How It Started

In the fall of 2000, two notable members of the Rotary Club of Chesapeake, Bob Ripley and Martin Trishman, started thinking about forming a charitable foundation.  Various members of our Club had talked for many years about establishing such a foundation, but no action had ever been taken. Bob had known about a Rotary Club in North Carolina that had established such a fund and Martin, who had been very active in encouraging Chesapeake Rotarians to become Paul Harris Fellows (PHF), was very familiar with endowment funds founded by the Rotary Clubs of Richmond, VA and Dayton, Ohio.

So Bob and Martin decided to act and they received the blessing of then President Henry Thrasher.  They met over the next year on various occasions in planning sessions.  Martin took all the accumulated information and drafted a possible charter, which was presented to the Rotary Club of Chesapeake Board of Directors in the fall of 2002.  After some modification, the Board tentatively approved the charter and directed that the idea be taken up with all of the past Presidents of our Club.

Throughout 2003, the committee worked diligently in applying to the Internal Revenue Service for a 501(c) (3) tax exemption and it was finally approved on October 2nd, 2003.

So from a legal standpoint, the Chesapeake Rotary Foundation is a not-for-profit, non-stock corporation operating under the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia and was authorized to transact business through the SCC on May 29th, 2003.  It is operated by members of the Chesapeake Rotary Club exclusively for charitable purposes in meeting goals and programs for the betterment of the City of Chesapeake and the enhancement of the quality of life of its citizens.

 

 

For example, the Chesapeake Rotary Foundation provides $1,000 scholarships to each valedictorian from the seven high schools in the City every year.

The Chesapeake Rotary Foundation raises most of it’s funds from the First Citizen Award Banquet.

The 2012 First Citizen Award Banquet is scheduled for Thursday, September 13, 2012 at the Chesapeake Conference Center.  We will again honor an outstanding citizen of Chesapeake.  The past 5 years have been sold-out events and we want to continue that tradition in 2012. The more people in attendance, the more successful the banquet is financially.  And with a successful fundraiser, we can continue to grow the corpus of the Chesapeake Rotary Foundation for increased earnings so that we can make greater contributions for the good of the Chesapeake community.