LITCHFIELD – Native son and Rotary Club co-founder Hiram Elmer Shorey will be honored by a townwide party on Saturday, July 24.

The Family Day event will feature food, live music, and games and rides for children. Organizers expect nearly 1,000 people to attend, with Rotarians coming from at least 18 countries to celebrate the club’s centennial.

Shorey was one of four businessmen who created the Rotary Club in Chicago in February 1904. The purpose of the new service club was to accentuate small-town values even in the big cities.

Shorey was born in Litchfield and had moved to Chicago to work as a merchant tailor. He later returned to his hometown, where he died in 1944. His ashes were buried here beneath a granite monument.

At 10 a.m. Saturday, there will be a memorial service at the grave site at Plains Cemetery. Afterward, Rotary International President Glenn E. Estess Sr. will unveil a new marker at the Shorey Monument to commemorate Rotary’s 100 years of service.

Two grandsons and a great-grandson of Shorey will travel from Washington state for the ceremony. Immediately after the memorial service, Estess will unveil a historical marker at Shorey’s birthplace. The brief ceremony will be followed by the dedication of the Hiram E. Shorey Family History Center and Library at the Litchfield Town Hall.

The history center and library is a centennial project of the Rotary Clubs of Maine. Litchfield, a small farming community of about 2,500 people, has no Rotary Club.

After the ceremonies, Estess and his wife, Mary, will board a 1905 Victorian carriage for a ride from the Town Hall to the fairgrounds on Plains Road, where a celebration of Rotary’s centennial will kick off at 12:30 p.m.

“A Family Day at the Fairgrounds” will feature bean-hole baked beans, barbecued chicken, hot dogs, sausage and other food from around Maine prepared by different Rotary clubs and local organizations.

The focus of the family cookout will be on children, with a farm animal petting zoo, covered wagon rides, a “castle moon bounce,” a giant slide, water balloon toss contests, cotton candy, popcorn, helium balloons and a few rides and games for young children.

There will be live musical entertainment throughout the afternoon. There will be no charge for the event, although donations for food and rides will be accepted by the various clubs and organizations.