Celebrating 100 Years!
on May 5, 2025
The Rotary Club of Center was chartered in 1925! One Hundred years of history helping the community!
On May 5, 1925, fifteen Center business and professional men met at the Polley Hotel in Center to discuss plans to form a Rotary Club. Nacogdoches Club and their special representative, Eugene H. Blount, and District 13 Governor Harry H. Rogers, the organizational meeting resulted in electing R.S. Sanders as the Center Club's first president; J.C. Hurst, vice-president; W.W. Mayes, secretary and treasurer; and M.H. Voss, sergeant at arms; W.C. Windham, board member. Charter members: J.C. Blake, C.E. Hall, T.L. Hurst, O.F. Metz, F.E. Parker, Roy Payne, W.J. Rogers, S.H. Sanders, L.C. Smith, and M.M. Weaver.
On May 26, 1925, Rotary Club of Center was admitted to membership in Rotary International!
The Rotary Club partners with the Shelby County Chamber of Commerce to host the East Texas Poultry Festival Chicken Trot 5K annually in October! Proceeds benefit the club which go back into the community. In 2023 the club utilized matched funds from District 5910 to install ADA playground equipment at Portacool Park. In 2024 the club used matching district funds to replace the carpet in the Redditt Room of the Fannie Brown Booth Memorial Library.