W.W.T.C. – Curious

Wednesday Weekly Theme Challenge – (July 20 – 26): Curious

Last year I found a weekly genealogy challenge with different topics, and realized some of the themes can be easily applied to our history.

Have you come across a photo or story related to Active 20-30 and wanted to know more?

There has been quite a few that I have found, and others that have been shared, that had me going down rabbit holes. Some of them have been from people finding 20-30 dedicated plaques at parks, a photo of a horse at an indoor meeting promoting an event, or names of famous people.

I came across a photo of an 20-30 club putting on a Donkey Basketball benefit game. I’ll have to find that photo later. For now, here is a newspaper one from the Arizona Republic (6 Apr 1937), “Phoenix 20-30 Club decided to stage a series of donkey softball and polo games”.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/105973581/:

Play along. Comment below or tag this page in your post for any stories or photos you would like to share.

Honorary Member – Robert P. Shimmin

Does your Club have any Honorary Members?

Honorary Membership can be “conferred to any person for meritorious service to the club, community or nation.” This membership is granted according to procedures in Clubs’ bylaws.
So far in rediscovering our past, we’ve come across a few famous people being given honorary membership into different clubs. Aviator Charles Lindbergh was honored by the Chehalis Club in 1927, Frank Sinatra by the Portland Club in 1947, and Pete Wilson (later became Governor of California) by the San Diego club in 1972. More recently, young Billy Warner was given honorary membership to several clubs in 2017.

An very interesting person we’ve come to learn of, is Dad Shimmin. Robert P. Shimmin was given honorary membership by Phoenix #99 soon after his son, Jack Shimmin had passed away. Jack was a founding member when they chartered in April 1932. He unfortunately became sick and died in November of that year. Soon after they asked his dad to “join”, and Dad Shimmin started visiting 20-30 clubs across the nation and attending conventions. He was also given the titles of “Grand Old Man of 20-30” and “International Ambassador of Good Will”.

Dad Shimmin kept going until his death in 1965.

(photo of newspaper article was in the El Paso Herald-Post in 1958)