"Our History"

On Thursday, October 24, 1996, in the Belvidere Community Center, the "Bright Horizons" officially became the 57th club in District 6420, and the second club in the City of Belvidere. Thanks to the efforts of PDG Stu Smith and Dr. Dick Sandburg, who decided that it was time for Belvidere to establish a second Rotary Club, due to Belvidere's rapid growth in population, the campaign began.

So, after the Belvidere "Noon Club" agreed to share its territory, Stu and Doc. with the assistance of Chuck Engel and George Partlo, set out into the community to find business and community leaders who might be interested in starting a new "Breakfast" club. It was slow going at first but by spring they had enough potential members to seek Provisional club status from Rotary International. And, so it was, that Belvidere Bright Horizons was born.

The newly established provisional club met at 7:00 A.M. on Thursdays at the Steam Plant Restaurant in Belvidere until it soon outgrew that small meeting room and moved to the Huddle Restaurant until November of 1998 when they had to move again, because the Huddle was to stop opening in the mornings, so they moved to Dodge Lanes, then it was back to the Steam Plant Restaurant, where the club currently meets.

The club grew to 25 members and applied to Rotary International for an official charter and the charter was granted by the R.I. Board of Directors on September 16, 1996. The Official celebration of Charter Night was held on October 24, 1996. The celebration was led by a long time member of the Noon Club, Wes Hyland, and the featured speaker for the evening was Dorothy Young, a retired Rotary International Service Supervisor.