The date of our club's charter
night was November 28th 1962. The club came into
being out of a chance meeting in the old Melody Lane
Restaurant on Grand Ave. between the man who became
the club's first president, Dennis A. Sachs, and
Bill Craig of the Wickenburg Rotary Club. Rotary
District 5490 Governor Orin Crandall of Arizona
Public Service was also very helpful in getting the
club started. At the time, Sun City had only about
4000 residents. In the 1960's and 1970's, with the
rapid growth of the Sun City communities, the young
Rotary Club grew quickly. Our original membership on
our Charter Night was 52, with that number soon to
be over 100.
As our area
continued to grow, our club was happy to sponsor
four new local clubs. The first one was the Lakeview
Rotary Club in 1971 (which merged with its sponsor
in 1998), then Del Sol Rotary Club in 1977, followed
by Sun City West Rotary Club in 1982. The Sun City
West club's charter was presented to it by Leyton
Woolf who was a member of our club at the time and
was District Governor. In 1985, our club sponsored
the Peoria Rotary Club, with our member Andy Germond
instrumental in its formation. With this backround
of our club's helping hand in getting these new
clubs started, we are glad to call ourselves "The
First Rotary Club of Sun City".
The Club founded
its own Foundation in 1968. The Sun City-Youngtown
Rotary Foundations funds some of the club's service
projects and provides grants to local charities out
of its income. In the 2006-07 Rotary year, 13 grants
totalling $40,000 were awarded to local
organizations.
Our youth programs
include sponsoring the largest and most active
Interact Club at Washington High School, monthly
student leadership awards and library donations for
Kingswood Elementary in Surprise. The Club has built
several school libraries in Rocky Point, Mexico.