HEALTH CARE FOCUSED

Group Study Exchange ("GSE") to Hong Kong in 2011!

 Bigger Better Bolder

This year we will have a District Foundation Retreat which will be held at Migis Lodge on Sebago Lake in So. Casco, Maine on October 14.  Rotarians will have an opportunity to join in "Fireside Chats" with an RI Director and other Foundation experts during the afternoon,  followed by special cocktail receptions and a 6PM dinner with special guest speaker RI Director John Smarge.  "Fireside Chats" offer groups a unique learning experience through interactive discussions to discover more about our Rotary Foundation and its programs and how we can tap into its resources to fund our projects and, in so doing, continue our work of building communities and bridging continents.  

For those whose schedules allow, Lodge accommodations will be available to Rotarians at special discount, and the discussions will continue over breakfast.  

Stay tuned for more information about this exciting opportunity to learn more about the Rotary Foundation and to enjoy the hospitality and quiet beauty of Migis Lodge on the shore of Sebago Lake in the midst of a glowing autumn palette only a New England afternoon can provide. 

During the first Rotary club meeting on 23 February 1905 in Chicago, Paul Harris, Gustavus Loehr, Hiram Shorey, and Silvester Schiele met to talk about their personal experiences. Harris then unfolded his general plan for their club meetings.

This was the simple beginning of the world's first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago. It was created because of Harris' wish to capture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. The Rotary name derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members' offices.

Rotarians continue to take pride in their history. In honor of that first club, Rotarians have preserved its original meeting place, Room 711 in Chicago's Unity Building, by re-creating the office as it existed in 1905. For several years, the Paul Harris 711 Club maintained the room as a shrine for visiting Rotarians. In 1989, when the building was scheduled to be demolished, the club carefully dismantled the office and salvaged the interior, including doors and radiators. In 1993, the RI Board of Directors set aside a permanent home for the restored Room 711 at RI World Headquarters in the Chicago suburb of Evanston.