Pikes Peak Sertoma was chartered on May 24, 1946 at the Broadmoor Hotel. Mile High Sertoma in Denver, the only club in Colorado at that time, chartered our club. Since the Mile High Club recently ceased operating, Pikes Peak Sertoma is the oldest club in Colorado! Sertoma was founded on April 11, 1912 in Kansas City. Originally, the organization was called the Co-Operative Club – the premise being that club members should cooperate with one another, i.e. do business with each other. That was the premise of Rotary, the first such organization in the United States, and Rotary was a single classification club, allowing only one member of any occupation in the club. The Co-Operative Club was the second service organization in this country, and was formed by two doctors in Kansas City that were denied membership in Rotary as their classifications were already filled! Co-Operative Clubs were originally single classification clubs also. The Co-Operative Clubs were sometimes confused with the more popular Grange Co-Operatives, and as a result, the name was changed to Sertoma in 1952 with the name being the acronym for SERvice TO MAnkind!

These clubs were for males only, and a ladies organization, originally called the Co-Operettes, and later La Sertoma, was formed for the wives and daughters of Sertoma members. The Pikes Peak Co-Operettes were chartered on February 11, 1947 at the Craftwood Inn. Although these clubs complemented each other, they were separate organizations and had no legal ties to each other.

Pikes Peak Co-Operative Club was chartered with 25 members. There are no surviving charter members in the Colorado Springs region. Three years ago, there were two surviving charter members living away from Colorado Springs, but their present status is unknown. In the year following the club’s charter, an additional 36 members were inducted, including current members Vergil Johnson, Grant Winne and Ad Mueller. Our charter president was Larry P. Norton. Larry didn’t waste any time getting further involved, being elected International Director of the Greater Rocky Mountain Region for the 1948-49 period, and International Vice-president for the 1949-50 Sertoma year. Larry is the only member of Pikes Peak Sertoma to hold office at the Regional or International level.

Pikes Peak Sertoma was the second Sertoma Club in Colorado, but the first in Southern Colorado. Being a single classification club prevented many potential good members from joining Pikes Peak Sertoma. Consequently, we got busy in a hurry building other clubs. The first was the Pueblo Sertoma club in 1947. The charter president of that club was William A. Brummett Jr., father of our own Bill Brummett. He later went on the become Governor of the Colorado District for the 1958-59 year, and International Director of the Greater Rocky Mountain Region during the 1960-62 period.

Over the next 37 years we built an additional ten clubs. The eleven clubs we built were: Pueblo* – 1947; Centennial –1959; Sunrise –1962; Fountain Valley* – 1965; Salida –1968; Monument Hill –1974; High Noon – 1975; Academy Boulevard* – 1977; Ute Pass* – 1977; and Past Presidents* – 1981. The clubs shown with an (*) are no longer active. Many of these clubs have also built clubs, and our family – of which we are the founders, parents, grandparents, etc. – has grown to well over 40 organizations, of which about 30 are still active.

Two of our Pikes Peak members served as Governor of the original Colorado District. They were Walter Ament for 1949-50 and Ernest “Spud” O’Conner for 1961-62. The growth of clubs in the South Colorado area resulted in the Colorado District being split into the North Colorado District and the South Colorado District in 1967. Pikes Peak Sertoma member Leonard Kraushaar was the first Governor of the newly formed South Colorado District for the 1967-68 Sertoma year. Following Lennie, Dwight Wilcox was Governor of the South Colorado District during 1969-1974, Leigh Whitehead, then a member of Centennial Sertoma, for 1972-74, Frank Ulrich for 1974-75, and Tully Weiss for 1979-80. As new clubs were added, the district became almost too large for one governor to handle. Consequently the South Colorado District was split in 1983, forming two districts. In this division, the clubs built by Pikes Peak Sertoma and their offspring stayed in the South Colorado District, while the clubs built by Centennial Sertoma and their offspring formed the new Continental Divide District. Glenn Foster served as Governor of the reformed South Colorado District for the 1983-84 period, and so far is the last District Governor to serve from our club.

For many years, Sertoma conventions played a large part in our club’s activities. In 1951, our club hosted the International Convention at the Antlers Hotel with over 500 Sertomans in attendance. For the next 25+ years, Pikes Peak Sertoma was represented at International conventions by the incoming president, usually accompanied by his wife. In many cases, other members were also in attendance. We were very active in regional conventions, usually pre-registering at least 20 members. Competition for awards was fierce in our area, with some awards being won by the slimmest of margins. We hosted several regional conventions, the last being in 1996 as part of our 50th anniversary celebration. Our participation in regional conventions lagged for several years, but recently our attendance at these meetings has been revived..

Pikes Peak Sertoma has participated in many community projects since our inception. In the early days we supplemented the monies we raised with our own “sweat equity”; buying materials and then building various projects with these materials. These included facilities at the Boy Scout, Girl Scout and YMCA camps – everything from actual buildings to corrals and latrines! We also built a park on city land in the southeast part of the city, near Fountain and Hancock. That park was originally called Sertoma Park, and now is a part of the Hillside Center. For several years we sponsored a calf for the County Fair Catch It and Keep It youth program. We sponsored several Junior Achievement companies, and provided hearing aids for the Colorado Deaf and Blind School. Many other organizations have benefited from our sponsorships, including Silver Key, Child Day Care, Young America Baseball, YAL Hockey and the Handicapped Ski Program.

During the 1970’s, we were approached by the Colorado Springs Police Department to see if we could provide financial assistance to a man who was wounded while chasing a criminal. As a result, we formed the Citizen’s Aid to Law Enforcement (CATLE) organization for that purpose. We received a considerable amount of money from donations, and were able to pay many of that person’s expenses. CATLE remained in existence for several years, but was disbanded, and the remaining funds transferred to our Scholarship Fund when no other situations for that support arose.

In 1974, former member Dan Shoup presented our club with a $500 check. When he was asked what he wanted us to do with that money, he suggested we start a scholarship program. That program took off the following year, and has been and is our most successful sponsorship. The account of our Scholarship Program deserves a separate report, which hopefully will be provided by the Scholarship Committee.

In order to fund these sponsorships we held many fundraising activities. One of the first was handling the ticket sales for the Pikes Peak Hill Climb. Members spent many hours at the tollbooth of the Pikes Peak Highway, selling tickets and shooting craps when time permitted. Other activities included selling Pepsi at the Rodeo Street Parade, conducting car raffles, Christmas poinsettia and cake sales, fertilizer sales, and a Greyhound dog raffle. More recently we ran bingo games, which were very successful at first. Our current major fundraising activities are selling beer at various events and conducting Oktoberfest festivities.

Several years ago, the International constitution was amended to permit businesswomen into Sertoma. The majority of clubs has included women in their membership, but Pikes Peak Sertoma is one of the very few clubs that remain “men only”. The inclusion of women in Sertoma International has not increased membership as significantly as anticipated. Actually, many service organizations are experiencing membership problems, probably due to the prevailing times and changing lifestyles.

In this 2008-2009 year, our membership is around the 50-member level. For many years we hovered close to 100 members, and actually achieved that pinnacle for short periods of time. During these almost 63 years, over 350 members have belonged to Pikes Peak Sertoma. We were the first club in Southern Colorado, and are still the guiding light for our two Southern Colorado Districts.