Rotary Club of Stratford members and guests held out hope that the stars would align and they could all gather in-person to celebrate the club’s 100th anniversary.
Sure enough, a big crowd arrived at Best Western Plus The Arden Park Hotel recently for a fun night of guest speakers, presentations and recognition of ‘service above self’ for a century in the Festival City.
Two hundred tickets were sold for the 100th anniversary gala.
One of the highlights was guest speaker Dean Robinson, a local historian, who spent 30 months writing the club’s 100th anniversary book, Rotary Club of Stratford president Ken Nesbitt told StratfordToday.
“We honoured him with a Paul Harris Fellow Award,” said Nesbit, of the club's highest honour.
The gala included a video created by local company Off The Lens, which profiled members and highlighted some of the club’s history. Members who have died since the 90th anniversary were also mentioned in memoriam.
Wendy Anderson chaired the gala, noting in a release that the gala is the club’s biggest event this year.
Nesbitt said the club has carried on giving back to the community through the pandemic, although it made things challenging at times. One of the recent pandemic-related initiatives, through the club’s environment committee, is collecting and recycling masks and PPE.
Businesses can collect and the club will pick-up a bag of recyclable personal protective equipment, or residents can drop off at business locations. When enough are collected they are dropped off at Lifecycle Revive, Canada’s first polypropylene PPE waste recycler.
Membership was happy to have their first in-person weekly meeting in more than two years the day before the gala. Nesbitt said it was 50-50 between in-person and virtual attendance.
The club has 105 active members and 15 honourary members. The club was chartered on May 30, 1922.
Nesbitt said the club aims to raise some money each year and the fundraising goal for this year is $100,000. After the gala, they are well past the halfway point.
The club has plans for a special event at Market Square on June 16 with more details to come. The annual golf tournament is July 6 and the Rotary Dragon Boat Festival is celebrating 25 years since it started in Stratford. The teams are set to compete on Sept. 17.
