Scott Swanson
After more than 60 years of serving the local community, Sweet Home Kiwanis Club members are leaving a legacy by contributing financially to a variety of causes after deciding to shut down the local organization.
But although the club has been forced to disband, following a decline in membership, members have worked to ensure their outreach efforts for local youth continue. In a sense, it’s gotten wheels. More on that in a moment.
“Kiwanis is pretty much dissolved,” said Tim Riley, who has been president the past several years, noting that the decision came after months of being unable to meet because of COVID.
“Most of the original founding members have passed away,” Riley said. “For the last 10 years there have really been about five of us. We used to get together every Wednesday and talk about stuff. Now there are no restaurants. It just died. It took six months to get together to (finish things).”
The remaining members were Riley, Ben Dahlenburg, Kimi Nash, Larry Angland and Duane Wise.
The club began in Sweet Home in 1947, according to Nash, who has been involved almost continuously since her days as a member of the Key Club, the high school wing of Kiwanis.
Until recently, it was involved in seven or eight events a year, Riley said – the Mud Fest, the Oregon Jamboree, the Sweet Home Sweet Ride Car Show, and more – all in which it focused heavily on raising funds to support youth.
The latter, Riley said, is what attracted him to the club after Kiwanis took over the organization.
“The thing I liked about our Sweet Home Kiwanis is that everything was aimed at benefiting the youth of Sweet Home,” he said. “If it didn’t benefit kids in town, we weren’t interested.”
The club assisted with the financing and creation of projects such as the fencing for the Roy Johnston Park ball fields behind Hawthorne School and the skate park, he said.
“Those sorts of things were our No. 1 priority,” Riley said, adding Shop with a Cop to the list.
The car show, he noted, was founded by club member Larry Angland and his wife Susan, and was taken over by the club after a few years.
Nash, who officially became a Kiwanian in the late 1990s after participating in Key Club during all four years of high school, currently directs the car show, which has gained nonprofit status.
She said she threw herself into the organization of the show in its second year after watching the Anglands pull off a very successful inaugural show.
“I became a full-fledged member the second year,” said Nash.
She said it was a logical decision to pour a sizable portion of the club’s assets into the show, which has gained 501C3 nonprofit status, because the show was the only real moneymaker for Kiwanis in the final years. The club’s bylaws required it to distribute its finances and assets if it was closing down.
Kiwanis International requires local clubs to maintain a membership of 10 and that wasn’t happening in Sweet Home, she said.
“Our membership started dwindling. Newer generations don’t join organizations like they used to. Kiwanis International, they got a little grumpy.”
The club had a catering trailer and a mobile trailer for car show equipment, which was transferred over to the show.
“Kiwanis was the umbrella for Sweet Ride,” Nash said. “It was a good fit. Everything that dealt with Kiwanis has been absorbed into Sweet Ride.”
Thus far, after restricting last year’s activities to a cruise, this year’s car show is “full steam ahead,” scheduled to happen on June 26, she said.
“We’re in a prime spot,” she said. “We can spread out, so there are no issues in maintaining distances.”
The only real differences, she added, will be the lack of a normal trophy presentation ceremony and no stage.
Judges will turn in their score sheets and when each category is completed, Larry and Susan Angland will take a trophy to the winner, accompanied by a photographer. After the presentation ends, with little fanfare, the winner will be announced over the PA system.
“They’re the life blood of the show,” Nash said of the Anglands. “They’re real excited to be doing it this year.”
After last year’s successful cruise, the show will end with another one, she said. Registration forms will include that option for participants who want to keep going.
“We’ll have a list of different places they can go. They can have dinner, whatever. It will give people something to do.”
Riley said the club has maintained its focus on supporting youth in distributing the remainder of its $40,000 in financial reserves.
In addition to the $5,000 Kiwanis is giving the car show as seed money, club members have donated $15,000 to the Sweet Home Alumni Foundation to fund scholarships for Sweet Home High School students heading to trade schools.
“Kids coming out of high schools are looking for jobs and for a very little amount of money, you can get training in skills,” he said. “Linn-Benton (Community College) has a really good diesel automotive program in Lebanon and it has a good welding/fabrication program.”
Earlier this year, Riley delivered checks for $1,500 to Sweet Home Police Department’s Shop With a Cop program, and another for $500 for the department’s Teen Sharing Tree.
The lion’s share, $20,000, is going to the Sweet Home Community Foundation to fund grants for youth-related causes.
“I like the Community Foundation because they have to apply for it, state what it’s going for,” Riley said.
Both Nash and Riley bemoaned the loss of the club.
“I’ve been part of Kiwanis since I was in high school,” said Nash, who was the Key Club lieutenant governor as a high-schooler. “It helped me so much in my high school career. Once established in the world, I came back and decided, ‘This is a good organization.’ It was a good fit for me.”
Riley noted that the Key Club at the high school, which had been a thriving organization for years, has been absorbed by the Rotary Club’s Interact Club.
“We didn’t have enough people in Kiwanis to interact with the schools,” he said. “It’s really a loss to lose Kiwanis.”