Celebrating Almost a Century of Service

As of April 13th, 2011, the Valparaiso Kiwanis organization officially turned 90, with almost a century of dedicated service to the community of Valpo and especially the youth who will eventually become the future of not only Valpo, but our nation.

Dawn Fry, the current president
for the 2011 term, hosted the event highlighting the honorary members of past generations that made Valpo Kiwanis what it is today.

"We're just a group of like-minded individuals who want to do service work in our community and raise a little money to give back to the organizations in our community," she said about Kiwanis, "We welcome everyone that has the slightest bit of interest."

Despite the seriousness of the prestige of the event, Dawn reassured the members, "Anyone who has been to one of our meetings knows that we're not all pomp and circumstance here, nor should we be during our birthday celebration."

After singing happy birthday to their organization, Bill Vorwald, the previous president gave a short account of the accomplishments of past presidents - mainly the less desirable information about their time in leadership.

Over twenty former presidents attended the event, receiving praise from their fellow members and supporters throughout the years.


The mayor of Valpo, Jon Costas, was unable to attend but had an oratorical proxy give his congratulations and support, "I, the mayor of Valparaiso, do hereby proclaim the 13th day of April 2011 to be 'Kiwanis Day' in the city of Valparaiso and urge all Valparaiso residents to recognize the excellent endeavors of Kiwanis and encourage them to consider their personal contribution to this outstanding effort."

To end the event, Dawn read a poem written by members of Kiwanis:

Valparaiso Kiwanis begins,
90 years is a long time,
what were things like then,
When tragedy strikes your town,
What do you see from men
A train in Porter right near by,
Smashes against another,
and many people lose their lives,
You know, that's someone's brother,
So down in Valpo some folks met,
They talked about these things,
Perhaps they thought,
What can we do, when the alarm bell rings,
So they pulled together, formed a club
Kiwanis was the name
They did not do it for their renown
They had no wish for fame,
They simply wanted ways to serve,
To aid the lives of others,
And now you know for 90 years,
They have helped out their brothers
Around the world and right near by
With love for every kid
Yes 90 years ago they met
And we are glad they did