About Our Club

Pensacola Five Flags Rotary started in December 1981. A few members of the Downtown Rotary Club saw that club was too large for their San Carlos dining room and they created Pensacola Five Flags Rotary as a spin-off of the Downtown Rotary Club. Rotary International recognized the club officially on February 7, 1982. There were 46 original members, mostly brand new to Rotary, and Lewis Bear, Jr. was the first president. Five Flags fit a niche. There were clubs meeting during lunch each day of the week except for Mondays. In addition, there was a Tuesday breakfast club. Initially the club met Monday’s at Captain Jim’s (now South Market) and after a couple years there and at another restaurant landed at New World Landing.

In its third year the club began its annual major charity fundraiser, initially benefitting the small new local Hospice. Park Avenue Night was a formal dinner event at New World with lots of prizes. Capacity was 300 couples at $100. Names were randomly drawn and eliminated throughout the night and the last name was the winner of a Park Avenue Buick. The price of the car, and then the price of two couples for a week on Park Avenue, NYC, grew too large and the last such event was a tuxedo dinner event on a gambling ship in the ROUGH international waters off Pensacola. Not only were half of the guests with seasickness around the ship, so were most of the staff. Thereafter, the club chose not to do such a major single event and moved to what became known as the monthly Donna Deeds.

The club continued to grow until it was decided that approximately 160 members would be the maximum number for membership. The decision took into account the size of the meeting space, the ability to know and bond well with members, and to allow for social events several times during the year. Lists of potential members, in date order, were kept and each time a member left the person next on the list was invited to join.

As our club continued it’s goal of serving the community with service above self, we have welcomed young leaders in our community into our membership. We celebrated our 40th anniversary in 2022.