Creston Rotary reaches 100 years

Creston and the surrounding area has some things the past 100 years partly because of a group of people under a certain name.

Creston’s Rotary Club turned 100 this month.

“It’s good to keep up on the community this way,” said Creston Rotary President Linda Kilgore. “It’s a good group serving the community.”

Those ideals started when Warren G. Harding was president.

From the Feb. 23, 1922 Creston Advertiser

“Members of the Creston Rotary Club met at the Iowana Hotel last night with visiting Rotarians for the purpose of completing the affiliation of the Creston Club with the International Association of Rotary Club.

The meeting was in charge of Rotarian Luther A. Brewer of Cedar Rapids, Governor of the district composed of Iowa, South Dakota and Nebraska.

International Rotary is an association of clubs composed of men desiring to work together in attaining better ideals of service to the community. It is really a school where the members try to learn the best ways in which they can as individuals be of help to all institutions of the community in which they live. Rotary is not political or religious but desires in every way to help by real service the churches, chamber of commerce, lodges and all other agencies designed to benefit society and business.”

Having been a member for nearly 20 years, Kilgore said she has seen the results of the club’s efforts across town in various ways. Rotary has awarded scholarships to aspiring college students, picked up trash along some of the town’s more popular highways and the list goes on.

Kilgore said Rotary’s highlight of the year may be its contribution to the annual pork chop dinner leading up to the Southwest Iowa Hot Air Balloon Days. Working with other service clubs in town, the groups prepare and serve a pork chop dinner at McKinley Park. Kilgore said she enjoys serving the customers, many which she personally knows, but the event adds to the value of Rotary and its members.

The club meets at noon, Mondays at Pizza Ranch.

“The camraderie of getting together every week is enjoyable,” she said.

Kilgore said Rotary members can learn from each other. Chances are if a club member is in need of something, they can rely on another member.

“We have different people in different professions,” she said. “You always have a contact.”

Rotary was formed Feb. 23, 1905, in Chicago by attorney Paul Harris. He was motivated to find ways to meet with other business owners and managers in the Chicago area. The use of the word rotary was based on the strategy the meeting locations would rotate among its members. In the first 10 years, there were 200 clubs formed and 20,000 members. Twenty years in, Rotary was an international organization. Women became members in 1989. Later this year, Jennifer Jones of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, is expected to be the first woman president of Rotary International.

Creston is part of District 6000, which is approximately southern Iowa south of U.S. Highway 30. There are 66 clubs in the district. Rotary has 35,399 clubs in 200 countries. The Rotary Foundation started in 1917 with $26.50 remaining from a convention at Kansas City. Since then, that fund has been contributed to from clubs around the world to be returned as grants in towns with Rotary clubs and for polio eradication.