ROTARY is a worldwide organization of business and professional leaders that provides humanitarian service, encourages high ethical standards in all vocations, and helps build goodwill and peace in the world.

ROTARY is the world’s first service club. The first Rotary club was founded in Chicago, Illinois, USA on February 23, 1905. Today it has over 1.4 million service-minded men and women belonging to more than 35,000 Rotary clubs in 200 nations.

ROTARY allows you to join leaders, exchange ideas, and take action.

Motto: Service Above Self

Brief History of Rotary

Paul P. Harris, an attorney, wanted to create a professional group with the same friendly spirit he felt in the small towns of his youth. On February 23, 1905, Harris, Gustavus Loehr, Silvester Schiele, and Hiram Shorey gathered at Loehr’s office in Room 711 of the Unity Building in downtown Chicago. This was the first Rotary club meeting. They decided to call the new club “Rotary” after the practice of rotating meeting locations.

Within five years, clubs had formed across the country, from San Francisco to New York. In August 1910, Rotarians held their first convention in Chicago. The 16 clubs that existed at that time united to form the National Association of Rotary Clubs. In 1912, the name changed to the International Association of Rotary Clubs to reflect the addition of clubs in other countries. The name Rotary International was adopted in 1922. By July 1925, Rotary had grown to more than 2,000 clubs and an estimated 108,000 members on six continents.

In 1979 Rotary helped found the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Rotary has immunized more than 2.5 billion children in 122 countries and has contributed more than $1.8 billion toward eradicating the disease worldwide! The efforts has reduced polio cases by 99.9% since our first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979.