History of the Ankeny Rotary Club

In 1968 Milt Aunan, a Rotarian from Bettendorf, Iowa, was transferred to Ankeny. Milt was contacted by a former District Governor about getting a Rotary Chapter started in Ankeny. In order to do this Milt had to get the approval from all the Rotary Clubs in the Greater Des Moines area. This took a little time but through Milt's persistence and help from the Northwest Rotary Club the approval was achieved in 1972 with a target starting date of September 16, 1972.

The rules stated that in order for an active chapter to start you must have 26 people before a charter could be granted.  This goal was reached quite easily.  The club was Chartered and the first meeting was to held at the Best Western Inn on East First Street and SE Delaware in Ankeny on January 19, 1973. 

The Northwest Rotary Club was very supportive in starting the Ankeny Club. Their members would join with us and were most helpful in everyway possible. The Northwest Club hosted a grand dinner for our charter night, picking up the tab for the Ankeny members and spouses. A very special bond developed between the Ankeny Club and the Northwest Club because of all the support that was given along with many man-hours helping fine tune the Ankeny Club.

The Ankeny Club has always shown great respect for the Northwest members that makeup at our meeting, by giving the northwest member the opportunity to pay a fine for being present or for any other reason that might come up and we, Ankeny Club members, are treated with the same opportunities when we makeup at the Northwest club meeting. This feeling and support that we have for each other must never stop, as the fine money goes towards good service projects and keeps our clubs very close.

The first officers of the Ankeny Rotary Club: 
      President - Milt Aunan, 
      Sr. Vice Pres - Gene Leedom 
      Secretary - Bruce Anderson 
      Treasurer - Mel Bauman

There were 27 founding members of the Ankeny Rotary Club.