Hat Rotary Club celebrating 100 years

By Mo Cranker on June 2, 2018.

mcranker@medicinehatnews.com @MHNmocranker

Canada may have celebrated its 150th birthday last year, but 2018 marked a special anniversary for the Rotary Club of Medicine Hat.

The group has been active since 1918, with its first project being the cenotaph in Riverside Veterans’ Memorial Park. Since then the Rotary Club has taken on countless projects, both big and small, all in an attempt to make Medicine Hat a better place.

“One-hundred years is a big milestone,” said president Karen Blewett. “We have a centennial celebration happening on June 8, and that is a dinner celebration at the Medicine Hat Lodge.

“At that we’re going to show some highlights of our 100 years during dinner. Then Monday coming up will kick off Rotary Week in the city. For that week we’ll do some random acts of kindness around town, all going along with our motto of ‘service above self.'”

On top of all that, the local rotary club is planning on getting a park set up in Dunmore that will feature 100 trees.

“Right now it’s still in the works,” said rotary member Chris Perret. “We’re working with council to make sure this park, if it gets done, is done right.

“We want to make a really nice place that we can look back and be proud of, and we want to give people a place they can spend some time doing fun things. As the trails continue to evolve and get bigger, Dunmore can be connected to Medicine Hat and Redcliff through the trail system.”

While many groups and traditions don’t make it to the century mark, Blewett says the strength of Rotary comes from a group of people that wants to do a collective good in the community.

“Everything we do centres around community need,” she said. “If you look back at the cenotaph, we raised a lot of money back in 1918 in three days and helped make that project happen.

“When the community needs something, we can help, that’s why we’re here, and it’s what we’re passionate about.”

For more information on the group go to, http://www.medicinehatrotary.com

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