Kiwanis helps to change the community

The first female president of Kiwanis Flint was the featured speaker at the East Side Business Association meeting April 20. Patti Higgins was elected president in 1989 and went on to serve as the organization's lieutenant governor. Today she is on the board of directors.

The service organization originated in Detroit in 1915 as an all male volunteer organization with the goal of "changing the world, one community at a time, one child at a time."

Today, Kiwanis International has 240,000 members in 80 nations and heads up the Eliminate Project aimed at eradicating maternal neonatal tetanus. It's a global campaign for children working in 39 countries. Because one newborn dies every nine minutes from tetanus, Kiwanis International is working with UNICEF to provide 387 million vaccine doses to 129 million mothers and their unborn babies to eliminate maternal neonatal tetanus by 2015.

Closer to home, Kiwanis Flint put $43,000 into the greater Flint area in 2010 with grants, scholarships and programs like the Dictionary Project that provides third-graders with their own dictionary. The organization also sends kids to summer camps and provides support for six boys at the Whaley Children's Center.

Genesee County high school seniors can apply for a college scholarship via their high school counselors, Higgins said.

"Our youth depend on us so we need to be there for them," Higgins added.

Kiwanis objectives that guide their service include giving primacy to the human and spiritual rather than to material values of life; encouraging daily living of the Golden Rule; promoting application of higher social, business and professional standards; developing intelligent, aggressive and serviceable citizenship; providing a means to form enduring friendships through altruistic service; and cooperating in high idealism which make possible the increase of righteousness, justice, patriotism and goodwill.

"We believe in the Judeo-Christian ethics so we fund many church programs that help kids," Higgins explained.

The Flint Kiwanis group meets at 11:45 a.m. every Thursday for lunch. The meeting begins at noon. Membership costs $125 annually.

The group meets at the First Presbyterian Church, 746 S. Saginaw St.

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