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ROTARY today is a household word.
Most know it as a service club with clubs and members all over the
world, in more than 135 countries, and a membership of nearly 2
million men and women. ROTARY unites people with a goal of service
and in ways that governments can not. As in all things great,
it began as a simple idea and spread rapidly through times good and
bad, feeding upon the concept of service to community and to fellow
man.
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It began in Chicago in the year 1905,
as an inspiration of its principal founder Paul Harris, who formed a
club with a few of his closest friends. In those fledgling days,
they decided to meet regularly, but “rotate” their meetings among
the members’ offices or places of business. Hence the word “Rotary”
became the name by which the group was known. Moving each week was
quickly seen as impractical and a fixed meeting place was chosen.
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The concept soon spread to other
large cities such as San Francisco, New York and others. It became
Rotary International just as soon as clubs were established in
nearby Canada.
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By 1921, Rotary clubs had been formed
on six continents. The organization adopted the Rotary International
name a year later.
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Click here
for more Rotary International History from Rotary International's
website.
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RI President-elect John Kenny announces the
2009-10 RI theme, The
Future of Rotary
Is in Your Hands, to
incoming district
governors at the 2009
International Assembly. Photo by Alyce Henson/Rotary Images
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The Bridgeton Club became the 4th
Club in the District of South Jersey in September 1921. It was
formed by our friends from Vineland who had become the 3rd club a
year earlier through the efforts of the Atlantic City Club who had
been sponsored by the first club in the region - Camden.
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The Bridgeton Club hit the ground
running. Twenty men of commitment were required to Charter and
the club raised its membership to over 50 from the professional and
business community of the prosperous town of Bridgeton.
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The club was headquartered in the
brand-new Cumberland Hotel on Commerce & Pearl Streets, on the site
of the present Senior Citizen High Rise Apartment building. This
remained the meeting place for the
next 44 years until the Hotel closed its doors in 1965. Rotary moved
to the old Cohanzick Country Club until it burned.
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The club now holds its regular weekly
meetings at Gia’s Catering.
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Bridgeton Rotary was an immediate
force for the good of the community. In the early 1920s, the club
rescued the local Boy Scouts organization from financial difficulty
by raising $9000.00, a significant amount for that time.
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Over the years, such projects as
convincing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dredge the Cohansey
River and then maintain it, establishing crossing guards for the
schools on local intersections long before it became law,
spearheading the campaign to create municipal trash collection and
numerous other city improvements.
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Rotary continued through the
depression and World War II. The club reached more than 100 in
membership from the late 1950s through the late 1960s, and was a
major supporter of the Rotary International programs and the Rotary
Foundation with all its scholarship and exchange programs.
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HUG-A-BEAR program is one of the most unique and successful in
living up to Rotary's motto of "service above self." That
program is now run by a separate not-for-profit organization known
as HUG-A-BEAR Foundation, Inc.
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