Monroe Kiwanis
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Monroe, Iowa
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Welcome  

The Kiwanis Club of Monroe, Iowa, serves Monroe and surrounding communities where there is not another Kiwanis club.

The Kiwanis motto is “Serving the Children of the World.” Children are our Number 1 Priority. However, our club has two main purposes. One is, of course, doing projects to help children. The other is doing projects to improve and help our community. By raising $15,000 to $20,000 in a usual year and giving more than 700 hours of service time, the Monroe Kiwanis Club has been able to do many projects for children and adults in Monroe and as far away as there is need.

Playground

"Serving the Children of the World"

A recent project, for example, was a $1,200 donation to Medicine for Mali. Mali is in West Africa. Doctors, nurses and other volunteers spend a week there once a year caring for sick children and adults. Many more of the children would die as infants if it were not for Medicine for Mali.

A recent local project was to give $4,500 of fundraising money to help with the new playground equipment at Tools Point Park. In addition, we played a major role in selling raffle tickets to raise several thousand more dollars for that project. Kiwanians also provided time and labor to help construct the equipment. 

=== click images below to view larger version ===


Kiwanians tour limestone mine....

The Martin Marrietta mine is one of the biggest producers. It currently covers approximately 620 acres and extends 1.4 miles from north to south and 1.5 miles from east to west.......click here photos and details.


Annual Holiday Dinner

The Monroe Kiwanis invites....

All Senior Citizens

To the annual holiday dinner at
6 P.M. on Saturday, December 1, 2007
At the PCM High School


Enjoy the accordion music of “The Accordz”

Receive a coin for a coin toss where the winner takes all!

Win up to $50, maybe more!

Reservations preferred before 
Wednesday, November 21 by calling


Wayne Schippers 259 2559
Henry Dykstra 259 2487
Donald Peery 259 2415
Or e-mail your reservation to pearlp4@iowatelecom.net

Need a ride? 
Let us know when you make your reservation.


Kiwanis serves up $11,000 in Monroe projects

The Monroe Kiwanis Club gave back more than $11,000 to projects in the Monroe community during the 2005 – 2006 Kiwanis year. The Kiwanis year runs from October 1 through September 30.

When you take part in one of the many Kiwanis fundraisers, you help raise the money. During the 2005 – 2006 year, Kiwanians held 6 fundraising events. 

Pop can redemption. Why wait in line to redeem your cans and bottles? Monroe people dropped 7,149 cans and bottles in the Kiwanis redemption box next to the redemption center. That added $357.45 that was spent for community service.

A community pancake day in April plus pancakes for RAGBRAI as they passed through Reasnor (photos) raised a total of $2,691 profit.

At Old Settlers, Kiwanians provide a food concession with a profit of $4,204 last August.

Kiwanians have also mowed township cemeteries for many years. Members usually provide their own mowers and pay for the gas out of their own pockets. Last year’s profit was $3,000. 

The Playground Equipment Raffle in cooperation with the city council had a net income of more than $2,800.


Where the money went

From October 1, 2005 through September 30, 2006, every dollar that Kiwanis raised was spent in our community and beyond. The Kiwanis motto is “Serving the Children of the World.”

Monroe pre-school scholarships

$ 1,128

PCM senior class banquet

302

Tools Point Park playground equipment project (photos)

7,325

Senior citizen Christmas dinner

681

Monroe little league

500

After prom bash

50

Monroe Easter egg hunt

50

Monroe Kid’s Express (YMCA)

275

PCM student to leadership camp

150

Coloring books for kids (safety)

300

PCM Students of the Month

77

Monroe Community Service award

46

Total:.....

$ 10,884

Those projects total $10,884 - 85% of the profit from Kiwanis projects. The other $1,800 was given to the Medicine for Mali project to help save lives of children in Africa ($1,200). Suzanne Johnson of Monroe and a member of the Kiwanis Club travels each year to serve in that project. The final $600 was given to Kiwanis Foundations where it is available as needed to help communities and children.

Other service projects that Kiwanians participate in include trash pick-up on Highway 163 west of town. It is a 2-mile-plus stretch of highway that is cleaned up twice a year. Watch for the orange bags to know when that project is done. A bicycle and tricycle safety fair was held in conjunction with the Pancake Day in April. Kiwanians also place smoke detectors in homes and replace batteries in them when requested.

The Monroe Kiwanis Club also sponsors a Kiwanis Key Club at PCM High School. Key Club is a service club for high school students. Kiwanis also has K-Kids for elementary, Builders Club for middle school, Circle K in colleges and Aktion Clubs for adults living with disabilities. All are designed to provide funds and service to children and communities. If anybody has an interest in building one of those clubs here, come to Kiwanis to express your interest.

The Monroe Kiwanis Club is always looking for more members to help so more service can be done. Please contact any member to express your interest. Or call 641 259-2391 to do so. 


Biotech Tour

On Election Day, Monroe Kiwanis Club members held their meeting at the PCM High School and then toured the biotech facility and the outdoor classroom, guided and narrated by agriculture instructor, Ed Ricks. Kiwanians meet every Tuesday (usually at City Hall) and guests are always welcome.


John and Barb Friederich seemed to have more fun giving back than receiving. John was the winner of the Playground Equipment raffle at Old Settlers and was presented a check for $1,000 at the September 12 Kiwanis meeting. He and Barb immediately returned the check to be added to the money raised for the new equipment at Tools Point Park. The raffle conducted by the city council and Kiwanis raised more than $2,700 for the project. Be sure to visit the park to see the colorful equipment. On this web site you can see pictures of this project and much more. The history file, for example, has a photo and Monroe Mirror story about Dwight Waddle when he was in high school.

Larry Lehman was the speaker at the Kiwanis Guest Night on September 12. Larry explained the experiences of life as an illiterate adult and how he dealt with things like getting and keeping jobs by hiding the fact that he could not read. He also talked with great excitement about learning to read at age 57. One of his greatest joys is to be able to read to his grandchildren - as he was not able to read to his children. While hard to believe, approximately 20% of all people cannot read. Emphasis on reading is part of Kiwanis service.  



Kathy Vander Ploeg
, Kiwanis president, hands the Friederich's check back to city council members Kathy Van Veen and Brian Briles.

Every dollar raised by Kiwanis is used for service projects. See our “News” section to see some of the projects we have done over the years.

Kiwanis Defining Statement

Copyright © 2007 Kiwanis Club of Monroe, Iowa. All Rights Reserved
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