Community Highlight: Kiwanis
Podcast Transcription
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Maddy: Hello everybody! Thank you for joining me for another episode of Money Talk, I’m your host, Maddy. In today’s episode I have a conversation with Rosemary Robinson, the Governor for the Michigan District of Kiwanis. And what an amazing conversation, she had so much knowledge to share and is truly dedicated to the mission on the organization. She shares everything from what Kiwanis is all about to the incredible history of this organization that got it’s start right here in Michigan. Alright everyone, enough said from me, let’s hear from Rosemary.
Rosemary: Alrighty, so, well my name is Rosemary Robinson. Officially, I am the Governor for the Michigan District of Kiwanis. And for those that don’t know, Kiwanis is a service organization led by volunteers to improve our communities one child at a time. We were founded back in 1915 I Detroit and since then have grown as an international program with clubs in 80 different countries around the world. It’s about, between our adult and youth clubs, we have about a half a million members and so it’s really nice to be a part of an organization that’s making a difference around the world so that’s why I liked to join and have stayed as a member for the past 12 years was because I really like the impact we’re able to have around the world. My role as Governor, I lead, basically, there’s the state of Michigan from Newberry in the UP all the way to the Indiana, Ohio, Illinois border. And there’s 138 clubs here in our Michigan district and we’ve got about 3500 members. So many people around the state all trying to make their communities better one child or one community at a time. And as for how I got the lovely title of Governor role. We have our local clubs and each one of those has a president and then we’ve got different regions and each one of those has lieutenant governor so I just kind of worked my way up to the ranks. I raised my hand to volunteer way too much it seems like some days. And so I just, I kind of progressed through the, I guess you’d call it, leadership roles throughout Kiwanis. And as the governor I run our district and I get to our and meet members in all 138 clubs that we have. And it’s fun to see the different things they’re doing in their community and even participate in some of the activities they do, whether that be gift drives or book drives, diaper drives. You know, something to give back, or whether or not they’re raising funds through you know, little duck races in the creek to art fairs so that they can earn some money to give that back as physical dollar to their community.
Maddy: So, you mentioned there being different clubs in the state. So are each of those clubs technically like their own entity, and they kind of do their own fundraising and things like that? Is it based on location? How do those clubs work?
Rosemary: Each club is its own entity, they get to pick how they want to help their community. There’s no set project that they have to do so we have some that focus, you know, one might focus on literacy, one may focus on helping seniors in their community. Most focus on a role of helping out the children in some ways. My personal club is in Swartz Creek, we do a lot with our high school and our elementary schools and I guess middle school as well. I always forget one of three thrown in there and see which way they might need help. We’ve participated with Head Start, getting them some equipment for the kids to play with and books for them to read. We do scholarships at the high school level, we’ve supported camps at the other two levels, helped with building STEM labs and fieldtrips for STEM and so many different things you can do and partners with it. And it’s all up to the individual club on how they might want to help out their community.
Maddy: And it’s mostly youth focused? You mentioned seniors, was that like seniors in high school or do they also do adult things as well?
Rosemary: I would say that most things might be based on, you know, how can we help the kids in our community? But that doesn’t limit it to just kids because sometimes if you help out the adults, you end up helping out the kids too. So, you know, we’ve got a lot of parks and recreations that we help out with so you might be, you know, it might be walking trails at the local park. Well, everybody can use those, it’s not just kids. You know it might be the playground, so the parents are sitting there watching their kids, you know, they’ve got an activity for their kids to go do. The one club does support senior citizen activities so I know they do a lot of equipment donations. So, you know, not everybody can afford the chairs for the shower they need and that club kind of collects items throughout the year. You know, shower chairs, wheelchairs, crutches, different things that people might need. I guess medical supplies, really, and it enables those to go out to the seniors who might not be able to afford it and that’s kind of their mission, not every club has that. So, it is really based across, you know, who’s in your club and what they decide to do.
Maddy: Right. It sounds like those clubs do a lot of different things which is pretty amazing. How could someone get involved in their local club, like could I go on the website and find where a club is at, how do I become a member? What does that look like?
Rosemary: Sure. We’ve got the website with club location on it at Kiwanis.org, that’s the international website. And if there’s one in your area, feel free to go check it out. If it’s something you want to join in, you would just chat with the club, say, hey I want to join and they either take down your details or hand you a membership application to provide your details and join that way. It’s fairly easy. I’ve never heard of people not having an issue joining the club, let’s put it that way unless somebody knew something really bad about their background but that’s the only time, I’ve not seen it. I did a quick look up on where the PFCU branches were in relation to maybe a local club. So, you have several branches here in my area which is Swartz Creek and so we do have clubs in Swartz Creek, Liden, Fenton, Holly, Flint, Mount Morris and Davison, for those that are around the three in our area. And then we also have two clubs in the Owosso area, I know that’s between Swartz Creek and Owosso, Durand’s pretty much in between those. And then several clubs in the Lansing area, St, Johns. So unfortunately, I don’t have one in Lake Odessa or Portland but we do have some in Caledonia, Hastings and Grand Rapids as well as they expand. So, I know members don’t always live next to the branch so possibly they’re somewhere in other parts of the state and they use the online services. There could perhaps be one closer to you than, let’s say, Lansing.
Maddy: Yeah, that’s great. I know I was curious, I was looking on the website to see if there was one, I live in St. Johns so I looked and I was like, oh there is one in St. Johns! I would have never known that. Just a follow-up question to that becoming a member, are there like restrictions, is there a fee or is it just give your information and it’s pretty simple?
Rosemary: Sure. Each club sets their dues but they’re roughly, unless you include meals, you’re looking at around maybe $150> I’m going to average it out here, some might be a little less, some might be more, some might include meals in that because we all like to eat so they might get breakfast. Sometimes with their location, they got to include that in. But that covers liability insurance, it covers some administration costs so you don’t really have to worry about, you know, liability is always a huge issue, you don’t have to worry about going out and purchasing extra liability insurance so you know, somebody can’t sue you or you know, if somebody were to sue you for slipping and falling, at some event, you know, that’s already pre built in with our dues each year.
Maddy: Okay, and let’s say maybe someone doesn’t want to necessarily become a member but could they just donate?
Rosemary: Yes, they can donate money. Some of our clubs have foundations. Based off IRS laws, the clubs themselves are 501(c)(4)s which means we’re not for profit but we can’t give you a tax write-off for the people who do that. You can still give us money though. We’ll still take that.
Maddy: Still take it? Okay!
Rosemary: Some of our clubs do have foundations that can provide, that are 501(c)(3)s so they can provide the tax donation but otherwise, many of our clubs have events. For example, Swartz Creek has an art fair every year so between you know, coming out to the art fair and supporting it, supporting the artists that show up, you know, something like that is one way. Other clubs may have ad books where businesses can put a sponsorship in it. That’s always helpful. Same with, sometimes there’s golf events so there’s many different things where people can be a sponsor of them or participate in the event. Sometimes there’s, you know, a ticketed event or a raffle ticket and buying those also help out the clubs as well.
Maddy: Okay and sponsorships is kind of a good Segway for my next question. Can organizations partner with Kiwanis?
Rosemary: Sure, yes. I know with the link I got to you, PFCU is actually a sponsor of my own club. They actually, I believe, provide a radio spot for us to advertise our art fair. But yes, just like that, each club has their own different needs. Even as a district as a whole, we take on sponsorships for maybe different conventions or leadership conferences. Clubs themselves do sponsorships of their event or maybe a scholarship funnels through them so each one’s unique but every one of us, we love to partner with people and partner with different organizations, different businesses. Hopefully it helps the business get the word out about their services and it helps us out at the same time.
Maddy: Right. So, it really sounds like it’s based on the club and what that specific club is doing so maybe if someone wanted to learn a little more information, they can just go to the website, look up their area and see if there’s a club and maybe what they’re doing.
Rosemary: Yes, the website would show like where a club is, it generally gives contact information for the club and sometimes Facebook or the website to the club and normally those are kept pretty up to date on, hey, here’s what’s going on or here’s what we’ve done in the past. Everybody is still trying to get going again after the past two years so some of the things haven’t been able to be the same way but a lot of times you can see stuff that has been done in the past and that can give you a clue on what can be done in the future and the alternate thing is, maybe you’ve had an idea for you see a need in your community and you know, that can be anything from a diaper drive, or you know, we don’t really focus on the arts enough in our community and I think if we did this, it would be very beneficial for whatever cause is dear to your heart. And that’s something, as Kiwanis clubs, we do like to take on and help out so you know, if there’s an already established cause that would like help, reach out, or if it’s something that maybe, you know, you think needs some help in the community and you think Kiwanis could help out, you know, reach out to your local one and we’ll be more than happy to kind of take a look and maybe partner or you know, start something for that specific need.
Maddy: Yeah, that’s awesome. Sounds like there’s lots of willingness on your end to do whatever’s needed in the community which I think is great for people that are looking for those resources. I think I covered all the questions I had but this is your time if you had anything additional that you would like to share about Kiwanis.
Rosemary: Alright, I know a lot of people may not have heard of Kiwanis but back when they were in high school, they heard of Key Club or maybe were even a Key Club Member and Key Club is the Kiwanis, I guess you would say, at the high school level. And they’ve been around since the early 1920s so almost 100 years as well and it’s a, you know, nationally recognized organization for high school students. And so, we do have a little bit over 100 of those clubs which are sponsored by their local Kiwanis club in different high schools around the state. And we also have K-Kids at the elementary school level, Builders Club at middle school levels and Circle K International at college levels. We also do provide a club called Action Club for adults with disabilities, mental disabilities, I think mostly. And all of those are designed to help instill, you know, a sense of giving back to your community and help with leadership opportunities for those folks so we’re very proud to have those on board as well. And sometimes that’s what we’re more known for than our actual local organizations.
Maddy: Yeah, I feel like Key Club, that sounds, like that just triggered a memory from high school that I’ve heard that before but I had no idea that it was connected to Kiwanis so that’s interesting.
Rosemary: I was just at, they have an annual leadership conference and it was last weekend so I was just able to mix and mingle with about 100 different high school students from around the state and some of the cool things they’ve been able to do because they kind of take the same principals and apply it you know, inside their high schools so sometimes they’re running, you know, ecofriendly programs to help the rest of the students recycle or maybe they’re making some sort of exam kit that’s got a candy bar so for while you’re studying for the exams. And all the different ways they can help out their fellow students and sometimes they even expand, you know, they’re cleaning up their community a little bit or tutoring younger students so it’s also kind of fascinating to be on the peripheral of all of that. I work during school hours so I don’t get to see them all too often on a regular basis but knowing they’re out there kind of learning to do the same and sometimes, in fact, showing us up in how we can give back to our communities.
Maddy: Yeah.
Rosemary: I’m just going to point out again, it was founded right here in Michigan which is, you know, we’re not known for too much here in the Midwest other than maybe cherries and sometimes some good sporting teams but here’s this organization that’s been around for 107 years and you kind of think something like that might come out New York or San Francisco, you know, or some big city but no it didn’t, it came out of Detroit. And it was all started, it was a group of businessmen and they started out with just kind of like, you know, sit down at lunch and network kind of thing and one of the guys decided well that was boring and so he was like, well why don’t we help out something in our community, and they actually adopted an orphan boy and kept him clothed and fed and it went from that to, it was in a year, hey we could do so much more so in January 21st of 2015 they founded it as an organization. And it is an old Native American word and depending on which dictionary translation you look at, it basically means we talk loud or we talk a lot, I fit that mold perfectly. And so, they kept going and within a year they had opened their first club just across the river into Canada and so we became an international organization but some of those original clubs that they started back in 1919 through 1920 and on, we still have them, the same club is there in Detroit. The Owosso club just turned 100 years old, Flint is 100 and some odd years old, Ann Arbor. So, we still have some of those original clubs that are still around, still doing service to their community and you can see some of things they’ve done in 100 years that have changed the course of stuff going on. I’ll pull up Ann Arbor as an example, in the early 1920s they found out that kids in the hospital weren’t able to get any sort of education. There was not virtual learning, there was no take home your homework and do it at home and try to teach yourself so they had actually started a school at the hospital. Today it is Motts Children’s Hospital and that kind of expanded into a program called Child Life Services and they would pay for things that aren’t always covered by insurance. So, things like art therapy and music therapy, things to take your mind off of whatever issue you’re in the hospital for and that has grown from you know, Kiwanis Club making sure there was a teacher on staff at the hospital to today, it’s actually a college degree you can go receive. And I’m like, when you hear that, they’re actually talking about expanding some of the same ideas because it’s reduced things, reduced sedation rates for needing MRIs and Cat Scans and they say it’s probably about 80% of the recovery of the child is actually related to the mental wellbeing when they don’t have to do some of these things and when the child is still having fun, they don’t always have to sedate them because that can drag down their recovery time. So, some of these things, they’re actually taking and applying at the adult level now and some of that is related because we paid for a teacher to go to the hospital 100 years ago. And when you look at some of the history and has been done and how it affects us today, you may never know that.
Maddy: Yeah, that’s so interesting and I mean, that’s amazing. I pinpointed that when you first started talking, when you said that Kiwanis started in Detroit and just hearing that history and what it’s turned into today, that’s pretty remarkable.
Rosemary: Yes, some of the clubs around the world, you become, I call it my second family but you have so many different friends, so many different connections from being in the club that I almost don’t realize it some days. But we’ve always figured that if we ever wanted to go to, let’s say Europe, for example, we might never have to rent a hotel because we’ve got so many extended family members and friends over there that we could probably just couch surf. And you know, here in town in the Flint area there was something going on and I’m like, hang on a second, I know somebody who’s going to know somebody who’s going to know the answer and sure enough I did, it only took one phone call and that person was like, I’m on it, I know exactly who to call. That was because I had friends through Kiwanis who knew, you know, which mover and shaker to call and half the time they might be a mover and shaker in the community as well.
Maddy: Yeah, strong network of people for sure. Well that was very insightful, it sounds like there’s a lot involved in Kiwanis, they’re doing a lot of good. With that, I appreciate your time!
Rosemary: Alrighty, thank you so much. If they have any more questions, they can feel free to, you know, check out either Kiwanis.org or mikiwanis.org or even feel free to email me, it’s governor@mikiwanis.org.
Maddy: Perfect, yeah, thank you so much.
Rosemary: Alright, well thanks so much and at the very least, they can follow us on Facebook.
Maddy: Alright, perfect! I might do that!
Rosemary: Alrighty! Alright, well thank you so much for having me! This was fun.
Maddy: Thank you, yes!
Rosemary: Thank you so much, Madeline.
Maddy: Just in case you did not catch that the first time around, if you would like more information you can visit the Kiwanis website at mikiwanis.org or you can email Rosemary directly at governor@mikiwanis.org and they have a Facebook page you can check out. You can find that under Michigan District of Kiwanis. And many thanks again to Rosemary and her time and her willingness to sit down with me and have a conversation about Kiwanis. Thanks so much for listening everyone, see you next time!
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