Membership in the Butler Rotary Club is by invitation only and is based on the founding principles which are more than 100 years old.

This system was developed by Paul Harris, one of the founders of Rotary, in Chicago in 1905.

The Butler club celebrated its 89th anniversary on Feb. 1, 2000. During its rich history, our club has had as many as 117 members and now has 60.

Rotary was originally founded as an all male organization, but in 1987 the bylaws were revised to allow women. Today, our club has 18 businesswomen.

Rotary’s motto is “Service Above Self,” which means that we are a service organization striving to provide for the needs of others in our community, our country and in the world.

Today there are Rotary clubs in 168 countries with more than 33,200 Rotary clubs and 1,219,000 members.

We are proud of the major accomplishment Rotarians have made to the eradication of Polio worldwide through the Rotary PolioPlus Program in conjunction with the United Nations. There has not been a reported case of polio in the Americas in 14 years and it is expected that by the year 2010, polio will be totally eradicated from the Earth through our funding of the polio vaccine program.

Locally, we are active in several community events, such as the Turkey Roundup to feed needy families during the holidays, the Pancake Festival to benefit Lifesteps, the Great Rotary Golf Ball Drop, Adopt a Highway, and an annual golf outing to benefit Rotary charities.

The object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster:

First. The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service;

Second. High ethical standards in business and professions, the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations, and the dignifying of each Rotarian’s occupation as an opportunity to serve society;

Third. The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian’s personal, business, and community life;

Fourth. The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.

For information, contact club secretary, Peter Richdale, at 724-482-2916 or visit our Web site at www.butlerrotarvclub.com.

This article was submitted by the Butler Rotary Club.