The club began production of The Water’s Edge weekly newsletter on March 5, 1998. The club hosted their first Rotary Exchange Student, Aline Martinelli from Araraguara, Brazil beginning in July 1998. She attended Zion-Benton Township High School. The club organized its first fundraiser in December 1998 raising over $3000 with only fifteen provisional members. Further exchange students came to the club from Mexico, South Africa and Venezuela. Outgoing exchange students were placed in Demark, Germany and other spots around the World. The club, not being biased, also adopted a highway in 1999. It hasn’t gone anywhere.

Membership continued to move tantalizingly close to the twenty necessary for a charter, but never surpassed nineteen until March 18, 1999. The club immediately applied to RI for a charter that was granted on March 31, 1999. The club’s Charter Banquet was held on May 8, 1999 at the Illinois Beach Lodge and Resort, which was also the club’s weekly meeting place at the time. Tony Tolbert III, the district governor at the time, was the banquet’s keynote speaker. The club’s charter president was Bob Grulke.

The club helped to launch the “Trumie Golf Classic” in May 1999. It was designed to help a local family raise money to pay medical bills. It led to the founding of the club’s own golf outing in May 2001. The club’s golf outing was named the Jack McElmurry Memorial Golf Outing in 2004 after one of the charter members of the club who passed away after providing a great deal of leadership for the outing.

The club quickly launched a local scholarship program to provide scholarships for Zion-Benton Township High School students. Mike Baumgartner received the first $1000 scholarship in May 2000. He planned to attend UW-Parkside and studied English and education. The scholarship program has continued to expand until currently $12,000 worth of scholarships are awarded annually to local students. The club also presented a Youth Service and Leadership Award to graduating eighth grades at the local middle schools and junior highs.

The club has also sponsored a number of literacy related project. During the Zion Jubilee Days celebrations, the club has worked with the Zion-Benton Community Reading Foundation to give away books to interested readers. In 2005, the club also sponsored a paperback exchange rack in the Zion Metra Station in cooperation with the Zion-Benton Public Library.

On the international scene, the club involved itself in the first years of the 21st century in a partnership to provide prosthetic limbs for patients in Borada, India. The club began working with Andy Gomez and other staff from Zion-Benton Township High School to build a partnership with Esangweni Secondary School in South Africa. The partnership has netted two inbound exchange students. The club also helped to underwrite a group of teachers who went to South Africa to provide professional development to the South African teachers. The partnership also supported the installation and support of a computer lab at Esangweni School. This made Esangweni one of the only township schools in South Africa to have a complete computer lab.

In the spring of 2002, the club moved its meeting site to the Winthrop Harbor Yacht Club. The North Point Marina is the country’s largest fresh water marina. By 2003, the club had grown to more than 30 active members. The club regularly supports a wide range of community service projects and programs. In May 2004, it underwrote the cost of presenting phone cards to all of the Zion-Benton Township High School graduates who had enlisted in the military so that could call home from basic training. In April 2005, the club hosted a GSE team from Finland.