St. Helena 20-30 Club Builds Bus Stops 1965

I’ve seen photos and articles of several clubs building shelters. Clubs like Napa, Santa Rosa, Coronado, and here is one from St Helena in 1965. Have you participated in building shelters, or know if your club did this type of project in the past?

20-30 Club to Build Bus Stop Shelters

As school begins the members of the Active 20-30 are busily constructing as many bus stop shelters as the club treasury will allow, before the rainy season begins. Due to the overwhelming response of parents requesting shelters, there are many more needed.

The club’s motto is “Youth to serve must be served.” In an effort to serve all the youth of the school district, if possible, the club will give away an R.C.A. Color T.V. Oct. 29 at Carpy Field during the half-time of the St. Helena vs. Willits football game, profits going toward additional shelters. “Help us to help your children,” by obtaining your tickets for the television at any of the home games or from any 20-30 member. Anyone requesting a shelter may write to St. Helena Active 20-30, P.O. Box 65, St. Helena.

“20-30 Club to Build Bus Stop”, The St. Helena Star, 16 September 1965, p 2, Newspapers.com. Accessed 25 August 2021.

Photo Caption: St. Helena Active 20-30 Club is engaged in the project of rebuilding or in some case renovating the old school bus shelters once provided by the earlier club. A color TV will be awarded as a prize this fall. Shown above in Taylor Electric is Marshall Sears buying the first ticket from John Mathis, treasurer of the 20-30 Club with Ralph Turnidge looking on. Proceeds will go to help finance the shelter project.
The other pictures show a shelter which can be salvaged, and one which is simply done for. Working on the project when the pictures were taken were Ray Torres, Ernies Butala, Bob Stemler, Don Martin, Leroy Cox and Ralph Duer. In the bottom picture Ralph Turnidge’s sons help spray the new type shelter the club is building. Since the project started the club has had many requests for shelters, and has to raise money by awarding the color TV set.

Multiples (#5 – Mar. 8-14, 2021)

This week’s theme can be highlighted in a variety of different ways.

Do you have multiples of club items, like pins?

Sometimes, clubs had their fundraisers or other events happening on the same day. Were you able to attend these multiple events for a fun filled day?

How many members are following the footsteps of other family relatives that were in Active 20-30? Are you a second, third, or fourth generational member? Have you had siblings, aunts, uncles, or cousins in the organization? (For example, in the photo collage, that is my grandmother, mother, and I. All having been club president.)

Would love to hear and see any answers to these topics. Comment below or tag this page in your post.

(These weekly themes are inspired by 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

Power & Leadership (#4 – Feb. 22-28, 2021)

I’m taking this week’s theme to highlight the growth of leadership in our clubs. Learning the skills needed in leadership positions can help with a person’s career later on. If you take a look at our Wikipedia page, you can find several notable people that got where they are by learning new skills while in Active 20-30.

This is Sherrill “Bud” Halbert of the Porterville #28 Club (California). He became National President of the Association of 20-30 Clubs in 1932.

from Sacramento Bee Newspaper, 1932

From his Wikipedia page: “Sherrill Halbert (October 17, 1901 – May 31, 1991) was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California.”

© 2001 United States District Court for the Eastern District of California Historical Society

Who are some notable past actives from your club? What else do you think of regarding the word “power”? Does that mean physical strength, political power, or electrical power? Did your club help a charity in some “power” related way? Do you have / had a member with the last name of “Power”? Yes. It’s a vague theme on purpose 🙂 It’s whatever the theme sparks in you.

(These weekly themes are inspired by 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

Valentine (#3 – Feb. 8-14, 2021)

Any members named Valentine? Did you meet your spouse in Active 20-30? Does / did your club put on a Valentine’s themed event? (Or a Friendship Day?) How about a volunteer event, like sending Valentine cards, arts and crafts, or serving meals to people?

This photo was from Active 20-30 Club of Greater Sacramento #1032 in 2014 they created cards to send to children in local hospitals.

Please share a memory and / or a photo (if you do post a photo, please include who is in it, when and where was it taken, and why was it taken.) Share this post with your fellow members (Active & Past Active).

(These weekly themes are inspired by 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

Origins of a Tradition: Pennies A Day

Penny-A-Day Cans Sent to Clubs

Most of you are asking yourself “What is Penny-A-Day?” Recently we sent each club a new” Penny-

A-Day can for use at your meetings. That’s all you do with the can – pass it around the room and the members deposit any loose change. This money is then presented to the delegates at the National Convention to be placed in a restricted account at the National level for charity purposes.

But first, let me tell you how it all began. In the 1950’s, when the organization was still Active 20-30 International, with no National associations, the funds from the clubs went to fight Rheumatic Fever and funds were deposited into the International Rheumatic Fever Foundation.

At the 1965 International Convention, the delegates voted to change their support to children who were deaf. They set up the Active 20-30 International Charity Foundation, Inc. and the project was known as “Project Deaf”. The cans appeared on the scene in 1968.

In 1974, the International organization changed their emphasis to the “Foster Parents Program”. (Throughout the organization’s history they have assisted Aid to Scouting, General Child Welfare and a program working with the FBI fighting juvenile delinquency with the “Keys in the Car” project.)

In 1981, the association created National Associations, The Active 20-30/U.S. & Canada, Inc. was created. The International Charity did nothing for sometime, so in 1989 our National association created the “Active 20-30 Foundation, Inc.”

We do not support any particular charity on the National level except for maybe the National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse.

So to re-educate all the members (and I’m sure many of our clubs have never seen the Can), we have sent new cans for your use. “That’s all we ask – a penny-a-day for the kids”. Assign the responsibility of passing the can to your Sgt-of-Arms.

Your National Board of Trustees for the Foundation has made it a goal to collect enough funds to equal the amount of members we have in the association. That could amount to about $6,000. In the history of our association, we have yet to achieve that goal. Wouldn’t it be a great testimony to have that amount collected at the National Convention?

The funds received go into a restricted account in the Active 20-30 Foundation. These funds are not used for general operating expenses. Our intent is to build up enough money to live off the interest. Thereby, we could begin distributing funds to child welfare projects on a national basis or even to our clubs as a matching grant program.

So, get to work! Past that can! We hope every club is sending a delegate to the National Convention in Portland where each club will make a presentation of funds at the General Meeting.

Yes, we pay dues. Yes, we pay for meals at our meetings. And, yes, we give our sweat to making our projects successful but this is a way for each member to directly give to charity – for just $3.65 for the year. Here is one tradition that binds all of our clubs together.

(The Active Twenty-Thirtian, 1992, p3)

 

National Project: Back to School Shopping Spree Origins

Other 20-30 Club national projects:
Universal Fingerprinting
Safety Sallys (putting up warning signs at school’s crosswalks)

Curious to know about when clubs started shopping sprees? Or maybe just wanting to know when it became our current United States National Project?

Members from Sacramento #1 visited the re-chartered Stockton Club around 1974. That club was hosting a back to school shopping spree. They thought it a great idea and brought it back to Sacramento, where a back to school spree happened around 1980.*

More and more clubs starting holding their own shopping sprees and when a new National Project committee was formed in 1993, they ended up deciding on having this be the one that they felt clubs would get behind.

Kevin Thompson from Torrance, California “ran for National President on the campaign of a National Project. My campaign speech included … “I have a dream that on the same day, every year, thousands of Active 20-30 members together with thousands of needy children and their families will gather with the purpose of obtaining new clothes and supplies to return to school.” The vision was to create a united cause as previously Active 20-30 did not have a united National project.” He became the National President in the 1994-1995 term and got to work on making his goal a reality. He hoped to reach out to stores like Mervyn’s or Target and get a corporate deal for across the U.S.**

Back-to-School Shopping Spree

The National Project Committee met with Jan O’Laughlan, Community Projects/Public Affairs Manager, Mervyn’s, and established Saturday, August 3rd as the Active 20-30 Back-to-School Shopping Spree. This will be in concert with Mervyn’s fifth Annual ChildSpree.

With your club’s involvement and all of our clubs across the country, it is our hope to provide clothing and school supplies to over 1500 needy children on this very special day.

It has been a three year endeavor to find a project that all of our clubs could participate in no matter what size the club or how much money the club decided to spend on the project.

The National Office has a sample letter that can be used to send to your local Mervyn’s store as well as “Child Release Form” and a sample set up sheet to give you an idea on how the project should be run.

Each Mervyn’s store has available $1500 matching funds for this purpose. Mervyn’s has requested that each Active 20-30 Club contact the local store to submit a request for these matching funds. While there may be a competing non-profit agency also requesting the allocated funds, Mervyn’s is very aware of our national effort and it would therefor behoove us to submit our requests as soon as possible.

Upon receipt of the club’s request and approval of the $1500 matching funds, Mervyn’s will also provide a very detailed “How-to-Kit” to augment what you will receive from the National Office. Mervyn’s will additionally provide a 10% discount for Active 20-30 the day of the event as well as any sales or special promotions that may be going on.

It is the hope of your National Board of Directors that all of our clubs will participate in this worthwhile National project. However, we know it takes time for new projects to get incorporated into a club’s schedule. But certainly for those clubs who can’t participate this year, they will be able to join the others clubs in 1997.***