The following is a historical view of the creation and activities of Thirsting To Serve-Rotary District 6290 Water Project, Inc., more commonly known as Thirsting To Serve. The source of Thirsting To Serve is founded in the organization known as Rotary International.

Rotary International is a worldwide service organization the membership of which consists of businessmen and businesswomen, professionals, corporate executives, and civil servants at the management level. Rotary International is predicated and built upon its motto “Service Above Self”. Local Clubs are organized into Districts, which in turn are organized into Zones and Countries.

District 6290, of which Thirsting To Serve resides, is comprised of the 63 Rotary Clubs and 3500 members located in western Michigan, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and Ontario, Canada.

Each club has a World Community Service committee which is responsible for educating the local club with regard to the activities and opportunities of Rotary International in the area of World Community Service.

Money to finance the world community service activities comes primarily from the individual member clubs through fund raising activities and individual contributions. The activities are enhanced as well by the individual volunteer labor/efforts of the club members.

The World Community Service committee of District 6290, decided that it would be best served if it developed its own 501 (c) 3 exempt status organization known as Thirsting To Serve. Rotary District 6290 attained corporate status November 15, 2005 as “Thirsting To Serve-Rotary District 6290 Water Project Inc. (Sometimes referred to as “Thirsting To Serve” or T2S). The organization now continues the work of District 6290’s clean water initiatives by:

1. Seeks to develop and provide a funding source for projects
2. Seeks to collaborate with other trusted non-governmental organization
3. Seeks to encourage and participate in the development of entrepreneurial efforts
4. Seeks to encourage and participate in the development of educational programs which promote the effective projects
5. Seeks to provide a vehicle which can match financial resources with worthy projects on a global basis.

Thirsting To Serve has continued to serve both as a fund gathering and a project implementer by issuing grants, education, and training.