Joe Bauer, in his last month as serving as the president of the Colorado Springs Exchange Club, is now interested in bringing this club to Falcon.”The Exchange Club was started back in 1911 in Detroit, Mich.,” said Bauer. “It consisted of a bunch of merchants … a tailor, a jeweler, a banker, a furniture store owner.” He said the group gathered every day for lunch to exchange ideas on how to improve life in their local communities.The basic premise of the club still holds true today, Bauer said. Only a few adjustments have been made to the club’s structure over the years, he said. Members still meet over the lunch hour, but twice a month rather than every day. Also, the club went from an all-male organization to one that includes women. “I think it was 1987. The national headquarters decreed this was no longer going to be an all-male organization,” Bauer said, “that we were going to incorporate the ladies into the organization.” He said the club made history in 2003 when the organization had its first female national president.The Exchange Club focuses on four categories of projects: community service, youth, Americanism and child-abuse prevention. “Community service would involve providing support and assistance … to the fire department, to the police department, to the sheriff’s department,” Bauer said. Other community service projects may include assisting senior citizens or participating in the club’s Adopt a Spot project, where volunteers offer to pick up trash along designated highway areas.The Exchange Club also recognizes youth who have done outstanding work through presentations and/or scholarships. There also is the club’s “Accepting the Challenge of Excellence,” which is designed for youth who are facing struggles. “Some youngster, some student has totally given up,” he said. “Perhaps they have been experimenting with drugs or alcohol and they have just flat given up and they are on the verge of cashing it all in.” It’s at this point, Bauer said, that he hopes a teacher or minister has helped this young individual take a second look at life and turn things around. “They’ve picked themselves up by their bootstraps, if you will,” he said. “We provide support for that type of a program.”The third category of service the Exchange Club provides is through Americanism. “Last year at a parade downtown we gave out over 5,000 flags to spectators along the parade route,” Bauer said.The club also recognizes people or businesses that fly the American flag with respect and dignity. “We recognize them, generally with a plaque, and we invite them (as guests) to our meeting,” Bauer said.One of the more unusual projects that fall under the Americanism category is the Freedom Shrines. Bauer said there are as many as 31 plaques of documents, such as the Bill of Rights or Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech, which are duplicated and then displayed in public buildings like libraries and schools. “It is unusual in that no one else does this,” he said. “The Exchange Club is the only volunteer organization authorized by Congress to replicate these historic documents.”Bauer said the “last-but-not-least” category is the prevention of child abuse. “That is our national program,” he said. “We support shelters and provide protection and security to youngsters who have been abused directly or indirectly.” Bauer said most prevention services could never have too much. “Those facilities never have enough money,” he said. “They never have enough labor to do things that need to be done.”Most of the money for the club’s projects comes from a variety of fundraisers that members organize throughout the year. Every club generates their own fundraising programs. The Exchange Club’s primary fundraiser is the Pike’s Peak Celebrity Golf Tournament and Rodeo. In past years, the club has raised between $14,000 and $22,000 at this event.The club has grown.”By 1913 there were three clubs,” he said. “In 1917 they had their first convention in Cleveland, Ohio.” Bauer said it wasn’t until the onset of World War I that more and more clubs sprung up throughout the United States. “Mobility became a factor,” he said. “Some of these people, who were the nucleus of the original clubs in the Ohio area, moved. They went to California. They went to Nevada. They went different places and started new clubs, wherever their feet landed.” Bauer estimated there are about 700 clubs in the U.S. and Puerto Rico with approximately 30,000 members. The club headquarters is located in Toledo, Ohio.Bauer has been involved with the Exchange Club organization since 1989. “I’ve been in the Exchange because my neighbor asked me,” he said. “I went to a meeting, and I liked what I saw and I became deeply involved. And I’m still deeply involved.”For those who are interested in joining the Falcon-area Exchange Club, Bauer is holding an orientation meeting on Fri., July 8 at 7 p.m. at the Woodmen Recreation Center West. For more information, contact Joe Bauer at 262-9222.
