Courtesy of  Ray Leisy, Club Historian
 
The Wooster Rotary Year 1969 to 1970 began with a new Wooster Rotary President Lowell Bourns, Of course that was the week of the great Wooster July 4th flood. At the Monday meeting on July 14th the members voted to donate $1,000.00 to the Wooster Relief Fund. It was announced that a “special” Teapot offering would be collected on July 21st to be added to the Relief Fund. The special Teapot solicitation raised an additional $335.00 for flood relief.

The traditional “Ladies Night” was held on August 7th. It began with a dinner at the YMCA and then a trip to attend the Arena Fair at the Wayne County Fairground.
 
The highlight of the September 11th meeting were the additional 110 guests for lunch. They were the singers and hosts of “Up With People” who were in town for a special performance. They also performed a short program at the Wooster Rotary meeting.

Under the heading of “Some things never change.”  The Wooster Rotary meeting on October 23rd received “…a first hand report of today’s most serious and puzzling problem-drug abuse.”  Caseworker James Kulig of the Mansfield State Reformatory addressed the issue and presented two present inmates, John and Tom, who were at that time serving sentences for drug related convictions.

Another important topic of the day was covered during the annual rural-urban committee presentation by Dr. Lyle Coleman of the OARDC who discussed the pros and cons of pesticide use. According to Dr. Coleman, at that time 34 chemical manufactures in the United States were producing 900 basic compounds which were being used to make over 60,00 brand name products. He broke down the usage as 20% for residential users, 22% for industrial users and 58% for agricultural use. He concluded that “we must have pesticides; they are toxic and must be used properly. Some, like DDT, are persistent and effect wildlife but regulations are effective to protect the American public.”  A few years later, we discovered the effects of DDT were more persistent than thought.

An overflow crowd of 210 appeared for the annual “Ladies Night” including Rotarians and  Rotary Anns. The speaker was Dorothy Fuldheim whose topic was “The World in the Year 2000.”

President Bourns addressed a persistent problem for Wooster Rotary at the December 18th meeting by referring to “… the smoke haze which seems to fill our meeting room during the program hour. It is a condition which is truly bothersome to some , even to the point where they have to leave the room. Let’s give it the ‘four-way test’. Those in the rear of the room may even be able to make out the outlines of the speaker. May I make bold to suggest that our smokers try to postpone the Monday urge until we reach our office or elsewhere.”

Starting with the flood and going on to topics such as drug abuse, pesticides and trying to curb smoking at Rotary meetings no one can say that Rotary doesn’t tackle the issues of the day.