Chartered November 16, 1996

"Service above Self"

The Rotary Club of Calgary Fish Creek was founded in 1996 by the Rotary Club of Calgary Chinook.

The membership is small and the atmosphere is casual but the accomplishments are significant!

MEETINGS

The club meets Mondays (except statutory holidays) 6:00 – 7:30 pm at Shaw-nee Slopes Golf Course Club House, 820 James McKevitt Rd SW in south Calgary.  Meal cost is $20. 

A typical meeting includes a meal and fellowship, a few minutes of announcement/business and a brief presentation by a guest speaker.  The club tries to have one “service” meeting each month, with the regular meeting replaced by volunteering activities such as the Inter-Faith Foodbank or Mustard Seed.

MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENTS

Members are encouraged to attend the weekly meetings.  Rotarians who are unable to attend often maintain attendance by visiting another club in Calgary or wherever they are traveling in the world.  The entry fee is $100 and annual dues $225.

FUNDRAISING WORK

There are only two or three fundraising events each year:

- The club works a casino once every 18 – 24 months.

- The annual Charity Golf Tournament is held in May or June at McKenzie Meadows.

SERVICE

The club works actively in the areas of International, Community and Vocational service.

A sampling of this club’s accomplishments from recent months includes…

·   Shelterbox – to provide emergency shelter and supplies to any disaster area in the world.  17 Shelterboxes were purchased by the club.  Visit www.shelterbox.ca for more information.

·   $5,000 to Father Lacombe Nursing Home – purchasing   new ‘lift’ to assist the elderly.

·   Camp Health, Hope, and Happiness – supporting the purchase of craft and art supplies for summer camp.

·   Eagle’s Nest RYPEN Camp – sponsoring two students for this Rotary youth leadership camp.

·   Calgary Hospice Kids Cancer Camp – funding camp operation for children who have experienced the loss of a family member to cancer.

·   Operation Eyesight – supporting the International Organization.

·   Police Youth Academy – scholarship for a worthy student to continue education.

·   Friends of Fish Creek Park Society – funding construction of an information kiosk and bench at site of new Bow River boat launch.

·   Drug Awareness Program at Bishop O’Byrne High School – providing a professional seminar on drug awareness.

·   High School Scholarships – deserving students from Bishop O’Byrne and Centennial High Schools are selected to receive 4 scholarships from Rotary.

·   INCAWASI in Peru – to improve and develop the educational, social and nutritional situation of children in disadvantaged areas of the city of Cajamarca in Peru.

·   Rotary Foundation of Rotary International – a donation of $18,000 US was made to support the Foundation.

·   Servants Anonymous Society – supporting this society that provides opportunities for girls to get off the streets and back into society.

·   Adventures in Citizenship (Ottawa) – sponsoring a student to travel to Ottawa to participate in this event.

·   Ecuador – in partnership with the Rotary Club of Rio Guayas and Rotary International, a matching grant project purchased 18 industrial sewing machines to consolidate small family enterprises into a community business effort that improves living standards.

·   Streetkeepers International – assisting homeless children in India.

·   Santa’s Secret Service – purchasing and wrapping Christmas gift packages for isolated seniors in Calgary.

·   Make Poverty History – a donation was given to this international Rotary program.

·   TRACC Program – a project in Uganda (Taking Rotary Assistance to Children and Communities).

·   Bishop O’Byrne Parent Council – funding construction of spectator bleachers for the playing fields.

·   In October 2005, five Fish Creek Rotarians traveled to Guayaquil, Ecuador, on an RI-sponsored Discovery Grant to visit with other Rotary Clubs and examine matching grant project opportunities.

Volunteer Activities

Kid’s Cancer Camp

Fish Creek Park Cleanup events

Servants Anonymous Christmas party

The Mustard Seed

Habitat For Humanity

Calgary Interfaith Food Bank

Salvation Army Christmas Kettle Drive

Salvation Army Emergency Response Vehicle

Rotary is a worldwide organization of business and professional leaders that provides humanitarian service, encourages high ethical standards in all vocations, and helps build goodwill and peace in the world. Approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 32,000 clubs in more than 200 countries.  Visit www.rotary.org for more information.

Each Rotary club strives for a membership that is an up-to-date and progressive representation of its community's business, vocational, and professional interests. Membership offers a number of benefits:

·     Effecting change within the community

·     Developing leadership skills

·     Gaining an understanding of — and having an impact on — international humanitarian issues.

·     Developing relationships with community and business leaders

Rotary membership is by invitation.  Contact our club secretary for more information at 201-4734.

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:

FIRST. The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service;

SECOND. High ethical standards in business and professions; and the dignifying of each Rotarian's occupation as an opportunity to serve society;

THIRD. The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian's personal, business, and community life;

FOURTH. The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.

From the earliest days of the organization, Rotarians were concerned with promoting high ethical standards in their professional lives. One of the world's most widely printed and quoted statements of business ethics is The Four-Way Test, which was created in 1932 and adopted by Rotary in 1943, The Four-Way Test has been translated into more than a hundred languages and published in thousands of ways.  It asks the following four questions:

             "Of the things we think, say or do:

    Is it the TRUTH?

    Is it FAIR to all concerned?

    Will it build GOODWILL and

          BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

    Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?"

Based on the Object of Rotary, the Four Avenues of Service are Rotary's philosophical cornerstone and the foundation on which club activity is based:

Club Service focuses on strengthening fellowship and ensuring the effective functioning of the club.

Vocational Service encourages Rotarians to serve others through their vocations and to practice high ethical standards.

Community Service covers the projects and activities the club undertakes to improve life in its community.

International Service encompasses actions taken to expand Rotary's humanitarian reach around the globe and to promote world understanding and peace.

Through more than US$90 million in Rotary Foundation grants each year, Rotary clubs support community projects at home and abroad.  The mission of the Foundation is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education and the alleviation of poverty. It is a not-for-profit corporation supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotarians and friends.

The Foundation was created in 1917 as an endowment fund for Rotary "to do good in the world." Over the years US$1.8 billion has been contributed including $111 million in 2005-06 for a current balance exceeding $500 million.

PolioPlus is Rotary’s flagship program.  Members have contributed over US$600 million and countless volunteer hours to help immunize over two billion children against polio.  In November 2007, Rotary accepted a US$100 million challenge grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that will generate $200 million for polio eradication continues to receive media attention around the globe.

Other programs include Youth Exchange, Youth Leadership and Friendship Exchanges. 

In association with Rotary there are Global Networking Groups – essentially groups of Rotarians with a common interest.  For examples, one club is for Rotarians who offer to host in their home other Rotarians visiting from around the world.