Kiwanis Club of Pullman celebrates 100 years
Service club has left its mark on many familiar projects and events
For the last 100 years, the Kiwanis Club of Pullman has made its mark with service projects and events that became staples in the community.
That’s why the city’s oldest and largest service club has endured all these years, said Pullman mayor and Kiwanis Club member Glenn Johnson.
“I can look around the community and see what Kiwanis has done,” he said.
Thursday marked the beginning of a monthlong celebration of the Kiwanis Club’s 100-year anniversary. The official anniversary date is March 27.
Johnson was invited to give a speech during the club’s weekly meeting at Gladish Community and Cultural Center and he ended it by proclaiming March 27 to be Kiwanis International Day in Pullman.
Johnson detailed some of the events and projects the club has organized over the past century.
The first Kiwanis Club in the U.S. started in 1915 in Detroit, and the Kiwanis Club of Pullman was formed seven years later. During that era, the Kiwanis Club built the first swimming pool in Pullman and later, the city’s first indoor and outdoor youth center, Johnson said.
One of its first members was Thomas Neill, who served as Pullman’s mayor in 1894 and 1937-38, Johnson said.
The club’s annual pancake breakfast event started in 1959 and became a major fundraiser. It was at that pancake breakfast in 1998 when Kiwanis member Rod Bertramson recruited Johnson into joining the club, he said.
Through the years, it has organized the Stuff the Bus school supply drive, performing arts prizes for high school seniors, community service recognition awards, the Pullman Egg Hunt, and has supported several scholarships among other service projects. It currently has about 80 members.
Johnson said one of the club’s most important projects started just in the past few years. The Kiwanis Club members raised $34,350 to fund Mary’s Park, an Americans with Disabilities Act-accessible park.
“I think that’s one of the greatest things that we have done,” Johnson said.
For Johnson, the park has special resonance with him because he grew up with a father who had polio.
“It is so wonderful that we have made these great strides with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and then to have a park that’s totally accessible is fantastic,” he said.
Johnson said the park now has accessible play equipment, restrooms, green space, rain gardens and picnic areas. The city recently ordered the last four pieces of play equipment for the park, and surfacing will be added to the play area this summer.
To put it succinctly, Johnson said the Kiwanis Club “has actually made a difference.”
Sandra Woodrow, president of the Kiwanis Club of Pullman, said the club has endured because its focus is on serving the people.
“If you think about each project,” she said, “it involves the community, families and children.”
A list of Kiwanis events this month to celebrate the anniversary can be found at kiwanisclubofpullman.org.
Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.
