On Jan. 25, the Kiwanis organized as a club on St. Croix. The first meeting in November 2022 was to educate St. Croix about Kiwanis. Headed by Liz Wilson, president of the Kiwanis Club of St. Croix and past governor of Michigan District Kiwanis, the local club is diving right into activities.
The goal is to raise funds to improve the quality of life and engage in activities with children.
“The main focus is the Claude O. Marko School. They don’t have a playground at that school and we are hoping to raise funds to get their playground built,” said Wilson. “On May 7, we are doing a golf outing at the Reef. It’s the golf course that’s there. We are looking to do some bingo in the community to raise some money for the playground. We are looking for ideas from the community for fundraising and, again, collaborating with other organizations. The playgrounds right now are our main focus. Once we help Claude O. Marko, we hope to move on to some of the other schools to supplement their playgrounds or replace things that are antiquated and aren’t safe for the children,” she said.
While Kiwanis is different than Lions and Rotary Clubs, they hope to collaborate and coordinate activities and fundraisers with these and other groups on St. Croix.
Additional ideas are being discussed. “We’ve been talking to the botanical gardens. We want to do a Kiwanis children’s day where we bring the children in either through a field trip or on a weekend to learn about the garden. And also some hands-on experience about learning how to utilize the fruits and vegetable that are exclusive to St. Croix. And to do some cultural education. We will use people who have lived here for years to talk about the culture of the island,” Wilson said.
Kiwanis International, established in 1915, is a worldwide volunteer organization that has locations in 85 nations and geographic areas with more than 500,000 adult and youth members. The Kiwanis family of clubs gives over 19 million hours of service to communities across the globe yearly.
Annual dues are $120 but are prorated for the month in which a new member joins. Corporate memberships are also available. Local meetings vary with both lunch time and evening hours.
As a message to the people of St. Croix, Wilson said, “I would love to have your input on what types of things we can help the community with. We are in the process of going through a needs analysis and meeting the different people and businesses throughout the communities. And they’ve given us some great suggestions on what kind of help our communities need. And I appreciate that. We have a Facebook page that is under Kiwanis Club of St. Croix. There is information that you can get there. It has my information actually and you can contact me directly. I look forward to finding out more about the community needs. So yes, please contact us. We’d love to hear from you.”
For more information:
Liz Wilson at 517-282-1273 or kiwanislizstcroix@aol.com
