© 2003, Rotary Club of Charleston

P.O. Box 21029
Charleston, SC 29413-1029

Club secretary:
Carroll Schweers
chasrot@comcast.net

Club starts new century of leadership
Members continue to be committed to service

From "Service Above Self: A History of the Rotary Club of Charleston -- 1920 - 2004," published Feb. 2005.

Read more. You can learn more about the history of the Rotary Club of Charleston by checking out this chapter on activities in the 2000s.

As the new century dawned, Club members continued to provide local and state leadership, and participate in projects to better the greater Charleston area.

Membership

The Club started with 227 members at the beginning of the decade and had about the same number at the time of publication.

Projects and community service

Club members continued their valuable Rotary Reader partnership with a local elementary school to provide mentoring and help to disadvantaged students. They continued to work to support Project Living Water. They held two major "Polo for Polio" fund-raisers that benefited the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and Rotary International's efforts to wipe out polio. And they continued to provide funding to the Charleston Rotary Foundation to help provide money for a variety of charitable organizations.

Notable speakers

In the first half of the decade, members continued to have outstanding programs. Among the highlights were programs by Dr. Roger Ferguson, vice chair of the Federal Reserve System; Rudy Mancke, who discussed nature and his educational TV show; author Josephine Humphries, who described how she always had wanted to be a writer. Other programs were on the new bridge over the Cooper River, visions of several college presidents, Sea Island cotton, literacy, fund-raising, storytelling and politics.

-- Bob Baldwin and Andy Brack, contributing editors