About Us

A Brief History of Our Club

In early 1987, the North Jackson Rotary Club wanted to establish a new club in the growing Madison-Ridgeland area. Two of their members, Marion Spencer and Bob Graves, volunteered to help start the new club.  Rotary International charted the Madison Ridgeland Rotary Club on April 30, 1987 and Bob left the North Jackson club to serve as our first club president.  Consisting of 25 charter members, we met at Wood’s Family Restaurant for the first year.   Charter members still in our club include Lee Hawkins and Jimmy Nelson.

In 1988, the club moved to Tico’s Restaurant on County Line Road where Lee Maxwell, became our first female Rotarian, and Kay Steed became the first female president of a Rotary Club in Mississippi.  A few years later, Tico’s closed for a short time so we moved to the Orchard, a retirement home in Ridgeland.  Later, we moved back to Tico’s Restaurant for a short while, but once again Tico’s closed for lunch, so in 1995 we moved to Virgilio’s Restaurant in Madison.  When that restaurant closed, we went back to Woods.  Then in July of 1999, we moved to the Steam Room Grille in Jackson.  We continued to meet at Steamroom for nearly 10 years, and the club grew in membership and in service commitment. 

In 2009, we decided that the club needed to be in Madison County to honor our designation as the Madison Ridgeland Rotary Club, so we moved to Madison’s Bonefish Grill, which opened for lunch for one year just to host our club meetings.  When that commitment was over, we moved again in June, 2010 to Ridgeland’s AJ’s on the Lake at Township.   

The Madison Ridgeland Rotary Club has a long history of service to the community.  Notable projects include the following:

                        Annual Balloon Drop fundraiser and social that funds all local service projects

                        Helping to construct the playground at Liberty Park

                        Landscaping at the Madison Center for the Arts

                        Landscaping at the Sunnybrook Children’s Home

                        Support of the Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the Race for the Cure

                        Support of MADCAAP (home remodeling and coat drives)

                        Support of MDA

                        Annual Scholarships to High School Seniors

                        Support of the Paul Harris Foundation

                        Special Olympics

                        Sponsorship of Ambassador Scholars

                        Sponsorship of exchange students

                        Literacy projects–dictionaries to third graders and Between the Lions sponsorship of a day care center.

The Madison Ridgeland Rotary Club currently has 20 Paul Harris Fellows, 3 Benefactors and nearly 100% of its members are Paul Harris Sustaining Members.  We have also won the District Governor’s Award, given to the top club in the district twice and have also won awards for our club’s Bulletin.  In 2002 we received a Global Quest award, a worldwide award given to clubs with the largest percentage increase in membership.