Serving the Community of Steamboat Springs
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History of Our Club

The Steamboat Springs Rotary Club received its charter on August 10, 1974 with 26 members, under the sponsorship of the Fort Collins Rotary Club.   The club met at The Holiday Inn for the first two years.  Many of the original members were former Rotarians from other areas.  Early in its existence members chose to meet at breakfast.

Founding members included: John Ahern, Thomas Allen, Michael Barry, Jack Black, Gene Cook (Board Member), Donald Conboy, Bill Gardener (Vice President), Jim Golden (President), Alfred Grinkewich, Glen Jones, Reed Keller, Don Kincaid (Board Member), Thomas Lee (Treasurer), Daries Lile (Sergeant at Arms), Lloyd Lockhart (Secretary), Tyrone Lockhart,  James Nelson, Dubois Nichols, Allen Ratcliffe Jr., Mcpherson Raymond, W.E. Rorex, Royce Schipper, John Sherrill, Dr. J.A. Utterback, Porter Waterman and John Wilkerson (Board Member).

In the early days, recruiting members who represented various business sectors in the community was an important goal to maintain diversity in the club, and meet the requirements of Rotary International.  Member classifications were strictly adhered to, with no duplication of business or professional sectors among members.  This created problems for the club because of the limited number of classifications provided by R.I.  Our club modified these classifications into sub categories that allowed the club to grow and prosper in a diverse manner. (Years later Rotary International dramatically liberalized the classification policy to allow up to 10 percent of a club’s total membership in any given business or profession.)

Another dramatic policy change occurred in 1989 when women were allowed to join Rotary clubs.  Rita Valentine became the first female Steamboat Springs Rotarian and Cyndi Simms served as the first female president in 1989-90.   Today, nearly 40% of our Rotary Club of Steamboat Springs members are women.

Since its inception our club has played an active role in community projects and activities.  Past and current events include:

  • Fourth of July rodeo and parade
  • Benefit auctions and fund-raising for Horizon’s Child and Family Services
  • Concessions at Steamboat’s Vintage Auto Races
  • 1976 Winter Special Olympics
  • An annual dinner dance and fund-raising raffle called “Tango and Cash”
  • Holiday Season Bell Ringing with proceeds to senior citizen organizations
  • Creation of Rotary Park on the Yampa River
  • Construction of the Rotary Park handicap accessible boardwalk
  • Collection and distribution of 40,000 hard-cover books to flood-ravaged libraries in Houma, LA.
  • Co-sponsorship of an annual Ski Town USA Golf Classic that has raised nearly $1 million for the Yampa Valley Medical Center and the Steamboat Springs Rotary Club Endowment.
  • The Rotary Community Barn Dance held in September
  • The club organized 400 community volunteers in 2008 to build and install handicatpped accessible playgrounds at two local elementary schools.

Our club sponsored the new Craig Rotary Club in 1982.   In 2005 our club sponsored The Ski Town Rotary Club, making it the second club in Steamboat Springs.

The Rotary Club of Steamboat Springs formed a Rotary Interact Club in 2007.  The Interact Club received its charter from Rotary’s District Governor in 2008.   Interact members include high school students from all grades who meet weekly under the guidance of Rotary Club advisors and perform one community and one international project each year. Interact students traveled to Mexico in 2010 to deliver holiday gifts to more than 100 orphans.