| DUNELLEN-GREEN BROOK ROTARY CLUB |
| HISTORY OF OUR CLUB |
DUNELLEN GREEN BROOK ROTARY CLUB 1923 - 2008 George W. Day and six other gentlemen, including George R. Bolmer, a past president of the Bound Brook Rotary Club, dined at the Eiseman Heights Inn in New Market on November 23, 1923. They discussed the forming of a Dunellen Rotary Club. It was unanimously agreed and at the next meeting of the group on December 20th, the Club was organized, a charter application was drafted and officers were elected. The Rotary International Charter was received January 10, 1924 at the Hotel Pines in Edison. Dunellen became Rotary Club Number 1580, of the 36th District Rotary International District. The Club's jurisdiction included Dunellen, Middlesex, Piscataway and Green Brook. George W. Day, who initiated the idea, became the first president, serving from 1923 to 1925. The charter members of the Dunellen Rotary Club were William Sauer, druggist; George Day, printer; Clarence Voorhees, butcher; Russell Runyon, undertaker; Henry Pfaff, innkeeper; William Wert, banker; Thomas Platt, surgeon; Walter Muller, business executive; Henry Garretson, coal dealer; Louis Churchill, civil engineer; Eugene Smalley, hardware store owner; George Zink, baker; Ernest Brown, minister; Frank Aftley, asphalt dealer; John Park, plumber and John Fenner, real estate agent. Meetings were held at Eiseman Heights Inn until November 1925 when they were moved to the Hotel Chanette, now The Dunellen Hotel. Dunellen Rotary Club joined Borough officials in 1924 in successfully convincing the officials of the Art Color Printing Co. to construct their new plant in Dunellen. In 1927, the Club's meeting place was changed to the First Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall. The Ladies Aid Society and the Missionary Society prepared and served luncheons to the Rotarians for the next thirty-eight years. During that period the Rotary was involved with a number of projects. In 1938, resolutions were forwarded to the Central Railroad urging them to eliminate the grade crossings which had been responsible for several deaths and which had also impeded the development of the business district. It was 1955 before this goal became a reality. Dunellen Rotarians purchased $47,950 in bonds during the 1942 World War II Bond Drive. Rotary projects included construction of a grandstand, scoreboard and refreshment stand in Columbia Park during the 1950's. From 1965 to 2006, the Dunellen Rotary Club conducted their weekly luncheon meetings at the Green Valley Restaurant, now The Willows, in Green Brook. The Club sponsored a survey in 1968 that recommended that a one-story building be constructed to house the Dunellen Public Library. A major donation and car raffle benefited the Library Building Fund. Another building project that the Club assisted was the funding of two rooms at the Raritan Valley Hospital in Green Brook. In 1976, the Club's name was changed to the Dunellen-Green Brook Rotary Club with its jurisdiction confined to those two communities. For many years the Rotarians and their wives ran a Thrift Shop which was the major source of revenue for scholarships for students at Dunellen High School and Green Brook High School. Other annual fund-raisers included Art-on-the-Green, a Fashion Show, April Pasta Nights and an Antique Auto Show. Students, individuals and organizations have been the beneficiaries of the time, effort and talents of the members of the Club. To record all of the fund-raising activities, the social events and contributions which the Rotary Club has made to the welfare of the community over the past seventy-five years would be an extensive endeavor. Suffice it to say that the present membership of the Dunellen-Green Brook Rotary Club is committed to continuing the Rotary motto of "Service Above Self” into the twenty-first century. |