About Rotary - Club History & 4-Way Test

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BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BOONE SUNRISE ROTARY CLUB

                The Rotary Club of Boone Sunrise was chartered on April 11, 1986, sponsored by the Boone Rotary Club.  The Boone Rotary Club was discussing whether to change from an evening meeting time to a noon meeting time.  Some members of the club expressed their desire to change to a morning meeting time.  The solution to this dilemma was to charter a new club which would meet in the mornings and change the meeting time of the Boone Club to noon.  In fact, for a while the Boone Sunrise Rotary Club held their meeting at 6:30AM which was the earliest time for any club to meet.

                The charter banquet was held at the Broyhill Center on May 6, 1986, with 30 charter members present. The first president of the club was Bob Bumgarner who holds the distinction of being the only member to have been president of both clubs.  Boone Sunrise grew rapidly during the early 90’s and at one time had more than seventy members.  It grew much faster than the Boone Rotary Club.

                The new club held many different fundraisers during those early years; the first being a raffle that gave away a cruise to the winner.  Over the years many raffles were held with the latter ones being reverse raffles where the last name drawn was the winner.  The proceeds from these first fundraisers were used to assist the Watauga Youth Network in securing a permanent home.  The site chosen and provided by the County was the old black school on Junaluska drive.  The Boone Sunrise Rotary gifts were used as matching funds to obtain other grants which allowed for the renovation of the severely dilapidated building.  Many other fundraising activities were pursued during the previous years as well.  A ducky derby was held with the ducks being sold and then dumped into New River where the winning ducks owner received a cash award.  There were two or three politically correct cow patty bingo games held in conjunction with the circus which visited Valle Crucis.  A donkey and an elephant were used to determine the winner.  For several years the club sponsored an auction with merchandise obtained from local merchants and auctioned on a Saturday morning.  On a least one occasion the auction was televised by the local cable channel and bids were taken by telephone.  Since 2002, our fundraiser has been ordering and selling fresh Florida fruit delivered just prior to the Christmas holidays. This project not only provides funds that support local and international projects, it receives praise from local citizens for providing a special treat during the holidays.

                Over the years the Boone Sunrise Rotary has sponsored scholarships for students from Watauga High School to attend the college of their choice.  The Club also sponsored an international project to provide basic farm implements to the poorer residents of Bolivia so they might grow food to feed their families.  The club has sponsored candidates for Rotary Ambassadorial scholarships and fellowships to study abroad, hosted Rotary exchange students and group study exchange teams.  The club for many years sponsored a little league baseball team through the parks and recreation program.  In recent years we have sponsored river clean-up, hosted blood drives, provide construction assistance on Habit for Humanity homes, given college scholarships, and contributed funds to many other community and international projects.

The Four-Way Test

Of the things we think, say or do:

From the earliest days of the organization, Rotarians were concerned with promoting high ethical standards in their professional lives. One of the world's most widely printed and quoted statements of business ethics is The 4-Way Test, which was created in 1932 by Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor (who later served as RI president) when he was asked to take charge of a company that was facing bankruptcy. This 24-word code of ethics for employees to follow in their business and professional lives became the guide for sales, production, advertising, and all relations with dealers and customers, and the survival of the company is credited to this simple philosophy. Adopted by Rotary in 1943, The 4-Way Test has been translated into more than a hundred languages and published in thousands of ways.

Information on this page came from: The 4-Way Test page on the Rotary International web site.