Dear Fel­low Mem­bers of the Eye of the Tiger eKi­wa­nis Club,

Hap­py New Year! I hope that you enjoyed and cel­e­brat­ed your Decem­ber hol­i­day and new year with time with friends and fam­i­ly. New year, new ener­gy, new mem­bers, new clubs! Now it is 2020—a new cal­en­dar year and one-fourth of the way through the 2019–20 Kiwa­nis year.

To avoid a decline in mem­ber­ship, we must exceed the num­ber of new clubs opened last year. Clear­ly, our time to build new clubs is NOW. A look at local, nation­al, or inter­na­tion­al news tells us that the need for Kiwa­nis is still great.

Char­lie and I are cur­rent­ly vis­it­ing our son & his fiancé in Roatán, Hon­duras, at the small hotel-restau­rant-bou­tique that they own and run here. I was thrilled when they asked us if we would like to do a ser­vice project with them for a local school that serves chil­dren whose lives have been affect­ed by AIDS. They have a con­nec­tion with the school as two of their wait­ress­es are also teach­ers at the school.

Our son & his fiancé want to inves­ti­gate ser­vice projects for the stu­dents because so many of their guests tell them that they want to give back to the com­mu­ni­ty, which is very poor. This ser­vice may become part of the menu of activ­i­ties offered to guests, many of whom scu­ba dive in the morn­ings, and then have time to serve others.

The desire to serve is strong in mil­len­ni­als and younger, and the need is great. Kids need Kiwa­nis! Kiwa­nis needs YOU and me to keep the orga­ni­za­tion strong and healthy and to con­tin­ue to orga­nize clubs in com­mu­ni­ties that are not yet served by a Kiwa­nis club. Remem­ber that char­ter mem­bers of new clubs orga­nized Jan­u­ary-Sep­tem­ber 2020 do not have to pay club dues and fees again until Octo­ber 2021.

Thank you for mak­ing a dif­fer­ence in so many ways by open­ing new clubs. Thank you for hav­ing the Eye of the Tiger. The time is NOW! I can hear you R‑O-A-RRRR!

Sin­cere­ly,

Barb Thomp­son

Pres­i­dent, Eye of the Tiger eKiwanis