We helped set up

About Our Club
 
During its long history the Club has not only contributed to a lot of charities, it has also founded a lot of well known New Zealand non-for-profit organisations.
 
The first community service in the Club's inaugural year was raising 900 pounds ($1800) for the Boy Scouts.  This began the long history of contributions:
 
1926:       Blind Institute
1928:       YMCA Lodge Hunua
1930-31: Plunket Society
1935:       Crippled Children’s Society (now CCS)
1944:       Tuberculosis Association
 
1945: Established the Obstetrical and Gynecological Committee, which led to 100,000 pounds ($200,000) being raised to endow a Professorial Chair in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Auckland and eventually to the establishment of National Women's Hospital in Auckland.
 
1945: by this time 10 members had served overseas, the Club had organised 22 new clubs and in conjunction with some of them helped to organise another eight.  The post-war period saw the Club grow to 300 members and the sponsoring of the establishment of what are now some of our strongest sister clubs including Newmarket, Pukekohe, Onehunga, and Otahuhu.
 
1955:  50th Anniversary of Rotary International in 1955. The District Golden Jubilee Committee developed ROTA (Rotary Overseas Travel Award), which was so successful that it was subsequently adopted by The Rotary Foundation and adapted to become the Group Study Exchange, still one Rotary's most successful international programmes.
 
1961:  Outward Bound:  The Club's Youth Committee project with the support of the Governor General, Viscount Cobham, and others became known as The Outward Bound Trust.  It continues today a characters-building adventure training for young people.
 
The Club also contributed to:
  • Children's Health Research Foundation
  • Assisted in establishing the Junior Symphony Orchestra
  • Assisted in establishing the Maori Youth Centre. 
The Club initiated many Rotary Merit Awards
  • Rotary Scholar Award (medical scholarship)
  • Rotary Award of Merit for vocation service
  • Trophy of Tradition for the nurse exemplifying the spirit of the nursing profession.
The Club’s third quarter century brought several service projects -
  • Harold Thomas Rotary Trust and the Reaching Out Trust, which grew to become The Child Development Foundation of New Zealand, a programme dedicated to helping intermediate school children grow into better citizens as they cope with the problems of peer pressure in their developmental years
  • Worked with the District to help in the establishment of the Children's Health Foundation nationally
  • Establishment of Boystown (now Youth Town)
  • Log cabin at Camp Adair
  • Helped with the Blood Unit at Auckland Hospital
  • A van for the Crippled Children’s Association
  • Clothing for the Salvation Army
  • A substantial donation to a new hospital facility for the disabled
1994:  The Ellerslie Flower Show, an event to raise funds for charitable work on an annual basis, was estbalished. It became a nationally and internationally acclaimed event.  In 2004 it was sold, after having distributed $645,000 in surpluses for local charities.
 
1996:  The club helped establish TYLA - Turn Your Life Around – programme.  It is a year long course supported by the police that aims to make a positive difference to the lives of at-risk youths.
 
1997:  Books for Babes project began.  Club members sought to put resources into the local community for early health and wellbeing. Books purchased by the Club were distributed with ideas on how to read to very young children through the Well Child initiative. The project now extends across many parts of Auckland with support from Auckland City Libraries and of various visits and reading programmes.
 
Throughout the years the Club has continued to support the charities and organisations that it supported in its early years, like the YMCA, Plunket Society, and Salvation Army.
 
Having reached its centennial in 2021, the changing face of Auckland requires new approaches towards meeting the goals of the Club through the various avenues of service.  The core objective however remains to be "service above self" and supporting the local community in which we live, work and play.