The Month of the “Foundation”

If you are like me you think of the foundation in terms of buildings or education or football.  For example, the foundation of a running game is “blocking”.  So it seemed logical to “Google” the word foundation.*   What I found seems to confirm what I thought I knew. 
foun·da·tion
founˈdāSH(ə)n/
noun
 
  1. The lowest load-bearing part of a building, typically below ground level.
synonyms:
Footing, foot, base, substructure, infrastructure, underpinning; 
Bottom, bedrock, substratum
"The foundations of a building"
 
  1. An underlying basis or principle for something.
"This idea is the foundation of all modern economics"
synonyms:
Basis, starting point, base, point of departure, beginning, premise; 
Principles, fundamentals, rudiments; 
Cornerstone, core, heart, thrust, essence, kernel
“The report has a scientific foundation"
 
Therefore, it appears this is going to be a really short column this month.  The Foundation of Rotary must be “Service Above Self, or the 4-Way Test”, right?  Well that didn’t seem likely that Rotary International would dedicate a whole month of the Rotary Year, so I scrolled down to the 10th definition and found the following:
 
What is foundation? definition and meaning - BusinessDictionary.com 
www.businessdictionary.com/definition/foundation.html
Definition of foundation: Organization established from donated funds, for the purpose of donating funds (grants) to others.
 
About this time I looked at the Front Cover of The Rotarian Magazine, and guess what?   There it was in big red, yellow and blue letters.  “Arch Klumph and the Rotary Foundation-100 Years of Doing Good in the World.” 
 
Right inside the front cover is John Germ’s column and he helped me to understand the difference between The Rotary Foundation and the foundation of Rotary.  I quote:
 
“In many ways, our Rotary Foundation is the foundation of Rotary as we know it.  It has created a mechanism for cooperation and partnership among clubs and between Rotary and other organizations; it has enabled us to be ever more ambitious in our work to reach for goals of historic proposition, such as the eradication of polio.  It is impossible to quantify the good that has been done over the last century as a result of The Rotary Foundation.  All we can know for sure is that Arch Klumph, if he could see it, would be proud.”
 
Then, I find on page 29 a specially prepared version of the story of The Rotary Foundation.  It is an illustrated (comic book) version in both the printed and the electronic version of The Rotarian Magazine.  It is a great read and a real page-turner.
Life is good!
 
Yours in Rotary,
 
Joe (First Dude)
 
*PS –Ok, the above doesn’t quite meet the 4-Way Test.  When you “Google” the term “Foundation” after the paid hits you get the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, United Nations Foundation, The Clinton Foundation, Charitable Foundations, Foundation Guide, Best Family Foundation and for those of us on the coast 5 Best Foundation Contractors. I added Foundation Definition to get the ones I quoted today.