History
The Rotary Club of Paeroa has been part of the Paeroa community for over 82 years. It was the first club in the region, chartered by Rotary Auckland in 1943 and in turn went on to charter Rotary Clubs in Thames, Waihi and Morrinsville and co-sponsored Te Aroha, to develop what is now the Northern District 9930.
The first act of the newly-formed club in 1943 was to send food parcels to our soldiers in Europe, using a Rotary Club in London as an intermediary. Since that time, Rotarians in Paeroa have championed over 50 community projects in Paeroa and the surrounds
The early Rotary Presidents were a colorful bunch, which is reflected also to this day with Rotarians coming from a variety of backgrounds including lawyers, farmers, army background, engineers, accountants, police, JPs, land agents and Members of Parliament.
Rotary Paeroa has hosted around 20 Rotary Youth Exchange students from many nations under the Rotary Youth Exchange, including students from South Africa, USA, Brazil, Sweden, France, Chile, Argentina, Germany and Australia. We have also sent around 16 local students abroad through the program.
Regular events raise funds for Rotary Paeroa’s community initiatives, including the annual Charity Trail Ride held across eight farms that overlook the Hauraki Plains, established in 2002. The V8 & Motorcycle Show and Swap Meet as well as the Rotary Paeroa Vintage and Classic Cars was established as another fund-raising opportunity for Rotary Paeroa in 2004. More recently established in 2022, the Garden Ramble has been another successful fundraising event for the Club.
In 1987 Rotary Paeroa took on a very big fundraising project - they built a bank. The club had been looking at ways to raise money for community projects and Roy came up with the idea of working together to construct a commercial building on an empty section in Belmont Road. A deal was soon done, the site was bought, a ten-year lease and agreed to and the multiskilled Rotarians got to work!
It is estimated that rental from the property over the years has raised more than $250,000 to fund projects. Rotary Paeroa is one of a few Rotary clubs in the world that owns a building, and probably the only one that built their own.