The Rotary Club of Boulder is a RAGFP Peacebuilder Club and the largest club in District 5450. They celebrate 100 years of Rotary service on April 1st, 2019. Many of these outstanding Rotarian peacebuilders are RAGFP members who promote peace throughout the state of Colorado and internationally. The club formed in 1919 shortly after WWI when four local businessmen walked out of a Lions Club meeting and decided they would rather join another growing service organization in the United States called Rotary. The only path to Denver was a just dusty road but they found a way to contact a few members from the Denver Rotary Club, established in 1911, and gathered 25 other community leaders to charter their own Rotary club in Boulder.

The University of Colorado consisted of a few old buildings at this time and the downtown district of Boulder was plagued with flies. Their very first service project? Getting rid of the flies. As documented in their historical archive of club minutes: “Each member of the club would see that a fly trap be placed in front of his place of business and one in the rear of his place of business.”

This RAGFP Peacebuilder Club is home of many distinguished and world-renowned Rotarians including Patty Limerick, Faculty Director and Chair of the Board of the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado, where she is also a Professor of History.

Patty is considered one of the world’s foremost historians on the American West and has authored several books including Desert Passages, The Legacy of Conquest,  A Ditch in Time: The City, the West, and Water, a history of water in Denver. Patty is also a published essay writer and many of her essays can be found under the title, Something in the Soil.

As with all our great RAGFP Peacebuilder Clubs, the Rotary Club of Boulder elevates and raises the voices of indigenous peoples and all minority groups within larger society. Rotarian peacebuilders create bridges between the past and the present, so all may cross those bridges into an enlightened future, together.

Historian Patty Limerick interviews Native America Filmmaker Ava Hamilton “The Undeminished Power of Tribal Stories”

Their next century of service is set on peacebuilding. They are expanding and renovating a Peace Park in the Boulder Civic Area. This expansion includes an Infinite Walk for Peace through a Peace Garden and leads to a Vietnam memorial. Their goal is a visceral experience including touch, sights, sounds, smells, and even tastes, that will impact walkers toward a culture of peace. In another portion of Boulder, they are working with Boulder Community Health to create a Mindfulness Center where they will plant Rotary Peace Poles.

The club created a Peaceful Schools program and offers presentations at local schools to educate children in about the 4-way test and positive peace. They are activating RAGFP supported PeaceJam education in Boulder as another way of teaching children about positive peace. This RAGFP Peacebuilder Club works with District 5450 to recruit and sponsor Rotary Peace Fellow candidates and supports the six Rotary Peace Centers around the world. They are developing a Mentor Peace program to provide mentorship in positive peace principles for youth in their area.

Importantly, Rotary Club of Boulder actively recruits other Rotary clubs in District 5450 to become Peacebuilder Clubs and they lead by example. They are currently mentoring Rotary clubs in Golden, Evergreen, and Boulder, providing ideas and energy to become effective Peacebuilder Clubs. This Rotary club sets a standard of excellence for Rotarian peacebuilding and provides all Rotarians a blueprint of how Rotary clubs can create infrastructures for peace in their local communities. Imagine over 35,000 Rotary clubs worldwide all focused upon peacebuilding and offering Rotary’s guiding principles as an alternative to conflict. The Rotary Club of Boulder demonstrates through constant energy and peace actions how we wage peace, together.