A remarkable record of achievement for one of District 7230's younger Rotary clubs
The Rotary E-Club of Sunshine, New York is proud to announce that it has earned the Rotary Club Excellence Award for the 2025–26 Rotary year — continuing a remarkable record that began almost as soon as the Club itself was created.
Chartered on 22 November 2021, Sunshine Rotary has now earned Rotary's annual club excellence recognition in each of its first five Rotary years.
Five years. Five awards.
For a relatively young Rotary club, it is an achievement that makes us particularly proud — not simply because of the recognition itself, but because of what it represents: consistent service, engaged members, responsible club leadership, support for Rotary's wider mission, and a determination to make a difference both locally and internationally.
What is the Rotary Club Excellence Award?
The Club Excellence Award is one of Rotary's important annual recognitions for Rotary, Rotaract and Interact clubs. Formerly known as the Rotary Citation, the recognition was renamed the Club Excellence Award beginning with the 2024–25 Rotary year.
It recognizes clubs that do more than simply conduct meetings. Clubs work toward measurable goals designed to strengthen both their own organization and Rotary as a whole.
For 2025–26, Rotary clubs were required to be in good standing and to set, achieve and report at least half of the available goals in Rotary Club Central by the end of the Rotary year. The goals encourage clubs to strengthen areas such as membership growth and engagement, service participation, support of The Rotary Foundation, leadership development, public image, strategic planning and effective club operations.
In other words, the award recognizes a club that is not simply active, but one that is deliberately working to become stronger, more effective, more engaged and more impactful.
Receiving the award once is an accomplishment. Receiving it in every Rotary year since our Club was established is a record that speaks to the commitment of our members and successive Club leaders.
Bringing Sunshine Through Service
Awards, however, have never been the reason we serve.
From the beginning, Sunshine Rotary has sought to translate Service Above Self into projects that respond to genuine human needs — often through relatively simple initiatives capable of making a lasting difference.
Internationally, our Club has made clean water a continuing priority, providing tube wells to rural communities in Bangladesh where reliable access to safe drinking water can transform the health and daily lives of entire families. During the past year alone, the Club has provided 12 tube wells to remote communities, while our newest sanitation initiatives are providing hygienic toilets and bathing facilities to rural families.
Education and the welfare of children have also been important parts of our service. Sunshine projects have provided books and school supplies, scholarships for deserving students, computers and sewing machines for orphaned girls, educational support and winter clothing. One early project provided a computer and three electric sewing machines, together with training, to girls at an orphanage in Bangladesh so they could develop skills that could benefit them long after the project itself was completed.
Closer to home, Club members have distributed food, clothing and essential supplies to families in need across the New York metropolitan area. Our recent District Grant-supported food project reached nearly 100 families across the Bronx, Westchester, Brooklyn and New Jersey, while other projects have provided clothing and hygiene supplies for people in shelters and families experiencing difficult circumstances.
Our service has extended even further — from environmental improvement projects and disaster assistance to international partnerships supporting children and vulnerable communities.
The projects differ in size and location, but they share one principle: find a need, bring people together, and do something meaningful about it.
A Young Club with a Proud Record
Sunshine Rotary was created as an e-club, bringing together members who may not always live or work near one another but who share the same commitment to service. That flexibility has enabled us to undertake projects across communities in the New York area while simultaneously developing partnerships and serving people thousands of miles away.
Our five consecutive annual excellence recognitions demonstrate that an e-club can be much more than an online meeting place. It can be an engaged, productive and effective Rotary club capable of turning ideas into action.
This latest 2025–26 Club Excellence Award belongs to every member of Sunshine Rotary — past and present — as well as the families, volunteers, Rotary and Rotaract partners, community organizations, donors and friends who have worked alongside us.
We are grateful to each Club President, officer, director and member who has helped build on the work of the year before. It is that continuity of purpose that has allowed a Club chartered only in November 2021 to build such a strong record in such a short period of time.
We celebrate this fifth award with pride — but also with renewed determination.
Because our greatest achievement is not the award hanging on the wall.
It is the child who has books to read.
It is the family with food on the table.
It is the girl learning a skill that can give her a better future.
It is the village drawing clean water from a well.
It is the person in need who discovers that someone, somewhere, cares.
That is the Sunshine we seek to bring into the world.
Five Rotary years. Five excellence awards. Countless opportunities to serve — and our journey is just beginning.
Rotary E-Club of Sunshine, New York
Service Above Self — People of Action