Back from the brink

Back from the brink

Feb 24, 2025 | Club building, General interest | 0 comments

A member shares one club’s steps from near-closure to growth. 

By Seth Blau, Kiwanis Club of Island Park, Long Island, New York, U.S.

In September 2022, Karen Davis, president of the Kiwanis Club of Island Park, Long Island, was ready to close the club. After years of struggles, worsened by the pandemic, the club was down to five members — and two of those had moved to Florida, one split time between New York and Florida, and another traveled extensively for work.  

And then there was Karen. In reality, she was the club’s lone active member. 

At that time, I was concluding my second year as lieutenant governor of the Long Island Southwest Division in the New York District. When I called Karen to discuss the club’s future, she said that closing seemed like the only logical option. She worked in Island Park but lived in Oceanside, which had a thriving Kiwanis club. It simply didn’t make sense to keep a club alive in name only, without regular meetings or meaningful service projects.  

I understood: What was the point of leading a service organization that barely existed? But I wasn’t ready to give up just yet. 

The road back
I asked Karen to give it one last shot — six more months. I proposed a deal: If she agreed to stay on as president, I would join the Island Park Kiwanis club and help rebuild it. She agreed. 

Momentum started to build. I quickly recruited a past president from a neighboring Kiwanis club who happened to live in Island Park and was willing to help. The next task for our little group was to reintroduce Kiwanis to the community.  

The first steps were simple but crucial: We established a meeting schedule, mapped out a few manageable service projects and crafted a plan to promote our mission. Ultimately, we needed a “product” to sell if we had any hope of recruiting new members.    

Shortly afterward, I ran into a newly elected congressman at a neighboring Kiwanis club’s pancake breakfast. He had been born and raised in Island Park, and he had heard about our efforts to keep the club going. Before I said anything beyond “Would you be interested in … ,” he had committed to joining. With that, the club had instant credibility. 

Next, I turned to my own connections. As a school board trustee in Oceanside, I asked my superintendent to arrange a meeting with the Island Park school superintendent. Our pitch was simple but compelling: Kiwanis could make a real impact in local schools and the broader community. 

The response exceeded our expectations. The superintendent not only embraced the idea but attended our next meeting — bringing along his assistant superintendent, a school principal, three school board members, the president of the teachers’ union and multiple PTA presidents. By the end of that meeting, most of them had joined the club. 

Karen recruited several of her colleagues, using her own network as a teacher in the Island Park School District. Former members returned after hearing about the club’s resurgence. Within months, a club that had been on the brink of closure had grown from one active member to 26. 

A thriving force for good
To solidify its revival, the club planned a pancake breakfast in April, held at the local elementary school cafeteria. It was a massive success. The community showed up in force and nearly every club member participated — as did the Builders Club that our Kiwanis club sponsors.  

The event raised crucial funds — allowing us to support local causes, Kiwanis programs and neighboring clubs — and it inspired even more community members to join. 

Since then, the Island Park club has remained strong at 25 members, including local elected officials, a few corporate members and a strong core of area residents. A club on the verge of dissolution is now a thriving force for good — proof that with dedication, teamwork and a bit of faith, even struggling organizations can find new life. 

Your resources
Kiwanis International has resources for your club’s membership needs. Check out this blog post regarding Achieving Club Excellence tools for building a culture that keeps members engaged. And get five tips for regaining members. You can even find advice for hosting a pancake breakfast. 

In addition to the Island Park club, Seth Blau is a member of the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside, New York, U.S., and 2024-25 secretary for the Long Island Southwest Division in the New York District. He is also the 2024-25 editor of the district’s newsletter. 

Find your club’s purpose 

Find your club’s purpose 

Feb 21, 2025 | Club building, General interest | 0 comments

These 2 ACE tools can help create a guiding vision for what you do. 

By Tony Knoderer

Why does your Kiwanis club exist? The obvious answer: to serve kids and change their lives. After all, that’s the reason people join Kiwanis in the first place. But it’s true for all clubs — whether they’re thriving, struggling or anywhere between.  

If your club seems to be drifting a bit, it might be time for everyone to ask a more focused question: What is the club’s purpose?  

The answer can give members a guide for much of what the club does. Whether your club is deciding its next service project, what to tell people you’re recruiting or how to approach potential partners, a clear purpose makes your place in the community clear to everyone. 

Two of our Achieving Club Excellence (ACE) tools can help define that purpose: 

  • Community survey. Ultimately, your purpose isn’t just a matter of what your members want to do. It’s also a matter of meeting the community where its needs are. So find out! Use this tool to gather the information and data you’ll need to address the community’s concerns and preferences. 
  • Club vision. This step-by-step tool helps your club create a vision that guides and inspires. And that helps make everyone more enthusiastic about the service they do and more effective in persuading other people to join.  

Don’t forget: These resources can be found on the ACE tools webpage, which includes other common concerns clubs face — and pairs them with the tools that help address those issues. 

STEAM Fair sparks creativity and leadership

STEAM Fair sparks creativity and leadership

Feb 20, 2025 | General interest, Kiwanis Children's Fund, Service Leadership Programs, Service projects | 0 comments

A California Kiwanis club inspires students to pursue their dream careers in the sciences and arts 

By Erin Chandler

On September 28, 2024, the gymnasium of Diamond Bar High School in California, U.S., was science and technology central, with robotics and 3D printing demonstrations, drones, introductions to coding and more. Outside were performances from bands, the local Hawaiian School and a K-Pop dance cover crew. Booths from organizations like Mathnasium, the Society of Women Engineers, the Department of Public Works, and Curtiss-Wright Nuclear stood alongside those from the LA County Library and the Literacy Guild.  

The Kiwanis Club of Diamond Bar Young Professionals’ second annual STEAM Fair was a true celebration of science, technology, engineering, the arts and math. 

“I always stress STEAM,” says club president Roseangeli Ayson. “Because the ‘A,’ the arts, are just as important, and I think a lot of time people lose sight of that. I just think it makes the world better when all of those aspects are embraced.” 

Clearly, the community agrees. Hundreds of kids flocked to the book giveaway; the reading/Lego corner; the stations for making bookmarks, slime and K-Pop photocards; the poetry readings; the face painting; and the sessions on professional development and college applications.  

The event, Ayson says, is all about “exposing the kids to things that are of interest to them and sparking their creativity.” 

A big idea
Only a few years ago, the project seemed impossible. The club was about six years old and had fewer than 20 members.  

“It was one of those things, like, ‘Maybe in the future that could be something,’” Ayson says. “‘One day when the club gets bigger.’” 

Then, at a fundraising event, she was introduced to Gabe Aguilar, now an instructional dean at Diamond Bar High School and advisor for the school’s robotics club, Team Sprocket. Once they agreed that Team Sprocket would cohost the event, with the high school serving as a free venue, the whole endeavor seemed much more possible. 

In the end, the first STEAM Fair came together in just six months. Members of the Kiwans Club of Diamond Bar Young Professionals called on family, college friends and coworkers to serve on the professional panels.  

Students step up
The real stars of the event were the high school students from Team Sprocket and other school clubs, plus members of Key Club Divisions 35 East and 35 West, and the Kiwin’s Goldstone Division of the Kiwanis California-Nevada-Hawaii District. 

“A lot of times, we can’t hold our events without SLPs [Service Leadership Programs],” Ayson says. “I don’t have 50-60 Kiwanians to help me pull it off.” 

The STEAM Fair offers its student volunteers all kinds of opportunities to grow as leaders. In the STEAM Fair’s second year, Ayson says, the students even joined the Kiwanians as leaders in organizing the project. 

“With another year under their belt, some of the juniors, who are seniors this year, were a lot more involved in the planning, which is, I think, probably why the gym was better coordinated and had a lot more activities than last year.” 

Among the new activities was a gallery of art made by local middle school students, a collaboration that highlighted another benefit of having Key Club members volunteer at events. They don’t just develop their own leadership skills — they also inspire younger attendees to follow in their footsteps.  

“When the kids come and they see all the high schoolers helping out, it’s more fun,” Ayson says. “They’re a lot more interactive than us old-fogey Kiwanians.” 

Inspiration and connection
Ayson made sure to leave time in the teen volunteers’ shifts to enjoy the booths, performances and panels that interested them. While most of the STEAM Fair targets younger children who are still discovering their interests, it also offers career panels for high school students. 

For some students, the fair was a chance to find mentors from their own communities who had “made good” in their chosen fields. For others, it was an opportunity for networking. One Key Club member who performed at the fair was scouted by a Friends of the Library board member to sing the national anthem at their annual toy drive. 

Another student approached Ayson after a career panel that featured Academy Award-winning documentary director Martin Desmond Rowe and an author who had written about how to make money in a creative career. The student said she had been struggling with whether she could pursue her interest in photography professionally, but after the panel she felt more confident. 

“Even if it was just that one person, we helped her see that her dream actually could happen,” Ayson says. 

Looking to the future
After its first year, the Kiwanis Club of Diamond Bar Young Professionals’ STEAM Fair was a top 10 finalist in the Kiwanis International Signature Project Contest and received a club grant from the Kiwanis Children’s Fund. For other clubs looking to host similar events, Ayson recommends partnering with local high schools and extracurricular clubs.  

Because the students are interested in and impacted by what the fair represents, Ayson says, “you get the buy-in right away.” 

Ayson hopes to get a panelist from the Grammy Museum next year. The past two years have taught her that when the members want to do something, they can make it happen. 

“We’re a small club,” she says, “but I feel like we’re a small-but-mighty club.”  

How you can help
If you want to support projects like the Kiwanis Club of Diamond Bar Young Professionals’ STEAM Fair, you can make a gift in support of The Possibilty Project.  

The Kiwanis Children’s Fund makes grants that improve the lives of children around the world by identifying projects that create a continuum of impact in a child’s life — one that spans their entire childhood and sets them up for a bright future. Through The Possibility Project, the Children’s Fund ensures that its grantmaking has the greatest possible impact, supporting projects that target the Kiwanis causes — health and nutrition, education and literacy, and youth leadership development — whether through a Kiwanis club’s local service project or a club’s partner. 

Learn how your club can apply for a grant to help kids in your community.