Rotary Club of El Cajon

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Rotary International
One Rotary Center
1560 Sherman Ave.
Evanston, IL 60201, USA

Telephone: 847-866-3000
Fax: 847-328-8554
or 847-328-8281
www.rotary.org

What's Happening in Rotary's World
Painting Pinkies Purple for the PEFC

This past May, about 1,200 children and young people in northern Florida, USA, could be seen sporting at least one purple finger - and sometimes all ten - as evidence of their participation in the Rotary Club of Lake City's Purple Pinkie Project for the polio eradication fundraising campaign (PEFC).

more. . .

• A Brief History of Rotary

The world's first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois, USA, was formed on 23 February 1905 by Paul P. Harris, an attorney who wished to recapture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. The name "Rotary" derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members' offices.

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.

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.

The original charter for the Rotary Club of El Cajon was issued by Rotary International on April 2, 1926, and the El Cajon Club was designated as Club No. 2316. Members of the Rotary Club San Diego, number 33, particularly Mayor John L. Bacon, assisted in sponsoring the El Cajon Club. In turn, El Cajon Rotary members assisted other nearby clubs in obtaining a Rotary charter, including Ramona, Santee-Lakeside and the El Cajon Breakfast Club.

Today, 1.2 million Rotarians belong to some 30,000 Rotary clubs in more than 160 countries.

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• The Rotary Foundation

The Rotary Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation that supports the efforts of Rotary International to achieve world understanding and peace through international humanitarian, educational, and cultural exchange programs. It is supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotarians and friends of the Foundation who share its vision of a better world.

The Foundation was created in 1917 by Rotary International's sixth president, Arch C. Klumph, as an endowment fund for Rotary "to do good in the world." It has grown from an initial contribution of US$26.50 to more than US$73 million contributed in 2000-01. Its event-filled history is a story of Rotarians learning the value of service to humanity.

The Foundation's Humanitarian Programs fund international Rotary club and district projects to improve the quality of life, providing health care, clean water, food, education, and other essential needs primarily in the developing world. One of the major Humanitarian Programs is PolioPlus, which seeks to eradicate the polio virus worldwide. Through its Educational Programs, the Foundation provides funding for some 1,200 students to study abroad each year. Grants are also awarded to university teachers to teach in developing countries and for exchanges of business and professional people.

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• The Objects of Rotary

To encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster:

The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service;
High ethical standards in business and professions; the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations; and the dignifying by each Rotarian of his occupation as an opportunity to serve society;
The application of the ideal of service by every Rotarian to his personal, business and community life;
The advancement of international understanding, good will, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional men united in the ideal of service.

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Rotary: The Four-Way Test

Is it the TRUTH?

Is it FAIR to all concerned?

Will it build GOOD WILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

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What's Happening in Rotary's World
Painting Pinkies Purple for the PEFC (continued)

For each 60 cents they donated - equal to the cost of the vaccine to immunize a child against polio -- students from 11 of Columbia County's area schools had the tip of one finger painted with the same Gentian Violet ink used during national immunization days to keep track of children who have received the polio vaccine. By the end of this one-day event held 16 May, the elementary, junior high, and high school students had contributed US$2,060 to the PEFC.

"Now several thousand children know about polio, know about Rotary, and feel good about themselves for having saved a child from this crippling disease," says John Wheeler, Lake City Rotary club member.

Wheeler came up with this idea while reading the March 2003 issue of THE ROTARIAN, which included a special report aimed at encouraging support for the PEFC.

"The image of six Ethiopian boys proudly presenting their pinkies, freshly painted with Gentian Violet, sparked my imagination," Wheeler explains. "I knew most American children love to do stuff to their bodies and I thought a purple pinkie would be a powerful and personal symbol of one child saved from polio."

What Wheeler couldn't imagine, however, was the tremendous response from the students. Not content to have just one purple finger, students brought in as much as $10 to have all ten digits painted by club members and Interactors. Because the stain from the Gentian Violet remains on the finger for three days, Rotary received three days of publicity from every child who participated.

In addition to the money donated by the children, Baya Pharmacy, whose owner, Carl Allison, is a Lake City Rotary club member, offered to match the funds raised up to $2,000, resulting in a total donation to the PEFC of $4,060. The pharmacy also provided the Gentian Violet free of charge.

"It was a simple project for us that reaped great rewards," says Wheeler. "We raised funds for the PEFC, enlightened many children and their parents to what Rotary is doing to fight this disease, and re-energized our members, both old and young, to the goal of eradicating polio."

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