Since 1924, Webster Groves Rotary has served our community and joined Rotary partners in service around the world.
We help students pursue an education and experience other cultures. We support local organizations, care for parks and shared spaces, and work with Rotary partners on water, health, education, and disaster relief. These projects are part of more than a century of service by Webster Groves Rotarians.
Service has been our purpose
Seventeen members gathered for the club’s Charter Night in February 1924. A month later, Webster Groves was admitted to Rotary International as Club 1670—the first Rotary club in St. Louis County. Its first members worked in the places that kept Webster Groves moving: banks, schools, local shops, utilities, trades, and professional offices.
The occupations represented in our club have changed over the years, but the purpose has not. Members have used their time, experience, and resources to serve Webster Groves and support Rotary projects beyond it. Service has remained the club’s purpose even as the work has changed.
Understanding begins with friendship
In 1985, Webster Groves Rotarians helped establish what is now District 6060’s Rotary Youth Exchange program—and our club welcomed the district’s first incoming student. Our official history records that we have hosted at least one exchange student every year since then, except during the COVID pandemic, while sponsoring dozens of local students for life-changing experiences abroad.
Exchange happens in homes, schools, and the everyday moments when a guest becomes family. Our host families have welcomed students from across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and the friendships have lasted—two students who met through the district program later married. For decades, we have sent young people into the world and welcomed the world into Webster Groves.
Rotary Friendship Exchange extends international exchange to adults. Webster Groves members spent two weeks in Tamil Nadu, India, meeting local Rotarians and learning about their communities, culture, and service.
We serve our community
Our scholarship tradition reaches back to the 1950s. We have helped young people experience state government, supported camps and youth programs, improved parks and community spaces, expanded access at the YMCA, supported Webster-Rock Hill Ministries, and helped launch Webster Groves’ first Make a Difference Day.
Our work includes the Alan Hoener Memorial Garden and the Rotary Oaks Grove in Blackburn Park. It also includes encouraging students, helping a food pantry get the storage it needs, and assisting local organizations with their projects. We focus on what is needed and where our club can be useful.
We serve with Rotary partners around the world
Through Rotary, we work with clubs that know their communities and the needs there. Over the years, our club has supported clean-water, health, education, and community projects from Honduras and Uganda to Tonga, Argentina, the Philippines, and Spain. In each place, local Rotary partners help determine what is needed and how the project should be carried out.
A promise to every child
Our club completed a three-year, $3,000 commitment to PolioPlus, joining Rotary’s worldwide effort to protect children from polio. Rotary launched PolioPlus in 1985 and helped found the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988. Polio eradication has required Rotary clubs and public-health partners to sustain the effort over many years.
Ready when disaster strikes
ShelterBox began as one Rotary club’s project in 2000 and became Rotary International’s first Project Partner in 2012. When disaster strikes, Rotary members on the ground help ShelterBox teams understand what families need, reach affected communities, and deliver emergency shelter and essential supplies.
Our history matters because the work continues.
Today, our members continue that service through scholarships, Youth Exchange, community projects, and international partnerships. If service matters to you, we invite you to visit, meet our members, and learn where you might serve with us.