Why Rotary?
Did you know this about Rotary?:-
1) Rotary International is the world's first service club organization, with more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary club members are volunteers who work locally, regionally, and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, promote peace, and eradicate polio under the motto ‘Service Above Self'.
2) Can rightfully claim to be the largest "single" Charity in the world.
3) Has focused on certain international projects such as ‘Polio Plus'. It has helped to almost completely eradicate this dreadful disease. Even now, Rotarians in N India are involved in helping 2 million youngsters be vaccinated. This is one of the last three remaining areas yet to be declared clear. In partnership with the Gates Foundation (Microsoft's Bill Gates), Rotarians are currently raising millions of dollars, to be matched by the Foundation, to make this disease a thing of the past.
4) Started the Aquabox venture whereby boxes are sent to disaster areas (www.aquabox.org) to provide clean water from any source for a village for several weeks. The boxes now include other materials suited for each particular disaster.
5) Started the Shelterbox (www.shelterbox.org) venture. Shelterboxes contain a 10 man tent, multi-fuel cooking stove, cooking and eating utensils, survival equipment, tool kit, water purification unit, children's pack etc. So far nearly 68,000 boxes have been sent to disaster areas, over 10,000 to Haiti in the 2 months since the earthquake struck.
6) Rotary started just over 100 years ago and now has 1.2 million members in over 120 countries worldwide.
7) Clubs are open to anyone over 18, provided that members believe in the principles of Rotary, see www.ribi.org. One of these is "Service above Self".
8) Offers the opportunity to visit any club in the world and make friends and contacts.
What is Rotary?
It is now the oldest "Service" club in the world. The local clubs are the "heart of rotary" and meet regularly - usually weekly, with a meal and a speaker on a relevant topic. The clubs are overseen by a District grouping. For West Yorkshire, this is District 1040. Rotary offers the opportunity for self-development, networking and involvement in applying your expertise to help the community at large.
Why the "Rotary Technology Tournament"?
We are concerned that young people are no longer being exposed to the true enterprise culture. Both the individuals and UK industry needs such an outlook. Rotary is independent of the schools and is impartial. The tournament is seen as an enjoyable way of introducing the appropriate skills to those who have not been exposed to this culture as may have happened in the past.
The number of Centres has expanded rapidly. The event started with Rotary clubs in the Home Counties. In District 1040, we started in Harrogate (2002), followed by Halifax (2004), York (2005), Skipton (2006), Leeds, Batley and Bradford (2007), Catterick (2008) and new for 2009, Whitby.
As the number of participants and centres expand, we may be able to run inter-district and even international events, as Rotary is worldwide.
If you are interested to learn more about Rotary then follow the Rotary lin below:
Rotary Clubs Participating in the Leeds Event:
Aireborough click here
Calverley (website currently unavailable)
Crossgates click here
Headingley click here
Leeds click here
Leeds Elmete click here
Leeds White Rose click here
Lower Wharfedale click here
Rothwell click here
Roundhay click here
Wetherby and District click here
For other Technology Tournament Centres and Rotary Clubs in District 1040 including
Batley, Bradford, Catterick, Featherston, Harrogate, Halifax, Skipton, Whitby, York: click here
