A Global Service Club founded by Steve Bender, embracing the future while respecting the past.
As the founding Rotary club behind Growing Green Leaders, the Rotary Club of Newport Beach connects the program to Rotary International’s global network of clubs, districts, and youth programs — including Interact and Rotaract — and helps drive the mentorship relationships that anchor every division.
The club’s own environmental service history, from Rotary Reefs to ocean cleanup projects along the California coast, mirrors the program’s mission of turning climate education into local action.
The Rotary Club of Newport Beach was founded in 2018 as a Global Service Club under the purpose “Embracing the Future While Respecting the Past.” Unlike a traditional geographically bound club, it welcomes members and community leaders from around the world, meeting online to collaborate on service projects with global reach.
The club's service is guided by its “4-7-8-17” framework — combining Rotary's Four-Way Test and Seven Areas of Focus with the Institute for Economics and Peace's Eight Pillars of Positive Peace and the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Because of Newport Beach's coastal location, many of its projects, including Rotary Reefs, focus on ocean and ecological sustainability.
Growing Green Leaders is a partnership between The Environmental Xperience, the Rotary Club of Newport Beach, The 7 Seas Foundation, the Rotary Climate Action Team, and the education organizations powering the curriculum.
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