About Franklin Rotary
The History Of The Franklin Noon Rotary Club
The Franklin Noon Rotary Club was chartered on January 13, 1948 by Judge Jim Warren. Among the founding members were Dr. Harry Guffee, Rev. Henry Moberly, and Bill Miller. Sometime during the winter of 1949, the new Rotary Club began looking for a fund raising project. The idea for the Franklin Rodeo began to take form. After much work and prayer the first Rodeo was held in May 1950 and it was a great success. The Franklin Noon Rotary Club has been carrying on the tradition since that time. Every member of The Franklin Rotary Club has an assigned job and a key task in the production of the Rodeo.
Now celebrating six decades of service, the rodeo has raised over $2 million "bucks" with proceeds going to benefit everything from local high school bands to area medical schools. "For many years, the Franklin Noon Rotary Club gave scholarships to medical, dental and nursing schools," said long time Rotarian Jim Hayes. "That financial aid produced a number of good doctors, dentists, and nurses.
The Franklin Rodeo is held the third weekend in May each year at the Williamson County Ag/Expo Center just off I-65 at Exit 61 in Franklin, Tennessee.
What is Rotary?
Rotary International is the world's first service club organization, with more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary club members are volunteers who work locally, regionally, and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, promote peace, and eradicate polio under the motto Service Above Self.
The family of Rotary extends beyond individual Rotarians and Rotary clubs to include other service-minded people who help with the organization's work. Groups such as Rotaract, Interact, and Rotary Community Corps serve side by side with sponsor clubs, using their diverse skills to improve the quality of life in their communities.
As part of this 501(3)c organization, the Franklin Rotary Club at Noon has been instrumental in distributing over $2,000,000 to local charities and scholarship programs during its 61 year history.
