The Rotary Club of Sanibel-Captiva Florida was formed by a small group of trans­planted Rotar­i­ans who moved to the Islands from a num­ber of states around the coun­try, and local islanders who were inter­ested in Fel­low­ship and com­mu­nity ser­vice.  With encour­age­ment and spon­sor­ship from the Rotary Club of Fort Myers Beach, the Rotary Club of Sanibel-Captiva was for­mally char­tered by Rotary Inter­na­tional on March 18th 1980.  For over 30 years now, Club mem­bers have been active in the com­mu­nity.  We have worked hard to raise funds that are then con­tributed to a vari­ety of local and inter­na­tional char­i­ties. In addi­tion, our mem­bers vol­un­teer their time and tal­ent to many other com­mu­nity organizations.

Every Feb­ru­ary, our Club orga­nizes and presents what is con­sid­ered one of the best “juried” Arts & Crafts” Fairs in the south­ern U.S. with artists from all over the coun­try.  For more infor­ma­tion about our Fair click here.

Locally, the Club has been a strong sup­porter of the only pub­lic school on the Islands… The Sani­bel School and was instru­men­tal in pro­vid­ing the fund­ing for the School’s “Cafe­to­rium” (a com­bi­na­tion cafe­te­ria and auditorium).

Sani­bel Fire & Res­cue receiv­ing donation

FISH accept­ing our donation

       This year, the Club gave a small dona­tion to the Sani­bel Fire & Res­cue Dept so they could pur­chase a bas­ket­ball back­board.   The Club has con­tributed fund­ing to many of the com­mu­nity orga­ni­za­tions on Sani­bel and Cap­tiva includ­ing: Friends in Ser­vice Here (F.I.S.H.), an out­reach social ser­vice non-profit, the Sani­bel Cap­tiva Con­ser­va­tion Foun­da­tion (SCCF), a land and envi­ron­men­tal  preser­va­tion non-profit, and “Bless­ings in a Back­pack”which pro­vides food to needy chil­dren and their families.

Within the broader Fort Myers com­mu­nity, the Club has donated to orga­ni­za­tions pro­vid­ing med­ical help to Chil­dren like Lee Memorial’s “Barbara’s Friends” Kids with Can­cer, as well as to social ser­vice and non-profit groups pro­vid­ing sup­port for chil­dren and fam­i­lies in the com­mu­nity like the Pine Manor Improve­ment Asso­ci­a­tion, Spe­cial Eques­tri­ans, and the Heights Foun­da­tion.Yearly, the Club has awarded uni­ver­sity schol­ar­ships to tal­ented stu­dents who’s par­ents are Sanibel-Captiva’s res­i­dents and/or work­ers on the islands.

Inter­na­tion­ally, our Club has been a strong par­tic­i­pant in Rotary International’s extra­or­di­nary global effort to totally erad­i­cate polio.(Polio­Plus)   We have sup­ported a vari­ety of projects to bring clean water to peo­ple in Haiti, Guatemala and Tan­za­nia and part­nered with “The Wheel­chair Foun­da­tion” to pro­vide wheel­chairs for dis­abled peo­ple around the world.

When dis­as­ter strikes, our Club “steps up” and con­tributes funds for such aid as Shel­ter Boxes.  These are tem­po­rary “homes” in a box (tents, tools, blan­kets, stoves, water purifi­ca­tion sys­tems, etc.) for fam­i­lies around the globe who have lost every­thing in a nat­ural disaster.