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JAMES H. F. ROTH IN ARGENTINA
1). Rotary Club of Concordia
On March 16 2008, the Concord Rotary Club celebrated its first 80th anniversary on 20th March, a plaque was erected in the House
of Friendship headquarters of the Rotary Club Concordia, located in 311 Hipólito Irigoyen Street of our city, in tribute to its
founder members.
We can relate that in March 1928 James H. Roth came to Concordia accompanied by Eng Donato gamin with the aim of founding in
this city a Rotary Club. James Roth was special representative of Rotary International and Don Donato Gamin, a member of the
Rotary Club of Montevideo and Governor of Rotary district Nro. 63.
This District covering the republics of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay and Don Donato gamin was its first governor.
At that time, there were very few Rotary Clubs in the three republics of the River Plate.
The oldest was the Rotary Club of Montevideo, founded in 1918, which was also the oldest in South America.
Montevideo was followed by: Buenos Aires, Rosario, La Plata, Cordoba, Bahia Blanca, Mendoza, Asuncion of Paraguay, Santa Fe and Concordia.
That is to say that there were only nine Rotary Clubs in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay at the time Roth organised the Rotary Club
of Concordia.
In order to shape the Concord Rotary Club three preparatory meetings were held at the facilities of the Centre for Trade and
Industry in our city during 16, 20 and 22 March 1928.
During the same was convened a group of 21 associates and Mr. Roth and gamin made presentations on the purpose and objectives of
Rotary and proposed the creation of a Rotary Club in our city.
Having been very favourable reception in the initiative were the
next steps.
Roth was responsible for drafting a statute and regulations, which were approved unanimously on 22nd March.
On this same occasion 19 members agreed to be the
foundation members of the club -
July Barbieri, John Baumgartner, Paul R. Bertoni, Carlos Castagno, Carlos De Donatis,
Antonio Fonseca, Enrique Galván, Honorio Labeque, Alfredo P. Little,
Ernesto C. Noble,
Moses Ortelli, Martin F. Petre, Sebastián San Román, Jorge C.
Robinson, John Raggio,
Pedro Sauré, Federico Schreiber,
Jose Miguel Serrichio Ravasio.
It was subsequently elected the steering committee, which was chaired by Mr. Sebastián San Román.
The first formal meeting took place on March 23, 1928 in the halls of Hotel Concordia (later known as Queen Hotel but since
disappeared) in Buenos Aires street.
The Concord Rotary Club has performed in the community with fruitful actions.
The club has continued to honour their initiatives, born in the bosom of this entity, and implemented in positive reality in
80 years of life.
For this reason, who come together today to celebrate and to remind us of those 19 men from our community who in 1928, dedicated
our club to pursue the Rotarian goals to begin to travel this road of peace, friendship and tolerance.
Michael Oliveri,
President Rotary Club of Concordia
This
report was extracted and edited from a Google translation of a letter to the Editor dated 17 March 2008 appearing in
the “Diaro El Heraldo” newspaper of Argentina.
2). The Rotary Club of Bahai Blanca.
One of Argentina's
oldest clubs, this club was founded on December 20, 1927 and since then, has performed admirably within its community.
Originally, a small group of friends keen to support their local community met with the intention of forming the sixth club in
Argentina.
The constituent meeting took place in the hotel Central Muniz at which the first committee was appointed:- president - Dr.Francisco
Cervini; Marseillan engineer Francis - vice president; Prudencio Cornejo - secretary; Norman Geddes - treasurer. Other
committee members were Adelino Gutierrez, Enrique Julio, Francisco Novaro, Charles Richards, Alberto G. Serigós, Julio B. July B.
Simón, Rafael Huergo, Antonio Muniz, Enrique Gonzalez, Justo Burbridge, Ramon Olaciregui, Aristóbulo Barrionuevo, Aureliano Molina,
Pius Frascaroli, Adriano Pillado and Edgar J. Aaron Nijamkin Stockman.
Cupertino Alfredo del Campo and Colman, president and vice president respectively of the Rotary Club of Buenos Aires attended the
meeting, while Mr James Roth attended in an official capacity as the delegate of Rotary International.
Over the 75 years of life, the Rotary Club Bahia Blanca has actively supported its local community with projects designed to
maintain its position in society.
The club was responsible for the establishment of the "Rehabilitation Institute of Lisi" and the associated "Aid to
Diabetics" being inspired and coordinated by its members.
The club has sponsored several scholarships for young students with assistance from from the Rotary Foundation and also hosted
several Youth Exchange programs.
In conjunction with other Rotary clubs in their city a pavilion in the "House of Elder Adelino Gutierrez" was built to
commerorate the name of one of our founding members.
Only a short time before celebrating its own 80th anniversary, its president Dr. Ramon Ayala Torales opened the festivities to
commemorate Rotary International's own 100 year celebrations.
acknowledgement to all club members for providing access to the information.
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