The younger citizens of the Canton community similarly received the attention of the Canton Jaycees. In the 50’s, the Jaycees founded Junior Achievement in Canton as a community improvement project for the benefit of area high school students and as a bridge between younger people and area businesses. The Jaycees re-opened and renovated the newly named Pentagon Club as the successor to the Jay-Teen Center originally created during the war years. The Jaycees also commenced the Christmas Shopping Tour program in which, through the fund-raising activities of the Jaycees, funds utilized to permit underprivileged children to purchase needed items.

Canton Jaycees sponsored the first Soap Box Derby in the Canton area, which opened to a rousing success. Those persons involved in the project may still remember how the Canton Jaycees managed to corner the hot dog bun market and had a few left over. In expanding the project in the years to come, the Canton Jaycees took the forefront of the construction of a Derby Downs for the Canton area and the ongoing sponsoring of this project.

Covering a wide variety of major undertakings, the Jaycees of the 1950’s can be particularly proud of the contributions to Canton and to the Jaycees movement. The Jaycees of the 1960’s had an excellent springboard to expand the leadership development and service to the community, which had been the forefront of the Jaycees of that time.

The Jaycees have always been keen observers of beauty, and at least several Jaycees believed that beauty was, indeed, in the eye of the beholder, and the chapter sponsored The Miss Canton Pageant for several years. In the early 60’s, the Jaycees further sponsored a basketball game between the U.S. Olympic Basketball Team and the Cleveland Pipers and donated the funds derived from the project to the Olympic team.

Those in attendance could hardly forget the play of such basketball greats as Oscar Robertson, Jerry Lucas and Jerry West. With the birth of the idea that Canton should be the home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, one of the first to offer its support was the Canton Jaycees. The Jaycees of the 1960’s were on the ground level of the birth of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and its location in Canton, Ohio.

According to Clayton G. Horn, executive editor of the Brush-Moore Newspapers, Inc., the idea stated in the newsroom of the Canton Repository. Chuck Such, a sports staff member, issued a challenge to the Canton Community with a bannered story that was headlined: "Pro Football Needs Hall of Fame and Logical Site is Here."

The die was cast. Enthusiasm for the idea ran high. Immediately, the Canton Junior Chamber of Commerce asked to spearhead the project in cooperation with the Canton Chamber of Commerce. A steering committee composed of six members of each group was organized and the real work began.

For two years, members of the steering committee and many others from both chambers worked tierlessly on constitution and by-laws; non-profit incorporation; site selection and procurement, building plans and mementos, temporary operating funds, and public relations with the community nd the National Football League.

The primary objective was to receive the National Football League’s official sanction of Canton as the site for the Hall of Fame. As the Canton bid began to bloom, it faced Latrobe and new competitors, including the cities of Detroit, Los Angeles and Green Bay, can into contention for the site. Mr. William E. Umstattd, chairman of the executive committee of The Timken Company presented Canton’s case at National Football League meetings, and finally, on April 27, 1961, the League gave its sanction.

Then followed an equally successful fund campaign under the co-chairmanship of Jaycees Robert E. Lilly and Sheldon Fantle. The people of Canton, Massillon, Alliance and the surrounding communities pledged almost $400,000 to make the dream of a Pro Football Hall of Fame for Canton come true.

Another challenge of the decade successfully addressed by Canton Jaycees was the beginning of the technological revolution, which has blossomed into a major industry in the 1980’s. The seeds of the revolution were nurtured in the Canon area by a Project of the Year and Sweepstakes winner – NASA Space Fair.