CLUB HISTORY (as published in the Centennial celebration event program)
The Rotary Club of Norristown was chartered on May 1,1921 with 24 members, the second oldest club in Montgomery County. Rotary is the oldest service club in the world. Rotary Club members represent a cross-section of the community’s owners, executives, managers, political leaders, and professionals – people who make decisions and influence policy. Paul Harris organized the first Rotary Club in Chicago, Illinois on 23 February 1905. Today more than 1.4 million people call themselves Rotarians. 46,000 Rotary Clubs in over 200 countries and geographical areas share the ideal of “Service above Self”. The mission of Rotary International, a worldwide association of Rotary clubs, is to provide service to others, promote high ethical standards, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through its fellowship of business, professional and community service.
The sponsoring club for the Norristown club was the Philadelphia Rotary Club whose President Ed Bartlett was presented the charter. The first president of the Norristown Club was Joseph K. Ranck, an Industrialist. The current president is R. Scott Wright and membership is now 35. In l924, the Norristown Rotary Club sponsored the Lansdale Club and in the following year the Phoenixville Club. Membership has stayed at approximately 80 members throughout the club’s history. During the early years, the club met every Thursday at noon at the former Norristown “Valley Forge Hotel” and the “Plymouth Country Club” and most recently, Westover Golf Club. Currently, the club meets at noon at the Hyatt House (1st & 3rd Thurs), 501 E. Germantown Pike, East Norriton, and virtually on Zoom at noon on the 2nd & 4th Thursday. Contact rotaryofnorristown@gmail.com for Zoom connect info or leave a message at (484) 994-2349.
The club’s first project established in 1923 was the Crippled Children’s Program. The members contributed funds to help needy crippled children obtain orthopedic care as well as braces and special shoes. Less than three years after being organized, the club built a log cabin in Elmwood Park for the use of the Boy Scout Troops in the area. The Arbaugh-Weiss Tennis Tournaments was one of the main fund raisers of the club in the early years benefitting local charities including the Student Loan Fund. The club has made and continues to make contributions to local non-profit organizations that include Elmwood Park, the Salvation Army, Laurel House, the Hospitality Center, Camp Rainbow, the Greater Norristown PAL Center, The Montgomery County/Norristown Public Library, The Patrician Society and the Senior Adult Activities Center of Norristown to name a few. In addition, they work with Habitat for Humanity; the Preschool Intervention Program and Head Start. They also provide Thanksgiving dinners to nearly 70 needy families each year; collect perishable foods for the local Food Cupboards and Diapers and Wipes for children being placed in Foster Care.
Over the years, the club has raised funds for victims of disasters in Sri Lanka, Haiti, Japan and New Orleans. They also honor high school seniors with Student Achievement Awards, scholarships and provided funding for interest free loans so these students can go to college. Over the years, the fund has granted over 860 loans totaling $ 880,000. In addition, the club has sent many students to “Camp Neidig”, a three-day Leadership Camp sponsored by the local District Rotary Clubs, to provide exceptional young men and women with the opportunity to live, work and socialize together in a dynamic leadership environment. To celebrate Rotary International 100th year in 2005, the club created a children’s learning center to combat illiteracy in the area at the Montgomery County/Norristown Public Library. In celebration of the 75th anniversary, the club set a goal of raising $20,000 to furnish the conference room of the planned new entry pavilion at Elmwood Park Zoo. In 2006, the club raised funds to renovate the bathrooms at the Hospitality Center in Norristown for the Homeless. In 2019, they built a Butterfly Garden in West Norriton Township’s “Padden Park” with 18 varieties of butterfly friendly bushes.
During the last ten years, the club’s main fundraising event “Annual Pancake Breakfast/Silent Auction has raised money for “Advocates Against Hunger” a Norristown based group with the mission of coordinating activities of several organizations fighting hunger in the area. The funds were used to provide fresh fruit and vegetables several times during the course of the year to needy families in the area; Pathway School in providing high-quality, individually focused education to thousands of children with specialized needs; Laurel House, providing much needed and lifesaving services to victims of domestic violence; Montgomery County OIC, providing quality education, together with the Ambler Rotary club purchased much needed computers for their computer lab; Variety Club Camp providing funds for kitchen modernization and equipment for training campers for culinary skills; the Norristown Police Department towards the purchase of body cameras and to Norristown Area School District by providing equipment for the Middle School Technology Lab which is designed to introduce and motivate students in the areas of Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics. For the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the club, they have provided 100 children books to the Montgomery/Norristown Public Library, funds for 100 meals through the Norristown Hospitality Center and the Montgomery County OIC and provided a 100th anniversary commemorative brick to the Elmwood Park Zoo.
Internationally, the club continues to support the Rotary Foundation and its projects, which include Rotoplast, Shelter Box and Eradicating Polio. The club’s all-time giving amount to the “Rotary Foundation” is $ 637,393.00. In addition, they collect used bicycles and sewing machines for shipment to underdeveloped countries. To date, more than 500 bicycles and sewing machines for “Pedals for Progress”, were shipped to Africa, Europe, South America and Vietnam. One of Rotary’s highest objectives is to build goodwill and peace throughout the world by improving health, providing quality education, improving the environment and alleviating poverty.
On this 100th anniversary occasion, we can reflect and be thankful to the members of the past for their outstanding deeds and for maintain our club’s high tradition of which we can justifiably be proud. There is no doubt that the Rotary Club of Norristown will continue to serve effectively and generously in the future.
- Guido Martinelli