Nearly 1,000 Rotary leaders from 15 nations gather for learning, fellowship and a celebration of “One Rotary”
It was Rotary on a truly international scale — nearly 1,000 Rotarians and Rotary leaders from 15 nations, four Rotary Zones, and diverse cultures coming together with one common purpose.
The 2026 One Rotary Cancun Summit, held September 16–19 at the Iberostar Selection Cancún in Mexico, brought together Rotary leaders from across North America, Central America, the Caribbean and beyond for several days of learning, inspiration, fellowship and celebration. For the first time, Zones 25, 28, 29 and 32 gathered together under the fitting banner “15 Nations — One Rotary.”
And for Rotary District 7230, the gathering ended on an especially proud note.
At the closing Gala Dinner, District 7230 was recognized for chartering the highest number of new Rotary clubs during the past three years across Zones 28 and 32. The award was presented by Rotary International President Olayinka “Yinka” Babalola, RI President-Elect Larry Lunsford and RI Director Marty Helman, with District Governor Dr. Maksud Chowdhury accepting the recognition on behalf of District 7230.
It was an appropriate conclusion to a summit in which membership, innovation and Rotary's future were recurring themes.
A Strong District 7230 Presence
District 7230 was well represented in Cancún by a sizable group of current and past District leaders. Joining DG Dr. Maksud Chowdhury and First Lady Dr. Shamim Begum were Vice Governor PDG Marty Schulman; District Governor-Nominee Abit Ragbeer; Immediate Past District Governor Garrett Capobianco; Deputy Governors PDG Mahbub Ahmad and PDG Syed Alirahi; District Rotary Foundation Chair PDG Eric Storberg; District Membership Chair PDG Mary Shackleton; District Executive Secretary Bina Ahmad; and Assistant Governor Shazia Alirahi.
For Sunshine NY Rotary, the gathering also had special significance. Our Club was represented by Deputy Governor PDG Mahbub Ahmad and District Executive Secretary Bina Ahmad, both of whom have been actively involved in new-club development and are founding members of Rotary's North American Club Creation Team. Sunshine Rotary has long supported the concept that expanding Rotary's reach requires not only attracting members to existing clubs, but also creating new and flexible Rotary opportunities for people whose interests, communities or schedules may not be served by traditional club models. The North American Club Creation Team has become an important part of that effort across the continent.
Learning From Rotary's Senior Leaders
The Summit provided participants with unusual access to some of Rotary's most senior leaders.
Among those participating were RI President Olayinka “Yinka” Babalola, RI President-Elect Larry Lunsford, RI Directors Marty Helman and Tom Gump, along with other Rotary International officers, Rotary Foundation leaders and senior staff.
The program went well beyond speeches. Plenary sessions addressed some of Rotary's most important priorities, including leadership, membership and The Rotary Foundation, while breakout and learning sessions explored Public Image, Rotary's Action Plan, youth engagement, membership development and the rapidly expanding role of Artificial Intelligence for Rotary leaders.
The format reflected one of the greatest benefits of Rotary gatherings at this level: participants did not simply listen. They shared experiences, compared successful ideas from their districts and clubs, built relationships across borders and returned home with practical ideas that can be adapted locally.
Devastating floods have taken hundreds of lives and affected tens of thousands across Nepal. Help us turn compassion into action by supporting Rotary’s Disaster Response Fund. Sunshine Rotary has stepped up stand beside the people of Nepal in their hour of need. We have set up a fundraiser on the official Raise for Rotary platform, that will send all raised funds directly to the Rotary Foundation's Disaster Response Fund. Please Donate Now! https://raise.rotary.org/en-GB/project/together-for-nepal-rotary-responds.
They need our help.
Rotary has a long tradition of responding when disaster strikes. Through its worldwide network of clubs, districts, members and partners, Rotary helps communities meet urgent needs and supports the difficult journey from emergency relief to recovery and rebuilding.
That is why we are asking Rotarians, friends, families and members of our communities to Help Nepal Heal by supporting Rotary’s Disaster Response Fund.
Every Gift Matters
Whether you give $25, $50, $100, $250, $500 or more, your contribution becomes part of Rotary’s collective response when communities face their darkest hours.
This is what Rotary does.
We respond. We serve. We rebuild. We give hope.
Please make a contribution today—and then share this appeal with your family, friends, fellow Rotarians and colleagues.
Why give through Rotary?
Rotary members live and serve in communities around the world. When disaster strikes, that local knowledge and global network help Rotary support immediate relief, short-term recovery and longer-term rebuilding. Rotary’s disaster response can help provide basic necessities including water, food, medicine and clothing.
In her September Video Newsletter, released on 1 September, RI Zone 28-32, Director Marty Helman has highlighted the approval in August - Rotary's Membership and New Club Development Month - of our District's first new Club this Rotary year. This is a big boost for our District being featured by the Zone Director. Sunshine NY Rotary is proud to be associated with the creation of this new Club through the North American Club Creation Team. Our Charter President Bina Ahmad and our current Co-President PDG Mahbub Ahmad are Founding Members of the North American Club Creation Team which has so far created more than 80 new Clubs and refreshed more than 120 existing Clubs.
The new Satellite Club is the Rotary Satellite Club of The Cookstove Project - sponsored by the Rotary Club of Briarcliff Manor. Our Charter President and Co-President have had a long association with the Cookstove Project having sponsored cookstoves in an entire village in Uganda several years back. The sole focus of this new Club is to promote the construction of the clean cookstoves in more places around the world where the need is the greatest.
The last time our District was featured in our director's monthly message was in July 2024, when Director Chris Etienne, in her first Director message, interviewed our Charter President Bina for her pioneering role in creating the most new Clubs in a District in our shared zones. She is also the only Rotarian in our District to be inducted into Rotary's Membership Society at the Bronze level for having personally sponsored more than 25 active new Members.
A remarkable record of achievement for one of District 7230's younger Rotary clubs
The Rotary E-Club of Sunshine, New York is proud to announce that it has earned the Rotary Club Excellence Award for the 2025–26 Rotary year — continuing a remarkable record that began almost as soon as the Club itself was created.
Chartered on 22 November 2021, Sunshine Rotary has now earned Rotary's annual club excellence recognition in each of its first five Rotary years.
Five years. Five awards.
For a relatively young Rotary club, it is an achievement that makes us particularly proud — not simply because of the recognition itself, but because of what it represents: consistent service, engaged members, responsible club leadership, support for Rotary's wider mission, and a determination to make a difference both locally and internationally.
What is the Rotary Club Excellence Award?
The Club Excellence Award is one of Rotary's important annual recognitions for Rotary, Rotaract and Interact clubs. Formerly known as the Rotary Citation, the recognition was renamed the Club Excellence Award beginning with the 2024–25 Rotary year.
It recognizes clubs that do more than simply conduct meetings. Clubs work toward measurable goals designed to strengthen both their own organization and Rotary as a whole.
For 2025–26, Rotary clubs were required to be in good standing and to set, achieve and report at least half of the available goals in Rotary Club Central by the end of the Rotary year. The goals encourage clubs to strengthen areas such as membership growth and engagement, service participation, support of The Rotary Foundation, leadership development, public image, strategic planning and effective club operations.
In other words, the award recognizes a club that is not simply active, but one that is deliberately working to become stronger, more effective, more engaged and more impactful.
Receiving the award once is an accomplishment. Receiving it in every Rotary year since our Club was established is a record that speaks to the commitment of our members and successive Club leaders.
Bringing Sunshine Through Service
Awards, however, have never been the reason we serve.
From the beginning, Sunshine Rotary has sought to translate Service Above Self into projects that respond to genuine human needs — often through relatively simple initiatives capable of making a lasting difference.
Internationally, our Club has made clean water a continuing priority, providing tube wells to rural communities in Bangladesh where reliable access to safe drinking water can transform the health and daily lives of entire families. During the past year alone, the Club has provided 12 tube wells to remote communities, while our newest sanitation initiatives are providing hygienic toilets and bathing facilities to rural families.
Education and the welfare of children have also been important parts of our service. Sunshine projects have provided books and school supplies, scholarships for deserving students, computers and sewing machines for orphaned girls, educational support and winter clothing. One early project provided a computer and three electric sewing machines, together with training, to girls at an orphanage in Bangladesh so they could develop skills that could benefit them long after the project itself was completed.
Closer to home, Club members have distributed food, clothing and essential supplies to families in need across the New York metropolitan area. Our recent District Grant-supported food project reached nearly 100 families across the Bronx, Westchester, Brooklyn and New Jersey, while other projects have provided clothing and hygiene supplies for people in shelters and families experiencing difficult circumstances.
Our service has extended even further — from environmental improvement projects and disaster assistance to international partnerships supporting children and vulnerable communities.
The projects differ in size and location, but they share one principle: find a need, bring people together, and do something meaningful about it.
A Young Club with a Proud Record
Sunshine Rotary was created as an e-club, bringing together members who may not always live or work near one another but who share the same commitment to service. That flexibility has enabled us to undertake projects across communities in the New York area while simultaneously developing partnerships and serving people thousands of miles away.
Our five consecutive annual excellence recognitions demonstrate that an e-club can be much more than an online meeting place. It can be an engaged, productive and effective Rotary club capable of turning ideas into action.
This latest 2025–26 Club Excellence Award belongs to every member of Sunshine Rotary — past and present — as well as the families, volunteers, Rotary and Rotaract partners, community organizations, donors and friends who have worked alongside us.
We are grateful to each Club President, officer, director and member who has helped build on the work of the year before. It is that continuity of purpose that has allowed a Club chartered only in November 2021 to build such a strong record in such a short period of time.
We celebrate this fifth award with pride — but also with renewed determination.
Because our greatest achievement is not the award hanging on the wall.
It is the child who has books to read.
It is the family with food on the table.
It is the girl learning a skill that can give her a better future.
It is the village drawing clean water from a well.
It is the person in need who discovers that someone, somewhere, cares.
That is the Sunshine we seek to bring into the world.
Five Rotary years. Five excellence awards. Countless opportunities to serve — and our journey is just beginning.
Rotary E-Club of Sunshine, New York
Service Above Self — People of Action
New member inducted as Peace Pole becomes a symbol of bringing people together through service
Sunshine NY Rotary formally welcomed the 2026-27 Rotary year with an outdoor Club Installation on Sunday, August 9, at Eisenhower Park, bringing together Club members, families and District leaders for an afternoon centered on fellowship, membership and Rotary’s commitment to peace and service.
Joining the celebration were District Governor Dr. Maksud Chowdhury; First Lady and District Conference Chair Dr. Shamim Begum; Deputy Governor for Membership PDG Syed Alirahi; and Area Governor Shazia Alirahi. Sunshine’s Charter President Bina Ahmad, who also serves as District Executive Secretary, was present along with Deputy Governor for Areas and Sunshine member PDG Mahbub Ahmad, Club Executive Secretary Ashfaque Salim, Treasurer Muhammad Yeasin Arafat, other members and their families.
In his remarks, DG Maksud outlined his vision for the year, identifying membership as a major District priority. But his message went beyond simply adding names to membership rolls. He emphasized the importance of engaging members, giving them meaningful opportunities to participate and creating a Rotary experience that encourages people to stay involved.
That emphasis reflects Rotary International’s broader approach to membership. Rotary increasingly stresses that growth begins with creating a sense of belonging, engaging members in meaningful service and giving prospective members opportunities to experience Rotary firsthand.
DG Maksud also discussed plans to make the District Conference experience more accessible across District 7230 by dividing it among three geographic areas. He said the first gathering is planned for Staten Island on November 7, followed by a Bronx or Westchester gathering in early February and a third conference experience aboard a cruise to Bermuda in April.
From Community Volunteer to Rotarian
One of the most meaningful moments of the afternoon was the induction of Sunshine’s newest member, Abina Kabir.
Abina’s journey into Rotary illustrates exactly how engagement can lead to membership. She first became involved through Sunshine’s Rotary Community Corps (RCC) and participated in Club service projects. Through those experiences, she saw Rotary not simply as an organization that holds meetings, but as a community of people working together to help others. She subsequently decided to take the next step and become a Rotarian.
An RCC is a group of non-Rotarians who work in partnership with Rotary clubs on community service. They provide an important way for people to experience service alongside Rotarians without initially becoming club members — and can help clubs broaden their community connections and develop future leaders.
DG Maksud formally inducted Abina into the Club, after which First Lady Shamim presented and pinned her Rotary membership pin.
Deputy Governor for Membership PDG Syed Alirahi congratulated Abina and spoke about the importance of engaging new members early in their Rotary journey. He encouraged her to take advantage of District 7230’s New Member Grant, which provides $250 toward a small service project conceived and led by a new member with the support of the Club. The program is designed to give new Rotarians an immediate opportunity to turn their ideas into service.
A Peace Pole — and a Place to Gather
The afternoon’s membership message was given an additional dimension when PDG Mahbub displayed a Peace Pole bearing the simple but powerful words:
“May Peace Prevail on Earth.”
The Peace Pole movement grew from the vision of Japanese peace advocate Masahisa Goi. Today, the Peace Pole Project estimates that more than 200,000 Peace Poles stand on every continent, carrying the same universal message of peace, often displayed in several languages.
For Rotary, the symbolism is especially appropriate. Peacebuilding and conflict prevention is one of Rotary’s principal areas of focus, and Rotary emphasizes that peace is built when people come together locally, develop understanding and take action to address the conditions that divide communities.
But PDG Mahbub suggested that a Peace Pole can represent something more for Rotary.
A Peace Pole is not merely something to look at. It is something around which people can gather.
And when Rotary gathers people around something they care about — peace, clean water, children, hunger, health, education or simply improving their neighborhood — we have an opportunity to show them what Rotary really is.
They first discover a cause.
Then they participate in service.
Through service they develop relationships.
Those relationships create engagement and belonging.
And, as Abina’s own Rotary journey demonstrated that afternoon, engagement can ultimately lead to membership.
Perhaps there could have been no more appropriate way to conclude the installation.
Under the shade of a tree in Eisenhower Park, Rotarians, family members and friends gathered for fellowship and refreshments — around a Peace Pole.
A simple monument carrying a message to the world had become a gathering place for a Rotary club.
And perhaps that is the larger message for the year ahead: when Rotary gives people a meaningful reason to gather, opportunities for service, friendship — and membership — naturally follow.
When Rotary talks about "Service Above Self," it usually conjures images of seasoned members who have spent decades giving back. This month, Sunshine NY Rotary got a beautiful reminder that service has no age limit — it was our youngest member who led the way.
Sunshine NY Rotary has successfully completed a food distribution project at Oasis, the homeless center in New Rochelle, delivering essential groceries to individuals and families navigating hardship. It's a simple mission with a powerful outcome: no one should have to face an empty pantry alone, and no one should have to face it without their community standing beside them.
Ryan Steps Up
The project was planned, shopped for, and delivered under the leadership of Ryan, the youngest member of our Club. From selecting the right items to fit real household needs, to coordinating delivery logistics, to documenting the day for our records, Ryan handled every piece of the project with a level of care and follow-through that impressed everyone who worked alongside him.
“I wanted this to be more than just dropping off boxes. I wanted to make sure every bag actually had what a family would need to get through the week.” — Ryan Ehtesham, on what this project meant to him
It's the kind of leadership Rotary hopes to cultivate in every generation of members: hands-on, thoughtful, and rooted in genuine care for the people being served.
A Mentor by His Side
None of it would have come together as smoothly without Dr. Nadira Islam, a Sunshine NY Rotary member, and Charter President Bina Ahmad who together guided Ryan through the shopping and planning process from start to finish. Their steady mentorship gave Ryan the confidence to take the lead while ensuring the project stayed organized and on track.
"Watching Ryan take ownership of this project was one of the most rewarding parts of my Rotary year. He didn't need much guidance — he needed the opportunity, and he ran with it." — Dr. Nadira Islam, on mentoring Ryan
Welcomed with Open Arms
The team at Oasis welcomed the donation warmly, and staff on-site helped the group understand exactly what their guests needed most that week — from shelf-stable staples to items that let them prepare a real meal together.
"Donations like this make a real difference for the those who walk through our doors. It means a lot to know Rotary sees us and shows up."
— OASIS staff member, on the partnership
By the end of the day, shelves that had been running low were restocked, and a group of neighbors in need had one less thing to worry about — thanks to the dedication of one young Rotarian and the mentor who believed in him.
Generations, Working Together
This is Rotary at its best: a Club where longtime members and a young leader can work side by side, each bringing something the other needed, both leaving better for it.
As we step into August — Membership and New Club Development Month, this project is a timely reminder of a simple truth:
Service is what attracts people to Rotary.
When we serve with purpose and kindness, others feel inspired to join our mission. Every act of service — no matter how small it may seem — strengthens our Rotary family and brightens the community we call home.
Together, let's continue building a stronger, more united Rotary.
Join us. Serve with us. Let Service Lead the Way.
 |  |  |
JOIN A PROJECT
Change your community with us by volunteering on a local project.
PARTNER WITH US
We work with groups and organizations of all sizes to accomplish even more.
DISCOVER NEW CULTURES
Discover and celebrate diverse perspectives with a global organization.
