

ROTARY INTERNATIONAL

On 23 February 1905, Paul P. Harris, A Chicago attorney, and three business associates met in the office of one of them for what would become known as the first Rotary club meeting. Their aim was to give something back to the community. They met regularly taking it in turn to host the meetings – hence Rotary. A convention of these clubs in 1911 embraced an early version of the modern motto, “Service Above Self.”
It grew into an international organization with Clubs being formed Canada in April 1912. In August 1912 the Rotary Club of London became the first Rotary club in the UK. The Rotary Club of Dudley was formed and received its charter in December 2022.
There are now over 1,600 clubs in Great Britain and Ireland and over 46,000 clubs in 122 countries worldwide.

ROTARY FOUNDATION

In 1917 Rotary International's sixth president, Arch C. Klumph, set up an endowment fund for Rotary "to do good in the world." It has grown from US $26.50 to more than US $1 billion today. Now known as The Rotary Foundation (TRF) 88% of the imcome goes to humanitarian awards - on average about $300 million each year. Funding is both great and small. Dudley Rotary recently received $24,000 towards the Eye Clinic in India and £360 for books as part of teaching adults in Dudley to read.


ERRADICATION OF POLIO

In addition to humanitarian aid some of the TRF money is used for Rotary’s ENDPOLIO campaign.


Rotary launched PolioPlus in 1985 and was a founding member of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988. More than 2.5 billion children have received the oral polio vaccine. At the start of the campaign there were a bout 350,000 new cases each year. This year there have been only 6 new cases. Since 2009 the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has match funded (2:1) whatever Rotary donates to the campaign. Dudley Rotary has always been a supporter of the campaign. For the last several years we have been awarded a Certificate of Appreciation for our contribution. In 2014 past President David Attwood raised £12,000 by cycling from Lands End to John O’Groats.