A Message from the Club President

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Dear Rotarian's and Guests:

In 1905, Paul Harris was inspired by the simple idea of combining fellowship and service and pioneered the service club movement by founding Rotary International.  Today, Rotary International consists of 34,300 different clubs throughout the world  with 1.22 million members. Our Downtown Fort Lauderdale Rotary Club was founded in 1922, just a few years after the platting of Broward County (1915) and the incorporation of Fort Lauderdale (1911).  The Downtown Rotary Club membership consists of business and professional leaders who have been active servants in the community for the past 89 years.  Through direct actions and intelligent initiatives, our Rotary Club has significantly contributed to the development and history of the city of Fort Lauderdale. The Fort Lauderdale Rotary Club has been responsible for many developments in real estate, architectural landmarks, cultural expansion, economic funding and leadership development within government. We will celebrate our 90th Anniversary March 10, 2012 with a Roaring 20's theme to benefit our Rotary 1090 Foundation. 

Currently the Downtown Fort Lauderdale Rotary Club has 155 active members.  In keeping with Rotary’s motto, “Service Above Self,” our members provide community assistance and support  by volunteering for such projects as Power of One Hour, Rebuild Broward,  beach cleanups, holiday  and summer toy drives, a Thanksgiving basket program sponsored by the First Presbyterian Church, Salvation Army Bell ringing during the holiday season, and participation in the Cooperative Feeding Program to name a few. In addition, the Club holds annual fundraising events, such as the Rotary 5K Run in April and The Rotary Raffle in November.  These fundraising events allow Rotary to award $78,000 in Scholarships to local high school students and more than $25,000 to nonprofit organizations such as Challenge Air, The Wheelchair Foundation, The Boy Scouts of America, Family Central, Sheppard’s Way, and The Pantry of Broward. The Downtown Fort Lauderdale Rotary Club is the central organization responsible for the ongoing collection of donations for LifeStraws, a non-sustainable water purifying system. To date, because of the Fort Lauderdale Rotary Club, more than 50,000 LifeStraws have been delivered to Africa and Haiti.  In addition, the Fort Lauderdale Rotary Club is participating in the funding of water wells in Africa enabling remote villages to have a permanent clean water source.

Our Rotary Club’s mission is to provide business, professional and community leaders the opportunity to provide service to others in order to benefit our community and to promote high ethical standards, fellowship, and goodwill worldwide. In addition, our club meets weekly and we are fortunate to attract speakers such as former Governor Jeb Bush,  comedian Woody Woodbury , US House member Allen West, US Senator Marco Rubio, and well known authors to name a few.

It is truly an honor to serve in the 89th year of Rotary here in my hometown of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The 90th Anniversary Celebration Auction will be on March 10, 2012 so please mark you calenders. I encourage Rotarian members to use this website to plan for future meetings and for visitors to our website to read about what we do and what we can do in the Greater Fort Lauderdale Community. 

Sincerely,  

Robert M Easton Jr OD FAAO