Port Huron Rotary History
Updated: Jun 17, 2022
Thanks to former member Ed Weichsler for providing the following. Ed is the Project Manager for the Blue Water Fallen Heroes Banner Project. Current PH Rotary Membership Chair Liz Sawielski received this information via her role as Marketing & Outreach Coordinator of our local Veterans Affairs.
Port Huron Rotary "was the very first organization to recognize County GI sacrifices. Image #1 is the end cap of the monument in Pine Grove Park. It was originally dedicated in front of what is now the Federal building. It was then moved to the site now occupied by the MOC, then moved to its current location in the Park.
Images 2 - 5 are of an actual program from the day the monument was commemorated, July 3RD, 1943.
Program images courtesy of Charles A Hammond, Post 8 American Legion Archives.
One could make a case that (with the Banner Project), Rotary is just continuing a service that 'We Leave No One Behind'."
Reading about the Port Huron Rotary really took me back to the summer I spent with my grandparents when I was ten. They lived just a few blocks from the old rotary, and every evening we’d walk down to the waterfront, watching the traffic circle spin while the sun painted the river pink. I remember the wooden benches that used to line the park, the smell of fresh popcorn from the nearby stand, and the sound of the ferry horns echoing across the water. My grandfather would point out the historic plaques and tell stories about how the rotary had been a hub for community events, from wartime rallies to summer festivals. Those memories made the rotary feel like a…