Rotary Club celebrates 75 years in Tillsonburg

This photo from the Tillsonburg Rotary Club’s archives shows the charter members of the club who gathered 71 years ago to launch it. (Contributed Photo).

Jeff Helsdon, Editor

The influence of the Rotary Club is visible throughout Tillsonburg. From the Rotary Clock Tower downtown to the Annandale track and Theatre Tillsonburg to the less-obvious influence on the individuals in the community through the international student exchange, the group has made a difference.

To celebrate its anniversary, the Tillsonburg Rotary Club is holding a 75th anniversary gala celebration at the end of October at the Tillsonburg Soccer Club. A committee comprised of club president Gloria Aykroyd and members John Gilvesy and David Vallee is organizing the event.

“I think it’s going to be an interesting, fun evening,” said Vallee, who is the chair of Tillsonburg Rotary’s fundraising committee.

Although the program isn’t finalized, one of the features will be three guest speakers who are students in the Master's of Peace and Conflict Studies program at the University of Waterloo. The Rotary District Peace Committee provides scholarships to students in the program annually, which the local club contributes to.

“Peace is a cornerstone of the mission for Rotarians around the world,” Gilvesy said. “Rotarians believe when people work to create peace in their communities, that change can have a global effect.”

Gloria is a new Rotary member, but has a long history with the club and an interesting story that involves her husband Bob, who has been a member since 1981.

“Back in those early days Rotary didn’t allow women to join, but I was always by Bob’s side,” Gloria said. “Women were Rotary Anns.”

Gloria has been a Rotary Ann, which is a separate but related group, since Bob joined.

Over the summer, the Aykroyds have been going through boxes of scrapbooks and Rotary history, looking back at the past 75 years.

Club history

The Tillsonburg Rotary Club was chartered on June 9, 1950, with 19 members, all of whom were male. These included. Dr. James Clark – father of present member Brian Clark, Cyril Demeyere, W. H. Gibson, Dr. Charles Lee, and Bill Popham.

In 1952, the first Rotary show was presented. It started with a minstrel show and then evolved into the format local residents may remember. The show moved from the former town hall, to the community centre to Theatre Tillsonburg.

And speaking of Theatre Tillsonburg, Rotarian Tom Heeney was instrumental in establishing the present theater on Potters Road in the building that was formerly the Hungarian Hall. Gloria understands that the hall was purchased jointly by the Rotary Club and Theatre Tillsonburg.

In the late 1970s, the club started the Rotary phone check program.

“That’s where Rotarians would call elderly people who need a check-in call to ensure they were okay if they didn’t have family around,” Gloria said.

They saved a few people’s lives,” Bob added.

In 1955, when the community was raising money for Rotary Westmount School for what is now Community Living Tillsonburg, the Rotarians raised $30,000 for the cause. They also built the track at Annandale and contributed to the construction of the Tillsonburg Community Centre. The area where the Tillsonburg Seniors’ Centre sits today was formerly the Rotary Wing.

The clock tower was built in 1994 with the club selling “bricks”, which were the pavers around the tower with the donor’s name engraved. Club members hosted New Year’s Eve fireworks at the clock tower for years, but ceased due to rising costs. They ended up turning the clock tower over to the town because of increased maintenance costs.

One of the events the club is known for now is its semi-annual book sale in the Tillsonburg Town Centre, which dates back to 1976.

“People love it and it’s in demand so they’ll keep doing it,” Gloria said. “It’s just amazing the generosity of the people of Tillsonburg to allow the Rotary Club to have a wide selection of books.”

Three local Rotary members have made a mark at a higher level within Rotary. Don Watkins was district governor in 1991, Gilvesy held that role in 2018-2019, and John Lohuis is currently assistant district governor.

The exchange program

Vallee was a Rotary exchange student in 1983-84, going to Sweden.

“Rotary was a real springboard for me into more of an international life in politics, in communications,” he said, adding the program changed him. Vallee then went on to a career that included television over the years.

The Tillsonburg club became involved in the exchange program in 1968, and received an award for 90 exchanges in 2014. After a hiatus due to COVID, Tillsonburg was back in the program this year.

“I’m so excited we have an inbound and outbound Rotary Exchange student this year,” Aykroyd said, explaining a Tillsonburg youth went to Germany and a Japanese student is here. “It gets kids excited about learning about other places and other cultures. It just opens so much up for them.”

The present

Seeing the issue with homelessness locally, the local club members wanted to do something more than just the donations to the food bank and youth backpack program they had been doing. The concept of having a food pantry that could “fill in the gaps” was born. The hope is that this pantry will be located by the Station Arts Centre in 2026.

Club members are busy working on two fundraisers, the Rotary roses program run by Dave Palmer, and the duck race.

Gloria has another goal for the club during her presidency.

“As with many service clubs, members are getting older, and we certainly want people to become aware of Rotary,” she said. “The motto for Rotary is service about self. What can you do for Rotary and what can Rotary do for you.”

The club has dinner meetings on the third Monday of the month at the Salvation Army church.

“If people can see where they can carve out a few hours and see how they can make a difference in the community and beyond, they might be surprised,” she said.

For more information on joining the club, or the dinner, the contact is gloria.aykroyd@rotarytillsonburg.ca