PEORIA MAGAZINE July 2022

S P O T L I G H T

SURPASSING 100 AND STILL GOING STRONG Local social clubs celebrate major anniversaries

BY MONICA VEST WHEELER PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

W ith nearly 450 years between them, several central Illinois country clubs are proving that what’s old is new again. Decades of change and a modern pandemic have not derailed four social organizations with deep roots in local history and some noteworthy milestones in 2022. Indeed, the Country Club of Peoria clocks in at 125 years, the Illinois Valley Yacht (IVY) Club at 115 years, the Pekin Country Club at 106 years, and Mt. Hawley Country Club at an even 100. A renewed demand for outdoor activities helped keep all four resilient during these trying economic times, reflecting one of the original missions to indulge in a healthy outdoors lifestyle. A cornerstone of each organization is ongoing membership recruitment and

retention, and these clubs are finding new audiences again. What they are discovering is a reaffirmation of the adage that how Peoria goes, so go its social clubs. Representatives of all four clubs noted the membership decreases during downturns, but with younger professionals and families moving to the Tri-County area in the midst of Peoria being recognized by U.S. News & World Report magazine as one of America’s 50 best places to live, there has been a resurgence. COUNTRY CLUB OF PEORIA Chris Reis, general manager of the Country Club of Peoria, acknowledges that finding and retaining personnel has been a challenge coming out of such an extreme social and economic upheaval.

He credits the club’s leadership with working smarter. Evaluating overall operations and efficiency has been key to financial stability. Plus, there’s a new mindset that “the way we’ve always done it” is not necessarily in the best interests of the club and its members today, he said. Membership was about 475 when he came to the County Club of Peoria in 2017, dropped to 387 during the pandemic before rising to about 455 as of May, said Reis. A dedicated board that stressed transparency with members was crucial to that rebound. “We’ve found a balance of being everything to everybody within reason,” Reis said. “And that’s what clubs are all about. The challenge is how to do that while retaining tradition and being flexible at the same time.”

Country Club of Peoria

36 JULY 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE