More than a dozen districts have joined together during the 2025-26 Rotary year to increase membership in the PolioPlus Society (PPS), and ultimately eradicate Polio, once and for all!

 

You can help by setting up your annual or monthly recurring Polio donation today.

 

The district with the greatest percentage increase of PPS members by June 2026 will win a fancy banner and bragging rights! Better yet we will all know we did our part in saving the lives of children all over the world!

 

To learn more about the PolioPlus Society and find out how easy it is to join, please click here.

The following is information from District Governor Todd Smith of District 5870 where the flooding tragedy occurred.  To help the victims, see the message following:

 

In the wake of historic rainfall and devastating floods across Central Texas, families are grieving, communities are shaken, and countless lives have been upended. The road to recovery won’t be easy—but with your help, it will be possible.

 

Along with reading or listening to the horrific news reports, I’ve personally been canvassing clubs in our District to see what impact we have suffered locally and to make sure our members and their loved ones are safe and secure.  Thankfully, so far, I’ve not learned of any members majorly impacted.  However, other districts have not been so fortunate.

 

Consequently, I am asking you to ENGAGE in supporting relief efforts currently underway.  Together, when we Engage With Passion, we offer not just relief—but hope. And as the District Anthem goes…”there’s so much we can do!”

 

In honor of plastic free July, I would like to share a story about a fellow Rotarian who attended one of my plastics presentations at a Rotary meeting and how it's affected her:

Sometimes, it’s a small moment that shifts your entire perspective. For Susanne, that moment came while standing in her own kitchen. “I looked at the glass jars I was about to throw out and thought—why am I doing this?” she recalls. “I had been saving plastic containers, thinking they were more useful. But suddenly I realized I had it all backwards. The glass was reusable, recyclable, safer. And the plastic? That’s what needed to go.”

This quiet epiphany sparked a deeper awareness, one that has since changed the way Susanne approaches consumption in her everyday life. “Now I actively seek out products packaged in glass. When I was in Vermont recently, there were two maple syrup vendors—one sold it in plastic, the other in glass. That decision was easy.”

 

The Gloucester Rotary will hold its annual Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser on Saturday, August 16, 2025, from 7:30 am to 11:00 am in Stage Fort Park, located on Hough Avenue in Gloucester, MA. This popular event takes place concurrently with the Gloucester Waterfront Festival, which is sponsored by the Greater Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce and is held in Stage Fort Park on Saturday-Sunday, August 16-17. A special free parking area is available for Pancake Breakfast attendees.

Tickets for the Pancake Breakfast are $10 per person, $6 for children six and under, and are available in advance online here or from any Gloucester Rotarian. Tickets will also be available on the morning of the breakfast.

Proceeds from the Pancake Breakfast will benefit local and international projects of the Gloucester Rotary Club. 

Twenty-three teachers at Pine Grove Elementary School, Rowley, were provided workshops in grade specific environmental education curricula through an Ipswich-Rowley Rotary District grant. Each classroom, for a total of 430 students, joined their teachers for a demo outdoor lesson along the new nature trail, Trackers Trail. It elevated the entire schools awareness of the local surroundings and built sustainalbe support for environmental education in the future.

Ipswich-Rowley Rotarians also designed, built, and installed a large trail kiosk with a large poster introducing the new outdoor education space. 

 

The Rotary Club of Chelsea participated in the District 7930 2025 RYLA program by sending four students from the Chelsea High School.

 

Upon returning from RYLA the four students attended a Rotary Club of Chelsea luncheon meeting where they shared their RYLA experience. The four students were extremely grateful for the opportunity to participate in the RYLA program. Joining the students were their Interact advisers. 

Every year the Rotary Club of Rockport gathers in the square downtown at 10:00 am and performs the reading of the Declaration of Independence in costume. It has been a tradition now for 14 years, and each year the club expands its costume closet to accommodate the growing group of participants.

 

This event is a much-anticipated part of the 4th of July in Rockport for locals and quickly gathers a crowd of over 250 locals and visitors. The Declaration is read by past president and pastor Matt Wigton of the Rockport Baptist Church in a strong voice booming with conviction. The crowd is encouraged to respond with "boos," "huzzahs" and "fyes" as the reading goes on to describe transgressions of the King of England or the changes signed into law by the delegates of the Second Continental Congress.