Greetings to San Francisco

Meeting Weekly on a Tuesday at 12:00

Hotel Nikko, Mason Street, San Francisco 94102

The first Rotary Club in the world was established in Chicago in 1905 to strengthen business relationships through the provision of service to the community.

The Rotary Club of San Francisco was founded in 1908 as part of the effort to rebuild after the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906, the Club is the second oldest Rotary Club in the World and is affectionately known as “Club #2”.

As an organisation of local business, professional, and civic leaders, the Club offers unique opportunities to give and grow through strong relationships built by providing humanitarian service, encouraging high ethical standards in all vocations, and helping to build goodwill and peace in the world.

Club members range in age from 35 to 95, and represent many different professions from financial managers to florists, from management consultants to mattress manufacturers, and from non-profit managers to nurses.

From its earliest days, the Rotary Club of San Francisco has been a powerful force for innovation within the Rotary World, proving that Rotary was a widely attractive and scalable idea, and launching the next four Rotary Clubs in the USA (Oakland, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York) and one of the first Rotary Club overseas (Dublin, Ireland).

The list of club activities is extensive, and well worth a read:

They assemble hundreds of shiny new bicycles for the annual Bike Build and give them to third and fourth graders from local elementary schools along with helmets, locks … and safety instruction is provided by the San Francisco Police Department.

The Club works with St. Joseph’s Family Center in San Francisco’s South of Market neighbourhood to help families overcome the chronic problems that cause homelessness and aid re-entry into self-sufficiency. 

The Club, alongside the Aquarium of the Bay, helps teach 3D printing to students with visual impairments. The students create small scale models of animals with braille signage, which are then offered to Aquarium guests from the blind and visually-impaired community. The Aquarium of the Bay is a corporate member of the Rotary Club of San Francisco.

Diaper bags are stuffed with items that all new mothers need, and are provided as gifts at baby showers for homeless expectant mothers as they graduate from the Homeless Prenatal Program’s prenatal and parenting classes.

Members spend time helping prepare and serve an annual festive Thanksgiving luncheon to the participants (adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities) and staff of The Arc San Francisco. 

Food for the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank is packaged so it can be distributed to a variety of populations in and around San Francisco.

The Club underwrites dance classes at the Smuin Center for Dance for elementary and middle school students in the Potrero Hill community. These classes increase self-confidence, build collaborative and individual learning skills, and improve the health of participants.

Dinners are provided to families whose children are being treated at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital as part of Family House’s effort to provide physical comfort and emotional support to these families, free from financial concerns.

There is more, we could all learn a lot … and they have fun.