Kiwanis trustee helping youth

Jim Jennings, a lifelong high school administrator, signed up for Kiwanis many years ago in Byron, Ill., and jokes that he was a strong supporter of the community youth group there, Key Club, so he could meet some good youngsters.

As part of his job, he was the school disciplinarian, and he said he wanted to meet some of the good kids at the school.

Key Club is one of the things most recognized for Kiwanis ?— youngsters getting involved in local and national projects to help the unfortunate.

Jennings, who with wife Sherry who is also a Kiwanis member, retired to Green Valley in 2002.

He has just been elected to a three-year term as trustee of Kiwanis International.

They got a quick look at life on the ruling council. He’s just back from an international conference at Kiwanis headquarters in Indianapolis, then will leave this week for a regional conference in El Paso.

On the Kiwanis International board as a trustee, he represents Arizona, New Mexico and El Paso County, Texas.

They’ll attend conferences and meetings throughout the district, visit other Kiwanis functions and attend the annual international conferences in Nashville, Las Vegas and Geneva, Switzerland, where he’ll complete his term.

Retiring trustees can be selected as vice president - president elect, he noted.

Kiwanis has about 600,000 members worldwide including youth in nearly 16,000 clubs in more than 70 countries and geographic areas.

It stresses the work of helping the future leaders of the world.

He said the current board of trustees' three-year goal is to lift the membership to one million, an ambitious, but reachable goal.

Two Key Club projects some youngsters took on was “Jump Kids Jump” in Indiana aimed to helping obese children, and “Operation Smile” in Arizona, which is trying to help youngsters with cleft lips and palettes. The Arizona Key Club members have set a $100,000 goal for themselves, said Jennings.

Key Club members volunteer 50 hours a year on their projects.

According to Wikipedia, the on-line encyclopedia, Kiwanis means “we trade” or “we share out talents," coined from an American Indian expression “Nunc Kee-wanis.”

Key Club is for children through high school, and there’s Circle K, a collegiate version which maintains some autonomy from Kiwanis. Other groups of include K-Kids, Builders Club and Akton Club, pronounced “action” club.

Jennings said he’s a good listener, saying “sometimes you can learn more over a cup of coffee or a meal” with individuals at a convention than can be gleaned from the formal presentations there.

jlamb@gvnews.com | 547-9749