The Rotary is eager to celebrate their 100th birthday on Feb. 23.
Rotary is an international service club founded in 1905 by Paul P. Harris from Chicago, Illinois. After visiting with numerous tradesmen in the Chicago area, Harris decided to form a fellowship comprised of business men from different occupations, without restrictions from politics and religion.
On Feb 23, 1905, Harris formed the first Rotary Club with three fellow businessmen. The club was simple: there were three weekly meetings rotated amongst the members? homes. Hence, the name Rotary was born.
By the time Harris passed away in 1947, his small club of three members had grown to 6,000 clubs around the world.
Today, there are over 1.2 million Rotarians in nearly 32,000 Rotary clubs in 166 countries around the world.
The Rotary Club motto is simple: Service Above Self. The motto inspires members to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards and promote good will and peace in the world.
Rotary is a non-profit organization providing aid in many areas. Some of the programs include: Shoes For Kids, Global Polio Eradication Initiative, World Health Organization, UNICEF, and The Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The Rotary also hosts events such as Wine Tastings or Taste of Clarkston, to raise funds for programs.
Local members are proud to celebrate 100 years of service in the community. The Clarkston Rotary, along with Ortonville, Oxford, Davisburg and Waterford, will celebrate on Feb. 23 at Canterbury Castle in Lake Orion.
A ‘Happy Birthday Rotary? proclamation was accepted and read at the 109th U.S. Congress and has proclaimed Feb. 23, 2005 as Rotary International Day. Rotarians from around the world will celebrate on this day.
Happy Birthday Rotary from The Clarkston News!

Special Edition Peeking in the Past
ROTARY CELEBRATES GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY

In honor of the Rotary Club’s 100th birthday, The Clarkston News is giving you a special ‘Peeking In The Past,? to remember their 50th from 1954:
Away back fifty years ago
Paul Harris loved his neighbors so
That thoughts created by this man
Evolved into a worldwide plan
A few good friends in his home town
Each week would meet and rotate round
From place to place and luncheon eat
And ways to serve would humbly seek
It must be God was well impressed
With men who as they stopped to rest
Devoted thoughts to helping those
Who could not stand in the world’s cruel blows
The movement grew by leaps and bounds
And soon had spread to other towns
Where men of any faith might live
With will to work and serve and give
Unselfish motives, as expressed
By objects filled with Godliness
Soon spread through states the nation wide
In towns throughout the countryside
Then other nations longed to know
Why Rotary had come to grow
from just one club in one home town
To countless clubs in the world around
Now fifty years have slipped away
Since first, men met the glorious day
For fifty years the thoughts they had
Have been at work subduing bad
Tis fitting that we now rejoice
That all the world has heard the voice
That prophesies a world of peace
Where selfishness of man must cease
Tis well to know there is a force
Unerring, holding to its course
That takes no part in conflicts small
But spreads its love for good of all.