Kiwanis is a Service Club. That means we Serve. Whom? The community of greater St. Johnsbury, Vermont, where we live and work, raise our families and watch them grow, plant our gardens and shovel snow, ski and play and learn and make our business become what we hoped and our community become what we want it to be.

Kiwanis is a group of citizens of the community, who meet together and share the camraderie of dinner and jokes and good fellowship, and who work together to support growth and safety of our children and all of the children of the community. We aren't anything special, just people who recognize that a community doesn't work unless people in the community make it work, and work to make it grow. Kiwanis works to build community.

Specifically, we provide all of the work and the funding for the St. Johnsbury Kiwanis Pool and the Kiwanis Tennis Courts. A few years back we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Kiwanis pool, which was built by Kiwaniansusing donated materials from community businesses, and has been supported by the labor of Kiwanians and community volunteers ever since. The pool serves kids from all around the St. Johnsbury area, and provides free swimming lessons to over 700 kids, with certified Red Cross instructors. Oh, and swimming at the pool is free. Always has been. We understand its the only pool in New England that is still free. So every kid can go swimming in the Summer, in the pool, not in the many rivers that run through St. Johnsbury, none of which are safe for swimming. One of the facts we are proudest of is that no St. Johnsbury child has drowned in any of the rivers in the 50 years the pool has been open.

We also maintain the Tennis Courts just past the pool on Barker Avenue. The courts are the only outdoor courts in Town, and, like the pool are free for the use of anyone in the community, guests, or visitors.

Maintaining the pool and the courts takes time, and it takes money. The time we have, and give it freely, and we raise money from our annual TV-Radio auction (three nights of madness in March) and from our concession stand at the St. Johnsbury Academy football games, and from our annual Superbowl Raffle, as well as the individual efforts of Kiwanians to hold other fund raisers.

That's not all we do, for fun or for service, and we have a great time doing it. So, if you're looking for a way to contribute your time and skills to the community, Kiwanis is one place to investigate. We meet every Monday night at 6:15, at the Lincoln Inn, on Hastings Hill, in St. Johnsbury. Ask anyone where it is, and don't be surprised if she's a Kiwanian.