About Us
Who we are, where we meet and our history
Who We Are
We are a friendly group of people from the Kirkby Stephen area dedicated to helping others less fortunate than ourselves. As one of thousands of Rotary Clubs spread around the world we are part of a well established structure that helps us fulfill this aim. We are motivated by the Rotary motto - 'Create Lasting Impact'. We invite you to join us.
Members of the Upper Eden Rotary Club are drawn from the market town of Kirkby Stephen and surrounding villages in the upper Eden valley. Like all Rotary clubs, Upper Eden Rotary Club members represent a diverse group of professions who work to address various community and international service needs and to promote peace and understanding throughout the world.
Our Meetings
We meet each Tuesday at 7.30pm at the Bay Horse Inn, Winton, Kirkby Stephen CA17 4HS. Visitors from other Rotary clubs are assured of a warm welcome. If you would like to attend one of our meetings please inform our secretary so that we can amend our catering facilities.
Download Meetings Programme (pdf)
Location
The Bay Horse Inn is in the village of Winton, just outside Kirkby Stephen in Cumbria.
About Kirkby Stephen & the Eden Valley
Contact
President: Rosemary Varley
president@upperedenrotary.org.uk
Secretary: David Prince
secretary@upperedenrotary.org.uk
Members
Our History
The Inaugural Meeting of the Upper Eden Rotary Club took place on 15th May 1979 at the Shap Wells Hotel and was attended by all 29 Founder Members. Founded over four decades ago, we are still going strong.
Download Early History of UERC (pdf)
Download List of Past Presidents (pdf)
Our President
The Upper Eden Rotary Club is led by President Rosemary Varley. Read her message to prospective members on our Join Us page.
District 1190
The Rotary Club of Upper Eden is part of Rotary District 1190, which covers Cumbria and the North East of England.
Rotary Foundation
The Rotary Foundation translates funds donated by Rotarians into service projects. Over the past 100 years it has channelled over £2.5bn to its six causes:
- Promoting Peace
- Providing Clean Water
- Saving Mothers and Children
- Supporting Education
- Growing Local Economies
- Fighting Disease
Rotary International
Rotary is one of the world's largest and most successful global membership and humanitarian service organisations, with 1.4 million members in over 200 countries.
Rotary is an organisation of men and women volunteers united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world.
Since 1985, Rotary's key humanitarian priority has been to rid the world of polio. Rotary spearheaded the campaign at a time when there were over 1,000 cases a day in 125 countries, paralysing and even killing children. Today, the number of cases is down by 99.9%. Rotary remains committed to ending polio now and forever.
We connect people: More than 1.2 million members worldwide
We transform communities: Approximately 47 million volunteer hours each year
We fund sustainable projects: $291 million awarded for global service initiatives in 2023-24.
Object of Rotary
The object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster:
- The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service.
- The promotion of high ethical standards in business and professions; the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations; and the dignifying of each Rotarian's occupation as an opportunity to serve society.
- The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian's personal, business, and community life.
- The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.
Committees
All Rotary Clubs have committees to help drive projects forward. Members usually cycle through different committees over the period of their membership.