This month the Rotary Club of Hattiesburg celebrates its 100 Year Anniversary! Our club presently has 90 active members engaged in projects that include, but are not limited to, education and literacy, hunger eradication, community improvement, clean water, and polio relief.
When the future Hattiesburg Club members submitted their application in February 1918, it declared that there were (1) 25 members at that time; (2) the population of Hattiesburg was 20,000 (a slight exaggeration); (3) 15 to 20 manufacturing plants in the city; (4) approximately 150 retail stores; (5) place of meetings, Kings Daughters Cafeteria (Old Methodist Hospital).
The International Association of Rotary Clubs (it would not become Rotary International until 1922) granted our charter March 1, 1918, as Club No. 366. Rotary International is now in its 114th year and is comprised of over 1.2 million members comprising 31,000 clubs worldwide making it the largest service organization in the world.
In District 6840, we are preceded by the Rotary Club of New Orleans (Club #12, February 1910). It the State of Mississippi, we are preceded by Rotary Club of Jackson (April 1, 1915, Club #144) and Rotary Club of Meridian (February 1916, Club #202).