Crescenta-Cañada Rotary: 1940-2016

The Crescenta-Cañada Rotary has helped the community for 76 years, leaving it a million dollars richer.

The World War II Years:

Members took turns standing watch for enemy aircraft that may have been off course in the hills above La Crescenta and held a successful war drive to help purchase an airplane. This contribution resulted in a bomber being named the Crescenta-Cañada (fate unknown). They also manned a canteen at Union Station to show their appreciation to the troops.

In 1947, they were a sponsor for the annual rodeo held at Onondarka Ranch to benefit the War Memorial Fund.

Over the years:

Pancake breakfasts, raffles, and creative money management allowed them to turn dreams into accomplishments. They sponsored youth groups and raised money for an organ for Crescenta Valley High School and gave several scholarships to the middle schools and high schools in the area ($250,000). Their annual variety shows were sold out. They remodeled a foreclosed home, involving vocational students from CVHS. Several of those students went on to work in trades from the training they received. More recently they gave grants to teachers, called “Helping Hand for Teachers,” to purchase supplies.

They purchased an emergency trailer for the Valley Disaster Corp, later known as Montrose Search & Rescue, and a resuscitator for the CV Sheriff’s Station.

Polio:

Rotary helped immunize more than 2.5 billion children against polio in 122 countries. Locally, at the height of the polio epidemic, the Crescenta Valley Rotary raised funds and purchased an iron lung for a family that could not afford it.

The iron lung was donated to Rancho Los Amigos Hospital, which in turn donated it to a deserving polio patient. (This was not the home at the corner of Prospect and La Crescenta avenues, but that was the inspiration for the project.) The iron lung cost $1,600 (’52-’53) and a comment was made, “$1,600 just doesn’t buy what it did in the ’40s.”

In 1995 Gordon Bonetto wrote, “Those founding members in 1940 would be proud of the resilience of the membership that followed them. The mark of Crescenta-Cañada Rotary has been left on this community and may those who follow us as members add the rich tradition that has been handled down since 1940.” You did leave a mark, #701.

We hope you will join us at our Jan. 18 mixer hosted by Wells Fargo Bank, 3200 Foothill Blvd., in La Crescenta. Admission will be free and chamber members present have a chance to win the $675 jackpot.

  jean maluccio