Service Above Self: Then and now – Back to the future

By Kitt Brand on December 24, 2024.

In the 1920s after only 15 years, Rotary was an international phenomenon having spread to the British Isles, Europe, Central and South America, Australia, Africa, and Asia. No Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram – only radio, telegraph, and paper correspondence to tell its story, promote its philosophy.

In Medicine Hat, Rotary spread as well. It immediately formed an enduring partnership with The Salvation Army. The groups’ alliance started in 1918 when they worked together on the Red Triangle Campaign to establish a YMCA in Medicine Hat. YMCA later became synonymous with swimming and water safety promotion important in a city with a river running through it. Rotary supports the YMCA still today with funding for life jackets.

How were funds for

the YMCA raised?

Club members gave half a day, or a day,to the cause. Their dedication was an offshoot of an overall focus on projects benefitting youth which started in the 1920s. Initially, a swimming area in Seven Persons Creek was created. That was followed two years later by the development and sponsorship of a Boys Camp in 1922, and Girls Camp in Elkwater in 1925. Rotary International (RI) recognized and acclaimed the impact of these youth initiatives, noting particularly that acts of juvenile delinquency dropped dramatically in Medicine Hat with the creation of safe swimming areas.

Medicine Hat Rotarians supported another successful and enduring Salvation Army (SA) tradition: Red Kettle Month. To this day, Medicine Hatters stop at the familiar red kettles where Rotarians and members of other service groups volunteer. The coins and silent bills donated during the holiday season stay right in the city to help with multiple SA programs. That’s a 106-year partnership doing good things in the community.

Yet in the 1920s and 1930s, there was something a bit unusual to be done by Medicine Hat Rotarians. Travel between Medicine Hat and Havre, Montana, was dangerous; roads were treacherous. A need? A Rotarian response. Members of Clubs on both sides of the border used their influence to get the roads improved, not grand highways, of course, but with passable and better surfaces. This international effort became the first of many to follow in the next 100 years.

At home, Medicine Hat Rotarians refocused their efforts for projects for youth and families. They created the Rotary Carnival which was a major fundraiser from 1922-1950. At it, some lucky person could win a car, others food hampers, blankets, and other practical gifts. The modern translation of this community attraction is The Medicine Hat Stampede. Yee-Haw!

When the Great Depression hit, Club members supplied families with food, assisted the unemployed, helped establish school meal programs, and kept kids busy with the Soap Box Derby.

That adventure gave youth skills and netted the Club enough funds to address the emerging Polio epidemic. Rotarians provided an iron lung for the hospital to help with the many cases of Infantile Paralysis in the region.

Scarcely was there a moment’s respite from dire community needs than WWII was upon the country in 1939 – more of Rotary in the war and post-war years to come in January’s column.