Students in outlying areas of Istanbul, Turkey participate in a mobile classroom activity provided by the Rotary Club of Istanbul. The club regularly brings literacy instruction and computer training to needy communities. FireFly brings creativity workshops and computer labs to 24 children. The program allows children to work together, build positive new skills, and provide access to tutoring in various school subjects.

Photo courtesy of Rotary International A ten-year-old from Eugene, Oregon recently took polio eradication into his own hands by raising $1,640 for Rotary’s US$200 Million Challenge. The Rotary International challenge is an effort to eradicate polio in four countries where the polio-virus is endemic: India, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. Ian Schwartz is a fourth grader at St. Paul Parish School. Instead of receiving gifts for his birthday, he asked his friends to donate money for the charity. Ian was inspired to raise money for the charity after he saw an illustrated history of polio in...

Australian Rotarians journey 11,200 miles (18,000 kilometers) around Australia to raise awareness of Rotary, Australian Rotary Health and the need for mental illness research funds.  The seven-month ride is the longest organized bike ride in Australia’s history. The Great Australian Bike Ride is sponsored by Australian Rotary Health, which raises money and provides grants to medical and mental health research projects. Over 100 participants, who will ride one or more of the nine stages of the course, departed from Melbourne on March 21 and will ride counterclockwise, stopping in the capital...

Together with SHARE, Rotarians, and village volunteers work together to build a retaining wall that keep the wells from going dry. so they yeild all year. The Rotary club of Bombay Metro and Rotary Club of Palo Alto, California, USA, used an RI Matching Grant to help facilitate the project. Rotary Images/Alyce Henson

After receiving close to a half  million dollars from family friends and Oregon-based Angel Investors for her start-up Web site, Caroline Cummings has learned the importance of extra help and being an entrepreneur. Cummings has plenty of experience in the realm of entrepreneurship. She is the co-founder of Smart-ups, an entrepreneurial support group in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, which is a local chapter of the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN) based in Portland, OR. Now Cummings is giving back even more by assisting with the Willamette Angel Conference, an investors conference connecting...

LEAD—Leadership Education Adventure Direction—was established in 1998 as a component of the City of Eugene Outdoor Program. In July 2001, LEAD became an independent nonprofit agency offering a comprehensive leadership development program serving low-income teens ages 12 – 17 in Lane County. A lot of work goes into organizing this program with Heather Brule as the LEADership group program director, the program is like butter. Heather has facilitated groups of teens and adults in rock climbing, rafting and other outdoor adventure activities for various organizations during the last five years. She...

Today marks the 104th birthday of the Rotary, and clubs across America are celebrating. What started as one man’s wish to capture the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth in Chicago in 1905 turned into an  international philanthropic effort. Clubs around the world are doing an extra special something to celebrate this momentous day. District 7720 (North Carolina, USA) has big plans for celebrating Rotary’s anniversary, 23 February, this year. All 45 clubs in the district have committed to carrying out a service project, ranging from reading in schools to...

Kiritimati – formerly the Christmas Islands – celebrated the charter of its first Rotary club in August. © Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli The 35-member club, along with guest Rotarians from District 9920 and the United States, held its first official club meeting on 23 August, the kickoff to the weeklong festivities. As part of the week’s programming, Kiritimati club members visited schools and hospitals to assess potential projects. Participating in the activities were members of the Rotary Club of Commerce City, Colorado, USA, who led multiple World Community Service (WCS) projects...

On 1 July, Rotary’s new year began, ushering in new leaders, a new RI theme, and new goals. In 2008-09, RI welcomes its first president from Korea, Dong Kurn Lee. Rotarians already have shown enthusiastic support for Lee’s theme, Make Dreams Real , which will focus on decreasing child mortality and building membership. We’ll bring you more about our club and President Steve Clarke’s goals soon. In the meantime, RI President Lee’s speech announcing his theme below: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsJijThnAHY]