Association for Retired Citizens

A Rotary project, the Association for Retired Citizens, kicked off on July 14, 1954, when the retirement problem was presented to the Club in addresses by Gil Lyons, George Diehl and Dr. Howard Esbenshade. The Club voted favorably on the project, and on October 13th, President Cooper appointed a committee of 14 members, headed by Harvey A. Smith as Chairman, with Grant Brandon and O. L. Hampton as co-chairmen.

In 1955, the project for retired citizens made notable progress with almost one hundred percent support from the Club and with several thousand dollars raised to establish the organization firmly. A variety of memorable programs included a beautiful pictorial description of Alaska by Howard Clark; an address by Pennsylvania's Secretary of Agriculture; a tour of the new Public Safety Building; a serious analysis of juvenile Delinquency by Sir Basil Henriques, of London; an explanation of the special problems of Pakistan by Major-General Din; a talk by Ollie Oberg, 1st Vice President of Rotary International; and a description of foreign Rotary Clubs by Jim Coho.

The Association for Retired Citizens was chartered as a non-profit organization and numbered 162 members in January, 1957. Their charter stated the following objectives:

  1. To educate all people concerning the problems confronting older people and to help them in solving such problems;

  2. To provide a program of social activities of interest to older people;

  3. To make available facilities for the following of various interests and hobbies of older people; and

  4. To assist older people in finding part time employment for those who are able to pursue it.

These objectives have been carried out through regular meetings each week and through opportunities for fellowship at the Boys Club three days each week. Shop facilities have been used for hobbies and handcraft, and special social activities are planned regularly through the year. The most important goal of the Association at present is a building for their own use, where they will have a permanent center for their activities.

An event of interest occurred in January, 1963. It was recalled that a few years earlier, Lancaster Rotary was instrumental in starting the Association For Retired Citizens. George Diehl, with help from several other Rotarians, made the project an overwhelming success. And in January, the Board of Directors of the Association notified our Club that it was willing and able to make available to our Student Loan Fund a sum of $2,300 as needed to meet requests for loans exceeding the Club's resources. It was indeed gratifying to see this phenomenon, where an agency partially founded by Rotary became so self-sufficient in such  a short time that it was actually able to lend a helping hand to another Rotary project.

In 1965, Gil Lyons, Chairman of the Association for Retired Citizens Committee, reported at a Club Assembly in September that his committee was the only one which "did essentially nothing." It had no budget, no program, and no plans. The reason: "No need." What Lyons was pointing out was that the Association was a self-governing group of over 300 retired Lancastrians that was active in many areas and needed nothing more from the Rotary Club than standby interest. This was, in actuality, a real testimonial to the good job done years earlier by our Club in helping this organization get started.

In 1972, a note in the July 5th Transmitter stated that Diehl and Esbenshade, for the Association For Retired Citizens, had returned $3,343.82 to the Lancaster Rotary Club which had been the original "nest egg" our Club had put up to start that organization a number of years earlier. This act said all that needed to be said as to the peerless success of this venture.

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