2020-2021 Woonsocket Rotary Club President Roger Bouchard, provides a brief overview of our club.
We are one of 35,000 Rotary clubs worldwide with 1.2 million individuals enrolled.
Rotary International is an international service organization whose stated purpose is to bring together business and professional leaders in order to provide humanitarian service and to advance goodwill and peace around the world and locally. It is a non-political and non-religious organization open to all.
The Woonsocket Rotary club is a member of Rotary District 7950 which consists of 65 clubs from Southeastern Massachusetts, Cape Cod and Rhode Island.
Woonsocket organized the local club on February 3, 1960.
The club serves the local community of Woonsocket, North Smithfield and Burrillville.
We enjoy weekly fellowship with luncheon meetings and carry out fundraising to support local nonprofit organizations who request financial assistance or hands on projects. We also fund international projects including our worldwide known project called “polio plus” which has eradicated polio worldwide and is a function of Rotary club international. This is a remarkable accomplishment for a private organization. Just one fact: Rotary contributed 500 million dollars for the protection of nearly 2 billion children worldwide. The disease is practically nonexistent.
This narrative would be too long to digest if we covered our achievements here. But we have supported organizations like the Stadium Theatre making one of its original start up contributions as the group formed to rebuild the structure. But we just don’t make contributions financially, our members have been board members of the Stadium Theater, volunteering as ushers and concession stand attendants. We give our time not just our money.
You may have heard of Autumnfest? Woonsocket Rotary is a key component to running the event and in return Autumnfest is a key fundraiser for us during this October celebration.
Membership includes dues of $200 yearly. And members attend meetings and pay $18 for food which includes a fee to pay for the club’s holiday party and annual installation dinner. Our current meeting place is River Falls restaurant.
