Courtesy of Ray Leisy, Club Historian
The 1995-96 Wooster Rotary Year began with J. Douglas Drushal’s year as President. The first act by the Board was to award Honorary Membership to Harry Burnsteen, Lefty Miller, Dr. Bill Schultz and Harry Landes.
Wooster Rotary Treasurer Frank Hayes announced that the budget for the year was set at $85,380.00.
President Doug introduced Wooster Rotary’s own Leonard Schnell as the new District 6650 Governor.
The first speaker of the year was Sam Rutigliano, former Coach of the Cleveland Browns from 1978 to 1984. The Coach felt that. “…the professional sports system can be exploitive of young athletes. Fewer than one-third of professional football players receive their college degrees and about three quarters wind up broke. The average career length is only 3.7 years.”
It came to the attention of the Board that a Spangler Park shelter building built in part with Wooster Rotary funds had recently burned down. The City of Wooster had received a substantial settlement from the City’s Insurance Company. The Wooster Rotary Board urged the use of the funds for youth activities in the Park instead of rebuilding the destroyed building.
Judy Van Wie and Al Leist spoke to Wooster Rotary in support of the Crippled Children [ and now Adults] program. It was started by Edgar Allen from the Rotary Club of Elyria, Ohio in 1919.The program was eventually expanded to include other clubs in Ohio. In 1949 the Wayne County Committee for Crippled Children was formed. In 1982 the Wayne County Chapter broke away from the Ohio program and has operated on its own since then.
Did you know that Sue Crawford is the granddaughter of one of Wooster Rotary’s founders, William Harris? Also Doug Webb is the grandson of. Dr. Alonzo Smith. If any current Wooster Rotary members are related to any one of our 24 Founders, please let Ray Leisy know.