Year – 1979

Year – 2003

Year – 2021

Beginning Era (1943 to 1950)

Rotary Club of Kolhapur was established in 1943. The sponsoring club was the Rotary Club of Solapur. Divan Bahadur N. C. Limaye, the then District Governor presented the Charter to our Club on the 1st of November 1943, at a special dinner meeting. The founder President of our club was Rao Bahadur S. A. Indulkar and the founder Secretary was D. V Tengshe. The Club had 60 members at the beginning.

Foundation Era (1950 to 1969)

The Foundation Stone of Community Service was laid in the early 50’s. In the year 1966, under the World Community Service, our club supplied medicines worth Rs. 1,25,000/-to Wilson Memorial Hospital Kodoli, Dist. Kolhapur from Rotary Club of Santa Barbara, U. S. A. During Indo-Pak conflict in Kashmir, our club rendered very valuable welfare service. Club members used to visit the families of deceased soldiers and give them immediate assistance either in the form of cash or kind depending upon their requirements. In the year 1967, when a disastrous earthquake took place at Koynanagar, our club was the first to appeal to Rotary Clubs in India, as well as abroad, to extend generous help for the unfortunate victims.

The club is one of the promoter & founder member of renowned institute of Kolhapur like St. Xavier’s High School, Bal Kalyan Sankul and Yoga Vidyadham etc, which are leading institutes in Kolhapur.

Consolidation Era (1969 to 1990)

Considering the increasing needs of the community, during the year 1969, our Club formed a Trust known as Rotary Samaj Seva Kendra. Late Shri. Prabhakarpant Korgaonkar donated a plot of land to our club. Members of our club, by contributing Rs.1000/- each constructed a building over this plot situated on Collector Office Road. In 1975, our Trust in collaboration with Shetkari Sahakari Sangh and Indian Red Cross Society, Kolhapur branch, started a Blood Bank viz. Rajarshi Shahu Blood Bank in this building. Until then not a single Blood Bank existed in Kolhapur and this was the dire need of the community. In the following year with assistance from Tyre Dealer Asso. Kop., Physiotherapy Centre and Occupational Therapy were established, as this facility was not available in Kolhapur and patients had to travel to Miraj or Poona for this treatment. In due course, other activities e. g. Speech & Hearing Centre, Oxygen Bank, Yoga Centre etc. were started by this Trust.

By now, Rotary had made such an impact over the community that an appeal was received by us from leprosy negative persons to assist them for rehabilitation. Our club accepted this challenge and since then we have rehabilitated 10 leprosy families near Vikaswadi, over a plot of land of 50 acres, about 16 km. from Kolhapur. They were given assistance in the form of cash or kind for intensive farming, digging a borewell, construction of hutments and ancillary projects like dairy, poultry etc. This project received wide publicity over All India Radio as well as in newspapers and the Rotary International’s magazine- ’The Rotarian’, Even the ’Hindu’ newspaper.

Growth Era (1990 to 2000)

With a view to start new permanent projects, in 1992 we expanded Rotary Samaj Seva Kendra Building. Funds were raised by way of contribution from philanthropic rotary members as well as some savings from recently held Dist. Conference. Meanwhile we had added 3 more projects viz. Sick Bed Service, Child Guidance Clinic and Deaf Nursery and are running the same under the banner of Rotary Samaj Seva Kendra.

Renaissance Era (2000 to 2020)

With the help of various matching grants, service projects like Physiotherapy center, Blood bank, Speech and Hearing center were strengthen to serve the needy. We are in the forefront as far as contribution to Rotary Foundation and Polio Plus Programme are concerned. Projects like Nana Nani Park (2003), Birds Park (Pakshi Teerth)(2014), Late Kamlakar Nevagi Rotary Karanabadhir Shishu Vidyalay (Deaf Nursery) in it’s new premises (2017), Hydrotherapy Center, Parkinson’s Rehabilitation Center & Wash room facilities in 10 schools (2018), Wall of Kindness, Diabetic reversal center and Cataract Operations Disaster Support Projects (2019-20) are initiated and run successfully by the club.

Flourishing Era (2021 Onwards)

As the old building was coming to the end of it’s life, members decided to demolish and construct a new building in its stead. In the first fundraising meeting itself, more than Rs. 2 Crore was raised for the Building fund. Hence, on the 24th of May, 2018 the Foundation Stone of this New Building was laid at the hands of PDG. Pratap Puranik.

The new building was constructed with Generous contribution from Rtn. Arunkumar Goenka, Sound Casting Pvt Ltd, Rtn. V. N. Deshpande, Rtn. Nitin Gundesha, Rtn. Nitin Wadikar, Rtn. Gajendra Vasa, RBL Bank Limited, Rtn. Rajiv Parikh, PDG. Pratap Puranik, Rtn. Subhash Malu, Rtn. Girish Joshi and all members of the Rotary Club of Kolhapur & The Rotary Foundation through Global Grant.