Bowmanville Rotary celebrates 100 years of “Service Above Self”

The Rotary Club of Bowmanville is celebrating its centennial year with a gala celebration.

It will be held Saturday evening at the Courtyard by Marriot in Oshawa, which some say seems fitting, as the Oshawa Rotary Club was Bowmanville’s sponsor in 1924.

Today’s Bowmanville club has nearly 60 members, working within Rotary International with its 1.4 million members worldwide.

At its inception, Rotary International was a men-only organization, with women in support roles, but that changed in 1989, and women have become full Rotary members and dynamic leaders, both locally and around the world.

“It was my honour to be invited to join the club early in 1992,” says Pauline Calvert, who was the club’s second female member. “It was a great thrill for me, when a year into my membership, the club president announced at a meeting that the greatest progress Bowmanville Rotary had ever made was the decision to welcome women to the club and he wished it had happened earlier.  There has been no looking back.” In 2000, Pauline went on to become the club’s second woman president, and her husband, John Burns is the current Rotary District 7070 Governor, overseeing more than 55 clubs in Southern Ontario.

Through its service projects and direct donations, the Rotary Club of Bowmanville supports dozens of organizations, at home and internationally. Its annual summer respite program for families with special needs children is one of its signature projects, as is its support for education in the Mattawa First Nations of Northern Ontario and the establishment of a new Maternal Health Centre in Bukere, Uganda, in collaboration with two Ugandan clubs.

The club’s signature fundraisers include the hugely popular “Rockin’ Rotary Ribs & Brews”, which raises over $100,000 every summer, the annual Concert to Feed the Need in Durham, and its annual Christmas Tree sales, organized by Ted Watson, the club’s longest serving member, joining in 1990. “It’s my way of giving something to the community,” says Watson.

Rotary’s motto of “Service Above Self” has stood the test of time. “100 years of Rotary and service to our community is an amazing achievement,” says club’s current president, Chris Zelasko. “Our members continue to be excited and dedicated to making Bowmanville and Clarington a fantastic place to live and grow and we strive every day for a better tomorrow.”

 

Photo courtesy of BowmanvilleRotary.org