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Kiwanis International is an association of member Kiwanis clubs composed of men and women who are committed to volunteer community service locally and worldwide. Since the first Kiwanis Club was organized in Detroit, MI in 1915 the members of Kiwanis clubs have donated time and financial support to worthy causes in their local communities. Kiwanis International consists of approximately 325,000 members of more than 8,400 clubs in more than 70 countries. Kiwanis student organizations (Circle K Clubs in colleges and universities, Key Clubs at the high school level, and Builders Clubs on the junior high/middle school level) have 240,000 members. Annually, Kiwanis organizations donate over $70 million and more that 7 million volunteer hours to community service projects.
Our club is made up
of approximately 108 members, mainly corporate retirees who have much expertise
to offer to a variety of projects throughout the community.
A caring, involved and loving group, our focus is on helping youth and
the elderly in our community—over 5,000 of the 10,000 man-hours given to the
community annually by the club are performed at Edward Hospital.
Our wide variety of service projects allow every member to find a niche
and get involved. And we are open
to adopting new projects as they are brought to the club for consideration.
·
Our club
boasts the membership of twenty six Hixson Award holders: Bill Abe, Nathan
Bartell
(deceased), John
Bergesen, Don Cervenka, Pete Cooper
(deceased), Pat Cork, Gordon Ferguson, Gerry Garren, Jack Gillespie, Joe Honn,
Bob Jaynes,
Richard Kilburn, Dick Konigsfeld, John Kroening, Larry Lyons, Fay McDonald
(deceased 2001),
Jim O'Donnell, Frank Pollack, Jack Powell
(deceased 2003), Charles Price, Thomas Robillard (deceased), Jim
Shrewood, C. Weston Spencer (deceased January 2001), Wayne Thomas,
Christine Thudium and Charlie
Weston (deceased 2001).
· We have nine active Legion of Honor Award winners recognizing continual Kiwanis membership: Bill Abe (54 years), Dick Kilburn (37 years), Dick Smith (35 years), John Kunsch (35 years), Jack Parker (35 years), Rod Randall (32 years), Tom Cieslak (32 years), Duane Stone (31 years) and Van Pentecost (31 years). Kiwanis International recognizes club members with 25+ years of continuous membership with Legion of Honor status.
·
Twenty-three
Past
Presidents of the club still maintain active membership in the organization.
·
The club
has sixteen women members; the first one who is still active joined in 1995.
A number of these women have held Board Membership and/or chaired various
committees, but during the 2000-2001 administrative year, for the first time a
woman (Edie Gold) was elected to the position of President-Elect and the
following year (2001-2002) she led the Club as President.
·
There
are four married couples who are part of our active membership.
·
As of
this writing we have 108 members, whose average age is 67 years with an
average of 9 years of Kiwanis membership.
We
pride ourselves as being an extremely active service club.
However, given the average age of our membership, we find that from time
to time we are forced to forego certain activities that are presented to us.
We do continue to make earnest attempts to increase our membership and
attract new members of all ages. Please
see “Activities” for a summary of our Club’s current projects
The
Naperville Evening Kiwanis Club was chartered as the Kiwanis Club of Naperville.
When a second club was formed in Naperville, it became necessary to
distinguish one from the other. Based
on meeting times, the other club is known as the “Kiwanis Club of
Naperville—Noon.” We have simply adopted the “Naperville Evening
Kiwanis Club” distinction.
We
pride ourselves as being a very active and visible service club within the
community. The club membership
consists mainly of corporate retirees who freely offer their expertise and
know-how to give of their time and talents to the community. As a group, we cooperate with other service clubs and
not-for-profits in our area in helping to improve and/or maintain the quality of
life for the residents of our suburban Chicago area.
Our
club was founded 1955 and the Kiwanis Club of Naperville with 28 members.
(One of those founding members is still an active member of the club.)
We adopted the title “Naperville Evening Kiwanis Club” after a second
Kiwanis was formed in Naperville. The
other club has had breakfast meetings and currently meets at noon, so our
distinction as the “Naperville Evening Kiwanis Club” has set us apart from
any other service club in our growing town.
Our
current membership is 108, including 2 former Lt. Governors, 18 women, 26 Hixson
Award holders, and 9 Legion of Honor members.
We
are in Division 21 of the Illinois and Eastern Iowa (I-I) District.
Our club has always maintained a close relationship with Edward Hospital. Approximately half of our 10,000+ volunteer hours annually are spent working at Edward Hospital projects. The hospital, in turn, has provided us with a meeting space and catered meals. Our weekly meetings are held on the 3rd floor of Edward's Education Building .
Created February 2001. Last updated Sunday, October 05, 2008
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