I hope that you had a won­der­ful Jan­u­ary and sur­vived the win­ter weath­er if you live where it is cold and snowy or enjoyed the warmth if you live where it is warm and sun­ny. I am wish­ing you a joy­ful Valentine’s Day ahead!

Spring is just around the cor­ner; Punx­sutawney Phil, the weath­er-pre­dict­ing ground­hog from Punx­sutawney, PA, declared it so on Feb­ru­ary 2. Phil’s opti­mistic mes­sage pre­dicts that those that have been snow­bound can soon count on being out in the field open­ing clubs.

Now is the time to plan, orga­nize your team, and make appoint­ments so that when the weath­er clears, you are ready. The 1–31-20 Club Open­ing Score­card indi­cates that world­wide, Kiwa­ni­ans have opened 50 of the 2019–20 goal of 355 clubs. In North Amer­i­ca, we have opened 18 of the 190 new club goal. Now is the time! 

Our club has good news about increas­ing our mem­ber­ship. Five mem­ber­ship appli­ca­tions were sub­mit­ted in Jan­u­ary, with the promise of sev­er­al more. We are pleased to wel­come Bar­bara Breuer, Flori­da Dis­trict LtG-Elect; Nanette Clark, Flori­da Dis­trict LtG; Sharon Moody, Flori­da Dis­trict Mem­ber Reten­tion Chair and Vice-Gov­er­nor Can­di­date; Joe Rugier­ro, New York Dis­trict Gov­er­nor; and Har­vey White, Flori­da Dis­trict Vice-Gov­er­nor. We are for­tu­nate to have these awe­some lead­ers join our club, fur­ther­ing our goal of sup­port­ing and encour­ag­ing lead­er­ship and bring­ing our mem­ber­ship to 55.

We are already plan­ning to meet our goal of open­ing clubs before the Kiwa­nis Inter­na­tion­al con­ven­tion in Indi­anapo­lis this June. Thank you to Joe Mey­er and Jim Rochford for their work to pre­pare for club open­ings and a fundrais­er. We will learn more details at the Feb­ru­ary 20 meet­ing. If you have not yet signed up to be part of the club open­ing team, please com­plete Gary Levine’s Doo­dle poll that you should have received via email.

We con­tin­ue to be engaged in ser­vice activ­i­ties for our club. While vis­it­ing Roatán, Hon­duras, Char­lie and I had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to buy and deliv­er gro­ceries to three fam­i­lies of stu­dents whose lives have been affect­ed by AIDS. Be sure to send your hours, mon­e­tary dona­tions, and pic­tures to Sec­re­tary Alan Guire.

When we cel­e­brat­ed Dr. Mar­tin Luther King, Jr. Day on Jan­u­ary 20, I was remind­ed of one of my favorite Dr. King quotes: “Life’s most per­sis­tent and urgent ques­tion is ‘What are you doing for oth­ers?’” Mem­bers of this club have awe­some answers for that ques­tion, and I can’t wait to hear them at our meet­ing on Feb­ru­ary 20! Thank you for your ser­vice and leadership.

Sin­cere­ly,

Barb Thomp­son

Pres­i­dent, Eye of the Tiger eKiwanis