Through Tracy’s 134-year history, service clubs and fraternal organizations have made the city a great place to live and raise a family.

This is the story of one of those clubs, the Tracy Junior Chamber of Commerce — also called the Tracy Jaycees — an organization of young men who were an active part in our community for more than two decades in the middle of the past century. And this writer is proud to be counted as one of those Jaycees.

The Tracy Junior Chamber of Commerce was organized Feb. 19, 1947, in order to provide an opportunity to promote growth and prosperity in Tracy — and also to develop young men between the ages of 21 and 36 as leaders.

After nearly two months of organizational activity, 75 founding members received their Jaycee charter April 3, 1947. Max Farnsworth, a local insurance agent and, like many other Jaycees, a veteran of World War II, was charter president.

Meetings were twice monthly in the rear meeting room of the tavern that was part of the Tracy Greyhound Depot on West 11th Street.

Principal speaker for the charter night was Henry King, president of the San Francisco Junior Chamber of Commerce.

He warned members of the Tracy chapter that they would be told by some in the community that they, as young men, would not have the experience to successfully carry out programs and projects. Those naysayers would be proved wrong, he said. And he was certainly correct.

On a national level, the Junior Chamber helped Charles Lindberg finance and organize his solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean and helped to establish airmail service in the nation. Countless local efforts had been a success across the country, King pointed out.

“In carrying out their projects, local members receive hands-on training and experience, enhancing personal growth and development of leadership skills,” he said.

At each meeting, a “speak up” session encouraged members to express their opinions on what the community needed. Those sessions, as well as regional and statewide competition, encouraged the development of public speaking skills. Many Tracy Jaycees became good public speakers, and several were winners in statewide competition.

At the same time, Jaycees received invaluable training and experience in working to better their community, living up to their motto, “Young Men of Action.”

One of the Tracy Jaycees’ first major projects was organizing a blood drive, prompted by a letter from John Costa, a Banta native serving in the U.S. Army in Korea. He said a lack of plasma and blood for wounded servicemen was a major problem.

In March 1953, Tracy Jaycees staged a community blood drive that established a national Red Cross record for donations per capita with 546 pints of blood. Tracy Jaycees received national recognition for the project.

But a sad part of the effort was that Costa was later killed while fighting in Korea.

Another project by the Tracy Junior Chamber of Commerce played a major role in improving the management of the city’s municipal government.

In 1953, Mayor Manuel Rico suggested to the City Council that it consider establishing the council-manager form of government, creating the position of city manager to direct the day-to-day operations of the city under policies developed by the City Council. Until then, individual members of the council had oversight over a specific branch of city government — police, fire, public works, city clerk — and there was a lack of coordination.

C.E. “Pete” Ritter, named chairman of a citizens committee to explore Rico’s suggestion, asked Jaycees to do some legwork.

Jaycee members Mark Kelley, Keith Reeve, Newt Likins and I traveled to Lodi and Santa Rosa, asking city officials, including the city managers and mayors, how the system was working.

The Jaycees came back with a positive report on the advantages of having a city manager. Ritter passed it on to the City Council in recommending approval of the council-manager form of government. The following year, in 1954, Tracy voters approved the council-manager system, making a major change in how city government operates. Robert L. Williams of Pennsylvania was soon hired as Tracy’s first city manager.

Later, as a member of the City Council and as mayor, I knew firsthand what a major, positive impact the council-manager system made in the operations of the city. I am proud that Tracy Jaycees played such an important part of establishing it in Tracy.

Other projects carried out by Tracy Jaycees:

• Installing the first seat belts in more than 700 cars to help reduce traffic-accident injuries.

• Placing Scotchlite reflective

tape on the rear bumpers of cars to reduce rear-end crashes.

• Spraying all parts of Tracy for mosquitoes in a program to fight a growing threat of encephalitis.

• Sponsoring the annual Easter egg hunt in Lincoln Park for Tracy youngsters: Jaycees dyed some 150 dozen hard-boiled eggs each year for the popular event. Woody Souza was chairman for several years and later was elected to the City Council.

• Establishing the annual frosh-soph football banquet at Tracy High School: Dr. John Kimball was first chairman and later headed the Tracy Rotary Club.

• Sponsoring the Fourth of July weekend Day in the Park in Lincoln Park for many years, before the Tracy Chamber of Commerce took over the event: Bob Greenwood was very active in this effort.

• Conducting “get-out-the vote” campaigns for a number of local elections: In one school bond election, Jaycees offered schoolchildren ice cream bars to take voting stubs to their classes, reminding the students of the importance of voting.

• Providing Tracy representation at the San Joaquin County Fair by developing the Tracy-area booth with displays of local farm and manufactured products: Ron Strom and Don Bisbee were especially active in this project.

• Putting up Christmas decorations in downtown Tracy: Jim Dani was chairman and later became president of the Tracy Lions Club.

• Building and staffing (with a Jaycee Santa) the Santa Claus hut that was a pre-Christmas fixture in downtown Tracy for several decades: I donned the Santa suit myself for a number of years.

• In partnership with the city, planting shade trees on Central Avenue and 10th Street in downtown Tracy.

• Organizing an annual Young Farmer of the Year dinner to honor younger members of Tracy area’s agricultural community.

• Donating games and equipment to the Larch-Clover Community Center.

Not all projects were 100 percent successful. I can remember a plan to build concrete benches in Lincoln Park. We built the forms and had sand, gravel, cement and water ready to be made into concrete. The concrete mixer was late in being delivered, so we sat back and had a couple of beers.

When the mixer arrived, we put the ingredients into the mixer; the chairman was in charge of adding the cement. We then poured the concrete into the forms. After waiting for the concrete to dry, we started removing the forms — but, to our dismay, the benches fell to the ground. The chairman had forgotten to add the cement — an essential ingredient needed to bond the concrete — into the mixer.

The downside was a few wasted hours of work and materials. The upside was years of friendly ribbing and kidding the chairman for his “great concrete job.”

In recognition of their achievements in developing and support community projects, the Tracy Junior Chamber of Commerce was named outstanding club in District 14.

On a statewide level, Tracy Jaycees were known as among the most active in California. A Tracy Jaycee, Hal McCawley, assistant manager of Bank of America, was a candidate for Jaycee state president, finishing second to a Southern California candidate after a hard-fought campaign.

Tracy Jaycees continued to be an active organization through the 1960s, but toward the end of the decade, participation dwindled, and club activities began to fall by the wayside. Some activities, such as the Day in the Park and Easter egg hunt, were taken over by other organizations.

Tracy Junior Chamber of Commerce died because of a lack of interest and declining membership. You could say the Jaycees “pulled a MacArthur” and just faded away.

Our accomplishments over more than two decades, however, shouldn’t be forgotten. They made important contributions to making Tracy what it is today, and fortunately a number of the projects have been taken over by other Tracy volunteer organizations. These active organizations deserve widespread community support to keep the volunteer flame alive and to make Tracy a great town.

• Richard O. “Dick” Hastie joined the Tracy Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1948 and has served as president and district chairman. He later became mayor of Tracy and founded the Boys and Girls Clubs of Tracy.