Peabody Kiwanis Club folds after 80 years of service years ago
Following several years of unsuccessful member recruitment Peabody Kiwanis will disband on July 1.
Kiwanis was founded in the community Feb. 27, 1924, and has been an active service organization for eight decades.
"We have been losing ground for quite awhile," said member Dorothy Rucker. "We have tried everything we could think of to attract new members and nothing seemed to work.
"We kept losing ground financially every month. It's just time to give it up."
Rucker made a list of community projects Kiwanis has sponsored or funded in Peabody over the years. The list touches just about every group and event in Peabody.
Past Kiwanis projects include Special Olympics, bus trips for senior citizens to look at Christmas lights, bus trips to Kansas City Royals' games, scholarships to high school seniors, scholarships to Sunshine preschool, sponsorship of Marion County fair queen, numerous eye appointments, glasses, or contacts for children, painting playground equipment at city park, sponsoring Easter egg hunts, planting trees from Ottawa Nursery in park and around town, floats in various parades, presentation of the valedictorian plaque at PBHS, sponsoring summer recreation teams, providing for athletic banquets, providing items for Legacy Park residents at Christmas, sponsoring students to Boys' State, Girls' State, and Hugh O'Brien Leadership Camp, starting petitions to campaign for the swimming pool, taking tickets at football games, putting up flags on Walnut Street for Memorial Day and July Fourth holidays, playing bingo at Legacy Park and Westview Manor, helping establish Peabody Senior Center, and donations to many group such as "Iodine Deficiency Worldwide," summer reading program, After Prom party, senior center, July Fourth celebration, summer recreation program, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Girl Scout Jamboree, Peabody Christmas lights, and numerous other projects.
"All of these donations and sponsorships were made from the proceeds of the annual pancake feed," said Rucker.
"It would be great if other groups or individuals would come forward and take over the current Kiwanis projects," she added.
Money in the group's "youth fund" will be donated to Peabody Community Foundation to continue the presentation of the valedictorian plaque. Kiwanis has donated the big grill used for pancake day to the senior center with the stipulation that any other group may borrow it.
"There may be a group of students willing to take over the bingo games. We have all the equipment and it is an activity the residents of both homes enjoy," Rucker said. "If the students won't do it, I would hope another club would come forward and take it up."
Anyone wanting to take over any Kiwanis projects may contact Rucker at 983-2625 or Gary Jones at 983-2815.
