Deep Creek Ruritans

The Deep Creek Ruritan Club has been serving the community since its founding in 1947. The club meets at 200 Luray Street, known as the log cabin located behind the Deep Creek Fire Station on George Washington Hgwy. We meet every 3rd Thursday of the month at 7:00 pm. Come and check us out!!!

EVERY DOLLAR DONATED AND COLLECTED GOES RIGHT BACK TO THE COMMUNITY TO HELP MEET ITS NEEDS.

WHAT IS RURITAN

Ruritan National has nearly 30,000 members throughout the United States, that work to improve more than 1,100 local communities. Since the organization's beginning in 1928, Ruritan Clubs have served America with Fellowship, Goodwill, and Community Service. Ruritan is a civic service organization made up of local clubs in urban areas, small towns and rural communities.

Ruritan's purpose is to create a better understanding among people and through volunteer community service, make America's communities better places in which to live and work. The slogan of Ruritan is "Fellowship, Goodwill and Community Service." Club membership represents a cross-section of the community in which the club serves, and is not restrictive with regard to occupation, social position, or any other specific criteria.

Unlike most civic service organizations, Ruritan rarely has national programs. Rather, each club surveys its own community as to the needs of that community and then works to meet some of those needs. Nearly all clubs work locally with FFA, 4-H and other organizations serving youth. Nearly one in every three Ruritan clubs sponsors a Boy or Girl Scout unit.

HISTORY

The first Ruritan Club was chartered May 21, 1928, in Holland, Virginia. Since that first club, Ruritan has grown throughout the United States of America, and in doing so, has become "America's Leading Community Service Organization."

Tom Downing of Suffolk, Virginia, and Jack Gwaltney of Holland, Virginia, are known as the co-founders of Ruritan. Gwaltney and Downing recognized the need for an organization where community leaders could meet and discuss ways to make their community a better place in which to live.

The name "Ruritan" was suggested by Daisy Nurney, a reporter for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot newspaper, and the club's charter members unanimously adopted "Ruritan" as the organization's name. The word is a combination of the Latin words for open country "ruri" and small town "tan," interpreted as pertaining to rural and small town life.

THE RURITAN MISSION

Ruritan is a national organization dedicated to improving communities and building a better America through Fellowship, Goodwill and Community Service.

HOW TO JOIN

To become a member the individual must attend a meeting so they can find out what Ruritan is about. They must then fill out a application for membership , give it to the sectary , a charge of ten dollars will be charged for processing. Dues is onehundred dollars a year that pay for expenses such as meals, postage etc. Meeting are once a month , the third Thursday of the month at 7PM.