Johnson City Sertoma Club PO Box 774 Johnson City, NY 13790
For more than nine decades, mankind has been served by a special family of volunteers, originally known as Co-Operators, and now as Sertomans. Each member of this organization can take pride in the colorful history of the Co-Operative Club International and Sertoma International. This history is based upon information gleaned from old SERTOMAN and THE CO-OPERATOR magazines on file at Sertoma Headquarters. These highlights occurred from the day the first Club was founded as the Co-Operative Club to present day Sertoma International activities.
The first official luncheon meeting of the founding Club was held on April 11, 1912, at the Coates House Hotel, then the fashionable hotel in Kansas City, Missouri. The founders of the first Co-Operative Club were George W. Smith, M.D., Charles E. Allen, M.D. and William R. Rowe. These three men are now recognized as the Founding Fathers of The Co-Operator Club of Kansas City, Missouri, and of Sertoma International.
In December 1920, Edward G. Freed, then President of the Kansas City Club, invited representatives from other clubs to meet together to consider forming an organization. Representatives from the Wichita, Manhattan, and Topeka, Kansas Clubs, and the Kansas City Club attended. The International organization was immediately formed, and Freed was elected the first International President.
On June 21, 1921, the first convention was held in Kansas City. Attending were 32 delegates representing six Clubs: Kansas City, Topeka, Manhattan, St. Louis, Chicago and Omaha. James P. "Daddy" Summerville, Charter President of the Kansas City, Missouri Club, was elected the second International President.
The Co-Operettes had its beginning in 1923 when the wives of the Members of the Co-Operative Club of Manhattan, Kansas, organized the first auxiliary, called the "Co-Op Lassies". In 1928, the Co-Operettes became a national organization.
Radio was used to promote the activities of the early Sertoma Club when Radio Station WHB in Kansas City - at that time one of the very few official government licensed broadcasting stations - offered the Club air time (the owner of Kansas City Station WHB, E.J. Sweeney, was a local member). This was another Sertoma "first".
"Make Life Worthwhile" was the slogan accepted by the organization in 1926. It was as good then as it is today.
The well-known Sugar Bowl classic in New Orleans had its beginning in Sertoma. In 1934 the New Orleans Club began this very successful project when former International Director Warren V. Miller introduced the resolution that the Club sponsor a football contest to be held in New Orleans during the Christmas holiday season. More...
