Welcome

Welcome to the Oak Hills Rotary Club’s website.  I hope you find it useful and informative.

The time period was February 1905.  The place was Chicago, IL.  Paul Harris, an attorney, met with three other local businessmen to discuss improving the business relationships in Chicago.  They would “rotate” their periodic meetings between their businesses as they expanded the discussion and brought others businessmen into the meeting.  They become organized and added other ideas as they grew.  A community service group of businesspeople had developed, the first of its kind.

A second club was formed in San Francisco in 1908 with a few more clubs following elsewhere in the United States.  In 1911 the organization became international with the establishment of a club in Canada.  Today there are 1.2 million Rotarians in more than 34,000 clubs in more than 165 countries.  Each club supports programs in their community, state, nation, and throughout the world.  Most recently, Rotary has been acknowledged as the force responsible for the eradication of Polio worldwide.

Our Oak Hills Rotary Club was chartered in October 1977 and we took our name from the original meeting place the Oak Hills Country Club.  We have been a community leader in our area from the beginning.  We provide college scholarships through local high schools, sponsor Rotary-like clubs in the public school systems, participate in international exchange programs, and give fiscal and “sweat equity” support to other local groups to cite some of our focus.

An emerging program, First Knight, where ethics is taught to an entire elementary is becoming our ongoing focus.  Using the Knights of the Round Table as the teaching vehicle, children are given daily lessons in honesty and integrity.  The entire education program is provided to the school at no cost.  Our school reports lowered discipline issues, improved learning, and increased parent participation as some of the many benefits.

We meet most Fridays at noon for an hour or so of fellowship and fun.  We take the work we do seriously but not ourselves.  Each Rotarian considers each member a very close friend.

I invite you to join us for lunch sometime and hear for yourself all we do.  You will enjoy the hour!

David Ives

President