Humboldt Rotary celebrating 100 years
The 2024-2025 Humboldt Rotary Club. (Front Row, L-R) Amber Allen, Bruce Watnem, Cheryl Rhead, Sierra Vorland, Secretary Amy Nostrom. (Top Row, L-R) Treasurer Kevin Marso, Bret Davis, Jeff Gargano, Jim Murray, President Elect Travis Sprague, Brittani Sohn and President Austin Vrzak. Submittd photo.
By KYLIE PORTZ
HUMBOLDT - It began in 1905 with a Chicago attorney named Paul Harris, who gathered a group of business acquaintances, all from different backgrounds, to share ideas and create connections amongst each other.
While the group met for the first time at one of Harris’s friends' offices, the group would rotate between each other’s offices for weekly meetings. Hence, this is where they got their name “The Rotary Club”. However, within a year the club had grown so substantially that it became necessary to find a more permanent meeting place. But the name stuck.
Word spread quickly, and soon there were Rotary Clubs established in San Francisco, Oakland, Seattle, and Los Angeles. By 1910, the National Association of Rotary Clubs in America was formed. And in November of that same year, the first international Rotary Club was founded in Canada.
Globally, Rotary International’s primary focus remains on curing Polio, reducing polio cases by 99.9 percent since its first project to vaccinate Filipino children in 1979.
A few years later and much closer to home, the first Rotary Club meeting was held in Humboldt on February 12, 1925. On March 18, 1925, the Humboldt Rotary Club was granted its charter with delegates from Eagle Grove, Algona, Clarion, Fort Dodge and Webster City all present for the evening.
A century later, the Humboldt Rotary Club is a community fixture at 21 members strong. To celebrate its 100th anniversary, the Humboldt Rotary Club is hosting an open house at TractorLift Brewery from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Feb. 12.
To read the full story check out this week's issue of the Humboldt Independent!
