OUR CLUB

The Victoria Rotary Club was formed in November 1913 under the sponsorship of the Seattle club and was the ninetieth club to be formed. We will always be Club #90, all the more remarkable when you consider there are now over 32,000 clubs in existence. There were 45 charter members on the night of November 15th and these included the leading business and professional men in the city.

By February 1915 Victoria was acting as host to an annual get together of Rotary Clubs in the Northwest. Talks on the ideals of Rotary, cultivating roses and social meetings were held.

The Rotary emblem of the cogged wheel started as a wagon wheel with spurting dust indicating its movement. There were many variants, mostly showing cogs. The Victoria wheel was fairly large with the annual temperature and rainfall inside and because of the good climate Sunshine was adopted as the name of the bulletin. The emblem was eventually standardized by Rotary International.

Rotarians in Victoria have always taken a keen interest in the city and its surroundings. There have been many instances of support for community initiatives.

During the First War the club was active in war bond promotion, in troop entertainment, and in games and diversions for recuperating wounded.

In the years after the First War items of civic improvement were pursued. The Uplands Golf Course is one that was given a lot of publicity in the early twenties. Another was a new bridge on Johnson Street. An amusing project to us nowadays was a water fountain at Mill Bay. This had a concrete Rotary wheel with a water pipe coming out of the centre. The reason for this was that early cars coming over the Malahat would boil away their radiator water.

The establishment of Goodwill Industries in Victoria was a Rotary project of the sixties. It has given worthwhile employment to many people with disabilities. Members of our local Rotary clubs were active as board members of the Vancouver Island Goodwill until its unfortunate closure in 1996.

Through the years Rotary in Victoria continues to offer financial support to many charitable organizations such as the hospitals, the YMCA, the Salvation Army, groups aiding people with disabilities, Mustard Seed and numerous worthy efforts. We are a major supporter of the Vancouver Island Regional Science Fair. We sponsor the Interact Club at Esquimalt High School and the Rotaract Club at the University of Victoria.

The major annual money raising efforts of the club up to 2015 were a car raffle and a golf tournament. Our club efforts were instrumental in the establishment of the Food Share Network and the distribution centre in Victoria. Now smaller projects are pursued as opportunities are developed. On an annual basis we distribute up to $75,000 to local non-profit groups.

In 2023 the Rotary Club of Victoria and the Saanich Rotary Club merged in order to form a stronger club. As a result the club now operates as the Rotary Club of Victoria-Saanich.