To commemorate its’ 100th anniversary, the Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary Club will host a party recognizing its centennial on July 26 at Bill Phelps Park on South Street beginning at 2 p.m.
“It is certainly amazing,” G-H Rotary Member Jim Irwin told The Weekly Villager. “We have had a good run. It will be a nice affair. The whole village is invited to come out and bring their kids and just celebrate.”
In addition to celebrating its’ 100th year, the G-H rotary will offer a variety of activities, including games for the children and food and refreshments. Irwin noted that there will be a PowerPoint presentation in the pavilion recognizing the history of the G-H Rotary.
According to Irwin, the club held a private 100th anniversary dinner on June 11 but wanted to hold a public celebration, giving thanks to the Village of Garrettsville for supporting the club for 100 years.
“The support is phenomenal here in the Village, so we definitely wanted to have something to invite the town to participate in, families and games,” he noted. “The G-H Rotary Club is a service organization of business professional people here in town and they give back not only to the community, but it is worldwide organization.”
Irwin added that through the help of James A. Garfield Historical Society member Pam Montgomery, the club has assembled a scrapbook with newspaper articles of club meetings and feature stories on charter members beginning from the G-H Rotary Club’s inception in 1926 to 1970, with each page dedicated to a specific year. He said that the scrapbook contains over 400 articles.
Irwin said that although the club is smaller than it once was, it has stayed active in the Village and abroad, including putting money toward water wells or participating in student exchange programs.
He added that to become a member of the Rotary, the qualifications include the answer to four questions that determine an individual’s selflessness, as the G-H Rotary Club is a service organization first and foremost.
Irwin said that the Garrettsville established a Rotary Club in 1926, through the sponsorship of the Kent Rotary Club.
“It was still a fairly new type of organization and evidently there was an interest in forming a Rotary Club 100 years ago here in town because Garrettsville was quite the hub, there were a lot of businesses here in town and a lot of businesspeople,” he added.
He said that the Garrettsville Rotary began with 22 original members in 1926.
Irwin added that as membership began to increase to include members from across several communities in Portage County, the Club was re-named the Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary Club.
“We had quite a few members from Hiram,” he said. “We had some members from Windham too, but they changed the name to Garrettsville-Hiram because we had quite a few Hiram folks in the club. Members from Windham were always welcomed with open arms”.
Irwin spoke of some of the early traditions, including club meetings occurring every Monday evening at 6:40 p.m, because at that point in time, a commuter train came through Garrettsville and stopped at 6:30 p.m., so all G-H Rotary members would get off the train and have 10 minutes to make it to the meetings, which usually took place at the Methodist Church.
Irwin acknowledged that the club at first operated as a men’s only organization but began to extend membership opportunities to women beginning in the 1990s.
He said that most of the existing members of the G-H Rotary Club are businesspeople or hold prominent positions within the Village of Garrettsville, but what they all have in common is a shared interest in bettering the community.
“They basically come to the meeting, and anybody interested in service above self can belong. It is business or professional people, but there are others; you don’t have to own your business to belong,” he said
