My Gosport guide to Gosport Activities

February 23rd is a key date in the Rotary calendar, as it is Rotary Day, a day celebrated by more than 1.2 million members of Rotary International around the world. This day in 1905 marked the start of an incredible journey for an organisation that has become one of the largest humanitarian driving forces in the world.

Thanks to Rotary and Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, himself a Rotarian, Polio has been all but eradicated in the third world and our Shelter Boxes go around the globe in times of flood and other humanitarian disasters to aid people with no means of looking after themselves, so every penny you give to Gosport Rotary is used to help our own deserving causes locally or internationally to aid around the world.

Paul Harris started Rotary as a means of bringing business minds together.
This had been inspired by a simple walk around the Chicago neighbourhood with a business colleague, who introduced him to various tradesmen en route.
It reminded Harris of the friendly spirit he had felt in his home town in Vermont as a youngster.
Paul Harris decided, then and there, that he would create a community of business people, regardless of religion or political belief.

The first meeting took place on the 23rd of February in Chicago, with just four people. Meetings were held each week at members’ offices, in ‘rotation’, hence the name Rotary.
The next club was formed in San Francisco, closely followed by Oakland, Seattle and Los Angeles. By the early 1920s, hundreds of clubs were up and running. With this swell in numbers came a determination to move beyond business networking and socialising. Members began to pool resources and help communities in need.

Now, there are over 33,000 Rotary clubs worldwide, where members give their time and their talents to undertaking worthwhile projects, which save lives and shape the future. Gosport Rotary was one of the first clubs to be formed in England.
We organise an event called "Youth Speaks", where local pupils are set the difficult task of preparing and giving an informative talk involving a presenter, a main speaker and a vote of thanks. Speaking in public is never easy and the enthusiasm and diligence with which our young people enter our competition is a cause for great pride.

SHELTER BOXES PROVIDED BY ROTARY WORLDWIDE

Across Britain and Ireland, the 1,850 clubs will be celebrating Rotary Day with the culmination of their national Thanks for Life project, designed to raise money for polio eradication. The climax is the 23rd of February when clubs reach out to communities and ask them to help End Polio Now through fundraising and by joining Rotary. Last year, over a million pounds was raised through activities, working with schools and supermarket collections. This year, it is hoped that the target will be smashed once more.

Rotary organises projects as in this photo showing just some of the thousands of shoe boxes collected by local schools and individuals, which Gosport Rotary has organised for several years, filled with diverse necessities and small luxuries which are gathered together annually by a dedicated team of Gosport Rotarians, which are then taken from a central warehouse by container lorry overland for distribution in Albania and Kosova, accompanied by a team of volunteers just in time to bring Christmas cheer to the poorest of communities and to foster good relations with organizations in those countries

To find out how you can celebrate Rotary Day too, with members of your local club, visit us at the Gosport Museum, where we will be showing the shelter boxes in action.
People join Rotary because they have an active desire to serve their local community and the wider world in general because they feel that it is in sharing time and effort for the good of others is a good ideal to live by.