King Charles III could be invited to the island next year to celebrate 100 years of Rotary in Bermuda.

Hamilton Rotary Club president Rick Richardson came up with the idea of inviting the King to the celebrations, as he is an honorary Rotarian and received the Rotary Award of Honour in Rwanda for his commitment to the environment.

In addition, the club also wants to celebrate the milestone by planting 100 native trees throughout the island, doubling the club’s scholarship money and releasing a special postage stamp.

Mr Richardson said: “Other members [from Hamilton Rotary] have other ideas on their mind that they will come forward with early in the year, once the club gets meeting again and the other clubs will bring some of their own ideas to the table that they may want to do.”

Hamilton Rotary will start 2023 with a new mission statement, which reads: “The Hamilton Rotary Club seeks to address the service needs of our community through its organisational capabilities, member skills, volunteerism and funding support.

“We will concern ourselves with the development of future leaders in all fields of endeavours.

“We will focus our community activities in the areas of services to youth, families in need and the national and international projects in keeping with the causes and themes as outlined by Rotary International.

“We will support environmental initiatives which focus on preservation and sustainability.”

The organisation also wants to bring back its youth exchange programme.

Offered by Rotary clubs worldwide, the programme allows teenagers to live and study in a foreign country for one academic year. Hamilton Rotary’s exchange has been on hold since 2020 because of the pandemic.

Mr Richardson said: “This is one of the pillars of the clubs here and of Hamilton Rotary in particular. I am really excited that the programme is going to be revived and will do everything that I can to support it.”

The organisation will also expand its Adopt-a-School programme. Launched at Paget Primary School in the autumn, the project teaches students woodworking techniques.

Mr Richardson said: “We want to add at least one more school and have our eyes not just on the carpentry side, but also on the computer science and coding sides.

“I believe this programme prevents our young men, as they move along, from slipping through the cracks.”