Troy Kiwanis Club celebrates 100th anniversary

Published 8:14 pm Tuesday, June 14, 2022

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The Troy Kiwanis Clube received its charter on June 8, 1922 and will celebrate their 100th year anniversary in June 2022.  Kiwanis is an organization, international in scope, but passionately loyal to flay and country, state, city and community.  Its members meet weekly to promote business ethics, encourage friendships, to initiate and cooperate in civic betterment projects, create confidence, and help make the world better by improving themselves first.  Congratulations to the Troy Kiwanis Club on their 100 years of service to Pike County.  Below is from June 9, 1947 when Kiwanis Club celebrated their silver anniversary.

“The Troy Kiwanis Club will celebrate the silver anniversary of its organization tonight in an impressive and colorful program at the Troy Tavern Hotel.  One hundred and fifty members, ladies and guests are expected to attend this gala event.

The local civic unit was issued a charter on June 8, 1922.  The club had fifty charter members; of  this number only 25 survive.  Two of the present active members of the group were charter members.  These men are Auxford Sartain and George Panhorst.

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At present the club has an active membership of 60 men, and four military members.  Robert R. Harley is president of the club, the 26th member to hold this position since the charter was issued.   L. W. Watson is vice-president, and W. M. Anderson and Tony Cumuze are secretaries for the club.  Mr. Anderson has been the club’s efficient secretary for 16 years.

Tonight’s program will feature such distinguished speakers as Judge R. B. Carr, of the Alabama Court of Appeals; Ward McFarland, director of the Alabama Highway Department; and Raymond P. Wheeler, Governor of the Alabama Kiwanis District.

Toastmaster will be Prof. Auxford Sartain.

Within the past twenty-five or thirty years there has sprung up almost spontaneously over this country and others a group of organizations which bears the popular name of “Service Clubs.”  They meet a universal desire among a great many folks for a common ground for community service.  Unless they serve they have no justifiable reason for continued existence.

The Troy Kiwanis Club is proud of its twenty-five years of service to its community, its State and the Nation.  There has been no worthwhile project presented to the people of this town and county which has not had the whole-hearted support of the Kiwanis Club.  War bond drives, the U.S.O drives, Red Cross drives and every other worthy cause has had the unqualified support and assistance of the club as a whole and the help of its individual members.”

All of these articles can be found in previous editions of The Troy Messenger.  Stay tuned for more.  Dianne Smith is the President of the Pike County Historical, Genealogical and Preservation Society.