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Lycoming County Rotary of District 7370 The Montoursville Rotary Club meets... The Williamsport Rotary Club meets... The Muncy Rotary Club meets... The Hughesville Rotary Club meets...
Rotary's popularity spread throughout the United States in the decade that followed; clubs were chartered from San Francisco to New York. By 1921, Rotary clubs had been formed on six continents, and the organization adopted the name Rotary International a year later. As Rotary grew, its mission expanded beyond serving the professional and social interests of club members. Rotarians began pooling their resources and contributing their talents to help serve communities in need. The organization's dedication to this ideal is best expressed in its principal motto: Service Above Self. Rotary also later embraced a code of ethics, called The 4-Way Test, that has been translated into hundreds of languages. During and after World War II, Rotarians became increasingly involved
in promoting international understanding. In 1945, 49 Rotary members
served in 29 delegations to the United Nations Charter Conference.
Rotary still actively participates in UN conferences by sending
observers to major meetings and promoting the United Nations in
Rotary publications. Rotary International's relationship with the
United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) dates back to a 1943 London Rotary conference that promoted
international cultural and educational exchanges. Attended by ministers
of education and observers from around the world, and chaired by
a past president of RI, the conference was an impetus to the establishment
of UNESCO in 1946. In 1985, Rotary made a historic commitment to immunize all of the world's children against polio. Working in partnership with nongovernmental organizations and national governments thorough its PolioPlus program, Rotary is the largest private-sector contributor to the global polio eradication campaign. Rotarians have mobilized hundreds of thousands of PolioPlus volunteers and have immunized more than one billion children worldwide. By the 2005 target date for certification of a polio-free world, Rotary will have contributed half a billion dollars to the cause. As it approached the dawn of the 21st century, Rotary worked to
meet the changing needs of society, expanding its service effort
to address such pressing issues as environmental degradation, illiteracy,
world hunger, and children at risk. The organization admitted women
for the first time (worldwide) in 1989 and claims more than 145,000
women in its ranks today. Following the collapse of the Berlin Wall
and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Rotary clubs were formed
or re-established throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Today,
1.2 million Rotarians belong to some 32,000 Rotary clubs in more
than 200 countries and geographical areas.
Special thank you to our 2008 Pilot Sponsors!
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