The Kiwanis Club of Henderson observed 100 years of service to the community during a special celebration that featured proclamations by city officials, reflections on the civic group’s history and a reminder of the club’s mission to be advocates for children.

Art Falkner, current president of the local Kiwanis Club, was a guest on TownTalk to discuss the club’s past – and its future.

“Not many clubs can say they’re a hundred years old,” Falkner said. “It’s a major milestone.”

The civic organization received its charter on April 16, 1923, just eight years after the very first club was formed in Detroit, Michigan. Today, the international organization has a place for individuals from elementary-school age to adult and boasts of having a presence in close to 100 countries around the world, with 600,000 members in 8,000 clubs.

One upcoming fundraiser event is a golf tournament, scheduled for May 25 at Kerr Lake Country Club.

Just this year, Henderson Collegiate started a Key Club for its high schoolers, Falkner said.

The Kiwanis mission is “molding good kids into exceptional adults,” he said. The Key Club is just one way to help support this mission.

Helping young people understand how to give back to their communities through civic clubs and organizations also can be a way to promote membership in clubs when those young people leave school and head out into the world.

“Just like other civic organizations, we’re losing membership,” Falkner said. But despite lower numbers – the club has 12 members now, down from a high of up to 70 – the club continues to help make a difference.

Falkner said there’s no telling how much money the club has raised throughout its history, but during the 1990’s, Falkner said longtime club treasurer Bill Cox kept meticulous financial records of all the fundraiser projects, and he estimated that the club contributed $75,000 to local projects that directly benefit children just during that 10-year period.

Thinking back on some of the past Kiwanis projects, Falkner said the annual azalea sale was always popular, as were the peanut sales and everyone remembers the funnel cakes that the club sold in front of Frazco on Garnett Street during Colorfest.

“We sold azaleas in pretty much any empty lot in town,” Falkner said with a chuckle. Same for peanuts.

“We’ve bagged peanuts in just about any open place we could find,” he recalled. During the peak of the peanut sales, club member Bob Leggett was a good resource. “He used to let us set up a stand right out there at the entrance to Leggett’s, the department store that was located in Henderson Mall.

Throughout its 100 years of existence, the focus has been on young people. “We’ve supported children throughout,” Falkner said, providing scholarships for high school graduates and in 2014 endowed a scholarship at Vance-Granville Community College in honor of longtime member Robert J. Turner.

Recent projects include providing dictionaries and other sets of books to all 3^rd grade classrooms across the county.

The club meets on the first and third Wednesday evenings at 6 p.m. for dinner at the Henderson Country Club. “We would love to have visitors come,” Falkner said. “We need young people and new ideas.”

As the club enters its second century of service to the community, members acknowledge the successes of the past and the hope of the future in comments that appeared in the program of the April 22 celebration:

“We take a moment to reflect on the service and dedication of the hundreds of Kiwanians from our community who have preceded us. The Kiwanis Club of Henderson has a remarkable history of assistance to the children of Vance County and a proud legacy of service to our community Looking forward, the Club will continue its efforts to recruit new members so that we may continue our traditions and work in Vance County. May we continue to be guided by the call to Work and Build. On Kiwanis, on Kiwanis – there is work to do!”

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