Rotary District 7040

Rotary District 7040 is the regional body that ties together the Rotary clubs of a wide stretch of two countries. Its own homepage puts the boundary plainly: the district serves communities across southeastern Ontario, southwestern Quebec, Nunavut, and the North Country of New York State. The district's club directory lists 69 clubs and Rotaract groups — 52 of them with a Canadian address and 17 in New York State.

Those clubs sit in the towns around the festival as well as in the cities. The directory lists a Rotary Club of Carleton Place, which meets at The Thirsty Moose on Bridge Street in the same town as Riverside Park, along with clubs in Smiths Falls, Arnprior, Renfrew, Kemptville and several in Ottawa. The same list reaches to Kingston, Cornwall, Montreal, Gatineau, Iqaluit, Watertown, Plattsburgh and Potsdam.

Literacy is one of the things the clubs do together. In 2026 the district brought in 1,560 Dictionary4Life books, printed in Dubai, shipped by sea to New Jersey and trucked to a warehouse in Ottawa. On 17 August representatives from clubs across the district came to collect their pre-ordered dictionaries, while a West Ottawa team in the warehouse boardroom put labels and bookmarks into 332 of them for presentation at ten local schools in October. The books go to Grade 3 students, many of whom will be getting the first book of their own.

A second strand is young people and study. RYLA — the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards — ran from 22 to 24 May 2026 at RKY Camp as a weekend for youth aged 15 to 17, who are selected and sponsored by their local club. The district also runs Interact and EarlyAct clubs and a Youth Exchange programme, and for the 2026-2027 academic year it offered one Rotary Global Grant Scholarship of up to US$35,000 toward the first year of a master's degree, with applications closing on 15 April 2026.

The district's International Service Committee exists, in its own words, to stimulate and assist clubs to undertake international service and so advance world understanding, good will and peace. Its page lists work in Ethiopia, Peru, Nepal, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Colombia, Niger, Kenya, Ghana and Ukraine, and the committee meets quarterly with the District Foundation Committee at the Seaway Valley Theatre in Cornwall. UAFest lists Rotary District 7040 among the partners of its 2026 festival.