A new Kiwanis Club in DeKalb County will officially launch at a Charter Kick-Off event Tuesday.
Chapter President Randy Caldwell said the Kiwanis Club is a national organization focused on helping kids meet their full potential. Caldwell said on a local level, the Kiwanis Club aims to invest in kids through fundraisers and special projects.
“That gets started early, and we believe there’s some things we can do to help that,” Caldwell said. “And just as important is developing leadership skills. I mean, that’s another important aspect of being an adult and growing and reaching your full potential. That’s kind of the things we’re going to be focused on.”
Caldwell said the Kiwanis Club wants to help however possible, whether it be mentoring children or being active in the school system.
Caldwell said the Tuesday event is going to be more of a meet and greet where the public can learn more about the Kiwanis Club. He said the official charter will be presented at the ceremony.
Caldwell said the DeKalb County Kiwanis Club was established a few months ago. Caldwell said regional Kiwanis leadership came to town and approached some people who may be interested in leading a new chapter.
“We had about 20 people locally here who were willing to get involved and get the club started,” Caldwell said. “We initially started about three months ago. I think is around the time when we started getting to know each other, you know, elect our officers and all of that. And just getting started, getting organized.”
Caldwell said the DeKalb Club has been guided and mentored by the Cookeville Kiwanis Club. Caldwell said a Cookeville club representative has been present at meetings to ensure DeKalb starts off on the right foot.
Caldwell said the new charter has not been too active in the community yet, as it focuses on establishing goals and building committees. However, Caldwell said the club has already identified a couple of things they would like to accomplish.
“We have done some outreach to the schools about getting the Key Club and the Terrific Kids,” Caldwell said. “Basically, there’s the Key Club and some other things we can go ahead and get started in the schools. We had some initial discussions about that, but after this Charter celebration, we will start focusing on that more and more and seeing where we can help.”
Caldwell said most of the club has never been involved with Kiwanis before, but supporting local kids is a worthy goal to work toward. Caldwell said the DeKalb Kiwanis plans to be very active in the community.