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The Kiwanis Club of Waukesha has over 80 years of
distinguished history. From its
early days, when its members included most of the influential citizens
that built the landmarks and industries that still characterize Waukesha,
to the present, when the Club and its Foundation continue to sponsor
projects that will shape the city’s future, the Kiwanis Club of Waukesha
has played an important role in the history of our community.
The Club’s first organizational meeting took place on April
20, 1922, and at the first regular meeting of members five days later,
William Jennings Bryan – the great orator, author of the famous “Cross of
Gold” speech, presidential candidate, and later participant in the famous
Scopes “monkey” trial – addressed the club, giving us a truly auspicious
start.
The Club began its long association with agriculture,
the 4-H and the Waukesha County Fair in 1925, when it first sponsored a show
to help the county’s young agriculturists prepare their exhibits for the
State Fair. Today, the Club
sponsors the 4-H’s County Fair activities, and still holds its annual
Pancake Breakfast at the Fair each year – a tradition originally begun to
feed young Fair participants who had spent the night there with their animals. Today, the Pancake Breakfast is one of
the Club’s major fund-raisers, serving well over a thousand hungry
fair-goers each year.
In 1928, a civic group led by members of the Club
spearheaded a fund-raising drive that eventually resulted in the construction
of Waukesha Memorial Hospital, which is a major regional medical center
today. They raised $293,000 in 85
hours – an astonishing feat, considering that those were 1928 dollars! The Club remains a partner with the
Hospital today, contributing to projects that particularly benefit young
patients there.
Club members sponsored a campaign to build the city’s
first public swimming pool, at Buchner Park, and built the tennis courts
at Buchner Park, as well (member Charles Schuetze).
The Club first sponsored the creation of another
Kiwanis Club in 1926, when the Wauwatosa club was chartered. Since then, the Waukesha Kiwanis Club
has sponsored new clubs in Oconomowoc, Brookfield, New Berlin, Muskego
and Pewaukee, as well as two other clubs in Waukesha, helping to make
Kiwanis a strong presence in southeastern Wisconsin.
Other projects spearheaded by Club members and brought
to fruition with Club ambition include the purchase and construction of
Frame Park, which is now the beautiful showpiece of the City’s park
system (honorary member Andrew Frame); the purchase and construction of
the Long Lake Boy Scout Camp (member L.D. Harkrider); the 35-acre Kiwanis
Day Camp near Wales, Wisconsin; and the purchase of playground toys and
equipment for city parks over the years.
The Club has maintained close relationships with the
Boy Scouts, Girls Scouts and YMCA youth camps since the 1930s, and
remains so today. Not only does
the Club’s Foundation give monetary support to those organizations, but
individual Club members participate in them by sitting on their boards
and chairing their committees.
The Club is the chartering organization for a local Boy Scout
Troop and Cub Scout Pack.
The Club began sponsoring Christmas parties for
children in 1933, and today the Club supports the Waukesha Park and
Recreation Department’s annual Halloween party, giving kids a safe place
to go and celebrate on Halloween.
The Club began publishing local church directories for
distribution to local hotels and motels in the 1940s, another tradition
that is carried on to this day as one of the major projects of the Club’s
Spiritual Aims Committee.
The Club began “ringing the bells” for the Salvation
Army’s annual holiday fund-raiser in 1960, and to this day, the Kiwanis
Club of Waukesha remains the largest participant in this event,
generating more revenue than any other participating group.
The Club lends its enthusiasm and labor to many local
projects, including an annual Christmas shopping for the needy project;
the remodeling and maintenance of YMCA camp buildings, Boy Scout Camp
buildings, and the local Women’s Center facility; and the local Meals on
Wheels program.
The Club sponsors two Key Clubs, at North and South
High Schools in Waukesha.
In 1954, the Club incorporated the Waukesha Kiwanis
Foundation, a 501(c)(3) foundation, to act as its fund-raising arm. With the sale of the Kiwanis Day Camp
in 1991, the Foundation was endowed with a significant amount of money,
which has been invested and the profits of which are used to fund the
Club’s projects and local charitable activities. Each year, the Club conducts a holiday
nut and candy sale as its main fund-raiser, which continues the tradition
of the holiday fruitcake sales that began in 1962.
In recent years, the Club has made money donations to
worthwhile projects that have improved the City of Waukesha, including a
$25,000 grant that built the Kiwanis Pavilion, a structure that anchors
the south end of the City’s riverfront improvement project (fittingly,
Frame Park anchors the north end); and a $19,000 grant that allowed the
Waukesha Fire Department to buy its first thermal-imaging camera, a
life-saving device that allows firefighters to locate people in buildings
filled with thick smoke.
For over 80 years, the Kiwanis Club of Waukesha has
made the City of Waukesha a better place to live and work!
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