Milestone for Rotary club
THE Rotary Club of Townsville is celebrating 90 years of service to the community.
The club held an anniversary dinner recently to mark the occasion and past president Graham Wheeler has written a book, The Past 90 Years, A Historical Recollection, to commemorate the club’s remarkable contributions.
The book documents projects including The Children’s Traffic Training Centre, the Bowelscan awareness program, Gluyas Rotary Lodge, the school furniture “drive for desk” project for PNG and the establishment of the Good Shepherd Home.
Rotary Club president Joe Moore said the club had a huge impact on the life of Townsville.
He counted the campaign to rid the world of polio among the movement’s biggest successes.
Mr Wheeler described the original Townsville club as the “taproot” of Rotary in North Queensland, holding its first meeting on January 12, 1927 and acting as charter sponsor for other clubs to follow.
He said the Rotary Club of Townsville had raised and contributed to community causes $ 5 million since its inception.
While he conceded that membership at service clubs, for whatever reason, had been in decline, he said 10 clubs continued to operate successfully in Townsville and that “Rotary always has its doors open”.