Club History

It all began back in the spring of 1943 when a contingent of Rotarians from Charlottetown came to Summerside in search of a few good men.  They found 26 of them, and on June 2, 1943, the Rotary Club of Summerside received its charter as Club #5619.  The first meeting was held over lunch at the Olympia Tea Room across the street from the train station in Summerside.

 

In the first year, the Club raised almost $20,000 which included $8,500 to buy an x-ray machine for the Prince County Hospital. Over the years this relationship continued to grow and today the Rotary Club of Summerside raises money to fulfill its $50,000 commitment to the Prince County Hospital.

 

Over the years the Rotary Club of Summerside has been led by some of Summerside’s most prominent and influential business people. Peter G Clark served as the Club’s first president and others would soon follow: J. Edward Dalton, Ben Taylor, Alan Holman, T. Earle Hickey, Vaughan Groom, Edgar Cannon, Thane Campbell and George Meikle, to name a few.

 

In 1976, Rotary International invited women into Rotary. Soon women began to express an interest in joining our club; the first two-women to be welcomed as members in the Rotary Club of Summerside were in 1987. Today more than 196,000 women are members of Rotary International.

 

Over the past 78 years, the Club has become known for its dedication to improving the lives of children and adults with disabilities.  This began in 1943 with a $1,400 donation to the Disabled Children’s Fund and since that time it has provided wheelchair lifts at the Recreation Centre and Centennial Pool, a wheelchair van for SAW Industries, electric wheelchairs, housing renovations, and has assisted Community Connections. Funding projects such as these have been made possible by the generous donations that are made to the Annual Easter Seals Campaign.

 

Rotary Clubs across the world stand by the motto “Service Above Self”.  We organize projects around Five Avenues of Service to make sure our service efforts are balanced and effective. The five avenues of service are Club [capacity], Vocational, Community [local], International, and Youth. We are very proud of our ability to identifying important community needs, and we are very proud that we are able to support them. The Rotary Regional Library, the Inspire Learning Centre, the Rotary Friendship Park, the Rotary Celebration Garden and the STRIVE Scholarship Program are lasting legacies for future generations of Prince County residents.

 

In addition, we have brought the world to Summerside and Summerside to the world through our continued participation in the Rotary Youth Exchange Program and Group Study Exchange Program.

 

Along with meeting the needs of our community our Club has also recognized its international responsibilities through its contributions to the Polio Plus campaign, ambulances for China, and firefighting apparatus for Argentina, hospital equipment for Jamaica, water wells in Nigeria and a market garden for an orphanage in Mozambique.

 

The Rotarian’s 4-WAY TEST

1. Is it the TRUTH?

2. Is it fair to all concerned?

3. Will it build GOODWILL?

And better FRIENDSHIPS?

4. Will it be beneficial to all CONCERNED?