JEFFERSON – A packed room at the Hall at Giddings Park marked the 100th anniversary of the Rotary Club of Jefferson, celebrated Saturday, Jan. 17.
There was live music from Fred Burazer, Jefferson Area Local Schools band director, and a catered dinner that came after a social hour and before some brief remarks from local and regional Rotary officials on the club’s history and its mission moving forward.
Emily Fuller, club president, began the celebration with an opening bell and some remarks welcoming members and supporters.
She touched on the centennial theme and Rotary International’s mission of promoting humanitarian service, high ethical standards and advancing world understanding and peace by taking action on critical issues like poverty, disease, literacy, and environmental concerns.
“For the last 100 years, Jefferson Rotary has looked different from decade to decade,” she said. “The projects changed, the challenges changed, the world changed – but the heart of Rotary never did.”
Throughout the past century, members of Jefferson Rotary worked together to improve their community, choosing to serve and lead, then pass the mission on to the next generation.
“This club has endured through world wars, economic uncertainty, cultural change and moments of real challenge,” Fuller said.
Corinne Ball, president of Geneva Rotary, detailed how her club sponsored Jefferson on Jan. 12, 1926, with the presentation of club charters for Jefferson and Andover the following month.
“What began as a small group of dedicate individuals has grown into a strong and devoted club that has faithfully lived out Rotary’s motto of service above self for generations,” she said.
Bob Oborn, District 6630 governor, talked about the 15 business professionals from Jefferson and more from Andover who gathered at the Hotel Ashtabula (now Signature Health on Main Avenue) in 1926 and how those charter members and their immediate successors worked to provide wheelchairs, crutches and other aids to mobility for children paralyzed by the polio virus.
He also discussed meeting up with Jefferson Rotary for the annual ham and bean soup fundraiser held during the Covered Bridge Festival weekend.
“The time spent early in the morning with the Rotarians from Jefferson – you could feel the warmth, and the fellowship was contagious,” he said. “With such dedicated members, this remarkable club has a bright future ahead.”
Beverly A. Ghent-Skrzynski, Cleveland Rotary past president, gave a more detailed history of Rotary International since its founding in 1905 by Paul Harris in Chicago.
The Jefferson Rotary Club was founded in 1926, during the so-called Roaring ‘20s, a time marked by such technological and consumer goods innovations as the polygraph “lie detector,” insulin, automated traffic signals, bubblegum, sliced bread and – Ghent-Skrzynski’s favorite: the electric chainsaw.
She joked that Thursday, Jan. 15, marked the 106th anniversary of the Volstead Act, which was the legal enforcement mechanism for the 18th Amendment – better known as Prohibition.
Most of the attendees had gotten an “adult beverage” after dinner.
“Looking around the room, it’s good that didn’t last,” she joked.
Ghent-Skrzynski circled back to Rotary International’s “greatest humanitarian undertaking,” its Global Polio Eradication Initiative, which has helped over the past 47 years to encourage vaccination against a highly contagious disease that frequently kills adults who contract the virus, but often leaves children partly or totally paralyzed.
Rotary International has spent $2.1 billion in donations and countless volunteer hours to vaccinate 3 billion children in 122 countries, helping to reduce confirmed cases worldwide by 99.9 percent.
“It is achievable, and we are close,” Ghent-Skrzynski said. “We are close to eradicating polio from the face of the Earth. It is a promise Rotary has made to the children and it’s one we mean to keep.”
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