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In May of 1916, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, or IOOF, held its 61st annual session at the Grand Lodge in Roseburg, Oregon. A special session was also held in July of that year.

The IOOF was founded in 1819 by Thomas Wedley in Baltimore, Maryland, as an offshoot of the Order of Odd Fellows in England, which was established in the 1700s. The lodges were typically used for networking, collaborating, and social gatherings.

The Odd Fellows currently exist in twenty six countries and have over ten thousand operating lodges. Their goal is to provide social and practical support for their local communities and promote good will among nations. They also provide scholarships, low-interest student loans, low-cost nursing homes, and summer camps for children and families. In addition, they make annual donations to a number of programs. The IOOF was the first fraternity to include both men and women.

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In 1910, Henry Pope at AT&T (American Telephone & Telegraph) suggested that the company owed its success to its long term workers. He wondered what had become of the pioneering employees at AT&T and made a list with his office partner and a retired friend. They gave the list to the AT&T president who suggested starting an annual reunion.

The Telephone Pioneers of America held their first meeting in November, 1911. Members had to have served 21 years in the telephone industry to attend. The Pioneers added community service as a core value in 1958, and soon after, the motto, “United to Serve Others” in 1959. The name changed from Telephone Pioneers to TeleCom Pioneers in 2002, reflecting industry change. They group changed again to “Pioneers, a volunteer network” in 2009.

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The Royal Order of Jesters, or R.O.J., is a branch of Shriners that was established in 1917. In 1911, thirteen Shriners led by Noble A.M. Elison, traveled to Hawaii on a pilgrimage to the Shriner’s Aloha Temple. While there the Shriners developed the idea for the Royal Order of Jesters, a branch of masons who exist “for the encouragement of laughter and fun in leisure times.” This sentiment is reflected in their motto, “Mirth is King.”

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Woodstock, Il is most well known for being the location of the film Groundhog Day (1993). Since the release of the film, Woodstock continues to celebrate Groundhog Day as a 4-day event annually. This commemorates both the 20th anniversary of the filming in 1992 and the subsequent release of Groundhog Day in 1993. The film’s location manager, Bob Hudgins, brought Harold Ramis (the film’s director) to Woodstock, and as they drove up Main St., Ramis saw the Opera House and knew that this was the place he wanted to film the movie. The year of the 20th anniversary of the film, Groundhog Day fell on a Saturday with warm weather, and the event had record attendance.

The town of Woodstock was first founded in 1844 under the name Centerville (chosen because the city happened to be located right in the center of McHenry County). The name was changed to Woodstock a year later, to honor the hometown of settlers from Vermont. The downtown area of Woodstock attained landmark status in 1982 and is known as the Woodstock Square Historic District. A focal point of the downtown area is the Opera House, originally built as the City Hall, Library, Auditorium, and Fire Department.

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The March of Dimes Foundation hosts an annual walkathon event with over 1000 communities participating across the United States. March of Dimes was founded by President Franklin D Roosevelt in 1938 as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which worked to combat and helped to fund the cure for polio. The mission grew after the discovery of the polio vaccine to include work on preventing birth defects and infant mortality as well as the funding of research to prevent premature births. March of Dimes is a leader in the fight for the health of all moms and babies to survive and thrive—working to help every baby get the best possible start they can.

The first March of Dimes walkathon took place in 1970 and was the first charitable walking event to take place in the country. The 1976 walkathon theme was a “spirit walk” which encouraged participants to “walk with sprit.”

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The E L placed along with the phrase "look up lift up" are signatures of the Methodist Epworth League. The Epworth League was founded in 1889 as a Methodist youth association. The organization was the result of a merger between several smaller organizations within the church. The EL focused on six main areas, Spiritual Life, Social Work, Literary Work, Correspondence, Mercy and Help, and Finance, with local chapters given the freedom to offer more. The EL existed in North America (Northern and Southern Methodist churches) and Canada. The original Epworth League lasted until 1939. After denominational mergers, the name changed to the Methodist Youth Fellowship.

Okoboji is a city in Iowa that lies along the West Okoboji Lake. It is considered one of Iowa's premiere vacation destinations. In the early 1900s through 1960s, Okoboji was favored as a resort town where people would come to spend the summer at inns and lodges.

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The Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights was a political rally held in October of 1987 as a follow-up to the 1979 March on Washington. The Pink Triangle, once a Nazi symbol of homosexuality, had been rebranded as a symbol for gay pride and was used on a variety of paraphernalia, including buttons.

Some 200,000 participants turned out for the march, more than double that of the one in 1979. Participants were protesting a number of laws they felt discriminated against homosexuals and were calling for an increase in Federal funds to adequately address the AIDS epidemic. They also sought to amend the Civil Rights Act to include protection against discrimination based on a person’s “affectional and sexual orientation.” A number of public figures, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Dan Bradley, a former White House aide, spoke at the march, which was endorsed by more than one thousand elected officials. Similar marches were held in 1993, 2000, and 2009.

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In 1966, comedian Jerry Lewis began the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Labor Day Telethon in Las Vegas. The telethon lasted twenty four hours and involved performances by a number of celebrities. Donations to the telethon were received from organizations across the country, including the Roller Skating Rink Operators of America. The RSROA was one of the largest contributors, raising funds through skate-a-thons held at local skating rinks. The donations received helped fund research and patient care programs that helped pay for medical equipment and orthopedic devices for muscular dystrophy sufferers.

Jerry Lewis parted ways with the MDA in 2010. By that time the show had become a two hour televised event. The final telethon was hosted in 2014, after having raised over $2 billion over its nearly fifty year run.

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Barack Obama was the 44^th President of the United States and he served two terms in office from January 20, 2009 – January 20, 2017. As the first African American elected to be President of the U.S., his first inauguration was a historic event attended by former Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Although there is no official count, the inauguration is said to have been attended by approximately 1.1 - 1.8 million people who packed the National Mall from the West Front of the Capitol to past the Washington Monument. Metro set new record for highest ridership day of all time on that day with 1,120,000 rail trips, 423,000 bus trips and 1,721 MetroAccess trips for a total of 1,544,721 trips by attendees of the inauguration.

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Founded in 1893 as a loose alliance of Protestant foreign mission agencies in North America, the Foreign Missions Conference joined the National Council of the Churches of Christ in 1950. Missionary activity increased after World War II, as multiple regions faced major upheavals. Post-world war missionaries often focused on education and health issues in addition to their religious calling.