Mission Statement
This Club is dedicated to the benefit of the Community of Damascus, with a primary emphasis on its youth. The primary responsibility of this Club is to manage all property of the organization.
Damascus Centennial Park
In 1959, Oregon was busy celebrating its 100th year of statehood… almost. The State and big cities like Portland could not quite get their acts together, so not much was happening. A group of people in the little community of Damascus got together to put on a 100-day Centennial Celebration party and formed the Damascus Civic Club to make it happen.
When the dust settled three months later, people went back to their regular jobs (if they still had them), shaved their beards, and realized they had a little money left over.
The group got together and asked, “What does Damascus need?” The answer was a park. Using that Centennial celebration leftover money, they made a down payment on the park property, which included a house. The plan was to use rental from the house to pay off the mortgage and operate the park.
As time went on, the mortgage was paid off, a portion of frontage on the highway was given to the Fire District for use as a fire station, and the rental from the house (now a daycare center) continues to fund maintenance and operation of the park. In the 1990s, the Civic Club started Day in the Park, now called Day in Damascus. This community carnival provides fun and games for kids of all ages and raises funds for park improvements such as the playground structures, basketball halfcourt, a gazebo, the pavilion, picnic tables, and many other projects.
The Centennial Candle
In preparation for the Oregon centennial celebrations, there was a grand plan for a giant birthday candle. For a year, schools and youth groups collected wax. Then the bright engineering types realized that a wax candle of the size envisioned would collapse of its own weight.
Well… Damascus did it anyway, and we built the current replica candle in 1962.
Membership Information
Since its formation in 1959, the Damascus Civic Club has been managed and directed by citizen volunteers, currently a seven-member Executive Council and the general membership. There are no membership dues, and the group meets six times each year. Focused on their primary mission, membership meetings are filled with like-minded folks brainstorming upcoming events, engaging in creative problem solving, and exploring long-range goals and objectives. And we have a lot of fun!
Damascus Centennial Park 