Who We Are

The Central Chesterfield Ruritan Club is part of Ruritan National, America’s leading grassroots community service organization founded in 1928. We focus on local needs — no big national campaigns, just neighbors helping neighbors.

We are one of five clubs in Zone IV of the Appomattox District. Our members come from all walks of life and share a common desire to make Chesterfield a better place through fellowship and service.

Our Mission

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

When We Meet

Board Meetings: 1st Monday of every month at 6:30 PM

Member Meetings: 2nd Monday of every month at 6:30 PM

All meetings are held at our clubhouse or nearby venues (check calendar for details).

WHAT IS RURITAN?

Ruritan National has nearly 25,000 members throughout the United States, that work to improve more than 900 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.