Waggener High School - RingBrothersHistory.com

The Voice of St. Matthews, July 16, 1959:Civic, fraternal and veterans groups enrich community lifeBy Jinny McMichael (60): The clubs in the st. Matthews area are of every variety.Civic, fraternhal and veterans groupsThere are the service clubs like the Jaycees, the Rotary, the Lions, the Kiwanis, and the Optimists; the political clubs likethe Republican Woman’s Club, and the greater St. Matthews Democratic Club; the woman’s clubs, such as the Suburbanettes,the Younger Woman’s Club, and the Woman’s Club, and the fraternal lodges such as the Elks, and Eagles, andthe High Twelve, and the veteran's such as the V.F.W., the Amvets, and the Zachary Taylor American Legion Post.Many of them have been organized and most of them have grown and expanded and performed valuable services for thearea in the past 10 years.The St. Matthews Junior Chamber of Commerce was organized in March 1955, with Jim Cottingham, president in spite ofa mere four years of existence, they have done immeasurable good in the community, and have won recognition in both thestate and nation.The Jaycees collected $2,300 in one evening for the Cerebral Palsy Fund Drive; they annually sponsor the “Miss CountyFair” contest, and each year at Christmas they have sponsored the Mile of Dimes, with money being donated to underprivilegedchildren.They have sponsored Road-E-O’s each year to promote safe driving among high school students. They collected with otherclubs more than a million items of clothing and 50,000 pounds of food in Jefferson County for the food-stricken southeasternKentucky area in 1957.They sponsored a Seminar on Metropolitan Government on December 3, 1958, collected money and books for the SidneyEline Memorial Library, got a traffic light put in at LaGrange and Whipps Mill Roads, helped to establish an 18-acre parkon Hounz Lane, raised $2,200 via the Mile of Dimes for orphaned children in 1958, sponsored a Soap Box Derby in 1957,and sponsored Dollar Days to boost business in St. Matthews.The Jaycees newspaper; “The Projector” was begun in November 1955, with C. Roger Gernert as editor. The paper wasnamed the best of the Jaycees papers in the nation in 1957, and the Soap Box Derby was named the second best project of1957.But 1958 was the prizewinning year for the Jaycees. With D. B. Murrell heading the organization it won six state prizes atthe convention in April and was named the outstanding club in its class in the nation in June. The paper was named secondbest in the nation under the editorship of Herb Burnett. Sammie Lee is the president of 1959.The St. Matthews Rotary Club is 18 years old, having been organized in 1941 with 22 members. Charles W. Owens waselected the first president. There are four areas of service; club service, vocational service, community service, and internationalservice.The Rotarians led the 1951 program to improve St. Matthews traffic condition, took a leading part in revamping the ratestructure of the St. Matthews Sewer District in 1951, an in 1950 originated the idea of “Go Hungry for Hungary,” and heldbanquets with no food while the price of the plate went to Hungary to feed the starving. The idea spread well.In 1958, the club pledged $500 to the new St. Matthews Library. Other projects include the annual Courtesy Contest, thePotato Festival, Boy Scouts, Red Cross, Y.M.C.A., blood donations, crippled children traffic surveys, and a memorial forthe war dead.Only one person per profession may belong to the rotary, and it is his duty to improve business ethics by applying this fourwaytest: 1. Is it the truth? 2. Is it fair to all concerned? 3. Will it build good will and better friendships? 4. It is beneficialto all concerned?The motto is “Service Above Self.” The National Organization of Rotarians celebrate its Golden Anniversary in 1955.Owen Pillans took office as president July 1.The St. Matthews Lions Club was established February 2, 1950, with charter members. Dr. J. Charles Ray was the firstpresident. The club nearly collapsed when it insisted on meeting weekly, but changed it to twice monthly, which proved tobe the salvation of the club.The projects include sight conservation, spastics, annual Christmas baskets, the Community Center’s 14-acre playground,the library, crippled children, two seeing eye dogs. They helped send Eastern High band to President Eisenhower’s InauguralParade in 1957.The Lions also purchased a motion picture and sound projector for the Muscular Dystrophy Clinic at St. Anthony Hospital,donated $9,100 to the St. Matthews Library, sent $800 to the flood-stricken area in Kentucky in 1957, sponsored the Harrod’sCreek Lions Club, gave St. Matthews seven waste cans to keep the streets clean, granted a $250 scholarship to EasternHigh student, Benny Fryrear n 1955, built a ramp on a crippled boys front porch so he could get in and out of his home,and began plans on a huge swimming pool project, but were forced to drop it because of zoning opposition.