10 Cool Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Rotary
More information about Rotary International, the Spruce Grove service club I recently joined. The facts below are taken mainly from two of Rotary International’s publications, This is Rotary and The ABCs of Rotary.
Did you know…?
1) Worldwide polio cases have decreased an astounding 99% since 1988 due to Rotary’s PolioPlus participation in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Rotarians have vowed not to stop until polio is wiped from the earth to prevent this deadly disease from ever making a comeback.
2) $1.5 billion could be saved annually around the world if polio were eradicated. This money could be applied to other public health priorities, and the savings in human suffering is immeasurable.
3) More than $650 million have been contributed by Rotary members to PolioPlus.
4) The Gates & Buffett Foundation offered to donate $355 million to PolioPlus for polio immunization campaigns in developing countries if Rotarians contributed an additional $200 million by June 2012. Success is imminent as $160 million had already been raised by December 2010.
5) 9,000 secondary-school students annually experience life in another country through the Rotary Youth Exchange.
6) How big is Rotary International? 32,000 clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas around the world initiate service projects to address today’s challenges, including literacy, disease, hunger, poverty, lack of clean water, and environmental concerns. The clubs get to work immediately whenever a crisis strikes; at this very moment Rotarians are busy in the earthquake regions of New Zealand and Japan.
7) 1.2 million business, professional, and community leaders make up the Rotary global network of community volunteers who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards, and help build goodwill and peace in the world numbers.
8) The organization that holds the highest consultative status given by the United Nations to nongovernmental organizations is Rotary International.
9) The first Rotary club meeting was held in Chicago on February 23, 1905. Five years later in 1910 Canada welcomed its first Rotary club to Winnipeg.
10) The furthest a Rotary Club banner has ever traveled: In 1968 astronaut Frank Borman, member of the Houston Space Center Rotary club, carried a banner on the Apollo 8 flight to the moon!
For more information about Rotary International please visit the website http://www.rotary.org/
I always welcome your questions and comments! Email me at barry@barryt.ca, phone me at 780-910-9669, or contact me here.
