RI Director Marty Helman Recognizes District 7230’s New Cookstove Satellite Club

Turning a Cause into a Rotary Club

The Rotary Club of Briarcliff Manor was a natural partner. The club has a long-standing relationship with The Cookstove Project, and three of its members currently serve on the nonprofit organization’s Board of Directors.

Briarcliff Rotarian Jeff Cadge, himself a Cookstove Project board member, saw the potential for something larger: bringing supporters of the organization from around the country together in a Rotary satellite club devoted specifically to clean cooking.

That idea has now become reality.

The Rotary Cookstove Satellite Club will advocate for and support The Cookstove Project’s work providing cleaner, more efficient cooking alternatives for families who still rely on open fires. 

The need is enormous. Around 2.1 billion people worldwide still cook using open fires or inefficient stoves fueled by wood and other polluting fuels. The resulting household air pollution disproportionately affects women and children.

The Cookstove Project addresses that problem through an intentionally simple community-based model. It trains local residents to build efficient cookstoves from locally available materials, creating healthier homes while reducing firewood consumption and providing local skills and employment.

Nearly 50,000 cookstoves have already been constructed through the program.

A Model for Growing Rotary

For District 7230, however, this story is about more than cookstoves. It demonstrates a different way of thinking about membership.

There are thousands of people already passionate about causes such as clean water, peacebuilding, the environment, mental health, education, hunger or maternal and child health. They may never have considered joining a conventional Rotary club — but they may be very interested in joining a Rotary club built around the cause they already care about.

That is precisely the opportunity the North American Club Creation Team is helping Rotary capture.

The team works across all Rotary Zones in North America, helping turn an initial idea into a functioning club — from identifying the right club model and developing a plan, to organizing prospective members, securing sponsorship and moving the club toward official launch.

That approach is particularly well suited to cause-based clubs such as the Cookstove Satellite Club. Instead of first asking people to join Rotary and then find a service interest, the model begins with people who already care deeply about a cause and gives them a pathway to pursue that passion through Rotary.

District 7230 has joined districts across North America and elsewhere to become actively involved in this club creation initiative. Two of the founding members of the North American Club Creation Team are from our district - Bina Ahmad and PDG Mahbub.  The Team has already helped create 80+ new clubs and refresh 120+ existing Rotary clubs.

The team’s involvement helped bring the Cookstove opportunity into the club-creation process and connected an established humanitarian cause with a Rotary-approved structure capable of expanding its reach. Both founding members had also supported cookstove projects in Uganda in earlier years. Their connection with Sunshine NY Rotary is part of that background, but the new club itself is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Briarcliff Manor.

The recognition from RI Director Marty Helman gives District 7230 another reason to celebrate the new Cookstove Satellite Club — but perhaps more importantly, it provides a model that other clubs and districts can replicate.

Find the cause. Find the people who care about it. Give them a Rotary home.

That is how Rotary can expand its reach — and multiply its impact.