What Is Rotary?

Rotary International is a volunteer organization of business and professional leaders who provide humanitarian service, and help to build goodwill and peace in the world. There are approximately 1.2 million Rotary club members belonging to more than 32,000 Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas. Founded in Chicago in 1905, Rotary celebrated 100 years of service in 2005. During the past 60 years, The Rotary Foundation has awarded more than US$1.1 billion in humanitarian and educational grants, which are administered at the local level.

What is the purpose of Rotary?

Rotary clubs exist to improve communities locally and around the world. Rotary also encourages high ethical standards in business and professions. Rotary clubs work to advance international understanding by partnering with clubs in other countries.

What do Rotary clubs do?

Rotary clubs address critical issues in communities worldwide. Examples of Rotary’s focus areas include the following: Polio eradication — In 1985, Rotary’s members vowed to make the world free of the crippling disease polio. This commitment to end polio represents the largest private-sector support of a global health initiative to date. Rotary has already committed US $600 million and countless hours of volunteer work to help immunize nearly 2 billion children throughout the world. Fewer than 2,000 new polio cases were reported worldwide in 2006, a 99 percent reduction since 1988 when polio paralyzed more than 350,000 children a year. Fewer than 1,000 new cases were reported worldwide in 2008. Rotary is a spearheading partner — along with UNICEF, WHO, and the CDC — in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

International education

Rotary is the world’s largest privately-funded source of international scholarships. Each year, about 1,000 university students receive Rotary scholarships to study abroad. Rotary clubs also coordinate a high school-age student exchange program that sends nearly 8,000 students abroad for three months to a year.

Peace  

In an effort to educate current and future peacemakers and ambassadors, Rotary administers two peace-related educational programs. The Rotary Centers for International Studies provides master’s level education in conflict resolution at eight prestigious universities worldwide to groups of 60 Rotary World Peace Fellows chosen annually. The Rotary Peace and Conflict Studies Program provides professional development training for up to 30 professionals chosen biannually from a wide variety of industries and professions.

Humanitarian projects

Rotary clubs initiate thousands of humanitarian projects every year. Rotary addresses problems that create instability and trigger conflicts — hunger, poverty, poor health, and illiteracy.

Literacy

Rotary clubs are engaged in the fight against illiteracy worldwide. One example is a program in Thailand that dramatically reduced school failure and was adopted by the Thai government for all the nation’s schools.

Water management

Recognizing the importance of clean water, many Rotary clubs help to install wells and develop water treatment and distribution systems to increase access to fresh drinking water for communities in need, especially in developing countries.


Rotary In Hawai‘i - THE DISTRICT 5000 HISTORY
By Gary Siracusa, RGHF Member PDG, 30 July 2006

Like over 90% of everything that comes to Hawaiʻi, Rotary arrived in Hawaiʻi aboard the ship Lurline in 1915, just 10 years after the beginning of Rotary in Chicago. One of the benefits of Rotary is fellowship and the Hawaiʻi Rotary connection grew from the social acquaintance between V.O. Lawrence, a member of the No.3 Rotary Club of Oakland, CA, and James L. Coke, later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Hawaiʻi. As they sailed together from San Francisco to Hawaiʻi, they talked about Rotary and how to introduce Rotary to Hawaiʻi.

Upon arrival in Honolulu, Justice Coke invited a number of local professionals and businessmen to meet with Lawrence and himself at the old Commercial Club. After the objectives of Rotary had been explained by Lawrence, the group decided to organize the Rotary Club of Honolulu. The charter was dated July 1, 1915, and twenty-eight members had the distinction of membership in the 170th club admitted to Rotary which at that time had a total membership of approximately 20,000 members.

In June 1920, Charles C. Graves, President of the Rotary Club of Honolulu, made a trip to Hilo on the Big Island and invited about twenty businessmen to dinner. As a result, an application was made to Rotary for a charter. The request was granted on December 1, 1920, and with 16 members, the Rotary Club of Hilo became the second club in the Territory of Hawaiʻi and the 795th in Rotary.

The Secretary of the Rotary Club of Honolulu, John Caldwell, spent two years working on the formation of a third club again on Oahu in the Wahiawa-Waialua area. He was assisted by Steven Bowen of Wahiawa and on May 27, 1937, Club President Steven Bowen received the charter for club no.4168, the Rotary Club of Wahiawa-Waialua.

The Rotary Club of Kauai was admitted on August 23, 1937, as club no.4378 – John Caldwell along with fellow Rotary Club of Honolulu members Wayne Stewart and Charles Loomis teamed up on organizing this club and the charter President was W.P. Alexander. 

The Rotary Club of Honolulu assisted with the formation of the Rotary Club of Maui with David C. Rattery as its first President, received their charter on November 4, 1937, as club no.4478. Later, in 1950-51, the assignment of charter club numbers was discontinued as the number of Rotary clubs swelled to over 7,000. Rotary was now represented on all four major islands in Hawaiʻi.

It was about this time that Rotarians in the Territory of Hawaiʻi petitioned for the organization as a district; up until now, we were part of California District 104. At its January 1938 board meeting, Rotary International approved the split of District 104 and all the clubs in Hawaiʻi united under the new designation of District 100. Wayne Stewart, past president of the Rotary Club of Honolulu became the first District Governor for D100; Rotary came of age in the Territory of Hawaiʻi with only five clubs and 231 members. In 1950, District 100 was redesignated as D150 and again changed in 1950 to D500. The current designation as D5000 occurred in 1991.

The 6th club in the Territory of Hawaiʻi – the Rotary Club of Waikiki - was organized once again through the efforts of a committee from the Rotary Club of Honolulu. Frank Cleve was the charter president and the club held its first meeting at the Green Lantern Restaurant on Kalakaua Avenue (later known as the Wagon Wheel Restaurant).

One of the most significant events for District 500 was hosting the 60th International Rotary Convention in May 1969. It was a colossal undertaking for the geographically spread District and involved hundreds of Rotarians from throughout the State. At that time, it was the 2nd largest Convention held in the United States and attracted 14,684 attendees from 66 countries. The President of Rotary International that year was Kiyoshi Togasaki of Japan.

Credit for the award to Hawaiʻi of the 1969 convention should go to Morley Theaker of the Rotary Club of Honolulu; he was instrumental in the effort to bring the convention to Hawaiʻi and after securing the support of local Rotarians, personally carried the formal invitation to Chicago where he met with R.I. President Carl Miller and convinced him of the ability of the Hawaiʻi Rotarians to host the event. Carl later moved to Hawaiʻi and became a very active member of the Rotary Club of Honolulu.

In 1990, the American Red Cross honored the Rotary Clubs of Hawaiʻi for outstanding community and public service, presenting the District with its Humanitarian Award. This was the first time that one international organization was honored by another international organization with a national award here in Hawaiʻi.

One of the first to suggest the addition of the keyway to the Rotary Wheel was Charles R. Frazier. The Rotary International Board of Directors approved the addition of the keyway in 1923. Without a keyway, a gear is just an idler spinning, incapable of transmitting power.

As of July 2009, District 5000 has approximately 2,200 member Rotarians in 48 Clubs located on the four islands of Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and the Big Island. We are part of Zone 26 and participate in the Far West PETS (presidents-elect training seminar) with eight other districts from Zones 25 and 26.

In remembrance of PDG Clarence McIntosh who provided the early history of Rotary in our District.
 

Rotary Milestones

1905 First Rotary club organized in Chicago, Illinois, USA

1908 Second club formed in San Francisco, California, USA

1910 First Rotary convention held in Chicago, Illinois, USA

1912 The Rotary Club of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, becomes the first club outside the United States to be officially chartered. (The club was formed in 1910.)

1917 Endowment fund, the forerunner of The Rotary Foundation, established

1932 4-Way Test formulated by Chicago Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor

1945 Forty-nine Rotarians help draft United Nations Charter in San Francisco

1947 Rotary founder Paul Harris dies; first 18 Rotary Foundation scholarships granted

1962 First Interact club was formed in Melbourne, Florida, USA

1965 Rotary Foundation launches Matching Grants and Group Study Exchange programs

1985 Rotary announces Polio Plus program to immunize all the children of the world against polio

1987 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Rotary Clubs are subject to regulations banning discrimination, paving the way for women to join Rotary

1989 Council on Legislation opens Rotary membership to women worldwide; and women's clubs were chartered in Budapest, Hungary, and Warsaw, Poland, for the first time

1990 Rotary Club of Moscow chartered the first club in the Soviet Union

1990-91 Preserve Planet Earth program inspires some 2,000 Rotary-sponsored environmental projects

1994 Western Hemisphere declared polio-free

1999 Rotary Centers for International Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution established

2000 Western Pacific declared polio-free

2001 30,000th Rotary club chartered

2002 Europe declared polio-free; the first class of 70 Rotary Peace Scholars begins study

2003 Rotarians raise more than US$118 million to support the final stages of polio eradication

2004 RI’s largest convention with 45,381 attendees, held in Osaka, Japan

2005 Rotary Celebrates centennial in Chicago, Illinois, USA

2007 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gives US $100 million and issues US $100 million challenge

2009 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gives an additional US $255 Million and issues a second $100 million challenge

2012 India is no longer polio-endemic, Rotary meets the $200 Million Challenge.