After the changeover at the end of June 2023, Don Martin is now the President of the Rotary Club of Orange for 2023-24.

The Rotary Club of Orange is part of a worldwide organisation of more than 1.2 million men and women who put the ideal of service into action. It currently has 36 members. Rotarians are pledged to maintain high ethical standards in their daily lives and to serve their own communities as they advance international understanding and peace.

Orange is a regional city located in New South Wales and currently has a population of around 43,000. It is 250 km west of Sydney and sits at an elevation of 850 m above sea level.

The club meets weekly on Monday nights at 6.00PM at the Ambassador Motel for fellowship and interesting and informative programs dealing with topics of local and global importance. Membership is open to all and reflects widely diverse cross-sections of our community. Visitors and potential new members are always welcome to attend meetings and can text Maggie Steventon (0410 079 654) by 9:00AM on the Friday prior to our Monday meeting.

The Rotary Club of Orange, through its projects, supports local community organisations and charities, including youth leadership and advancement programs, health services, local history and heritage. The Club raises around $30,000 per year through community craft and produce markets, barbecues, the sale of live Christmas trees and other community events which attract moderate corporate sponsorship. Funds go towards the following local and national organisations and activities:

• We support 20 school students through the Smith Family’s Learning for Life program, which assists needy families with basic school expenses. In return the students must be diligent in attending school and completing school tasks.
• Veritas House supports homeless youth and provides a transition for teenagers at the end of their time in foster care into independent living. The Club’s donations assist with consumables for youth under Veritas’s care.
• Interest from a substantial bequest to the Club has kept the Glenroi Technology Centre alive. This Centre provides a place for students without home internet to do homework and helps community members complete on-line services, write resumes and build confidence in applying for work.
• Regular annual donations are made to Legacy and the Salvation Army Red Shield Appeal.
• The Club provided both financial and human support for communities affected by floods – at Eugowra (central west NSW) members worked with other Rotary Clubs to manage a free store of donated household goods until the town’s supermarket was able to reopen; funds were sent to a Rotary Club on the North Coast of NSW to distribute as needed in their flood affected community.
• Donations to Australian Rotary Health help support two aboriginal students in their post graduate health studies.

Hands-on service work is also a feature of the Club’s community involvement, with tree planting and parkland maintenance, regular barbecues for hospital staff and visitors, youth driver awareness program, ‘Dream Cricket’ for kids who do not participate in main-stream sport, Clean Up Australia Day rubbish collection around the city, organisation of a running event up Mt Canobolas (The Great Volcanic Mountain Challenge) and organisation of a poetry competition to celebrate the birth of poet Andrew Barton (Banjo) Paterson in Orange.

The Club participates in a variety of humanitarian educational and cultural exchange programs that touch people’s lives in their local communities and the international community. In 2023 we have hosted an exchange student from Brazil for the full year and supported a high school student to attend the National Youth Science Forum.

Through the Rotary Foundation, it supports humanitarian work in countries throughout the globe, including the PolioPlus Program which aims to eradicate polio entirely. Also, the Club purchases shelter boxes (a kit of shelter, cooking and basic essentials) for communities rendered homeless through natural disasters.

To find out more about the work of Rotary in Orange, and how you might like to be involved, check out our new brochure.