The Rotary Club of West Seattle was chartered on November 6, 1947.
West Seattle is a neighborhood of about 90,000 in Seattle, which encompasses an area of Seattle west of the Duwamish River. It was incorporated as an independent town in 1902 and annexed by the city of Seattle in May 1907.
On November 6, 1947, the Rotary Club of West Seattle received its official charter from Rotary International at a banquet attended by 250 West Seattle and city business and civic leaders, held at the West Seattle Golf Course Clubhouse. Dr. Decatur N. Lacy, first president of the newly-recognized group, accepted the charter, number 6745, on behalf of the twenty-seven charter members. Today West Seattle Rotarians are a diverse and inclusive group of about fifty professional men and women who know how to have fun and how to work together to serve others.
West Seattle Rotarians have built, or invested in, many permanent community projects. Rotary View Point Park, which overlooks the West Seattle Golf Course, is a signature project of the club. The site was a piece of city-owned property, overgrown by weeds and a depository for discarded beer cans and refuse which the club cleaned up and formally presented as a park to the City of Seattle in August 1976. Dominating the park is an eighteen-foot totem pole, carved by Northwest Native American Robin Young.
The club has provided thousands of scholarships to deserving youth from our local high schools and South Seattle College, has taken thousands of kids shopping for clothes at Christmas, provided school supplies each Fall to hundreds of elementary school children through Pencil Me In For Kids, and supports Seniors at the Senior Center and the Kenney. The club also produces the West Seattle Grand Parade annually in July.
The West Seattle Rotary Club has partnered with local Rotary Clubs in other countries, supporting projects in Siberia, Africa, southeast Asia, and Mexico. West Seattle Rotarians have made significant gifts to the Polio Plus campaign of Rotary International to eradicate polio from the world. The club supports a Rotary partnership with ShelterBox to provide immediate relief to disaster survivors and to support long-term recovery and rebuilding efforts around the world.