Rotary celebrates centennial

MILFORD - Earlier this month, the Milford-Matamoras Rotary Club celebrated the centennial of Rotary International with the completion of the new “Rotary Plaza” on Broad Street at the Milford Community House. The small plaza is bordered on one side with a bluestone bench and anchored at both ends by pedestals, one with a bronze map of Milford and the other with a bronze history of Milford. Rotary Club President Rosemary Caffrey said, “This plaza commemorates 100 years of service by Rotary members the world over. Also, it honors the people and history of Milford, plus serves a practical value by providing a map of the borough. Hopefully, visitors and residents alike will be served by these plaques and the stone bench.” The Milford-Matamoras Rotary Club meets on Tuesdays at 12:15 PM at the Dimmick Inn in Milford. Rotary was started in Chicago in 1905 as a professional and social club that almost immediately turned to community service as the focus of its existence, thus creating the world’s first service club. The name “Rotary” derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members’ offices. Rotary’s popularity spread throughout the United States in the decade that followed; clubs were chartered from San Francisco to New York. By 1921, Rotary clubs had been formed on six continents, and the organization adopted the name Rotary International a year later. Today the organization has 1.2 million members in 167 countries. Only one-third of this membership is in the U.S.