What a way to start our centenary year!

Over the past 50 years, Rotarians and Rotaractors helped create the world’s biggest community health and fitness event.

In 1971, Australia was a nation of lazy people. We had a population of heavy smokers and even heavier drinkers. We had a failing community health system and the outlook was grim.

A campaign of fitness education and training programs were initiated in Sydney that culminated in a challenge – to run 9.4 miles from the Town Hall to Bondi Beach.

These days, we think of the Sydney City2Surf as just another fun run, (albeit it, the world’s biggest!), but we’ve forgotten that five decades ago, this event was created to focus attention on community health and fitness.

Rotary’s involvement didn’t stem from a coordinated action like the End Polio Now campaign. It evolved on a club-by-club, year-by-year basis, championed by our unsung heroes, the Rotarians and Rotaractors of the past.