Manning Elliott’s Terry Gunderson elected President of Vancouver Rotary Club

In 2003, Terry Gunderson’s firm merged with Manning Elliott.

In his practice here at Manning Elliott, Terry mainly provides financial statement, tax planning and tax return services to professionals and private companies. He also provides audit services for financial statements of not-for-profit organizations.

But it’s outside the firm where Terry does most of his not-for-profit work.

This summer, in recognition for his contributions over a span of 29 years, Terry was elected President of the Rotary Club of Vancouver.

“I originally joined to meet friends who were members and for the networking opportunities,” says Terry. “But I absolutely fell in love with all the good work Rotarians do.”

Rotary International was founded 110 years ago in Chicago as a service organization. It got the name “Rotary” because meetings rotated around the offices of its members. Since then, Rotary International has grown to over 1.2 million members and over 34,000 clubs worldwide. The Rotary of Vancouver was formed in 1913 – the second one to be created in Canada.

Rotary describes its members as “neighbours, community leaders and global citizens uniting for the common good.”

It’s a description Terry takes to heart. His Vancouver club has worked for years on projects to provide leadership skills to youth, increase literacy, eradicate polio and provide medical equipment and educational help . Rotary International’s contributions to the fight against polio have been highly successful, Terry says:

“Working with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, various governments and other groups, we’ve helped to eradicate the disease from Africa this year and almost wipe it out worldwide. So far this year only about 50 new cases have been reported in Afghanistan and Pakistan – compared with 350,000 new cases a year in 1985 when Rotary began our global eradication campaign.”

The Vancouver Rotary Club was also a founder of Rotary World Help, which has brought together over 38 other Rotary clubs in BC. This organization has shipped hundreds of containers full of medical equipment and computers worth over $117 million to developing countries in the past 30 years.

The work Terry is most fond of, however, is closer to home: Vancouver Rotary’s annual Bike-A-Thon and youth programs. In 30 years the Bike-A-Thon has provided well over $2.5 million in support of the Rotary Club of Vancouver Hearing Foundation.

“The Foundation has funded improvements of the BC Rotary Hearing and Balance Centre at St. Paul’s Hospital and the Rotary Hearing Centre at the University of British Columbia,” says Terry. “This year our Bike-A-Thon, from Brentwood Mall in Burnaby to Harrison Hot Springs, managed to raise $170,000 for the Foundation.“

The money has funded sound booths and testing equipment for audiologists and cochlear implant equipment and office renovations for surgeons at both St. Paul’s Hospital and UBC.

“There is so much good work being done by the Rotary Club of Vancouver – from drilling water wells in the Congo to youth programs such as the stay-in-school program right here. I feel blessed to be a part of it all.”