This 1.2 million-member organization started with the vision of one man—Paul P. Harris. The Chicago attorney formed one of the world’s first service organizations, the Rotary Club of Chicago, on February, 23, 1905. This organization was a place where professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas and form meaningful, lifelong friendships. Rotary’s name came from the group’s early practice of rotating meetings among the offices of each member.
Gamblin Motors has been represented at Rotary since the late 1960’s, starting with our founder, Art Gamblin. Art was a champion of the Duck Race every year here in Enumclaw. Since then his son and our current owner, Alan Gamblin, has been a member of Rotary since 2000 and has held numerous positions and received several awards, including: Duck Master for several years and the Rotarian of the Year “Gear of the Year” in 2004.
Jeri Gamblin has been a member of Rotary since 2014. She has served as the Community Chair since her induction where she has planned and executed four Senior Center activities, including the: “Honey Do”, the Senior Summer BBQ, Senior Thanksgiving, and Christmas Dinners. This past year she chaired the Father Daughter Valentine’s Day Dance where they had 3 sessions of 200 attendees. They had girls from 2 years old all the way to high school age there with their fathers. They planned activities, pictures, treats, and swag bags for each session. It was such a success they are already planning next year’s event.
Jeri most recently received the Rotarian of the Year “Gear of the Year” award, and she feels truly humbled to receive this award from so many of her peers. She is very excited to continue her involvement with Rotary and the exciting activities and services they have planned for the future.
Rotarians have not only been present for major events in history—they’ve been a part of them. From the beginning, three key traits have remained strong throughout Rotary:
They’re truly international. Only 16 years after being founded, Rotary had clubs on six continents. Today they’re working together from around the globe both digitally and in-person to solve some of our world’s most challenging problems.
They persevere in tough times. During WWII, Rotary clubs in Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Japan were forced to disband. Despite the risks, many continued to meet informally and following the war’s end, Rotary members joined together to rebuild their clubs and their countries.
Their commitment to service is ongoing. They began their fight against polio in 1979 with a project to immunize 6 million children in the Philippines. By 2012, only three countries remain polio-endemic—down from 125 in 1988.