Rotary in the world, Croatia and Karlovac
The Rotarian movement was born on February 23 1905. A young attorney Paul Harris met his three friends in Chicago: Silvester Schile, a coal merchant, Gustav E. Loehr, a mining engineer and Hiram Shorey, a tailor. They founded the association of people bound by friendship and readiness to help each other within their professions. They were of different nationalities and confessions. As they rotated meetings among members" offices, the club was called "Rotary", and the wheel in the logo of the club was a symbol of neverending movement, based upon the idea of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus: "Panta rhei!".
The Rotarians are the predecessors of other great and similar clubs like: Kiwanis (1915), Lions(1917) and Optimist (1919). Wishing to create a better world Rotarians have motivated pedagogical and charitable projects, international exchange, and started Rotary Foundations. The Rotarian interests are focused on people, especially children who are the future of every nation, and serving all those who need help.
Rotary is an international humanitarian association of business people and professionals worldwide. The members are both men and women who are willing to give their free time and means to help the local community and all others outside it that are in need. These are the people who believe in the importance of humanitarian activities and support, and the people with high ethical principles who are prepared to build peace and better understanding among people.
Rotary connects people of different races confessions and political affiliations through friendly cooperation. The clubs work on projects to help the poor, the hungry, the illiterate and the ill-treated and are engaged in health prevention and cure and more recently in removing landmines.
Rotary clubs promote cross-cultural understanding and bring together people who live in different parts of the world. The exchange programmes nurture free flow of ideas and possibilities across all national borders.
The Rotarian movement in Croatia dates back to 1929. The inaugural meeting of the Rotary club Zagreb was held on March 6 1929 in the hotel Esplanade initiated by Rotary International and under the auspices of Rotary clubs from Czechoslovakia.
The first meeting of the Rotary club Karlovac was held on January 12 1935. The governor of the time Mr Viljem Krejči was present at the meeting and the first president was Fedor Jamnicky. Unfortunately with the outbreak of World War II the Rotarian activities stopped.
The re-birth of the Rotarian movement took place in 1990 in Zagreb. From there it spread very quickly to other bigger towns. Today, there are 33 chartered clubs and five are in the process setting up. Croatian Rotary clubs are members of District 1910 together with nearly 150 clubs from Austria, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, proving that Rotarian movement does not recognize either borders or affiliations.
Today"s Charter of the Rotary Club Karlovac - Dubovac is adding the third year to remember in the Rotarian history of Karlovac. The first year was 1935 when the Rotary Club Karlovac was founded for the first time. The second year was 1993 when the Rotarians in Karlovac gathered again in order to re-establish the club.
Now in 2008, we, the new Rotary Club Karlovac - Dubovac wish to continue providing humanitarian service, encourage high ethical principles in all professions and help build goodwill, friendship and peace in the world.
The activities of the present Rotary club Karlovac started on November 10 1993. Five members were present at the first inaugural meeting. The growth of the club was fast and in 1994 the Karlovac club became the Rotaract of the Zagreb club. Full membership and charter was celebrated in Plitvice on April 4 1997. The charter president was Mr Želimir Feitl.
In spring of 2007 the idea was born to inaugurate another, this time mixed Rotary club in Karlovac. Based on the proposals of the godfather club members, the inaugural core of people met in June 2007. Owing to their hard and committed work the new club has met the requirements after only 31 meetings to join the big Rotary family.
Today there are over 32000 clubs in 200 countries with over 1,200,000 members. It’s an army of people who are working hard on a daily basis to make the world we live in better, more beautiful and just. They are the people who, through their service, try to return smile to the faces of those whose fate was not fortunate.
Darko Capan
Godfather of the Rotary club Karlovac – Dubovac