Rotary projects around the globe

June 2025

By Brad Webber

Canada

Drawn by national curling and youth baseball contests, crowds of athletes flock to the small town of Summerside on Prince Edward Island. Townspeople, however, aren’t content merely to be spectators. Each winter, local curlers contend in a tournament that’s been sponsored by the Rotary Club of Summerside for nearly 20 of the event’s 36 years. In March, 36 teams vied in a friendly meetup that raised about CA$40,000 for Strive, a program that provides scholarships and Rotarian mentoring to high school students. “In curling, [a tournament] is a bonspiel,” explains Paul Power, a past president of the club. “We call ours a ‘funspiel.’” Participants, including about a dozen club members, “love their curling,” says Power. “It’s not competitive whatsoever,” unless you count the points awarded to the best-dressed Mardi Gras-themed team. “It’s basically all hands on deck” — and on the granite stones players slide across the ice once the games begin.

United States

Students learned to become environmental “solutionists” at a Maryland Rotary club’s youth summit, organizing battery and plastic recycling drives and teaching peers about growing trees. Teens at the environmental summit, the second hosted by the Rotary Club of Southern Frederick County (Urbana), joined a coalition of Interactors and other young people who volunteer to rescue uneaten school cafeteria food and compost waste. The students advocate with school leaders and state lawmakers, backed by Rotary members who support the expansion of the Lunch Out of Landfills initiative. The summit’s goal is to give students skills and confidence to push for change in their communities. “Young people bring an incredible energy and urgency to climate action,” says Mary Jo Anderson, the club’s president.

Italy

The Rotary Club of Palermo Libertà rolled out a project to raise awareness about Rotary’s focus on peace and conflict resolution. In early December, the club’s “Peace Bus” embarked on a roughly five-month journey through Sicily and southern Italy that began in the shadow of Palermo’s legendary Teatro Massimo opera house. “The bus has generated significant interest in the locations it has visited, fostering dialogue in the communities and creating an opportunity to discuss crucial themes such as tolerance and solidarity,” says Eugenio Labisi, a club member whose family offered use of the tour bus for the initiative (his brother, Enrico Labisi, is a member of the Rotary Club of Palermo-Monreale). “The initiative has stimulated reflection and the willingness to engage for peace.”

Uganda

In January, the Rotary Club of Lubowa presented its Vocational Service Award to a local luminary renowned for bringing smiles to hospital patients and their families. Prossy Zalwango, known as Nnalongo (a term of endearment meaning the mother of twins, as two of her five children are), is called a “guardian angel” of the hospital, where she works as a janitor. “Beyond her official role, she had taken it upon herself to care for abandoned and neglected patients, using her own resources to provide them with food, diapers, and basic necessities,” says Rhona Kamukama, the club’s president. “This was true vocational service, practiced not in grand boardrooms but in hospital hallways, with humility and a heart of gold.” In characteristic fashion, Zalwango used the club’s gift of about $400 to purchase groceries for people who needed them.

Taiwan

The Rotary Club of Taipei combined its members’ interest in the environment with team building during a daylong outing to the Alibang Eco Farm. “Participants attended informative lectures, explored the wetlands and surrounding forest, and engaged in activities such as harvesting and cooking herbs. We also had the opportunity to taste tea made from ingredients sourced from the wetlands,” says club member Nancy Chen Baldwin. “This day in nature was not just an educational experience but a journey that activated all five senses.” The October excursion was organized as a prelude to future volunteering at the biodiverse farm, which harbors the endangered Taipei frog.

This story originally appeared in the June 2025 issue of Rotary magazine.