History

The first Kiwanis club was organized in Detroit, Michigan, USA on January 21, 1915. A year later the Kiwanis Club of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, was chartered, and Kiwanis International grew rapidly into a leading service club in these two founding nations. In 1962, worldwide expansion was approved, and today Kiwanis clubs are active in every part of the world.

Motto

"We Build."

Number of clubs and members

There are more than 8,200 Kiwanis clubs with nearly 300,000 members in more than 80 nations and geographic areas.

Type of membership

Active or retired business and professional men and women.

The "average" Kiwanian

The average Kiwanis member is 55.1 years old, a college graduate, married, and a homeowner. He or she is an owner or manager of a firm in the $25 million or less range.

Women in Kiwanis

Membership was opened to women in 1987. There are now more than 51,000 women members, and 1 in 7 club presidents is a woman.

Kiwanis youth organizations

Kiwanis International sponsors several service clubs for young people: Circle K International has 11,000 members on 570 university and college campuses; Key Club International has 215,000 members in 4,600 high schools; and Builders Clubs have been organized in 2,000 junior high and middle schools. Other members of the Kiwanis family include K-Kids in elementary schools, young European adults in Kiwanis Junior, and Aktion Club, which involves persons with disabilities in community-service activities.

Kiwanis service

In one year, Kiwanis clubs sponsored 147,000 service projects. To do so, Kiwanians raised and spent almost $70 million and contributed 6.2 million hours of volunteer time.

Kiwanis' continuing service emphasis is called "Young Children: Priority One," which focuses on the special needs of children from prenatal development to age 5. Projects conducted as part of the "Young Children:  Priority One" service emphasis involved $14.3 million and 1.3 million volunteer hours.

In 1994, Kiwanis launched its first Worldwide Service Project, a $75 million campaign in partnership with UNICEF to eliminate iodine deficiency disorders by the year 2000. Iodine deficiency is rare in areas where iodized salt is used, but in other parts of the world, IDD is the leading cause of preventable mental and physical retardation.  As many as 1.5 billion people are at risk, especially young children.

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Cal-Nev-Ha   Kiwanis International 

Lt Governor Jim Legler 2007-2008 

Immediate Past Lt. Governor, Jim Wunschel  

Lt. Governor-Elect, James E. Chambers, III  

 Lt. Governor-Designate, Karen Borman

Note:  Contact information can be found on the Webmaster's page. 

Last updated: July 10, 2008