International Kiwanis President Peter Mancuso and his wife Karen made a special appearance at the Valparaiso Kiwanis Club meeting on Wednesday, March 16 at Old Town Banquet Center, speaking to nearly 200 Kiwanis members, community members, and supporters.
Mancuso, originally from North Baltimore, New York, was elected as International President for the 2021-2022 Kiwanis year at a meeting last June that was held in place of the 2021 Kiwanis International Convention.
“Peter is in town for our mid-year conference in Indianapolis, so we invited him to come up from Indy to Valparaiso for today, and he accepted our invitation,” said Lieutenant Governor for the Calumet Division Steve Ingram.
Mancuso has been an active Kiwanis member for decades and has been a member at the East Meadow Kiwanis Club for 35 years where he chaired and served on numerous committees, and was elected as president at one point in time. His work both in the club and his division led him to win the Kiwanian of the Year award.
In addition to his dedication as a member, Mancuso has also held a variety of titles within the Kiwanis community, including the past president of the Kiwanis Children’s Fund, then known as the Kiwanis International Foundation. He was the lieutenant governor of the New York Club from 1996-1997, and then governor during the 2003-2004 year. Mancuso is a Diamond Level George F. Hixson Fellow, a Diamond Level Walter Zeller Fellow, and a Centennial Award and Table of Honor recipient. Finally, Mancuso holds Life Member status and belongs to the Kiwanis Children’s Fund Heritage Society and Kiwanis Leadership Society.
Mancuso described Kiwanis as an extension of his family. When his children were young, he brought them along every year to help out as a part of a Kiwanis contingent for physically challenged kids. When his daughter brought along a friend with a disability, the friend was uncomfortable at first, but watching her find her place in the program made Mancuso really realize just how much he loves Kiwanis.
“It was all perfectly normal," Mancuso said. "That was when I first realized that Kiwanis was not only fun for me and good for the people that we serve, but that it was good for my own family as well. That could help make all of us more tolerant or charitable, more understanding. And from that time on, I saw Kiwanis in an entirely different light; Kiwanis became our second family.”
This visit served as Mancuso’s introduction to the Valpo club, and he was beaming from ear-to-ear as he described how impressed he was with everything the club has done over the years.
“You are an extremely large, active, and successful club; you have guest speakers at virtually every meeting. I saw that you've celebrated 100 years of service in 2021, and you have many notable service projects, too many service projects for me to name,” Mancuso said. “It is always a pleasure to find a club like this, where everything about Kiwanis is working, where you're doing a tremendous job, and where the sense of satisfaction and value that you get from your club is above all others that any other kind of service organization can provide. So give yourselves a hand.”
With a long resume of success, Mancuso presented the audience with some objectives to work on within the coming year to help them reach even more milestones in the future.
“Five presidential priorities. five areas of focus for this year, which I can sum up to you in 20 words: improve the club experience, increase our membership, expand our service leadership programs, develop tomorrow's leaders, develop our future leaders, and support our children's fun,” Mancuso said.
At the end of his speech, Mancuso was presented with a special gift of Orville Redenbacher popcorn, in honor of the Valpo popcorn superstar who was a Kiwanis member himself for 40 years.
Local Kiwanians were ecstatic to have Mancuso speak at their meeting.
“It's quite an honor,” said Paul Sciarra, past lieutenant governor for the Duneland division. “I mean, anytime that an international president visits a club or even a district, it's rare for a KI President to visit an individual club. The last time that we were visited by an international president was in 2008.”
Sciarra has been extremely impressed with the way Mancuso has been working over the past few years.
“I think as far as his energy and developing club leadership and membership, through this pandemic that we've gone through in the last two years, with clubs not being able to meet in person - he has navigated that really well with what’s going on not only here in this country, but around the world. So it's been fantastic,” Sciarra said.
“You always knew from the first time you met him that he was going to be our international president. He's just that kind of guy,” Ingram added.
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