Rotary Club of Gloucester

Rotary is an organisation of business and professional leaders  united world-wide who provide humanitarian service, encourage  high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and  peace in the world. In more than 160 countries world-wide,  approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 30,000  Rotary clubs.

Rotary club membership represents a cross-section of the  community's business and professional men and women. The  world's Rotary clubs meet weekly and are non-political,  nonreligious, and open to all cultures, races, and creeds.

The main objective of Rotary is service - in the community, in the  workplace, and throughout the world. Rotarians develop community  service projects that address many of today's most critical issues,  such as children at risk, poverty and hunger, the environment,  illiteracy, and violence. They also support programs for youth,  educational opportunities and international exchanges for students,  teachers, and other professionals, and vocational and career  development. The Rotary motto is Service Above Self.

Although Rotary clubs develop autonomous service programs, all  Rotarians world-wide are united in a campaign for the global  eradication of polio. In the 1980s, Rotarians raised US$240 million to  immunise the children of the world; by 2005, Rotary's centenary  year and the target date for the certification of a polio-free world,  the PolioPlus program will have contributed US$500 million to this  cause. In addition, Rotary has provided an army of volunteers to  promote and assist at national immunisation days in polio-endemic  countries around the world.

The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International is a not-for-profit  corporation that promotes world understanding through  international humanitarian service programs and educational and  cultural exchanges. It is supported solely by voluntary contributions  from Rotarians and others who share its vision of a better world.  Since 1947, the Foundation has awarded more than US$1.1 billion in  humanitarian and educational grants, which are initiated and  administered by local Rotary clubs and districts.