West Bend, Wi – A milestone for the West Bend Noon Rotary Club which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. The organization which pledges “service above self” has a fantastic history in West Bend, Wi, which included popular events like Seafood Fest, the Fish Boil, and Riverfest, followed by donations to help eradicate polio, scholarships, and providing a solar kitchen to people in Haiti.
The video highlights Seafood Fest and the Bob Cross Run, which joined forces in 1996. Some of the very young Rotarians include Glenn Grothman, Jacci Gambucci, Tom Bast, and John Hafeman. Who else can you identify?
Seafood Fest featured high school choral groups and big band music for dancing. There was trout fishing for kids, craft show vendor booths, Mother Goose story hour, and tokens were needed to purchase food and drink.
Seafood Fest featured huge white tents on N. Main Street at Regner Park. Live lobster shipped in from Maine was served with Russett potatoes, corn on the cob, bibs and plenty of butter.
Some of the familiar volunteers included Ken Pesch on garbage duty, and Nancy and Jerry Mehring in the serving tent,
Rotary members over the years included Alan Kieckhafer, Laura Buck, Jacci Gambucci, Ken Pesch, Barb Justman, Fred Yahr, Chris Chlupp, Nancy and Jerry Mehring.
The history of the West Bend Noon Rotary was documented below by Peter German.
Frank W. Bucklin, West Bend Noon Rotary First President 1925-1926
The Rotary Club of West Bend was organized Thursday, April 30, 1925. The Hartford Rotary Club sponsored the West Bend Rotary Club, and 17 Hartford Rotarians assisted in the organization.
The West Bend Pilot at the time reported the club would begin with a charter of 20 members and was created to be active in the betterment of business, city and state and will follow a good constructive program.
Rules at the time stated only one member representative was allowed from each business, profession or manufacturing plant in the West Bend area.
The club met once a week every Wednesday at noon. The Officers who were elected are as follows:
President – Frank W. Bucklin
Vice President – Bernard C. Ziegler
Secretary – Henry O. Regner
Treasurer – Louis Kuelthau
Directors – Arthur Klumb, Robert Rolfs & Charles Walter
A story from Around the Bend from August 10, 2013.
A tidbit from the Around the Bend column from April 29, 2014.
In 2014, due to a lack of volunteers, the Rotary changed the name of Seafood Fest to Riverfest. In April 2014 the Rotary held its monthly meeting at Jumbo’s and owner Jeff Kern gave a little speech but got tongue tied when he initially referred to the festival as the old Seafood Fest then over corrected to Riverfest and ended up saying Reefer Fest. That comment was met with a lot of wide-eyed senior Rotarians. Younger Rotarians thought if they hosted that sort of event, they would crush previous attendance records and ‘no doubt’ everyone would have a good time.
west-bend-rotary-club-formedMembers of the Noon Rotary will gather this noon in West Bend, WI, to celebrate their anniversary.
