What's the history of the Rotary club?

Rotary clubs have been around for years, and there are a number of them in the Milton Keynes area alone. The Newport Pagnell Rotary club, for example, has been running since 1963. But how, why and when did they begin? Well, the first ever Rotary club meeting took place over a hundred years ago in 1905, when Paul P. Harris decided he wanted to meet with some like-minded people, and met with three other men at an office in downtown Chicago. They decided to call the club 'Rotary' because of the number of different places they met at- (rotating locations). By 1910 there were 16 clubs, and in 1922 the name was changed to Rotary International to reflect the addition of clubs now in different countries. 

By July 1925, Rotary had grown to more than 2,000 clubs and an estimated 108,000 members on six continents. The reputation of the Rotary clubs attracted a number of prominent figures; including presidents and prime ministers, as well as other key figures, including author Thomas Mann and American astronaut Frank Borman. Today, there are over 34,000 clubs, and over 1.2 million members worldwide.

World Water Day

World Water Day has been a National day since 1993, when it was initiated by the UN. The day is set apart to focus on water issues across the world. This year, the key aims are to raise awareness of the links between energy and water through a variety of ways. The day focusses on water, sanitation and improving water and electricity efficiencies, to name a few. The focus on energy and water has been especially outlined by the findings from the World Water Development Report, which found that it is often the same people who lack access to improved water sources and sanitation who also lack access to electricity.

Events will be happening all over the world today, all with the aim of coming together to think about and work on ways of improving peoples' health and lifestyle through their ability to get clean and safe water. Around 780 million people lack access to clean water, that's one in nine of the whole population, and more than 3.4 million die each year from issues linked to water, sanitation and hygiene. This proves the need for action, and this is what World Water Day aims to do, in raising awareness and coming up with action plans to help people have access to the most basic of human needs.