Courtesy of Ray Leisy, Club Historian
At the first meeting on July 7, 1986, President Dick Marion passed the gavel to incoming President Jim Horn for the 1986-87 Wooster Rotary Year. President Dick Marion said that the greatest highpoint for the year for him was Rotary’s participation in the project to build Wooster High School’s new multi-purpose sports complex next to Kean Elementary School. He commended Rotarian Larry Wise for chairing the project and Ted Crawford who delivered the dedication speech.
Rotary Run Chair Dave Early reported that the 10k run will again take place this year. A 5k competitive run and a 1k fun run have been added. For the first time the run will go through downtown Wooster so he appealed for help in blocking off streets. An announcement was also made that the annual Wooster Rotary Family Picnic will take place at the OARDC in the evening of August 25 and the annual Wooster Rotary golf outing will take place on August 21 at Wooster Country Club. The Club also released $5,000 to People to People for their new building fund.
Wooster Rotary Secretary Lee Culp announced that Wooster Rotary now stood at 222 members. Lee reminded the Club that the District capped Wooster’s membership at 226 before the District would request that we divide into two clubs. Lee also thanked the 34 Wooster Rotarians who helped deliver Meals on Wheels for the past week.
Dick Marion was appointed by 665 Rotary District Governor to Chair the Polio Plus Program for District 665. The Polio Plus Campaign is an effort to raise $120 million dollars to immunize 60 to 70 million children in countries were polio is still a problem, to eradicate polio from the world. This is the first time Wooster was formally invited to begin contributions to the campaign which is still going on 35 years later with great success, but a few dollars more.
Main Street Wooster Project Manager Sandra Hull addressed Wooster Rotary on May 18, 1987, concerning the formation, in 1986, of a new organization to support the marketing of downtown Wooster as part of the National Main Street Network.
Ron Holtman discussed briefly the decision of the United States Supreme Court decision in Board of Directors of Rotary International vs. Rotary Club of Duarte, et al. and its implication for admitting women into Rotary Club membership. Next week the entire discussion in this space will trace the history of women in Rotary and Wooster Rotary’s actions in 1988. So, stay tuned.