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Kiwanis clubs celebrate group’s centennial

Pancakes, playgrounds and parades are among the service projects Kiwanis club members have offered for 100 years to serve the children of the world. In 2015, Kiwanis members will renew their commitment to children by finding solutions to community needs and by eradicating a deadly disease from the world.

The Marietta Kiwanis Club’s largest fundraiser is the Annual Pancake days scheduled for Feb. 6 and 7 at the First Congregational Church, 318 Front St., Marietta. All the proceeds – over $23,000 last year – go back into the community.

Globally, January 2015 kicks off six months of celebrations to honor the past century of service and launch the next 100 years of signature service projects. Each year, Kiwanis members devote 18.5 million volunteer hours toward projects in their communities and raise money to help children thrive, prosper and grow. Kiwanis is a service organization with more than 16,000 clubs in 80 nations. Its members participate in nearly 150,000 projects every year.

“Kiwanis began in Detroit as a club for businessmen but quickly changed its focus to service, and that commitment remains today,” said Dr. John R. Button, Kiwanis International president. “We are proud of our 100-year legacy and are excited about our future and the opportunities we have to help all the children of the world.”

As part of a Kiwanis Centennial Tour, Button will visit 13 international cities where Kiwanis members will celebrate the 100th anniversary with community events, play-ground builds and other special projects. The Centennial Celebration began in Pasadena, Calif., with a float in the annual Tournament of Roses parade. The first stop on the Centennial Tour will be Detroit, home of the inaugural Kiwanis club. Known as the Detroit No. 1 Club to signify its status as the first Kiwanis club, the Detroit club will kick off the tour with a book distribution for children, and a reception and display at the Detroit Historical Museum followed by a gala at the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center.

With the support of the Kiwanis International Foundation, playgrounds will be built at Centennial Tour stops in Redmond, Ore.; Atlanta, Ga.; Fullerton, Calif.; Taipei, Taiwan; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Island Park, N.Y.; Chicago, Ill.; Milan, Italy and Indianapolis, Ind. Playgrounds built this fall in Troy, Mo., and Orlando, Fla., will be dedicated during the tour.

The Centennial Tour will conclude in Indianapolis, Kiwanis International’s home city, with the annual convention June 25 to 28 celebrating the Centennial. Plans are under way for a pancake breakfast on Indianapolis’ Monument Circle, a major downtown landmark, and a birthday bash on one of the city’s downtown pedestrian avenues, Georgia Street, near the Indianapolis Convention Center.

During the convention, Kiwanis and its partner UNICEF also will celebrate The Eliminate Pro-ject, Kiwanis’ global campaign for children to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT) from the globe. “This disease is deadly in so many Third World countries, and those of us in developed nations have not had to worry about tetanus for decades,” said Button, a former family physician in Ridgetown, Ontario, Canada. “We have been working to raise $110 million to eradicate this tragic disease from the world, and to save babies from suffering an excruciating death from MNT. Our commitment to The Eliminate Project is our 100th anniversary gift to the world.”

The Eliminate Project will vaccinate more than 65 million women of childbearing age to stop this disease. “The individual cost is small – $1.80 will provide the vaccine – but the cumula-tive effect is exponential in the number of lives saved around the world,” Button said.

Information on Kiwanis clubs, and how to join and be a part of a global service organization, is available at Kiwanis.org. The Marietta website is www.mariettakiwanisclub.org, face book page is www.facebook.com/kiwanisMarietta. More information on Kiwanis’ 100th anniver-sary events is available at www.kiwanis.org/100.

Founded in 1915, Kiwanis International is a global organization of clubs and members dedi-cated to serving the children of the world. Kiwanis and its family of clubs, including Circle K International for university students, Key Club for students age 14-18, Builders Club for stu-dents age 11 to 14, Kiwanis Kids for students age 6 to 12 and Aktion Club for adults living with disabilities, dedicate annually more than 18 million service hours to strengthen communities and serve children. The Kiwanis International family comprises nearly 600,000 adult and youth members in 80 countries and geographic areas. For more information about Kiwanis International, visit www.kiwanis.org.

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