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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.
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"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.”
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Monroe pre-school scholarships |
$ 1,128 |
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PCM senior class banquet |
302 |
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Tools Point Park playground equipment project
(photos) |
7,325 |
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Senior citizen Christmas dinner |
681 |
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Monroe little league |
500 |
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After prom bash |
50 |
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Monroe Easter egg hunt |
50 |
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Monroe Kid’s Express (YMCA) |
275 |
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PCM student to leadership camp |
150 |
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Coloring books for kids (safety) |
300 |
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PCM Students of the Month |
77 |
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Monroe Community Service award |
46 |
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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.
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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. |
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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.
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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.
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Kathy Vander Ploeg, Kiwanis president, hands the
Friederich's check back to city council members Kathy Van Veen and Brian Briles.
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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.
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