Hedley Heighway receives the Warragul club charter in September 1938
This is the second of a series of articles prepared by club president Ross Dawson that will appear in our local paper (the Warragul Gazette) over coming months. Today's article is about the very beginnings of the Rotary Club of Warragul.
In the first edition of Club notes I wrote about the very beginnings of Rotary and how Rotary International has become the worldwide organisation it is today with approximately 1.2 million members.
So from the very beginnings on 23rd February 1905, when the Charter Members Paul P. Harris, Gustavus Loehr, Silvester Schiele, and Hiram E. Shorey gathered this would be what has become known as the first Rotary club meeting.
On the 13th July 1938 the Rotary Club of Warragul was formed, our “Mother Club” or the club that sponsored Warragul into this Rotary family, was the Rotary Club of Dandenong.
Directors present at that first meeting were; Hedley Heighway (President), Alick Swan (Vice President), Howard Elliott (Secretary), Directors, Ben Boon, Ted Lewis, with an apology from Laurie Friend (Treasurer).
The first meeting of the Directors of the Rotary Club of Warragul in 1938 was held at the home of the President Hedley Heighway on 22nd May 1938 at 7.30 pm. The Bank of Australasia (a memory from the past) were bankers for the Rotary Club of Warragul.
I conclude this monthly report with an excerpt from the Club’s 80th Anniversary booklet.
“The Rotary club of Warragul was chartered on 13 July 1938 and since that date the club has been active serving both the local community and the Rotary International community”.
The club has and shall continue to be involved in giving within the local community both through fund raising and our members giving their time. Our Rotary Motto is; “Service above Self”.
Our club has over time been involved in Rotary activities such as Group Study Exchange (GSE), Youth Exchange and Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) to name but a few; the club has also been witness to two of its members acting in the role of District Governor as well as many others who have served at various levels within the 9820 district”.
Next month I shall write about some of our many projects from the past and present.
Our club meets for dinner at the Warragul Country Club on Tuesday at 6 for 6-30 pm.
Ross C Dawson, President 2018 ~ 2019