Serving the Children of the World

Joining Kiwanis

Obligations of Membership

When members join the club they accept as part of their membership the obligation to participate in the fund-raising and service projects and other activities of the club, all of which benefit the community.

Members may participate in a variety of ways:

  • fundraising, by working on projects or selling tickets, preferably both,
  • by volunteering in community service projects,
  • by participating in interclubs, which are held at least monthly,
  • by actively working on the committees to which they are assigned.
Williamsburg Kiwanis
Williamsburg Kiwanis

Financial Obligations

Members pay international and district dues of $92 per year and $16.00 per month in club dues. Hot meals cost members $21.50 per weekly luncheon meeting that they attend at the Colonial Williamsburg Lodge. 

The Club Satellite was started as a way for anyone that has limited time for meetings but has a drive to serve the community in their free time. The Club Satellite meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 6pm at various Williamsburg locations.  No food purchase is required.  Club Satellite members pay international and district dues of $92 per year and $16.00 per month in club dues.  Club Satellite members are welcome to attend weekly luncheon meetings and will pay $21.50 per meal when they choose to attend.

New Member Procedure

Prospective members are required to have a Sponsor, a current member who introduces you to Kiwanis, guides you through the member application and approval process, and mentors you until you are fully engaged in club activities, and Community Services.

Prospective members may visit the club up to three times at no cost. After the third visit, if the prospective member wishes to apply for membership, requests a membership application from your Sponsor and submits it to the Membership Committee Chair for approval by the Membership Committee and the Board of Directors. Before prospective members are invited to join Kiwanis you will be informed of the rewards and obligations of membership.

If you are interested in membership in the Kiwanis Club of Williamsburg, please email us.

Club History

Below is a summary from an interview of Club Historian Ray Adams that was printed in the Williamsburg Neighbors Magazine.
 

To change the world one child and one community at a time, beginning right here in Williamsburg.

There are three clubs locally, Colonial Capital Kiwanis Club, Toano Kiwanis Club and our club, the Williamsburg Kiwanis Club.

340- 350 members for all three clubs. Our club has 150 members and is one of the largest in Virginia.
We sponsor youth service leadership organizations. CKI in college, Key Clubs in high school and Builders Clubs in lower schools.
  • Kiwanis Park was started by our club over 40 years ago so the kids would have a place to play baseball. Now it is a world class park operated by the City of Williamsburg. We like to think John Korczowski and Jimmy Fuller, who got out their garden tools and started chopping grass to make Kiwanis Park, was the beginning of all the recreational facilities the Williamsburg area is blessed with. That is one reason why we give the Korczowski-Fuller award each year to a Kiwanis member for exceptional service to the community.
  • The Community Christmas Tree lighting each December 24 in Colonial Williamsburg is another notable contribution. We have carol singing, a local high school band, the Mayor welcomes everyone, and a Colonial Williamsburg interpreter reads the story of the first Christmas Tree in Williamsburg.
  • We bought the first heart telemetry equipment for the City of Williamsburg’s EMT vehicle and it saved a tourist’s life the first week they had it. It also saved the life of Bob Dutro, one the most productive members of the Kiwanis Club for the last 40 years.
  • We put a bronze plaque in the courthouse to honor all the area servicemen killed in Vietnam.
  • 39 club members spent 57 work days building Kidsburg, a permanent playground for small children.
  • With longtime member Jim Anthony leading, we established Kiwanis Day, later known as Band Day, which for 17 years brought up to 30 high school bands and 3,000 students to Williamsburg each year.
  • The bands were judged while parading down DOG Street with the top three performing at halftime for William and Mary football games.
  • Also with Anthony leading, we helped with the first few Occasion for the Arts events that has become so popular.
  • We sponsored Sabin oral polio vaccine clinics that served 20,000 residents over a four month period.
  • Through Olde Towne Medical Center we provided small pox vaccinations for children starting school.
  • For over 30 years we have read to children. This program, started by Kiwanis International, is known as Reading is Fundamental, or RIF. We now read once a month in three different facilities. None of those facilities existed when we started the reading program.
  • In the early 1990’s, the Kiwanis Clubs of Hampton Roads collectively pledged $1,000,000 to help build a Pediatric Trauma Unit at Children’s Hospital of the Kings Daughters (CHKD). Because of our efforts the hospital named it Children’s Kiwanis Emergency Center (CKEC). The CHKD doctors asked if we could raise $100,000 for an “Ouchless” program. This money enabled the hospital to put TV monitors and PlayStations® in each examining room along with special equipment that would help the kids be less frightened while they were being examined or treated. After that we raised another $300,000 for a transport vehicle which is really a mobile intensive care unit.
  • During our 50th Anniversary Celebration in 2008, we built a 700 square foot storage facility for the Historic Triangle Building in one day. The Kiwanis International President worked on this project.
  • We sponsored the Colonial Capital Club which has become one of the best Kiwanis Clubs in all of Kiwanis International, and more recently the Toano Club which is growing fast and doing wonderful things.
2011 was our 32nd Shrimp Feast and maybe our best. It seems to get better each year.

Over the 30 years we have raised $500,000 to help the community. All of this money goes to charities.

Avalon, Bacon Street, CDR, Boy Scouts, Girls Scouts, Head Start, Youth Athletics, Dream Catchers, Autistic Children, ARC, Olde Towne Medical Center, Rita Welsh Adult Program, Salvation Army, and many, many more.

A willingness to be part of a team, to help others, and a desire to make your little spot on this earth as good as it can possibly be.