Community Service and Projects
A membership campaign to establish the Chamber of Commerce enlisted the entire Rotary membership in the early years. When funds were lacking in the local Boy Scout movement, Youngstown Rotarians provided the funds and helped to keep that important work going. Throughout the past century and up through today, Rotarians have been leaders of and participants in almost every community funding initiative, including the Community Chest program (now United Way), the Red Cross, Salvation Army, the Polio Foundation with its March of Dimes, YMCA and YWCA building campaigns and programs, City Hospital drives, the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Camp Fire Girls, and the Mahoning County Society for Crippled Children.
In 1968, Youngstown Rotary established the Boys Club of Youngstown, now known as The Boys & Girls Club of Youngstown. In recent years, the Club maintained its focus on youth by establishing the “Put Kids First” Initiative to support the Youngstown Public Schools. This effort led to the adoption of Harding Elementary School on Youngstown’s North Side. At Harding, Rotary established an award-winning mentoring program and led the effort to build a $100,000 playground in conjunction with the construction of a new school building.
The Rotary Club of Youngstown undertook our most ambitious project to-date during our Centennial year in 2015. Partnering with the City of Youngstown’s Parks Department and Youngstown CityScape, the Club raised over $350,000 from local foundations and businesses, the Youngstown Rotary Foundation, and individual members to renovate the picnic pavilion and community gathering room in Wick Park on Youngstown’s north side. Our Club and the City rededicated the facility in 2018 upon completion of the first major renovation to it since it opened more than 60 years earlier.