Posted by Jennifer Bennerotte
The Rotaract Club of Edina has been chartered. The Rotary Club of Edina celebrated the milestone with the Rotaractors at a special event June 26.
 
On Feb. 23, 1905, Rotary founder Paul Harris formed one of the world’s first service organizations, the Rotary Club of Chicago, as a place where professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas and form meaningful, lifelong friendships. Since then, Rotary has continued its commitment to service by providing clean water, improving maternal health, awarding scholarships, fighting diseases, and improving lives around the world. Besides Rotary clubs, the international service organization includes Interact and Rotaract clubs for high school and college students, respectively.
Rotaract clubs bring together people ages 18-30 to exchange ideas with leaders in the community, develop leadership and professional skills, and have fun through service. In communities worldwide, Rotary and Rotaract members work side by side to take action through service. There are 10,904 Rotaract Clubs in the world consisting of 250,792 members in 184 countries. There is only one other Rotaract Club in District 5950.
 
“Rotaract is our future,” said Rotary Club of Edina President-Elect Sam Thompson, who helped spearhead the charter of the local Rotaract club. “The Rotaract Club of Edina is our club’s triple-A team.”
About two dozen young professionals have been attending meetings of the Rotaract Club of Edina since September 2018. Rotaractors at the new club’s charter night were Hannah Ehresmann, Nash Faulk, Ryan Flynn, Mark Gasner, Scott Hawkins, Marge Kajer, Lily Mahan, Stephanie Oftelie and Mike Thornton.
 
The Rotaract Club of Edina meets twice a month with a focus on speakers and service projects following Rotary’s mission.
For more information about the Rotaract Club of Edina, contact Gasner, Rotaract Club President, gasner@ellingsoncpas.com. To get on the email list to receive updates for upcoming meetings, send an email to rotaractclubofedina@gmail.com