Rotary International

From the September 2016 issue of The Rotarian
Chris Clemens would make a splendid case study in the liberating influence of decluttering. In recent years, he has gone from sharing a five-bedroom house with roommates to living out of an 80-square-foot Volkswagen van. The freelance marketing professional and web designer now has taken downsizing a step further by spending much of the year backpacking around the globe. Untethered, but rooted in Rotary (at age 29, he was elected president of the Rotary Club of Santa Barbara, Calif., its youngest ever), Clemens, 32, maintains contact with club…

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From the September 2016 issue of The Rotarian
In 1977, the nostalgia-fueled sitcom Happy Days was in its fifth season. Many people remember the three-part season opener, when Fonzie “jumped the shark,” but perhaps fewer recall the episode that immediately followed, when the charismatic dropout and consummate cool guy got a library card. He had taken clean-cut pal Richie Cunningham to the local library in an attempt to meet college girls. Richie walked away with his future wife, and Fonzie with his first library book.
It was widely reported that library card registration among young people…

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From the September 2016 issue of The Rotarian
You may be surprised to learn that in 1905, when Rotary began, it was not based on the idea of Service Above Self. Instead, the two main aims of the Chicago club were “the promotion of the business interests of its members” and “good fellowship and other desiderata ordinarily incident to Social Clubs.”
But for Paul Harris, that wasn’t enough. He wanted a club that would get involved in civic affairs and benefit the community. 
A prospective member, Chicago attorney Donald Carter, had been “struck by the selfish character of the organization,”…

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From the September 2016 issue of The Rotarian
Unlike some parts of the American South (looking at you, Lone Star State), Atlanta doesn’t often boast about size. But insiders know about its intense heat, enormous airport, deeply layered history, and big heart when it comes to showing visitors a good time.
As a native son who committed the yet-to-be-forgiven sin (by my family, anyway) of trucking among the Yankees, I still feel it within my rights to gush over the city I left behind – and to pass along some of its secrets, as well as showstopper sights. The good news is that much of Atlanta’s “…

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Legendary singer and polio survivor Donovan Leitch, better known simply as Donovan, has joined Rotary in its fight to eradicate the paralyzing disease that afflicted him during much of his childhood.
Donovan contracted polio at age three in Glasgow, Scotland. The disease weakened his right leg and left it thinner and shorter than the other. Confined to his bed for much of his childhood, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer said his father would read him poetry.
In a recent interview with the Daily Express, Donovan said that listening to poetry piqued his interest in creative writing. “If I…

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Rotary’s fourth World Polio Day celebration, on 24 October, will highlight extraordinary progress in the eradication campaign and emphasize the work that remains before we wipe out the virus for good. With the number of new cases worldwide nearly halved from this time last year, we have the opportunity to rally our resources and see the last case of polio this year.
Health officials and Rotary’s celebrity polio ambassadors will head to Atlanta, Georgia, USA, for the event, the first to be held at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It will be streamed live and then will…

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The way Rotary member Todd Jenkins puts it, he’s the first generation in his family «to do everything»: first to go to college, first to fly on a plane, first to visit another country, and the first to live across state lines.
Jenkins, 28, grew up in a low-income neighborhood in Columbia, South Carolina, USA. His family worked hard just to make ends meet. So travel and college seemed out of reach.
The eldest of ten children, Jenkins says his goal was to break out of the family status quo and set a positive example for his siblings. He credits his mother with helping him avoid falling into the…

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From the October 2016 issue of The Rotarian
Next to getting your facts straight, one of the challenges of writing about historical figures is dealing with other characters who pop up and start hijacking the narrative. These are people who keep doing things so unexpected and compelling that you must find out what made them tick. The problem is that they’ve usually been dead for years, along with anyone who knew them. Left with bits of information – when they were born, where they went to school, whom they married, where they worked – you have to hope that something drops into your lap that…

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I was born in 1978 in Mumbai to a domestic worker and single mother. At six months old, I was paralyzed from the hips down by polio. The chances of surviving in India until your 18th birthday with a disability are very slim. My mother was unable to care for me and left me at an orphanage. I don’t remember much about my time there because I was so young, but I know the conditions were primitive. I had no real hope that my life would become anything of note or that I would have the opportunity to be independent and overcome the burden of a very preventable disease.
I didn’t know it then, but…

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The Rotary Foundation has received the highest possible score from Charity Navigator, an independent evaluator of charities in the U.S.
In the most recent ratings, released on 1 September, The Rotary Foundation earned the maximum 100 points for both demonstrating strong financial health and commitment to accountability and transparency. 
The Foundation also received its ninth straight 4-star rating from Charity Navigator. «Attaining a 4-star rating verifies that The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International exceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in your area of work,» said…

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