[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 42 (Tuesday, April 12, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E618]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           HONORING ROTARY INTERNATIONAL'S 100TH ANNIVERSARY

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                        HON. NICK J. RAHALL, II

                            of west virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 12, 2005

  Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Rotary International 
for reaching its' 100th Anniversary, and for the monumental amount of 
achievements it has accomplished within its' time.
  Rotary Club was first founded in 1905 by Paul Harris, an attorney, in 
Chicago Illinois with the interest of organizing a booster club, which 
then expanded to Rotary International in 1922, and has grown to include 
over 1.2 million members in more than 31,000 clubs that span the globe 
in 166 countries. The Rotary District in my own Congressional District 
has 32 clubs within it that include some 1509 members.
  In my home district, Anthony K. Blankenship, the District Governor 
Elect of District 7550, has set a superb example for all business 
leaders in the area by serving on his local chamber of commerce and as 
the Ohio Valley Automotive Aftermarket Association's vice chair. He has 
also served in many capacities for the Matewan Rotary Club, including 
President.
  Each year the local Rotary District sponsors a Group Study Exchange 
to foster peace and understanding between nations that sends four Non-
Rotarian business people and one Rotarian to a paired foreign nation to 
experience a different culture and way of life. This past year the 7550 
District sent a member and four business professionals to Great Britain 
and has plans to send another entourage to Australia this year.
  Rotary International has encouraged and fostered the ideal of service 
as a basis of worthy enterprise, and thus adopted the 4-Way Test, 
formulated by its' own Herbert Taylor, who developed a standard code of 
ethics for businesses.
  The Rotary Foundation has been instrumental in funding many 
worthwhile service projects that have improved the lives of people 
across the globe by promoting world understanding and peace through 
humanitarian, educational, and cultural programs. The Rotary clubs in 
my district, led by the Beckley Rotary club, recently secured a 
$300,000 grant to build a clinic in India.
  Rotary International has enacted the Polio-Plus program that has 
collected over $500 million, contributed tens of thousands of volunteer 
man-hours, inoculated over 2 billion children since 1985 with the polio 
vaccine, and is slated to eradicate polio globally by December, 2005.
  Rotary has been actively involved in creating a peaceful world by 
fostering peace initiatives that have created Rotary Centers for 
International Studies at world-renowned universities in an effort to 
educate and train Rotary World Peace Scholars in conflict resolution, 
peace studies, and international relations. In fact, a West Virginia 
native of St. Albans was one of the first graduates of this program.
  Many students have excelled and benefited under the Rotary Youth 
Exchange, which funded by the Ambassadorial Scholarships, has become 
the international community's largest privately funded international 
scholarships program. The Matewan Rotary Club ensures each year that 
two local high school students will receive a scholarship to further 
their higher education goals.
  I wish to honor today and hope that my colleagues will join me in 
honoring Rotary International for continually striving to promote the 
ideal of service as an integral part of enterprise, and a sustained 
effort to maintain high ethical standards while promoting peaceful 
initiatives around the globe.

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