The world’s first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois, USA, was formed on 23rd 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 population spread throughout the United States in the decades that followed and by 1921 Rotary clubs had been formed on six continents and the organisation adopted the name Rotary International a year later.

As Rotary grew its mission expanded to members pooling their resources and contributing their talents to help serve communities in need and adopted its principal motto:

             Service Above Self

Today Rotary is involved in many projects and activities:

The Rotary Foundation - an endowment fund for ‘doing good in the world’

Ambassadorial Scholarships – graduate fellowships

Humanitarian Grants

Education programmes

Rotary also works in partnership with non-governmental organisations and national governments through its PolioPlus programme, Rotary is the largest private sector contributor to the global polio eradication campaign.

Rotary serves as consultants to the United Nations

In February 2005 the Rotary organisation celebrated it's Centenary and continues to serve into it’s second century.