SUMMARY HISTORY OF ROTARY

ROTARY INTERNATIONAL: 

The world's first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois, USA, was formed on February 23, 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 and the world in the years that followed and the organization eventually adopted the name Rotary International in 1922

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.

In 1985, Rotary made an 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 90,000 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

Rotary International 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
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, 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 formed in Melbourne, Florida, USA
1965		Rotary Foundation launches Matching Grants and Group Study Exchange programs
1978		RI's largest convention, with 39,834 registrants, held in Tokyo
1983		The Rotary Club of Round Rock, Texas chartered as Club 1958 in Rotary District 5870
1985		Rotary announces PolioPlus program to immunize all the children of the world against polio
1989		Council on Legislation opens Rotary membership to women worldwide; Rotary clubs chartered in Budapest, Hungary, and Warsaw, Poland, for first time in almost 50 years
1990		Rotary Club of Moscow chartered first club in Soviet Union
1991		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; first class of 70 Rotary Peace Scholars begin study
2003		Rotarians raise more than US $118 million to support the final stages of polio eradication
2004-2005		Rotary celebrates 100 years of "Service Above Self" to mankind.

For an in-depth discussion of RI's history follow the link to Rotary International's website: http://www.rotary.org/aboutrotary/history/index.html.

ROTARY DISTRICT 5870

Our District 5870 traces its roots back to the 1925-1926 Rotary year, when Texas, which then had approximately 100 Rotary Clubs, became the site of three Districts; one of which, District 41, encompassed the northwestern part of a territory that included Waco and Austin. Our District changed numbers several times in the ensuing years finally landing on the number 587. Then in 1991 all 491 Districts in the Rotary World were renumbered by Rotary International to include a zero as the final fourth digit, making this District 5870, one of ten districts now in the state of Texas and one of 527 Districts in the world.

Our District currently consists of 61 clubs and approximately 3,000 Rotarians. For a more detailed discussion of the history of District 5870 prepared by Kaye Boyd, the District's Historian go to: www.rotary5870.org/disthistory.html.

The following is a Map of the District with the District's Rotary Clubs noted thereon.

MAP OF DISTRICT 5870