Rotary requires your valuable service!
The Rotary Club of Boksburg is calling on you to join them.
The current 1.2 million-member worldwide organisation, Rotary International, started with the vision of one man, Paul Harris.
This Chicago attorney formed one of the world’s first service organisations, The Rotary Club of Chicago, on February 23, 1905, as a place where professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas and form meaningful friendships.
Rotary’s name came from the group’s early practice of rotating meetings among the offices of each member.
Rotary is an organisation of business and professional leaders united worldwide, who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help to build goodwill and peace in the world.
The purpose of Rotary International is to encourage, promote, extend and supervise Rotary throughout the world, and to co-ordinate and generally direct the activities of Rotary International.
The objective of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise.
The president of the Rotary Club of Boksburg, Dana Oosthuizen, pledges the club’s ongoing commitment.
“Rotarians have not only been present for major events in history, we’ve been a part of them,” said Oosthuizen.
From the beginning, three key traits have remained strong throughout Rotary.
One is being international. Only 16 years after being founded, Rotary had clubs on six continents.
“Today Rotarians are working together from around the globe, both digitally and in-person, to solve some of our world’s most challenging problems,” Oosthuizen said.
”Secondly, Rotary perseveres in tough times.”During World War Two, Rotary clubs in Austria, Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain were allegedly forced to disband.
“Despite the risks, many continued to meet informally and, following the war’s end, Rotary members joined together to rebuild their clubs and their countries.”
Thirdly, Oosthuizen pointed out, Rotary’s commitment to service is ongoing.
“Rotarians began their fight against polio in 1979, with a project to immunize six million children in the Philippines,” he said.
“Rotary, along with its partners, has reduced polio cases by 99 per cent worldwide since the first project.”
The Rotary Club of Boksburg meets at the Boksburg Rugby Club, every Wednesday, from 5.30pm to 6.30pm.
For more information, contact Oosthuizen on 082 892 5503, or president-elect Terry Phasey on 083 375 0391. – @IschkeBoksburg
