Rotary Club of Glens Falls (Glens Falls, N.Y.)

In the early 1920s there were Rotary clubs in Albany and in Troy. Prominent local businessmen established the Glens Falls Club in 1922. The first regular meeting was on April 27, 1922 at the YMCA. The club charter was presented to the members on May 1, 1922. Membership quickly rose to over 100 businessmen. Women were not admitted to the club until 1987. The Rotary Club of Glens Falls served both the Town of Queensbury and the City of Glens Falls. Meetings were weekly and held during the lunch hour. For many years the club met at the Queensbury Hotel. Each meeting featured a speaker. Rotarians communicated their news through the weekly newsletter summarizing the previous meeting's actions and the speaker's remarks.

The Rotary Club was involved in numerous civic, educational, and philanthropic projects. The first sustained community service effort was the Buddy Club in 1922. A Rotarian was matched to a local youth who received a pool pass to the YMCA, free lunch, and a movie ticket. Rotarians also sponsored an annual Christmas party for underprivileged children. The Buddy Club evolved into the Youth Committee that sponsored sports events such as cross country skiing, and the annual fishing derby at Crandall Pond. The club made monetary bequests to many community organizations, including: the Boy and Girl Scouts, YMCA, the Youth Center, the Little League, the Association of Retarded Children, Junior Basketball, and the Fresh Air Fund.

The Rotary Club of Glens Falls raised money for an education fund to assist local high school students with low cost education loans. In 1993 the fund was incorporated into the Rotary Club of Glens Falls Foundation. The fund was capped at $50,000, with $5,000 available annually to help students with school loans. Rotary took the lead in 1964 in a community effort to improve City Park in downtown Glens Falls. The Rotarians assisted in improving the Luzerne Road city dump, which was graded, soil added, trees planted and closed in 1979. The Rotary Club gave a handicapped access ramp to a local museum, sponsored hazardous waste clean up days, and Rotarians have helped collect for the Salvation Army at Christmas.

From the description of Rotary Club of Glens Falls records, 1924-2000. (New York State Historical Documents). WorldCat record id: 155423723