Growing Up Rotary: A Visit from PDG Donna Peffley

This past Tuesday, July 21, the Rotary Club of the Capital City welcomed Donna Peffley, Past District Governor and District 7710's Rotary Foundation Chair, to our breakfast table — and with her, a story that stretches from a childhood spent in Rotary living rooms to a vaccination clinic in Karachi, Pakistan.

A Rotary Life, By Inheritance and By Choice

Donna didn't stumble into Rotary — she grew up in it. Her father was a Rotarian for more than 58 years, and by the time she joined the Rotary Club of Cary MacGregor in 2004 (later transferring to Rotary Club of Cary Central), Service Above Self wasn't a slogan to learn. It was already how she'd been raised to think.

What followed was a Rotary career most members only read about: Club President in 2012/13, Assistant Governor from 2013 to 2015, District Governor for 2018/19, District Disaster Relief Chair, and co-chair of DISCON 25. She's a graduate of the Rotary Leadership Institute and, alongside a 35-plus-year career in Human Resources and a degree from UNC-Chapel Hill, has built a second career inside Rotary almost by accident — one role leading naturally to the next. Today she serves as District 7710's Rotary Foundation Chair and her own club's Public Image Chair.

A Vaccine in Karachi

The moment that seemed to matter most to Donna, though, wasn't a title. In January 2019, she traveled to Karachi, Pakistan, to take part in a polio National Immunization Day — one of the mass vaccination pushes that has driven global polio cases down 99.9 percent since 1988. It's the kind of trip that turns an abstract cause into something you did with your own hands, and it's clearly shaped how she talks about giving ever since. She and her husband, Chris, are Major Donors to The Rotary Foundation and members of the Paul Harris Society, Bequest Society, and Polio Plus Society — not as a formality, but as a continuation of that same instinct to show up.

Bringing the Foundation Home

Donna's presentation to our club focused on The Rotary Foundation — how it's funded, how it's governed, and how a modest annual gift and a $250,000 legacy commitment ultimately fund the same pipeline of scholarships, clean water, and disease eradication. We've written up the full breakdown separately; if you want the mechanics of how giving turns into grants, that's the piece to read.

Why We Serve

Donna's own path is a living argument for the Four-Way Test — is it the truth, is it fair to all concerned, will it build goodwill and better friendships, will it be beneficial to all concerned. A career spent moving from club leadership to district leadership to a vaccination clinic overseas doesn't happen without genuinely believing the answer to all four is yes. It's a good reminder that Service Above Self isn't a single donation or a single Tuesday — it's a habit built over decades, the way Donna's father built it in her.

Come and Join Us

If Donna's story sounds like the kind of company you'd like to keep, we meet Tuesdays at 7:30 AM at Carolina Country Club in Raleigh, and on Zoom. Come see what four decades of Service Above Self looks like in person.

Alejandro Morales is PR Chair for the Rotary Club of the Capital City in Raleigh, NC.