A BRIEF HISTORY OF KIWANIS INTERNATIONAL
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Club History
The San Carlos Park/Estero Kiwanis club has a very interesting and unusual history. We were the first club in the United States to be chartered in the 1980/1981 Kiwanis year. Even though we begun our charter organization meeting September 30, 1980 at the normal dinner time, we waited until one second after midnight on October 1, 1980 to conclude our charter ceremony, to become the first club in the country to be chartered that Kiwanis year. The ceremony was held at the San Carlos Inn Restaurant and Motel at the corner of U.S. 41 and Constitution in San Carlos Park which was also our first meeting place.
Our sponsoring club was the Fort Myers South Club and we have kept a close relationship with them over the many following years. The Lt. Governor was David Davis, a very well known surveyor in Fort Myers and Cape Coral at the time. Due to his many business contacts in Cape Coral, he started our club with primarily construction related businessmen from Cape Coral. Our meetings started at 7:30 a.m. each Thursday and it was very difficult for the Cape Coral members to leave Cape Coral at about 6:45 a.m., make a round trip of about twenty-five miles back and forth over the crowded then two lane Cape Coral bridge and return to work at about 9 a.m.. Because of this great inconvenience, many members left the club and membership dropped from the charter amount of twenty-five to only ten members at year end.
Our first President was James Henderson a long term resident of Lee County and a Kiwanian of many years experience in both Cape Coral and Fort Myers. The first year was generally a successful year.
The club struggled in it's second year with only ten members, sometimes with only a few members at a meeting. The lowest point of attendance was at a meeting when our newest and most recent member was the only person there. This turned around when one of our members, Tony Leonard started bringing in new members at a rapid pace. Over the years in the 80's enough of them stayed which brought the membership to a record number, never to be approached again of thirty six members. Most years the club has been a little below and above twenty members who accomplish as much or more than clubs with forty and fifty members.
Some early fund raising projects of the club were a pancake breakfast, a spaghetti dinner and a thrift store. Our sponsor, Fort Myers South, was of great assistance supplementing part of the rent of the thrift store for the first six months. In the early years most of the funds raised were to support San Carlos youth athletic leagues for baseball, football, soccer and hockey and the general support of San Carlos elementary School. In addition regular support was provided to both the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts for funds to be used toward troops in the San Carlos Park area.
Our major fund raisers today are annual golf tournament, Sun Harvest fruit sales and sales of local entertainment books. A long term service project of the club has been I-BUG (I brought up grades) which recognizes local elementary school students who have brought up their grades without reducing any other grades from one term to the next. Other long term service projects have been Adopt A Road which involves the monthly clean up of Island Park Road and Shots for Tots which involves providing monthly assistance to the Lee County Health Department in their efforts to provide immunization for San Carlos Park area pre-school and school age children. another long term service project has been Apples for Teachers. At the end of the school year, apples are given to local elementary, middle and high school teachers in appreciation for their work during the school year.
Other long term sponsored organizations are Riverside School for Exceptional Children, San Carlos Park/Estero Interfaith Caregivers, San Carlos Park Fire Department Fund for Needy Families and Gabriel House, which provides housing, education and care for children with very special physical assistance needs. We have been a long term sponsor of the Estero High School Key Club and have supported the school in other ways.
We continue our fellowship and planning for service to our community with weekly, Thursday, 7:15 a.m. breakfast meetings at Talk of the Town.
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