The Rotary Club celebrated its 100 year birthday.The Bristow Rotary Club District 6110 met Thurdays, at Pizza Hut to celebrate the special occasion. A proclamation from the City of Bristow was presented by Mayor Kris Wyatt and even though House Speaker Hilbert was unable to attend, a special citation was presented by an aide. A presentation about the beginning days of the rotary was given by Carole Ellis.
In January 1926, the Rotary Club of Bristow held its first meeting in the Roland Hotel, under the leadership of O.D. Groom. The headline in the Bristow Daily Record read “New Civic Club Elects Officers, Expects Charter.
The club was officially chartered Feb. 26, 1926. With 24 members, it began its weekly Thursday noon meetings. One hundred years later the Bristow Rotary Club is having its regular noon meeting, Feb. 26, 2026.
The Rotary Club began in Chicago, just like the Mother Road Rte. 66. On Feb. 23, 1905, Chicago businessman, Paul Harris, met with three other businessmen to get to know each other and begin to see ways to have fellowship and to grow a club to help their community. And grow it did, by the time the Bristow Club was chartered, there were more that 2,246 clubs formed on six continents.
Early records show that the Bristow Rotary Club built a Rotary Park in the south part of town. They have provided 300,000 meals to children at Washington Schools during the depression and distributed 5,000 American Elm trees around town.
Rotary Clubs are grouped in districts and the Bristow Club is part of a four State District along with portions of Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas.