General
March 20, 1922	Inaugural banquet at Town Hall. 22 Charter members representing many different occupations. The first President was the Manager of a Felt Factory. 105 Rotarians were present.
May 18, 1922	Charter Night at Town Hall. Club sponsored by Oshawa Club. Charter presented by Dist. Gov. who lived in New York. 150 Rotarians were present.

Over the years we have carried out a number of smaller project in the Community in addition to providing financial assistance for many projects. Some of our larger
donations were:

• 62/63 - $15,000 to Port Hope Hospital Fund.
• 74/75 - $25,000 to Five Countries Crippled Children's Center - Peterborough.
• 77/78 - $25,000 to Jack Burger Sports Center.
• 80/84 - $18,000 to Simcoe Hall in Oshawa Crippled Children's Center.
• 89/90 - $29,600 bought Stress Testing Machine for Port Hope Hospital.

The projects we are currently intending to contribute to include the new N.H.C.C. Hospital, the new Port Hope Library, the Community Center in the Agricultural Park and the Capitol Theatre, as funds become available.

In addition to our Easter Seal work with physically handicapped children, we have a fund that allows us to assist many other Special Needs children within fairly broad guidelines. This fund began with a donation from a gentleman living in Cavan Township, who on his death, bequeathed his entire estate to our Rotary Club for our use with handicapped children. This fund has grown very well over the last 21 years and allows us to assist special needs children in many ways that Easter Seal funds are not able to.

In 1988 our club organized and started a transportation system for the handicapped and frail elderly residents of Port Hope. We first carried out a needs study and determined that there were well over 200 individual requiring transportation assistance and 50 to 100 of them were confined to wheelchairs. The van was purchased with a grant from the local branch of the Red Cross and the service began under the direction of a committee chaired by Rotarians and including representatives from the Town and the Red Cross. Our club picked up the whole deficit of the first year, one-half of the second year and one-quarter in the third year. A Rotarian remained as a director for about five years thereafter. The service is still operating and doing a commendable job.

A few of our larger donations:

• 73/74 - Purchased van for Teachers College in Jamaica.
• 79/80 - After Sir Edmond Hillary spoke to our club we donated money for a bridge in Nepal.
• 83/84 - Supported Murray Dryden's "Sleeping Children Around the World".
• 85/86 - Collected a truckload of toys for children in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
• 88/89 - Polio Plus - $13,000.
• Project Lifeline - $12,500.

We have made many more smaller donations to:

Balkan Refugees - 1991/92
Wells in India - $8,000 - 1993/94
Clothes for Bosnian Relief
Artificial Limb project in India

Fundraising Projects

The major fundraising projects in the middle to late 1920's were Minstrel Shows put on by the Rotarians themselves and the annual Street Fairs.

There have been many and varied fundraising projects since then - some of which were:

• Travelogues - held in the Capitol Theatre.
• Pancake House - held during Olde Tyme Christmas.
• Snowmobilathons - for many years.
• Raffles - for cars, television, holiday trips, etc.
• Sponsored Wintario draw at High School.
• Sponsored "Mr. Dressup" and "Polka Dot Door" at High School.
• Sold peanuts door-to-door at Christmas.
• Fish Derby - sold tickets and counted rainbow trout.
• Charity golf tournaments.
• Food booth at Fall Fair.
• Trade Fair at Sports Complex.
• Fashion Shows - for Easter Seals and Cancer Society.
• Jazz Festival - at Legion.
• 500 Club Tickets - in 1964 it was renamed from 150 club to the 200 club.

Our Major project at the present is the Gala and paving stone project at Rotary Park.

Fellowship Projects

Inter-City meetings began in 1923, shortly after the club was formed. In that year they held meetings with Cobourg, Oshawa, Peterborough and Belleville.

Other fellowship projects over the years included:

Inter-Club

• Golf tournaments.
• Curling Bonspiels - With Cobourg since 1982.
• Bowling Tournaments.
• Lob-ball tournaments.

Within our Club

• Car rallies.
• Lawn Bowling.
• Family picnics.
• Baseball games - Blue Jays.

In 1977 a busload of Rotarians (and wives) from our club went to Grande-Mere, Quebec for the weekend as guests of their Rotary Club. The following year they sent 20 people to Port Hope as our guests.

One year we sent a curling team (with wives) to Ste. Margariet, Quebec to compete in a Rotary bonspiel that included teams from Toronto and New York State.

Rural Urban Night

Probably our best fellowship project and certainly our longest continuing one is our Rural-Urban Night.

The first one was on Feb. 19, 1926 at the Queen's Hotel in Port Hope. They were held there until 1929 when the first one was held at Canton - probably in the United Church. They have been at Canton ever since.

They are a great opportunity for Rotarians and Hope Township people to get together for a sumptuous meal and listen to some great speakers. The program is arranged by Rotarians one year and by the Farmers the next.

Some notes from past years:

• 1943 - The dinner cost $1.00 and they ate 11 geese, Smokes were
  provided for all.
• 1945 - They served 127 pounds of turkey - still $1.00.
• 1947 - Roads nearly blocked with snow. There were 70 Farmers and 43
  Rotarians present.
• 1979 - Celebrated the 50th anniversary of dinners at Canton. A lady whistler provided entertainment.

Over the years there have been many interesting speakers.

• 1960 - Prof. Rice from U of T spoke of his visit to Russia.
• 1989 - Ben Olds from Michigan - a photographer who spoke of his trip to the North Pole.
• 1996 - Tom Davis - a humorist from Peterborough.

Many of the speakers were local dignitaries and people with special talents, stories, visits, etc.