Kiwanis International Timeline of Events

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www.kiwanis.org

In This Special Issue:

Photos from Our First Century of Service

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Grantville Kiwanis: The Early Years

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Centennial Celebrations in Detroit and Worldwide

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SPECIAL ISSUE: January 2015

Joseph G. PranceCo-Founder and First Member

The year was 1914. In Sarajevo, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand sent most ofEurope into war. Charlie Chaplin made his movie debut, and Babe Ruth appeared in his first MajorLeague Baseball game. The first ship passed through the newly-completed Panama Canal, while in SanDiego, Balboa Park opened to celebrate the occasion. In Washington, D.C., President Woodrow Wilsonsigned a proclamation officially making Mother’s Day an American holiday. In Cincinnati, the world’slast passenger pigeon died. And in Detroit, Henry Ford perfected his assembly line technology to builda Model T every 90 minutes. Ford would sell over 300,000 cars in 1914, and yet his innovation wasmaybe just the second-most exciting concept born in Detroit that year.

33-year-old Joseph G. Prance, a modest Detroit tailor with his own shop at 1188 Gratiot Avenue,met with Allan Simpson Browne, a persuasive and energetic man who actually earned his living bytraveling across Michigan and Ontario, establishing Moose Lodges. Browne had already built severalsmall fraternal and civic organizations, and had previously tried to recruit Prance for another group,but in 1914, with much of the world on the brink of war, Prance agreed to become the first member of anew organization, which Browne would call the “Supreme Lodge Benevolent Order Brothers.”

The concept was simple. Build an organization for local businessmen, who would pay dues tobelong to the group, and in turn, patronize one another’s businesses. In theory, each member wouldprofit from their involvement. Over the next few months, Browne and Prance would recruit dozens ofother interested businessmen, holding the first few meetings in Prance’s tailor shop. On December 7th,1914, Prance signed the new organization’s first membership card.

It quickly became apparent that the name “Benevolent Order Brothers” (or “B.O.B.” for short) wasboth cumbersome and unappealing. Browne approached Detroit City Historian C.M. Burton in searchof suggestions for a more meaningful name. Together, they found an Otchipew (Chippewa) phrase,“Nunc-Kee-Wan-Nis,” which had several interpretations, including “we trade,” “we make noise,” “wemake ourselves known,” and “we have a good time.” Browne decided to shorten the phrase to simply“Kiwanis,” and thus the new organization was given its name.

Paperwork was filed with the State of Michigan, petitioning the Secretary of State to incorporate thenew organization. On January 21st, 1915, that application was approved, and the Kiwanis Club ofDetroit was born, with insurance man Donald A. Johnston serving as the first Club President. Today,January 21st is recognized as the official date of the founding of Kiwanis International.

The idea of Kiwanis spread quickly, although not without deliberation. By July 1915, members ofthe club had turned their attention from that of profit and greed to one of community service instead.Selfish motives gave way to philanthropy and goodwill, and soon Kiwanis became known for servingothers. The club’s first service project was the symbolic (but active) adoption of a needy young child,who would have his name legally changed to Walter Kiwanis.

However, Allen Browne legally owned the Kiwanis Club, and many of the club’s original 173members left once it was determined that Browne was keeping a personal profit from each member’sdues. As membership dwindled down to about fifty men, it looked as though Kiwanis may fail.Johnston refocused the group, while Browne left for Ohio, along with Club Secretary Ottie Robertson.The two of them formed the Kiwanis Club of Cleveland (with 135 members) by the end of the year.

The first Kiwanis Convention was held in Cleveland in May of 1916, as delegates adopted officersand a constitution, thus making community service the permanent mission of Kiwanis International.Kiwanis Districts were formed for the first time. At the 1919 Kiwanis Convention in Birmingham,delegates voted to buy out Browne for the sum of $17,500 -- a massive total raised in a single day.Kiwanis now controlled its own destiny and owned the rights to its own organization. In 1920, themotto “We Build” was adopted, followed four years later by the Six Permanent Objects of Kiwanis.

At a time when the world seemed like it would be consumed by war, Kiwanis not only survived,but it spread across the continent, and it thrived. A hundred years later, Kiwanis continues to shine.

Allen Simpson BrowneCo-Founder of Kiwanis

Donald A. JohnstonFirst Kiwanis Club President

Our First 100 Years

1925 – The world’s first Key Club is formed at Sacramento High School. It is so named for the “key students” in the school – all boys – who make up the membership.

1915 – Allan S. Browne and Joseph Prance recruit members into their new organization for Detroit businessmen.The organization, named “The Kiwanis Club,” receives official recognition by the state on January 21st, 1915.

Browne opens a second Kiwanis Club in Cleveland, Ohio, in October of that same year.

1975 – Coles Junior High School in Ashland, Kentucky becomes the site of

the world’s first Builders Club.

1990 – Lamar Fisher of the Florida District establishes the first K-Kids Club, making elementary school students the youngestpart of the Kiwanis Family. Later, the first K-Kids Club in California is established in 1994-95 by Dr. Doug Grosmark atHearst Elementary School in San Diego.

1993 – Kiwanis International teams up with UNICEF for the first time, to combat the tragic effects of IodineDeficiency Disorder (IDD), the lack of iodine as a nutrient. Symptoms can include physical malformationssuch as goiters, or mental disabilities. Over the next five years, Kiwanis and UNICEF raise $75 million toconstruct factories to add iodine to table salt for human consumption. As a result, IDD is statisticallyeliminated from the planet.

1987 – At the Kiwanis International Convention in Washington, D.C., more than two-thirds of delegates elect to remove thegender qualification from Kiwanis membership, officially opening the door for women to join Kiwanis International. Thesame issue a year earlier had won just 47 percent of the vote.

2015 – As Kiwanis International celebrates its 100th year, Michigan’s Sue Petrisin is set to become the first female International President when she takes office next summer at the International Convention in Indianapolis.

1924 – Delegates at the Kiwanis International Convention in Denver, Colorado adopt the Six Permanent Objects of Kiwanis.

To this day, these Objects have never been changed.

1917 – Kiwanis reaches the West Coast, with the formation of the Los Angeles Kiwanis Club. It would take two years for the club to receive its charter.

1960 – The Kiwanis Club of Grantville (later Grantville-Allied Gardens) is chartered in San Diego on September 17th.

1962 – Following a vote at the previous year’s International Convention in Toronto, allowing Kiwanis Clubs to operate outsideof the United States and Canada, the Kiwanis Club of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico is chartered on May 15th, 1962 as part ofthe California-Nevada-Hawaii District. Within two years, Kiwanis International would expand to Austria, the Bahamas,Belgium, Germany, Iceland, Jamaica, Japan, Norway, Switzerland, and further into Mexico.

1916 – Another 29 Kiwanis Clubs open between Massachusetts and Illinois, with many new clubs forming in New York and Ohio. Kiwanis becomes “International” on November 1st, 1916, with the opening of the Hamilton (Ontario) Kiwanis Club.

1936 – Kiwanis members in Pullman, Washington refurbish and re-open a fraternity house at nearby Washington State College. A Kiwanis logo posted prominently on top of the frat house leads others around the community to call it the “Circle K” house.

1947 – At Carthage College in Illinois, a local Kiwanis Club begins a new Kiwanis youth group for college students, formatted as a service club, and borrowing the name “Circle K” from that same frat house in Washington State.

1955 – The San Diego State College Circle K club is formed, and provides two of the organization’s first International Presidents (Wally Miller, 1956-57 and Hal Helsley, 1957-58). The SDSC (now SDSU) Circle K club has kept its charter to the present day.

1973 – With his two teenage daughters unable to join the all-male Key Club organization, Cal-Nev-HaKiwanis District Governor Sid Smith forms the “Keyettes” club for girls. This group later becomesKeywanettes, and later KIWIN’S, paving the way for women to join the Kiwanis Family.

1973 – Circle K International admits its firstfemale members. Key Club Internationalfollows suit four years later.

2010 – Kiwanis International announces its second worldwide service initiative in conjunction with UNICEF, introducing theEliminate Project at the International Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. This time, the target is Maternal and NeonatalTetanus (MNT), a deadly but entirely preventable bacterial infection affecting newborns.

A more interactive Kiwanis history timeline is available online at www.kiwanis.org/kiwanis100.

1919 – Kiwanis “purchases itself” from founder Allen S. Browne.

1922-1935 – Kiwanians place some 22 “goodwill” markers on the U.S.-Canadian border, symbolizing international friendship.

1920 – The San Diego Kiwanis Club is chartered, the first in the area.

1950 – Nine years prior to statehood, Hawaii is officially added to the California-Nevada District of Kiwanis International.

1951 – Division 21 is formed from parts of Division 11, which had previously included all of San Diego and Imperial Counties (and even Yuma, Arizona). Ben C. Becker of the North Park Kiwanis Club is the new division’s first Lt. Governor.

1994 – Kiwanis International enters the digital age with the launch of its website, www.kiwanis.org.

2000 – The Cal-Nev-Ha District introduces Total K Day (now Kiwanis One Day), a service holiday for the entire Kiwanis Family.

Despite Rough Start, Growth Continued Through the DecadesIt’s amazing to think about it now, but Kiwanis nearly didn’t

make it. Just six months after its inception, members of the DetroitKiwanis Club were at odds with each other about the overall goal ofthe organization, and of course, whether or not Allen S. Browne, the“owner” of Kiwanis, really had the community’s interest in mind.

Not surprisingly, “Kiwanis politics” are nearly as old as Kiwanisitself. Known to Kiwanis historians as the “July Dissent,” tempersflared at a mid-summer meeting of the original Detroit Kiwanis Club.Members of the new organization were angry that annual dues hadbeen increased from $5 to $10, and that Browne, as the organization’sowner, was entitled by club bylaws to pocket nearly all of thatmoney. Other accusations were levied against Browne – not all ofthem true – but it was almost enough to kill Kiwanis on the spot.Kiwanis co-founder Joseph Prance later wrote about that terrible day:“Everyone started talking all at once, all 175 of them. When the smokecleared, we had about 50 members left. Secretary Ottie Robertson andAllen Browne, disgusted, left for Cleveland to organize a club there.”

It was left to President Donald Johnston, and his skills indiplomacy, to save the Detroit Kiwanis Club. Meanwhile, Browneand Robertson made good on their word to begin other KiwanisClubs. In just ten weeks, the duo had recruited another 135 newKiwanians in Ohio. The years 1916 and 1917 were very good toKiwanis as word spread about the new organization and its newcommitment to community service. The first Kiwanis Conventionswere held, fittingly, in Cleveland (1916) and Detroit (1917). Kiwanisspread into Canada with the opening of a club in Hamilton, Ontario,and for the first time, Kiwanis became “Kiwanis International.”

George F. Hixson of Rochester, New York, was elected to serveas the first International President of Kiwanis during that originalConvention in Cleveland. Re-elected a year later, Hixson remains the

This frightening figure is Zozobra (Spanish for “anxiety”),the cornerstone of a community event hosted since 1924 bythe Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Zozobra (seenhere in 1975) is a 50-foot tall marionette built by Kiwanis,then burned in a spectacular blaze to keep gloom away.

only International President of Kiwanis to serve two terms.An International office was set up in Chicago in 1918,

the first-ever Kiwanis International Headquarters. In 1920,the original Kiwanis motto “We Build” was coined byTrustee Roe Fulkerson (also the editor of the originalKiwanis Magazine). That simple two-word phraseremained the motto for Kiwanis until the year 2000, whenit was changed to “Serving the Children of the World.”

The sudden death of U.S. President Warren G.Harding in 1923 brought early publicity to Kiwanis;Harding had been a Kiwanis member briefly, and as aresult, Kiwanis dedicated a memorial to him in Vancouver,British Columbia, symbolizing friendship between nations.

The Six Permanent Objects of Kiwanis – which remainunchanged to this day despite several attempted revisions– were adopted at the 1924 Kiwanis Convention in Denver.

The Kiwanis International Convention in 1935 in SanAntonio, Texas was the first to be broadcast live via radio.

By the time Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Decemberof 1941, Kiwanis International membership had grown toover 110,000. International President Charles Donley sentPresident Franklin Roosevelt a telegram on the day of theattacks, pledging the support of all Kiwanis Clubs andmembers in both nations. Many Kiwanis Clubs helped tosell war bonds and donate blood in the years to follow.

In 1959, as Kiwanis had outgrown its office space forthe third time, Harry A. Young, the last living chartermember of the Detroit #1 Kiwanis Club, was present forthe groundbreaking of the new Kiwanis Internationalbuilding in Chicago, which would last until 1982.

Welcome to Merry-land: Sadly, G.A.G. Kiwanis can’t take credit for inventing theKiwanis Christmas Tree Lot. These Kiwanis members of Wheaton, Maryland were sellingtrees as early as 1950 – and they probably weren’t the first to come up with it, either!

1917-1951: The Kiwanis Cal-Nev-Ha District Takes Shape

Start Spreading The News: Delegates packed into Madison Square Garden inNew York City to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Kiwanis International, 1965.

Monkey Business: In 1955, members of the Hillcrest Kiwanis Club in Division 21sponsored three chimpanzees – named Pete, Peanuts, and Banjo – for the SanDiego Zoo, in support of the Zoo’s new children’s education program.

As the “Great War” raged on in May of 1917, two LosAngeles businessmen, W.W. Widenham and Paul Jesburg,made independent trips eastbound for business purposes.Each was introduced to Kiwanis during their travels, andeach in turn made contact with Allen S. Browne, who atthe time was still in charge of the growth and oversight ofKiwanis. Browne dispatched two representatives toCalifornia to begin the process of recruiting members for anew Los Angeles Kiwanis Club. On June 6th, a dozen menincluding Widenham and Jesburg met at the Clark Hoteland agreed on a slate of officers. By September 5th, aboutsixty new members participated in the adoption of Bylawsfor the new club. (Surprisingly, it would be another twoyears before the Los Angeles Club received its officialcharter as the 77th Kiwanis Club and first in California.)

Original plans for a new Southwestern District calledfor California to be grouped together with Nevada,Arizona, and New Mexico. After considering the massivesize of this territory, it was decided that California shouldbecome its own district, and thus the California District ofKiwanis was born… with only one club to show for it!

A second club was formed in Long Beach inSeptember 1919, followed in 1920 by Pasadena, Oakland,San Francisco, San Diego, and Santa Ana. Pasadenahosted the first District Convention in October 1921.

Nevada’s first club was added in Reno in 1922, andwas assigned the following year to the new California-Nevada District. The District laid out its first elevendivisions (then called “Zones”) in 1923. San Diego wasassigned to Zone 11. Division 21 split off from Division 11and was officially founded on January 1st, 1951 – the verysame day in which Hawaii joined our district, followingthe charter of the Honolulu Kiwanis Club in May 1947.

The Stars of San Diego: 1976-77 Kiwanis International PresidentStanley Schneider of Crestline, Ohio receives a bell from 1975-76President Ted R. Osborn (Lexington, Kentucky) at the only KiwanisInternational Convention ever held in San Diego.

Pioneers of Service: The first elected officers of the Detroit Kiwanis Club pose fora photo in 1915. Top row, L-R: Club Directors Carl Von Poetgen, Joseph G.Prance, and George Eyster. Bottow row, L-R: Fred Miller, President Donald A.Johnston, Vice President George Haas, and Secretary Ottie Robertson.

Orange You Glad: Delegates from the Florida District turn intheir ballots at the 1987 Kiwanis International Convention inWashington, D.C., where Kiwanis membership was officiallyopened to women for the first time.

5,000 and One: The Kiwanis Club of South Muncie,Indiana was recognized as the 5,000th Kiwanis Club in1962. Second from left is Harold A. Young, the lastliving charter member of the original Kiwanis Club.

Next in Line: Michigan’s Sue Petrisinwill make history again this summerwhen she becomes the first femalePresident of Kiwanis International.

Come Sail Away: Safely on shore, SDSU Circle Kmembers Ed Dennis and Dan Germain showconcern for some struggling teammates at theRowboat Regatta in 1976. The raised over $5,000.

Sign of the Times: G.A.G. Kiwanians raised this sign at the bottom of Waring Road in 1975. (L-R)Joe Terwilliger, Cal Pancheri, Gene Elmore, Floyd Lee, John Peterson, and Ken Bonatus.

Diplomatic Immunity: Kiwanis ambassadorAvanti Kollarum, a former Circle K and Key Clubmember, poses with a healthy Cambodian infanton a 2011 Eliminate Project tour with UNICEF.

Above: Circle K’ers have never been afraid to breakbarriers, as they did in 1975 with the election ofGregory Faulkner, the first African-American toserve as International President in the Kiwanis Family.

Left: Fraternity brothers in Pullman, Washington posein front of the original “Circle K House” in the 1940s.

Home Again: Kiwanis returned to itsroots in Detroit, Michigan for the 1970International Convention.

George The First: The first InternationalPresident (and the only one to serve twice),George F. Hixson, served from 1916-1918.

Memphis Bound from Puget Sound: This group oftravelers from Seattle headed by train to the KiwanisConvention in Memphis, Tennessee in 1926.

The six Objects of Kiwanis International were approved by Kiwanis delegates at the 1924 Convention in Denver, Colorado. Despite many attempts to alter or revise them over the succeeding decades, they have remained unchanged.

• To give primacy to the human and spiritual rather than to the material values of life.

• To promote the adoption and the application of higher social, business, and professional standards.

• To provide, through Kiwanis clubs, a practical means to form enduring friendships, to render altruistic service, and to

build better communities.

• To encourage the daily living of the Golden Rule in all human relationships.

• To develop, by precept and example, a more intelligent, aggressive, and serviceable citizenship.

• To cooperate in creating and maintaining that sound public opinion and high idealism which make possible the increase

of righteousness, justice, patriotism, and goodwill.

The Six Permanent Objects of Kiwanis International

Kiwanis at the White HouseAt the 14th Annual Key Club International Convention, held in 1956 in

Washington, D.C., legions of young volunteers surrounded an engaging youngSenator from Massachusetts, who was to serve as the Convention’s KeynoteSpeaker. His name was John F. Kennedy.

Of the millions of people who have called themselves Kiwanians over theyears, some were better known for certain other contributions to society. A fewof the notable names who were Kiwanis members at some point:

• Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States• Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States• Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States• Richard M. Nixon, 37th President of the United States

Many other Presidents from both parties have had some sort of relationshipwith Kiwanis over the years. Truman, Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reaganeach welcomed Kiwanis International Trustees into the Oval Office for briefingson International programs sponsored by Kiwanis.

Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed some 4,000 Kiwanis members, along withtheir wives and children, on the White House lawn as part of the 1936 KiwanisConvention. As FDR had been a Kiwanian previously, he expressed a desire toreturn to the club after his term in office was completed. “I wish I could haveattended the various meetings of this convention,” he said. “Someday, when I getthrough with my job here, I hope you will let me come just as a delegate.”

Ronald Reagan spoke to Kiwanis International Conventions twice, in LosAngeles in 1964, and again during his presidency in 1987, when the Conventionreturned to Washington, D.C.. Reagan took that opportunity to promote the “JustSay No” campaign against drugs; First Lady Barbara Bush spoke to the sameConvention that year.

Presidential Candidate and longtime Kansas Senator Bob Dole was a KiwanisLife Member and even served as a Lieutenant Governor in the Kansas District.He was recognized for his service at the 1976 Circle K International Conventionwhile campaigning as Gerald Ford’s running mate.

More recently, in September 2012, President Barack Obama welcomedfourteen members of the Kiwanis Family to the White House, where they wererecognized as “Champions for Change.” The honorees ranged from 2003–04Kiwanis International president Robert L. Moore to some of today’s studentleaders from Key Club and Builders Club.

Some celebrity members of Key ClubInternational have included Bill Clinton(42nd President of the United States), U.S.Senators Trent Lott, Bill Nelson, andRichard Burr, country music stars AlanJackson and Darius Rucker, actors TomCruise and Brad Pitt, New York Jetsquarterback Joe Namath, ESPN personalityStuart Scott, actress and talk show hostRicki Lake, radio “shock jock” HowardStern, and yes, even the King, Elvis Presley.

The Kiwanis Club of New York City named 86-year-oldHerbert Hoover its Man of the Year for 1960. Hooverwas President of the United States from 1929-1933.

Some historical information for this issue has been adapted from available resources online at www.kiwanis.org and www.floridakiwanis.org, from G.A.G. Kiwanis club archives, andfrom “History of California-Nevada-Hawaii District Kiwanis 1917-1980”, by Irvin C. Chapman, District Historian, published by Mission Printing Co.

Photographs for this issue are the property of the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) Library Special Archives, Kiwanis International Collection; G.A.G.Kiwanis Archives; or Kiwanis International online at www.kiwanis.org. Thanks also to Gene Elmore, John Peterson, and Dan Germain for verification on some items.

Above: At left, Kiwanis International President Roy W. Davis and International Secretary R.P. Merridew met with President Gerald R. Ford in the OvalOffice in 1975; President Harry S. Truman (seated) met with several Kiwanis International board members more than once, as Truman was previously amember of the Independence, Missouri Kiwanis Club. Many Kiwanians at the time pledged to support Truman to help prevent the spread of Communism.

In Grantville, The Kiwanis Tale Began 45 Years Later

William F. Geisinger

Kiwanis spread like wildfire across North America following its inception in Detroit 100 years ago.Around that time, the sleepy little settlement of Grantville was still in its infancy. Although San DiegoMission de Alcala had stood beside the San Diego River since 1774, Grantville itself was not establisheduntil the mid-1880s, when it was named for former President and Union Army General Ulysses S.Grant. In an attempt to lure Civil War veterans to settle in the area, many of the area’s streets werenamed for key figures in the war.

Grantville remained a tiny neighborhood along the San Diego River until the 1940s, when it wasfinally annexed into the City of San Diego. Growth of the city, facilitated largely by the military’spresence during World War II, forced eastward expansion into Mission Valley and beyond, leading tothe birth of Allied Gardens in 1954.

Built by the team of Louis Kelton and Walter Bollenbacher, the new development was carved froma 1,000-acre parcel of land originally purchased from the Waring estate (hence “Waring Road”). Theteam had gone into business under the name “Allied Contractors,” and therefore the new neighborhoodwas named after their company – Allied Gardens.

By 1960, the area including Grantville and Allied Gardens was large enough to warrant schools,churches, a post office, a community center, a freeway, and of course, a Kiwanis Club. Members fromthe Kiwanis Club of Old San Diego (which has just recently folded, as of October 2014) took it uponthemselves to recruit new Kiwanis members in the area and build a new Kiwanis Club for the area.

On September 17th, 1960, the Grantville Kiwanis Club (as it was called at the time) received its charter from KiwanisInternational with 37 original members, and William F. “Bill” Geisinger serving as the club’s first President. Geisinger was themanager at the Allied Gardens First National Bank, although sadly, his association with our club was not a long one. He would beout of the club by 1963. In contrast, also on that original club roster was Robert “Bob” Frankhouser, who today stands proud asthe club’s only remaining charter member, having participated in all fifty-four years of the club’s existence.

The dedication of the original Grantville post office (then known as “San Diego 20”) would be the club’s first communityservice project, on January 7th, 1961, complete with a Kiwanis banner, uniformed military personnel, and on stage, the Naval AirForce Pacific Fleet Band to mark the occasion. Don D’Agostino of the Kearny Mesa Kiwanis Club had just completed his term asDivision 21 Lieutenant Governor in 1960, and served as emcee for the dedication. Don McClean, the first Treasurer of theGrantville Kiwanis Club, also served as Assistant Superintendent of the post office.

The Grantville Kiwanis Club originally met as a lunch club at the Purple Cow restaurant at 6160 Mission Gorge Road, whichlater became the House of the Beefeaters (1964). By the time 1965 drew to a close, the Kiwanis Club had moved to what is now theAllied Gardens Recreation Center for breakfast on Thursday mornings. The move prompted the club to officially add “AlliedGardens” to its name. Bob Frankhouser was honored in 1965 with the first Kiwanian of the Year Award for the newly re-namedGrantville-Allied Gardens Kiwanis Club.

Kiwanis Members Make Noise, Have a Good Time WorldwideWhatever happened to that first Kiwanis Club established in the winter of 1914-15 by Allen

Browne and Joseph Prance? Well, it’s still going strong. A hundred years later, it is known asthe Detroit Number 1 Kiwanis Club, and members are proud to say that their club was truly thefirst Kiwanis Club in the world. The Detroit #1 Club has never lost its charter.

As the Deputy Treasurer of Wayne County, Michigan, Eric Sabree is used to having a lot ofresponsibility. Perhaps that’s why he was up to the challenge of serving as the President of thatDetroit Club during this very important year for Kiwanis. Sabree and a committee of leadersfrom Kiwanis International have worked hard to put together a weekend-long celebration inDetroit to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Kiwanis. The official celebration, co-hostedby Kiwanis International President John Button, will feature Kiwanis dignitaries from aroundthe world, motivational speaker Drew Dudley, and Detroit-based rock band Fifty Amp Fuse.The party begins on Friday, January 23rd, followed by dinner and a concert the following night,and a Sunday brunch. This event has a capacity of just 400 people, so tickets sold out fast!

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Kiwanis event without a service project of some sort. A blooddrive is planned to coincide with the weekend celebration – the goal is “100 pints for 100 years”-- along with the grand opening of a new Kiwanis exhibit at the Detroit Historical Museum. Aproject promoting children’s literacy is also scheduled for Saturday, January 24th.

Many other Kiwanis Clubs around the world plan some observance of the centennial. Someare holding parades or dinner parties; others have service events to mark the occasion. Theanniversary will be celebrated again at the Asia-Pacific Regional Kiwanis Convention in thePhilippines this March, during Kiwanis One Day in April, and in Luxembourg this June for theKiwanis European Federation Conference. Then in Indianapolis, the home of KiwanisInternational Headquarters, the Kiwanis International Convention will be held from June 25-28in conjunction with the International Conventions for Key Club and Circle K. Party on!

Information for this article comes from Grantville-Allied Gardens Kiwanis Club archives, the San Diego Historical Society, and “San Diego County Place Names A to Z,” by Leland Fetzer; published 2005 by Sunbelt Publications.

Eric Sabree has the unique distinction of being the Centennial President of the

Detroit #1 Kiwanis Club.