Who and What is Rotary?
Rotary is a global network of community volunteers – people who share a commitment to enhancing communities and improving people’s lives.
Rotary club members are business, professional, and community leaders who meet regularly to plan and implement local and international community service activities and network with other professionals. More than 1.4 million men and women in over 200 countries belong to over 35,000 Rotary clubs.
Rotary builds international understanding through scholarships, exchange programs, and humanitarian grants. Throughout the world, Rotary clubs participate in a broad range of educational, intercultural, and humanitarian activities designed to improve the lives of others.
Benefits of Membership
Members join Rotary for many reasons, including community involvement, personal
development, professional networking, and camaraderie with fellow members. The most important benefit is the satisfaction gained from making a positive difference in the world.
Come Join Us, Your Local Rotary Club!
The South Anne Arundel Rotary Club meets on the first, second, and third Thursday mornings of each month from 7:30-8:30 a.m. at Renditions Golf Club. Breakfast is provided, and the program usually includes an external speaker with a connection to the south county community. On most fourth Thursdays of the month, the club meets from 5-7 p.m. for a happy hour at various restaurants in Anne Arundel County.
Our Philanthropic Programs
The Rotary Club of South Anne Arundel County has a charitable foundation through which the club contributes and helps fund local charities and the club’s philanthropic activities, such as:
Super Bowl Raffle – January
Dictionary Project – October
Bountiful Backpacks – October - May
Lights of Kindness - December
Our club focuses on youth-related projects. From our first project after the club was chartered in 2005 (where we built desks and provided donated computers to eight girls living in the Marys Mount Manor Girls’ Group Home) the club is committed to supporting youth-in-need in our community.
Here are some notable projects and initiatives:
Lights of Kindness (LoK) – Held annually at Homestead Gardens in Davidsonville, LoK is the club’s signature event. The goal is to raise awareness for both local charities and businesses to make our community a better place to live and work. Businesses and individuals partner with charities to decorate trees to create a Holiday Forest, and members of the community vote for their favorite tree(s) in person and online to help raise funds for the charity and the club’s
foundation.
Bountiful Backpacks – Our local initiative where the club provides weekend food for the neediest families in our local elementary schools, since the start of this project the club has spent more than $100,000 on food, providing more than 35,000 bags and 200,000 pounds of food.
Local grants – Each year our club provides financial support to local non-profits that provide services to youth in a variety of ways; examples of grant recipients include STAIR – Start The Adventure In Reading, Making Cards for Our Troops, South County Reading Camp, You Gave It We Give It, and more.
The Rotary Club of South Anne Arundel County also supports several youth-related programs:
Rotary Youth Leadership Awards - an intensive leadership experience organized by Rotary clubs and districts where students develop their skills as leaders while having fun and making new friends.
Interact Clubs - Interact is a club for youth ages 12-18 who want to connect with others in their community or school. Interact club members have fun while conducting service projects and learning about the world. The South Anne Arundel Rotary Club sponsors Interact clubs at South River and Southern High schools.
Various student scholarships – Through the club’s foundation, we support local youth scholarship programs.
International Projects
On the international front, the club supports a Trade School in Haiti. One of the club’s members is dedicated to improving the Haitian economy by helping to build and operate this school that trains electricians, plumbers, nurses, and computer experts. Through Rotary International, PolioPlus is the organization’s most ambitious program to date, focusing on global immunization efforts. PolioPlus has played a leadership role with the World Health Organization, CDC, and UNICEF in bringing the world to the brink of polio eradication. The Bill, Melinda Gates Foundation has contributed $355 million to Rotary to support PolioPlus
activities.