Our History
The Rochester AM Rotary Club is an off-shoot of the large Rochester Rotary Club. Desiring a club that met in the morning instead of at midday, twenty-five members and numerous other Rotarians attended Charter Night on May 13, 1988 — and Rochester AM Rotary was born!
Over the years, Rochester AM Rotary has participated in many community service projects. The club has raised thousands of dollars to benefit the Rotary Sunshine Camp for disabled children (run by the Rochester Rotary Club), Hope Hall (a school providing alternative learning methods for children) and St. Peter and Paul’s Day Care Center (which later become a Head-Start Program). We continue to support Hope Hall and, to a lesser extent, the Sunshine Camp. The Freedom Scholars Learning Center is the latest addition to the organizations we help on an ongoing basis.
We have awarded Community Grants to worthy organizations in Rochester. Past recipients include Beechwood Neighbors Greenhouse Collaborative, the Vineyard Surround Care Program, Coffee Connection, R Community Bikes, Gerhardt Neighborhood Outreach Center, REACH (Rochester Engaging in Action for the Chronically Homeless) and Jennifer House.
Our Club was the only local service club to raise money to sponsor a bollard in the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial at Highland Park.
Over the years, the club has sponsored three students for the Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA) program and hosted two youth exchange students as part of our International Service. We have supported a number of World Community Service projects including aid to storm victims and the building of public restroom facilities in India.
When it comes to fundraisers, the club has done a whole bunch of different things: hosted an annual golf tournament, done raffles, sold entertainment books, had a garage sale, conducted a road rally, sold admission tickets at the Monroe County Fair, and worked at the concession stands at Red Wings games. Contemporary fundraisers include hosting a wine pairing event.
In addition to raising money, Rochester AM supports its community service endeavors with hands-on work crews. Previous projects have included planting a tree at Ellison Park, helping to plant more trees in Rochester’s Beechwood neighborhood, working as part of the set-up crew at the LPGA, and assisting with the Special Olympics. Currently, club members tend the garden at Hope Hall and have begun a book presentation project at School #33.
Our Guiding Principles
Rotary International has developed the following principles to provide Rotarians with a strong, common purpose and direction. They serve as a foundation for our relationships with each other and the action we take in the world.
The object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster:
• The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service;
• High ethical standards in business and professions; the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations; and the dignifying of each Rotarian’s occupation as an opportunity to serve society;
• The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian’s personal, business, and community life;
• The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.
As a way to apply those principles in our personal and professional relationships, Rotary International encourages us to apply the Four-Way Test.
Rotary International
Rotary International is a humanitarian service organization with a mission to provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through our fellowship of business, professional, and community leaders.