2025 Signature Project Contest winners

2025 Signature Project Contest winners

Jun 26, 2025 | General interest, Kiwanis Children's Fund, Service projects | 0 comments

Out of 519 contest entries from around the world, this year’s six winning projects brought communities together.  

By Erin Chandler 

Kiwanis clubs around the world brought their communities together over the past year through creative and impactful service, fundraisers and events. On June 26 at the 2025 Kiwanis International Convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S., Kiwanians gathered to celebrate the best of Kiwanis clubs’ signature projects.  

Out of 519 contest entries from around the world, this year’s six winning projects were notable for bringing communities together, whether for projects that meet an important need or annual events that create joy for everyone. Through coordinated events and ongoing programs, these clubs promoted the Kiwanis causes — health and nutrition, education and literacy, and youth leadership development — in innovative ways. 

For contest details, visit the Signature Project Contest webpage. 

Group One (clubs with 27 or fewer members)

Gold 

Kiwanis Club of Stunning Davao — Southern Philippine District 
Nature Warriors: A Kid Learns to Protect Nature  

Through its Nature Warriors program, the Kiwanis Club of Stunning Davao aims to keep the Philippines’ Davao region stunning — by reaching out to its youngest residents. The club partners with the Department of Education to connect with schools in isolated areas that are in critical need of environmental protection. The visiting Kiwanians distribute bags containing school supplies, dental kits and books on nature to the students; install waste segregation stations; and teach kids how to protect the environment by properly disposing of garbage. The program also includes regular coastal cleanups, and soon the club hopes to partner with a turtle sanctuary to give hands-on lessons on protecting marine life. Each child who benefits from the Nature Warriors program brings what they have learned home with them, spreading the word about responsible environmental stewardship throughout the community.   

Silver 

Kiwanis Club of Sydney — Australia District 
Kiwanis Sydney Comfort Care Cases  

Every year, the Kiwanis Club of Sydney raises funds through a cake stall at a local shopping center, a raffle and a silent auction to support children and families through their most difficult times. The proceeds help to make “comfort care cases” for kids facing end-of-life care at Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick. The cases include items like mood lights, scent atomizers, soft toys, pillows and blankets to create a comforting, homelike atmosphere for the children; cameras and art supplies to let families create photos, pictures and hand- and footprints; children’s books that explain the process of death and mourning; teas and coffee for long waits; and other items to help families care for and remember their children. Currently, the club stocks seven cases located in the hospital’s palliative care, oncology, emergency and intensive care wards, and two mobile cases for home visits. Over the past 12 years, Kiwanis comfort care cases have provided solace to 50 kids and families.  

Bronze 

Kiwanis Club of North Suburban, Saint Paul — Minnesota-Dakotas District 
Kiwanis Malt Shop at the Minnesota State Fair  

For 55 years, the Kiwanis Malt Shop has been a must on to-do lists of Minnesota State Fair attendees — and members of the Kiwanis Club of North Suburban, Saint Paul look forward to it every year, too! During the 12-day fair, club members are joined by the Roseville Key Club and community volunteers in dishing up 15,000-20,000 malts over the course of 230 four-hour shifts. A Kiwanian is always available to provide answers to questions — along with Kiwanis information and membership applications for guests to take with them. Each year, the malt shop raises an average of US$114,000, which the club uses to support a cause — such as Key Club, 4-H, student scholarships or organizations fighting food insecurity — which is chosen based on community need. Malt shop funds also have helped establish five elementary school libraries, install a slide in a park for an underserved community of new refugees, build a Miracle League baseball field for kids with disabilities and much more.  

 

Group Two (clubs with 28 or more members)

Gold 

Kiwanis Club of Birmingham — Alabama District 
Kiwanis Reads  

In just four years, the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham’s Kiwanis Reads program has brought books into the schools and homes of 20,000 children. In this literacy program, Kiwanians visit 900 preschools in Birmingham twice a year to read to students and give each one a book to build their own home libraries. Each book contains a Kiwanis bookplate with a QR code that leads to a video of a Kiwanis club member reading the book aloud — an extra tool to help kids in homes where there might not be an adult available to read in English. This year, Kiwanis Reads received a club grant from the Kiwanis Children’s Fund; expanded into 10 new schools, allowing the club to serve 300 more students; and partnered with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office to restart the Books Not Bullets program, providing books for police officers to hand out on patrol. School officials say students are increasing their vocabulary and reading fluency by reading aloud — all while they learn to associate reading with fun.  

Silver 

Kiwanis Club of West St. Andrew — Eastern Canada and the Caribbean District 
Ferry Health and Dental Fair  

Not even a tropical storm can stop the Kiwanis Club of West St. Andrew’s Ferry Health and Dental Fair. The Ferry community suffers from high poverty and unemployment levels, a lack of running water and the absence of any health center or dental care provider. With help from Jamaica’s Ministry of Health and Wellness, as well as partner organizations that provide equipment, volunteer medical professionals and more, the Kiwanis Club of West St. Andrew stepped in. The club’s Health and Dental Fair provides free treatments, screenings — including blood pressure checks, diabetes testing, and HIV/STI testing and counseling — dental cleanings, nutritional counseling and vitamin distribution. Patients are also provided with three months of any prescribed medication free of cost. In 2024, 67 medical professionals worked through the rains of Tropical Storm Raphael to treat more than 3,500 patients over the course of the three-day fair. The effort and dedication have even resulted in 12 new Kiwanis members.  

Bronze 

Kiwanis Club of Brandon — Western Canada District 
Annual Kiwanis Kar Derby  

For the past 35 years, residents of Brandon, Manitoba, have come together to cheer on their kids in the Kiwanis Kar Derby. Some of the motorless, handmade “soapbox” cars in the race have been passed down within families or sponsoring companies for generations — but the club also often supplies cars to children who cannot afford them or who don’t have an available adult to help build them. Around 300 people attended the most recent Derby. Ray’s Fireplace barbecues for the crowd, neighbors give up their yards for parking and soldiers from the nearby army base help move equipment. The event raises an average of CA$13,900 each year, which goes right back into the community. New and old club members love to see the work they do come to fruition — and to see the smiles on kids’ faces as they speed downhill.   

Corporate memberships grow clubs 

Corporate memberships grow clubs 

Jun 23, 2025 | Club building, General interest | 0 comments

Remember this option for expanding your roster.

By Tony Knoderer

For every Kiwanis club, new members are a lifeline to the future — both for the community and the club itself. That’s why it’s important to think creatively about who can be a member. Could your club use a little flexibility when it comes to making membership appealing? 

Don’t forget corporate memberships! At your club’s next meeting, encourage fellow members to discuss this option, which allows a company or organization to join as a member. You might even suggest that members work together to make a list of three to five candidates — and then contact them to start the recruiting process. 

Here’s how corporate membership works:  

  • The company is represented at meetings and events by an employee of the company’s choosing. 
  • The company can also choose to pay membership dues or ask the designated employee to do so. 
  • If the designated employee changes jobs, a new employee can be designated to take his or her place without being charged a new member fee. 
  • There is no limit to the number of memberships a company can have. (Each membership must have a specific person designated by the company.) 
  • A designated employee is welcome to invite other, nondesignated employees — as well as friends, family and others — to join the club or attend a meeting. 

Of course, this option is also excellent for nonprofit organizations. For any organization in your community, it’s a chance to do good for local kids — and to benefit from the connection to Kiwanis. 

Don’t forget: Kiwanis International offers an insert regarding corporate membership that fits our “Join Us” brochure — so people in your club can pass along the information above and more to any company or organizational representatives you meet with.  

The brochure and insert are free. They’re available on this Kiwanis Family Store page — along with other inserts that appeal to potential recruits’ specific interests. 

7 tips for member retention 

7 tips for member retention 

Jun 19, 2025 | Club building, General interest, Leadership | 0 comments

Here’s how clubs keep people coming back. 

By Tony Knoderer

For Kiwanis clubs, new members bring new ideas — and the kind of energy that refreshes the members you already have. But what can your club do to help people’s initial enthusiasm take root and deepen? And how do you support established members in maintaining their commitment to Kiwanis service?  

To help you answer those questions, we’re offering seven quick tips for creating a club culture that makes everyone feel inspired and appreciated: 

1. Make new members feel important. A member’s induction into your club will set the tone for how highly they value their membership. Make it feel like the significant event that it is — for them and for the club. Help new members understand the club’s traditions and the commitment it requires. 

2. Encourage a sense of connection. The more established members a new member feels comfortable with, the greater the chances they will stay involved. Introduce them — and encourage those connections early on. 

3. Give new members a mentor. Kiwanians are happiest when they get involved. Have someone mentor new members for the first year as they experience what your club has to offer.  

4. Empower all members to become leaders. Give people the opportunity to lead your club and the support they’ll need to do it. It’s a way of creating a pipeline that makes leadership a steady presence in the club through the years.  

5. Invest in member education. Invite interesting speakers. Send members to division, district and international events. Encourage them to share what they learned. 

6. Celebrate! Honor members’ achievements — both inside and outside your club — so they feel valued.  

7. Reach out to members you haven’t seen in a while. If a member isn’t attending events, there may be a valid reason. Even if life becomes hectic, we all appreciate friends who show they care. 

 There are more tips and tools where these came from! See our guide to good retention habits, which includes these and other tips. It’s part of our member retention webpage, where you’ll find resources that can help everyone in your Kiwanis club be an advocate for growth and membership.