Don Causey, long-time member of Winnfield’s Rotary Club, became a Paul Harris Fellow along with his wife Sheila in the latter part of January.  He was Rotarian of the Day on February 7 and asked fellow Rotarian Bob Holeman, an active member and leader in the organization for many years, to speak to the local members about what Rotary International’s Paul Harris Fellowship is and how it impacts communities.

Holeman began by telling the gathering that Paul Harris, an attorney in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century, was one of the founders of Rotary in 1905. The purpose of the club was to create networks of businessmen to do good in their communities.

In 1917, Rotary held its annual convention, gathering together from all cities which had a Rotary club for exchanging information and ideas about improvements of their communities. When it concluded, Rotary International had $26.50 left over and established a foundation, investing the proceeds to assist individual clubs with projects in their cities and neighborhoods.

The foundation began to grow modestly. However, when Paul Harris died in 1947, the Rotary Foundation received a huge influx of funds in memory of Rotary’s founder. At that point, donors of significant funds to the foundation began to be recognized as “Paul Harris Fellows.” The Paul Harris Fellowship became an honor bestowed upon all who generously supported the Rotary Foundation with donations of $1,000. 

The Rotary Foundation has thus grown from $26.50 in 1917 to over $1 billion today.

So, what does Rotary do with all this money? Holeman explained that the funds in the foundation are given to individual clubs all over the world to build projects needed in their own communities. For example, Winnfield’s club has received district grants for local projects. Bigger projects can be achieved when two clubs from different countries contribute towards the effort and receive a matching grant from the Rotary Foundation to build that project. For example, Rotary’s District 6190, which includes the Winnfield club, partnered with another district to build a clean water project in Central America with funding from the Rotary Foundation.

Rotary projects must involve one of seven focus areas: (1) Fighting disease; (2) Providing clean water, sanitation, hygiene; (3) Saving mothers and children; (4) Supporting education and literacy; (5) Growing local economies; (6) Protecting the environment; and (7) Promoting peace.

One of Rotary International’s projects since 1985, falling under focus area number 1 of fighting disease, has been an initiative to end polio around the world. After the Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin vaccines eradicated polio in the United States, Rotary International set out to eradicate it around the world, and is now very close to achieving this goal, with Pakistan being the last country in which work is needed.