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Rotary celebrating 100 years

Banquet set for tonight (Thursday) at Southwind Hills

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Purcell’s Rotary Club is celebrating an historic occasion this Thursday, March 30.

A banquet will be held at Southwind Hills in Goldsby to commemorate the occasion.

The civic club has been a fixture in Purcell’s business community since March 30, 1923 so this week the club will be celebrating its 100th anniversary.

There’s no indication that will change in the future.

It’s a history unique to Purcell - and to Rotary’s larger worldwide community.

When the Purcell Rotary Club was chartered in March 1923, it gained instant notoriety as the first Rotary Club in the world in a city with under 3,500 population.

Efforts to establish a Rotary Club actually began one year earlier. The initial attempt to charter a local Rotary Club failed because Rotary International considered Purcell too small for a club to succeed here.

It took determination, perseverance and 100 percent attendance - a second charter attempt was also turned down - before Rotary International relented.

Rotary’s ranks opened to women in 1987.

Unchanged through the decades is the Rotary’s determination to improve quality of life through a variety of service projects.

Indeed, service locally and around the globe is the Rotary mission. It’s stated in the Rotary motto - “Service Above Self.”

Community projects address such issues as violence, drug abuse, youth AIDS, hunger, the environment and illiteracy.

One of the main goals for Rotary International is the eradication of polio and cases are now confined to Afghanistan and Pakistan. There hasn’t been a polio case in the United States since 1979.

The Purcell Rotary Club meets Wednesdays at Trinity United Methodist Church.

Meetings are non-partisan.

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