Page 9 - 1976 State of the Plymouth Rotary Club

Plymouth Rotary Club

History and Highlights

The club appreciates the honor of having had four of its members serve as district
governors. They are: George A. Smith, Frank Henderson, Perry Richwi ne and Edward
Sawusch.
Back in 1956 and 1957, the Plymouth club joined with other Rotary Clubs of the
district and made possible the Crippled Children's Home in Inkster, at the intersection of
Merriman and Michigan. This project represented a total investment of more than $150,000
and the Plymouth club has raised more than $40,000 towards the construction and
operation of the home.
Our club started a roast chicken and corn barbecue affair in the late '50s to assist
members in getting better acquainted with people in the Plymouth community. The first
two or three barbecues were for members only and friends and totaled about 150.
Then in 1960 the barbecue was turned into the Plymouth Fall Festival, a program that
has won state and nationwide acclaim. At first it was a two-day affa ir, climaxed by the
Rotary Club chicken and roast corn dinner on the closing Sunday.
In 1966, because of its popularity, the Fal l Festival became a four-day affair with many
of the service and civic clubs of the community joining in the program. As usual it was
terminated by the barbecue which had grown from the original 150 to 5,000 to 7,500 to
10,000 and now finds more than 16,500 being served on the final day.
The Rotary Club's profit from this venture have been turned into contributions for
worthy community projects. The club was one of the largest donors towards the purchase of
the city's portable bandshell which provides a stage for numerous outdoor programs during
the spring, sum mer and fa 11 .
The club played a major role in the purchase of a public address system for the
bandshell . It has contributed towards such commun ity projects as Youth Inc., Council for
Community Concerns, Plymouth Commun ity Foundation , Salvation Army, Plymouth
Symphon y Society, Plymouth Historical Society, started a scholarship at Schoolcraft
Community College, worked with the Plymouth Garden Club in a beautification program at
Ke llogg Park which culminated in the installation of the central ly located fountain .
In addition, the Plymouth Rotary Club pledged $20,000 over a five year period for t he
Plymouth Community School system farm on the old Casterline property on Joy Road near
the Plymouth Salem and Plymouth Canton High Schools.
The pupose of the project was to preserve the farm bu ildings and set up a small scale
farm to expose youngstet·s in the co mmunity to some rural atmosphere, especially since this
kind of living is rapidly fading from the modern scene.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Pl ymouth Rotary Club, two kidney
machines were donated to St. Mary Hospital in Livonia.
One of the high spots of recent yea rs came when our club was named to receive the first
Dick Hedke award in 1970-71 . The district voted to give an annual award in honor of Dick
Hedke to a club with an outstanding reco rd of achievements during t he previous year.
Plymouth feels signally honored since the first of such awards was presented to it .
During the year 1975-76 the Plymouth Rotary Club, donated as its project of the year a
reader printer to the Plymouth Historica l Society. The reader printer is available to all
organizations that may have documents which thev want to preserve on micro-film for
future reference.
In preparing any history, names of persons who did outstanding work over the years are
inadvertantly missed. We feel it would be impossible to mention all who are entitled to
recognition and thus this history presumes that the accomplishments of the club are by joint
and concerted action of all members.