CRESTVIEW KIWANIS
HISTORY
During a club meeting in the first week of January
1915, Kiwanis was approved as the new
name for this club, which translated as,
“We trade.” A more thorough check later
revealed that a truer meaning is, “We have
a good time - we make noise.” The club
attracted nearly 200 members in only six
months. The corporate charter was
returned by the state of Michigan, dated
January 21, 1915. This date has been the
birthday of Kiwanis ever since.
THE MOTTO
In 1920, something important crystallized
for Kiwanis; something that inspired Roe
Fulkerson, the gifted editor of the Kiwanis
magazine, to propose two simple words—
“We Build”—as the Kiwanis motto. It was
the coining of the Motto, after five years of
painful and exhilarating growth, that put
Kiwanis into its stride. Then in 2005,
during the 90th anniversary year of
Kiwanis, delegates to the International
Convention voted to adopt a new motto,
“Serving the Children of the World,” to
emphasize the primary focus of Kiwanis
service over those nine decades and make
a commitment for the years to come.
(Above was taken from the Kwanis International Web-site at
THE BEGINNING
Two natives of Detroit, Michigan, Allen S.
Browne, a professional organizer, and
Joseph C. Prance, a tailor, had an idea
one day in August of 1914. It was a
concept, rather, to develop an organization
that provides not only fellowship, but
insurance features as well. They wanted to
develop a group that was like no other
organization. They first constructed this
group as a strictly fraternal club that only
young professional businessmen could
join. They also wanted to provide an
opportunity for other men to experience
new ideals in human relationships.
Together, these two men began recruiting
new members. Browne, as a professional,
would receive the $5 membership fee from
each man. Prance was the first member to
sign up. But he was not yet the first
Kiwanian, for the name that Browne had
chosen for the group was truly in the spirit
of the times: The Supreme Lodge Benevolent Order Brothers. Kiwanis it was not. The growing membership soon fixed that. They quickly grew tired of belonging
to an organization known as “BOB”. With a helping hand from Detroit’s official historian, an Indian phrase—“NunKeewan- is”—was adapted as a name.