
April 20, 2017 · 0 Comments
CONGRATULATIONS to the Rotary Club of Orangeville on its completion of eight decades of service to the community.
Although obviously none of the club’s charter members have survived to celebrate the anniversary, there are some descendants in the current membership, one of them former Citizen publisher Alan Claridge, a great-grandson of T. K. Slack, who was Dufferin County’s sheriff in 1937 when the club was founded.
The local club these days is best-known for its success in operating Orangeville’s annual Ribfest, an operation that last summer produced thousands of dollars that went to support local charitable causes.
However, one of the Orangeville club’s first mission was an unusual one – acting as sponsors for the Rotary Club of Shelburne, which was launched in 1938 and whose charter members happened to include T. F. E. and Fred M. Claridge, Alan’s great-grandfather and grandfather, respectively.
As most of our readers know, the Shelburne club has been similarly successful, having founded the Canadian Open Championship Old Time Fiddlers Contest back in 1951, which continues today as an integral part of the town’s annual Heritage Festival.