Local Community Service

How Rotary makes an impact in Calgary

The Rotary Mattamy Greenway

In 2012, the 12 Rotary clubs of Calgary plus the Rotary Club of Cochrane committed significant funding of $5.0 million towards a project to build a 138 km long pathway for pedestrians and bicycles around the City of Calgary. 


A project of Parks Foundation Calgary, this project links existing and proposed parks, playgrounds and recreation areas, recreational and fitness areas, wetlands and interpretive areas and is reportedly the longest urban pedestrian pathway in the world. For their financial support the project was initially to be named The Rotary Greenway, however, Mattamy Homes matched the contribution of the clubs and the project has subsequently been renamed. 


The Rotary Mattamy Greenway was officially opened in September 2017.

The Rotary/Calgary Flames Partnership

In 2005 the Rotary Clubs of Calgary, Downtown and Stampede Park, together with other clubs committed significant funding over a 5-year period to support several health related projects. These included:

  • significant financial support of $2.5 million for Rotary Flames House, a pediatric hospice and respite centre for terminally ill children located adjacent to The Alberta Children’s Hospital; Rotary Flames Park playground located adjacent to Ronald McDonald House at the Alberta Children’s Hospital - $0.5 million

The Rotary Flames Gift for Medical advancement also supported the following initiatives:

  • The Southern Alberta Institute of Urology is the largest and most comprehensive urology centre in Canada and the first to offer a multi-disciplinary patient-centered approach to urological care - $1.5 million. It is also the home of the Prostate Cancer and the Alberta Bladder Centre
  • The Markin Institute for Public Health for life-changing research into our community by Creating Opportunities to Promote Resilience and Engagement (CORE) in schools - $1.0 million
  • The Rotary Flames Centre for the Prevention and Control of Hypertension at The Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta -$1.0 million.
  • The Rotary Flames Laboratory for Spinal Cord and Injury Repair at The Hotchkiss Brain Institute -$1.0 million
  • The NeuroArm Robotic System, the world’s first image guided surgical robot that can operate within a magnetic resonance imaging device - $1.0 million.
  • The Alberta Bone and Joint Institute’s program to make Alberta’s bone and joint health the best in the world - $1.0 million.

Rotary Challenger Park

Years earlier, many of the Calgary based Rotary clubs, along with the Rotary Clubs of Airdrie and Cochrane, were involved in the creation of Rotary Challenger Park, a barrier free meeting and recreational facility for all persons, regardless of age or ability. 


Rotary Challenger Park is a model of community inclusiveness where persons with disabilities can play next to, and with, their able-bodied peers. This world class facility is a result of partnerships of individuals and organizations representing over 100,000 persons in the community.


Other agencies and organizations supported by your generous contributions to The Foundation over the years in the area of Community Service include:

  • Adult literary bursaries
  • Canadian Red Cross
  • Discovery House
  • Foothills Academy
  • Habitat for Humanity
  • Scouts Canada
  • The Tom Baker Cancer Centre
  • William Roper Hull School

Stampede Park Club Provides Support to Children's Link

In 2019, the Stampede Park Rotary Club (Calgary South at the time) provided support from their Small Grants Committee for a renovation at the Calgary Children's LInk office. This renovation assisted the organization in serving their clients and operating effectively. Children's Link is an incredibly important organization providing support for families with children with Special Needs.


Click the link to view a video about this important organization and the support they recieved from Calgary Rotarians. (Link will open a new browser tab outside of CRCF website)

View Video

World Community Service

How Calgary's Rotary makes an impact around the world.

Center for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology (CAWST)

For many years, The Rotary Club of Calgary, Downtown has been a major supporter of CAWST in its programs to provide clean, safe drinking water to communities around the world. 


Initially, seed money was provided for a three-year program to help establish and/or develop Wet Expertise Training (WET) Centres to provide leadership, training, technical consulting, educational resources and networking services. These were to be provided to government agencies, NGOs, community groups and local entrepreneurs to increase access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. 


As a follow up initiative, CAWST and the club, with financial support from The Government of Canada promoted a three-year program costing $600,000 to develop an additional eight WET centers worldwide to provide locally what CAWST does globally.

Taking Rotary Assistance to Communities and Children (TRACC)

This project’s mission is to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS in Southern Ugandan communities by committing to the care of individuals by providing:

  • education on disease control and medical testing
  • living counselling
  • mentorship and guardianship
  • tuition and fees for education vocational training
  • micro credit programs

The project was a venture between the Rotary Club of Calgary, Downtown and other local clubs plus the Rotary Clubs of Kyotera, Kaliszio and Masala in Uganda to improve the lives of 750 children, many of whom are orphans.


Other agencies and organizations supported by your generous contributions to The Foundation over the years in the area of World Community Service include:

  • Rotary International Student and Group Exchanges
  • Shelter Box
  • Sustainable Cambodia
  • various projects located in Africa, Asia, Central and South America.

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