Historic Moments -- Rotary and Boys' Week
Rotary International News -- 30 March 2009
A 1924 poster advertising Boys' Week in Shelbyville, Tennessee, USA.
The first Boys' Week was held in New York City in May 1920 by the Rotary Club of New York and other local organizations. The event was part of an effort to promote youth development in the areas of education, citizenship, health and hygiene, and vocation.
New York club members reported on the success of Boys' Week at Rotary's 1920 convention, hoping that it would become part of the Boys' Work program, which Rotary had established several years earlier with the creation of the Committee on Work among the Boys (later known as the Boys' Work Committee). The program encouraged Rotary clubs to work with other community programs and organizations to counter juvenile delinquency, truancy, and poor physical health, with the goal of developing good citizens.
Boys' Week events quickly spread throughout the United States and abroad. By the mid-1920s, they were being held in almost 600 locations across 25 countries. In 1928, the number of participating cities and towns had grown to about 3,000.
The target audience also grew rapidly. Girls rode on the float sponsored by the Rotary Club of Vicksburg, Mississippi, in a 1924 Loyalty Day parade held in conjunction with Boys' Week.
By the late 1920s, the United States had established a National Boys' Week Committee, in which Rotary participated. Rotary clubs were encouraged to support and participate in their local Boys' Week events as a way to achieve the goals of the Boys' Work program.
In 1934, Boys' Week became known as Youth Week, and in 1936, Boys and Girls' Week.
In 1954, the RI Board of Directors voted to discontinue Rotary's official sponsorship of Boys and Girls' Week to support new youth efforts, but it encouraged clubs to continue participating in local youth service initiatives.
In the following decades, Rotary went on to create other programs for young people, including Interact , Rotaract , and Rotary Youth Exchange .
To hear about the importance of youth involvement, listen to episode 9 of the historic Rotary Golden Theater Radio Show .
For more historical information about Rotary, visit Rotary History and Archives or the Rotary Global History Fellowship.