Welcome to the Rotary Club of Groton

Every school year, the Groton Rotary Club distributes dictionaries to each third grader in Groton. It's a wonderful project and brings joy to all the children as well as to the Rotarians involved.

We hear from adults all the time how they remember the day Groton Rotary came to their school.  And they still have the dictionaries in their libraries at home.

Tricia Cunningham (left), Executive Director of ALWAYS HOME, was a guest at the Groton Rotary's weekly meeting on October 28, 2025.  She reported on all the good work that Always Home has accomplished over the past year.  Their goal is to prevent family homelessness in Eastern Connecticut.  They work with low-income families to provide them with opportunities to improve stability and enhance well-being.  Groton Rotary has been supportive of Always Home for many years.  In fact, Tricia was a previous member of the Groton Rotary and was a past president of the club. 

An estimated 500 million people worldwide became infected. Many cities closed theaters and cinemas, and placed restrictions on public gatherings. Rotary clubs adjusted their activities while also helping the sick.

This is how Rotary responded to the influenza pandemic that began in 1918 and came in three waves, lasting more than a year.

The Rotary Club of Berkeley, California, USA, meets in John Hinkel Park during the 1918 flu pandemic.

Photo by Edwin J. McCullagh, 1931-32 club president. Courtesy of the Rotary Club of Berkeley.

In the United States, the illness was first identified in military personnel in the spring of 1918. The second, deadliest wave peaked between September and November of that year — the final stages of World War I.

Hospitals in some areas were so overloaded with flu patients that schools, private homes, and other buildings were converted into makeshift hospitals. In Chicago, where Rotary World Headquarters was then located, the number of new cases reached 1,200 a day at one point.

Several district governors reported at the June 1919 convention in Salt Lake City, Utah, that war work and then the flu greatly interfered with club activities and their club visits — but not with the spirit of Rotary service.

Illness and upheaval “prevailed all over the world,” Charles H. Brown, then governor for District 10 (Ohio), told the convention. “But throughout Ohio you will find the Rotary clubs, in every city where a Rotary club exists, in the foremost ranks of civic and social work, doing their full share toward serving our government and humanity.”

Read more about the District response and timeline to the 1918 Flu Pandemic here, on Rotary International's website, Rotary.org.