About
Club Executives & Directors
- Director Newsletter
Drew Wright - Member at Large
Ken Grodner
A Club that Breakfasts Together Changes the World Together
Since 1986, The Rotary Club of Birmingham – Sunrise, or Birmingham Sunrise Rotary Club, as it is more commonly called, has worked together to solve educational problems, to help children, and to work towards providing clean water to our community here in Birmingham, and communities as far away as Quito, Ecuador. Often referred to as “The Best Breakfast in Birmingham,” Birmingham Sunrise meets most every Tuesday morning at 7:00 to share fellowship, an interesting and sometimes unusual slate of speakers, and a hot southern breakfast of eggs, grits, bacon, sausage, potatoes, fresh fruit, cereals, and toast (along with plenty of good hot coffee to pry the eyes open). Our weekly meetings are intellectually stimulating and well worth the early hour. But, you really see the Birmingham Sunrise Rotary Club come to life at times other than our legendary breakfast.
You will see our club excel when we meet to clean up a section of the Cahaba river, helping to ensure clean water for Birmingham residents. You see us at our best when we’re out at the Hoover Met, setting up tents for the annual Pig Iron barbecue, which benefits Children’s Harbor. We are our finest when we’re sweating and tired, having blazed new sections of trail for Birmingham’s Red Mountain Park. And when you see individuals from our club spending time from their busy days to help tutor children for the Cornerstone Schools, you can sense our commitment to service above self.
Friends, Colleagues, oh… and Business Contacts
If you’re looking to join a Rotary Club just to do your business networking, more power to you. You will certainly find that at Birmingham Sunrise, and in spades. But, don’t be frustrated with us if your membership also provides you with lifelong friends. There’s just something about how we work hard together, striving to live that hard promise of service above self, that brings us together in a stronger way than just business networking. And, like friends, we frequently meet in social circumstances.
Once a year, we enjoy our annual fundraising event, The Sunrise Rotary Derby Party. In conjunction with the Kentucky Derby, we gather for an afternoon of food and drink to cheer on our favorite horses! This much anticipated evening raises tens of thousands of dollars for local charities in support of children. Even better, it gets us all together for a super fun afternoon!
Frequently, we enjoy off-site meetings. Before Birmingham’s exquisite Lyric Theater opened, we were introduced to the good work truly unbelievable renovation being done there. We’ve been known to meet at Region’s field for a night of baseball, beer, and hotdogs. We’ve been seen as a group at local breweries having a taste of the hometown suds. And our holiday party every winter is not one to be missed. All this to say, Birmingham Sunrise is more than just another Rotary Club. We are friends. We are colleagues. We are business contacts. And we have a good time with each other.