The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON – The Kiwanis Club of Dayton, Washington, celebrated its 100th anniversary last year. The group was first organized at the Dayton Hotel on October 19, 1922.

Like many fraternal organizations that started in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Kiwanis is organized around chartered local groups connected functionally and financially to an international governing body. Kiwanis International, established in 1915, states its mission as "dedicated to improving the world one child and one community at a time."

The organization boasts over 600,000 Kiwanis family members in over 80 countries. According to its website, Kiwanis clubs invest more than 602 million hours and $170 million in communities worldwide in a typical year.

"Our focus on young people and families is our real strength. We're a community-building organization," says the group's secretary, Joe Huether. In fact, according to Huether, the original Kiwanis motto was "We Build." Huether said it is now "Serving the children of the world."

The members of the Dayton Kiwanis have been fulfilling this mission in many ways familiar to area residents. The club hands out annual scholarships to graduating high school seniors. A handful of members put in several hours a week as reading mentors at the Dayton Elementary School, trained through a Kiwanis International program called Bringing Up Grades (BUG). Historically, Kiwanis has been known for its involvement at the high school level through the "K-Club."

"We put that on hold back when programs including Youth In Government (YIG) and Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) were in operation because it was seen as kind of redundant," said Huether. "But those programs are gone in Dayton now, so we're looking at rebuilding the K-Club," said Huether.

Throughout the year, Kiwanis can be seen at various events around town, serving burgers at the "Burger Shack." Young people are invited to work alongside club members, where they learn responsibility, customer service, and handling money.

"It's an informal way of mentoring," says Huether. "And it's the thing most kids will talk about when they come back to visit, how supportive and helpful it was as a place to work and serve."

In addition, the club's Road to Leadership project sends local high school juniors on an all-expense paid educational trip to Washington, D.C., each year for a week of intensive educational activities.

Dayton Co-op Pre-School, Missoula Children's Theater, Little League Baseball, and the Dayton Library summer reading program are additional projects the club supports.

One of the club's most popular activities has been the annual Turkey Bingo event, which takes place the Saturday before Thanksgiving. This is the group's major fundraiser each year, but it was canceled due to the pandemic. This year, the event will return on Saturday, November 18, in the Dayton Elementary School's multipurpose room. Lucky winners receive cash prizes or turkeys.

Like many fraternal organizations, the Dayton Kiwanis has seen a decline in participation during the last generation or two. Huether attributed this to a decrease in Dayton's population. In response, the Dayton Kiwanis initiated a membership drive this year and has added six new members.

"Our current membership is 26 men and women," says Huether. "We recognize that you can't take membership for granted. It's not enough to add people to the list. So, we work on retaining and supporting our membership. We're also thinking outside the box in terms of alternative meeting times that are more conducive to people's schedules."

Huether is blunt when asked about the factors to which he attributes a decline in social connection and involvement.

"The technological age, social media. If I wanted to devise a plan for destroying society, I would invent social media. It's a barrier. It's displacing our social interaction. The algorithms are designed to keep you plugged in. It can suck your brain right out of your head. And when you can stream all your shows and shop for everything online, you don't have to go anywhere and interact with people. The flip side is that you have the convenience of texting and emailing, which allows us as club members to get a lot done between meetings."

Club meetings are open to all Touchet Valley residents. The group's regular meetings take place at the Dayton Memorial Library Delaney building on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month. Club meetings always feature an informative and inspiring program with guest speakers. The meetings are available on Zoom. Club dues are $13 per month. For more information, contact Joe Huether by emailing kiwanis@daytonwa.net or by calling 509-386-7295.