Years active: 98

Leadership: Bob Bosso, president

Their story: The Santa Cruz Rotary was founded in 1922, the first charter issued to a club in a city with a population under 11,000. Serving the northern part of the county, the club focuses on local community service projects in addition to international efforts to bring water purification systems to countries like India and Guatemala. Recent local projects have included weekly beach cleanups, sponsoring the River Walk parklet along the San Lorenzo River and helping renovate the courtyard at the Santa Cruz County Veterans’ Memorial Building.

Fundraising focus: Giving back to the local community — and to developing countries far away — is a primary tenet of the Santa Cruz Rotary Club. With a membership of roughly 120 people, this branch of Rotary International has been instrumental in several Santa Cruz beautification projects, including the creation of a “parklet” along the San Lorenzo River at Soquel and River streets, weekly beach cleanups, and the recent overhaul of the courtyard at the Santa Cruz County Veterans Memorial Building. Fundraisers and donations to the club’s Community Fund help pay for things like quarterly grants that are given to local nonprofit groups such as Hope’s Closet, an organization that distributes kids’ clothes, shoes and blankets to families in need. The Rotarians also award vocational and educational scholarships; some $52,000 in college scholarships went to local students this year.