Looking Back: Local Kiwanis club celebrates its 100-year history
On a sunny Thursday afternoon, May 18, 1922, nearly 200 anxious Kiwanis club members slowly filed into the Warner Hotel dining room on Paint Street past tables adorned with fancy white tablecloths, expensive dinnerware and colorful flower centerpieces. Only after the last man had entered the elegant dining room did they begin pulling chairs and sitting down. The men were dressed sharply, and the luncheon had an unusual air of importance about it.
The long head table was flanked by the American and Canadian flags and no sooner had club members taken their seats than local attorney Garrett S. Claypool rose from his place of honor and requested the men stand again and join in the singing of “America.” They stayed on their feet for the invocation by the Rev. Francis R. Lee of St Paul’s Episcopal Church.
After a round of “amens,” hotel staff members hustled out of the kitchen carrying trays of salads with French dressing. As the servers dropped off plates, Claypool welcomed visiting guests from Kiwanis clubs in Columbus, Portsmouth, Springfield and other nearby cities.
Minutes later, the sounds of forks clanging against plates filled the dining room. The main course was smothered chicken, cream whipped potatoes, sugar leaf peas with butter, hot biscuits and Vienna rolls. Later, as the men enjoyed a dessert of strawberry ice cream, homemade cake and hot coffee, the real business of the banquet got underway.
One of the men seated at the head table that afternoon was Lyle S. Evans, a Chillicothe native and well known to most of the men in the room. Evans had been instrumental in organizing and recruiting new members in the weeks before the special banquet. In recognition of his hard work, they elected him president of the temporary board of directors. Evans hoped the members would elect him president of the permanent board as well.
One of the visiting guests seated at the head table was A.C. Link of Springfield, a high-ranking officer of the Ohio Kiwanis. Shortly after he stood to speak, he summoned Evans to the podium. The room exploded with thunderous applause. This was the moment the men had been waiting for.
The Kiwanis was a relatively new organization then, having been founded seven years earlier in Detroit, Michigan. The name Kiwanis is derived from the Native-American phrase “NunKeewan-is,” interpreted by the club to mean, “We build.” Kiwanis became an international organization after a club was formed in Canada in 1916 and was why the American and Canadian flags hung proudly that afternoon.
Americans were joiners in the early 20th century and service clubs sprang up like mushrooms across the country. The first such organization, Rotary, was founded in 1905 and others soon followed. The most prominent of these were the Lions and Kiwanis, and along with Rotary, they are considered the big three of service organizations.
Only two months before the Warner luncheon a group of local businessmen and professionals had decided the city should have its own Kiwanis Club. “This action means that Chillicothe,” the Gazette informed its readers, “will at once become a factor in an organization made up of 67,000 outstanding businessmen in 735 cities of North America.”
The reason Evans and the other new members were attracted to the Kiwanis was because it advertised itself as more than a weekly luncheon club or excuse to socialize. The Chillicothe men wanted to achieve something big and be part of a city they could be proud of. The Kiwanis focused on championing “a square deal for the underprivileged child.” It was a perfect match.
One of the first things Evans did in his role as temporary president was arrange a meeting with Chillicothe Schools Superintendent J.H. Mason, Health Commissioner Dr. G.E. Robbins and Probate Judge Elijah Cutright. After much discussion, the group hatched a plan calling for the creation of three special committees intended to help Chillicothe’s children physically, educationally, and morally.
The most important committee by far was the one for children physically. In fact, it is likely one of the reasons the men were inspired to form a Kiwanis Club in the first place. Many of Ross County’s children were severely underweight.
The problem had become serious enough that an experiment was underway in which young students at the Eastern school building were put on a milk diet. Beginning in early October the students were given a straw, wafer, and a half pint of milk first thing each morning.
The young students followed the same routine for three straight months and the Gazette tracked how much weight the students gained like it was a sporting event. The results were so successful that after students returned from Christmas break the milk diet was inaugurated at all the Chillicothe schools.
The other two committees proposed to find ways to support students whose circumstances forced them to quit school, as well as children caught up in the Juvenile Court system.
At the Warner, after being called to the podium, Evans stood before the men, grinning from ear to ear. Here is how the moment was described in the next day’s Gazette:
“A.C. Link, of Springfield, lieutenant governor of Ohio Kiwanis, paid a high tribute to Chillicothe and her people and to the local club and presented the charter to President Evans, who accepted with a pledge to have Chillicothe live up to the highest of Kiwanis’ principles.”
That day at the Warner, May 18, 1922, is recognized as the birthday of the Chillicothe Kiwanis. They have been helping Chillicothe’s children receive a “square deal” for a century.
The Kiwanis Clubs of Chillicothe is celebrating its 100th year birthday by holding a free event open to the public on Saturday, May 14, at the Pump House Centers for the Arts from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. There will be a bounce house, arts and crafts and plenty of snacks. The Kiwanis will also be giving away bicycle helmets and raffling off a bicycle and gas grill.
Happy 100th birthday, Chillicothe Kiwanis.
This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: Local Kiwanis club celebrates its 100-year history
