Known by the results it achieves
With a milestone birthday and a mission to serve, The Rotary Foundation’s notable contributions to communities across the world are a gift to celebrate.
From global efforts to eradicate polio to local endeavors to promote literacy, Rotary International has countless worthwhile undertakings to commemorate its foundation’s centennial year.
Only 16 years after being founded in Chicago in 1905, as one of the world’s first service organizations, Rotary expanded its clubs to six continents.
While the first Rotary Club in Jacksonville was organized in 1912, in the Windsor Hotel downtown at Hemming Park, it wasn’t until 1916 that The Rotary Foundation was formed.
Today the 1.2 million-member organization is in over 200 countries fulfilling the vision of its founder, Paul P. Harris, who said “Whatever Rotary may mean to us, to the world, it will be known by the results it achieves.”
Those results, both globally and locally, are impressive.
Starting with a meager $26.50 in the coffers, Rotary has since donated more than $3 billion to different service projects around the world. One of the most significant projects is its global campaign to eradicate polio. Beginning its involvement in 1985, Rotary International has contributed more than $1.5 billion and tens of thousands of volunteer hours to immunize more than 2.5 billion of the world’s children.
In 1988, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention partnered with Rotary to form the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Rotary is recognized by the United Nations as a key partner in the eradication effort.
In 2007, garnering the attention of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for Rotary’s efforts in eliminating polio, Rotary received a $100 million challenge grant to raise funds for polio eradication. After Rotary’s initial fundraising success with the Gates Foundation, the partnership continued and in 2013, they offered to match Rotary’s contributions 2-to-1 for five years.
Marshall Butler, the District Governor responsible for the 61 clubs that serve 31 communities in 12 Northeast Florida counties, has a particular interest in Rotary’s mission to wipe out polio.
“Rotary is personal to me. My Rotary story started in 1945, when my father came down with polio,” explained Butler, a member of the West Jacksonville club and, who at 46 years old, is one of the youngest Rotarians to ever hold the position of District Governor. “Dad made a life for himself and gave back to the community.”
When Rotary first got involved, there were 1,000 cases a day. As of right now, there are 21 cases.
— Marshall Butler, Rotary District Governor
Although limited by the use of one arm, Butler’s father still ran a successful business and set an example of service for his son that carries into his Rotary involvement.
While polio was eliminated from the United States during the late 1970s, it was still in 125 countries in 1988, shortly after Rotary got involved. According to Butler, in 2016, the centennial year of The Rotary Foundation, only two countries – Afghanistan and Pakistan are still polio-endemic.
“When Rotary first got involved, there were 1,000 cases a day. As of right now, there are 21 cases,” explained Butler who said members from the District have traveled to other countries over the years to participate in Immunization Days. “There is a group going this year and it will be one of the last trips they ever make.”
While three years have to pass without incidence of the virus before a country can be certified polio-free, Butler is confident that the virus, which can cause paralysis and even death, will soon cease to exist.
“It’s part of a convergence of events that we are so close to eradicating polio,” said Butler. “I really believe that we will see the last case of it on earth this year…that I get to be a part of it, and that my dad gets to see that happen in his lifetime is pretty incredible.”
Incredible is an apt description for the contributions Rotary has made on a more a local level as well.
Having celebrated its own centennial in 2012, the Rotary Club of Jacksonville has the distinction of being Florida’s first Rotary Club.
According to their website, “the objects of Rotary are to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise.”
As such, the non-partisan, non-sectarian and secular organization takes its motto of service above self out into the community they live in, as well as to the wider world.
From its early days of providing shoes to orphaned children to underwriting construction of a surgical center aboard a Mercy Ship, the club’s history of giving and support makes it one of the highest ranking contributors in all of Rotary.
Ray and Jan Moore
According to Butler, District 6970, which includes 3,200 members throughout Northeast Florida, is consistently in the top ten percent of giving out of the 538 districts, having donated more than $3.7 million in the last five years. In 2015, CNBC rated The Rotary Foundation number five among the top 10 charities changing the world and it receives the highest ranking by Charity Navigator for its financial health, accountability and transparency.
“District 6970 is one of the most fantastic Districts in the entire world in terms of what we accomplish and give to the Foundation,” said Butler. “As I visit these clubs, it’s incredible. There’s truly an attitude of service above self in Northeast Florida.”
Giving focuses on six tenets – clean water, economic development, literacy, peace and conflict resolutions, child and maternal health, and disease prevention and sanitation.
Besides its annual contributions to The Rotary Foundation, each club decides autonomously what projects it will support and conducts its own fundraisers to achieve those goals.
After an annual golf fundraiser started to feel stale to the Rotary Club of Riverside, members Chris Croft and Ben Davis, who owns Intuition Ale Works, came up with the idea of hosting a craft beer festival.
According to Matt McLauchlin, who chaired last year’s third annual event, $95,000 was raised through the fundraiser, which combines food trucks, bands, beer, and of course, a good time.
Bell tower installation at Jacksonville National Cemetery
“I love being involved in the beer festival,” said McLauchlin. “It’s a lot of fun to put on.” The Craft Beer Festival also enabled Rotary Club of Riverside to donate $75,000 to Community PedsCare, a pediatric program of Community Hospice. The remainder of monies raised was donated to various nonprofits supported by their club.
The fundraiser, held at the Riverside Arts Market, attracts upwards of 2,500 attendees, enabling them to not only raise a significant amount of money, but also expand Rotary’s reach into the community to potentially recruit new members.
While membership to the club is by invitation only, the group strives for both racial and gender diversity.
Following a United States Supreme Court ruling in 1987, Rotary International removed previously existing gender requirements for club charters, and most clubs have embraced the benefits of reflecting society’s diversity.
Butler called the inclusion of women as “one of the best things that ever happened to Rotary.”
Shelley Morgan, an area governor representing the three beaches clubs Ponte Vedra Beach, Ponte Vedra Beach Sunset and Oceanside, believes that for their 110 members, the focus is on working together.
“It’s a very diverse organization and it’s working to be more diverse,” explained Morgan. “We don’t even see male or female in this club. The evolution has been phenomenal.”
Instead, focusing on their goal of “doing good in the world,” the group usually supports eight to 12 charitable endeavors a year. Some of which include raising $50,000 for a dementia and memory care center in Ponte Vedra Beach, building a park area around Nease High School, collecting backpacks, school supplies, clothing and food for children heading back to school and buying a refrigerated van for the Beaches Emergency Assistance Ministry enabling them to transport food for clients.
“If there is a need, we find a way to fill that need,” said Morgan “…anything we can do to assist.”
For Morgan, who credits the club for both networking relationships as well as cherished friendships, her involvement in Rotary branches out to family with her son serving as a past president of the Rotaract Club.
Rotaract Clubs are service clubs sponsored by Rotary that exist as “partners in service” for those from 18 to 30 years old. Rotaract includes 216,000 members in 9,394 clubs in 167 countries and are considered key members of the Rotary family.
There are 14 such Rotaract clubs in Northeast Florida that are either community or university based, of which Butler described members as “young and dynamic. They want to give back to the world.”
For Rotary, teaching youth the importance of service goes beyond that of young adulthood, which is the focus of Rotaract, to Interact, Rotary International’s service club for young people ages 12 to 18.
Padraic Mulvihill is presented a check by Bruce Jones of IBM Jacksonville as Jeannie Blaylock and Matthew Garman look on.
Another extension of Rotary’s commitment to children is its Youth Exchange program for high school students.
Rotary clubs in northeast Florida participate every year in the Youth Exchange program in an effort to give children life-changing perspectives and build good will among countries.
“That is how peace is built throughout the world,” said Morgan.
Local Rotarians further promote good will through their involvement in Disaster Relief Efforts all over the world.
According to Padraic Mulvihill, the District Community Chairman for Disaster Relief Efforts, Rotary clubs in northeast Florida have assisted victims of the Haitian earthquake, been instrumental in mosquito control efforts, and have rebuilt entire villages when other countries were struck by calamities. In the United States, Rotary has helped with everything from floods to fires.
“You can see the footprints that Rotary has left in the sands,” said Mulvihill. “It’s just nonstop all the different projects.”
Doug Register, president of the Rotary Club of North Jacksonville, can vouch for some of the nonstop projects. His club, while relatively small in size with just 19 members, has a long list of noteworthy endeavors.
Many of the club’s accomplishments demonstrate its commitment to patriotism including the downtown Veteran’s Memorial Wall, a Bell Tower at the Jacksonville National Cemetery where it has also partnered with the University of North Florida Construction Management Department to design and build a 16,000 square foot visitor center and chapel on or adjacent to the historic site.
“You never know where one idea will lead you,” said Register. “A good project will take on a life of its own.”
The evolution of one such project began when a Rotary member was contacted by a nonprofit that provides medical and dental care to the uninsured to replace an awning on their existing facility. Three years later, thanks to the fundraising efforts of Rotary, a matching grant from the Weaver Family Foundation and the media support from First Coast News anchor, Jeannie Blaylock, Community Health Outreach opened a brand new facility – debt free.
Another current project for the North Jacksonville club and four other area Rotary clubs is a partnership with Councilwoman Denise Lee and the Mayor’s Office to help clean up blight in surrounding neighborhoods. “And that’s just some of the things we do,” said Register. “We have fun doing it.”
Having fun while serving others, The Rotary Foundation has filled its 100-year history with acts of service that speak volumes.
“I think Rotary is that unsung hero,” said Butler. “This anniversary is a great opportunity to talk about the impact Rotary has had around the world.”
Certainly, there’s much to be said.
