Guelph has had a strong Rotary presence since the first club, the Rotary Club of Guelph, was chartered in 1920. Along with that club, the Rotary Clubs of Guelph-Wellington and Guelph-Trillium have also grown and prospered. Despite that, there appeared to be a need for a new club to cover both the growing south end of Guelph and the Township of Puslinch. The Guelph Trillium Club decided to sponsor their first new club, and a Steering Committee of Rotarians was struck to organize it. The first meeting of the new provisional club was held on May 3 2001 and was attended by the Steering Committee and 10 potential members. More weekly meetings followed where more new potential members attended until enough (20) had confirmed their desire to join the new club so that Rotary International could formally charter it. The new club was chartered on July 31 2001 as the "Rotary Club of Wellington South" and the members were presented with their club Charter by the President of Rotary International in Toronto at a Presidential Conference on August 10 2001. Due to subsequent confusion with a New Zealand club (also “Wellington South”) a decision was made to rename the club to “Rotary Club of Guelph South” in February 2007.
(4 Guelph Rotary Club Presidents L-R Colin Ferguson, Bill Hammond, Phil Greenway, Gregg Mitchell)
(Inaugural Board of Directors L-R Frankie Shaw, Dianne Paron, Dale Sims, Bill Hammond, Margaret Nixon, Lora Gatto, Frank Oudesluys - with Ralph Marziano, Rotary Club of Guelph Trillium, behind)
The new club, with 19 of the 20 charter members completely new to Rotary, received strong support, encouragement and guidance from not only its sponsoring club and the Steering Committee, but from all Guelph Rotarians and the other clubs in our Rotary District. We held a formal celebration of our charter on January 25 2002 during which we made our first donation…$3,000 to Sunrise Therapeutic Riding & Learning Centre.
We are very grateful to them for this support, without which we would not have been able to celebrate our 20th charter anniversary and our accomplishments as a club in July 2021.
Making our first donation - $3000 to Sunrise Therapeutic Riding & Learning Centre - at the Charter Night celebration
(L-R Ann Caine, Margaret Nixon, Bill Hammond)
(L-R Ann Caine, Margaret Nixon, Bill Hammond)
(Charter President Bill Hammond making a special presentation to Rotarian and Steering Committee member Ralph Marziano
at the Charter Night celebration event)
at the Charter Night celebration event)