Early in the summer of 1964, 48 years ago, interesting discussions took place with some people about the formation of a new service club here in Chardon. It seemed there was a place in our community for another service club, especially if it met at noon. At that time there was a Kiwanis Club, Lions Club and JC's and of course the Burton/Middlefield Rotary, but they all met at night. We hoped the n
ew club could be a Rotary Club so our first and only inquiry was made through the Burton club to the Rotary District Governor, John Sellar, who was the Comptroller of the Ohio Turnpike in Berea. almost daily contact with John Rose, a local optometrist (Marilyn George's predecessor) the guidelines for establishing a new club were outlined. Basically we needed a commitment from 25-30 people who had a common goal to belong to a first-class service club, interested in serving our community, maintaining a reasonable level of attendance and trying to be the best we could be. We set out on our recruiting and as memory serves me correctly it was easy to meet our goal of 25 people. The question of where we could meet also came easily as our dear friend Isabel Anderson at Chardon Lakes Inn agreed to open Monday noon (her normal day to be closed) and we began meeting in the North room of the building next door, a perfect room for our purpose, now fall of 1964. We went through a couple of months of regular weekly meetings to make sure the idea would stick, and late in the year of 1964 we were advised that a charter would be granted and that charter night would be February 15,1965. The excitement began to build as we were told that maybe, just maybe the president of Rotary International, who was to be in Cleveland that day, could be persuaded to attend our Charter night. How naive we were at the time to think he tried to attend as many charter nights as possible, and the truth dawned upon us this was to be a great great honor for this man to attend our charter celebration. The President of RI was a marvelous man whose name Charles Pettengill, an attorney from Greenwich, CT and certainly his presence had much to do with the fact that about 300 people attended the presentation at Chardon High School. Well, the fun was over and now it was time to get serious with the work of nurturing and sustaining this club and to find a project, first earn money and just as importantly to spend it wisely. As we looked about we came face to face with the Maple Festival. Small jugs of maple syrup seemed logical and followed the theme of the festival. The jugs were cute, but the profits were slim, so we decided to call it a day on the jugs and move on to food, which could also be sold at the Geauga County Fair. Thus, the first Red Barn was born. It was made of wood and as an after-thought wheels were added. A good-looking structure, but difficult to move and we gave it to the High School boosters in 1973. It was replaced with a made to order concession trailer from which we sold corn fritters, fried mushrooms and beverages. This endeavor lasted until the late 80's or early 90's when the Rotary Auction was born. We made some tours in the early years and a couple included an invitation by the Rotary Club of St. Catherine's Ontario. We were invited there to watch the running of the Henly Regatta, a well-known event in Canada. We were shown every possible hospitality, including being taken out on the race course during a race, privilege previously accorded only to the Royal Family. A very memorable event, for those of us lucky to be there. How could we reciprocate? A Browns game (they were winning then) vs. Buffalo. Sixty tickets together, seats where you could see the game. We are older and wiser now, but then we thought it could be done. We got the seats together part right, but were far away from the field. Undoubtedly ours was not as memorable as it could have been. It seems with our connection with the Y, we had an annual canoe trip on the (Brand River and those were fun for all. Rotary also discovered camping over 40 years ago. A nearby campground was selected and families camped together for a week, doing what campers do. Has anyone attended a Rotary Dance? In the late 60's our social committee decided to enhance our fun by having a dance. The first was at Chardon Savings Bank (now Chase) on the third floor. It was a dance only, no dinner and many people had cocktail parties before and did not arrive until very late. The answer was to serve dinner first and thus was born the Famous Rotary Dinner Dance, always held the f rst Saturday in December, the then start of the Christmas season. The dance moved to Pleasant Hills Golf Course and the owner always refinished the dance floor for us and we decorated his building for the rest of his parties in the season. Usually about two hundred would attend and we were the forerunners of the Hospital Dance, the heart Dance, The Christmas Ball and yes the Emerald Ball. So much for the early years . . . I am honored and proud to be a member of this fine club. Thanks to each one of you, we have matured into a club that Rotary International is proud of. Ward A. Lawrence
