How/Where/When did Kiwanis begin?
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.
What is the Kiwanis Motto?
"We Build."
What does the name "Kiwanis" mean?
The name "Kiwanis" was coined from an expression in an
American Indian language of the Detroit area, "Nunc
Kee-wanis," which means, "we trade" or "we share our
talents."
How many Kiwanis clubs/members are there?
There are more than
8,600
Kiwanis clubs with nearly 300,000 members in 92 nations
and geographic areas.
What is a Kiwanian?
An active or retired business and professional man and
woman who is member of a Kiwanis club.
What is 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.
Are women allowed to be Kiwanians?
Membership was opened to women in 1987. There are now
more than 51,000 women members, and one in seven club
presidents is a woman.
What other organizations does Kiwanis sponsor?
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.
How much community service is done by Kiwanis clubs
around the world?
In one year, Kiwanis clubs sponsored 147,000 service
projects. To do so, Kiwanians raised and spent nearly
$100 million and contributed 6.2 million hours of
volunteer time.
What does Kiwanis do on an international scale to
serve the children of the world?
Kiwanis' continuing service emphasis is called "Young
Children: Priority One," which focuses on the special
needs of children from prenatal development to age five.
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. |