The sponsoring Club was the Daytona Beach Rotary Club, whose President was John Chryst. The district Governor of our original district (243) was the late Walter LeGrande of the Daytona Club. The original twenty-one Charter Members are shown below.

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The Club met at the Coquina Hotel, Trocadero Club, and Ellinor Village Country Club before moving in 1952 to Billy’s Tap Room. We met in the downstairs West dining room at Billy’s until 1965 at which time we moved upstairs to a newly constructed room.

For many years, in order to be eligible for membership in Rotary, a man’s place of business had to be in the geographic limits of the club. This rule limited the number of men eligible for the Ormond Club due to the limited number of businesses. During the late 60’s, this rule was changed to include both business and/or residence as the geographic eligibility.

In 1969, under the leadership of William Akers III, we sponsored the chartering of the Ormond-By-the-Sea Rotary Club with twenty-six members. In 1983, an expansion committee chaired by John McCready formed the Ormond Beach West Rotary Club with twenty-five members.

In 1988, The Darcy Akers Scholarship Fund was created as a separate Florida Corporation. Darcy Akers was the daughter of Club member William Akers, III and granddaughter of charter member William Akers, Jr., who was tragically killed in an automobile accident in 1986 while in route from Ormond Beach to the University of Florida in Gainesville.  Active members of this Corporation are all active members of the Rotary Club of Ormond Beach and the Board of Directors of the Fund mirror the Board of Directors of the Rotary Club of Ormond Beach. The purpose of the Fund is to provide meaningful, four year scholarships for Ormond Beach area residents.  As of 2001 the Fund's total principle was close to $300,000.

In 1988 The Club launched its Silent Santa Program. Jerry Wells is generally given credit for the idea, however, the program was instituted by Bill Chanfrau.   Each Rotary member is assigned an Ormond Beach area family who, in the opinion of local school officials, would not be able to provide their young children a meaningful Christmas.  Members then contact the family and directly assist them in providing Christmas presents to their children, however, the children are never aware of the assistance.  In 2001 the program was still going strong under the annual leadership of Roger Strucula.  

We celebrated our 50^th anniversary on Saturday, April 28, 2001 with a black-tie anniversary and reunion held at Daytona USA, a structure located on the grounds of the Daytona International Speedway.  The ceremony opened by the ringing to the Rotary bell by the current President of our sponsoring Club, Dr. Rick Lentz of Daytona Beach. It was pointed out that the Daytona Beach Club had presented-- our then new club--with the bell exactly 50 years ago that evening. Color Power Point presentations of the history of the Club then were shown on the huge screen located in the facility’s theater. In closing, presentations were made by Mr. Carl Pursis (The current Mayor of Ormond Beach), Rotary District Governor David Harill of Jacksonville and state Senator Locke Burt of Ormond Beach.

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