Welcome to the website for the Phoenix East Rotary Club!

Who of you knows what Rotary really is and Rotary has to offer? I sure didn't, when I came over from Germany to the Unites States for the first time in 1997. I had no idea how life would change for me during my year as an intern at a local architectural firm. My wife to be and I met during this time and two years later we decided to get married. In 2000 I returned to the US and worked for the same company once again. A few years later, I was introduced to the Phoenix East Rotary Club. I was lucky to get introduced to ‘The Best Darn Rotary Club in the World'© right off the bat. At first however, I wasn't so sure if this was the right thing for me, but over time, I started to understand more about Rotary and what Rotary is all about. I met new friends, and received the opportunity to serve our community and people in need all over the world. The best thing about it: It is fun and you're doing good things at the same time. Now I wouldn't want to miss out on Rotary, the Rotary family and all of the new friends in my life any more.

Our Club has been a very active club since it's original charter in 1962 and I feel that we are a club that offers avenues of service for members of all ages, preferences and abilities. With 19 members, we are a fairly small Club, but very active with many good projects and fun fellowship events. We are proud of our commitment to education and youth services and have been very active in an on-going student of the month program with the Balsz School District and Paradise Valley High School. The students are recommended by their teachers and then get honored at our club meetings. The student of the month program is just one example of our great involvement with the schools and educational services. In the past years, we provided over 700 dictionaries annually to the students and teachers of the Balsz and Wilson school districts and took this project abroad to provide dictionaries and school supplies to students in Kino Bay, Mexico. We take the opportunity of being in Mexico for renovation projects at the local school and to keep in touch with many local organizations there. Other projects with youth involvement, which were huge successes, include our annual Easter Egg Hunt and BBQ, a visit of the Fire Fighter Museum and a Christmas Party with gifts for disadvantaged kids.

Aside our involvement in youth education, we try to combine service projects with fellowship activities to strengthen our relationships on a personal level. These events are always a lot of fun and get the majority of the club members as well as their families and friends involved. Good examples for this are the extended stay in Kino Bay, Mexico for fellowship events after our annual school aid program. Further we enjoy teaming up with the AZ Game and Fish Department in Heber for wildlife preservation projects, with overnight stay and festivities at a cabin (it really is a mansion, not a cabin) that belongs to one of our members. Another popular event of this kind is our annual Easter Egg Hunt and German BBQ at Eldorado Park in Scottsdale.

After completing a big local community project in the past year, an exercise trail for seniors, our upcoming signature project for this year follows the 2010/11 Rotary theme: "Building Communities - Bridging Continents". We are planning an international project in South America with an orphanage in Arequipa, Peru that my wife and I visited in 2007. I kept in contact with the leader of the orphanage over the last few years, and there is a great need for many things. We will concentrate on our strength in working with school children and literacy and school involvement projects that we built up over the years, to provide them with a better learning environment and give the orphans a better chance to succeed in life.

In addition to our Annual Winefest, we will have more FUNraisers and get-togethers this year to make all these great projects possible: For example we thinking about a golf tournament and I'm really excited about a Theatrical Play fundraiser that is in the planning stages.

We do always welcome visiting Rotarians and those who might be interested in membership. I think you will find that we are a fun, warm, friendly club and look forward to meeting you. We want to give other members in our community a chance to find out more about Rotary, just like I received the chance a few years ago to be part of this great group of people.

Boris Gaedtke, President