Athens Rotary Club is part of worldwide organization of more than 1.2 million business, professional and community leaders whose aim is to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations and help build goodwill and peace in the world.

The local club is also part of a district in Alabama, known as Rotary District 6860, which includes 51 clubs in North and Central Alabama.

On Friday, Athens Rotary Club welcomed rising District Governor Lee Weinman of the Rotary Club of North Jefferson. He will serve from 2020–2021.

Weinman spoke on behalf of 2019–2020 District Governor William Edward Petty.

Weinman talked to Rotarians about several objectives including growing the club, involving families, building a viable path to Rotary leadership and joining the United Nations in “doing good in the world.”

Weinman and Petty believe those objectives require educating others about Rotary.

What is Rotary?

There are 33,000 Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas. Clubs are nonpolitical, nonreligious and open to all cultures, races and creeds.

Rotary club membership represents a cross-section of the community’s business and professional men and women. The main objective is service, and the motto is “Service above self.”

For more than 110 years, members have addressed challenges around the world, according to the Rotary website. One of those challenges is fighting polio. Rotary began its first fight against polio in 1979 with a project to immunize 6 million children in the Philippines.

Eradication of polio remains one of the longest standing efforts in the club today. More than 2.5 billion children in 122 countries have been immunized, and polio cases have been reduced 99.9 percent worldwide. Rotary promises it will not stop until the disease is gone for good.

Visit https://www.rotary6860 for more about Rotary District 6860 and https://www.athensrotaryclub.org for more about the local club.