Club History of Kiwanis Club of Port Angeles-

Olympic

(Chartered in 1975)

An offspring of the much older Port Angeles (Noon Club) the Olympic Kiwanis was chartered in 1975 and it's first President was William Foley who was then a co-owner of Widsteen's Clothing Store, a downtown haberdashery. Over the next few years the club grew to 32 members. We met on Wednesday mornings to cater to businessmen who had to be to work sometimes by 8 a.m. and could not regularly make noon meetings. We first met at Harrington's Restaurant, which is now gone. Then at Birney's Restaurant, which is now gone. Next it was the Jury's Inn, which is now gone. That was followed by the Greenery, Haguewoods, Smitty's and the Coffee House Restaurants, all of which are also gone. Next we settled at Joshua's Restaurant, where our meeting days changed to Thursdays at 7 a.m.. Finally we moved our meetings to the CornerHouse Restaurant in April 2009 which is downtown at the corner of First and Laurel Streets.

Over the years we have sponsored the Country Store, an arts and crafts and rummage sale at the fairgrounds. We have hosted a circus. For many years we sponsored the annual Kreepy Kavern Haunted Housed. This was first held in the basement of an out of business downtown tavern (hence the name "Kreepy Kavern"). As a public service we installed a chain link fence around the fairgrounds, helped refit Camp David Jr. when the county acquired it as a park facility, sponsored the local March of Dimes Walk-a-thon for 10 years as well as other March of Dimes projects and ran the Ford Punt, Pass and Kick and Pepsi Hotshot contests. For a number of years we co-sponsored with the Noon Club the local Spelling Bee which was the first step on the way to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C..

Currently we run the annual Tuna Derby, a service club/community contest complete with a traveling trophy to collect up to a years supply of cans of tuna fish for the Port Angeles Food Bank. We co-sponsor the Port Angeles High School Key Club and integrate them into many of our own projects. We provide several High School academic scholarships and sponsor local youth activities such as baseball, City of Port Angeles Yes-To-Youth summer activities and the annual kids fishing derby held at the ponds at Lincoln Park. Our Kiwanis district (which includes clubs in Port Angeles, Sequim and Port Townsend) sponsors a resident camp for special needs kids and adults near Port Townsend at Beausite Lake. All participating clubs help financially and with the physical upkeep of the camp grounds. This culminates with 2 to 3 weeks each summer when these special individuals have the time of their lives at camp and we get to help feed, interact and supervise while their parents/caregivers get a much needed rest.

On a global scale the Kiwanis Worldwide Service Projects have always had children in mind. We have always supported these projects to help make a difference in the world community. The current IDD (iodine deficiency disorder) project to rid the world of the only totally preventable cause of retardation in children is on going. The aim of this project is to establish iodized salt facilities worldwide in areas that iodized salt is currently non-existent. This project will continue until our pledge to UNICEF and the children of the world to bring an end to IDD is met.

Our current fund raising projects include directing traffic at the KONP Home Show, an annual garage sale and lighting the trees downtown at Christmas just to name a few.

This has been a summary of the history, past projects and goals of the Olympic Kiwanis Club. We are always in need of new ideas and helping hands to continue. For further information about Kiwanis please click on the Membership Interest link on this page. Thank you.