The Elizabethtown Rotary Club is part of ROTARY International, which is a worldwide organization of business and professional leaders that provides humanitarian service, encourages high ethical standards in all vocations, and helps build goodwill and peace throughout the world.

Rotary was founded in 1905 in Chicago and has since become a leading public service organization with over 1,200,000 Rotarians belonging to over 32,000 clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas. The motto "Service Above Self" expresses the aim of Rotary members.

The Elizabethtown Rotary Club was chartered February 23, 1935 . The Club had 15 charter members and today has 111 professional businessmen and women as members. The Elizabethtown Club was sponsored by the Lebanon Rotary Club (chartered November 18, 1923 ).

Rotary meetings are held each Tuesday at 12:00 Noon and finish promptly at 1:00 pm. The meetings are held at the Howard Johnson Elizabethtown located at the intersection of I-65 (exit 94) and Bardstown Road (US 62 East).

CLUB CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE WORLD COMMUNITY

  Living Waters - Guatemala

• Founded in 2008 by Rotarians Bob Swope, Skip Dunford, Bill Handley, Peter Denton and others
• To date has raised funding and provided workers to install five clean water systems providing clean drinking water to over 6,000 inhabitants.

CLUB CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE COMMUNITY

Rotary Smiles

• Developed by Rotarian Rik Hawkins and former Rotary President Debbie Borden in 2009
• Provided dental screening for over 1300 Hardin County third grade students and treatment for those that did not have dental insurance.

Community Health Clinic of Hardin & Larue County

•  Developed by local community leaders including Rotary member Dr. Bill Handley
•  In 2003 and 2004 Elizabethtown Rotary supported the Health Clinic as a major Community Service Project
•  All proceeds from the Rotary Fish Fry during the Heartland Festival went to the Health Clinic
      2003 - $6000
      2004 - $7000

Kentucky Harvest Backpack Program

•  Developed by local community leaders including Rotary member James Doughty.
•  In 2008 Elizabethtown Rotary decided to support the Backpack Program as a major Community Service Project
•  2008 Contribution - $6,500

SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

Each year the club awards several scholarships to local students to help them further their education at a post-secondary school. The scholarships given are:

Scholarship Title	Target Group or School	Amount
GED	Hardin County Schools	$1000
Hays/Murray	Graduating Senior at Central Hardin High School	$1000
PAC Scholarship	PAC student	$1000
Jim Owen	Graduating Senior who will attend ECTC	$1000
Stone/Taylor Harlan/Treadwell	Graduating Senior at Elizabethtown High School Graduating Senior at John Hardin High School	$1000 $1000
Vocational	Student to attend ECTC	$500