Rotarians strive to empower youth, improve health and well-being, promote peace and sustainability, and help support organizations and projects in our community that protect our most vulnerable citizens. These goals are core to Rotary in Kingston and have been since the first club’s inception in 1921. The first service project of Kingston’s new Rotary Club was an outreach to what was called Kingston’s Relief Committee. A $25 donation was approved by a motion of the Board of D

The four local Rotary Clubs: Kingston, Kingston-Frontenac, Cataraqui-Kingston and Kingston Waterfront, have a membership of 150. Each club meets on a different day and time, and sets its own schedule and priorities. This evolution of Rotary in Kingston over the past 100 years reflects the goals of a worldwide organization to attract professional men and women who embrace Service Above Self. While Rotary’s beginnings date back to Chicago in 1905, it wasn’t until 1921 that Rota

Rotary in Kingston started in 1921 mirroring a social networking movement that had begun in 1905 in Chicago. Rotary founder, Paul Harris was a lawyer who longed for business friendships. On February 23, he invited three acquaintances - a mining engineer, a merchant tailor, and a coal dealer - to an evening meeting. [Harris is pictured 2nd from the left.] They agreed to meet again in another office and to invite others from different vocations. This social network composed of

April 1, 1921 is the official date that the Rotary Club of Kingston was registered by Rotary International, which makes 2021 the 100th year of Rotary in Kingston. There are now four Rotary clubs in Kingston: Kingston (1921), Kingston-Frontenac (1965), Cataraqui-Kingston (1985) and Kingston Waterfront (2015), and two Rotaract Clubs: Queen's Rotaract (1993) and Kingston Rotaract (2020). Rotarians from all KIngston clubs began planning for this celebration three years ago with a