CLEARFIELD – Look out Clearfield! The Kiwanis Club is back.
About six years ago, the club disbanded due to lack of interest, but lately steps have been taken to bring the community-minded club back to life.
The Kiwanis Club is part of Kiwanis International “dedicated to improving the lives of children one community at a time,” according to its Web site.
There are more than 550,000 members from the K-Kids to Key Clubs to the Kiwanis groups.
On March 30, the first meeting of the new club was held in the Joseph & Elizabeth Shaw Public Library for those interested in joining.
This included representatives from local businesses, teachers, the Bigler and Clearfield YMCAs and members of the Philipsburg Kiwanis Club.
Kendra Morris, club opening manager for the organization, explained that one reason the group wanted to start a chapter in Clearfield is Tangi Borden, the Key Club advisor at the Clearfield Area Junior-Senior High School, who has kept the Kiwanis’s idea of service to the community alive.
Kendra stated that Kiwanis has state and federal branches ready to support the new club. Each chapter is “geared to each community” and its efforts depend on the members.
Miranda Burton, club opening specialist, said starting a club is like “putting pieces of a puzzle together.”
Kendra continued with “each of you has a piece of what this can be.”
Miranda told the group that she has been busy the last few months talking to people about starting the Kiwanis Club up again, including meeting with community leaders and teachers.
She mentioned Tangi, who has “done well with the Key Club for the last few years.”
Kendra noted that Miranda was a scholarship winner from the previous Kiwanis Club.
“Now I am happy to pay it forward,” Miranda replied.
Shaw Library Director Lisa Coval noted that the national Kiwanis Club has sponsored a literacy program, which has been helpful with the library’s goals.
“We are trying to put books in the hand of every kid who comes in here” to help create home libraries.
Miranda reviewed the six objectives of the Kiwanis Club.
- To give primacy to the human and spiritual rather than to the material values of life.
- To encourage the daily living of the Golden Rule in all human relationships.
- To promote the adoption and the application of higher social, business and professional standards.
- To develop, by precept and example, a more intelligent, aggressive and serviceable citizenship.
- To provide, through Kiwanis clubs, a practical means to form enduring friendships, to render altruistic service and to build better communities.
- To cooperate in creating and maintaining that sound public opinion and high idealism which make possible the increase of righteousness, justice, patriotism and good will.
One of the first steps in creating the new club was to establish officers who will be guided to set up the rest of the structure.
Officers were named as Secretary Brian McDonald, program/aquatics director of the Clearfield YMCA; Treasurer Bonnie Garito, CNB Bank; President Elect (Vice President) Kellie Strouse, family ministries director at Presbyterian Church of Clearfield; and President Fred Redden, executive director of the Clearfield County Career and Technology Center.
Other board members are Joshua Sorbera, executive director of the Bigler YMCA; Lisa Coval, director at Shaw Public Library; and Heather Prestash, Clearfield Area Junior-Senior High School principal.
It was decided that the club be called The Kiwanis Club of Clearfield Area and they will meet on the last Thursday of the month at 6 p.m. at the Shaw Public Library. Dues were set at $10 per month.
Former Key Club members will have the fee waived for the first two years.
“I am extremely excited in the future of this club. There are a lot of people here who interact with kids regularly,” said Redden.
Kendra was also optimistic about the new group, stating that the future of the club can “be as big as you want to dream it.”
In a phone interview later, Miranda said she “is very happy the club re-organized in the Clearfield area to help children and I look forward to expanding the membership.”
If you have any questions about the club or are interested in joining, you can contact her at mburton@kiwanis.org or 814-496-3505.