Hopkins Area Jaycees Celebrate 60 Years

Harry Truman was president. The U.S. was fighting on the Korean peninsula. Joe DiMaggio was in his final year as a New York Yankees legend. Kids were watching Howdy Doodie.

It was 1951, and in Hopkins, a chapter of the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce was being formed.

Just over 60 years later, the are still going strong. On Saturday night, current members—including 1963 chapter president Dennis Madden and the U.S. Jaycees National President—got together at the Elks Club to celebrate six decades of accomplishments and have their year-end banquet.

The Hopkins organizations is affiliated with Junior Chamber International—a worldwide group of about 200,000 people who work to improve their communities.

“The Jaycees promotes leadership and development and is open to men and women ages 18 to 40,” said Beth Blom, who was the Hopkins chapter president in 2009. “We do a lot of community projects from sponsoring sports activities for kids to programs for seniors to strong support of the Raspberry Festival in Hopkins each summer.”

The Hopkins chapter has recently been cited as among the strongest in Minnesota. One of its members, Travis Ahlquist, was named the national president for 2012.

Ahlquist joined the Jaycees while a resident of South Dakota and then transferred his membership to the Hopkins chapter when he moved here.

He served as the national vice president in 2009 and as chief of staff the following year. Last year, he was the national membership director.

“I hope to replicate the success that has been experienced by the Minnesota organization,” he said, regarding his goals for working with the national Jaycees organization. “I hope to inspire a new generation of leaders to take this organization to the next level of success with more members joining and making an impact in their communities.”

Other local Jaycees have done well at the national level. Laura Chesney-Gadd, the 2010 state Jaycees president, is a national vice president, and Sarah Vogt is the national treasurer.

Said Blom: “Our goal is to not only to contribute to the community, but to help in the development of each member both personally and professionally.”

Of course, the members have fun while helping their community. Also present at Saturday’s event was 2012 Hopkins president Joel Blom, Beth Blom’s husband.

“We met through the Jaycees,” Beth Blom explained.