Our Waterford Rotary Club
Over 60 years of History and Service

• 1944, Club was Founded
• The Club was originally named the Waterford-Drayton Rotary club.
• In 2004 a charter member visited our club and gave us a copy of the program from May 25^th, 1944.  That was Charter Night and 18 Charter Members were listed.
• Key Note speaker’s address was “He Profits Most Who Serves Best”
• That was 60 years ago & the theme of serving still prevails

• In the early 70’s … 
• There were approx 37 members.
• Attendance was a very important to members.  They felt that they were missing something if they weren’t able to attend the weekly meeting.
• INTERESTING STATISTICS:
  • 28 members had one or more years of perfect attendance.
  • 20 had perfect attendance greater than 10 yrs
  • 11 had perfect attendance greater than 15 yrs
  • 6 had perfect attendance greater than 20 yrs!

• A while ago I took a walk down memory lane with 2 of our long time members; they recalled some of the fundraisers.
  • Selling fruit cakes
  • Pancake Suppers     =  $300-400
  • Selling Hot Dogs in a trailer they made
  • Selling Hot Dogs and Beer at Detroit Drive football games at the Silverdome.
  • Then they recalled the annual Garage Sale.  They collected so many items it filled the high school gym!  For any one who has every done their own garage sale, you know how much work that is.  Well the garage sale hung in there for about 3 years.  It was the clubs 1^st Polio Plus Fund Raising Project.
• At Christmas time, for a period of about 30-40 years a single rose was given to ~150 area shut-ins.  The tradition continued until the list died off.
• In the Easter Seal Building, located by the Oakland Co Court Complex, there was a room that was known as the Rotary Room because it was furnished by area Rotary clubs, such as Pontiac, Ferndale, Waterford, Royal Oak, and others in Oakland County.  That room continued to have that designation well into the 80’s.

• Selling fruit cakes
• Pancake Suppers     =  $300-400
• Selling Hot Dogs in a trailer they made
• Selling Hot Dogs and Beer at Detroit Drive football games at the Silverdome.
• Then they recalled the annual Garage Sale.  They collected so many items it filled the high school gym!  For any one who has every done their own garage sale, you know how much work that is.  Well the garage sale hung in there for about 3 years.  It was the clubs 1^st Polio Plus Fund Raising Project.
   

• About 15 years ago our club began other trends.
  • In 1987, Waterford Rotary welcomed their 1^st female member, Margie Gobler, who is still a very active member today.
    • By the way… our membership is currently 40% women.
  • Since about the same time we have sponsored a float every year in the Memorial Day parade.
  • Sister Club established in Cubao in the Philippines. 
  • InterAct Club established in Kettering High School.
  • We also had our 1^st fundraiser that raised more than $1000!  It was the 1^st Annual Golf Outing, which has continued to grow each year.
    • Interestingly, Margie Gobler, the 1st female member, now chairs it!
• A notable program of our club was the Post Office Committee.  Waterford had not had an identity of its own because most of its residents received their mail from the Pontiac Post Office.  In 1985 our Rotary Club started a program to obtain a zip code for the Township so that everyone could have “Waterford” as part of their address.  The program was a success since the post office wanted to expand their services due to the growth of the community.  Everyone in Waterford now has a Waterford address.  This was very helpful in establishing an identity for the community.  The Waterford-Drayton club became the Waterford Club after the closing of the Drayton Plains P.O.
• In the past 10 years, we have given out over 10,000 pine tree seedlings to all the kindergarten classes in Waterford Schools.
• Bowled over 600 games during our annual Bowl-a-Thon.
• In the past 4 years we have over seen the making and distribution of over 1,000 hand-made bowls in our Empty Bowls program in an effort to help feed the hungry in our local meals on wheels program and world hunger efforts.
• After researching the history, I noted so many changes in the club over the years, but I did see 2 things that NEVER changed:
  • 1) Service above self was always the target
  • 2) Meetings were always at noon on Tuesdays!

Currently the Waterford Rotary Club has about 40 members. Our goals are to help our community, our nation and our world to be a better place!

Let’s hear it for our Waterford Rotary Club!!!

If you would like information about joining the Waterford Rotary Club please contact Ted Taylor (248) 623-1300 or Karen Phelps (248) 673-3465.