By SARAH HARRIS
Staff Writer
Kiwanis International is comprised of members who strive to help others in their community.
The president of the Borger Kiwanis Club, John Edgington, said, “Each local club looks at their community and decides what we need to do to help our community. We come up with service projects to try to fulfill those needs. We focus on the needs of children. We also try to have fun. It’s fellowship and networking.”
The Borger Kiwanis Club was founded June 5, 1954. Members are 18 and older. There are Kiwanis clubs for children as well, but Borger does not have a club for children yet.
The Borger Kiwanis Club conducts service projects such as the bring up grades (BUG) program at Spring Creek School as well as distributing copies of the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence to all high school seniors. Kiwanis donates to organizations such as the livestock show and has an annual pancake breakfast as its fundraiser.
Edgington says that Kiwanis is “a vehicle to get you places. If someone wants to get something done in the community, he can come to Kiwanis Club, become a member, say he wants to head up a project, and the club gets behind him and makes it happen.”
Kiwanis welcomes new members, and one way they are going about doing this is parenting training classes. The classes will take place the first Monday of every month, beginning July 1, with the exception of September, when the class will be the following week due to the Labor Day holiday.
The first six months of presentations have been scheduled, and they will take place at the First Methodist Church in Borger from 6:30 to 8 p.m. There will be activities for children as well. The first class, which will take place on July 1, is all about how to save your child’s life. Topics discussed will include infant/child CPR, childhood emergencies, as well as the most common dangers children face and how to avoid them.
In August, Veronica Flowers from Borger CareNet Pregnancy Center will speak on how and when to talk to your child about sex. September’s presenter will be Jim Taylor, who conducts training for CASA, who will speak about deescalation, which refers to transitioning from emotions to logic so issues can be addressed.
Kiwanis meets the first Tuesday of every month. During the fall, winter and spring, it meets in the gallery room that is next to the cafeteria at Frank Phillips College, and during the summer months it meets at Holy Smoke Barbecue in Borger.
Kiwanis is open to the public. For more information, call 886-4584 or visit their Facebook page, or visit kiwanis.org.