A Brief History

The world’s first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois, USA, was formed on 23 February 1905 by Paul P. Harris, an attorney who wished to recapture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. The name “Rotary” derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members’ offices.

Rotary’s popularity spread throughout the United States in the decade that followed; clubs were chartered from San Francisco to New York. By 1921, Rotary clubs had been formed on six continents, and the organization adopted the name Rotary International a year later.

As Rotary grew, its mission expanded beyond serving the professional and social interests of club members. Rotarians began pooling their resources and contributing their talents to help serve communities in need. The organization’s dedication to this ideal is best expressed in its principal motto: Service Above Self. Rotary also later embraced a code of ethics, called The 4-Way Test, that has been translated into hundreds of languages.

In 1985, Rotary made a historic commitment to immunize all of the world’s children against polio. Working in partnership with nongovernmental organizations and national governments thorough its PolioPlus program, Rotary is the largest private-sector contributor to the global polio eradication campaign. Rotarians have mobilized hundreds of thousands of PolioPlus volunteers and have immunized more than one billion children worldwide. By the 2005 target date for certification of a polio-free world, Rotary will have contributed half a billion dollars to the cause.


Our Club History

The Rotary Club of Burlington Central received its Charter at their first meeting on October 29, 1986 with 33 members in attendance.
 
As the third Rotary club in Burlington, it was the first to meet in the morning and filled an important gap for potential members.  
 
From the club’s inception, it was our goal to support Rotary International through donations to the Rotary Foundation.  As such, all club members have contributed annually to the Rotary International Foundation as part of club dues.
 
Today the club has nearly 60 active members representing businesses and organizations interested in working together to support Rotary locally and internationally.  
 
A key element of all Rotary clubs is fellowship. Our members enjoy good times together at meetings and events.