About the Rotary Club of Vancouver Sunrise

Rotary International, with over 30,000 clubs worldwide, offers a great variety of styles and types of clubs.  In Vancouver, Canada, our club is viewed as one of the smaller, younger and more active groups in the area.

The Rotary Club of Vancouver Sunrise, as the name implies, meets for breakfast at 7:30 am every Wednesday at the Coal Harbour Community Centre at 480 Broughton Street in downtown Vancouver.  We enjoy a delicious Continental breakfast while we conduct our business and participate in interesting programs, often featuring local business leaders or community partners who update us on current happenings in their organizations.  And, throughout the meeting, we enjoy relaxed and informal fellowship with our fellow members, who come from a wide range of professions and backgrounds.

Although we number only about 25 members, our club is very active in providing service to the local and worldwide communities.  Here in Vancouver, we work with the West End Seniors’ Network and we sponsor an Interact Club at King George High School where we also offer two university scholarships annually to deserving students and also participate in mentoring programs and career counselling for students exploring the world of work.  Our largest local service program is partnering with the Strathcona Community Centre Association and local media in organizing an annual  “Hoop-a-Thon” even to help fund a basketball leadership program for inner-city at-risk youth members. We send students from the Strathcona program and King George high school to Rotary-sponsored retreats for developing leadership and career skills. 

Because local community matters so much to us, we have recently partnered with the Coal Harbour Community Centre Association to hold our meetings in their beautiful waterfront Community Centre at the Coal Harbour Marina.  To make the most out of our local spending, we have partnered with PotLuck Catering, a social enterprise that provides employment and life skills opportunities to residents of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The team at Potluck provides the catered breakfast for our weekly Rotary meetings - see http://potluckcatering.org

Internationally, Vancouver Sunrise is an ongoing contributor to The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International and its work in eradicating polio worldwide, among its many worthwhile initiatives.  For several years, our club assisted three impoverished rural villages in South Africa by sending volunteers, funds, and materials to build and/or equip a nursery school, a kindergarten, and a local hospital.  More recently, we Now raised funds to develop a training facility for Down Syndrome caregivers in central Mexico.  And we have partnered with local firefighters to help send used fire trucks to San Salvador.  

Relatively small in numbers, very big in service, and outstanding in fellowship - that’s the Rotary Club of Vancouver Sunrise. Please join us for an upcoming Wednesday morning meeting!