A positive impact on the community: One hundred years of Rotary
On Jan. 28, 1919, 25 men gathered in the St. Charles Hotel in downtown Cape Girardeau to be initiated into a brand-new Rotary Club -- the first such club in Southeast Missouri. The Rotary movement had begun in Chicago in 1905, with the goals of providing a venue for fellowship as an opportunity for service, promoting high ethical standards in professional life, instilling the ideal of service in its members, and advancing international understanding, good will, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional people.