Rotary Facts
Rotary unites people from all continents and cultures who take action to deliver real, long-term solutions to our world’s most persistent issues. Through volunteering, our 1.2 million members make lifelong friendships that transcend political and cultural boundaries and foster global understanding and respect. In addition to our 35,000 clubs, Rotary also offers expanded service opportunities including:
Interact clubs bring together young people ages 12-18 to develop leadership skills while discovering the power of Service Above Self. There are more than 20,300 Interact clubs in 159 countries. (Click Here for the SHS Interact Club)
Rotaract clubs bring together young adults, starting at age 18, to exchange ideas with leaders in the community, develop leadership and professional skills, and have fun through service.
Solving real problems takes real commitment and vision. Each year, Rotary members invest hundreds of millions of dollars and countless volunteer hours to promote health, peace and prosperity in communities across the globe. Rotary members take action by providing access to clean water snd sanitation, supporting education, preventing and treating disease, saving mothers and children and growing local economies.
Ending polio
For more than 30 years, Rotary has been the driving force in the effort to end polio worldwide. Alongside our partners in the Global Polio Eradication 
Initiative, we have achieved a 99.9 percent reduction in polio cases, with less than 200 cases of wild polio reported in 2019 compared with 350,000 a year in the late 1980s. Our members have contributed $2.1 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect more than 3 billion children in 122 countries from this paralyzing disease. Today, just two countries continue to report cases of wild poliovirus, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Rotary remains committed to ending polio, and will raise $50 million per year, with every dollar to be matched with two additional dollars through a matching agreement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Initiative, we have achieved a 99.9 percent reduction in polio cases, with less than 200 cases of wild polio reported in 2019 compared with 350,000 a year in the late 1980s. Our members have contributed $2.1 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect more than 3 billion children in 122 countries from this paralyzing disease. Today, just two countries continue to report cases of wild poliovirus, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Rotary remains committed to ending polio, and will raise $50 million per year, with every dollar to be matched with two additional dollars through a matching agreement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.History
For 116 years, Rotary members have been addressing challenges around the world. It started with the vision of one man — Paul Harris. The Chicago attorney formed the Rotary Club of Chicago on 23 February 1905, so professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas, form meaningful, lifelong friendships, and give back to their communities. Rotary’s name came from the group’s early practice of rotating meetings among the offices of its members. (Click Here to learn about Skaneateles Rotary Club's history)
To learn more about Rotary International, visit: https://www.rotary.org/en
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We want to wish all dads and families a happy Father’s Day this year, and we hope you will put the pancake breakfast on your calendar for next year! What a feast of fun and community (not to mention pancakes, eggs, sausage, coffee, and juice) we will have a year from now. 
With the same exuberance he brought to Skaneateles as an exchange student in 2011-12, Thomas Boxho spoke to Skaneateles Rotarians on Zoom Thursday night. Boxho was 17 when he left Belgium for a year in Skaneateles. It was a decision that changed his life and made him a better person, he said. “I tell people ‘Do it! Jump in. Don’t be afraid!’ It changes you. I had the best year of my entire life.”
Rotarians recently enjoyed an in-person meeting while making use of a great lesson learned in the pandemic: with Zoom, speakers can be from anywhere! Exchange student Lucas Grob (2007-2008, from Switzerland) joined the meeting from his home in Zurich. Grob thanked the Rotary Club, the Skaneateles community, and his host families for the year that changed his life. He lived with the Loreys, Frackenpohls and Trapanis. Host brother Tyler Lorey is now a Rotarian, and helped set up the on-line reunion. “Lucas is the brother I never had, and one of the dearest friends I’ve ever had.” Lorey said Grob was “the number one influencer for me to become a Rotary Youth Exchange student to Chile.” (Tyler was a junior the year the Grob was here). 
Rotarians in the Skaneateles Rotary Club restocked local food pantry cupboards this spring, thanks to all of the community members who contributed to the club’s recent food drive.About 80 large boxes of food were donated to the Spafford and Skaneateles food pantries, “topping off shelves -- and then some,” said Rotarian Andy Stevens. “Staff at both locations were very appreciative.”
Service Above Self
Skaneateles, NY 13152
United States of America