Julien's Journal November 2015 (Volume 40, Number 11) | Page 30

• Provide clean water
• Fight disease
• Support women and children
• Support education
• Grow local economies
• Promote peace
Like its parent organization, the Dubuquearea Rotary has a grant-making process
through which local organizations can apply to receive funds for essential projects.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants
have been awarded to these vital nonprofits over the years.

Rotary Rascals

Great People
= Great Organization
According to Dubuque Rotary President
Steve Geisz (also general manager of the
Grand Harbor Resort and Waterpark),
the strength of Rotary is definitely in its
membership.
“Dubuque Rotary is a cross-section of
regular people working together to do
extraordinary things,” Geisz says. “There is
a pervasive spirit that compels us to work
and play, laugh and cry, and help make the
world a better place to live. For those who
want to make a difference, Dubuque Rotary
is a great organization to join.”
The Dubuque chapter first met Tuesday,
November 23, 1915, as a group of 23 local businessmen gathered at the Hotel
Julien. That first meeting included familiar
names from Dubuque’s past: Eugene Adams, John Chalmers, Andy Loetscher, E.B.
Lyons, Thomas Mulgrew, J.J. Rosier, Titus
Schmid, and Fred Woodward. They chose
as their first president, James McFadden,
the owner of McFadden Coffee & Spice, a
wholesale distributor.
The chapter grew to 83 members in its first
year, and within a few years, hosted the
16th annual District Convention attended
by 1,200 Rotarians from 56 clubs through
the Midwest. The Dubuque Times-Journal
newspaper reported “the city has become
a veritable Rotary camp” and “the entire
city seems to be anxious to take a hand in
welcoming the visitors with a feeling of
civic pride.”
Sounds like it could be a story from yesterday’s TH. Some things are timeless.
Dubuque Rotary is part of a much larger organization – Rotary International – wedded
28  ❖  Julien’s Journal  ❖  November 2015

to the same ideals, but on a global scale. The
1.2 million-member organization started
through the vision of one man, Paul P. Harris. The Chicago attorney formed one of
the world’s first service organizations, the
Rotary Club of Chicago, on February 23,
1905, as a place where professionals with
diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas
and form meaningful, lifelong friendships.
Rotary’s name came from the group’s early
practice of rotating meetings among the
offices of each member.
Defeating Polio
The organization’s purpose ultimately grew
larger than fellowship and networking.
Rotarians recognized that through the concerted effort of its 34,000 worldwide clubs,
it could achieve great things. Such thinking
resulted in Rotary International’s commitment to eradicate polio, a goal to which the
world is growing tantalizingly close.
Rotary started its first immunization campaign against polio in 1979, when there
were still 500,000 cases of paralytic polio
every year. The PolioPlus campaign was
launched in 1985 with the goal of immunizing all the world’s children and raised $247
million for that purpose in the first three
years. Then Rotary joined forces with the
World Health Organization, U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, and
UNICEF in 1988 to eradicate polio completely. This global network succeeds not
only because of countless hours of volunteer efforts and local fundraising, but also
with matching grant funds provided by the
Rotary Foundation.
The Rotary Foundation supports projects
that fall into one or more of six areas of
focus:

“Dubuque Rotarians take great pride in the
projects their efforts have made possible,”
Geisz says. “When the dust settles after a
great activity, members know their efforts
will improve lives throughout Dubuque.
There’s a great satisfaction in having participated in a project that can have longlasting impact for individuals and families
who could very well be our neighbors.”
It’s fun, too!
An article about the Dubuque Rotary would
not be complete without mention of the
chapter’s weekly Tuesday meetings.
Hosted by the Dubuque Country Club,
these gatherings have the feel of a rally
without the politics, replete with jokes,
singing, and playful banter. Club members
assess fines upon each other for any little
faux pas, real or imagined, with proceeds
going to local scholarships. A Rotarian
might be asked to tell his or her own personal story (“Member Minute”) or to try
to make the assemblage laugh – a segment
called “Fun and Frolic,” heralded by the
tinkling of silverware on drinking glasses.
Newbies often sit back in amazement and
watch the more experienced members
ma