Rotary Club of Sunshine
1956-2006!

Background

Rotary is a global organisation of enthusiastic members in community clubs with extraordinary humanitarian service programs that really make a difference. Business and professional men and women are self motivated in giving their time and money to a worthy cause and participate actively in a service organisation.

The major object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service. Rotarians are expected to maintain high ethical standards in business and professions. Their occupations are to be used as opportunities to serve both the local and broader communities. High priority is given to the advancement of international understanding, goodwill and peace, through a world fellowship of business and professional persons, united in the ideal of service.

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Avenues of Service

Each Rotary club has 4 avenues of service: COMMUNITY, VOCATIONAL , YOUTH and INTERNATIONAL. Two of these are concerned principally with community activities: Community Service at the local level and International Service at the overseas level.

The Rotary Club of Sunshine was chartered in 1956 and celebrates its 50th year in 2006. A wide variety of projects has been sponsored during that time , with a review of community needs taking place at the commencement of each new Rotary year.

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Community

Over recent years, approximately 14,000 dollars per year has been provided for community and international programs.

In our local area, support has been given to MS Society, Mercy Hospice Care, Western Hospital, nursing homes, Salvation Army and Life Education.

Current projects include participation in local and statewide environmental projects (eg. desalination, parkland and tourism development) , painting houses for the ill and elderly, raising funds for Camp Getaway and providing support for the needy.

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Vocational

The club includes recognition of successful local businesses and business practices, as well as awards for outstanding workmanship /service.

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Youth Projects

Encouragement for young people has been a major focus of Sunshine Rotary Club for almost half a century.

Valuable programs such as Youth Exchange provide opportunities for young people from Sunshine to experience living in other countries and to interact with students and families from overseas.

Other important youth programs sponsored by the club include the Peer Support Program, the National Science Summer School, Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, Rotary Youth Program for Enrichment, Siemens Science Project, the Raymond G. Carlton Scholarship and Youth Art Awards and Art Show.

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International Projects

At the international level, Rotary clubs throughout the world co-operate to provide goods and services for educational and humanitarian programs.

Current programs include Samoan schools and Thai Distance Education Programs.

POLIO PLUS PROGRAM

Eradicating polio is a top Rotary priority which requires the immunisation of every child under 5 in the world.

As a result of the efforts of Rotary and its global partners, more than one billion children have been immunised against polio since 1985.

Rotary members gave about US$500 million to the campaign by 2005, the target date for the certification of a polio-free world.

Through the Rotary Foundation’s Polio Plus program, more than one million Rotary volunteers from around the globe have contributed to the success of polio eradication efforts.

Rotary is the key private-sector partner in this international health effort.Public sector partners include the World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF and the US centeres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

3H PROGRAM

The 3H program concerned with the world’s health, hunger and humanity has a worldwide budget of US$338 million dollars.

Grants enable university teachers to serve in developing countries, ambassadorial students and professionals to gain vocational experience or carry out research leading to goodwill and understanding between nations.

Past programs conducted by Sunshine Rotary Club include the Dharmsala Project in Tibet and the establishment of the Saraswati Teacher Resource Centre in Nepal.

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Last Updated: 11 August 2009