Introduction

Something very unusual happened to Mission Viejo town  almost half way through the nineteen seventies!  The Rewarding Wheel of Rotary thrust out its many spokes to gather in many forms of public and private life:

 These included a baker, a banker, teachers, restaurateurs, clergy, an accountant, an attorney, an exporter, a retailer, a soldier, a manufacturer, an insurer, a post master, a stock broker.... A total of 27 hail and hardy souls gathered together to become the Rotary Club of Mission Viejo.

 It was Tuesday September 17 1974 in the Patio Room at the El Adobe de Capistrano, in San Juan Capistrano that our club, sponsored by the Rotary Club of San Juan Capistrano and The Rotary Club of Laguna Hills, at this Charter Banquet, became part of Rotary International and a moving force in our community!

 The early years were a struggle for Club Service…..within two years our membership dropped to only 16 Rotarians…and then as the seventies came to an end..our club struggled to survive with only 19 members!

 The eighties brought reinforcements and we saw numbers in the thirties and  forties and in the nineties as many as 50 pair of hands reached out to serve our community as well as do vocational service and International projects.

Service and projects over the years supported by the club include:

• Saddleback Valley Education Foundation

• School District Volunteer Work

• MV Teen Center "Kelly's Place"

• El Toro Chamber Singers

• Battered Children Program

• Saddleback Valley Educational Foundation

• Crisis Hot Line

• South Area Foster-Family Exchange

• YMCA

• Model United Nations

• Scholarships to High School Students and College Students including teachers

• Tree Planting Projects to Save Planet Earth

• Inner Wheel

• Promoting the 4 Way Test

• Esperanza School Special Olympic P'Cake Breakfasts

• Veterans War Memorial

• Mission Viejo Library

• Walk Against Drugs

• Fourth of July Street Faire

• Youth Activities such as Little League

• Interact Club of MVHS
  Speech and Singing Contest for HS students

• Ambassadorial Scholarships worth over $25,000 to college students

• Aid to Earthquake victims in Turkey, and Colombia

• Aid for Hurricane victims on our East Coast as well as Central America.

• Friendship Exchange with Poona India RC and building of  restroom facilities for girl students as well as  helping to collect and ship 6,000 lbs of clothing to the mountain people of India.

• Friendship Exchange with Libano, Colombia, SA RC and helping to supply funds for the building of 25 destitute families living in very bad conditions in a neighborhood (Santa Rosa Barrio) on the outskirts of Libano (Pop.20,000).

• Corazon Project--building of homes in Mexico..hands on!

• Door of Faith Orphanage…Free eye examinations and glasses as well as Christmas gifts…hands on!

• Food to neighborhood aid stations such as Adopt-A-Neighbor

• Clothing Sweater drives

• Helping to eradicate Polio plus other childhood diseases not only in this country but also throughout the world.

• Children's Christmas party for Esperanza students.

• Sponsoring and hosting of the Mayor's Prayer Breakfast beginning in 1988