Spreading Wings is an adventurous car odyssey of this daredevil team from an all-women’s club, RC Chennai Meraki, RID 3233, and they have crisscrossed the length and breadth of the country, covering all the 42 RI districts over the last 10 years. “Our main aim is to create environmental awareness among people. The solo car rally, our signature event, is spreading the message to protect our Planet Earth by tree planting drives, and other proactive steps to conserve our biodiversity,” says Sivabala Rajendran, charter president, and District Go Green permanent chair.
In their latest five-day rally (May 25–29), their ninth edition, the four-member crew led by Sivabala, toured all the nine RI districts of Tamil Nadu to engage Rotarians, district collectors, forest officers (DFOs) and other bureaucrats on the issue of ‘climate action’ as part of their multipronged environmental action plan. After covering the whole of India, “we went on a 20-day trip to Nepal in Feb-March 2025 for our eighth rally and promoted our environmental cause among Nepali Rotarians and the public,” she says. “We had planned to visit Sri Lanka, but changed our plan after we read a recent UN study and other reports from world meteorological sources, that pointed out India as the hottest place on earth in the April-May season.” Hence, their focus shifted to Tamil Nadu, “our state, as we wanted to make it a model for others states in taking up climate action in a proactive manner.”
At each RI district hub, the rallyists briefed the DGs about their ‘commitment letters,’ which they gave to the district collectors accompanied by DGs, PDGs, and incoming leaders. “We also met DFOs and bureaucrats wherever possible to give the ‘commitment letters,’ which in a nutshell urged the state machinery to make use of Rotarians and Rotary clubs in their greening mission.” As there are many schemes of state government and GoIs to shore up the green cover, “Rotary as a globally reputed NGO can be part of these missions to protect our earth,” explains Sivabala. The rally team had met seven district collectors, five DFOs and nine district governors during their journey.
Sri Lanka will be the next destination of Chennai Meraki team. It will be a week-long tour from Jaffna in December 2026. They will take a ferry liner from Nagapattinam Port, and in collaboration with RID 3220, the rallyists will visit the clubs.
“We were accorded a warm reception at the district collectorate offices, and many civil servants wanted to involve themselves in tree planting drives taken up by Rotary clubs in their region.” The rally team also engaged around 350–400 Rotarians from 70 clubs across the state, “during our temporary halts when we motivated them to become volunteers of climate action campaigns.”
While Sivabala mentored the all-women’s crew, it was the effortless skills of Kothangi Suchitra behind the wheel that “saw us through without major hassles during our car rallies in the last decade.” The team also consisted of club president Abbirahmi Senthil (2025–26) and Eswari Rajapriya. “God has been kind to us in all of our car rallies. It was a smooth sail so far, except for a flat tyre in one instant. I am blessed with good strength and stamina which enabled me to drive through some difficult terrains and inclement weather,” smiles Suchitra.
Rotary Dense Forest
On World Environment Day (June 5). the rallyists planted 3,233 saplings on a barren campus of Madras University, Taramani campus, in the presence of IPDG D Devendran, rally sponsor and textile baron Nalli Kuppuswami Chetti, CommuniTree founder-CEO Hafiz Khan, former civil servant V Iraiyanbu and varsity registrar Rita John. They aim to plant one lakh saplings to create a Rotary Dense Forest on the campus by the end of this Rotary year.
Sri Lanka will be the next destination of Chennai Meraki team. “It will be a week-long tour from Jaffna in December 2026. We will take a ferry liner from Nagapattinam Port, and in collaboration with RID 3220, we will visit the clubs, engage Rotarians and the public to spread our environmental message and the need to take climate action,” says Sivabala.