About Us - The Rotary Club of the San Clemente Sunrise
The Rotary Club of the San Clemente Sunrise was formed on August 4, 1992. The club was championed and Chartered by George Gearn (2007) who also served as the Club's first president. During the past 15 years, the club has grown from a small handful of members to more than 35 actively participating members. The Club has experienced an astonishing growth in its donations to the local and international communities both in terms of dollars given, and hands-on participation. In the 2006-2007 Rotary Year, The Rotary Club of the San Clemente Sunrise was awarded the "District 5320 Club of the Year" award, which represents a milestone acheivement for a relatively young club. The Rotary Club of the San Clemente Sunrise also earned the distinction of becoming one of a small handful of clubs to be 100% Paul Harris Sustaining Members. You can learn more about the Paul Harris Society, and the Rotary Foundation here.
What Makes Our Club Unique?
What makes The Rotary Club of the San Clemente Sunrise unique is hard to quantify, but easy to experience. Join us any Tuesday morning at the Talega Golf Club for breakfast, and you'll quickly see that we are very much unlike any other service organization you've ever been involved with. We have a young, fun spirit. Our members range from the very young, to the "very mature", from those who are lucky enough to have occupations which allow them to work in shorts & flip-flops, to those who wear a suit and tie. Our members work in an extremely wide range of occupations, including the typical - medical, legal, consulting, real estate, etc... to those who build race cars and airplanes! In short, we stand apart because we are a diverse yet cohesive group - fun, but we get the job done!
What Is It That We Do?
As you may already know, Rotary International is, an international organization of professionals who are dedicated to the motto "Service Above Self". In practice, that motto boils down to working in our communities and in our world to help those in need. The Rotary Club of the San Clemente Sunrise shines in the area of Service To Others. Our Club has been involved from its inception in a wide range of local and international projects. Like many service organizations, we raise money through fundraising to make donations to worthy causes such as Laura's House, Family Assistance Ministries, Surfer's Healing, South County Seniors and a wide range of other local nonprofits. A portion of our fundraising also goes to international projects such as Rancho Sordo Mudo and Heifer International. We raise money with fun events like A Night at the Races and our Annual Celebrity Golf Tournament at Talega Golf Course.
More important, and arguable more fun is the hands-on work we do here and abroad. Locally, our own Donald Clinebell is the founder and chief architect of the award winning "7th Inning Stretch" program, in which our club members and other community members volunteer their time, energy and attention to middle school students who are struggling. The programs allows our adults an opportunity for meaningful one-on-one mentoring and tutoring of students who might otherwise fall through the cracks. Participation in this program is perhaps one of the most meaningful things we do. Additionally, we work very closely with Rancho Sordo Mudo, a school for deaf children in Mexico. In addition to donations of food and money, we make regular trips to the school to assist, and our signature event for the school is "Christmas in January". Every January, our club members load up several sleighs, and head to central Baja Mexico to create a Christmas for the children and staff of Rancho Sordo Mudo.
Perhaps the thing we do best is have fun. As diverse and busy as our Club membership are, we still find time to enjoy each other's company once a week during breakfast. We also host several events each year intended to be nothing more than a good time. We strongly believe that our club flourishes not because of the work we put into it, but rather because of all that we are able to pull back out.
If you are looking for a way to become involved in the community, looking to meet new and interesting people, but most importantly, if you are looking to have fun, then please join us on any Tuesday morning at the Talega Golf Club, 7:15 am for breakfast. We look forward to meeting you soon.