Rotary Club of Coimbatore West, began its journey in the year 1966. Ours was the second club in Coimbatore, sponsored by Rotary Club of Coimbatore, after 23 years of Rotary's presence in Coimbatore.

Rtn. Dr. T. V. Sivanandham and Rtn. N. Santhanam decorated the Chair of Charter President and Charter Secretary with 34 Charter Members during the Governorship of Rtn. J. Nilgiria. They continued their service as President and Secretary till 1968. Every member of the club had lived up to the Ideals of Rotary Movement and carried out their service to the society thro various well executed projects. They had shown their compassion to the international society with their contribution to Kenya Earth Quake Relief Fund and Indian society with their contribution to Bihar Famine Relief Fund. Sri .T. S. Avinashilingam Chettiar was made as the Honorary Member of Rotary Coimbatore West.

Good beginning is always a blessing for any organization to continue the good work of predecessors and try the best to excel. The journey continued with many illustrious Past Presidents who, year after year took the Club flag high with numerous projects in all the four Avenues of Service of Rotary for the benefit of the society. The glorious history of West was a mile stone for Rotary Movement in this region which had kindled the spark in the minds of many to join Rotary. The club strength grew to 62 in 1972.

Our club, during the Presidentship of Rtn. PSG Govindaswamy Naidu, formed Rotary Club of Coimbatore Mid Town in the year 1973, with Rtn. P. Jagadeesan as Charter President and Rtn. Suresh Gokuldas as Charter Secretary. Understanding the need for more Rotarians to serve the society, in the year 1979 during the Presidentship of Rtn. T. K. Shanmughanandham, our club sponsored Rotary Club of Coimbatore Central with Rtn. Dr. G. Lakshmipathy as Charter President and Rtn. S. Balasubramaniam as Charter Secretary. Rotary Club of Coimbatore North was formed in 1982 when Rtn. C. G. Venkataramanan was our President. Rtn.T. S. Sambamurthy was the Charter President and Rtn. K.V. Narayanan was the Charter Secretary. Rtn. P.N. Gopal was the GSR for the formation of this new club. During the Presidentship of Rtn. Pratap Gokuldas, we sponsored Rotary Club of Coimbatore Metropolis in 1985 with Rtn. Thuljaram Rao as Charter President and Rtn. T. S. Mohan Sankar as Charter Secretary. Rtn. PP. S. Krishnaswamy was the GSR.

In 2007 during the Presidentship of Rtn. Narendra Ranka, Rotary Coimbatore Heritage was formed with Rtn. C. R. Vasudevan as Charter President and Rtn. Antony John as Charter Secretary. Rtn. C. J. Ragunathan was the GSR. The uniqueness of this new club is the creation of history in Rotary Worldwide, by becoming the 100% Paul Harris Fellow Club on the day of Charter.

Rotary Coimbatore Ikons was sponsored by our club in 2012 when Rtn. C. P. Ramesh was the President of West. Rtn. S. Rameshkumar was the Charter President and Rtn. Ramkutty was the Charter Secretary. Rtn. K.R.Sarang was the GSR. With great pride, we can say that all these SIX vibrant ROTARY CLUBS, formed by our club, excelled to promote the ideals of Rotary and continue to serve the society through various projects with a worthy cause.

Our members served the district at various levels at all times. Our Rtn. PP. P.N. Gopal became the Rotary District Governor in the year 1985-86 and spread his excellent leadership abilities to the entire district. Even though, he is not with us today, we always try our best to follow the great qualities of our leader and cherish the fond memories! Two of our past Presidents also became the District Governors to serve R. I. Dist 320, our un bifurcated district. Their contribution to Rotary has no boundaries!

Rtn. PP. S. Krishnaswami became the District Governor in 1989-90 and Rtn. PP. Pratap Gokuldas in 1997-1998. We salute our great leaders for their dedicated service to the society throgh Rotary.

Our Rtn. PP. A. V. Pathy led R.I. Dist. 3201 as District Governor during 2018-19 and proved his leadership qualities inherited from his predecessors and from the leaders of Rotary West.

Vocational Service being the important avenue of service of Rotary, Coimbatore West had done many Vocational Service activities that can be highlighted. Seminars and workshops on various topics on career guidance, vocational training were conducted almost every year and thousands of people from different walks of life benefitted.

We were always in the fore front to recognize the people, who had contributed to the mankind through their vocation and inspired the people of this country. To highlight a few,

1. Sri. C. Subramaniam- the Architect of Indian Green Revolution, was awarded with " For the Sake of Honour Award" - the highest Rotary award during the President ship of Rtn. K. Vaidyalingam during 1976-78

2. "Sandow" Sri. M.M.A.Chinnappa Devar - the famous Cine Director and Producer, was awarded with " For the Sake of Honour Award" when Rtn. K. Kannuraj was the President during 1977-78

3. Mother Teresa was awarded with " For the Sake of Honour Award" during the President-ship of Rtn. S. Krishnaswamy during 1978-79

4. Smt. Amirtham Varadharaj - was awarded with " For the Sake of Honour Award" when Rtn. P.N. Gopal was the President during 1980-81

5. Sri P.V. Chandrasekar Variyar - Doyen of Ayurvedic Medicine, was awarded with " For the Sake of Honour Award" during the President-ship of Rtn. Pratap Gokuldas during 1984-85

6. Sri. Narain Karthikeyan- the Fastest Indian in the World, was awarded with Vocational Excellence Award during 1999-2000, when Rtn. C. J. Ragunathan was the President.

7. "Chinnakuyil" Smt. Chithra- the enthralling voice of Indian Cinema was awarded with Vocational Excellence Award in the year 2004-05 during the President-ship of Rtn. P.P. Subramaniam and the list is endless.

Year after year, people who did yeomen service were recognized with suitable award to encourage them and to inspire others.

WEST ROTARY COIMBATORE BOOK FAIR was a flagship project of our club which was launched during the period of Rtn. P. N. Lakshmanan as President in 1993-94 and continued till 2014-15. This is an unique project which will fit into all the Four Avenues of Service of Rotary- Club Service, Vocational Service, Community Service and International Service. A 10 day long exposition of books from various publishers from all over India, attracted all the book loving people in this region and invited them to visit repeatedly in search of books of their interest. The Book Fair was conducted to inculcate the reading habit among the general public particularly among the youth. It gave immense opportunity to interact with the people and the project raised the image of Rotary. The schools, colleges in this region used to allocate funds in their budget for the year and wait for West Rotary Coimbatore Book Fair to purchase books for their library and stores. Medical Books which were not normally available in the market were displayed in the fair which attracted the medical community. It had benefitted every section of the society. During the Book Fair, many events to bring out the talent among the youth and others were conducted. Many talents were identified and awarded.

Our community service projects in the last 50 years are innumerable. Every Past President with a clear vision to serve the society identified the projects and executed with the support of their board and its members. To highlight some of the outcome of the vision of our leaders,

1. Well Baby Clinic : This is a permanent clinic, established in Ramnagar to provide free consultation and treatment to the children of the economically weaker section of the society. This was initiated during 1970-71 when Rtn. C.R. Natarajan was the President. Our members from medical fraternity, serve on specific time at the clinic. This is an on going service from1970 till date.

2. Pediatric ward in Coimbatore municipality was built and handed over during Rtn. PP. S. Krishnaswami's period in 1978-79

3. Project Operation Child Care : This was inaugurated in 1979-80 during Rtn. P.N. Gopal 's period with an outlay of Rs. 1,00,000/ to benefit the Orphan children of Kanya Gurukulam.

4. Anti Measles Vaccination Camps were organized from 1980 with vaccines brought from Chennai with the support of PDG. G. Varadaraj and then GGR. PP. S. Krishnaswamy. It was conducted very elaborately during Rtn. President Abdul Jabbar's period in 1982-83 and more than 10000 children were immunized.

5. Polio Eradication Project of Rotary International was inaugurated in 1985 and every year members actively participated and contributed for successfully achieving Rotary's goal of END POLIO .

6. Prosthetic Limbs Project was inaugurated during the President-ship of Rtn. R. Santhanakrishnan in 2013-14. The artificial limbs imported from USA, were given to people who lost their fore hand in accidents. This facilitated them to use their hand for holding, writing, driving and many other activities. This is an on going project even today and so far about 500 persons had benefitted.

7. During 1990-91, Rtn. S. V. Venkataraman was the President, Silver Jubilee Year of Rotary West, Silver Jubilee Diagnostic Centre was inaugurated with an endowment of Rs. 1,00,000/- For the children referred by the Doctors of Well Baby Clinic, tests were conducted either free/ concessional cost.

8. School Building at our adopted village Narasimhanaicken Palayam was dedicated to the children in 1988-1989. Rtn. AKV Ramaraj was the President.

9. Veterinary Centre and Library Block was constructed and handed over during Rtn. Pratap Gokuldas's period.

10. A toilet block was constructed and drinking water facility was made for the students of the School at Sennanur Village , our adopted village , during Rtn. K. Viswanathan's period.

11. Mass Socio economic aided marriage was performed during1985-86. Rtn. Dr. T. S. Thiagarajan was the President.

12. Our club donated an Ambulance to Masonic Children Hospital in 1999-2000. This project was initiated by Rtn. Rahamath Jabbar during 1998-99.

13. Global Grant Project for establishing Smart Class Rooms was initiated along with Rotary Club of Koblenz Deutsches Eck during the President-ship of Rtn. G. Krishnaraj in 2015-16 and it is being implemented this year 2016-17 at Sub Urban HS School at the project out lay of USD 47000

14. Educational scholarships are given almost every year to the deserving school and college students. A separate endowment was created for this purpose.

Many contributions were made for the construction and improvement of infrastructure in the Government Hospital during various times. Many health camps, social awareness campaigning projects, bus shelters, improvement of facilities at Coimbatore Railway Station were done year after year, which benefitted the society at large. Listing all is a herculean task.

Rotary today is celebrating the Centennial Year of The Rotary Foundation. Rtn PSG Govindaswamy Naidu became the first PHF member in 1974 followed by Rtn. C. G. Venkataramanan in 1975 and our contribution to TRF never stopped afterwards. Today our club is a 100% PHF club. With One Second Level Major Donor , 10 Major Donors and all other members as PHFs, our clubs overall contribution positioned us as one among the major contributors to TRF. In 2012-13, during Rtn. M. Bhaskar's term the club had achieved a record contribution of USD100,000 with two Endowments of USD 25,000 each.

Community service projects with the support from other International Rotary Clubs begun right from the inception of Rotary Coimbatore West. Our club received 4000 straws of bull semen costing Rs. 1, 25,000/- from Rotary Club of Kemptvelle, Canada during 1980-81. Establishing a computer centre at our adopted village Sennanur, Construction of 10 Low cost houses at the cost of USD 9875 for poor at Thennamanallur village, providing computers, furniture, ruling machine used for manufacture of covers , physiotherapy equipments at a cost of USD 7500 to Society for the Aid of Handicapped Children, providing an off- set printing machine to Society for the Aid of Handicapped Children at a cost of USD 2400 were some of the Matching Grant projects of yester years.

Our club sponsored many young professionals for Group Study Exchange program of Rotary International. Few personalities are

Mr. C. R. Muralidharan visited USA in 1971, Mr. C. R. Swaminathan in 1974, Mr. H. V. Prasad in 1976, Dr. P. Vasudevan visited Canada in 1980, Dr. S. Rajasabapathy visited Denmark in 1985, Mrs. N. V. Srijaya visited USA in 1993 and many others. We also hosted many GSE team members from abroad during their stay in India. Similarly we participated many times by sending the right students for Youth Study Exchange program. Starting from Ms. Saritha Krishnasamy to Canada, Mr. C.G. Kumar to USA in 1990-1991 and recently Ms. Seva Riddhi Pandian to Germany in 2015-2016 many of our nominees went as Youth Study Exchange Student and brought credit to West Rotary and the Rotary Programme. Rotary Friendship exchange program was also well supported by our club members by offering to host the Rotarian Family from other countries at home and making their visit useful with cultural exchange for International understanding.

Many programs engaging the International Rotary visitors were conducted almost every Rotary year.

Our support to the Rotaract and Interact movement had been excellent. We had sponsored few Rotaract Clubs and Interact Clubs. Few clubs are very active even today and render excellent projects and extend their support to Rotaract International. Club always concentrated in moulding the youth force by organizing RYLA camps, career guidance programs, talent activities etc.

Now we have completed 50 years of dedicated service and the heart of every Rotarian is filled with great Satisfaction, Happiness and Pride!! We wish our club to march towards excellence as always to reach and rejoice at greater mile stones in the future!!