A positive impact on the community: One hundred years of Rotary

On Jan. 28, 1919, 25 men gathered in the St. Charles Hotel in downtown Cape Girardeau to be initiated into a brand-new Rotary Club -- the first such club in Southeast Missouri. The Rotary movement had begun in Chicago in 1905, with the goals of providing a venue for fellowship as an opportunity for service, promoting high ethical standards in professional life, instilling the ideal of service in its members, and advancing international understanding, good will, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional people.

The Cape Girardeau club began working immediately to promote fellowship among local professions, and an early project was helping with acquisition and protection of Cape Rock Park. Throughout the 1920s, the local club lobbied for better roads in Missouri. One activity the club began sponsoring early was a Christmas party for local youth, and youth programs have been an emphasis for the club ever since. For example, the club has, at various times, chartered Boy Scout troops, provided a health lodge for Boy Scout Camp Lewallen, and sponsored the Soap Box Derby (which it does to the present day).

The Cape Girardeau club, as the earliest Rotary Club in Southeast Missouri, has helped to start other clubs -- the Jackson Rotary and Cape West Rotary being two notable examples. Members of the club have made substantial contributions to national and international projects of Rotary through the Rotary Foundation and its Paul Harris Fellowships, one example being the effort to eradicate polio.

Local beautification and civic pride has been another emphasis of the club since its founding. In the 1950s, the group placed a number of bronze plaques commemorating local sites and events (Cape Rock, Civil War forts, Battle of Cape Girardeau, etc.), and most of these markers are still in place. In similar fashion, the club began a recognition program for beautiful landscaping in the early 1930s. Another project of the club was the monument placed at Trail of Tears State Park, today recognized as the Bushyhead Memorial.

Membership lists of the Rotary Club in Cape Girardeau have included a "who's who" of prominent people in the history of Cape Girardeau. Seven Southeast Misouri State University presidents since Joseph Serena joined the Cape Girardeau or Cape West Rotary, as one example. A member recognized as one of the outstanding Rotarians of the first 50 years of the club was Dr. Arthur C. Magill. An outstanding educator and humanitarian, Dr. Magill was president of the club more than once and served as a District Governor for Rotary.

This year the club will be conducting a number of centennial commemorative activities to promote its ideals in the community. It is still going strong, and will continue to provide service to the area into its second century.