Cheers to Youngstown Rotary for 100 years of selfless service
At 100 years young this month, the proud, productive and philanthropic Rotary Club of Youngstown is hardly showing its age. As it celebrates its centennial, it remains as robust as ever as one of our region’s powerhouse service organizations. As such, it has earned widespread community respect and support.
The Youngstown Rotary Club received its charter as the 137th affiliate of Rotary International on Feb. 1, 1915. Today, it continues as one of 34,282 such clubs with 1.2 million members worldwide. Though its footprint may be smaller in the overall Rotary landscape, the impact of the club on heightening the quality of life for children, the community of Youngstown and the world continues to expand.
Just as in 1915, when members met in the luxurious splendor of the Hotel Pick-Ohio on West Boardman Street in downtown Youngstown, city Rotary Club members today stay true to the noble purpose of the organization: “to bring together business and professional leaders in order to provide humanitarian services, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world.”
In short, its members eat, sleep and breathe by their motto “Service Above Self.” Indeed that selfless service spanning 10 decades has amassed $1.4 million in charitable assistance to an expansive circle of compassionate missions.
ITS MULTIFACETED MISSIONS
In its mission to build goodwill around the world, the generosity and hard work of Youngstown Rotarians have helped tens of thousands. A few examples include delivering books to thousands of impoverished Philippines children in the early 1950s, providing critical medical supplies to victims of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Russia and, more recently, working with its parent group toward wiping polio off the face of Africa.
In its mission of community-building close to home, Youngstown Rotary’s record of accomplishment speaks for itself. It helped to organize the first Chamber of Commerce in Youngstown, which today has grown into the formidable Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber. It sowed the seeds for the consumer protection-spirited Better Business Bureau and served as the catalyst in 1989 for the first summertime Party on the Plaza concert series downtown that continues to thrive today. It’s also actively supported and funded such diverse groups as the Boy Scouts, Community Chest, United Way, Salvation Army, the YWCA, the YMCA and many others. Now it is taking a leading role in redeveloping the Smoky Hollow neighborhood and in modernizing the Wick Park Shelter House.
In its mission to serve needy children, Rotary also has a long and storied history. Its minstrel shows in the 1920s raised tens of thousands of dollars to establish the first Crippled Children’s Home in Mahoning County. That altruistic service to disabled children continues today through its partnerships with Easter Seals and other agencies. One of its most important missions in recent years has been its Put Kids First program. In it, Rotarians and the Youngstown City Schools have partnered to take students under their wings and guide them to success.
For our part, The Vindicator has long had a soft spot in its heart for the Rotary Club of Youngstown. Esther Hamilton, the grande dame of Youngstown journalism through seven decades of the 20th century, covered the club from 1921 into the 1970s and in 1947 became an honorary member of the then all-male organization. She staunchly supported the club’s initiatives, most notably its annual Christmas parties for disabled children in our community.
Today we renew that support for the Mahoning Valley’s oldest Rotary affiliate and wish it continued success as it launches its second century of laudable public service to our children, our community and our world.