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Brief histories of the first clubs of each geographic regions or countries
Rotary Club of Pago Pago, the
First Club of American Samoa
Rotary International
District 9920
A Part of our History of Rotary
in the Pacific Region
The Rotary Club of
Pago Pago was chartered on 29 October 1969.
"I was speaker at
the Rotary Club of Pago Pago in its first year of existence and talked
about my experience on Antarctica, and have its banner still here with
me, as in the Rotary eClubs we exchange the Rotary Club banners on
our websites and each member of our Club has them for the club.
It was at the beginning of the seventies, and Charter Member Suhail Alai, a
businessman from Persia with his Swiss wife, had invited me to join him to
the Pago Pago RC meeting at the historic Pan American Inter Continental
Hotel, below the Rainmaker mountains on the beautiful bay (fyord) that made
Tutuila Island interesting to the USA when, in Berlin, with Germany and UK,
they divided up islands of the South Pacific without ever asking the locals.
For the USA it was a perfect place to hide its vessels and have coal fuel
for them there.... which is all outdated and obsolete now, Pago Pago
is the only RC in the 40.000 inhabitants American Samoa, and one of its main
fundraisers is the import of Christmas trees and sale of these to the
population.
All along the RC of Pago Pago has been active and doing a good job in
keeping Rotary present on these few tiny young volcanic islands that make up
American Samoa.
Rotarians are local business and government leaders, as well as USA
administrators and experts who come for few years at a time."
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