Grand Opening of Historical Rotary Office

Posted by Kevin Webb on Aug 06, 2017
Historical Rotary Office Opened at Fanshawe Pioneer Village
Saturday August 7th was the perfect day - sunny with some cloud and not too hot - for the grand opening of Fanshawe Pioneer Village's new storefront attraction that includes a Rotary office modeled after Paul Harris's office in Chicago circa 1917; a tinshop; and, new boardwalk connecting the Rotary office with the general store and print shop.  Our club was well represented with several members in attendance, which is appropriate because we launched this initiative.
 
The Rest of the Story:
It was the fall of 2012 and Kevin Webb was taking a Boards and Governance course at Western University Continuing Education towards his certificate in Not For Profit Management.  One of the requirements of this course was to attend 2 organizational board meetings. As the 2 organizations he selected the Canadian Rotary Collaboration for International Development and Fanshawe Pioneer Village (FPV).  Kevin met with the Executive Director of FPB, Sheila Johnson, to determine where and when the Board would meet and what would be discussed.  She mentioned that they were changing the era parameters for the village from 1820 to 1920 to 1820 to 1920.  
Kevin worked with PRID John Eberhard of the Rotary Club of London and he had recently mentioned that his club was starting to plan its Centennial for 2015.  They had a lot of artifacts from the club's early days and were seeking a home.  This seemed to be a perfect match.  Kevin spoke John and sent the following email to Sheila Johnson: 
 

From: KWebb [mailto:kwebb@crcid.org]
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2012 4:02 PM
To: 'sjohnson@fanshawepioneervillage.ca'
Cc: 'eberhard@uwo.ca'
Subject: Rotary Club of London 100 Year anniversary - 1915 to 2015

 

Good Afternoon Sheila:
Thank you for meeting with me this morning to discuss next week’s board meeting. 

 

I have followed up with the Rotary club of London to determine when is their centennial: It is in 2015.  So, this is perfect as the date they were chartered was in 1915, which falls within your timeline mandate of 1820 – 1920.  This also provides you and the club nearly 2 years to discuss how to best showcase Rotary in the village.   John Eberhard, a member of the club’s centennial committee was quite excited about the possibilities of an exhibition in the new building and perhaps a permanent display in the village.  He will communicate this opportunity with the other members of the committee.

 

I have copied John on this email to facilitate direct communications between you.  He can also help arrange a presentation for you at one of  Rotary club of London’s meetings in the near future.    

 

See you Monday evening.

 

Yours sincerely,

The Rotary Club of London followed up with Fanshawe Pioneer Vilage and began working towards a temporary display of Rotary artifacts display in 2015 with the assistance of the curator (and now Executive Director) Shanna Dunlop.  Discussions were also held regarding the possibility of a permanent display with the artifacts housed in a historically accurate Rotary office.  FPV was just starting to work on its "Storefronts Capital Project" and it was felt this would be the perfect location for the Rotary office.  However, they needed to get the architectural drawings completed before they could start their community fundraising efforts.  However, they didn't have the allocated funds to get them done.  Enter the Rotary Club of London Hyde Park.

 

The RCLHP had started a fundraising event called "Afternoon Tea Social" with the first event held in 2013.  Kevin became the Chair of this fundraising event for 2014 and suggested we call it a "Victorian Spring Tea" and hold it at Fanshawe Pioneer Village.  This was held in May 2014 and was very successful.  Previous member John McDonald did the catering (and did a fantastic job); there was a fashion show; and, presentation on 19th century women's undergarments called "Victorian Secrets".  The audience was predominantly women and they were served by the men who were dressed as 19th century waiters.  This event raised around $5,000 with 50% going back to FPV.  With these funds they were able to complete the architectural drawings that truly kicked off their fundraising campaign for this project.

  The Historical Rotary Office

Signing the Guest Register

Myung-Joon; Myo; and, David Knoppert exiting Trinity Anglican Church @ Fanshawe Pioneer Village