History Of RCV
On 5th March, 1947, the first meeting of our club members was conducted. Government Muslim High School was the first venue of that luncheon meeting, wherein Rtn.Hosali of Rotary club of Bangalore explained the ideals of rotary movement and enthused our charter members to form a club on their own. Rotary club of Vellore was chartered by Rotary club of Chennai by then District Governor Rotarian S.R.Sharma on 20th May, 1948. We are fortunate to have a group photograph taken on that occasion. Many stalwarts of Vellore town, particularly Rotarian P.S.Rajagopal Naidu, Past Presidents Dr.V.N.Madhavarayan, Munisamy Naidu and others can be seen in that group photograph.
The charter presentation was held at “Sunshine” the beautiful garden bungalow of late Rtn. C.Dhanapal Chettiar and his brother Past President C.S.Ramamurthy. Many foreigners including Dr.JJ Devolios, Dr.TH Sommer Ville, Dr.Debruin and HH Gass were club members besides charter president Dr.RG Cochrane.
Rotary Club Of Vellore, comes under Rotary District 3230 with Governing body at Chennai, and as already mentioned ours is the second oldest club in the District 3230 after Rotary Club of Madras, which happens to be our Parent Club. In 1974-75, our charter member Rtn. P.S.Rajagopal Naidu was the district governor for our rotary district 3230. Our club has hosted the District Conference at Scudder Auditorium, Bagayam, Vellore during that year. Rtn. Past President Jacob John has served the Rotary International Board on polio plus. He is also in the World Health Organization committees to eradicate polio and AIDS. He played a key role in the implementation of the RI 3-H Red measles program. The success of this program led to Rotary Polio Eradication project. He is also instrumental in establishing cold chain in this country. His contribution in the polio eradication has been praised and recognized internationally. He is also the recipient of the most prestigious “B.C.Roy Award for medical excellence” and received the “Life Time Achievement Award” from Rotary International President Rtn.Kalyan Banerjee at District Conference of our Rotary District 3230 “Dimensions 10”.
Many of our past presidents have held several key posts in the district administration. Mr.KV Elangovan, Rtn Shyam Sundar Jaisingh, Rtn. T.Krishnan have served as Assistant Governors in Rotary District 3230. Rtn.V.Krishnan and Rtn. Shyam sundar Jaisingh have led our district Group Study Exchange(GSE) teams. Mr.Suresh Talreja & his wife Sunitha suresh represented our club in the family exchange program with Germans. Our annet Sudarshan Krishnan was selected for the Semester at Sea program, He is the first and only one from upcountry selected so far.
Every year we have done various projects for the betterment of the community where we live. Our community service projects during the past 60 years are numerous. It is impossible to list out all our projects. Our club contribution to lift the downtrodden and poor people is well known in our town. To name a few recent matching grant projects, Rotary Club of Vellore has organized the children's’ burn unit at Christiana Medical College Hospital (CMCH), molecule laboratory at Karigiri hospital, printing unit at Cheshire Home. The project to remember and still a continuous project as on date of our club is the “Rotary CMCH Well Baby Clinic”. This project is Free Immunization of Children visiting to Christian Medical College & Hospital on working days. Since started more than 18,00,000 children have been immunized so far. This is a unique record of its own.
Naganadi a small halmet around 20 Kms from Vellore is being adopted under the Continous projects and Continous Leadership Programme, since last 4 years, on regular basis community and vocational service projects are being carried out. Distribution of Smoke free Eco Friendly Stove, creating awareness for energy conservation by providing free CFL lamps to each home. Rotary Club of Vellore has adopted a Government Health Centre at Kaspa, Vellore. Families in and around Kaspa are being benefited by this scheme. People in these area appreciate this continous contribution by the rotary towards their health Care. Health Care kit containing medical and nutritious food supplement is provided to all those pregnant women from their 7th month till time of delivery and extended to both the baby and the mother for 2 more months.As part of engaging the prisoners, Rotary Club of Vellore supports prisoners provides Educational assistance, self employment scheme by setting up tailoring unit, participation in Tree Plantation at Central Prison, Vellore. Tailoring unit alone guarantees a income of Rs, 2000 to Rs. 2500 for 35 inmates monthly
Brig Nandagopal (Param Vir Chakra awardee), KS Pattabiraman (silver elephant award winner), Sri SV Chittibabu (vice chancellor), leading advocates Sri V.C.Rajagopalachariar, Sri N.K.Vijaya raghavan, Sri K.Bharathi IAS, Sri M.Anantha narayanan, ICS, Sri KS Venkatraman, ICS were among our proud members. Many Voorhees college principals were members of our club.
Our club has sponsored seven new clubs in this area. Rotary Clubs of Chitoor, Ranipet, Vellore North, Tiruvannamalai, Vellore South, Arcot, Vellore Midtown were sponsored by Rotary Club of Vellore. Besides co sponsoring the Rotary Club of Vaniyambadi with Rotary Club of Ranipet. We have 2 Rotaract Clubs, 2 Interact Clubs, and our own Ann and Annetts Club. We are marching ahead in the ideal of Rotary Movement and the dreams our founder Paul Harris.