THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 19, 1995 TAG: 9503170188
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 208 lines
THE CITY'S small-town personality in the middle of one of the nation's metropolitan areas is no better illustrated than by the active presence of Portsmouth's two oldest service clubs, the Kiwanis Club and the Rotary Club.
Rotary passed its 75th anniversary in October 1993 and Kiwanis celebrated its 75th year this past January.
From their early beginnings, the two clubs have worked together to broaden the community base of support for many worthwhile activities.
Every year, the clubs share a meeting date to launch the annual United Way kickoff luncheon here. They both join with the Portsmouth branch of the Chamber of Commerce to sponsor Armed Forces Day. And they compete with each other to see who can donate the most blood to the American Red Cross, a competition that increases blood collections in the city.
The cooperative spirit goes back to 1921. That was the year Rotary established Boy Scouts in the city and enlisted the Kiwanis Club to help support the movement for three years. Among other things, the clubs paid to outfit a Scout Drum and Bugle Corps.
Both clubs have library projects with each member donating a book to the Portsmouth Public Library on his or her birthday. Thousands of volumes have been donated.
The United Way support goes back to 1978, when Portsmouth was the first in the region to have a service club sponsor a kickoff luncheon and still is the only city to have Rotary and Kiwanis participate together.
``It's very unusual, and I think it makes the United Way kickoff more important in Portsmouth,'' said Lisa Sands, who heads the local campaign office. ``Maybe the clubs here are just more community-minded, but it seems like they really want to do good work.''
Paul Stokley, 96, has been a member of the Kiwanis Club since 1932. Three years ago he was recognized for 58 years of perfect attendance. Although he hasn't made it every week recently, he was at Wednesday's meeting.
Asked why Kiwanis is important to him, he replied: ``Because everything is done for the community.
``It's clean-cut action for your city,'' he said.
The joint participation in the Armed Forces Day celebration has been going on for more than 20 years, said Lonny Staylor, executive director of the Portsmouth office of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.
``It's really an unusual presence in the community,'' Staylor said. It is rare to find any two groups willing to cooperate as well as the two old Portsmouth clubs, he said.
FOR YEARS, BOTH Rotary and Kiwanis were all white and all male.
First, in the early 1980s, both clubs began to admit black men. Then, following a court ruling that the clubs had to admit women, both groups were seeking female members in the late 1980s.
On July 23, 1987, Deborah M. DiCroce, then provost of Tidewater Community College's Portsmouth campus, was inducted into Rotary.
``We were hoping she would be the first woman in Virginia but somebody beat us by one day,'' Rotary president John Oast said. DiCroce, who no longer lives here, was the first female member in the district, however.
Currently, Rotary has four black members and 12 women in a total membership of 130. Kiwanis has two blacks and four women in a total membership of 98.
A.C. and Olivia Hinton, both now retired as school administrators, became the first couple to join one of the service clubs when they were inducted into Rotary.
``Most clubs need more young people, especially our club,'' Kiwanis president Charles Hudgins said. Hudgins, 40, said that few people now live and work Downtown. In addition, his club still meets for lunch while offspring clubs meet at different times: Churchland Kiwanis at 7:30 a.m. and Merrimac Kiwanis at 6:30 p.m.
``Things have changed a lot since the old days,'' Hudgins said. ``Years ago everybody lived and worked right here.''
Both clubs have families whose members traditionally join one group or another.
For instance, if not always, there have been few times when there was not an Oast in Rotary. Banker John Oast, the current president, is a brother of retired Circuit Court Judge William Oast Jr. who was president in 1963. Next year, lawyer Edward L. Oast Jr., cousin to John and William, will serve a term as president.
``I'm not sure there's always been in Oast in Rotary,'' Edward Oast said. ``But there have been Oasts there are long time.''
THE FIRST MEETING of the Rotary Club of Portsmouth was held Oct. 24, 1918, less than three weeks before the armistice of World War I at the offices of the Portsmouth Gas Co. in the 500 block of High St. The 24 charter members elected the late Edward W. Maupin Jr. as their first president.
Long before the city became involved in a Sister City relationship with Portsmouth, England, Rotarians from here were engaged in an exchange with their English counterparts.
It started in 1921 when a large delegation from here attended the Rotary International Convention in Edinburgh, Scotland. An inscribed set of resolutions and greetings was presented by the Virginia Portsmouthians to the English Portsmouthians.
In return, the English club sent a painting of the harbor of Portsmouth, England, signed by club officers and the municipal officers of the English city. Sixty-two years later, the painting was presented to the city in 1983 and today hangs in the sixth-floor lounge at City Hall.
In 1941, the club sent several hundred pounds of food and clothing to the war-stricken citizens of Portsmouth, England, on the English ship HMS Illustrious, which had been repaired at the Naval Shipyard here.
Rotary has an active student revolving loan fund started in 1927 with $100. Over the ensuing years, the club has made loans worth about $150,000 to about 150 young men and women. The fund assets now stand at more than $31,000.
The local Rotarians have continued over the years to be active in Rotary International's Program for Youth Exchange. Since 1956, members have hosted foreign graduate students from around the world for one-week visits here.
The club also has done its part to help underprivileged as well as handicapped youngsters.
In 1926, at the urging of the late Dr. Russell Cox, the club conducted a door-to-door survey to determine how many crippled children lived in Portsmouth. The club opened and operated a clinic for many years with the help of the late Dr. Foy Vann of Norfolk and a number of Portsmouth physicians. From 70 to 80 children were assisted each year with hospitalization, braces and crutches.
KIWANIS INTERNATIONAL WAS five years old in 1919, when a group of local business and professional men got together with the late Frank D. Lawrence to form a civic club. The group of 25 members was granted a charter by Kiwanis International in January 1920.
The first president was the late Rev. M.S. Poulson.
Interested in young people, the men first attempted to set up a revolving scholarship fund but never succeeded in making it a big success, club records indicate.
In 1926, club members conceived the idea of the ``Fresh Air Farm,'' a summer program for underprivileged children. The idea appealed to the community and that year the Portsmouth Choral Society's ``Hiawatha's Wedding Feast'' benefited the project.
Club members borrowed or rented property in Pughs, a wide place in the road between Churchland and Hodges Ferry, and 80 boys attended the first sessions. The project was a pioneer effort in Virginia, and the Kiwanis got a lot of publicity for it including a newspaper headline that called them ``Pwide-awake membership.''
In 1928, members were still searching for a permanent home when Richard Ivins lent the club a farm house and property fronting the Western Branch near Hodges Ferry for the ``Fresh Air Farm.'' In 1929, the club paid $10,000 for 10 acres in Pine Grove and built a cross-shaped structure that contained a dormitory for 60 boys, a living room, kitchen, dining hall and a rainy-day play area.
The children were given pre-session physical exams and even dental treatment by members of the Kiwanis who were doctors and dentists. Grocers and farmers provided food at cost to help stretch the Kiwanis budget and, according to records of the day, each child gained an average of more than five pounds during a two-week session.
Money for the Fresh Air Farm was raised primarily by ``Kiwanis Kapers,'' a variety show featuring local talent. It was staged at Woodrow Wilson High (later Harry Hunt Junior High that was demolished recently to make way for a new high school).
It ran three nights and the club usually netted about $1,000.
``That went a long way,'' said Van K. Heely, a retired dentist and a Kiwanis member. ``Remember, that was when a stamp for a first-class letter cost 2 cents.''
At the onset of World War II in 1941, the Kiwanis Club offered the Fresh Air Farm for ``emergencys of war'' and it was used as a rehab center for convalescing patients at the Portsmouth Naval Hospital.
Over the years, it also was used by the Girl Scouts, the Boy Scouts, the Hi-Y organization and the USO.
By 1952, few children were interested in the Fresh Air Farm and the club sold the property.
The building became the fellowship hall of Pinecrest Baptist Church.
``In 1977 I attended a reception in the building and I could hardly believe that this was the Fresh Air Farm I had visited with my father many years ago,'' Heely said. ``It was way, way out in the country back when the Kiwanis Club owned it.''
Although many of the pine trees still tower over the area, the building was demolished by the church to make way for a new brick structure.
In addition to the Kapers, Kiwanis also staged the Kiwanis Bazaar to raise money. It was held in a vacant store in the 300 block of High Street near where the Children's Museum of Virginia is now located.
Heely remembers the ``carnival atmosphere'' of the bazaar with a midway, exhibition booths and games of chance.
Most members of the club worked to set up the bazaar and one weekend years ago they were working feverishly to get the carnival ready to open on Monday.
A volunteer crew went in on Sunday afternoon to put the finishing touches on the exhibits. They all were arrested. It seems a club member had called city police to have them arrested for ``working on the Sabbath.''
Over the years, there have been very few projects in Portsmouth that have not received a boost from either the Kiwanis Club or the Rotary Club. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MARK MITCHELL
On the Cover: Kiwanis president Charles Hudgins and Rotary president
John Oast encourage a cooperative spirit between their clubs.
File photo
Kiwanis Club member E.Q. Heely stands beside a prize-winning parade
float in 1933. NRA stands for National Recovery Administration, an
agency created by Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of the New Deal
program.
File photo by JOE T. McCLENNY
Rotarian James A. Brown, left, stands with International Rotary Club
members Darko Ribnikar, Giovanni Riela and John Hackney. Adm. Brown
is a former commander of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth.
File photo
Kiwanis members and their wives celebrate the first anniversary of
the Portsmouth Kiwanis Club in 1921.
File photo by MARK MITCHELL
``It's clean-cut action for your city,'' says Paul Stokley of the
Kiwanis Club, which he joined in 1932.
by CNB