Kiwanis and Key Leader

"Our experience has been that this one weekend builds the trust, unity, and team spirit that might not otherwise be developed during the students' tenure in office."

Dave Wohler
Kiwanis member and Key Club Indiana District Administrator

Kiwanis International is committed to serving the needs of children. Its presence is felt in nearly 100 nations and geographic areas worldwide. Working together, about 8,000 clubs make a difference locally, nationally, and globally.

In 1925, the Kiwanis Club of Sacramento, California, created Key Club, a service leadership club for high school students. Today, it is the largest, student-led, high school organization in the world. 250,000 members on almost 5,000 high school campuses make a difference by performing 12.5 million service hours annually to their homes, schools, and communities. Indeed, Key Club members are leaders.

Due to Key Club's great success, a need developed to begin a similar organization at the college level. In 1947, the Kiwanis Club of Carthage, Illinois, launched a service program for university student leaders—Circle K. Today, the organization is one of the most widespread college and university organizations in North America, providing service and leadership development on more than 550 campuses.

Additionally, more programs were developed for other age groups. Under the banner of Kiwanis Kids, Kiwanis clubs touch more than one million elementary school students every year through three programs designed to enable, motivate, and create self-esteem for students between the ages of six and 12. Terrific Kids is a student recognition program that encourages and rewards a student for setting a worthwhile, challenging, yet achievable goal, or set of goals, related to school work, behavior, or personal growth. Bring Up Grades (BUG) is a student recognition program, that creates incentives and rewards for students who raise their low grades and maintain or continue to raise them from one grading period to the next. K-Kids is a student service club that teaches its youth members how to lead others, plan serviceprojects and club activities, and the value of helping others.

Kiwanis has extended its model of developing leaders through community service clubs in two other successful programs. Builders Clubs in middle schools and junior high schools exist on more than 1,100 campuses. And Aktion Club provides adults with disabilities an opportunity to make a contribution to their communities—almost 150 clubs have been formed since 2001.

Since 1994, Kiwanis International, in partnership with UNICEF, has raised more than $80 million in a global fight to eliminate iodine deficiency disorders—the world's leading, preventable cause of mental retardation. Millions of healthy children are evidence of the organization's efforts through this worldwide service project.

Indeed, Kiwanis has the insight and ability to begin its next journey—to inspire young people to achieve their personal best through service leadership. Kiwanis International is excited to announce Key Leader.