Ponchatoula Rotary Club, a group with a variety of life experiences but who share the common goals of Rotary International. We hope you find your time with Rotary enjoyable and rewarding. What you get out of Rotary depends on how much you put into your membership.

Strawberry Festival

This is our main fundraiser of the year and all members are needed to make it a success. The club cooks gumbo and serves beer and soft drinks during the festival. Each Rotarian is expected to give 6 hours of service during the weekend. Additional help may be requested in set up, cooking, or clean up after the festival. The Strawberry Festival is typically the first weekend in April each year. Please mark your calendars now to ensure your participation in this major event.

What is Rotary?

Rotary is an organization of business and professional leaders united worldwide, who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standard in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. 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. The international website it www.rotary.org. As a member you have access to the site by setting up a user account.

On February 23, 1905, Chicago lawyer, Paul P. Harris, called three friends to a meeting. What he had in mind was a club that would kindle fellowship among members of the business community. It was an idea that grew from his desire to find within the large city the kind of friendly spirit that he knew in the villages where he had grown up. The four businessmen didn’t decide then and there to call themselves a Rotary Club, but their get-together was, in fact, the first meeting of the world’s first Rotary club. As they continued to meet, adding others to the group, they rotated their members’ place of business, hence the name. In 1922, authority was given to create and preserve an official emblem, and the following year the present gear wheel with 24cogs and 6 spokes was adopted. A keyway was added to signify that the wheel was a “worker and not an idler.” At the RI Convention in 1929, royal blue and gold were chosen as the official colors.