Volunteering & Volunteer Students

Last year, back in October or so, I was approached about forming a new Kiwanis club here in Cedar Rapids. One of my co-workers was a member (and lieutenant governor of the district) at a club in Marion, but wanted to form a club closer to AEGON so that meetings would be more convenient. So basically, he started recruiting from within AEGON - Investment Systems to be more exact. I wasn't really up on what Kiwanis was was all about, so I figured I'd attend one of the organizational meetings to get a feel for it, and since most of the attendees would be co-workers, it wouldn't seem like a "high pressure" sell.

After attending a couple (pre)Kiwanis meetings, it was apparent that Kiwanis was indeed something of which I wanted to be apart. So from late last year until April of 2008, we (the Hiawatha-CREW Kiwanis Club) set out to recruit enough members to charter our new club. We started out with a meek crew of about eight or ten individuals. Not everyone was from AEGON, which greatly helped the recruiting process. We had a few early members from Rockwell Collins, the City of Hiawatha, and Heritage Bank, just to name a few. Our initial goal was twenty-five members, the minimum number needed to charter a club.

By time April rolled around, we had recruited over 30 members, and by the time our charter night rolled around in June, we were over 40 strong. If someone had told me we'd have over 40 members in less than a year, I would have never believed it...at least not at first. However once I was involved in Kiwanis and we began to work on community projects, I realized that being a member of Kiwanis really sold itself. Whether it's helping your community, especially the children; being a part of something bigger than yourself; or simply networking with other adults with a common goal - there's something for anyone who wants to do more.

In the short time that we've been organized, we've worked on several projects and we're in the planning stages of several more. Our very first project, the Dictionary Project, was a smashing success. Passing out dictionaries to many 3rd grade classes around the Cedar Rapids area was an incredible way to inspire young minds. Our job was simple, request the dictionaries, free of charge, from The Dictionary Project, and distribute them to the 3rd graders in our community. We received so many thank-you notes from the teachers and the kids that received a copy. It was extremely cool...

Now that we're an official club, we've elected officers, board members, and we've created multiple committees to streamline the administration of our club. I'm very fortunate to be one of the first board members. It's exciting to be a charter member, but as a member of the board, I get to help guide our new club in a more proactive role.

My second role is that of Webmaster. Check out our site at http://www.hiawatha-crew.org. It's a work in progress, but in the end, I think this site will be easy to work with and maintain. I decided not to build it from the ground up, but instead use Community Server to build our site. This has been a life-saver with as busy a schedule that I maintain.

I'm writing this post because I'm hoping it gives someone that little extra push they need to take a chance and experience something like Kiwanis. I promise, if you're willing to put in a little effort, the reward will be tenfold. And I invite anyone with interest or curiosity to stop by and sit in on one of our meetings. We're always looking for new members.

- the UB