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Club Meeting Tuesday 14 July
The meeting that was This year Rotary turns 100 in New Zealand. The first club was in Wellington followed soon after by Auckland. Over that 100 years many things have happened and much has changed. Pat Waite gave us an overview of some of the bigger ticket items. Rotary was instrumental in setting up Jaycees in NZ, Outward Bound, Defensive Driving, Plunket, Milk in Schools and the Crippled Children Society just to name a few. Internationally Rotary established the Ambassadorial Scholarship program in 1947 and since then over 38,000 scholars have had a chance to study in another country. In 1955 Rotary started Group Study Exchanges, now called Vocational Exchanges, since 1965 over 60,000 individuals have participated. Rotary youth Exchanges started with the Whakatane Club and since launching over 8,000 young people have spent a year overseas, living and studying in another country. Peace Scholars go overseas to study peace and conflict resolution and to date over 420 have participated. In 1985 Rotary launched Polio Plus and since then has raised over US$1 billion and reduced the number of cases by well over 99% with annual savings of an estimated US$1.5 billion. Since 1947 Rotarians have contributed over US$2 billion to Rotary Foundation allowing it to support projects world-wide to the tune of $1.8 billion |
