Did you know that Rotary played a leading part in setting up:

Outward Bound, CCS, Meals on Wheels, Milk in Schools, Karitane, Mobile Blood Transfusion Service, Child Health Research Foundation, Trees for Survival, National Kidney Foundation, Starship Ronald McDonald House, Defensive Driving Courses, Ellerslie Flower Show and many more initiatives and services.

Rotarians in New Zealand have initiated, facilitated or supported some of our most potent helping organisations.

The Rotary way is to recognise a need, marshall resources, and implement a solution in the most efficient way, calling on the skills and networking abilities of its members. In fact, Rotary invented business networking as a means of getting things done in the community.

What is a Rotarian?

Rotarians are people who share their time and energy to help their community ... and have fun doing it. A worldwide organisation, Rotary is made up of men and women across all vocations. You can spot them by the little gold and blue badge they wear.

In New Zealand, there are more than 10,000 members of 250 Rotary clubs in towns, cities and small communities, all committed to “Service above Self.”

Fulfilling a promise

The eradication of the polio virus is the largest global public health campaign ever undertaken by a service club in association with other international health agencies. When Rotary first started raising money for polio vaccines in 1985, 1,000 children were contracting the virus every day. In 2005 only 2,000 cases were reported worldwide. In 2005 alone, Rotary contributed US$24.2 million and countless volunteer hours to help immunize more than 400 million children in 49 countries against the disease.