The Rotary Club of Morningside has been meeting for over 30 years (the club was chartered on 2 July 1986). After much moving around from venue to venue, we have been comfortably settled at the Johannesburg Country Club for the past decade or so.
Our History
The Rotary Club of Johannesburg New Dawn was chartered on January 20, 2009, by the Rotary Club of Morningside, whose then President, Adele Thomas, inducted Rotarian Don Lindsay as the Club’s first President.
Today
We have 25 active members and a number of projects which we support. We drive the Rotary Family Health Days held in October each year, and in 2019, almost 1000 people attended and were helped. The SANCA centre in Diepsloot was built by us and we remain intimately involved in its ongoing activities and success.
During the lockdown of 2020/2021, we initiated the Sechaba Support Project and raised sufficient funding to give some support to 89 Early Care practitioners in Diepsloot as well as supporting a feeding scheme. This scheme continues to provide much-needed help to the residents of this settlement and we were delighted when Soul Food came on board. Together with Soul Seed and the Urban Agricultural Initiative, the club has identified four sites in Diepsloot and Krugersdorp and is in the process of aiding the setting-up of food gardens to both nourish and empower residents.
In the 2020/2021 Rotary year, the Rotary Club of Morningside achieved a Presidential Citation. These citations are awarded for achieving the club’s identified goals that are set out at the beginning of the Rotary year. Goals include increasing club membership, developing sustainable service projects, giving to The Rotary Foundation, and building awareness of Rotary in the community. Each year, the Rotary Club of Morningside donates money to the EndPolioNow fund. Although polio remains endemic only in Pakistan and Afghanistan, it is crucial to continue working to keep other countries polio-free.
The Four-Way Test is said at the end of every Rotary meeting to remind us of our moral code. The test was first written by a company owner in order to salvage it from bankruptcy. Herbert J. Taylor, the author of this test, became the international director of Rotary and, in 1940, offered the test to the organisation. This short test of the things that we think, say or do has remained unchanged and is a standard by which Rotarians’ behaviour is judged.
