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Rotary Club of Youngstown celebrates 100th anniversary
YOUNGSTOWN
The Rotary Club of Youngstown celebrates a century of service to the community this week.
“For the past 100 years, individuals from across the [Mahoning] Valley have been gathering to make our community and our world a better place to live,” Paul Garchar Jr., club president, said in a statement.
The club was founded Feb. 1, 1915, by Youngstown architect Charles F. Owsley.
“Charles was a very well-respected architect locally,” said Scott Schulick, club president from 2013 to 2014.
Schulick said the organization’s focus was not on business or networking, but providing professionals an opportunity to socialize and work together on community projects.
Since its founding, meetings took place throughout the downtown area, including Pick-Ohio Hotel (now Amedia Plaza), The Youngstown Club, and the downtown YMCA, where meetings now take place. Members would speak at meetings about their businesses, and eventually, others outside the club were invited to speak.
Membership peaked at more than 300 in the 1950s. At that time, the club sponsored other Rotary clubs in Boardman, Canfield, Hubbard, Struthers, Girard/Liberty and Austintown.
Garchar said the Rotary Club has about 90 members currently with about 30 members that have joined since 2013.
“With the renaissance of downtown, we’ve benefited from that,” he said.
That helped the club shed its “older-gentlemen-club image” from the 1980s, Garchar said.
That image also faded with Deborah Esbenshade becoming the club’s first female president from 2001 to 2002.
“They accepted me as a professional,” she said.
Esbenshade went on to become district governor of Northeast Ohio, overseeing 47 Rotary clubs in a 10-county area from 2013 to 2014.
Throughout its history, the club was involved with founding many local organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club of Youngstown and the Easter Seal Society. In 1998, the Youngstown Rotary adopted Harding Elementary of Youngstown City Schools.
“The collaboration we have with the Youngstown Rotary Club is priceless,” said Susan Koulianos, principal of Harding Elementary.
Members work one-on-one with students as a mentor, provide field trips and last year donated winter coats to all 465 students, she added. Additionally, Rotary Club of Youngstown is one of the few that has its own foundation, which has given out $500 to $1,000 grants to service projects, Garchar said.
The Youngstown Rotary Foundation has supported organizations such as OH WOW! the Roger & Gloria Jones Children’s Center for Science and Technology. From 1947 through half of 2014, the foundation has donated more than $1.35 million in charitable contributions.
The club has chosen to celebrate its centennial with the public. The club will kick off the celebrations at the Tyler Mahoning History Center, which will feature an exhibit of the club’s history at 5 p.m. Thursday.
The event is open to the public with $15 admission.
On Friday, Ed Futa, former general secretary of Rotary International, will be the keynote speaker of a luncheon at the history center at 11:30 a.m. Admission is $25. The celebration ends with a gala at the Youngstown Country Club in Liberty at 6 p.m. Saturday. Admission is $75. All events require reservations and can be made by calling 330-746-8630.